Commander Keen 4
====================
Secret of the Oracle
In my opinion, the best game in the Keen series, although Aliens Ate My
Babysitter comes close. And it has more weird critters than Keen 5 or 6!
This is a list of tricks, secret areas, and how to deal with enemies.
Tricks
*At Easy level you can pogo one square higher than usual. However this is
also possible at Normal and Hard levels, it's called the impossible pogo
trick (see the manual pages). Practice it!
*There are invisible platforms on some places. They can be seen every
couple of seconds as a small white shimmering in the air - look carefully.
If you save then restore the game, the shimmer will be visible during the
pause after the restore.
*On some levels you can walk off-screen to a hidden area. Thus you can't
see Keen but he moves just the same. If you save then restore here, you'll
usually find out what area he was in, and what's in there.
Challenges
*Of course you can reach an infinite score if you take enough time, just go
to a level that has a one-up, take it and grab some points, then die.
Repeat at will. Luckily it's not as easy as in Invasion of the Vorticons,
where you could grab four teddy bears in almost every level.
*So the real challenge for a good score is by not dying. Restore whenever
you die, so you'll enter each level only once. Enjoy getting all candy.
*If that becomes too easy (we're talking Hard level here, you know), try
the same but without shooting any of the enemies. Okay, there may be two
or three enemies that have to be shot because they actually block the
passage, but other than that don't shoot at all.
*And yes, I did that. My grand total score is 717600. It could have been a
lot more, but then I've only picked up each candy ONCE.
(and that was before I figured out you could shoot mimrocks, or how you
could swim faster in the Well of Wishes)
Enemies
1.Arachnut (deadly; stunned only temporarily by each shot; follows you)
2.Berkeloid (deadly; throws deadly fireballs; invincible)
3.Bounder (harmless; stunned by one shot)
*If you stand on a bounder's head, you can control it. If you are at the
left side of the head, it'll move left. Dito for right. Stand in the
center to make it stand still.
4.Council Member (harmless; invincible)
5.Dopefish (harmless except that they try to eat you; invincible)
*Dopefish will also eat any nearby schoolfish if available. During the time
they're swallowing it, you can pass by safely.
6.Inchworm (harmless; invincible)
*The ones in Hillville are useless. Those in the Pyramid of the Moons do
have their use, though. Unite them to reach the Pyramid of the Forbidden.
7.Lick (harmless; breathes deadly flame when approached; stunned by one shot)
8.Mad Mushroom (lethal; invincible)
*As everybody knows every third bounce is a higher one, ceiling permitting.
9.Poison Slug (lethal; leaves deadly acid puddles; stunned by one shot)
*Poison evaporates. When it's mostly gone you can pass through unharmed.
10.Princess Lindsey (harmless; invincible)
*Hillville: "There is gear to help you swim in three-tooth lake. It's
hidden in miragia." - "Thanks, your highness!"
*Chasm of Chills: "The way to the Pyramid of the Forbidden lies under the
Pyramid of the Moons." - "Thanks for the mysterious clue, princess!"
11.Schoolfish (harmless; invincible; follows you)
12.Skypest (harmless on ground, deadly in air; invincible)
*You can kill a skypest by pogoing on it while it's on the ground.
13.Sprite (deadly; fires deadly energy blasts; invincible)
14.Wormouth (harmless unless it attacks; stunned by one shot)
*You can only stun it while it's attacking you, because otherwise it'll be
too small to hit. Time it carefully!
Secret enemies
1.Birdo
*As with Arachnuts, a shot will only stun them temporarily. This does cause
them to fall from the sky if flying. Touch is lethal.
*Appears in Chasm of Chills and Crystalus.
2.Birdo Egg
*Don't touch or shoot it or a Birdo will hatch!
*Appears wherever you find Birdos.
3.Evil Cloud
*Looks like a regular cloud, but when you touch it it gets angry, and starts
to move and cast lightning bolts downward. Not that hard to avoid, unless
there's a lot of them.
*Cannot be killed. Touch is harmless, but lightning bolts are lethal.
*Appears in Chasm of Chills and Lifewater Oasis.
4.Gnosticene Ancient
*Weird-looking red guy that bounces around and occasionally teleports to a
set location. Any item he touches disappears!
*Stunned by a single shot. Shoot them quickly before they make too many
goodies vanish. Other than that they are harmless.
*Three of them appear in the Pyramid of the Gnosticene Ancients. There
appear to be more but that's just their teleport destinations.
