Set Priorities

Watch the level fly through, assess the threats and decide which set of stick men you’ll rescue first.  Doing things in the right order makes the game a lot easier. You don’t always have to go for the easy rescues first; sometimes it’s better to go for the guys farthest away first.

Herd the Stick Men

Stick men aren’t super bright so they follow very simple rules.  Hey, if your head was just a dot on the screen you wouldn’t be a genius either!  If the copter is on the ground and the stick men are on-screen, they will run towards it, even when it’s a VERY BAD idea.  Use this to your advantage.  Move some of them to safer spots, especially when bombs, conveyor belts, or trees are involved. Even if you don’t get them completely out of danger, you might buy a few valuable seconds. Remember: they’ll only run towards you if you have 3 or fewer stick men in the vehicle. Careful, though, since stick men that are slightly above or below you will also run towards the Copter.

Be Self- Sacrificing

It’s a good thing in general to be willing to take one for the team.  Stick Man Rescue is no exception.  Sometimes purposefully destroying your empty Copter is the best thing to do. If your Copter has taken a lot of damage and you pick up some stick men, you risk losing them in a fiery crash once you take a tiny bit more damage.

Evil Blue Stick Minions Are Bad, M’Kay?

The only good blue stick man is a dead blue stick man. They’ll keep running around until they find trouble (e.g. finally push that bomb off the cliff above your guys), so it’s best to take them out when you see them.

Things Fall Down

This seems like a little thing, but you’ll kick yourself when it happens to you: avoid hanging objects. If you’re not careful where you’re flying, you might cut the rope holding a very heavy object, which is almost certain to fall on some oblivious friends of yours.

Two Weapons, Max

Don’t forget that your Copter can only carry two items in its loadout. Keep this in mind in levels where you might need to use fire or water. You probably won’t want or need missiles or bombs in these levels.

Level 1 – Outside Scarygirl’s home

•  Having trouble with the giant egg to the left of Scarygirl’s home? When the egg icon appears on the left side of  your screen, head back to Bunniguru to ask him for help pushing it out of the way.
• This seems very simple, but a lot of people forget about it: the high jump. It comes in handy in every level for reaching places that seem just out of reach.

Level 2 – Underwater

•  Another simple tip: keep an eye on your remaining oxygen at the bottom of the screen. Keep an eye out for air pockets to swim up to and refill the meter.
• You can press “X” to swim faster. This comes in handy if you encounter any unfriendly wildlife.
• Be sure to look high and low for the green jellyfish. There are 7 total, so keep track of how many you’ve found.

Level 3 – Forest

•  This isn’t an officially-sanctioned way of playing the game, but it’s what worked for me one time when I was having trouble: RUN!
• If you hold down the jump button, you can bounce on platforms.

Level 4 – City Docks

• In the first area where you need to collect gears, there are only 3. One is in the top middle of that area, one is at the bottom to the right of the first gear, and the last one is just above the gearbox.
• Having trouble with the flamethrower enemies who are only a little taller than you? You can duck under the flame, carefully advance during pauses, then attack.
• In the next area with gears, there are 5. One is right after the bridge, another is at the top of the area near a moving platforms, another is to the left and slightly higher than the gearbox, one more is downstairs from where you entered this area, and the last one is further to the right along the bottom.
• The boss can be pretty tough. To defeat him, you need to hit the switches to drop debris on him. Be sure to allow some lead time for them to fall. Another useful tidbit: you can bounce off of his head. Rinse and repeat.

Level 5 – Sewers

• You can walk through the green puddles, but avoid the green drops.
• After you find the green key, it’s ok to fall down the gaps between the nearby slimy platforms.