First off here's my cherry clear for planet zoldath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYCd9aJrSo

I am chocolatecake5000 and I aim to cherry clear/make guides for all UFO 50 games. Zoldath is particularly brutal, with explosive enemies and tricky secrets.

Planet Zoldath is a top down game where you have a simple objective, collect all 3 pieces of a treasure map. Along the way you can grab some red squares that give you max hp increase + full heal as well as 8 different items (6 free and 2 by trade)

Non-Playable Characters or NPCs: There are 2 types of npcs, stationary ones you can talk to and trade with and aggressive ones that move and/or shoot at you. All the different types of npcs drop different collectibles when killed by a weapon, being either meat that heals you or one of the 4 collectibles you trade with.

Friendly NPCs: At the start of the game it will randomly decide which type of enemy speaks English to you and which type speaks an alien language, you can learn which is which by trying to talk to all non-moving NPCs. The translator item will let you talk to all friendly NPCs. One of them will hold one of the treasure map pieces and 2 of them will offer you items for trade. Some npcs will also let you trade different collectibles for each other.

Aggressive NPCs: Be extra cautious dealing with aggressive NPCs as you will have to learn each run which explode and which shoot either straight or in the cardinal directions. The explosive ones can be used to your advantage to clear paths but be careful as they deal a lot of damage (3).

Items and what they do:
Translator: Will let you trade and talk to all friendly npcs while held.
Nail gun: A very good and fast weapon. A friendly npc will tell you which bedrock to shoot for a secret room with rare resources in it. (always seems to be in the middle of a wall.
Metamorpher: can be used to friendly neutralize enemies to shrink and sneak by them. Also used in the snail quest I mention in the treasure map spots section/to get through those small holes in logs or the dungeon.
Work boots: Allows you to walk on poison grass and use the flashing spot to teleport into/out of the dungeon.
Boomerang: Weapon that lets you grab items floating over pits.
Meat machine: spends a resource to create healing meat. Can be eaten or used to lure enemies.
Bomb: Uses a resource to blow up an area, needed for some secrets/ can make it easier to backtrack.
Pulse generator: good for clearing a lot of enemies at once at the cost of a resource. Can kill all enemies, even snails and breaks those large blue blocks allowing passage.
Items can be dropped by holding the switch item button and will remain on the ground where you leave them. A lot of the difficulty in the game comes from remembering where items/ certain NPCs are. It's important to note that the timer stops during dialogue so you can take notes on where stuff is in your run.

Treasure Map Spots:
1. Can be found by trading with a friendly NPC you will need translator and a lot of one specific resource (for me it was 32)
2. Will need to sneak by a crab. You can either bribe it out of it's hole with meat (very buggy and not recommended.) Or use the pulse generator to kill the crab and the metamorpher to reflect off the wall making you small enough to sneak in. Be sure to keep both items on you to escape or else you could get locked in the map area.
3. There will be a dungeon or pit containing the last piece. You may need the boots to get over poison grass to get to a underground dungeon or it will just be free in a pit you can throw a boomerang to retrieve.
Once you have collected all 3 pieces go back to the ship to escape in under 20 minutes for the cherry cart.