Keen Dreams Bugs
This page lists all the bugs, odd behaviours and unexpected actions that have been discovered in Keen Dreams.
Jumping through dangers
When you find fire or radioactive floors, you can pass them unharmed by holding the jump key when hitting the ground (you can hold the key several seconds before landing, so no hurry) — and Keen will bounce up normally. Remember to release the jump key between every bounce and then press it again before landing again.
Climbing up nothing
If you are on a pole and a Canteloupe Cart pushes you off, you will be dragged along while in the climbing position. If you then proceed to move upwards, you will escape the Canteloupe Cart but climb an invisible pole afterwards. You can climb as high or as low as the original pole goes, passing straight through any solid tiles along the way, though enemies will still kill you. The only place this can be done is alongside the right edge of The Melon Mines, as it is the only place in the game with both Canteloupe Carts and poles nearby.
Quick level exits
If there is no wall in your way, go against the right edge of the level, and die! If Keen's head goes through the right edge of the screen, you will complete the level.
Dropping enemies
It is possible to make Squashers jump off cliffs out of the level, thus "killing" them; this can be done especially well in Squash Swamp. In Horseradish Hill you can "kill" all five Carrot Couriers by shooting them as they jump cliffs.
It is also possible to stun enemies with Flower Powers so that they fall off logs, lily pads or other "one way up" tiles (tiles permitting movement in a single direction only). Any enemy can be manipulated in this manner. The trick is to shoot them just as they reach the very edge of the platform; the stunned sprite has different clipping and will fall off the platform. For some other enemies, the sprite will only fall off after it has reverted back to its original shape. This can be used to "push" several enemies off of the bottom of the level, though with difficulty:
- The simplest way to do it is to stand under the platform edge and throw Flower Powers up into the air just past the platform's edge.
- It is also possible to stand on the platform and shoot an enemy off, though this requires very good timing.
- A third possibility is to cheat and stand at the platform's edge with God mode and toss Flower Powers into the air. With this, it is even possible to make enemies fall off the level boundaries.
Duplicating Flower Pellets
Sometimes, when rapidly firing your Flower Powers against a wall close enough to bounce the pellet back to you (and going back into your inventory), it will count the pellet twice. This is hard to duplicate, but could potentially help you out in a tight situation.
This can also be done by looking up and throwing [[Flower Power]s] in the air rapidly.
Flying slowly
If you turn on the Jump cheat and fly up, throw a Flower Power straight up. Keen will continue flying upwards but slower. Throwing again will cause Keen to stop and fall down but slowly. Throwing a Flower Power for the third time will cause Keen to fall down with normal speed.
Jump down from exit sign
The exit sign's bottom tiles are one way up, meaning that Keen can jump down when he is behind the exit sign. See a video here.
Super easy difficulty
If the player starts playing by loading a saved game and does this without having started a new game or loaded a previous game (that is, the first thing they do is load a game) then that game will have 'zero difficulty' instead of the difficulty level it had when saved. If the game is saved again this difficulty level will become permanent.
In practice a difficulty level of 0 is identical to that of 1 (easy), so this is only noticeable when restoring normal or hard games. It does however allow the addition of a hypothetical fourth difficulty to the game. To avoid this the player should always start a new game before restoring an old one.
Dropping through a ramp in Horseradish Hill
On the last downhill ramp by the end of Horseradish Hill, you can drop down near the base. Face left near the bottom of the ramp and drop down on the last few logs. After falling, there is some empty space you can run around in under the ramp. It is easy to jump back out.