Nimmos Pond Click here to go to Nimmo's Pond

General Information
In this game, you play a Nimmo sitting in the middle of a pond. Your objective is to shoot the lily pads around you in order to clear the pond. Once you have cleared the pond, you will move on to the next level.


The Controls
Use the left and right arrow keys to spin in circles, and the up arrow key to paddle in that direction. To shoot, use the spacebar. You have an unlimited number of shots, but the type of shot is dependent on which ammunition you currently have.

To collect a powerup, push the "V" key. If it is close enough, the Nimmo will use his long froggy tongue to eat the powerup. To use one of your bombs, push the "B" key.


The Basics
You begin the game with full health, full paddle power, and 3 bombs. These can be found at the bottom of your pond. The red bar in the bottom left represents your health points, the blue bar represents your paddle energy, and the three red circles around the image of the Nimmos head are your bombs. At the beginning of each level, lily pads will appear on your screen; your objective is to clear the pond of all lily pads (except, of course, the one you are sitting on). You do this by shooting the lily pads enough times.
 

	1	Health Points
	2	Paddle Power
	3	Remaining Bombs
	4	Current Level
	5	Type of Ammunition
	6	Ammunition Level
	7	Current Score
	8	You - Nimmo
	9	Lily pad

Taking and Doing Damage
When a lily pad touches you, you sustain damage and your red health bar will decrease. The larger the lily pad, the higher the damage.

There are two ways to do damage to a lily pad. First is with your ammunition: utilize the left and right arrow keys to spin to a position where you can hit the lily pad many times in a row, then shoot the lily pad using the spacebar. You should try to position yourself so that the lily pad will move into your shot, instead of positioning yourself so that you are hitting on one side of the lily pad. The lily pads are in continual motion, so you will get more shots to hit if you can position yourself so that the lily pad moves through your shot.

The other way to do damage to a lily pad is to use a Bomb. You begin the game with three bombs, shown in the bottom middle of the screen. To use a bomb, simply press the "B" key. The Bomb will explode, damaging the nearby lily pads.


Lily Pads
As each level begins, new lily pads appear, moving in different directions and at different speeds. Some move very slow, while others move very quickly. There is no pause between the levels. Each level has a set number of lily pads you need to destroy before you can move on to the next level. It starts with 3 in the first level, and increases by 1 lily pad every ten levels (ie, you will begin with 4 lily pads in level 10, 5 in level 20, etc). The lily pads start in three sizes:
 

Small	Medium	Large

Lily pads have 2 stages of life in this game: divide, then destroy. You must hit the lily pad a certain number of times before it will first divide itself into 3 smaller lily pads. Then, you must hit those smaller lily pads a certain number of times before they will be completely destroyed.

You can also use a bomb to divide the lily pads. The small lily pads will earn you 20 points per pad if you divided them with your ammunition and 10 points per pad if you divide them using a bomb.

Tip: Since lily pads appear going in random directions and speeds at the beginning of each level, one trick you can utilize is to spin in a single direction, rapid firing, while the next level loads. This will give you a ring of shots surrounding you and gives you a slight jump on dividing any lily pads that decide to go at warp speed straight at you.


Powerups
Some lily pads contain powerups that are released after dividing or destroying them. The powerups include weapons upgrades, extra bombs, extra health points, extra paddle power, and speed reset.




Ammunition
There are three kinds of ammunition to choose from. Fun fact - if you are playing with the sound on, you will notice that each ammunition has a unique sound that even changes as you upgrade! As you eat more of the same ammunition bubbles, your ammunition level will upgrade. You can upgrade permanently up to level 5. If you eat a 6th ammunition bubble, it will appear to have upgraded, but the 6 will change back into a 5. It's better to save those extra ammunition bubbles, just in case.
 

