So far, the scores you've all been getting are pretty impressive. It says it all in the game description - this game is as tough as old badgers! So, what can you do to improve?

Let's start with the gameplay basics:

-HOLD DOWN fire buttons, TAP the movement buttons
-Destroy all things coming out of the portal
-Collect the things that look like pills. They are steroidipus and they give you rapid fire
-You get ONE (1) multicoloured explodipus per level (think smartbomb) to use when there's nothing left but hope. Use it! Use it! Use it!

Alright, so those are the main rules. Note the 'hold down' and 'tap'. As you never run out of ink, it's perfectly acceptable to keep firing the whole time you're playing.

Pick a firing direction and don't stop - hold down a fire button right through, if you like.

TAP the movement keys. Tapping the movement up/down keys is the safest way to move around. If you hold it down, there's more chance of moving right into the path of an enemy or, even worse, enemy fire.

Move around a lot - as much as possible - but as bullets get closer to your octopus, slow down the movement and try to be more calculated to avoid them.

Now the super important bit: The multicoloured explodipus. It's the same as a smart bomb in that it will destroy everything on the game sphere. You get one of them, every level, for free - you don't have to do anything or pick anything up, you just start the level with one ready to go.

Keep a finger over the explodipus button, you can be ready to use it when you need it. The best times to use it are when you start to feel overwhelmed and there are too many enemies on the sphere, or when you are about to be hit by something.

The explodipus will destroy enemy fire as well as enemies, so it can be a good way to avoid taking a hit as well as taking out some enemies on the way.

You will be awarded with an extra life every 10,000 points. If you're on your final life, you have no explodipus and you think you're done - see how close to are to the next 10,000. If it'll only take one more enemy to reach, perhaps you can hold out just long enough?

If you manage to reach the final boss battle, try not to worry too much about hitting The Boss. If you're too focussed on taking The Boss down, it's too easy for its minions to sneak in and overwhelm you. Instead, focus on keeping back the minions. The Boss has a lot of health but it will deplete over time.

Finally, read the 'welcome octopus friends' post here in the announcements. It tells you all about the scoring system, which is something you should know to maximize your scoring potential.

And that's it! The rest of it is going to come from spending time mastering the game. So, what are you waiting for? Good luck out there! We know you can do it!

Parrot.

Thanks for being so awesome as to play My Nuclear Octopus. We hope you're all enjoying the game!

As with practically any game ever made, we found a bug after launch that needed immediate squashing. This small update addresses the broken points display that pops up whenever a bug gets blasted in the game. It was stuck at 100, meaning it was pretty but useless information. The Octopus got to work as soon as it was discovered and fixed us all up with a nice, all new shiny points display.

Since we're talking about score, perhaps you'd like to know how the scoring works? Every bug starts out being worth 250 points when it first exits the portal onto the game sphere. As it makes its way around, the score decreases down to a minimum of 25 points. This means that bugs on the outside rings are usually worth less than the ones on the inside, which also happens to be the most dangerous place to sit!

250 points are awarded whenever you grab a steroidipus capsule, so you should do your best to grab those. Actually, you are probably already doing your best to grab those since they give you rapid fire.. if not, you really should! You can earn a low amount of extra points whenever you fire off the explodipus, too, but that works in a funny sort of odd way where just 1 point is added every time an explodighostipus spawns. This means, the bigger the explodipus reaction the more points.. but we're only talking 20 or 30 at most here.

The final place to get extra points is during the boss battle - everything goes out of the window there and your score just increases the whole time you are battling. The longer you take, the bigger score you'll get .. but there is so much going on I doubt anyone will be wanting to stick around for the points and you're more likely to just want to send The Boss back through the portal and win the game!

Enjoy!