Kyle Farh's Ridiculously Complete Joust Strategy Guide

The game, the tactics, the obsession.



In the spring of 2003, I rediscovered Joust, a game that had fascinated me in the arcades growing up. Compared with the dime a dozen arcade shoot-em-ups, and pacman going round and round and round, Joust offered fast paced and sometimes chaotic action, with combat resolved by one simple rule -- in a collision, the jouster at the higher altitude wins. Gravity, momentum, and bounces, and swarms of ever more intelligent opponents guaranteed this to be no trivial challenge.

It was only later that I realized just how bizarre the world of Joust is. Player 1 is riding a giant ostrich, and player 2 is mounted on a great stork. The enemy jousters are all sitting pretty on big green buzzards. Stone islands appear and disappear in the sky, acting as obstacles one second and cover in the next. Opponents turn into eggs when defeated, which hatch into even more lethal opponents unless picked up. Inspiration? or madness?

It's now the summer of 2003. Three months have passed, and many high scores. I am hoping that I have now kicked the addiction. I leave behind this page, a more or less comprehensive collection of my Joust strategy. A tribute-- for all ye jousters out there, and for all those hours of mine I have most unwisely spent, trying to master this classic of early-eighties arcade action.









Joust. The following tutorial will tell you all you need to know to get scores in the millions. The world record is 110 million+, set by a team of two guys who switched off playing for three straight days. Please don't try this at home. But by the end of this tutorial, you'll know how to, at least in theory. :)





Introduction / hiscore screen. Note the conspicuous lack of high scores on this machine. That's because we're using an emulator on a 1.2GHZ machine, and I just reset the ROM. The best platform to play Joust with is MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), it's free, and runs on many machines. Shockwave also has a version on their website, which has the advantage that you just have to hop over to it on the web.





Lesson one: Hovering. the yellow human player is hovering, waiting for the computer-controlled evil red buzzard to run into him. Both red and grey buzzards will tend to fly level as long as you are level with them, so you can hover at their altitude, and then "hop" up a bit when you collide to take them out. This is true whether you are in midair, or on a platform.





The computer only has three types of enemies, with three different artificial intelligence programs. Understanding these programs is the key to victory. According to point value, reds are the weakest, greys are medium, and blues are the toughest. In practice, reds often tend to be more unpredictable, and hence more dangerous, than greys. The different enemy types require different strategies to handle each one, so a mixture of enemy types can be very disruptive.





This is the dreaded pterodactyl, or "pterry", as Joust players often refer to him. Pterries show up if you take too long on a wave. At wave 8, and every 5 waves thereafter, the wave starts with Pterries. Pterries are particularly nasty because you can only survive a collision with one if you lance it straight in the mouth. There are special strategies for dealing with Pterries, depending on the types of opponents and the layout of the level.





Enough introduction! Let's start... here is wave one. The first three waves are all bounders (red buzzards.) For the first two waves (and on the third wave if you die), the reds are slowed, so you should be able to pick them off easily once you learn to control your ostrich. Learn how momentum works in this game. Observe the effects of collisions, with opponents, and with the obstacles. See what your braking distance is. Learn to hover: that is, figure out how much you have to flap to counter gravity exactly.





Wave 2 is a survival wave. Survival waves in general tend to be slightly easier, or at least not more difficult, and offer a 3000 point bonus if you win the wave without dying. For wave 2, I recommend you hover in the center of the screen, as shown. The top island will protect your top, the lower island will protect your bottom, and if you hover at the right level, the reds will fly right into you from right and left. In general, the center of the screen is safer than the sides, because jousters can wrap from one side to the other, and it's harder to anticipate them. If you start to get into trouble, drop down to the floor. This is a good chance for you to observe how reds behave.





Wave 3. The reds are now flying at normal speed (no longer slowed), so watch out! Center hovering (as shown) is still recommended. The floor is also good, but you can get boxed in and die horribly. The thing you want to be most careful of is when a red comes in from below you at a sharp ascent. Reds will rise at you suddenly if you are above them and at some distance away. Anticipate this. The other way reds are dangerous is if they bounce off obstacles above you, and land on you on the rebound. This catches even good players by surprise, and makes the islands immediately right and left of center highly hazardous.





