Reviewing all 36 combo powers in ZAGA-33’s second quest

Click the moon on the Zaga-33 title screen to access the second quest

The basics

After you beat the main game in Zaga-33, you unlock a second quest. This mode replaces the 9 powers from the main mode with a random selection of 9 combo powers per run from a pool of 36 possible combos. Each of the 9 base powers will show up twice in a given run’s combo powers.

Example of a run where 7 powers have been revealed and 2 remain. Quake is in a brighter font indicating it still has two uses left.

While in the base game the only randomness when it comes to powers is the order and frequency they appear in a given run, the combo powers introduce more variance. The pairing of powers can make using a given power a more complicated decision. Do you save a HOMB to use as a Bomb later or Heal now?

Anyway, here’s a list of all 36 powers and my official rankings of their names and the synergy of their powers.

Bomke

  • Parts: Bomb + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – exceptional mouthfeel, but the “ke” is ambiguous, is this nuke or quake?
  • Synergy: ⭐ – some thematic resonance, but from a gameplay perspective this is overkill

Bompel

  • Parts: Bomb + Repel
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – probably a mario monster
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – the bomb go boom and has shockwave

Bone

  • Parts: Bomb + Drone
  • Name: ⭐ – loses the best part of each word, shoulda been dromb
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐ – 2 stars means it’s fine, no particularly notable interactions between the powers so I leave the rest of these blank

Boser

  • Parts: Bomb + Laser
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – the sci-fi vibes are strong
  • Synergy: ⭐ – redundant killzones

Drake

  • Parts: Drone + Quake
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – fantasy business casual core
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Drort

  • Parts: Drone + Teleport
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – a robin williams character
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – when surrounded by enemies you drop a decoy and get the hell outta dodge, love it

Droser

  • Parts: Drone + Laser
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – a dreamworks animation character
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Druke

  • Parts: Drone + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – druke drukem, md
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – after spending so much time running away, it’s cathartic to just wipe out a whole level full of enemies

Glake

  • Parts: Glue + Quake
  • Name: ⭐ – a piece of popcorn stuck in your throat
  • Synergy: ⭐ – quake can mess up your path such that you’ll lose any turns gained from glue

Glaser

  • Parts: Glue + Laser
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – blue collar sci fi nametag
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Glomb

  • Parts: Glue + Bomb
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – onomatopoeia perfection
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Glone

  • Parts: Glue + Drone
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – gloopy clone of glen close
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Glort

  • Parts: Glue + Teleport
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – star trek alien name
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Gluke

  • Parts: Glue + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – disney channel alien name
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Haser

  • Parts: Heal + Laser
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – captain space himbo
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Heapel

  • Parts: Heal + Repel
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – charmingly plump
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Homb

  • Parts: Heal + Bomb
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – uncanny in the original german sense of unheimlich
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Hone

  • Parts: Heal + Drone
  • Name: ⭐ – meh
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – in your hour of greatest need, the baby metroid comes to revive you and fight at your side

Hue

  • Parts: Heal + Glue
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – pixar short title
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Lapel

  • Parts: Laser + Repel
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – elegant, understated
  • Synergy: ⭐ – enemies the would have stepped into the path of the laser are saved by repel

Lasuke

  • Parts: Laser + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – miltary industrial opulance
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Nukeal

  • Parts: Nuke + Heal
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – patent pending
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Nuort

  • Parts: Nuke + Teleport
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – babylon 5 alien name
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Qual

  • Parts: Quake + Heal
  • Name: ⭐ – charter school tech bro slang
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Quapel

  • Parts: Quake + Repel
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – it’s half a glorm
  • Synergy: ⭐ – quake messes up any intentional repel damage you might have planned for

Quaser

  • Parts: Quake + Laser
  • Name: ⭐ – wants to be quasar, but isn’t
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Quke

  • Parts: Quake + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐ – quke nubem, 3p
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Quomb

  • Parts: Quake + Bomb
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – Lewis Caroll discovered this word in a dream
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Quort

  • Parts: Quake + Teleport
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – a superposition of so many possibilities that resists resolving into any of them
  • Synergy: ⭐ – you are Schrodingers cat, teleported to a random spot on a rearranged map

Replue

  • Parts: Repel + Glue
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – sci fi food-drink / industrial solvent
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Repone

  • Parts: Repel + Drone
  • Name: ⭐ – might be a typo
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – baby yoda wakes up and force pushes your foes away from you and then mando takes them out

Report

  • Parts: Repel + Teleport
  • Name: ⭐ – is a literal narc
  • Synergy: ⭐ – repel is centered on the place you randomly teleport to, so any planned repel damage is moot

Repuke

  • Parts: Repel + Nuke
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – double plus word vomit
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – can instakill enemies in certain positions

Taser

  • Parts: Teleport + Laser
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – classic
  • Synergy: ⭐ – enemies will move towards your new location rather than the origin of the laser so are less like to be hit

Teal

  • Parts: Teleport + Heal
  • Name: ⭐⭐ – synesthetically accurate
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐

Tomb

  • Parts: Teleport + Bomb
  • Name: ⭐⭐⭐ – A space that’s not meant to be inhabited, a subterrainian wrongness that violently connects here and hereafter
  • Synergy: ⭐⭐⭐ – one of the only examples of true synergy, you get two bombs, one at each side of the teleport

In Summary

  • Bompel & Tomb are the best
  • Glake & Report are the worst
  • Bomb is MVP as a name component
  • Drone is MVP as synergy component
  • Quake is LVP on both accounts
  • Glue & Nuke & Teleport win the Zaga-33 award for having 33 stars