In Toxers, a collaboration between Bad Viking and robotJAM, you'll find yourself doing turn-based battle with bugs who became mutated after an ice cream factory explodes. Your goal is to get out of town through the only bridge available. Unfortunately, it's blocked by one big mother of a bug the media has dubbed "Bugzilla." You're going to have to take it down, but you're not going to leave before you clean up the city by completing 15 missions in various areas around town.
The city map consists of 16 areas, not counting the bridge. Only two will be unlocked at the beginning. When you enter an area you'll be presented with a 6x6 grid that you'll have to explore. Each area has a mission, such as destroying bug nests. When you find a square containing something related to the mission, you'll make a little progress. As you move your character around the grid looking for the mission objectives, there's a lot of other things you'll encounter. Some squares don't have anything at all, others have hostile bugs, you can also find consumable items and survivors. There are some actions you can take to make searching a little easier. Shouting can help you locate survivors and once you purchase the scanner it will show you what's in surrounding squares when you use it. Keep in mind that everything you do takes up time and once you hit your time limit the day ends and you're sent back to the map screen.
As mentioned above, as you explore you'll come across survivors who will join up with you. On the map screen, you can click the roster tab to equip two survivors to bring with you into the fray. Each survivor has bonuses they give when you equip them. These bonuses can be boosts to damage and defense or may cut the time used up by certain actions. There's also the standard equippable weapons and defense items. You can equip one defense item and two offensive weapon, a gun which requires ammo and a melee item.
Analysis: There's two ways to play through Toxers. There's the OCD way where you fully explore every area, get every character and basically just power through the whole game. Then, there's the tactical way where you'll use a mixture of survivors and equipment to help you pinpoint squares with important items. No matter how you play, Toxers is a long game. The length is good if you like games that last. It's bad because Toxers can get somewhat repetitive, especially given how your role in completing missions is mostly passive. You'll probably want to play it in bits and pieces instead of in one long sitting.
Despite the repetition Toxers is fun. It's always exciting to see what the next square holds. What really keeps Toxers enjoyable is the well done battle system. When in battle only one bug will attack you each turn, so you won't get overwhelmed. This makes the individual battles less dangerous, while still taking away enough health that you'll need to be careful for the rest of the day. This keep battles quick and makes the game challenging without it becoming frustrating. While the turn-based combat and the equipment make this RPG-ish, it is missing the big RPG factor of experience points. You won't be able to make your character stronger by battling, only through better equipment and your companions. This also keeps the game moving as you won't need to keep fighting and fighting in order to make progress.
Toxers is a simple game that can be played in many different ways. It would benefit from a little more depth, especially when it comes to the missions. Despite that, it's fun to play and it will keep you busy for awhile. Add in distinct visuals that will be familiar to anyone who's played a robotJAM game in the past and you have a quality game. It might get a bit old after awhile, but if you step away from it for awhile you'll find it very easy to come back. If you hate the mutated bugs and their humanity hating monkeyshines, you'll have a great time blasting and bludgeoning your way through Toxers.
For some odd reason, while searching through the park, I cannot end the day.
Anyone else having this problem?
I had the same problem. Then I tried refreshing, but the game won't even load now.
@Upaut
Yes - I'm also having difficulty with bugs (code issues - not squishy insects) making this game not very fun to play. The day not ending bug is the worst I've found.
I found turning off my ad-blocking proxy and AdBlock/NoScript did not fix the issue, but loading the game in IE 8 did.
YMMV,
JDB
Hello... There's no need to write a signature when we can all see your username.
Is there any downside to taking more total days to explore an area?
I think the game is actually pretty cute.
I'm having fun.
5/5
@Upaut
Yes,
Unfortunately the game is quite (ahem) buggy in places, that's the worst one that I've found. I had to start a new game and didn't have any troubles with it.
Another annoying one is getting stuck with a single character continually occupying a square
Huge problem here. The Alien Gun, the only non-premium (i.e., that which can be purchased with in-game funds as opposed to those weapons that can only be purchased with MochiCoins) weapon that deals enough damage to defeat Bugzilla, the final boss, misses too frequently (advertised as hitting 70% of the time, i.e., a 30% miss rate) to actually defeat the boss. A game that cannot be won isn't much of a game at all.
another bug here: the very first fight i encountered i used rage and my character kept hitting the bug. the game started to award me a bunch of medals (20 bugs killed, 50 bugs killed, 100 bugs killed) and now the battle won't end because it thinks im killing infinite bugs.
shame too because the game looked fun
Yeah, was having fun until I couldn't end the day. Used the Red Bull thing in an attempt to get around it, still didn't work. Game breaker. Surprising it wasn't picked up by the developer, considering how many people have found it.