• Rapid-Fire (The Green Star):
  • The Pros: This is the ammunition you begin the game with. This ammunition is decent and, like the name implies, a fast shot. Using the basic level of this ammunition, you will need to make 25+ shots to Divide the largest lily pad.
  • The Cons: The first level of this ammunition is a single shot and though it upgrades into a double shot, it still only goes in a straight line. Your aim has to be very good in order to successfully use this powerup.
  • Tip: If you are stuck with the single-shot Rapid-Fire and have some small lily pads left that you can't seem to get the correct shot angle for, don't panic. Get as center to the lily pad as you can, the go one click left, then one click right, all the while rapid firing. This will make your shots fire at random angles and you will eventually hit the lily pad you're aiming for.
• Multi-Shot (The Yellow Star):
  • The Pros: This ammunition allows you to shoot 3 bullets at one time, even on the basic level. That means to divide the largest lily pad you only need to make approximately 10 shots. That's not all. This shot is a widening shot: as the bullets leave you and move towards the edge, they widen. This decreases your need for precision aiming!
  • The Cons: If you upgrade this weapon past the 3rd level, the shot becomes too wide to be very accurate at a distance.
  • Tip: If you are able to get the Multi-Shot, the fastest way to divide and destroy lily pads is to get set at an angle where you can continually hit the target. Then, rapid fire! If you are fast enough, you can quickly divide and destroy all the lily pads that are within that hit zone.
• Super-Bullets (The Small Orange Ball):
  • The Pros: There are none. Seriously. This ammunition is a dud. Avoid it at all costs.
  • The Cons: These bullets are fired at an arc and sit underneath the surface of the water. When the lily pads run over these bullets, they are hit. You must have precise aim to hit a lily pad and your target area is a specific circumference around your lily pad. You cannot hit lily pads that are too far away or too close. Avoid Super-Bullets at all cost.
  • Tip: Don't eat this ammunition. It is handy to save other ammunition power-ups, just in case you accidentally do eat one of these.

Bombs
Explode Bombs by hitting the "B" key. Once activated, a bomb will hit all the lily pads that surround you, as long as they are close enough. Just like when you hit the lily pads with your ammunition, the larger lily pads are not immediately destroyed - they are divided. Keep that in mind when using the bombs. After using a Bomb to divide a lily pad, the smaller lily pads will be worth only 10 points each instead of the usual 20 points.

Tip: Save your Bombs for the large, fast lily pads later in the game. The closer you get to your goal score, the more vigilant you should be at the beginning of the level. That is the easiest time for you to lose large chunks from your health bar since the lily pads always start out large.


The Shifting Bubble

Sometimes a powerup will pop out of a lily pad confused as to what powerup it is supposed to be, so it will change powerups as it floats around in the pond.

Tip: Try to save this powerup until the later levels. Then you can decide what powerup you want to use it as - if you need a Bomb, eat it when it's a Bomb; if you need health, get it when it's health. This really comes in handy later on.


The Pond

The Pond is the water surrounding you, and for this game, the edges of the screen are not closed off. You need to watch for lily pads as they disappear on one side of the screen and reappear on the other side. Learning the angles will help you as you aim your fire.

Tip: The most important thing to remember about your pond is to watch the bottom side carefully. The bottom side has the greatest chance of surprising you since half of that side contains your health bar, bombs, and paddle bar. It is easy to miss those lily pads that lurk behind, so keep a close eye out for them!


Other Tips
If you can't seem to get any powerups in the first few levels and are stuck with the level 1 Rapid-Shot, you have two options. You can restart the game (especially if you have already lost some health) or you can keep on going and hope for some powerups (if you play it, they will come).

There is no pause button for this game, but if you need a break you can destroy all but one small lily pad. Carefully choose which lily pad you will keep. You should choose one that is traveling at a slow speed and at an angle that will not soon come in contact with you. During this mini-break time, rest and collect powerups as needed, but avoid changing tabs or looking at another browser. The last lily pad may hit you before you realize it, thrusting you into the next level and impending doom.


Avatar
To get the Nimmo's Pond avatar you need to score 4000+ points.