Overview
The Guide to gitting gud at Nuclear Throne. Can’t make it past Crystal Caves? Read this guide for some pretty yeety tips.
Experiment and find weapons you’re good with.
If you see a weapon you haven’t picked up before. It might be amazing.
Some VERY good weapons before Frozen City are:
- Hyper Rifle
- Laser Rifle
- Double and regular Flame Shotgun
- Gatling Slugger
- Splinter pistol
- Seeker Shotgun
- Heavy Revolver
- Auto Shotgun
- Lightning Pistol
- Auto Crossbow
Weapons you should avoid:
- Sticky and Toxic Launcher
- Toxic Bow
- Pop Rifle
- Grenade Rifle
Other weapons are good under certain circumstances, For example: You have the Mutation “Shotgun Shoulders” and find a sawed off shotgun. This is a good combination, and makes the sawed off shotgun a more useful weapon than many others, like say the Jack Hammer. This is because certain things can synergize with each other. More on synergies later.
Learn which mutations are more viable than others based on circumstance.
There are mutations in the game that will increase your chances of survival. Some of them are great, some of them are bad. Most mutations that you pick should be based on your circumstances. For example: You’re playing as melting. You have the laser rifle. There are 4 mutation options available: Gamma Guts, Second Stomach, Sharp Teeth, and Laser Brain. None of these will help you very much except for Laser Brain, which is especially useful considering you have the Laser Rifle. Some of the mutations available are good on their own, but circumstance makes most of them useless.
Good Mutations (Usually)
- Back Muscle
- Second Stomach
- Boiling Veins
- Laser Brain
Bad Mutations (USUALLY)
- Last Wish
- Recycle Gland
- Sharp Teeth
- Extra Feet
NOTE: Recycle Gland, Extra Feet etc. Can be good, but again, It’s based on circumstance
Synergies
Synergies are something that can make or break a run. I like to differenciate my synergies. There’s first what I’d like to call, snap synergies. These are things like taking a weapon specific mutation, or picking a part of a build. A Build is a run dedicated to a powerful synergy, built up over the entirity of the run. A synergie is not defined by circumstance but normally the character you’re playing as. A snap synergy exploits what you currently have. A build will exploit your characters advantages.
Knowing Bosses
Some Bosses can be a huge pain to defeat. Knowing each boss, their attack patterns, and how to quickly take them out is a huge part of Nuclear Throne. There are 4 main bosses:
- Big Bandit
- Big Dog
- Lil Hunter
- The Nuclear Throne
As well as the post-loop bosses:
- Mom/Ballmum
- Hyper Crystal
- Technomancer
First we’ll talk about Pre-Loop Bosses.
BIG BANDIT: The easiest boss. Avoid his burst fire attack and be aware that he can charge and burst through walls at any time.
BIG DOG: The main struggle with Big Dog is the enemies that distract you from fighting him. The best method to fighting him is to take cover and fire at him, shoot down his missiles, and avoid snipers.
LIL HUNTER: This bastard had me stuck for a while. When he drops down, immediately shoot the hell out of him and take cover the moment he unleashes a speeding barrage of bullets. Remember to take out the IDPD he summons quickly.
THE NUCLEAR THRONE: The hardest boss. If you plan on beating the game, just fire at him and dodge until he dies, but if you plan on looping, you’ll have to do some more work. Destroy all the glowing green generators. It’s a lot harder than it sounds sometimes, a melee weapon can definitely help fend off the bullets constantly being fired at you.
MOM/BALLMUM: Fire high power weapons at Ballmum at a high speed and avoid the toxic gas as much as possible. Not much else to it.
HYPER CRYSTAL: Take cover and fire at it with high power weapons.
TECHNOMANCER: There’s pretty much no strategy to this one. Just kill everything and hope to god you don’t die.
Playing the game
This guide may have helped you so far, but the best advice I can give you is just to git gud. Really. Play the game often enough and you will get better with time. It’s not a big deal if you die before you can reach Big Dog, just keep practicing and eventually it shouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, I hope this guide has helped you out, keep playing the game and you will be able to loop in no time!
