Gradius Galaxies - High Score Guide (C) CCC_Shiner 2004. MSN: lord_shiner@hotmail.com ICQ: 205992767 IRC: I hang around in #ikaruga and #sf2010 on irc.gamesurge.net. E-mail: shinerccc@gmail.com. Feel free to use it if you want to send enormous attachments/viruses, although be warned that it might not be able to receive .exe or .zip files. Use Ctrl + F on the titles for each section for cheesy shortcuts. 1-3 - I bet you didn't know this was possible (about 2,200) 1-5 - Worst. Scoring system. Ever. (2,000-9,000) 2-3 - Not very much here (1,200) 2-6 - 2 boring minutes for 6,600? (6,600+, depending on which loop) 3-2 - The Path of Little Reward ( 4-2 - What do you call that thing again? (???) 4-3 - Oh yeah, WALLCANOES!!! (???) 4-4 - Eggs, eggs, eggs (1,000-2,000) 4-6 - Milking the bubbles (20,000-30,000, depending on ship type) 5-X - The Path of Mucho Points (as much as 70,000) 5-5 - ARGH! THE BUBBLES! (as much as 50,000) 6-2 - Gens again (2,000) 8-2 - Risk your life for...(100-600) 8-5 - Laser Maracas Of Death (52,000) 8-6 - Every boss from Ikaruga would get steamrolled by this boss. (180,000-210,000) 8-8 - The Eggs and The Furnaces (1,000-10,000) 8-9 - You want to milk THIS PART?! (don't know yet) A couple of score checkpoints: After getting the 1-3 bonus: 11,700 Entering 1-4: 26,100 Entering 2-1: 49,000 Entering 2-2: 53,000 Entering 2-5: 75,000 (you will reach 76,000 if you are lucky in 1-5) Entering 3-1: 124,000 Entering 3-2: 130,000 Wallcanoes in 4-3: 200,000 After getting the 4-4 bonus: 220,000 Entering 5-5: 403,000 Entering 8-7: 910,000 Entering 8-10: 997,000 Entering Loop 2: 1,000,000 The location of all seven 5000 bonuses: 1-3 - In between two slabs of rock. 3-2 - Move slightly downwards. The third star you see, also the first big one you see, has a bonus lying just above its center. 4-4 - This is on the right side of the first pointy rock. It points upwards. 4-5? - This may only be in the Japanese or European versions. It's in the corner, on the sloped wall in the final, multi-screened chamber right before facing the boss. I can tell you that it is NOT in the North American version. 5-2 - Early on, you can find this bonus lying between two Moai heads glued to a roof. One has its mouth on the left side, the other has its mouth on the right side. 6-4 - There is a small notch on the right wall. Fly close to it and you will reveal another bonus. 8-2 - If you have three speedups, you can get this speedup without dying. As you dive into the fortress and the screen gets bigger vertically, dive down to the bottom passageway. This bonus is lying right under the gun on the roof of the bottom passageway. 8-8 - In the alley with the Flying Furnaces, there is a bonus hiding in a small notch on the roof. There are a few ways to recognize which one it is: - The moment this notch is off-screen, 8-9 begins. - There are four rockets on the ground in a staircase shape. This notch is above the first one on the left. - It is the third (?) notch in the ceiling as you enter Furnace Alley. Introduction: This document is not meant to teach you how to play this game nor how to survive it. This guide will not tell you how to no-death the game, but how to put your life at risk for more points. I am not writing this to help some hopeless scrubs beat this game; since so few people have ever complained about how hard this game is, I assume that no help is needed, especially since there's the Easy mode difficulty. I don't have time to make ASCII maps of every stage and tell you how every single bullet is going to fly at you, based on how long you've been playing and how you're going to upset the game's internal clock, causing different random numbers to be generated. If you would like to reach me privately, I will give you some help if you ask for it. If you're willing to follow this guide, you will break 1,000,000 points in the first loop of Hard, which I did in a theoretical sense at the end of Gradius Galaxies: The Movie. Although, I suppose you COULD pull information out of here that would help you survive the various sections...just in the hardest of ways possible. Anyway, some more general information about this guide: - MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: Set your Shoot and Missile buttons to separate buttons!! It's hard enough to milk most of these generators even with them on separate buttons, but if you're still in the dark ages playing Life Force and having Shoot and Missile on the same button, you're denying yourself of about 10,000 points. Possibly more. My control setup is B for Shoot, R for Missile (I use Controller Type 1 on my Game Boy Player btw: L and R are still L and R, and X and Y are used for Select.) and A for Powerup. - It is also important to note that the hitbox of the Vic Viper in this game is on the front. We will have to abuse it a little