Tetrapod is an arena shooter with controls similar to Asteroids, with the player being able to move forward, shoot and rotate left and right. For every stage the player has to defeat a number of creatures ranging from killer bees in early levels to red devils and poison orbs in later ones. What makes this more complicated is that the screen is full of pods that when shot at hatches a lizard that immediately goes after the creature closest to it, no matter if that is the player or one of the enemies.