There are six sections in this guide:
1) Background story
2) Gameplay basics
3) Tactics: Pistols, sky icons and rage
4) Tips: Weapons, potatoes, and attackers
5) Weapons
6) Achievements

(If this guide is useful to you, then please rate it upwards.)

Rage Wars begins with a cut scene which shows you (Derp) being a pain at school, then going home, only to find that the love of your life (Herpina) has been kidnapped.

You need to fight through 30 levels of attackers to get your sweetheart back.

It's up to you to save her!

Rage Wars is a side scrolling game where you fight hordes of attackers (all of which are based upon memes).

When you first start playing, you will have pistols, but with no ammunition.
You need to kill the attackers - because, if they touch you, they will cause you damage.
Your health bar is located in the very top left of the screen.
Your rage bar is located just below your health bar.

Controls
W and D, or arrow keys = move left and right
Space bar = jump
Left mouse button = shoot
R = rage





The game does not offer an option for changing controls.

Rage
You start each level with a full rage bar.
If you hit your "R" key, you will rage and be invulnerable for a short time.



Your rage bar is located in the top left of the screen, just below your health bar.
After you have used your rage, the rage bar will slowly fill back up again; when it is completely full, you can rage again.

Sky Icons
There are floating icons in the sky above you, hit your Space Bar to jump up and touch them - you will get the benefit of whichever icon is showing at that time (the icon graphic is constantly changing, going through a range of icons).


The sky icons can give you:
Ammunition
Shotgun
Rocket launcher
AK-47
Chainsaw
Flamethrower
Laser

A separate sky icon (with a red cross) will give you health (if you have taken damage).


There are also People icons which will shrink the attackers, or which will shrink you.





Sky icons cannot be turned off; they just keep on coming.

Potatoes
Use your weapons to kill the attackers.
When the attackers die, they will drop a potato.
No matter the level or attacker type, each attacker will only drop one potato each.



Walk over the potatoes to collect them.


You can buy better weapons from the shop with your potatoes.

Modes
You can play one of two game types:
1) Story - where you go up through levels, which get increasingly harder, with different types of attackers coming in at higher levels, and a higher intensity of attackers at higher levels.
2) Arena - where you fight ongoing hordes of attackers, which get increasingly harder, but you don't level up.

You can choose your desired mode at the start of the game - just click on the Play button in the lower left of the screen, and then you will be offered both story mode and arena mode.

Pistols
When you first start the game your pistols have no ammunition, so they are effectively useless.
To avoid the attackers, hit your Space Bar to jump over them - although this can get a bit trickier when you get into the higher levels which have jumping attackers (but, if you time it right, you can jump over them inbetween their jumps).
You can jump up and touch the sky icons to get ammunition for your pistols - but it is far better just to get the better weapons from the sky icons.

Sky icons
Jump up and touch the sky icons to get ammunition or weapons.
If you time your jump approximately for the chainsaw, you should get the chainsaw (or the flamethrower, or the laser, if you mistime your jump). Those three weapons are the best, as you don't need to replenish their ammunition in the game.

There is nothing worse than jumping up and getting a shotgun, AK-47, or rocket launcher when you have no ammunition for them - and the attackers are closing in on you. So, time your jump carefully.

Weapons obtained from sky icons will only last for a short time, so when your time is ending (you'll have to estimate that) jump up and touch another sky icon to get another good weapon (be careful with your timing; don't grab a rubbish weapon).

You can get the weapons from sky icons by shooting them. This is great - except that if you have one of the best weapons and you shoot at a flying attacker, and accidentally hit a sky icon, you may end up with a weapon with no ammunition (and, no, the game doesn't let you hit attackers over the head with your empty shotgun.

When you have a top-notch weapon, be careful about not shooting the sky icons; because you don't want to end up with an empty weapon.
If you are going for kill streaks of 100 (for the achievement), be extremely careful about not shooting the sky icons, as - if you get a new weapon - your kill streak count will be reset (this still applies even if you grab the same type of weapon as you were already using).