bit for some of these tricks. http://shiner.nucleardog.com/gghitbox.gif http://shiner.nucleardog.com/gghitbox.jpg - I have Loop 1 of Hard difficulty in mind when I describe each point-increasing section. On higher loops, the egg-shaped generators put out guys faster (and they are spaced further apart too), suicide bullets are more likely to appear and just about every enemy and every projectile moves faster. Some strategies may be too risky to try on higher loops, but I haven't played too much of the higher loops. - I am also thinking of the Type D ship for each section, as that is what I use, and I have a good reason for it too. Having a Vertical for your upgraded Double felt awkward and all-around stupid, since I was used to a Double from playing Gradius and Gradius III, so that left out Type B and Type C. (Plus, their lasers were too focused and imbalanced anyway.) That left me with Type A and Type D. Type A's laser was interesting, but made it difficult to fire in time with the music, plus there was a gun on the roof of section 2-3 that I would never be able to hit with that laser. In addition, Type A's missiles were virtually useless on bosses. Type D's incredible Twin Laser and it's destructive Spread Bombs were the way to go. Sorry guys. The big question: Should I unlock EVERYTHING on Loop 2 of Hard to practice? (Summary at bottom) The answer is: Not really. As you go through the game, the difficulty slowly increases. If you Start a normal game from 1-1, by the time you reach 3-1, the number and likelihood for suicide bullets to appear will have increased dramatically. If you just Continue from 3-1 on the same difficulty level, there will be less suicide bullets. So does that mean that practicing areas on Loop 2 will help simulate the correct number of suicide bullets? I have no-deathed the game before (video available too), and that is actually not quite the case. Compared to continuing on Loop 2, the number of bullets in an area if you just played to that point normally is actually quite mild. Loop 2 will over-exaggerate the difficulty of many areas. Remember that the timing for when generators release, and how far spaced apart their drones are, changes on higher loops, and enemy bullets move faster too. If you are trying to learn Gradius Galaxies with a playing style similar to Ikaruga (through "muscle memory" - patterning movements so that your brain can sort of go into an auto-pilot mode), then practicing on Loop 2 may not be for you. However, section 7-2 is a must-unlock for Loop 2. If you continue from this spot on Loop 1, the blue porcupine enemies do not shoot normal bullets at you...but they will if you reach that spot legitimately, they will shoot at you! It is important to be prepared for these attacks, because when they fly behind you and hide behind the flying chunks of ice, they become a lot nastier. The only other section you could consider unlocking would be 8-3. This section may be important in practicing 8-6, the hardest part in the game (the way I do it, that is. This section is INTEGRAL in breaking 1 million). Loop 2 will throw an unnaturally high amount of bullets at you, so it's okay to practice this section on Loop 2 to prepare yourself. Playing it on Loop 2 also allows for a healthy adrenaline rush. ;) You don't really have to unlock up to 8-3; in most cases, it's better to play from 8-2 onward (since there are two things in this section you probably didn't know about), as you can get an upgraded Double and have a spare Force Field too. Use 8-3 only if you want to practice 8-6 right away, and need to save time. SUMMARY: If you want to unlock things on Loop 2, only unlock 7-2, and possibly even 8-3. 1-3 - I bet you didn't know this was possible It is possible to milk every single generator in 1-3 (and by that, I mean all the egg-shaped ones. The green generators are the "trashy whore" generators: They put out once and then you're done with them). The powerups you need by the time you reach the 5000-point bonus are as follows: (in order too, if you so choose to emulate me perfectly) Speedup (x2) Double Missile Option (after all this, your powerup meter will be set to Laser) Once the green generator on the roof has deposited 4 ships and the egg-shaped generator has landed, use your Double to take it out and the red gun next to it. Back up to the left and take out the four ships from below that the egg-shaped generator has just spit out using your regular fire. Take out the four ships, move up and to the right, and get the powerup on the roof. Use it right away to get an Option. Start moving down and to the left, taking out the red ship just emerging onto the screen and the new four drone ships emerging onto the screen, and move below the first egg-shaped generator to take out the walker on the ground with your regular fire. Then, quickly