The 50,000 is fairly easy to obtain but just in case you're struggling, check out my solution from the 150,000 achievement. You should be able to bag 50K points by the end of the first mission so long as you don't die.
First of all, do NOT pause the game or open your Xbox Guide at any point during your playthrough. If you do, you won't be able to resume your progress in your current attempt. The game actually tells you this in the instructions before the mission starts but can easily be missed as there's a a wall of text to read and I don't think many people will bother making it to the bottom.
Mission OneSpeed-run your way through the first level but make sure you free and come into contact with any prisoners on your way. You must run into them once they are free to be awarded with the points for saving them. You'll know you've done this correctly when the prisoner says "thank you", drops a gift, salutes you, and then runs off.
The third prisoner you come to will drop a 'F' (Flamethrower). Pick this up and use it to kill the few soldiers that spawn as you proceed. You'll save another prisoner who will drop a 'H' (Heavy Machinegun) and at the same time, an enemy jet will spawn. Leave the 'H' for now and use the Flamethrower against the Jet while slowly edging left and right while firing up to avoid its bombs. Once the jet is down, pick up the 'H' and run right.
Run, jump and spray & pray everything in your way. Make sure to kill the gold soldiers to top up on Heavy Machinegun ammo. Be careful when shooting down the rocks in the nets. If you get caught underneath them once they hit the ground, you'll die.
To the left of the Tank you'll come to, there'll be a box of bombs you can pick up. Pick them up and then jump into the Tank. Spam
for the main turret and use
for the cannon on the tank. Just make sure you don't jump and shoot at the same time as hitting these two buttons together (
&
) will cause the Tank to self-destruct.
Move forward and start spraying the hut in front of you. Hit it with a single cannon shot as well for good measure. Don't worry if you get hit here as there's a Gas canister you can pick up which gives your Tank health back. Once the hut blows up, another Jet will spawn. Ignore it and keep hammering the structure blocking you with your turret. Hit it with one or two cannon shots and as soon as it's destroyed, you can move forward and the Jet will fly away.
Move forward to see a "Danger" barrel ahead which you need to quickly blow up to clear the area. As the building blows up and you're moving forward, aim diagonally up to your right to free a prisoner. He will drop an ammo box that gives you more cannons. Keep moving forward and use a single shot against the enemy tank and keep hitting it with your turret. Do the same again for the 2nd tank that appears.
After you get to the top the small slope you just drove up, start firing slightly upwards again to kill a soldier and free a couple of prisoners. You could do with saving them both but the gift the first one gives you is a priority as it's ammo again.
From here, move right and left to dodge the bosses projectile attack while spamming
against its cannon in front of you. At the same time, hold
and then spam
too. This will open the hatch of the tank and cause your character to start throwing bombs. You can spam these much quicker than the cannon. Spam bombs and every 2 seconds (roughly), let go of
and hit
, then go back to the bombs. If you do this as soon as you enter the area with the boss, you should be able to destroy it before it fires it's main beam attack that fires across the screen horizontally. To dodge this, just simply hold
.
Once the mission is completing and your waiting for the scores to come up, hold
! This will make the scoreboard tally up quicker and save vital seconds.
If you die at any point during the Mission, restart your attempt. You want to finish the mission with having saved 5 or 6 prisoners and with the Tank in one piece. Doing so will net you bonus points: 1000 points per prisoner and 10,000 points for the Tank. Ending the mission with at least 48,000 or more will be a decent starting point for the next mission.
Mission TwoSpam your shoot button when the mission begins so that you can drop down quicker. Run forward shooting your pistol. You'll kill all but maybe one soldier and drop down at the same time. Jump back up to this ledge and save the prisoner. Jump in the air and shoot downwards to kill the soldier below you. Kill the soldier to your left and then drop down to the right. The electric barriers will kill you if you come in contact with them. Don't worry so much about the soldiers crawling along the ground here, just concentrate on getting past the three barriers.