Rage
If you do end up with an empty weapon, and can't avoid your attackers, then that is the perfect time to hit your "R" button, so you can "rage", whereby you will be invulnerable for a short time.

If you have empty pistols as your default weaponry, use your rage time to jump up and touch the next sky icon to get a decent weapon.

If you have a chainsaw, flamethrower, or laser as your default weapon, but you have accidentally grabbed an empty weapon from a sky icon, then use your rage invulnerability to wait for the time period of the empty weapon to end, and you will get your default weapon back.

Tips on buying weapons
Don't buy the shotgun or rocket launcher early on, as these require ammunition.
Wait to buy a better weapon. This may involve a bit of game-grinding to get enough potatoes, but it is well worth it.
Note that the AK-47 (bought from the shop) comes with ammunition, but its aiming can be a bit off.

Save up your potatoes and buy the chainsaw, as you don't need to fuel it in the game.

Then buy the flamethrower (no need to replenish its fuel in the game), which is very useful against the flying attackers which appear in the higher levels. However, the flamethrower's range is limited.

Finally, buy the laser (no need to replenish its fuel in the game), which is very useful against the flying attackers which appear in the higher levels. Unlike the flamethrower, its range is unlimited.

Tips regarding potatoes

UPDATE (Dec. 2016):
An update to the game has changed the potato mechanics. They no longer roll off the screen; when they fall to the ground, they now just stay there - which makes this section on "Tips regarding potatoes" pretty much irrelevant.
So, skip this section, and move on to the next section.
(I left this section here as a reminder of how annoying it can be when developers change basic gameplay elements in a game, making parts of game guides redundant.)

As this is a side scrolling game, moving to the right, when the potatoes fall to the ground they will quickly disappear off the left side of the screen unless you walk/run over them; potatoes which disappear will be lost forever - they will not be added to your tally.

Therefore, you should position yourself about 3/4 along to the right of the screen. Give yourself enough room to be able to see those coming from the right, and you can kill those coming from the left and have enough room to run and grab their dropped potatoes.
You don't have to be careful about killing attackers coming from your right, as their potatoes will just roll to you (you could miss out on some potatoes if you jump into the sky as they are rolling beneath you, or if you die before you get to them, but that won't be a lot).

If you have a weapon which is medium-range or long-range, aim for the legs of the attackers coming from the left, so that you don't hit any attackers appearing at the left of the screen.



If you kill attackers at the very left side of the screen, their potatoes will drop and disappear to the left very quickly, which means you won't be adding them to your potato total.
If you add up all of that manna that you missed out on, they aint small potatoes.

Tips regarding attackers
Be careful of the men hiding in the bushes (that piece of advice applies in real life as well), as you can shoot the bushes, but if they haven't spawned as yet you won't kill them (which means you could be running over an empty bush, the man will then spawn, and he will immediately begin dealing damage to you - you might not even notice him for a few moments, during which time your health has been damaged).
The best way of dealing with any man on a grassy knoll, when you have a short-range weapon, is to keep to the left of it, and keep on aiming slightly down to ensure you hit them when they pop their heads up. However, if you have a long-range weapon, you can shoot the bushes from wherever you are.




Flying attackers can be killed when you have a chainsaw (a short-range weapon) by jumping up and buzzing them; but be careful - if you touch the attackers, or if their bombs or rays touch you, then you will cop some damage. Time your jump so that you will be at weapon's length away from them.

Shooting flying attackers with medium-range weapons (flamethrowers) and long-range weapons (lasers, AK-47s, etc.) is easy. But be careful that you don't shoot the sky icons; because you don't want to end up with an empty weapon.
Sometimes the flying attackers will be very close to the sky icons; in that case, you need to be cautious in shooting at them.


The aiming of weapons is not always very accurate in this game, so allow a decent amount of aiming latitude when you shoot at flying attackers. If you shoot in arcs, going from left to right (and right to left) in a semi-circular arc through the ground, you will be pretty safe; however, sometimes, that is just not possible. If a flying attacker is in the sky near a sky icon, try to edge your fire gently up to it.

