Bug Hunter Strategy Guide

Strategies and references for Bug Hunter, game 2 in UFO 50.

Basics

The moon quarry has been overrun by bugs, so it's time for you to earn your paycheck as you squash them. While the titular Bug Hunter may be tired from his daily grind, there is definitely no guarantee that he'll make it to the end of the day...

Bug Hunter is a turn-based tactical strategy game. It plays a lot like a chess puzzle, actually, where you have to plan moves in advance and make a plan, with minimal randomness. You have ten days to kill thirty bugs. Each of your actions is represented by a "module" that you can use once a day, and you will always have six modules. You start with four movements and two attacks, but if you're only killing two bugs per day, you won't be able to keep up. You'll need to use your wits to make your actions as efficient as possible to keep up with the new bugs spawning on the grid each day.

If you collect the energy cubes that are frequently dropped on the map, you can buy new modules to replace the old ones. Importantly, you can swap out a module you've already used for a new one you purchase, so that's one way to get a little more time in a day. Make sure to read the modules you can buy, so that you can craft your strategy around buying one in the middle of a day, and so you can choose modules that work well together.

The other major advantage you have is that your modules can be used in creative ways to kill bugs in ways you might not expect. There are a bunch of ways to kill bugs just from your movement, such as pushing a bug in a pit, shooting an energy cube to cause an explosion, or squashing a bug by moving on it from a higher platform. You'll have to master these emergent strategies to do well in this game.

But, just as you're upgrading yourself, the bugs can upgrade themselves too. Each day, if a larva is left alive, it can evolve into an advanced form that will either be harder to kill or will complicate the battlefield. There will be a window to explain the bug's new power. When bugs evolve, it means that when new bugs spawn, they'll be the evolved version too. If any evolved bug survives, it grows again, but won't be stronger for it. If it survives another day after, it will become an egg. If any day ends and there's still an unbroken egg, the egg hatches and you lose. The game will warn you to not leave any eggs unbroken. Also, breaking eggs does not count toward your kill count, so letting too many bugs become eggs might make it hard to meet your kill quota.

If you get your thirty kills in ten days, you move on to a second job and do it all again. Completing a three-job streak will earn you Hunter of the Week (and a trophy), but you'll only have nine days for the jobs after. After a six-streak, you have eight days.

Advanced Moves

Energy Cubes

Energy cubes are used as currency to buy new modules, but as the opening crawl mentions, they're explosive. That's actually very useful.

When any tile has three cubes on it, that tile explodes and causes an explosion on the eight surrounding tiles. If those tiles have energy cubes on them, they'll explode as well. Explosion chains can be great at clearing out bugs, but you won't be able to pick them up. Also make sure you're not standing next to one of these cubes. Also, cubes dropping at the start of each day can cause three-energy explosions, so be careful standing next to a two-energy tile!

Firing at a cube with an attack can also cause an explosion or a chain.

If you push a bug onto an energy cube, the cube explodes and damages the bug, but it doesn't damage surrounding tiles.

Killing with Movement

You need to be able to make your moves as efficient as possible, and a great way to do that is to kill bugs with your movement as well as with your attacks.

If you move into a bug, you can shove it into the tile behind it in a lot of cases. It doesn't work if a wall or another bug is past them, but you can kill them by shoving them into a hole. Pushing a bug into an energy cube will make the cube detonate and damage only the bug you pushed.

If you move from a raised tile to a low tile with a bug on it, the bug will be squashed. This doesn't end your movement.

Manipulating Bugs

There are ways to have some control over which bugs evolve. Bugs can only evolve if an unevolved bug survives, and only two bug colors can evolve per job, so if you hunt down one color until the other two evolve, you can make sure one color never evolves. I've had the best luck with preventing orange bugs from evolving, because the Dragonfloosh is the most difficult to kill and the Shreknid puts heavy restrictions on which attacks you can kill it with without it killing you back.

You can also use energy cubes (Resupply module or just not collecting certain cubes) and the Spray module to prevent bugs from spawning in certain places. This can be useful if you have especially tricky terrain, or if holes prevent you from accessing certain areas easily, or just to corral them into more convenient areas.

