Bacon Escape Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Bacon Escape is a fast-paced, auto-running platformer-dodger from Illusion Labs. In this game, players will help a pig escape from prison as he flees down a dangerous mine cart track filled with a variety of dangers. Gamezebo’s Bacon Escape Tips, Cheats and Strategies will help you master the art of railway manipulation so your pig—and sheep, and unicorn, and alien cat—friends can finally make it to their Happy Place.

Basic Controls

Bacon Escape is an auto-runner, but in this game you don’t control the actual character. Instead, you must manipulate the obstacles and track around him to create a safe path for his cart to traverse. If he is coming up on a row of spikes, you need to tap to turn the spikes upside-down. If he is about to enter a set of flames, you need to hold your finger on the screen to extinguish the flames.

The objects you can manipulate are clearly denoted by their color. Blue objects or sections of the track will respond to a single tap, rotating to a different state in response to your tap. For instance, a blue platform with spikes sticking up will flip upside down when you tap, hiding the spikes. If you let go, the spikes will remain facing down, but if you tap again they will flip right-side up again. Most blue objects have two states—a ramp leading up or down, a hammer facing left or right, a bridge open or closed—but some will have more than two, and tapping will cycle through all of them. For instance, some platforms have three surfaces—flat, spiked, and bouncy—and to get from flat to bouncy you’ll need to tap twice.

Red objects or sections of the track will respond to tap-and-hold: they have a default state—turned on, facing up, etc.—and as long as you are holding down on the screen they enter the opposite state. So flames that are on by default will shut off as long as you are holding the screen. A vertical moving platform with a default state of up will move down when you hold and then return to its “up” state when you release. Red objects have a light on their side that indicates if you are currently affecting them: so, if you hold down and a flame shuts off, the light on the side of the flame platform will come on. When you release, the light turns off.

You can use the lights on the side of moving platforms as a hint/confirmation of where they will go when you hold or release: their default state is lit up when you’re not holding and the direction you move them will light up when you are holding. So, in the image above, the small platform just right of the flames moves left when we are holding (lit up) and right when we release (not lit up). The lights on the flames block are on because we are currently holding to extinguish them.

There are two other types of objects you’ll encounter that are singular unto themselves. Purple platforms always contain poisonous gas. The default state for gas is turned off, and when you tap-and-hold, the gas turns on. This is essentially the opposite of red flame blocks and you’ll often find purple gas used in conjunction with flames: this forces you to hold-release-hold-release in quick succession to turn off the flame, turn off the gas, flame, gas, etc.

The final object type you’ll come across are pipes. Pipes teleport your cart from the pipe it enters to whichever pipe it is pointing toward. Some levels feature only two pipes, so you don’t need to adjust where the cart exits. On levels with multiple pipes, however, you can see which pipe will be the exit pipe in two ways: first, the pipe you enter will have a green arrow on its side pointing toward the exit pipe. Second, the exit pipe itself will have a green light on it, indicating it is currently active. In the image above, you can see an arrow pointing to the upper pipe and a green light on that upper pipe, both of which indicate it will be the exit location if we do not tap. If you tap before entering the first pipe, it will change which pipe is the exit destination, rotating through the available options.

Bacon Escape Tips

• Your taps affect everything on-screen. If there are multiple obstacles visible on-screen, keep in mind that your taps–or tap-hold, or lifting your finger–will impact all of them. So if there are flames, poison gas, and a ramp on-screen, tap-holding will turn off the flames, turn on the poison gas, and flip the ramp to the opposite direction, all at the same time.
• You need to look ahead but also be aware of where your cart is currently. Because of the rule above, one of the biggest challenges in Bacon Escape is being able to look two places at once: you always need to be looking ahead to see what obstacles are coming up so you’re prepared to make adjustments on the fly. However, you also need to be aware of your cart’s current location in the level and what obstacles it is passing / has just passed. For instance, if you’re heading for a bridge that’s open and you need to tap to close it, but you’re currently passing over a section of purple gas: if you tap too soon, you’ll turn on the gas and end the run, but if you tap too late, the bridge won’t close in time. Our default viewpoint is looking just slightly ahead of where the cart is. It’s a very tricky balancing act that really just takes practice—the more you play, the more you’ll be aware of your cart’s location and speed and able to judge how long it will take to get past obstacle A before you reach obstacle B.