hit the left edge of the screen, and start moving up, dragging your options so that the bottom one is inside the generator. Once it releases all four of its ships, press both Shoot and Missile to take out it and all four of its ships. Move right before the suicide bullets kill you, and then move just above the other egg-shaped generator on screen. Move the left half of the ship inside the rock wall (you need to do this in case you hit this generator with a missile and turned it red), and once all four of its minion ships are out, shoot the place up and get all the points. After destroying the remaining four enemies on the screen (and up ahead) and getting all the powerups, you should have 17,500 points, and another Double. Now comes the hard part. If you fire in time with the melody like I do, you can take out both turrets on the roof, and then move down and fire a volley of missiles to take out two (sometimes one) guns on the floor. Destroy the remaining gun on the floor, and then hover just above the egg generator on the bottom. Do an inverted U movement, going to the left while firing your Tailgun, to destroy all these drones. Charge ahead and take out the green generator on the roof, then move just to the right of the egg-shaped generator on the roof. Move left and right to rally your Options, and get ready to move down and fire as the second set of ships is released. Don't forget to get the powerup, too. Do the same trick to the generator on the bottom, and then take out the two wacky wheels, followed by the five ships that appear next. Depending on how many ships you destroyed from the second set, you will have 25700-26300 points. I don't think it is possible to get more than 4 or 5 drones from the second set on those generators. To continue following this guide, don't upgrade your Missiles here... I know it sounds hard and complicated, but it isn't really. It's just hard to describe with words. A video does justice to explaining this part a lot better. 1-5 - Worst. Scoring system. Ever. This boss is more confusing points-wise than R-Type Final. It seems that you get points for firing at the rocks, and as they leave the screen, you get 1000 points for each one. Normally, when the boss dies, it awards all remaining points on screen to you. But, in this case, waiting for the boss to self-destruct is NOT a good idea, as you don't get the 600 points or so per boulder for destroying them yourself. I discovered this method by chance for getting a decently high score on this boss. If you kept with my powerup order from 1-3, you should have this by the time you have the last two powerups in the stage: Speedup x2 Missile x1 Double x2 Option x3 What you do is this: Get to the top center of the screen, then move all the way to the right, taking care not to drag your Options on top of the ship. Your Options will form in a long trail behind you. (Actually, it's better to start from the dead center of the screen, then move in a sort of uneven arc towards the top right.) Crank both firing buttons down just a few moments before the boss becomes vulnerable. Just stay in the top right corner, and there's nothing the boss can do to you. The reason it works is because the Missiles destroy all the barriers, and your upgraded Double fires on the core itself. As you know, Spread Bombs are very destructive, and are what cause the massive damage to the rocks, allowing for maximum point gain. This can end the stage off for you with anywhere between 47900-49900 points, which is stupid. We haven't seen a scoring system this bad and this random since Life Force. 49,900 is my record for Stage 1. If you find a way to beat that, TELL ME IMMEDIATELY. (note top of FAQ for contact info) 2-3 - Not very much here It's not terribly difficult to milk these two generators. But powerup order here is important: Speedup x2 Missile x2 Double x2 (in use) Option x4 Your powerup meter will be set to Laser. DON'T GET THE TWO POWERUPS YOU SEE FIRST IN THIS SECTION! Take out the drone ships by flying to the right side of the screen and using your Tailgun. Fly ahead, rally your Options to you, and use missiles only to take out the glass barrier in front of you. You should probably fly inside and take out two turrets, as well. Now rush up to the generator on the roof, and take out its second batch. Do the same to the bottom generator, and once your Tailgun has blown apart everything behind you, get your Laser right away. Proceed to do the rest of the stage as normal. If you get every single remaining powerup, you have enough power to get a Force Field and then have two powerups remaining, which is enough to get a second Force Field by the time you reach the second "double helix" pattern in 3-1. You might need it if you're a show-off like me... 2-6 - 2 boring minutes for 6,600? It's very easy to milk this boss. He does a cycle of glass-blowing every 24 seconds (five cycles over the course of two minutes). I'm not too sure about how well this strategy works on higher loops, but it will give you more points. Rally your Options above point where the glass on the floor will appear, then move up and to the left of that clump of Options. When the glass appear, fire like nuts as you move up and left some more to take out the glass panels that come out from above. Do this five times and you'll get some extra points. 