Wave 4. 3 greys, 3 reds. Greys fly horizontally like reds, but do not exhibit the sudden rising behavior. On the other hand, they are much more intelligent about dropping down on your head if they are above you, and taking evasive action behind obstacles. Greys collide a lot, so you need to be able to follow their behavior when they bounce off of each other. For wave 4, I recommend the shown hovering position, above the right launchpad. It is better than the left island because it is more central, and slightly higher. You can sit on the leftmost side of the island, and then hop the slightest bit as opponents run into you. The main thing to be cautious of is a grey dropping down on you from above. If this happens, drop down to the floor and do your fighting there.





There are several "safe zones" on the Joust screen, where the obstacles prevent enemy attacks, or funnel enemies into a trap. This picture shows the yellow player hovering just above the right launchpad safe zone. Reds from above and will overshoot the safe zone, and reds and greys coming horizontally or from below can be picked off (as demonstrated.) Also, if things in the middle get too hot, you can take a step to the left and drop down to the floor.





This is another safe zone, with the yellow player hovering right below the lower-middle island. It is a good place to go when everywhere else is too hot. With precise hovering, you can take out most opponents coming at you from the sides. Be careful not to let yourself get boxed in-- if multiple opponents come at you from right and left simultaneously, it's very hard to escape. See the next example.





Here, yellow player is on the floor under the lower island. Opponents are coming in from both right and left. The way to deal with this situation is to run to the right and ascend, defeating one opponent, and using the bounce from that collision to take out the other opponent.





Wave 5 is an egg wave. You need to pick up the eggs as quickly as possible, before they turn into mounted opponents. The best place to start an egg wave is at the top of the screen, on the right or left. In later levels, it is impossible to collect all the eggs in time, so you'll have to learn when to keep trying to grab eggs and when to deal with opponents that have already hatched.





Run to the right, sweeping the top islands. You can do this by sheer momentum; no flapping required.





As you leave the top middle island, slow down, so you can drop down on the right launchpad and sweep the eggs there.





Run across, still going from left to right. Sweep the middle island, slowing down as necessary.





Finally, leave the middle island, still running from left to right at top speed. You need to take three flaps as you leave the middle island to just make it to the other side of the floor (wrapping around.)





If for whatever reason you cannot reach the top islands in time for the beginning of the egg wave, start at the bottom, on the far right or far left side of the floor.





Run from right to left, clearing the floor, and then taking several rapid flaps upward to reach the middle island. Clear the middle island, and keep going, right-to-left.



Clear the middle islands now. If you have time, you can slow down and fly up to take care of the top islands. Note the "step", where the right launchpad is slightly above the wrapping island just to the right of it. You can use this to change direction rapidly. This is a good idea in egg waves sometimes, and in other waves when you are exposed and need to get down to the floor quickly. Breaking and turning around takes far too long, especially in later waves when you are facing blues.



Whatever you do, don't panic and expose yourself to unnecessary risk to grab eggs.





This is wave 6. Start at the leftmost side of the right launchpad, and fight your way over to the center of the screen. Hover and take on all comers. Reds sometimes rise at you very quickly; oftentimes it is better to just drop down and let them fly over you.





Wave 7. Lots of open room. Again, head for the center and hover. Drop down below the lower middle island if you run into trouble.





Wave 8. At the start of the wave, stand on the right side of the lower middle island. The pterodactyl will appear and fly right into your lance! Then drop down to the floor and wait for the greys to come to your level. Note that this works whether the pterodactyl comes from right or left, and you can use it in later levels against multiple pterodactyls. Just make sure you're not so close to the edge that you get knocked off the island.





Greys have a tendency to form "caravans", where they bounce back and forth off of each other endlessly. From time to time, a grey will find its way down. You can pick them off one by one very safely once you have mastered this technique.





There is a saying that "greys are only dangerous because they turn into blues." For practice, and some bonus points, learn how to intercept blues as they hatch, by hovering almost vertically above them. While blues do not officially appear until wave 16, you can encounter them much earlier, especially if you die after leaving a bunch of grey eggs around.