Bugs

• Orange - Shreknid (winged)
  • "The shreknid responds to attacks by firing deadly shards in 4 directions."
  • Shoots two spaces in four cardinal directions. Blocked by walls as normal.
  • Does not shoot if killed by movement.
• Orange - Dragonfloosh (bipedial bug with bat drone)
  • Is invulnerable as long the bat drone is alive.
  • Cannot be shot, squashed, or pushed if the drone lives.
  • The drone flies, so it doesn't fall in holes.
  • If the bug and the bat are more than one space away, the drone disappears.
  • Killing the drone does not add to your kill total.
• Blue - Feloris (head on two legs)
  • "The Feloris likes to nest on private platforms."
  • On their turn, all Felorises raise their ground to high elevation, dropping the four cardinally-adjacent tiles to low elevation (unless a Feloris is there).
  • Bombard is great at taking advantage of this behavior.
• Blue - Quasnar (sitting bug)
  • "The Quasnar converts nearby energy to anti-energy"
  • If you kill it, the anti-energy reverts to normal energy.
  • Properties of anti-energy:
    • Collecting removes 1 energy if you have any. No effect if you have no energy.
    • If you shoot it, instead of blowing up, an extra anti-energy is added. (You may want to do this if you plan to kill the Quasnar and pick up that energy.)
    • If there are three anti-energy on one tile, it becomes an egg.
    • If you push a bug on to anti-energy, it becomes an egg.
• Megenta - Armodon (armored beast)
  • "The Armodon has a hard shell that resists direct attacks."
  • The shell takes one hit to break.
  • Can still be killed in one hit in other ways, like squashing.
• Magenta - Cephalug (octopoid)
  • "The Cephalug responds to attacks by digging its own grave."
  • It still dies when hit, but there will be a hole there after the blast.
  • If you kill it by moving, it will not make a hole.
  • Can make hole-specific modules very strong.

Modules

About Modules

• Energy cubes you pick up can be used to purchase modules.
• New modules will replace an existing module you choose. The new module will always be ready to use on the same day, even if you used the module it replaces.
• When you buy a module, a random module will replace it, usually one with a similar cost from what I've seen.
• If you're not planning to use your new module this turn, consider waiting for another turn to buy it. An important part of buying modules is giving you more actions per turn.

List of Modules

M (movement)

• Run (4 at start) - move 2 tiles in a cardinal direction.
  • Moves through each tile between the start and end.
  • Pushes bugs in the way.
  • Can squash bugs if dropping in elevation.
  • Can't move to a higher elevation.
• Dash - cost 2 - move 2 tiles in a cardinal or diagonal direction.
• Sprint - cost 2 - move any number of tiles in a cardinal direction.
• Transport - cost 3 - "Move to any elevated location."
• Warp - cost 3 - "Move to any location with an energy cube."
  • Use Resupply to be able to choose any tile on the map.
• Zoom - cost 4 - move any number of tiles in a cardinal or diagonal direction.
• Maneuver - cost 4 - "+ This module refreshes when you kill a bug."
  • Very handy if you can set yourself up to get kills with Maneuver and move again for free.
• Hop (1 at start) - jump 2 tiles in a cardinal direction.
  • Go directly to the end tile without hitting a tile in between.
  • Does not push bugs in the way.
  • Can squash bugs if dropping in elevation.
  • Can hop regardless of elevation.
• Jump - cost 2 - jump 2 tiles in a cardinal or diagonal direction.
• Vault - cost 4 - jump to any space 1 or 2 tiles away (24 tiles possible).

