Recap / UFO 50 Game 44 Pilot Quest Return To Zoldath

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Pilot Quest: Return to Zoldath is a genre mix of Idle Game and top-down action-adventure titles. Pilot finds himself once again marooned on the planet Zoldath after a stray asteroid collides with the Campanella in space and causes it to crash land. Players progress by gathering resources and exploring the wild lands to obtain the parts needed to fix the Campanella and evacuate the planet. Unlike other games in the collection, this one features real-time idling mechanics that generate resources that help you progress even if the game is closed. Once the player can obtain meat, they can explore the wilds and travel across a large open area filled with monsters to defeat for more resources, treasures to obtain and dungeons to explore.

Tropes found in Pilot Quest:

• Cash Gate: Aside from the three ship parts, which you can easily obtain just by exploring the wild zone, you also need ship fuel to leave the planet. Ship fuel costs 1,000 moon ingots and 1,000 science — both of which require a significant amount of time to obtain, either by grinding in the wild zone or waiting for the resources to be generated.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The previous Zoldath game was randomly generated, so all aliens could be friendly or hostile. This game indicates that the green gargoyles were a friendly species, as Tiramisu, who reuses their design, is a friendly face and speaks Pilot's language. Meanwhile, all other species that are shared between the two games (scorpions, goo men, one-eyed snakes, and cyborgs) are all hostile.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Defeating the giant spider Unktomi has her apologize for attacking you. She then joins you at the crash site and periodically provides you with silk, which can be used for certain research projects.
• Everything Fades: Items eventually blink out of existence if you don't collect them.
• Evil Counterpart: Nozzlo bears a physical resemblance to Pilot. He's described as a notorious outlaw, and seems to be holding onto the idol he's carrying out of pure greed, not unlike how Pilot is depicted as a treasure hunter both in the original Planet Zoldath and in this game.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: Dungeons have statues that breathe hazardous flames.
• Giant Spider: One of the bosses, Unktomi, is a yellow spider that dwarfs Pilot, who attacks via throwing out silk that holds him in place for a short time. Upon being beaten, it turns out she only attacked because she was in a bad mood and immediately offers her services in spinning silk that's vital for certain upgrades.
• Global Currency Exception: NPCs in the crash site take moon drops and moon ingots as payment, while NPCs in the wild zone take zoldnaks. Each currency is mutually exclusive.
• Healing Potion: Stronger enemies sometimes drop energy tanks, which refuel the timer in the wild zone.
• Here We Go Again!: Complete the game, and Pilot manages to hit another asteroid and crash land on Zoldath yet again.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Chests are just lying around in the world.
• Killer Yo-Yo: Pilot's main method of attack is a red yo-yo that he slings straight out in front of himself to hit enemies. Two upgrades, "Metal Yoyo" and "Wizard Yoyo", can be bought from the scientist at the crash site to increase its damage.
• Money Spider: Most monsters leave behind moon drops when defeated, occasionally also dropping moon ingots and zoldnaks. More powerful enemies drop them in higher quantities, and may also drop energy tanks for your trouble.
• New Jack Swing: The soundtrack takes influence from new jack swing, fitting for its late 1988 release date in-universe.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: A fair number of aliens use mildly-retouched graphics from Planet Zoldath. Justified in this case, since Pilot is stuck once again on the same planet.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: One of the bosses has metal orbs orbiting around it.
• Piñata Enemy: Little blue blobs are spawned by the bigger blob monsters, as well as found in some treasure chests. Typically found in groups, they're small and fast, but rather weak, and usually generate more resources than other monsters.
• Pistol-Whipping: The alien blunderbuss has a melee hitbox when the gun itself is initially pulled out, which has the damage output of the base yo-yo.
• Power-Up Magnet: Items are naturally attracted towards Pilot.
• Ray Gun: Completing a certain sidequest in the wilds unlocks an alien blunderbuss that can be fired using moon drops as ammo.
• Recycled Soundtrack: The jingle that plays when you enter the wild zone is recycled from Devilition.
• Reset Milestones: Each time you complete the game, you restart with a clean slate. However, on every repeat playthrough, the crash site will have a trio of statues who let you choose a milestone upgrade: productivity (how quickly resources are generated), defense (how much time you lose from getting hit in the wild zone), or metabolism (how much time meat gives you in the wild zone). You can only choose one milestone per playthrough, and each milestone caps off at five upgrades.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Smashing pots and skulls yields moon shards, ingots and other items.
• Roguelike: The exact layout of the wild zone (as well as items and merchants within it) is semi-randomized, making each playthrough slightly different. Additionally, there are slight macrogame mechanics. However, due to the incorporation of idle game mechanics, there is no permadeath, making it more of a roguelite.
• Superboss: After collecting all the ship parts, a black humanoid alien named Nozzlo will appear in the wilds. Not only does he have a lot of health per fight and a slew of different abilities, he must also be defeated over 5 times on one trip, each time causing him to teleport to another location in the Wilds. Fighting him is optional, but beating him and taking the idol he drops back to the crash site is required for the game's cherry.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Certain NPC vendors will refuse to sell items to you until your next venture into the wilds if you hit them with your yo-yo. The green stringy monsters in the dungeons will also summon enemies if you attack them instead of talking to them.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Hitting friendly NPCs with your yo-yo usually results in some snide remarks:
  Tiramisu: Okay... maybe try talking to me instead?
• Wizard Needs Food Badly: Adventuring into the wilds costs Meat as a resource. For every piece of Meat you bring with you, you get another 120 seconds added to the timer. Getting hit by enemies reduces the amount of time you have left to explore, and if it reaches zero, you pass out from exhaustion and lose everything you gathered during that expedition.