3-2 - The Path of Little Reward I don't know the best possible path through 3-2, as it seems kind of random at times. (Although it isn't very much at all.) Since this isn't that important anyway, I'll just give relatively vague instructions. Again, only a video can really do this section justice. - Take out everything at the first star you see, and then the ship behind it - Move down and take out the stuff at that star - Move wayyyyy down and take out the one ship - Go back up to the huge star, kill three lions and then get the bonus. - Move through the middle of this star and move down quickly, in time to take out a lion to the left, a lion from below and then two ships trying to flee the screen. - Move up so that you are in between two smaller stars. Two lions will be released from them simultaneously. 4-2 - What do you call that thing again? Go into this section with a Laser. Start with your Options in a loopy shape above you, while flying low to the ground and using your laser to take out ground targets. Once the wallcano starts erupting, move up and fire on the rocks with just your lasers. When the generators on the ground are finished dispensing, move down and to the left while launching missiles and still firing lasers. Cling to the bottom left corner of the screen for a few moments (Option-dragging procedure. A walker will come in from this corner and then run away), then start moving upward so you can escape in time. Keep your Options underneath the fallen wallcano for as long as possible. Switch to a Double in time for the next part... 4-3 - Oh yeah, WALLCANOES!!! Getting as many points in the crowded section of this part should be self-explanatory by now, so here's how to milk the shit out of the wallcanoes. Use your Spread Bombs to smother to the entrances, most of all. Get to the wallcanoes the instant they appear on screen, as they are more important than powerups. Try not to rely on using your Double to destroy rocks, since they are small, and so are your standard bullets. When both are on screen at once, place emphasis on the second wallcano right away, as your Tailgun may be able to cover half of the still-emerging rocks from the first one. I think that on Loop 3, the wallcanoes are a lot nastier, with faster rocks and second spurts... 4-4 - Eggs, eggs, eggs After getting the bonus, move to the top of the screen and above the second pointy rock. Rally your Options left and right, and take out the 6 drones with regular fire. Hit the left edge of the screen, then start moving down in order to drag your Options through the first egg generator. The first generator and the second generator's ships will reach you at about the same time, so fire both missles and shots for a second to blow them up. QUICKLY move to the left edge of the screen again, then straight up into the top left corner. If you are too slow, a drone may target you and start moving off-screen early. This section can be very tricky if you are without a Force Field, as you are surrounded with little space to move, and with bullets coming from all directions (except above and behind). Take as many enemies as you like, then move straight down to drag your Options through the egg generator facing downward. I'm not too sure about this, as enemy planes will be on screen by this time as well...it is practically impossible to balance between the enemy fighters, the generators and their drones all at the same time. I will have the best method available some time later. 4-6 - Milking the Bubbles Tyebo shared with me the only thing he knew about Gradius Galaxies that I didn't one day: There are points to milk out of the Stage 4 boss. Kill the bigger ship first, and if you hug the right edge of the screen, the smaller Core's laser attacks and its flight pattern can't do anything to you. Depending on what ship type you have, milking this bubble attack can be easy or hard. No matter what, you want a laser, as a Double's bullets are too small to hit the tiny, speedy bubbles. Here are my findings: Type A - Amazing. No need to fire missiles. Just sweep the crap out of it. Type B - Good. The fast-moving Ripple Laser provides an oddly huge amount of coverage. Type C - Decent. The Thrust laser cuts through all the bubbles, but it moves slowly. Type D - The Worst. The Twin Laser only gets about 85% of the