Like Donut Dodo, the previous game of pixel.games (it's a masterpiece, I highly recommend it), Cash Cow DX is an old school platforming game with a high emphasis on score, with a blend of ancient classic mechanics and modern gameplay.

Unlike Donut Dodo, however, which stood on clear and easy to understand rules, Cash Cow DX stands on distinct scoring layers, a bit like some shoot 'em up games, including some hidden mechanics. You can play the game casually and have fun ignoring all those mechanics, but you'll obtain comparatively a very low score. If you're interested in scoring, you'll have to master at least some basics.

Cash Cow DX is heavily inspired by arcade games like City Connection (1985) and old computer games like Miner 2049er (1982): the goal is to run on all platforms to collect all gold in each of the five levels of the game (your gold has been stolen by an evil pig), while avoiding enemies of three types - the green Speedy Spiky who runs back and forth horizontally, the blue Rolly Ronny who follows you (run away from him), and the purple Bouncy Bobby who jumps back and forth on a single platform (there can be several units of each type per level).



To defend yourself, you can collect a unique pickaxe in each stage, which will allow you to kill enemies (they don't come back) during a limited time, like in Pac-Man. Also, there are slides like in Miner 2049er, pipes that cycle horizontally and shafts that cycle vertically in the manner of Pac-Man, and specific gimmicks per stage: Loony Loops has Sonic-style loops, Bounce Blast has trampolines like in Mappy (1983), Wacky Waves has boats with high masts that float back and forth, Minecart Mania has tracks and carts that you can control, and Zipwire Zany has, well, zipwires. All those are pretty fun.

Now, to obtain a higher score from all this, various mechanics are exposed through the game's attract mode, its bezel, and its HUD:

• Standard gold is yellow and worth 25 per unit, sparkling gold is worth 100 per unit, they're located in different areas in each level.
  
• When gold is collected, a combo meter increases, it cools down when you stop collecting gold for too long. When the meter is full, the collected gold is multiplied up to x11!
  
• Diamonds located in certain areas, when collected, turn all gold into sparkling gold and double the acquired score for a limited time. Per level, there's a diamond in a specific spot, and a diamond that cycles through each vertical shaft. Once used, they're lost forever.
  
• There's an hyperbolic score combo when you neutralize several enemies (x2 each kill).
  
• Each level has a "secret" EXTRA bonus room containing a letter of "EXTRA", located at a dotted line near a wall. You can enter through that line and access the room by breaking it with a pickaxe, then there's a mini-game to collect the letter - if you win, you earn 100,000 points and 25,000 more if you do so quickly before a time meter runs out. Once all EXTRA letters have been collected, you win 250,000 more points.

All those optional mechanics complicate things a bit and can give you much better scores, but there are other layers that deepen even more the gameplay of Cash Cow DX...

On top of what I've already explained above, there are indeed hidden mechanics in the game, which you can guess from the game's achievements: "Happy Hour" (Triple diamond combo), "Clearance Sale" (Clear all enemies in stage) and "Juicy Fruit" (Eat a watermelon).

• It's near impossible to kill all enemies in a level with a single pickaxe, but if you take the pickaxe, kill a few enemies, get to the EXTRA room then beat the mini-game, the pickaxe will reappear for a short time, allowing you to pick it up again and kill the remaining foes.
  
• After you neutralized all enemies in a stage, a watermelon appears, worth 100,000 points. Warning: don't pick it up raw, the score of watermelons is affected by diamonds.
  
• The x2 effect of diamonds stacks: if you pick up a diamond before the effect of a previous diamond ends, then the multipliers multiply each other.
  
• There's a hidden third diamond in each level, hidden off-screen in a shaft, meaning you can chain up all three diamonds to get a x8 multiplier.
  
• If you manage to get every single watermelon in every stage, the last watermelon obtained in Zipwire Zany will be worth 500,000 points instead of 100,000 points!
  
• You also get a "HOLY COW" bonus at the end of a level if you didn't lose a single life in it, worth 15,000 points.

If you unlock a watermelon then chain up all three diamonds before picking it up, you can obtain the enormous score of 800,000 points with one grab. If you do get every single watermelon throughout all the game, the last one will potentially be worth 4,000,000 points with a triple diamond x8 multiplier, but it's extraordinarily difficult to obtain.

Here are all the locations of hidden third diamonds, indicated by coloured circles: you have to hug the side of specific shafts to get them while cycling vertically.

• LOONY LOOPS
  
  
  
  
• BOUNCE BLAST
  
  
  
  
• WACKY WAVES
  
  
  
  
• MINECART MANIA
  
  
  
  
• ZIPWIRE ZANY
  
  

To sum things up, to obtain the highest possible score in a stage, you have to:

• Take the pickaxe and kill as many foes as you can before accessing the EXTRA mini-game.
  
• Beat the mini-game (ideally with the time bonus) and obtain the EXTRA letter.
  
• Take the pickaxe again before it disappears, then neutralize all remaining enemies with it.
  
• DO NOT TAKE THE WATERMELON YET. Stack up the effect of all three diamonds in the empty level, using the diamond cycling between shafts, the hidden diamond, and the one stored in a specific spot (not necessarily in that order), THEN take the watermelon.
  
• While doing all this, try to keep a good gold combo.
  
• Don't lose lives to get the HOLY COW bonus, then a big EXTRA LIVES BONUS at the end of the game.

Obviously, all this is much easier said than done, it demands a lot of coordination and planning, looking for optimal routes in each stage, and perfect execution. My advice: don't try too hard to get a perfect score, improvise to minimize your loss if you mess up a step (which WILL happen, because of all the variables going on), remember that the main goal is to have fun!