Its not unbeatable, but you do need some luck with the hit percentage. Here's what I used to beat him:
Alien gun (I always used the more damaging and less accurate attack), Mochi Hat, Bug Sprays to reduce damage, Medkits to refill HP, and allies of Veteran and Scientist for extra +20 DMG per hit
I wouldn't mind some hints for the bonus medals though. I've found most of them (including the one that unlocks the last ally), but a couple still evade me.
Anyone who has had the bug with an area not finishing, if this you can't press the "END DAY" button ? The big red button top left ?
Did you get to the end of a day with only half an hour left ?
We've played through the game at least 50 times and I've never come across the issue.
i've experienced the day not ending bug three times and had to reload the game each time.
pressing 'end day' button has no effect. the time of day is equal to the end of day time, not 30 minutes before.
annoying.
The only effect my End Day button has is giving me 100 dollrs because I have the City Chief equipped during the Park. But other than that, the day never ends, so the money doesn't matter at that point. lol
Sally, do the buttons have a rollover effect when this had happened and a hand cursor ?
I'd love to give the game a 5, but the bugs are pretty staggering. The never ending day bug in the park for instance makes it impossible to beat the game.
Both the Golfer and Boffin are found in the park, and are required to unlock the golf course and the telecoms respectively. 16 missions must be completed before the game lets you play the boss fight. So, being unable to beat 3 missions makes it literally impossible.
Here are the secret medals I got so far. I haven't been able to get the last one though
25. Take Rock Star to Stadium (funny because that is where I found him) 26. Take City Chief to Golf Course
27. Take Boffin and Dog to Car Park-Will Unlock Time Traveller in Roster 28. Take Ice Cream Guy to Warehouse
29. Take Runner to Commercial District
30. Take Riot Police to Residential
31. Take Masked Vigilante to Theaters
32. ????????
The last medal (32) at the bottom can be achieved by
taking the medic and the rescue worker to the park.
Kind of fun. A little mindless, though.
Thanks for fixing some of those bugs, I have noticed one more: If i leave the game (close window) and come back to it later all of my medals are gone. not really a game breaker unless getting all the medals awards you somthing.
Cheers.
Am I missing something? It says I can equip 2 different characters to take with me, but it only let me switch out one. I am stuck constantly with the first dude I found, and I really want to trade him in for someone a little tougher (even though he looks like Mr. T)...
Regardless of what I do, Bugzilla's first four attacks are all the charge that does 60%+ of damage. Needless to say, I'm always dead long before the alien gun (and its "70% chance to hit") does any significant damage whatsoever.
@John. I"m sure they purposefully made last boss hard enough so that most people would buy their "premium" weapons. An otherwise good game ruined by too much emphasis on profit.
The last boss is possible to beat without the premium weapons, he is very hard though. We might tone that down a little.
Be fair to the us though, you've probably played for at least 2 hours by that time for no cost at all.
@Guest: If you click on someone who is already in your party in the top area of the roster, it removes him.
You can beat the boss with the normal equipment. There is an element of luck involved with his attacks but that's true of most boss fights out there, in my experience.
The premium content is an *optional extra* and we shouldn't begrudge the developers some income while we get to play these extremely fun and addictive games for free.
We have increased the firepower of the alien gun now so it hits much more on a regular basis.
It was possible to beat him, but we have had a few people moaning now, so we've made it a much fairer fight.
It won't load.
At all.
great game but now stuck the mall stadium and cinema all three are stuck somewhere around 23/36 objectives complete and I have painfully cone through each level square by square and I have found nothing at all. so other than that I loved the game
This game was fun for about the first hour; after that I kept playing because I'm compulsive. The extra characters were imaginative, and I enjoyed coming up with interesting combinations. I do think the final boss was a poor choice, though. I tried about ten times with what I'm pretty sure was an optimal strategy, and eventually I just gave up. It wouldn't have been so bad if the weapon wasn't so expensive to use -- I could only try once or twice before I had to
equip the burglar and the looter/runner
and grind through one of the early levels to replace my healing items and ammo.
