Battery





The only failure condition in Assault Android Cactus is running out of Battery, which is a continuously draining bar displayed in the centre of the top edge of the screen (essentially a timer). The battery bar depletes from full to empty in 60 seconds.

When there are only 10 seconds of Battery remaining, the screen will begin to throb red with an urgent buzzing sound effect.

To increase the bar, players must collect battery pickups, which spawn from Enemies. A battery pickup extends the battery bar by 25 seconds. It is also worth 1000 base Score points.

The Battery is gently attracted towards the closest player to make pickup simpler, no matter at what distance. When using Accelerate, this attractive force is much stronger. Once the player gets close enough, the Battery will "jump" towards the player, even over pits. The distance the battery will jump increases dramatically as the battery level becomes critical.

Due to the importance of batteries, they are able to block stage transformations that would otherwise destroy them or isolate them from the player.

Spawning algorithm
In regular levels, the battery spawn is based on enemies killed since the last battery. More difficult enemies appear to make a greater contribution. The time elapsed since the last battery spawned also seems to factor in.

Different levels have different Battery spawn rates. Harder levels require more and more difficult mobs to be defeated before one spawns.

Once a battery is due, the next valid enemy to die (for any reason) will spawn the battery. Valid enemies are enemies that are currently standing on or floating over areas of the level that players can reach (For example, a drone floating over a pit will never drop a battery).

Once a battery is due to spawn, progress towards spawning the next battery can be made. However under no circumstances can two batteries be present at once.

A Battery is also spawned whenever a boss phase is defeated. If a battery is still present from the previous phase, the old battery is immediately destroyed when the new one spawns.

Critical bonus
Collecting a battery while critically low on power awards an increased amount of charge gained, up to 35 seconds.

Super Batteries
All bosses, excluding Liquorice, drop super batteries, which recharge the battery by 45 seconds, rather than the usual 25. They look identical to regular batteries however.