You are ready to go!
If you have read all of the above, you are right to fight.


However, if you want to get all of the game's achievements, then you might want to read the achievements section first.

Weapons available - and their cost
Pistols are provided for free at the start of the game (albeit with no ammunition).
Better weaponry can be bought with potatoes.
The shotguns and rocket launchers need ammunition, so I would suggest you hoard all of your potatoes until you can buy a chainsaw, flamethrower, or laser.
Note that the AK-47 (bought from the shop) comes with ammunition, but its aiming can be a bit off.



Pistol = free
Shotgun = 100 potatoes
Rocket launcher = 300 potatoes
AK-47 = 500 potatoes
Chainsaw = 800 potatoes
Flamethrower = 1000 potatoes
Laser = 2000 potatoes

Pistol = provided for free at the start of the game


Shotgun = 100 potatoes


Rocket launcher = 300 potatoes


AK-47 = 500 potatoes


Chainsaw = 800 potatoes


Flamethrower = 1000 potatoes


Laser = 2000 potatoes

Unlock Faces
Unlock game rage faces in store
-- You can unlock the rage faces by buying them for 2000 potatoes; however, I recommend that you get the "Potatoes gonna potate" achievement first, as you need to have 5000 potatoes in your tally to get it (then you can spend 2000 potatoes on the rage faces).


Unlock Shotgun
Unlock Shotgun in store
-- Buy a shotgun from the store; however, I recommend you read the section on buying weapons before you do (I would suggest that you spend your hard-earned potatoes on the better weapons first).

Kill streak forever
Do 50 killstreaks in game
-- Quite easy to obtain; just get 50 killstreaks of 10 or more kills.

Complete World 1
Complete World 1
-- Finish the first lot of 10 levels.

Unlock Rifle
Unlock rifle in store
-- Buy a rifle from the store.

Unlock Rocker Launcher
Unlock Rocket launcher in store
-- Buy a rocket launcher from the store.

Zombies kill count
Kill total of 1000 zombies in game
-- Easy enough, but it takes a while. Grind away and knock off 1000 attackers
("Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out").

Complete World 2
Complete World 2
-- Finish the second lot of 10 levels.

Unlock flame thrower
Unlock flame thrower in store
-- Buy a flame thrower from the store.

Unlock chainsaw
Unlock chainsaw in store
-- Buy a chainsaw from the store.

Unlock laser
Unlock laser in store
-- Buy a laser from the store.

Complete the game
Kill last boss
-- Finish the third lot of 10 levels. Kill the last boss.

Potatoes gonna potate
Collect 5000 potatoes in game
-- Have 5000 potatoes in your tally. If you spend potatoes (on weaponry or rage faces), then they will not be counted as part of the 5000.


Rage Count
Go in rage mode 200 times
-- Hit the "R" key 200 times. Easy to get if you rage every time you play the game (you can do it several times per level, if you survive long enough for your rage level to refill). Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to hit the "R" key.

U mad Bro?
Do 100 killstreak chain 10 times
-- Not so easy. Might be best to try to get a killstreak of 100 in the arena mode (and do it ten times). The lower levels in story mode don't even have 100 enemies to kill.
Bear in mind that if you hit a sky icon it will reset your killstreak level, even if you get the same weapon from it as you were using previously - so be vewy vewy careful, you wascally wabbit.


To get killstreaks of 100, I suggest using arena mode - forget about the potatoes, concentrate on hitting the targets without hitting a sky icon (I don't *believe* that the health icons or shrinking icons affect the killstreak tally, but you might choose to avoid them, just in case).
A few times I got a killstreak of 90, only to hit a sky icon (or I assume that I did - it can get a bit confusing with attackers everywhere), which can be rather annoying, so you need to concentrate on what you are doing.
It is quite possible to get killstreaks of 100, but it can be a bit taxing to do so.

Good luck!