Tyrian codes, secret levels and hidden difficulties
The title-screen codes, hidden difficulties and secret exits of Tyrian 2000, checked against the game data and working in OpenTyrian2000 Enhanced Edition.
On this page
Tyrian cheats: the title-screen codes
Tyrian's cheat codes are typed on the title screen: letters only, no Enter. They work in the Enhanced Edition, as in the original Tyrian 2000.
| Code | What it does |
|---|---|
STEALTH | Super Arcade game with the Ninja Star |
STORMWIND | Super Arcade game with StormWind - The Elemental |
TECHNO | Super Arcade game with The Experimental PQZ |
ENEMY | Super Arcade game with the Captured U-Fighter |
WEIRD | Super Arcade game with FoodShip Nine |
UNKNOWN | Super Arcade game with the TX SilverCloud |
NORTSHIPZ | Super Arcade game with the Nort-Ship Z |
LIZARD | Super Arcade game with the Dragon |
PRETZEL | Super Arcade game with the Pretzel Pete Truck |
ENGAGE | Super Tyrian: a warning sequence, an episode choice, then the Stalker 21.126 with the Atomic RailGun on Lord of Game difficulty, or on Suicide if Scroll Lock is held. |
DESTRUCT | Destruct, the artillery mini-game, with its five modes: 5-Card War, Traditional, Heli Assault, Heli Defense and Outgunned. |
In a Super Arcade game you choose the episode and the difficulty, see the ship screen, then play alone with that ship, its weapon and its special weapon, one difficulty level higher than the one you picked. Ship names are those shown by the game's ship screen.
Two more keys on the title screen are Enhanced Edition shortcuts rather than secrets: M opens the side modes and mutators, and 2 starts two-player Endless Arcade (Endless Mode in the menu). The ships unlocked by the codes are listed with their armor and price on the wiki's Ships page.
Hidden difficulties
After Start New Game, the mode and the episode, the difficulty screen shows Easy, Normal and Hard. Three more are hidden:
- Press Shift + G to reveal Impossible.
- Then Shift + ] reveals Suicide.
- Then type L O R D, or hold the four keys, to reveal Lord of Game.
Difficulty scales the armor of every enemy when it appears, and higher levels also make enemy guns fire faster.
| Difficulty | Enemy armor | Example: 20 at Normal |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | × 3/4, plus 1 | 16 |
| Normal | unchanged | 20 |
| Hard | × 1.2 | 24 |
| Impossible | × 1.5 | 30 |
| Suicide | × 2 | 40 |
| Lord of Game | × 4 | 80 |
On Hard, Impossible and Suicide the wait between two shots of an enemy gun is roughly halved; on Lord of Game it is halved again. Two-player and Super Arcade games run one level higher than the difficulty you select. More detail on the wiki's difficulty levels page.
Secret levels
Some levels hide a special item. Pick it up and, after the current level, the game shows Warping to secret level! and sends you to a level that is not on the normal route. Twelve levels of the campaign have such a secret exit, read from the game's episode scripts:
| Episode | Level with a secret exit | Leads to |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Escape | Tyrian | Holes or Soh Jin |
| 1: Escape | Asteroid 1 | Asteroid ? |
| 1: Escape | Asteroid 2 | MineMaze |
| 1: Escape | Asteroid ? | Windy |
| 1: Escape | MineMaze | Asteroid ? |
| 2: Treachery | Gyges | Gem War |
| 2: Treachery | Asteroid City | Mistakes |
| 3: Mission: Suicide | Stargate | Asteroid City or Sawblades |
| 4: An End to Fate | Surface | Windy (bonus level) |
| 4: An End to Fate | Lava Exit | Desert Run |
| 4: An End to Fate | Ice Exit | Ice Secret |
Tyrian exists in two versions, one for Easy and Normal and one for Hard and above; both have the same two secret exits, which makes twelve levels in all. Episode 5, Hazudra Fodder, has no secret exit. Each level page on the wiki shows where the level is reached from, its bosses and the enemies it uses: start from All episodes.
Bonus games: ALE and SQUADRON
At the end of episode 1, before Zinglon's Ale, and in episode 4, before Zinglon's Squadrons, a shop asks Do you have the special ship? The Next Level menu then lists Soh Jin, shown as Bonus Game on the map, and Skip It: pick Soh Jin to play.
In the bonus game you fly the Stalker 21.126 with an Atomic RailGun, Galaga style, with lives and no money. It has no end: it stops when all your lives are lost. You then return to the same shop with the ship, weapons and money you had before, so trying it costs nothing.
Galaga can also be started directly from the side modes screen (M on the title screen). The wiki's Game modes page lists every mode.
New to this edition? How it compares with Tyrian 2000 and OpenTyrian.
Questions
Do the original Tyrian 2000 cheats work in the Enhanced Edition?
Yes. The title-screen codes (the nine Super Arcade ships, ENGAGE and DESTRUCT) and the key presses that reveal Impossible, Suicide and Lord of Game work as in Tyrian 2000. The Enhanced Edition only adds two title-screen shortcuts of its own: M for the side modes and mutators, and 2 for two-player Endless Arcade.
Do I need to press Enter after a code?
No. Type the letters on the title screen and the code starts on its own.
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