I'm fine with premium content, but I feel like it should be _extra_ content. This is basically letting you play the whole game, and then asking you to pay to see the ending. (actually, when I phrase it that way, it sounds fine.)
A few other odd things I noticed:
1) I think this is the only game I've ever seen where the enemy party only gets one attack per round, no matter how many members it has. This has some interesting strategic implications. But it doesn't matter very much, because
2) Money drops seem to be completely random. I've gotten $200 from the 10-hp centipede guys and $20 from the 150-hp monster ants. So you can use stealth and scanning to almost completely avoid hard fights, and then make money by replaying early levels.
I can't buy anything at the store...
This has to be a bug: I cannot purchase anything; not weapons, not ammo, not equipment; nothing! So, I'm relegated to trying to beat the game with the original weapons, yay!
it wont let me buy any of the equipment the first time round
Huge problem here. The Alien Gun, the only non-premium (i.e., that which can be purchased with in-game funds as opposed to those weapons that can only be purchased with MochiCoins) weapon that deals enough damage to defeat Bugzilla, the final boss, misses too frequently (advertised as hitting 70% of the time, i.e., a 30% miss rate) to actually defeat the boss. A game that cannot be won isn't much of a game at all.
Posted by: John | November 16, 2010 9:28 PM
What a noob u are...I did it one minute ago, just with the laser gun oO
a tip for people on the last boss
try using the firefighter to keep from becoming drowsy every time bugzilla uses the green gas. this keeps the accuracy of the alien gun high. then use any other character with a damage or defense buff (i like the scientist or veteran) to help you in the fight
with that combo and some health packs the boss should be easy
it is actually possible to beat the bugzilla guy without the alien gun nor any other shooting weapon
i beat it with the sledgehammer
(i did use items liken molotovs, poison and heal though)
so the boss might be less tough than the original but now it definitely is possible
The game has some nasty balance issues. Not all of the weapons which cost more and are of a higher tier are necessarily more powerful than the weapons below them, due to differences in accuracy, ammo cost and even average damage (the Blunderbuss averages less damage than the Crossbow, for example. Skip it.)
Whoever had the bright idea of rewards being completely random managed to make all the areas outside of the Beach Front completely redundant. Equip the Runner (to halve search times, giving you twice as many opportunities to fight) and the Burglar (to double rewards) and you'll earn 4x as much money. Fighting bugs with 10 and 15 HP for the same rewards as bugs with 100 and 150 HP. Go figure.
The Riot Shield doesn't prevent stun. Don't bother with it. Even if this bug is fixed, the only bug which inflicts Stun is the bee near the end of the game. The Mochi Hat is more useful overall.
Bug Repellant is typically a loss against the bugs whom you would actually want higher defense against. Use it against fodder to nullify their attacks, if you want, but I'd say you're better off just skipping it. For that matter, the grenades and bombs tend not to do enough damage to be worth it after the initial stages. You'll do more damage with your normal attack. Only use them against weaker enemies, especially groups, when farming for cash.
Stun Grenades are the one exception to this. Because they ALWAYS stun, they're free damage. Equip the Scientist and the Veteran and use three of these and you'll have done about 60 damage before the enemy gets their first turn. This will wipe out nearly any group of enemies and make the tougher enemies trivial.
Speaking of groups, be careful. A lot of the time, a powerful enemy will be grouped together with a weaker enemy. Rather than use multi-enemy attacks to kill them both or kill the weaker enemies at all, focus on the powerful enemy. Since only one enemy can attack per turn, you might as well capitalize on the Artificial Stupidity and let the weaker enemies attack while you cream the only one who could do any serious damage.
Good news: the Armor Games version doesn't seem to have any bugs in its programming. Does anyone know what that effect from the mutant bees' stings that causes the character to slump over while they take an extra attack is called?
I ask because they keep using that one to clobber me with massive damage before I can counter. I've tried adding survivors to my roster to gain an immunity to stunning & using adrenaline shots to treat drowsiness, & neither has worked.
[Good news: Toxers is automatically updated on every site where its hosted whenever the developer pushes out a bug fix, so you can always be sure you're playing the latest version no matter where you play. -Jay]
Good game. The rewards for killing bugs don't relate to the difficulty of the bugs killed though.