A (attack)

• Shoot (1 at start) - shoot 2 tiles in a cardinal direction.
  • Shoots either the near tile or both tiles.
  • If you're raised, the next tile is lowered, and the tile after is raised, you can either have the shot sink to the first tile or shoot across to the second tile, but not both.
  • The other "shoot" attacks work the same.
• Blast - cost 2 - shoot 2 tiles in a cardinal or diagonal direction.
• Snipe - cost 2 - shoot any number of tiles in a cardinal direction.
  • Also shoots all tiles in between.
• Lob (1 at start) - lob 2 tiles in a cardinal direction.
  • Shoots either one or two tiles away.
  • Elevation does not matter.
  • The other "lob" attacks work the same.
• Throw - cost 2 - lob 2 tiles in a cardinal or diagonal direction.
• Bombard - cost 4 - attack all elevated locations.
  • Very good if there are Feloris, which all elevate themselves.
  • Good combo with Shift, which makes Bombard a pretty precise strike.
• Erupt - cost 4 - "Attack all locations adjacent to any one hole."
  • Very good if there are Cephalugs, which makes their own holes.
  • Good combo with Dig, giving you more holes to choose from.
• Burst - cost 4 - "Cause any egg to explode."
  • Similar to an energy cube explosion, this damages the eight surrounding tiles too.
• Detonate - cost 4 - "Detonate an energy cube at any location."
  • Great with Resupply. Or maybe Replenish if you feel like rolling the dice.
• Launch - cost 4 - lob at any space 1 or 2 tiles away (24 tiles possible).
• Radiate - cost 4 - "Attack all locations adjacent to you."
  • Do not use this if you're next to an energy cube. You'll die. As a result, this attack might be a little tricky to use effectively.
• Tunnel - cost 4 - "Move to any location adjacent to a hole."

S (special/support)

• Aim - cost 2 - "Until your next rest, you can attack freely across walls."
  • Meaning that elevation changes will not stop your shots short.
• Collect - cost 2 - "Collect any energy cube and all cubes adjacent to it."
• Resupply - cost 2 - "Add an energy cube to any open location."
  • You can add the third cube to a tile to make it detonate immediately.
  • Good combo with Detonate.
  • Useful for setting up energy cube explosion chains.
• Shift - cost 2 - "Lower ground in one place and then raise it somewhere else."
  • Stand next to a bug and raise yourself up so you can squash it.
  • Good for lining up bugs and/or energy cubes to set up multi-kill attacks or detonation chains.
  • Great combo with Bombard.
  • Has many potential uses and combines with a lot of modules.
• Spray - cost 2 - "Spray two open locations and prevent bugs from spawning there."
• Traverse - cost 2 - "Until your next rest, you can move freely across walls."
  • This means you can run from low elevation to high elevation.
  • You still squash bugs going from high to low. (Last time I tried, the preview looked like I would push it, but it actually squashed it.)
  • If Traverse is active, the hunter's boots will be green.
• Devolve - cost 3 - "Revert any bug and all bugs adjacent to it to larval form. Also works on eggs!"
• Accelerate - cost 4 - "Refresh all your movement modules."
• Dig - cost 4 - "Dig a hole adjacent to a hole that already exists. You can dig under bugs!"
  • Good combo with Erupt.
• Barrage - cost 4 - "Refresh all your attack modules."
• Invert - cost 4 - "Lower all elevated locations and raise all lowered locations."
• Maximize - cost 4 - "Until your next rest, move and attack modules have maximum range."
• Power Up - cost 4 - "Until your next rest, you can destroy bugs by moving into them."
  • If Power Up is active, the hunter's suit will be red.
  • Great with Traverse or Accelerate, or just with hopping around the map.
• Recharge - cost 4 - "Refresh modules to the left and right of this one."
• Replenish - cost 4 - "Request the delivery of 4 more energy cubes."
• Scatter - cost 4 - "Force all bugs to move to a random nearby space."
  • Each bug will move 1 space in a random cardinal direction that isn't blocked by a wall. (They move to a space near them, not to a space near you.)
  • The bug might drop into a hole or into an energy cube, which hurts the bugs as normal.
  • If there are Cephalugs, blowing them up will make a lot of holes for later bugs to possibly Shuffle toward.
  • You can use effects that raise terrain to force bugs to move in a predictable direction.

Source

This guide is based on information from the original source: Steam Community Guide.