PrinceWatercress plays Drill Dozer - Part 12 of 28

Croog knows you're getting close, and he's pulling out all the stops to ensure you do not stop his plans.

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Area 6-1: Drill Missile

Unmarked Map (by Spannettone)

After you beat Area 5-1, you're forced to play Area 6-1 whether you're ready for it - or want to do it - or not.

I don't like it when a game does this. At all. The game is virtually grabbing you by the hair and virtually chucking you into playing a stage and not giving you a choice. This is no different from what MediEvil II did with the boxing match, when I wanted to save after going through the Kew Gardens and the game wouldn't let me until I completed the whole of the next part that it wanted me to go through. 

When you're forced into this stage like sardines into a tin, Croog unleashes his Drill Missile on the Red Dozers' home. As soon as it lands, it starts burrowing into the secret command dozer where Doug is laid up. You'll have to sneak inside the exhaust vent, get to the engine room and stop the missile before it gets there!

As soon as you get into the missile, you'll find out that the engine is designed to explode the missile when destroyed, and that you'll have to get to the spinning bit controlling the missile and destroy it.

Thankfully, you're not under a time limit through most of the stage. Watch out for the sparks. The pink ones travel faster than the blue ones. Also, get second gear as soon as you see it, so that you can destroy the self-repairing barrier.

The moving purple platforms will flip back and forth every so often. Get on the platforms when the electrified side is not exposed.

Once you get past the drill duct segment, you'll then have a three minute time limit in the lower-right corner. At this point, you'll need to drill through the blocks and avoid any mines that you run into. The explosions will knock you back and do a little bit of damage. Also, don't waste a lot of time here, as you'll still need as much time as possible to destroy the spinning bit at the bottom. Thankfully, destroying it isn't hard. Just drill into it and shift all to third gear every time while avoiding the sparks. Once the bit is backwards, you'll need to hold Up and press L to move the Drill Missile backwards.

Unfortunately, this trips another fail-safe: the missile's self-destruct sequence. You'll have to flip a switch in the engine room to get the engine to run in reverse. In the following drill duct section, go through all the ducts in third gear and maintain third gear throughout so that you don't get blown up.

When you get to the engine room, flip the level. Unfortunately, you're still not done, as this causes the engine to overload. You'll need to take the blue chip that is on the coolant tower to the right and move it to where the bar on the screen moves to balance the coolant levels before the bar gets too close to the side and causes the entire Drill Missile to explode with you still in it. When the display blinks and the screen shakes, the bar may switch directions. Be ready to stand in the middle and place the blue chip accordingly. For best results, place the blue chip when the bar is about to reach the last big bar on either side of the coolant levels. As you go, the yellow lights at the top of the towers will slowly light up, and when all five lights on both sides light up, you'll finally stop the Drill Missile before sending it back at Croog and blowing up his fortress. Croog responds by revealing his secret dozer.