• Most levels have alternate routes. You cannot impact the cart’s movement directly, but you can help decide which route it takes. Often, you’ll come across alternate paths along the track, and you can send the cart along one path or the other simply by changing the route ahead—move a ramp so it faces up instead of down, a pipe so it leads forward instead of backward, or a block so it is bouncy instead of flat, etc. These types of changes will allow you to visit different sections of a level which may be easier or harder, and may contain different items, like apples. To collect all the apples or items in a level, you’ll often need to replay them, taking different routes on subsequent playthroughs.

• You can revisit past stages anytime. Bacon Escape sends you from one completed stage immediately to the next, but you can return to a past stage any time you wish. The pause menu / game over / continue screen—they’re all roughly the same—has a list of levels at the very top. You can drag left and right to see past or future stages; those that are colored in have been unlocked and are available to play. Levels you’ve completed have a green checkmark next to them; the red apple icons indicate how many and which apples you’ve found in a stage; and the wooden crate icon shows up on stages with a treasure chest that you’ve found.
• Use the level list for hints when hunting for apples. If you’re trying to find all the apples in the levels, use the stage menu mentioned above to help you. Apples are checked off in the order they appear in the level, so if you have two out of three apple icons and the remaining blank icon is listed first, you know it shows up earlier in the stage than the two apples you have found. Apples turn into a giant coin after they’ve been collected, so if you were hunting for an early-stage apple and came across a giant coin, you’ll know you’ve gone too far.
• What’s the white line on the level percentage bar? There’s a vertical white line that shows up on the percentage complete bar at the top of a stage after you play it at least once. This line indicates the farthest you’ve gotten on a level so far: if you made it to 50% on your first attempt and then died at 30% on the next attempt, the line would remain at 50%. This is helpful if you’re stuck on a tricky platforming area—you’ll know you’re coming up on it when you get close to the line—and also as a way to compare if you’re doing better or worse than previous attempts.

• Use the in-level signs for guidance. There are a few types of signs you’ll come across while riding the rails: the most common is the giant skull, indicating something deadly is coming up soon. This doesn’t seem too helpful at first—there are deadly things coming at you constantly—but it usually indicates if a red tap-and-hold item like flames, or a series of opposing blue items like spikes, are up next. Apple signs will point the way to the next apple, usually indicating which path you should take when given the option. Arrows will hint at areas where you need to go up or down but might not realize it until it’s too late, like a blockade at the end of a bridge or a bounce that you really need to activate. Levels with hidden chests will usually have a sign with a treasure chest on it near where the chest is.
• You don’t have to survive a run to collect items. Any coins, apples, or items you pick up during a run are yours to keep whether you finish the level or die within a few seconds. Also, the same is true for items collected after you die: if your character flies out of the cart and collects more coins or even apples, those will be counted as picked up.

• You can still impact your character after they crash. If you’re trying to complete a mission like “fly X meters after crashing” or “collect X coins after crashing,” you can try to impact your character’s post-death distance by tapping and manipulating nearby obstacles after they die. If they land on a bouncy platform, for instance, you could tap and send their body flying. It’s also just fun to keep messing with the environment and see where you end up.
• Sometimes the best tactic is holding your finger down even if you don’t need to. In early stages, we typically tapped and lifted our finger whenever we weren’t actively dealing with a red obstacle. However, in later stages, dangers will come at you so quickly that it can be useful to keep your finger held down in preparation of upcoming red platforms. For instance, if you tap to move a blue platform, keep your finger down until you need to tap again—you very well might fly into a set of flame blocks and save yourself a death by keeping your finger on the screen. It’s slightly easier to lift your finger if you need to—in the case of purple gas, for instance—than to tap and hold when it’s already too late.

