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 is less than 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 (10,000 points at maximum multiplier).

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. If the player has Accelerate, the player can move as fast as the battery will jump and will need to stay still or move towards the battery to collect it.

After a few seconds, the Battery will begin to blink red and eventually vanish. Missed batteries are essentially thrown away and the player must work to generate another.

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 that have been destroyed since the last battery. Different enemies make a different contribution towards the battery spawn. An enemy's contribution is proportional to the number of weapon power pickups (or volts) they drop when killed. An enemy's death always contributes even if it is killed by red damage or kills itself (eg. a mine rolling off the edge)

Different levels have different Battery spawn rates. Harder levels require more and more difficult mobs to be defeated before one spawns. In Infinity Drive, battery spawn rate constantly lowers as you progress.

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 (but at a lower rate). Hence it is important to pick it up as soon as possible. However under no circumstances can two batteries be present at once.

During non-boss levels, a Battery will never spawn if it would overflow the battery meter. This enforces an effective minimum time of 25 seconds between batteries at a high level of play.

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

During Infinity Drive and Daily Drive, the last enemy to die before a boss arrives will drop a battery unless one is already present.

In Infinity Drive, Daily Drive, and Boss Rush, the final phase of a boss will drop a battery (except for Medulla).

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

In addition, the distance the battery will jump towards the player increases dramatically.

"COLLECT" indicator


The first 5 batteries encountered on a blank save file will have a big green "COLLECT" above it, to make it clear to new players that you have to collect it.

If you fail to collect a battery before it expires, the "COLLECT" will appear again on the next battery as a reminder (even if that battery occurs in a different level)

Loaner battery
If you're on critical battery and have some, but not enough progress towards the next battery spawn, you can be "loaned" a battery.

A battery will spawn, but you will now have negative progress towards the next one - in other words, you have created a hole you must either dig yourself out of, or finish the level before running out of battery. The mechanic is not a free ride, you always pay the same amount for each battery.

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

Aethersphere battery
Medulla's final phase forces the player's battery life back up to 60 seconds, but no battery is visibly dropped to indicate this.

The indicator also turns yellow. It's not known what this means.