Note the open lava pits on either side. From about wave 7 and beyond, if you get caught by the lava troll, it is almost impossible to escape, no matter how furiously you pump that "flap" button. The lava troll is actually your friend, and will grab lots of greys. Learn to use trapped enemies as "buffers" to protect your flank, as other opponents will bounce off them, so you can expect all your opponents to be attacking you from one direction.





Wave 13, the second pterodactyl wave. There is no lower middle island in this level, so stand on the left side of the floor, right over the 6th digit of player one's score as shown. If you do this just right, hunters from above will fly right over you (missing you by one or two pixels) and fall into the lava; meanwhile, the pterodactyl will fly right into your lance, no matter if it comes from right or left.





Wave 12 is the last wave with reds. Once all reds are gone, you should increasingly use the safezone on the right side of the floor when there is no lower middle island. Having a trapped hunter on your right will protect your flank, and you can hover, taking out opponents coming in from the left. Beware of the crack between the two islands right above you; sometimes enemy riders, and pterodactyls, can come through.





Learn how to catch enemies that are coming at you at a downward trajectory, especially when they land right in front of you and immediately take off again.





The first shadow lord (blue) appears on wave 16, although this screen shows wave 19. During mixed blue and grey waves, stay on the floor under the middle island. Blues which materialize above you will "flicker" when they appear. Clear out the greys as they come at you, and when the blues finally finish flickering and drop down at you, they will walk very slowly. When blues are dropping down right in front of you, swoop up just before they hit the ground, and they will fly into you. For greys and reds, you had to anticipate how they would move horizontally; for blues, you have to anticipate vertically, since they are much stronger fliers and you can't outrace them on an upward trajectory.





This is a picture showing the "uppercut" illustrating the previously described technique -- a shadowlord has just dropped down from above. You swoop upwards at a spot about a bird's height above and in front of him, and he'll fly straight into you.





This is wave 18. Note that the same pterodactyl hunting technique still works here. From time to time, an opponent will get itself tangled up with a pterodactyl, and mess up this tactic. When this happens, you need to know a little about how the pterodactyls behave. Their movements are divided into three periods. In the first period, they dive at you. In the next period, they fly straight and slow for a little bit. Only in the third period do they move up or down to come towards your altitude. The key thing to know is that in this third period, they are not actually moving to your current position, but towards your position just before their last dive, so by moving up and down repeatedly in sync with their periods, you can keep them from actually diving to your level. This works great when you're hovering at different levels in the grey waves, although not so well with blues. Unfortunately, the floor becomes very dangerous once pterodactyls are out, especially under the lower middle island, because you have so little room for error.





Blues like to play chicken with you; that is they'll run at you on the floor and wait for you make the first move. When blues run towards you on a level platform, they will not flap unless you do first. They will collide and bounce off of you if you stay grounded. If you try to outrise them, you'll probably die, since they're much stronger fliers than you. The way to take them out when they rush at you is with the backward hop. Turn away so that your back is facing the blue, and flap once, upwards and away from the blue just before the last possible moment (if you do this at the last possible moment, you'll bounce.) You have to get your timing just right, but with some practice, it will become one of the key weapons in your arsenal. Note that if blues are approaching from both sides, this doesn't work, because as you hop up to kill one, the second one will rise up and whack you, so you're better off staying still and letting them both bounce off of you.





Wave 23. When there is no lower middle island, the right side of the floor remains a good safezone against both greys and blues. This blue is moving downwards and to the right. If you flap up and to the left a bit, there's a good chance it'll fly right into you.





Here is a classic technique to kill multiple shadowlords. When blues are all headed in one direction, lure them to the lower part of the screen. Then hover just to the left of the opposite island, as shown (although you should go a little higher -- I dropped a bit by taking the screenshot.) Blues will hug the bottom of the islands and fly right into your butt. This is a great way to dispatch four blues in a two and a half seconds.





Another happy hunting spot against blues is just to the right of the top island (as shown, but a little higher.) The blue here will hit the bottom of the island, and hug it as it comes up towards you and runs into your butt.





