Nanobots

Nanobots is an action shooter game released in October of 2007. The player controls a human piloted nanobot and has to destroy the waves of enemy nanobots to complete levels.

Controls
Mouse - Move the human piloted nanobot

 Mouse click - Move the human piloted nanobot

Spacebar - Strafe

Also

←↑↓→ Arrow keys - Move

Training level
This level teaches the basics of the game.
 * 1) Wave 1: Pink Nanobots
 * 2) Wave 2: Green Nanobots
 * 3) Wave 3: Yellow Nanobots
 * 4) Wave 4: Pink Nanobots, Green Nanobots, Yellow Nanobots

Level 1

 * Wave 1: Two lines of Pink Nanobots move up and down on the outer edges of the level.
 * Wave 2:Three more rows of basic pink nanobots are created, one on the left side of the level, one in the middle and one on the right side.
 * Wave 3: Shooting Pink Nanobots are spawned near the top of the level, and move in a large circle around the level. A message appears warning the player to avoid Pink nanobot bullets.
 * Wave 4: Shooting pink nanobots spawn at the bottom of the level and move in a large circle around the level (similar to the previous wave). A row of pink Nanobots appear on the right side moving up and down.
 * Wave 5: Another wave appears in almost the exact same place and moves in the same circular path around the level.
 * Wave 6: Two Titan pink nanobots move up and down on the left and right sides of the level.
 * Wave 7: Green nanobots are spawned on the bottom of the level, and move around in a large circle.
 * Wave 8: Two wormholes appear on the top-right and top-left corners of the screen (outside the area where the player can fly) and spawn two rows of green nanobots that both move in small circles.
 * Wave 9: Two rows spawn vertically on either side of the level, meeting in the middle (green nanobots go through each other upon contact) while two small rows spawn at the top left and right and move up and down.
 * Wave 10: four pairs of green nanobots spawn next to each other (with some room in between) across the top of the screen and move up and down.
 * Wave 11: Two rows of green nanobots spawn in the middle of the level making figure eights (8).
 * Wave 12: A Health pick up appears at the left side of the screen next to a bomb mutator while a set of four Yellow nanobots appear on the left and right side of the level moving up and down.
 * Wave 13: Rows of yellow nanobots spawn in four places and moving back and forth, making a box.

Level 4

 * Wave 1: Several Green Nanobots will descend upon the player in the formation of a Four. Some Pink Nanobots will reside at the bottom of the level. There is no Pink Mutator
 * Wave 2: Green Nanobots in arrow formations will move up and down. Some pink Nanobots will be spawned
 * Wave 3: Upon destroying a few Green Nanobots, Titan Pink Nanobots and usual Pink Nanobots will spawn, and the Pink Mutator becomes available
 * Wave 4: A single Green Supervirus will spawn in the middle of the room. They are easier to destroy with the player's upgrades
 * Wave 5: Yellow Nanobots will spawn in the middle of the room moving in a circle. Titan Pink Nanobots will appear on the edges of the room moving vertically.
 * Wave 6: Three Pink Superviruses will be spawned in the middle of the room, along with several Titan and Usual Pink Nanobots spawned
 * Wave 7: Upon one Pink Supervirus being destroyed, Usual Yellow Nanobots will begin to move in a square around the remaining two Pink Superviruses. A pairs of Green Nanobots will begin to move horizontally, with a space between the pairs. All the Green Nanobots should be destroyed first, then the Usual Yellow Nanobots. The player should be close to the Green Mutator when they finish this. The player should use the Bomb Protector technique explained in the Strategies section of this article to destroy the Yellow Nanobots.
 * Wave 8: A line of Green Nanobots moving horizontally will appear on the stage, with only three gaps between them the size of the player. On top of that, a line of Green Nanobots will descend from the ceiling, with few gaps between them.

