Fat Princess Strategy Guide

on Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Look beyond the cute and cuddly visuals, the hilarious music and you will realise that Fat Princess only  on PS3 (available through the PlayStation Store, free demo as well) is a strategical game. This game is meant to be played online. It comes from the same creators as Warhawk, so you better have your PSN ready.

Well, let's get into it.

1. Basic and General Controls (Not applicable to all classes)

Square - Attack (Hold for more powerful attack), Throw, Break out from ice
Circle - Pick Up/Drop
Triangle - Change Weapon
X - Jump
L1 - Lock on, Block (only warrior can block)
Select - Brings up map.
Start - Brings up scores

2. Classes

There are 6 classes in Fat Princess.

Villager -  The neutral starting class, villagers cannot be upgraded. Their only unique move is a slap that can make enemies drop objects and stun them. Though villagers have the lowest health of all the classes, they also have the fastest movement. Villagers can't remove a hat once it's worn, only replace it with another, but the player is always respawned as a villager. The only time when you will be hoping to use the villager is when you want to run and get some cake for the princess quickly. Otherwise, you shouldn't be spending your time as a villager and you should go pick up a hat ASAP.

Worker -  The most important class of all, the Worker (plain cap) should be upgraded first so he can defend himself with bombs. The Worker is the second fastest class. The Worker's default weapon is an axe, which can be used to attack enemies, but is best used to cut down trees and chip away at metal sources. Grab these resources and deposit them in a Hat Machine or a captured tower to add them to your overall stockpile. Although harvesting resources is of utmost importance, the Worker is also essential for building and upgrading. You can build siege weapons at siege spots, draw bridges, catapults in your castle and defensive doors with the proper resources. You can also repair any of these things. You can also upgrade the Hat Machines with the proper resources. When you have the needed wood and metal, a green arrow will appear above a buildable/upgradeable spot. Hold L1 to lock on (it will then be highlighted in red) and press SQUARE to build. A meter will show your building progress. The upgraded Worker has an additional weapon: the bomb. You can charge this attack to throw it further. It's very powerful and can be used to destroy doors and the like. There will also be a "Big Bomb" spawned next to the worker hat machine which can be used for any teammates for massive damage. However, it is a double-edged sword as any teammates near it will also take damage. You can pick these up with CIRCLE and throw them with SQUARE or put them down in a catapult with CIRCLE to send them flying toward the front line. Don't leave your home base without one!

Warrior - The Warrior (horned helmet) is the most powerful character, with the most life and damage-inflicting capability. As a result of his armor he's also the slowest. The default weapon is a sword which can be charged for a damaging close-range attack. You can also hold L1 to block projectiles and reduce damage from the frontal attacks. You cannot block when charging an attack though. The upgraded Warrior has a spear that swings a bit slower, but has greater range. You can charge this weapon to do a flying attack. It is essential that you use the Warrior's charged spear attack when locked on to an enemy with L1 -- this can be a one-hit kill for some classes. If you don't lock on, you'll do damage but you won't be able to aim the attack very well. The flying attack will take you some distance as you charge. You can use this attack to jump across huge gaps without the need for a bridge or walking through water. Works well on Black Forest especially.

Ranger - The Ranger (Robin Hood hat) has an infinite quiver of arrows that can be charged to seek out enemies for damage across wide areas. His arrows can be blocked by the Warrior's shield, but most people won't be paying enough attention to defend themselves. Upgrading the Ranger will outfit him with a cool shotgun-like weapon that provides some extra power but at the expense of some serious kickback. When the Ranger's Hat Machine is upgraded, the various torches in and around your home base will be lit, allowing you to dip weapons in it for an extra kick. Try this with the Ranger's arrows and Warrior's weapons.

Mage - My personal favourite. The magic-wielding Mage (pointed wizard's hat) has damage-inflicting powers at his disposal can be useful in large groups of enemies. The default attack of the Mage is a fire attack. Lock on to enemies with L1 and send fireballs their way or hold SQUARE to do a less-damaging area attack. You can charge the fireball attack as well for greater damage. Enemies on fire will continue to take a small amount of damage for a short period of time. Upgrading the mage gives you an ice attack that functions in the same way as the fire attack, but can freeze or slow enemies for a short time. They will be frozen for longer times depending on how long you charged the attack. The upgraded Mage Hat Machine will also spawn rainbow-colored potions (they appear in the little notch by the hut) that can be tossed at enemies to turn them into chickens. Chickens have one heart of life -- although they can still damage enemies with a nasty peck! The potion will convert whomever is nearby, so beware! You can also drop this into the catapult to launch it across the map. The Mage's area attacks can cancel out the spell effects on your team for spells of the opposite type: ice cools teammates on fire, fire unfreezes them. The fire area attack can ignite big bombs and logs -- the latter can be used to light weapons on fire. The ice spell can extinguish a lit bomb, too!

