Shock Lobster

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Overview

Shock Lobster is a Game Boy game in which you venture forth on your quest as a lowly lobster imbued with magical powers, determined to inflict lethal damage to whatever stands in your way. You start out with a handful of skills that let you avoid oncoming obstacles and deal damage, and use the pearls you collect on your way to unlock more skills, upgrades and items to push your high score higher and higher.

Skills may consume your energy, which is constantly refilling, or generate charges, which are consumed by finishers that scale with the number of charges used. Several skills apply damage-over-time effects to the enemy, time-limited buffs to yourself, or have cooldowns before they can be used again, shown as bars on the bottom-left of the screen.

The game speed and the loadout and items you used are summarised on the game over panel, so you can compete with friends for the highest score with a specific combination of skills and upgrades. The game was an entry for the Game Boy Competition 2021.

Made by: Dave VanEe (tbsp)
Released: 2021

Controls guide

In battle

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Choose which pair of skills A and B use
A`X`	Use the A skill of the current pair
B`Z`	Use the B skill of the current pair
Start`Enter`	Pause and unpause, or hide an item prompt early

Skill pairs

Button and key	Action
A`X`	Jet (with no direction held, when Sticky D-Pad is on)
B`Z`	Zap (with no direction held, when Sticky D-Pad is on)
Up+A`X`	Jet
Up+B`Z`	Zap
Right+A`X`	Shock
Right+B`Z`	Discharge
Left+A`X`	Electrify
Left+B`Z`	Empower
Down+A`X`	Invigorate
Down+B`Z`	Focus

Item prompts

Button and key	Action
A`X`	First Strike at the start of a battle, Final Word when defeat is near
B`Z`	Blitz at the start of a battle, Second Wind when defeat is near

Loadout screen

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Select an item
A`X`	Confirm, unlock or toggle
B`Z`	Back
Select`Shift`	Show or hide the details panel
Start`Enter`	Start the game
A`X`	On Reset Save, with details shown, press four times to wipe the save (no final confirmation)

Cheatsheet

Skills

Jet: Free; one jump upward at a time, 3 damage at most once a second
Zap: 40 energy; 40 damage, +1 charge
Shock: 35 energy; 5 damage, then 24 every 3 s for 9 s, +1 charge
Discharge: 35 energy finisher; 17 to 74 damage for 1 to 5 charges, more with spare energy
Electrify: 30 energy finisher; 51 to 225 damage over 16 s
Empower: 25 energy finisher; +30% damage for 14 to 34 s
Invigorate: Regain 60 energy; 30 s cooldown
Focus: All costs halved for 4 s; 80 s cooldown

Unlock prices in pearls

Electrify / Empower: 120 / 140
Invigorate / Focus: 260 / 320
Amplify / Detonate: 40 / 60
High Pressure / Overcharge: 110 / 190
Residual Charge / Expertise: 210 / 260
Clarity / Refresh: 340 / 370
First Strike / Blitz: 150 / 210 each
Final Word / Second Wind: 360 / 520 each

Upgrades

Amplify: Zap +20% while Shock or Electrify is active
Detonate: Discharge +30% crit chance while Shock or Electrify is active
High Pressure: Higher Jet with double damage
Overcharge: Crits from charge skills give an extra charge
Residual Charge: Electrify ticks can crit
Expertise: Base crit chance 30% to 60%
Clarity: Direct damage can make your next skill free
Refresh: Zap adds 2 s to an active Electrify (up to 6 s)

Tips

With Sticky D-Pad on (the default), the pair snaps back to the top when you let go of the D-pad, so a bare A is always Jet and a bare B is always Zap. Hold a direction only for the moment you need another skill.
Build charges with Zap and Shock, then spend them on a finisher. Discharge also turns up to 30 extra energy into bonus damage, so firing it with a full bar is worth more.
Keep Shock or Electrify ticking at all times once you own Amplify and Detonate, since both upgrades only work while one of those effects is active.
Focus blocks Invigorate while it lasts, so use Invigorate first and then Focus to get the most out of both cooldowns.
High scores are kept separately for each game speed, and the game picks up pace over time, faster on higher speeds. Try a new loadout on a slower speed before chasing a record.
Items are single-use and their prompt only stays up for 2 seconds, so know before the battle which button fires which item: A for First Strike or Final Word, B for Blitz or Second Wind.