Here is my strategy to beat Bugzilla with the alien weapon:
-Use the Alien Weapon
-Equip the Riot Shield to prevent stun
-Bring the medic and fireman; the medic prevents venom and the fireman prevents drowsiness which lowers your attack %
--With all these status lowerers taken care of Bugzilla can't hurt you as much and many attacks miss or do no damage.
-First move you make is to use bug repelant to reduce the damage taken
-Attack with the Alien weapon until defeated (use med packs as needed).
am i the only one who had no problem killing the boss? it took me two tries.
Okay, I've searched every space & completed every mission, so how come there's apparently still one survivor that I haven't added to my roster?
It's the one in-between
the PI & the scientist.
to get the last medal, simply bring the medic and the rescuer to the park!
i cannot find the last character for my roster. I am missing the person in the 2nd row 7th in between and doctor and p. i. Can you tell me where i can find him?
For people wandering by, a note: if you're playing this Kongregate, you should disable Adblock. Having Adblock enabled breaks the game a whole lot. (The background in battle kept spinning, and I couldn't fight, or flee, or anything.)
How desperately annoying.
I had absolutly no problem beating the boss at all I've 26 out of 28 times the 2 times I lost I had just forgotten to buy health.
For those searching for the final survivor
you need to take Boffin and the dog to the Car Park.
How to you get medal 32?
* 25: Equip Rock Star and enter Stadium
* 26: Equip Boffin and Dog and enter Car Park
* 27: Equip City Chief and enter Golf Course
* 28: Equip Ice Cream Salesman and enter Warehousing
* 29: Equip Runner and enter Commercial
* 30: Equip Riot Police and enter Residential
* 31: Equip Wrestler and enter Cinema
* 32: Equip Rescuer and Medic and enter Park
lol could be handy ;) for you searched like mad :P
To beat the final boss i went in with veteran and the penguin guy and just used attack 2 from the laser until i got drowsy and then it had about 200hp left so i used grenades till it died. I was being hit for about 9hp every hit so it was pretty easy
I experienced a bug in the Cinema/Stadium/Mall area. I am stuck on 23-27/36 tiles cleared of bugs. I found out that it doesnt add the tile when I kill some bugs on it. Only those counted that were bug free.
Since some of the medals are based on number of bugs killed, a "bugs killed" counter somewhere in the game would be a nice feature. Just in case the game developers still check this page occasionally...
i actually beat the game without the plasma weapon or whatever but i do not have all the characters and each map says all characters found.... very confused on this. says the game is over and i was wondering if there is more to the game like some way to cross that bridge or is that for the next toxers....
i have just finished the game, using nearly 4hours, the boss is hard to defeat without mochi coins used, but i still win after several try, i keep on using bug repeller and keeping the boss on fired and posioned, i equipped veterian and scientist, and allen gun with hammer, only use attack 2 of the gun,i think that trying may gives success and luck is useful than the accuracy. To robert: the answer you need can be found on upper post...
I beat Bugzilla on the first try, and only used one medipack.
Bring Fireman and Medic, equip Alien Gun, make sure you have at least 1 Bug Repellent, and max out your grenade/gas bomb/molotov cocktails. Equip Riot Shield. Use Bug Repellent on your first turn, then use gas grenade and molotov on your next two turns. From here on out, just use attack #2 on your gun until your health is below 50%, then use a medipack. When the poison and fire effects wear off on Bugzilla, reapply them, and keep using attack #2. You won't hit him every time, but with your Riot Shield, he'll miss you a lot, too. I had 40% health and 1 medipack left when I beat him.
Thanks to the devs for making the game fun and beatable!
Well i have read the review and its good and the comments are helpful but for me the games not REALLY interesting its good the way it is but i just remember thinking. "I think this is gunna be one of those hack and slash platformers" but then i found it was a strategic turn based game >,> But I've played the game and finished it, however i think this game would be even funner re-done into a hack en slash or ... hack and shoot platformer i know most people are use to this game the way it is and everyone has there own opinions i hope no one is angry ... with this idea but i think it would be good not just for me. but for more people becuase i bet more then ME can relate.
To get the last person on the roster (Which can't be found on a normal search or scan or shout)
Bring the boffin and the dog to the Car Park Mission
Update