• You can use obstacles for things other than their obvious purpose. There will be times you’ll need to fly over a gap or up a hill, but there won’t be a ramp or bouncy platform nearby. In cases like these, you’ll have to find creative uses for other obstacles. A good example is near the beginning of stage 15, pictured above: there is a barricade followed by a small gap, with the track continuing higher up. Just before the barricade is a long spike trap and nothing else. You need to flip the spikes upside down, ride onto the platform, then flip it back over while you’re on its left side, flinging yourself over the gap. You’ll do this frequently with the wedge-shaped platforms that form walls when sticking up; flipping them up while driving over them will propel you up into the air, allowing you to collect coins or reach higher platforms.
• Levels will get extremely challenging and require many attempts. Bacon Escape starts off fairly slow, but the difficulty ramps up quickly. It’s expected that you’ll have to replay levels multiple times before you complete them, learning the obstacles and making mental notes of tough areas and how to get past them. Don’t get too frustrated if you die, a lot. We spent a couple of hours on level 14—one of the hardest levels in the game, in our opinion—dying over and over again, but eventually got through it. There is some trial and error and muscle memory in play here—just remember that you have unlimited lives and can retry as many times as you need to.

• Don’t use apples for revives unless you’re sure you can complete the level. When you die, you’re given the option to continue from where your run ended. To do so, you can either watch a video ad (on the first retry) or pay apples. Each time you die and continue on the same level, however, the cost in apples goes up. So let’s say you make it to 50%, die, and choose to continue for 2 apples. If you then make it to 70% and die, you can choose to continue again, but this time it will cost 3 apples. Eventually you won’t have enough apples—or want to spend that many—to continue, and you’ll be forced to start over at the beginning, losing all the apples you spent on those other continues. We generally try to avoid using apples unless we’re already 70% of the way through the level, and ideally closer to 80 or 90%.
• How do I get more apples? Levels in Bacon Escape have a finite number of apples, visible as icons on the level select map at the top of the menu screen. Level 1, for instance, has three apples while level 9 only has two, and level 10 has four. You can only collect the apples in a level once—between the 25 stages currently available in the game, there are 71 apples available total. There are two other ways to get apples: the first is to purchase them via IAPs in the item shop. You can get 30 apples for $2.99, 75 for $4.99, etc. The other way to get apples is by paying coins to open treasure chests. While you’ll usually get a character or cart, you will sometimes win an apple instead.

• Treasure chests’ price goes up each time you buy one—for that day. Buying a treasure chest—which awards you either a character, a cart, or a single apple—costs 500 coins. However, after you buy a chest, the next one will cost 600 coins. After buying two chests, the cost will be 700. The price goes up 100 coins every time you purchase a chest, but this price increase only stays in effect for that day. If you wait a day, the price will drop back down to the original 500 coins, and then move back up by 100 coins for each chest you buy. Because of this, it’s best to just buy a few chests each day, even if you have plenty of coins—wait for the cost to go back down and you’ll be able to afford more in the long run.
• Some characters are better to purchase outright. In the character/cart select menu, you can see the price of buying certain characters or carts outright. Each one has a different cost, with prices ranging from as low as 200 coins to as high as 22 apples. Although you can earn any of these characters or carts from the randomized treasure chest, it’s better to buy the ones that cost less than 500 coins directly, since treasure chests will never drop below 500 coins.

• Why can’t I buy some characters/carts? Some are hidden within the levels inside crates that you have to pick up. A few are only available within the randomized chest. If a character doesn’t have a price, when you tap on them, you’ll likely see a crate and “hidden in level” or “hidden in chest.” Character #31 and cart #17 are the only exceptions; #31 is only available as an in-app purchase when you buy the Starter Pack for real money, and #17 is only available when you buy the Extra Life IAP. None of the characters or carts, paid or otherwise, affect the gameplay in any way—they are all aesthetic only.

If you’d like to know which levels have crates containing characters or carts hidden somewhere within them, they are: Levels 1, 2, 3, 6, 11—and two others. We’re still tracking down those remaining two, but there are seven levels with hidden chests in total (so far). If you’ve already found the other two, let us know in the comments!

Jillian Werner

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Jillian will play any game with cute characters or an isometric perspective, but her favorites are Fallout 3, Secret of Mana, and Harvest Moon. Her PC suffers from permanent cat-on-keyboard syndrome, which she blames for most deaths in Don’t Starve. She occasionally stops gaming long enough to eat waffles and rewatch Battlestar Galactica.