bubbles, and it kills the core faster than any other laser, meaning less time to actually milk the beast. Type D yields about 20,000 points from this trick, and the other ship types will earn up to 30,000 or more! 5-2 - The Path of Mucho Points Er...this is nearly impossible to map out. As much as I would like to map out all of Stage 5, I don't have the time (or skill in MSPaint, or emulators to provide screenshots, or drawing skills to even mildly represent an accurate interpretation of what Stage 5 looks like). Just watch Gradius Galaxies: The Movie, or better yet, just get someone to rip out the section in VirtualDub. Like me. When this is done right, you can get as many as 100,000-odd points. If you do it very well in a full run, you should have 403,000 going into 5-5! 5-5 - ARGH! THE BUBBLES! It seems that this boss is among the hardest in the game, but that's not why you're reading this guide now, is it? There are quite a few points to be squeezed out of this part, plus it looks amazing when you do it too. The bosses attack in a simplistic way. Get as many rings as possible by starting near the ceiling, then moving towards the middle of the screen and then backwards. Only use your Double to fire. Watch the mouths of the three Moais carefully, to make sure they don't try to fire backwards, as then you will lose rings. Next up are some bubbles that move about half the speed of the bubbles that the 4-6 boss fired. Although it is technically possible to do this part with a programmable controller, you don't want to learn how. (See Gradius Galaxies: The Movie with commentary for details.) Before the bubbles are actually launched, fly to a spot slightly above the upper left head's mouth. This is where your rear Options will be (remember, you should have two speedups). Move straight down until you're a little above the lower left head's mouth. Then, when the bubbles emerge, start firing your Double to take out the bubbles while moving straight to the left. When there are lots of bubbles blocking the Moais' mouths, start firing your Spread Bombs. There has to be enough bubbles to absorb their impact, or else you'll damage the bosses too much! You have to let the bosses live until they self-destruct for maximum points. Things should start to get hairy now suicide-bullet-wise, so once you're cornered or nearly cornered against the left side of the screen, start moving straight up, and when you run out of space again, move to the right. By that time, you will have made a sort of square-shaped path around the arena, and the bubble onslaught will have ended. Don't try to be a hero and fit between swarms of bullets, as they move too fast and are too close together, even for the relatively tiny hitbox of Gradius Galaxies. In fact, if this were Gradius V, I probably would do the same movement. I have no clue if this strategy works on higher loops of Hard. Next up is the Legs Phase. You have to get VERY low to the ground to take out the legs of the bottom Moai head if you don't have Type A or Type C missiles, just so you know. The legs are worth 200 points each, but the real point value comes from de-syncing the Moais' attacks. The second cycle through the top head will begin slightly earlier, followed by the bottom head and then the middle head almost at the same time. On the third cycle, the bubble streams will practically finish one at a time. After the third cycle, the boss will self-destruct. Be careful of the bursts of bullets that will emerge from ring assaults, and you'll do fine. The movement required to survive the bubbles takes some practice. If you're going to practice 5-5 alone, try to break a score of about 76,000. 6-2 - Gens again This is simple, yet very difficult to pull off. Go into 6-2 with a Laser. Try to organize your powerup meter so that you have EITHER: - A Force Field ready to save your unshielded sihp - Your Powerup meter set to Option, with a fresh Force Field already active Don't forget you can do the trick of getting a Double and then a Laser in quick succession if you have to. Anyway, there are two generators early on in 6-2 that spit out clumps of cells every two seconds or so. There is one last powerup in this room before they appear, so get it and then rally your Options so that your Lasers won't hit the generators themselves. Just use your Lasers to hit the cells as soon as they appear on screen, dodging suicide bullets all the while. When it looks like you're about to be crushed against the left edge of the screen by the generator on the roof, move behind it and shoot it with normal lasers, then use your Missiles to kill the generator on the floor. Now, either use your Force Field to take out the red gun on the roof, or activate your spare one to smash it up. Be careful of the tongue-y thing on the wall! 8-2 - Risk your life for... 100 