Priest - The Priest (tall bishop's hat) is an interesting and essential class that can heal the other classes. Lock on to nearby friendlies with L1 and hold SQUARE to heal them. You can also charge SQUARE to slightly heal all friendlies in a small area. A fully healed friendly will have a temporary shield that will block a single attack's damage. This will go away if you change weapons, however. Upgrading the Priest unleashes his true power -- the Dark Priest can damage foes while healing himself. You can tell an enemy's life is weakened when the little face over his head turns red. Locking on to enemies and draining their life won't kill them, so use your death ray from behind the frontline to help aid Warriors in the fray. A Warrior / Priest combo is seriously hard to overcome. A charged attack from the Dark Priest will make enemies unable to heal for a short period of time, make their controls "wobbly" (voodoo?), prevent them from locking on, and take away their charged attack. You can tell if the Priest is fully charged by a small pentagram / star that forms under him.

(Thanks to IGN Guides for the class descriptions)

So now it's time to choose your class.

3. Choosing your class/role

If you have read everything above, then you should have an idea of what class you want to play.
A quick summary of general roles for each class should help you.

Villager - Feeding cake to the princess although the worker's speed will suffice.
Worker - Collecting resources, building, upgrading and breaking structures and repairing. Cake?
Warrior - Frontline soldiers, they get into the huge fights without fear.
Rangers - Similar roles to warriors, except they get the advantage of a little more range.
Mage - Support and stalling (with ice).
Priest - Support.

You should, at least, know how to play two classes well if you want to have a decent game experience.

4. Other Tips 

 Here are some tips from the developer's site.
http://titanstudios.com/blog/strategies/ 

Here are some detailed map overviews.
http://au.guides.ign.com/guides/14266745/page_4.html 

5. My Tips 
 (Based on Black Forest and on Rescue the Princess and Team Deathmatch)

 - The fastest way to earn points is to get the worker hat ASAP. Build doors to your castle.
Chop trees until you get around 10 wood in your stockpile. By this time, your ranking should be in the top 3. If not, you are doing something wrong. If possible, upgrade the mage (after upgrading worker of course). Now go get your mage hat, get to the meat grinder area. Charge up your area spell and release it when there are a lot of enemies in your attack range/circle. You may not kill them, but if done right you will get points for assisting in their kills. Continue until then end of the game and you should easily rack up 1000 points in no time. This may not be the most productive way to win the game as such though (for Rescue the Princess) as your time may be better spent planning how to kidnap the princess.

- I recommend the worker to kidnap the princess because they move fast and they have bombs. In Black Forest especially, there is a catapult and a warp in the prisoner's cell. Get in to the prisoner's cell. Spam your bombs until you break the wood covering the warp. Grab the princess and jump in. Alternatively, if there are only a few people in the enemy castle and they have upgraded the catapult. Grab the princess and flat out run to the catapult and fling yourself to your castle. Once in your castle, you are pretty much safe.

 - When defending against your prisoner getting kidnapped and the enemy is picking up the prisoner. Do not attack him if it is one-on-one. Let him pick it up and then unleash your fury. Because, when the opponent picks up your prisoner. The voiceover dude, sends out a notice to everyone. By doing this, you will be guaranteed support in the form of teammates and you will have a BETTER chance of keeping your prisoner. Obviously, some situations may differ and you have to use your own brain at times like that. This applies when you are kidnapping back your princess. Pick her up and THEN fight. It only takes a second.

- When capturing outposts, especially outposts near the enemy castle, hide behind the outpost if you can. Since the map does not rotate, if you hide behind the outpost so that you cannot see yourself, then it is most likely no one else can see you apart from using the map or noticing the outpost's flags changing. The same principle can be used when healing.

- Low on health, and being attacked with no priest around? Get to one of your team's outposts and get up to the top of the outpost. By doing this you will gain 3/4 of a heart. You can charge up your attack while doing this as well, so feel free to attack and heal at the same time. This method can be used to survive those huge battles in the meat grinders.

- The biggest tip of all, USE THE MAP. Just press the select button and look at where the enemies and teammates are and THEN plan your course of action. It helps immensely.

- Be original. Do not try the same methods if they do not prove effective. Surprise your opponent. 

- And finally, have fun. Do not memorise strategies and play. Be free and create your own legacy.

Hope you enjoyed this guide, comment please. 

Some awesome chain mail I got

on Tuesday, December 15, 2009

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill ' s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.
2.. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3... Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
I love the next one!!!
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.
PS - I'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!