Don’t Bug Me Guide: Tips & Cheats To Survive All Levels

After a mission to secure Mars goes haywire, Commander Abigail Blackwell finds herself stranded on Mars. The Orion III needs massive repairs that will not get done overnight… but there are plenty of hostile martians ready to take advantage of this.

It is up to you help the commander survive in Don’t Bug Me, a tower defense game that mixes first-person shooter elements into the mix. You will need to keep a keen eye on the situation to make sure the martians do not sneak up on you!

In our Don’t Bug Me tips and tricks guide, we will go over the basics of survival and how to make the most out of your tower and defense systems. Let’s get started with our Don’t Bug Me cheats, tips, and tricks strategy guide to survive all levels!

Keep an Eye on the Minimap

Don’t Bug Me is all about situational awareness. You start out with only a few angles from where the martians can come from, so you should not have too hard of a time. But, as you progress through the game, you will have to defend from multiple angles.

This is where the minimap comes in. At the top right corner, the minimap will show you incoming martians and the angles they are coming in at. Glance over at it every now and then, and try not to stay focused on what is immediately in front of you for too long.

The little dots represent hostile martians. Each type of martian has its own color, so you know what to expect. The regular ones are green while the speedy ones are blue, and so forth.

The circle represents the surrounding area around you, and the red line below the circle represents the cross over zone. When an enemy martian crosses over the red line, they will become visible and open to attack from your transporter gun.

Control your Transporter Gun

The transporter gun is your emergency firearm that you use when you switch to the over-the-shoulder camera view. This thing deals a decent amount of damage and it is a good compliment to your defensive towers.

Your ammo is indicated by the red bars at the top right corner of the screen. Every time you fire the transporter gun, a red bar disappears, but if you wait long enough they will begin to recharge on their own.

A good trigger finger and some discretion should be used when you are readying the transporter gun. If you completely empty the gun’s entire clip, it will take a very long time to for ammo to recharge; it is better to simply fire the gun until you get to the last bullet, then wait for it to reload.

Also keep in mind that the commander is a scientist, not a soldier, so she takes some time aiming the gun. Take care not to accidentally empty your clip into the air when you are switching targets.

Solar Energy Management

Before you can build any of your defensive structures, you need to accumulate solar energy first. Your computer will do it for you over time, but you will need to manually collect the energy as the blips light up on the computer core.

This is a little too slow for the inevitable chaos, so you will quickly unlock the ability to build solar panels onto the computer. This enables it to generate energy at a much faster rate depending on how many panels are built.

A solar panel will charge energy separately from the main computer, but when it finishes it will transfers its energy into the computer, which will automatically light up a blip.

When you get around four or so solar panels, you should be set for a while, though it never hurts to invest in more. Just be sure not to waste any energy – if the computer’s blips are all lit up, it will cease power generation.

Before you hit your cap, be sure to spend any overflow energy so that you can keep generation going.

Choose the Correct Placements

Each of the various towers and barriers you unlock as you progress through the game are all suited for different types of martians, so you need to change up your strategy to match the enemies you are facing.

For example, barricades are great for keeping out the speedy martians, as they are most likely to creep up unnoticed. There are also the explosive barricades that while a little costly to replace, they can serve as a nasty trap for a large group of martians.

A particularly powerful tower is the one that lobs grenades at targets. This tower is great for dealing with those small martians that like to swarm you in large groups, as it does splash damage.

These towers also have the advantage of being able to attack nearby lanes even if they are not in the exact lane. This can be very helpful in the later levels when you have to deal with an increasing amount of lanes.

The rocket tower has a very slow rate of fire, but it deals a lot of damage to a single target. The rocket tower is great for dealing with shielded targets that require a lot of damage to break through.

Do note that you can only have one tower and one barricade per lane. If you build another placement on an occupied spot, the new placement will replace the old one. Be careful not to waste any towers that still have ammo in them!

Prioritize Targets

Every time a particularly powerful martian spawns, the game will warn you with a giant, unmissable message box. Take these seriously, as you will need to start planning around them when you get to the later levels.

The big, slow moving martians are the first example of powerful martians you will face. These guys move extremely slow, but they pack a ton of health and require multiple towers to take down.

Start whittling these guys down as soon as you see them – if you wait too long, they might be able to make it to your computer and you will not be able to stop them in time.

Later on, you will encounter these sort of manta ray martians. These guys are pretty big, but they have a particularly nasty ability of spawning those tiny martians that swarm you, as mentioned before.

They spawn a LOT of them, and they will continue to do so until you take them out. As soon as you see one of these guys, it is best to focus on them first before the little mini martians get out of hand. Use your transporter gun and build a missile turret in their lane to deal with them quickly.

Always Have Barricades Up

For the later levels, the usual rhythm is to build as many solar panels at the very start of the level so that your energy generation gets going at a decent rate. From there when the martians appear, you can deal with them however you like.

We do recommend investing in barricades as soon as possible, though. You do not have to be fancy; the simple barricade that costs one energy can defend surprisingly well. You just want to have a cover in case of emergency.

The explosive barricades are good, but they can leave a hole in your base in left unchecked. If a large group is coming from same lane and they are spaced out apart, martians can move in if you are not prepared.

That’s all for Don’t Bug Me! If you have any other tips or tricks to share, let us know in the comments below!