How do you beat the PC game Motherload

PC VERSION (2006)
To beat the battle of the first level of the game, you will use at least 20 to 30 plastic explosive C4 charges ($5000 each) and from 12 to 20 hull repairs ($7500 each). This is what will need when you have the Amazonite hull ($500,000) and the max radiator ($500,000), which makes you very resistant to the bosses attacks. You will also need to use lots of explosives (dynamite or C4) just to get through the lower part of the mine, where digging into open rock can destroy you in a methane explosion. This sounds more expensive than it actually is, once you start mining Diamond and Amazonite from the deepest parts of the mine.

The bosses can kill you if you stay in contact with them, or are hit more than once or twice by weapons. Exactly the same process repeats on later levels, except that the bosses are tougher and at the same time do much more damage to you. By the 9th level, just touching or being hit once can kill you.

To kill a boss, roll up to or into them as you set off a C4 blast (dynamite does very little damage). Ideally a direct hit will cost a boss 240 health points, but at least 120. Quickly move away to avoid damage. Wait until he uses his weapon if it is a laser, cane, or arm bar, then jump in and blast -- but if the second boss pauses to fire his blaster ball, you want to have already hit him and gone behind him when it launches. The first boss will take 5 to 10 direct hits, the second 10 to 20 direct hits. If you are damaged, use the R button to make your repairs between attacks -- depending on your skill at evading, use 2 or 3 after each major hit you suffer, to bring you back to full health.

MOTHERLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

The free online game appears on several sites, including the creator site, X-Gen.

The object of the game is to drill a path to reach the hidden area at the bottom of the mine, and beat the bosses that you find there. The difficulty is that if you run out of fuel, or damage your drilling pod, you explode and die, and have to start over. By slowly digging down, and returning to sell your ores, you can progress into the depths and upgrade your digger until you are ready for the battle at the bottom.
It can take an hour or more to complete one round of the game, during which you will collect and use up at least two million dollars from selling ore. The "points" that you earn are no longer of value, because they were designed for competitive scoring that no longer exists on most of the sites.

General Information
The free version of the game does not use the "cheats" that one would use to improve your drilling pod. But on the first level, at least, the available ore is enough to slowly accumulate a sturdy and capable pod. The mineral ores that you dig through have various values, and you can learn to spot the ones that bring you more money. In the later stages of the game, you will find that you have to use more blasting devices (dynamite and C4 explosives) because of hidden hazards in the mine.

Your digger can go down, left and right, or drill in those three directions. You cannot drill upward. To move vertically, there is a rotor on top. (It is possible for the pod to become so heavy with collected ore that it cannot climb. In that case, you will need to jettison some of the cheaper ore.)

There are three locations on the surface: a fuel station, a mineral depot, and a Repair Station (to fix damage, or to buy spare fuel tanks, repair kits, and explosives, which you need later in the game -- they also sell two types of teleport devices which can come in handy when you need to get back fast for fuel).

Buying Fuel
You need money in your account to buy fuel: without it, your pod explodes. You start with a few dollars, and at various depths you receive bonuses from your boss, Mr. Natas (the name is often a dead giveaway for the boss you face at the end. To add fuel, go to the fueling station and select an amount. It is usually best to fill up whenever you have enough cash, to avoid having to make more trips to the surface. There are larger fuel tanks available for purchase. There are spare tanks that you can carry with you, but these are very much more expensive and can only be used once.

Digging rocks and ores (to sell at the Processor)
The plain colored squares will give you points, but these are irrelevant: what you want to drill into is the colored ore blocks, containing ore you can sell at the material on the surface.
1st level ore values
(0 feet to 1000 feet) : Ironium-30 / Bronzium-60 / Silverium-100 / Goldium-250
(1000 to 2000 feet) : Platinium-750 / Einsteinium-1000
(2000 to 5000 feet) : Emerald-1500 / Ruby-2500
(5000 feet and up) : Diamond-100,000 / Amazonite-500,000
You are limited by the size of your cargo bay. You can remove lower-value ores that you don't want to make room for more valuable ones, or just buy a larger cargo bay. At the Mineral Processor, you will sell these ores for cash.

