Choo-Choo Charles has come to swallow your soul, so we thought that sharing some tips to survive the menace were in order. The game has you on the run from a murderous train, so a little bit of foresight can go a long way.
Choo-Choo Charles — Quick tips to get you started
Speed is less important
You’re probably going to have more than enough scrap to fully upgrade your train and then some, but maybe you don’t want to do all the quests and explore. If you just want to beat Charles, you can just prioritize upgrading your armor and damage. No matter how fast you’re going, Charles will still catch up to you, so speed is just for getting around quicker.
Quit to menu
The protagonist in Choo-Choo Charles can seemingly only run and pick up specific items when they’re not on the train. At least, that’s what you’d think. They also have the ability to magically teleport enemies away and make them forget things. If you’re hiding out indoors and Charles attacks, he won’t be able to hurt you. But that doesn’t mean he’s going away. Just quit to menu and reload your last autosave and he’ll be gone. This does not work when he’s attacking you, though.
This also works on human enemies. If you get spotted, you can’t get away unless you hop on your train and put it in gear — unless you quit to menu again. Doing this will teleport the enemies back to their starting point, as well as make them forget you exist. It’s the best way to deal with them. Otherwise…
Just run
If an enemy spots you and you don’t feel like save scumming, just run away while zig-zagging. They’ll give chase and shoot at you, but you can keep doing what you were doing as long as you’re quick about it. However, fetch quests do require you to make it out in one piece, so if you die after getting a quest item, you’ll need to grab it again. This goes for the eggs too, so you can’t exactly cheese those.
Screenshot by PC Invasion
Beware Of BOB
The best weapon for your train is named Bob. It’s the red quest in the northwest part of the map. We have another guide on how to go about getting that, if you need it, but that’s where it is. It’s really the only weapon you need unless you just want to mess around with the others. Shooting Charles with Bob will stun him long enough for you to get another shot off without him attacking. This is a great way to take less damage if you don’t feel like dying.
Go on foot
Moving the train back and forth can be a bit of a pain. While you’ll just straight up die if Charles catches you out in the open, he doesn’t actually show up that much. When you hear his whistle, he’s coming for you, so you might have enough time to get indoors. You can frequently cut across the land on foot without issue. If you die, you’re teleported back to your train anyway, minus two or three scrap. You can even use this if you want to return quickly, as long as you don’t mind paying the price.
It’s on backward
It’ll be easier to get where you’re going if you put the train in reverse when going forward will take you in the opposite of your intended direction. Reversing is plenty fast, plus it’s a great way to double back and switch tracks if you missed your changeover.
Screenshot by PC Invasion
Die a little more
If Charles attacks your train and you don’t have the right weapon, it can cost up to 10 scrap to repair it. When you’re on the train and he attacks, consider stepping off and letting him eat you. It’ll cost you less scrap and you won’t need to repair the train. It’s a win/win. Okay, no, you lose scrap and die. So I guess it’s actually lose/lose. What do we know?
That’s all for our Choo-Choo Charles tips. Make sure to check out our final boss guide and guide to getting the best weapon if you want to clinch your victory.