Level 5
This level is notably where Nanobots's difficulty skyrockets. At the start of the level, the player has to kill a considerable amount of pink nanobots. Soon, five lines of green nanobots will form and move back and forth, horizontally. Because of this, the player has to often dive between them. Soon after, vertical moving green nanobots will commence. The only safe spot where the player cannot be harmed by these enemies is on the far reaches of the left and right wall.

Again, the player has to dive back and forth into the sea of greens to kill pink nanobots. Upon killing a sufficient amount, red and pink mutators will spawn. Notably, getting to the mutators is often dificult, as the sheer amount of green nanobots crowding the level makes traversal difficult.

Strategies
The player can perform some strategies in the game that can reduce the risk of being damaged.

Bomb protector
If the player is in phase two or three of the bomb form, staying in one place will cause bombs to plant underneath them. Since the bombs have a field, the field will be around the player. This field will instantly kill all usual yellow nanobots that come towards the player, as the yellow nanobots are very weak like all basic nanobots.

Note that this strategy should not be employed against titan yellow nanobots, as they have enough health to enter the field and harm the player.

Bullet swirl
In phase three, the player can spin around to send bullets flying in all directions.

Near to mutator
The player should always be close to the pink mutator when they finish killing the enemies for a Wave and do not know what the next wave will be. Since pink nanobots are often spawned, and in large numbers, and usually firing a flurry of bullets making movement restricted, being close to a pink mutator can be helpful.

Finish the pink
All pink nanobots should always be destroyed before changing form, as pink nanobots fire bullets aim at the player and usually inhabit certain areas (mainly the left and right sides of the level) of the level, making the player avoid that section if the pink nanobots in that section are not destroyed. Avoiding that section can make it hard ti kill enemies, and possible cost the player health to avoid bullets from pink nanobots as they try to avoid them. Destroying all pink nanobots, or most, makes waves easier to bear.

Yellow is last
Usually yellow nanobots should always be taken last, as the player can use the bomb protector technique often to destroy them easily.

Up and back
When trying to destroy green superviruses who move their orbs, the player should move vertically up in sync with the hazardous green orbs of the green supervirus, continuing to move up until they no longer have to move in sync with the orbs. Once freed, they should go back to the position they started to move up (which is either the bottom left or right of the supervirus.

If the player is in phase two or three, it is possible to stay just outside the range of the rotating orbs and the player's outermost orb will tap the supervirus each round. However, this strategy should only be employed if all other enemies are killed, as the player must stand perfectly still for this to work.

Enemies

 * Basic nanobots - The most simple enemy
 * Basic red nanobots - The first enemy on the training level, requires one hit from bullet to kill
 * Basic green nanobots - Green enemy that requires one hit from an orb
 * Basic yellow nanobots - Requires one hit with bomb
 * Titan nanobots - The more powerful versions of the basic nanobots
 * Titan red nanobots - Fires at the player, requires one hit from bullet to kill
 * Titan green nanobots - Beta enemies, not used in game
 * Titan yellow nanobots - Home in on player, require several hits with bomb
 * Superviruses - The most powerful version of the regular nanobots
 * Red superviruses - Half of its body is shielded, other half fires bullets. Requires many shots with bullet to kill.
 * Green superviruses - Has three protecting orbs rotating around its body, requires player to it with an orb multiple times to kill it
 * Yellow superviruses - Has armour, slides out bombs from its body as its attack. Requires hits with multiple bombs to kill.
 * Weapon stealers - Special enemies that steal the player's weapon. Require one hit with any weapon to kill.
 * Combined nanobot - Boss of Nanobots, uses all three weapons

Pick-ups

 * Health Tablet - Replenish the player's health
 * Invincible Tablet - Make the player invincible for a short time.

Trivia

 * Because of the long levels, huge waves, and attacks, Nanobots has been considered by many Nitromians the hardest Nitrome game ever. The game may had originally been made extremely hard to make up for the small amount of levels.
 * Nanobots has the most known beta content for any Nitrome game. it has one enemy (Super Green Nanobot) and two pickups (Freeze Tablet and Bomb Tablet) cut from the release of the game for unknown reasons.