Buying Upgrades (at the Junk Shop)
-- Drills, to dig faster
750, 2000, 5000, 20000, 100000, 500000
(the 20,000 bit is practically the fastest you ever need)
-- Hulls, to take more damage from falls, lava, methane explosions (17 to 180 health)
750, 2000, 5000, 20000, 100000, 500000
(lava will destroy any hull under 20000, methane blasts anything under 100000)
-- Engines (only a consideration for very large loads of heavy ores)
750, 2000, 5000, 20000, 100000, 500000
-- Fuel tanks, to go longer without refueling (15 to 150 liters)
750 , 2000, 5000, 20000, 100000, 500000
-- Radiators, used with powerful hulls to increase protection from lava and gas
2000, 5000, 20000, 100000, 50000
(500000 radiator is what protects you best against the boss attacks -- you can use a 100000 radiator, but the damage from hits will be two or three times worse)
-- Cargo Bay, to let you carry more ore back to process (15 to 120 capacity)
750, 2000, 5000, 20000, 100000
(the two largest bays are often impractical because if they are filled with heavy ores, you will not be able to use any engine to move upward)

Bonus Items
These give you a flat cash value when you drill them and appear anywhere deeper than 1000 feet. There are only 6 or 7 of each one scattered randomly in a mine.
Fossil 1000
Treasure Chest 5000
Skeleton 10000
Religious Artifact 50000

*** Sample Game ***
1) Choose New Game
2) You are dropped by a ship and Mr. Natas tells you that your very small fuel tank is not filled. Go left onto the platform and choose "$5" or "Fill tank" to top off at 10 liters. This amount will only last you a dozen or so drill moves and the fuel warning will tell you to hurry back to refuel again. Drill down into ores, so that you can sell them to buy more fuel. Once you have some cash, gas at the pump is very cheap.
3) As you dig deeper, be sure you have a clear, fast path back to the fuel pump!
The best idea is to dig down on the left side of the fuel station, because that way you will have no holes between the pump and the ore processor that could trip you up.
4) Continue to gather ore until you have $750, and then buy the first fuel tank upgrade. It gives you much more time away from refueling.
5) Make a shaft down to 500 feet so you can collect your $1000 bonus from Natas. You may want to use this to buy a better drill, to dig faster. Or you can save up $2000 for the next larger fuel tank. You will need a $2000 drill to effectively work below 1000 feet. Watch for Goldium which is your most valuable ore at the top.
6) Using a 2000 tank and/or a 2000 drill, make you way to 1000 feet and collect your next bonus of $3000, which can be used for such things as a stronger hull, but also a larger cargo bay that will save you time and effort. You can buy one-time portable fuel tanks ($2000) for use in an emergency. You can also start to buy the Quantum Transporter ($2000), which returns you to the Fuel station instantly. But it is risky for weak hulls because it can smash you into the ground. The $10000 Matter Transporter is safer but often not affordable. For small damage, you can go to the repair station to bring your hull back up in strength for a variable cost.
7) Between 1500 and 2000 feet, you will run into large rocks. You cannot drill them. They can only be removed with explosives (which can get expensive at 2000 per dynamite bundle). Around 2000 feet, you encounter lava, which will explode an unprotected digger. They can also be blasted away. Only the strongest hulls and radiators can shrug off lava.
8) At 3500 feet, you get your biggest bonus, $25000, but you will need it. Not only are you getting farther from the fuel station, but there are invisible methane pockets in some plain rock below about 4900-5000 feet. You will find it expedient to dig only through ore and use explosives (dynamite or C4) to remove the ordinary rock from your path. Methane explosions are extremely damaging even to powerful hulls.
9) You will begin to find numerous Diamond ores below 4500 and Amazonite below 5000 feet. These will bring you large sums which should be spent on upgrading your hull, radiator, and fuel, and stockpiling C4 for the looming battle with the bosses.
10) Below 5800 feet, the depth indicator becomes garbled, but you only have about 1000 feet to the bottom, which is blocked off except at the far right bottom corner. You will get two warnings from Mr. Natas not to go there. The depth reading says -66666 feet.
11) If you have your 500000 hull and 500000 radiator, and about 20 repair packs, and enough fuel (about a 5000 tank or 2 spares), you can enter and battle the bosses. You will need 20 to 30 packs of C4 to defeat both bosses, and it should take about 3 or 4 minutes.
12) If you win, you can save the game and play the higher levels, which have nothing new except lower ore values, tougher bosses, and no bonus payments (you killed your boss). If you make it to level 9, the bosses have 9000 and 18000 health, can kill you on contact, and you will have to clear 3 or 4 mines of low-value ore just to have enough repairs while you try to kill them. These games can last several hours and the battles up to half an hour.

Helpful tips:
-- Since the point scoring is fairly useless, you can improve your chances by using the "Save Game" feature (the floating satellite near the Junk Shop). You can only save one game at a time, but if you lose that one, you start a new mine with the same cash and upgrades that you had when you saved. So it is much easier.
-- Digging one shaft, straight down, near the left side, is the faster way to get back and forth for fuel. Make sure you know how far down you can go and still get back before your fuel runs out. But straight shafts of 3 or more squares can damage your digger if you hit a protruding side or the bottom.
-- When digging very deep, beware of running out of dynamite, which explodes a smaller, more controlled area (3 x 3) than the more powerful C4 (5 x 5). Always expect an "empty" square below 5000 feet to explode if dug through.