For waves in the 20s where you don't have island cover, you can stay in the middle of the floor safely. Greys will fly over your head, and you can hover and catch them as they come across. Once you've killed all the greys, you can pick off the blues at leisure as they walk down slowly. Stay close to the center of the floor-- you don't want mixed blues and greys on the bottom level!





Once you reach the late 20s, the lava troll becomes powerful enough that it can sometimes trap or even drag blues under. Of course, this means that if you venture near the lava, you get turned into fried ostrich more or less instantly. Yum.





Two blues descending at you when you're in the right floor safezone. Lift off furiously as the first one is about to land, and it'll fly into you. The bounce from that collision will also carry you upwards, so that you'll be high enough to win the collision with the second blue. C'mon, work that flapping finger!





Wave 37 is the first pure blue wave. Wave 43 is the first wave with 3 pterodactyls. Ironically, the game gets easier when the greys start to disappear and you increasingly face waves of all blues. This is especially true for pterodactyl waves. Blues will often be busy flickering at the top, giving you a few extra moments to skewer the pterries.





Of course, there is a large gap between theory and execution. Just like the large gap between this unlucky jouster and the bottom of the island. If you want to use this technique, practice closing that gap, or move to the left a bit where you have more margin for error.





When you reach the 30s, you'll increasingly find that it's difficult to pick up all the eggs in time. Eggs turn into hunters all the way to wave 55, and hunters should be a piece of cake at this point, right? So start at the bottom and leave the top islands to hatch. You'll face about 4 greys, plus you'll be fighting from the floor. No problem.





Wave 37. When you hit waves with no greys and no lower island, hover just high enough so that enemies will appear on the floor launchpad below you, but not high enough so that the flickering blues above you take off. Blues will fly almost vertically straight into you. Adjust slightly for whether they are facing left or right, and if you get knocked off center, drop down and try again.





Look at all those eggs! I call this one "hover-juggling!"





Sometimes, you have a bad day. When this happens, bide your time while respawning and wait for a moment when you can make it to the floor and duck under the lower island. If an opening doesn't clear up by the time you're done rematerializing, you may just have to hop up to the edge of one of the islands and try to take out as many blues as possible before you get wiped out. Blues are also quite vulnerable if they are flying level with you -- you can fly over horizontally and dispatch them, almost as if they were greys or reds. Blues are only really dangerous if you are above them.





Wave 48 -- a three pterodactyl, 7 shadowlord wave. At this point, the game more or less cycles every 10 waves. This is the nastiest of the 10. I've just lanced two pterries, and a third is on its way. Unfortunately, the floor launchpad has just spawned a blue rising from the left, so there's no choice but to run right and drop to the floor, leaving 7 shadowlords and one pterry. Even one pterodactyl can wreak major havoc, since it can prevent you from staying on the floor.





When the sky is filled with blues and you die and get spawned away from the floor, there's almost no chance of making it back down alive. Use this opportunity to cream as many enemies as you can. Here, the blue to the right is vulnerable to a horizontal attack. Bounce off of him, and use the momentum to try to nail the blue coming in from the left. (Although in this particular case, I would drop down to the mid-level and pick up the two hatchlings, then go for the floor, or set up a hover just to the right of the left-middle island -- note that all enemies are moving left to right.) Whatever you do, don't stop moving or try to break and turn around.





The opposite of those nasty three pterodactyl waves are the survival waves where there is no lower island and you can hover-juggle. With good hover-juggling, you can dispatch all comers and end the wave in about 20 seconds for 30000 points.





Wave 56 is the last wave with hunters. From wave 60 and onwards, all egg waves contain shadowlords. Again, collect from the bottom, since this allows you to grab the majority of the eggs and keeps the hatched shadowlords above you.





The cycle of 10 waves contains two three-pterry waves. One of them has a lower middle platform, one of them doesn't. In the latter case (shown here), the blues above you appear flickering, and you can easily lance all three pterries while they materialize. After that, you can hover juggle or pick off the blues as they drop down from above. This is so easy it's almost sick...





If blues are busy bouncing up and down off the ceiling, you also stand a good chance of winning battles if you do a controlled hover at the top of the screen. The fact that they're bouncing means that only for a split second will they be able to beat you. Anyway, here's the one million mark.





Questions? Comments?



Return to Kyle's main page