Populous

CHEATS

On the title screen, type "KILLUSPAL" to warp to level 999.

Fill the landscape with the maximum of 200 people to force one of the three hidden monsters to appear.

First load the conquest game as usual, and click on the game setup icon. Then select custom game and go to game options, changing anything you like. Finally click on evil, then two players and then cancel. The enemy will now be unable to alter the landscape preventing him from making any progress.

TIPS

BUILDING

Double Click on the same point and then remove the top point, allowing you to create an area of nine flat blocks in only three clicks.

NOW YOU CAN TURF OR SPROG

Reduce the area of crop fields that a castle has and the size of the building will be reduced. This lowers the capacity of the building to hold people and will force a walker to leave if it is too crowded. Use this method to force a walker from a large castle. It is important to note that the largest castle uses an extra block around the edge of it's crop fields. This land cannot be used for direct settlement.

LAND MAINTENANCE

Keep your land clean and tidy, remove swamps, rocks, broken and bad land. Without a strong clean landscape, your population will not flourish. Remove swamps as they are a direct drain on your population - especially bottomless swamps.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THOSE KNIGHTS

If the enemy starts to use knights against you, you have a number of options open. Try ignoring the knight and letting it rampage through your land and burn a few houses; but make sure that you clean up the land and resettle behind it. Try to drown the knight - the computer opponent will not often allow you to get away with this but with practice it can often be achieved. The secret is to build a tough leader that can defeat the knight in combat. It is possible to use a system of buildings to create an artificial barrier to the knight's progress by nippling the land, letting the knight fight through the small houses, then removing the nipples to free some flat land to resettle.

TOUGH LEADERS

Collect your people in a leader and then use the leader to assault the enemy. This is one of the most satisfying ways of playing Populous. A tough leader can also defeat opposing leaders, knights and can form a tough knight for your side.

PAPAL MAGNET MODE

Careful use early in the game can move your leader and people away from the homeland and into new territory fresh for expansion.

WALKERS HAVE IQ

IQ is determined by the technology that the walkers have and the number of times that they have been sprogged from a settlement. The degrees of intelligence are reflected in the walker's ability to locate new land etc. A low IQ walker will waste valuable time circling a large castle trying to find some fresh unsettled land, whereas the high IQ walker will spot the land five or six squares away.

TECHNOLOGY

The technology which a person has directly affects the outcome of any combat that they are involved in. The weapons factor acts as a multiplier - and so weak people with swords are often a match for stronger club-wielding walkers.

FIGHT MODE

This mode is very good for passive expansion. Your people will move towards the enemy and will tend to settle as they go. This mode is most useful when you are close to each other at the start of the game.

THE FIGHTING LEADER

You can use your leader as a direct and controllable weapon, by placing the magnet in the building that you want to attack and then going into GOTO MAGNET mode. Your leader will charge off and attack the building, occupying it after the combat. But move the magnet and off he charges. In this mode you are not settling anything except the buildings that you are fighting over, so beware of depopulating your lands or being out populated. Your leader is constantly being supported by your walkers who are drawn to him.

HOW TO WIN GAMES

The most gratifying way of finishing games is by direct use of your leader. A couple of tough knights certainly knock the stuffing out of weak opponents. Aided by the leader you can quite quickly finish the opponents off. Armageddon will draw the game to an instant conclusion, but try swamping just before your Armageddon if the score is close on population.

COMPUTER STRATEGIES

Learn the tactics and strategies that the computer uses. Look at the options it is allowed and decide which effects it will use. If it can only flood then build higher; if it can only quake then get ready to be shaken about. Learn the way the computer builds and take advantage of it.

ADVANCED TIPS

NIPPLING

Turf people from castles by lumping or nippling the land around them. Don't remove the lumps and let the walkers settle amongst the smaller castles. Do this to a larger area around your castles and then remove all the lumps. This will have a knock on effect that should produce a number of new castles at the edge of your land and then you can expand out from these. This tactic also shortens the time taken for a walker to settle after being turfed - a vital thing to do on landscapes where the environment is harmful.

MULTI-SPROGGING

This is similar to nippling - and is designed to create as many settlements from one as possible. A large castle that has a reasonable population in it will reduce and produce a walker, so as soon as that happens reduce it again so that another walker is produced. The first walker will have settled and also can be reduced to produce another. From one castle, four settlements can be created. Flatten the land and you can create four castles from one.

DETERMINATION

The best way to win any game is to out-build the opponent. Against the computer at higher rates this is often quite hard; however you can keep building after the computer has altered it's priority to attacking rather than building. You must weather the attack and continue to build as you can - eventually you can win through.

POOR MAN'S VOLCANO

Get someone into the enemy's land and then settle them. Scroll the map to the furthest point from the flag of your building then raise the land, upsetting as many of his houses as possible. This is a cheap way of creating a volcano.

SWAMPS

These are quite simply the most lethal weapon that you have. He who swamps first swamps hardest. Swamp his leaders, his knights and his people. Swamps will significantly reduce his population and can often keep the computer player down while you are building.

THE HANDY SWAMP PLATFORM

To counteract the effect of the computer swamping your leader, you can place the magnet in an area of land that is lumpy and not susceptible to swamps. Collect your leader here and then release knights into his land. The computer will try to swamp and have no effect, thus wasting manna.

BUILDING HIGH

If the computer has flood and a few other options it is a good tactic to build at two or three levels high. You can simply ignore the flood and let it affect only it's own people.

DOUBLE VOLCANO

If you build a volcano, try to do it on another volcano, either two together or on the side of another. Two volcanos together have more effect than two separate. A double volcano is very time and manna consuming to remove.

CHARGE

Getting your buildings amongst the opponents gives you the chance to drown people, upset buildings and generally start attacking where it hurts - his home. You will also have the advantage of being safer from swamps and other effects. The computer will start to clean up the land which your people are settling.

ZEN

Try building lots of settlements without bothering about turning them into castles. This give you a larger number of walkers but they are weaker than the castle-sprogged walkers. Zen allows you to ignore the special effects and concentrate on spreading and leading your people with your leader. Building through the hills tends to stop enemy knights since they spend all their time destroying small and rather worthless huts and tents rather than important houses and castles. This is called the Sproggy Mountain Tactic and you should also build your castles at the back of the land with this buffer of tiny settlements before it.

EXPANSIONIST POLICY

Learn the patterns of crop fields which are required by the various buildings. Learn the fastest building techniques and learn how to multi-sprogg and nipple. Then keep your land clean and build. Build some more, you can win some very tough games this way. Keep doing this until you have out populated the opponent and have enough energy to Armageddon. Do so and win!

THE LOUISIANNA TACTIC

If it moves swamp it, if it doesn't move swamp it anyway.

TWO PLAYER TIPS

DROWN PEOPLE

In the two player game the other player is less likely to notice the drowning people. If water is harmful then leave the people drowning in puddles, you will find that people die very quickly in water!

HOW TO SWAMP OFF PEAK AREAS

Swamp an area that is at the back or in an out-of-the-way place and the other player will take longer to find it and may not remove it as quickly. This will allow more people to fall to their deaths. Swamping after the other player has just swamped causes confusion (and if possible also earthquake well away from your swamp). The result will be that it looks like your retaliation was like a quake and that the nasty sounds are your people drowning in their own swamps. Don't forget to tidy up after you with reference to these.

LEVEL CODES