5.Mimrock
*Just a regular rock. Until you turn your back on it, at which point it'll
creep up on you and smash you with a flip jump. You can tell a mimrock
from an ordinary rock by looking at the floor underneath - regular rocks
have a slight rectangle in the floor underneath.
*Stunned by one shot. However you'll have to shoot it while it's jumping
at you, which can be dangerous. Its touch is deadly when it jumps.
*Appear in Cave of the Descendants, Chasm of Chills, Hillville, Sand Yego,
Lifewater Oasis and a bunch of other places.
Levels
0.Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket
1.Border Village
*The main secret here contains seven one-ups. Go down to the large statue
and acid pits. Stand at the left edge of the left pit, and pogo to the
top left. You'll climb up through the wall. Bounce off the dropping
platform to collect the one-ups.
2.Slug Village
*Use the bounders to get everything above the ground, including ice cream.
*Down the first pit, there's two secret passages in the right wall.
*You can take all the jawbreakers the mad mushroom is guarding.
*Find a narrow pit with two chocolate bars. Enter its right wall, drop
down then walk a loooong way left for some ice.
*In the passage left of the two donuts and one gun guarded by a lick,
there's two more donuts in the ceiling.
3.Perilous Pit
*Right below the entrance lie some goodies. Lean right when you jump down.
*Below the red key lie a couple of cola flasks. The wall above them holds
an ice cream cone. Pogo in from the right to reach it.
*Right of the blue key, you can enter the wall at the HI sign. Jump up for
two donuts.
*Above the mad mushroom that guards the switch lie two one-ups. But you
can't get them without cheating.
4.Hillville (optional)
*You can go up from the first spikes by jumping on invisible platforms.
From here you can go left and right, you'll have to visit twice.
*At the right side of this area, make a far jump to reach a one-up.
*You can go up again from where you meet the bounder.
5.Crystalus
*There aren't any secrets in this level, it's just very big. Jump up
everywhere, there's a lot of candy near the ceiling.
*Jump over the conucil member before touching him.
6.Chasm of Chills (optional)
*Enter the right wall of the second poison slug's pit. Before you enter
the door, jump up/right and up/left for the candy.
*The mad mushroom to the left guards an ice cream, you can get it without
cheating if you jump carefully.
*Through the door is a large secret room. The four ice creams cannot be
reached from here.
*Use the small platforms that start at the level entrance to reach the top
of the chasm. It's full of evil clouds and licks, and has princess Lindsey
and some candy. You can jump off by pressing down + jump, preferably at
the right edge (where it'll put you at the exit).
*The lower right wall of the level holds a passage. If you jump well you
can enter without opening the eggs.
*Down there, the spearpoint guards a one-up in the right wall.
*You can jump in the pit off-screen. Make sure you kill the lick first.
As you walk, you'll hear yourself picking up candy. Also at the left part
of this trench is a door to four ice creams. You can see it if you save
then restore the game.
7.Cave of the Descendants
*You can't get all the cola flasks and drops that hang in the air
*Left, down, right is a whole net of less obvious passages. In the middle
of it, above a vertical platform and a spear, are two ice creams.
*To the far left, next to the spear and mimrock, is a passage in the
ceiling that leads to four more ice creams and two guns.
*In the pit full of platforms, jump through the right wall. It has two ice
creams. If you jump down the pit here and lean right, you can get two
one-ups before dying. There's no way you could get out of here.
*In the pit with two poles and spikes at the bottom, you acn get the ice
cream and the guns if you jump very carefully.
*As you enter the small door, lean right to reach a narrow platform. Pogo
off to the upper right for another rather large secret area.
8.Sand Yego (optional)
*After passing through the door, go up on the invisible platforms.
9.Miragia
*As said before the swimming suit is in here. It's right at the exit.
10.Lifewater Oasis
*No, you can't reach the dozen-or-so one-ups at the bottom.
11.Pyramid of the Moons (optional)
*Have Keen stand on a moon sign and wait awhile for him to get idle.
12.Pyramid of Shadows
13.Pyramid of the Gnosticene Ancients
14.Pyramid of the Forbidden (optional)
*This level is tough enough as it is without any secrets.
15.Isle of Tar (optional)
*Ah, my favourite. This level contains a lot of secrets.
*In the house at the end of the level, pogo top-left off the falling
platform to reach the one-up.
16.Isle of Fire
17.Well of Wishes
*No secrets here, just a very different kind of level. Save a lot! You can
actually get all the candy, on Hard level, without a Dopefish eating you.
*Oh, and you can swim faster by tapping jump.
Walkthrough by Radiant.
http://crystalshard.net