points! This is the true test to see if you've got some real balls. As you may know, there is a shortcut path you can take in 8-2. Instead of diving down into the fortress, you can fly above it all, although you'll be beating back one of those big blue barriers, and plus there is one gun turret at the very end. Taking this path causes you to drop approximately 9,400 points, so you shouldn't take it. But how do you hit the turret up there? Simple. You need a Tailgun, obviously. This can be done with either two or three speedups, but it's definitely easier with three. About halfway through, after traveling back up to the top of the fortress, there are two red guns on the ground, with a goofy rounded spike in the roof. To the left of this spike is...the missing gun turret that you normally wouldn't be able to get! If you have two speedups, hug the roof on the way into this part, and move left early on, making very small upward movements. Be careful with this gun, as it will still shoot very fast bullets at you. If you have a Force Field, you will most definitely be safe, but don't be afraid if you still lose it on the way in. If you have three speedups, just move up and left equally, take the gun out with your Tailguns, and move out quickly. It's somewhat easy to die here, but getting 100 more points suddenly makes it worthwhile. Don't forget to try to get all five guns in 8-3. 8-5 - Laser Maracas Of Death It's very easy (and very boring) to milk this boss if you do it right. Start by rallying your Options in the space where the laser maraca on top will fly in, then fly the ship to a position just a little above and to the left of where the maraca will sit. Use all your firepower to take out this maraca as soon as it appears, and by that time, the laser maraca on the bottom will go nuts in the bottom left corner. Take your time, as you've got two whole minutes to take it out. Just make sure you hit all the maroon balls that the boss fires, as they give 2000 points each. If you do this instead of killing the boss normally as fast as you could, you'll get 52,000 more points. 8-6 - Every boss in Ikaruga would get steamrolled by this boss. Milking the Multi-Core's final form is among one of the most intense things I have ever taken on in all of the shooter games I’ve played. There are no safe spots in the screen, and it’s a test of how well you understand how to dodge little diamonds and chunks of fire. Just wreck all the flaming comets and drones that the boss makes in the early going while trying not to damage the boss himself. After the initial attacks are over, the boss will begin to target you while firing more comets, while the two support whiles spew chunks of metal everywhere. Use an upgraded Double, so that you can hit more garbage, and you’ll kill the boss slower that way too. Each piece of metal is worth 100 points, and each fireball is worth 3000 points. Try to go in with a spare Force Field, and use it looks like you’re about to die. The boss’s attacks will get more and more rapid and fierce as the battle goes on. Be careful, because it’s hard to end the battle intentionally if things go bad. You can rip anywhere from 180,000 – 200,000 points from this section if you’re willing to practice it enough! 8-8 - The Eggs and The Furnaces As the enormous 8-8 section comes to a close, some fast-moving “flying furnaces” rush onscreen. Their health is ridiculously high, and on higher loops, they move faster while spreading themselves out farther, like speed mods in DDR. Try to rally your Options on top of you as you hang back towards the left edge of the screen. It’s pretty much the only way to destroy the furnaces, although they give a good score apiece. I’m not sure exactly how much it is, since they go by so fast. Another important feature to pay attention to is a certain notch in the ceiling for the 5000 point bonus. See the bonus section at the start of the guide to learn where it is. The furnaces will still be attacking when you have a chance to get it, and it will be off-screen by the time they have all gone by. 8-9 - You want to milk THIS PART?! I’ve never tried this, but I do know that is it possible. The Wall Core keeps spawning walkers on the top and bottom, but milking this part would be so difficult, as you would have to survive the flames on the floor and ceiling, along with bullets from the walkers (don’t forget suicide bullets too), and that will last an entire two minutes. I estimate that this will only give 2,000 points at most, as the walkers are only worth 100 points each. Two of them run out approximately every 6 seconds. I should really learn how to do this so that I could be called a true show-off. Wow. I think that’s the end already! The first version seems to be finished. My contact information is at the top if you need to reach me. WALLCANOES!