Once you land on the floor after the third, quickly shoot upwards at the parachuting soldier and then hammer the gold guy to the right. Pick up the 'F' and then start picking off the soldiers flying down. There will be another four soldiers who come down next. Kill them and then prepare for another three soldiers who come down from the top-left corner. At the same time, a soldier will spawn from the right. Kill the one on the right first and try and pick off two of the three above. Clear the other soldier on the ground and then kill the last parachuting soldier if he's still alive.
Now,
this is the important part!. Ahead of you, will be a set of stairs that connect to a bridge. On the first part of the bridge that has an arc underneath will be a collectable animal.
You must collect this animal no matter what! Doing so will bag you a whopping
50,000 points! This makes the 150K achievement much easier to obtain! If you die, just carry on going but obviously don't use all of your lives!
Also, a couple of notes thanks to
Dwaggienite and
DaveKinetic:
At the start of the second level, it's worth checking what the pickup is under the second electric fence. Sometimes it will be worth very little, but quite a few times it's been a teddy bear worth 50,000 points. Combine that with the one you mentioned on the bridge a little further on and it makes it super simple.
Sometimes that 50,000 collectible is under the 2nd of the three electric barriers. Sometimes it's not there or in the place you mention at all.
Move forward and jump over the gaps the water-soldiers create. Free a prisoner for a 'R' Rocket Launcher and then jump another gap. On this platform there'll be an enemy tank waiting for you. Crouch and spam your Rockets. Once it blows up, it will drop another 'R'. Pick it up move forward and let off another four or five rockets to kill a few more soldiers. Grab the bombs and free another prisoner for some more Rockets.
At this point, crouch and fire your rockets at the boat below. Once your rockets start to fire straight through the boat instead of hitting it, wait for it to capsize and then start shooting it again. Don't worry about the weapon it will drop.
Another boat will spawn to the right. Wait a second or two for the boat to come onto the screen and then give this boat the same treatment as well as throwing bombs through the gap in front of you. Once this boat's destroyed, another will spawn from the left. Do the same to this boat as well and if you can, collect the 'S' Shotgun before you sink the boat. It's not entirely necessary but it will make the next part of the mission a little easier.
Move forward and kill more soldiers until an enemy Tank spawns on your right. Destroy the Tank but wait a second for it to drop some bombs. Pick them up, move right and kill the two soldiers on the building next to prisoner. Free the prisoner and pick up the 'H' if you need it, otherwise, use your Shotgun on the boss above you and then pick up the 'H'. The boss can be killed with either the Shotgun or Heavy Machinegun before it even gets four shots off.
Once the boss goes down, you may need to kill a single soldier that spawns to your left. As soon as the screen moves, kill the soldier underneath the stairs in front of you and the one at the top of the stairs. Jump in the Tank and move forward. Shoot the soldier coming up the ladder but keep moving. Free the four prisoners and then continue shooting the soldiers on the ladders to your left and right. A single plane will spawn from the right corner and fly along the bottom of the screen to the left and then up and around to the right. Hit it with enough bullets to stop it from firing its rocket. Another two planes will spawn which you need to shoot down also before they fire their rockets. Once the planes are dealt with, quickly kill off the remaining soldiers and then push forward.
You may have enough score at this point but if you don't, you should have roughly 30-40 seconds left to take on the boss. As soon as you regain control of the tank, go all the way to the right and jump onto the third platform. This will raise up slightly and allow you to hit the plane with your cannon. Spam everything you can and once the plane goes to high to be hit with the cannon, just focus on hitting it with your turret and do your best to dodge its attacks. At this point, you won't have much time left but you will get points just for hitting the plane. You more than likely won't finish the battle but if you do, don't forget to hold
to make the scoreboard tally up quicker!
As and when you obtain enough points, you'll unlock the following achievements:
This is a video of me doing it the hard way as I wasn't aware of the 50K item at the time: