Unlock tips

[Stig-FD3S]

For any new players. The game works with a simple unlock system:

 

You need to boost your "lifetime score" to unlock stuff.

 

You increase your lifetime score by playing different game modes, but only your first run counts. Any score after a continue is ignored.

 

You need about 2,000,000 lifetime points to unlock unlimited continues.

 

Other unlocks like filters, music, modes, challenges, etc. unlock progressively with score

 

Also, you really need to get good at using both burst and bomb. You should be using both options pretty regularly. Much more often than other shooters.

 

You're also encouraged to absolutely demolish bosses quickly. There's no need to wait around milking them for points.

 

Also your shot type really matters.

 

Laser is good for a focused attack power but sucks for wide spread.

 

Spread is good but weak in the outer spread and powerful with the centre shot. Also spread shot is more powerful the closer you are to the enemy. Not sure whether spread up close or laser is most powerful.

 

Hunter is absolutely a necessity unlike a lot of other shmups. There are many situations where you want to use it. In fact almost every stage where you have normal enemies you will want the hunter.

 

Your movement speed is super fast but so are enemy bullets. unless you're on the max speed setting you can't outrun bullets, you need to dodge predictively.

 

Your hitbox is small and can be toggled on to display, but bullets have a habit of being aimed really well and hitting you anyway. Be careful.

 

Each stage you 1cc will unlock as a non ranked mode options when you start a new game.

 

The other ships play vastly different. One plays similar to radiant Silvergun. Experiment with them.

 

 

[PunisherXD]

I'd like to expand on this a little and give a bit more info on a few things:

 

The Lifetime Score stuff is correct, only the score you get within your first continue is counted. I can also confirm that you get unlimited continues at 2 million Lifetime Points. All Unlocks seems to be at around 7-8 million (all filters/bullets), I'm on 5 million right now with 41/45 unlocks.

 

Andraste (red ship) is the easiest by far due to how OP its bullet absorption is, the higher your multiplier the higher the range of this "Burst"

 

I would disagree on the 3 weapon types. Hunter is the worst by far due to its low DPS and basically useless Bomb, I only use it when enemies are in awkward places that the Laser or Spread doesn't get to. Laser and Spread are very useful, but it depends on the circumstances whether one is better than the other. Normally you'd want Spread at the bosses to spam Bombs as you mentioned.

 

About the Stage unlocks. Based on some experimenting I did with Very Easy difficulty, it seems like a stage unlocks if you clear it within your first continue. So for example to unlock Stage 3, you would have to get to Stage 4 without using continues. I'm certain that you can't unlock it by just 1CCing the stage, as I tried this with Stage 5 and 6 on Very Easy. I used up 2 continues on Stages 1-4, then did Stage 5 and 6 without any continues and I didn't unlock them. I only unlocked them once I did a full 1CC on that difficulty. Also, I'm fairly sure Expert stage selection unlocks alongside Very Hard's stage selection, although I'm yet to confirm that. UPDATE: I unlocked Stage 4 on Very Hard to practice on when I got to it during a 1CC rather than clearing the stage. Also, I can confirm that Expert unlocks independently, which is awesome 🫠

 

Scathach (yellow ship) is also a very good ship to play as, the Burst is, whilst not as powerful as Andraste's, still a very useful mechanic and basically works the same way, except the multiplier is x1-x3 instead of x1-x6, and each multiplier activates a different type of burst (x1 has these blades go around you like a shield, x2 is a huge laser, x3 is basically nuke). This also deals damage to enemies so it comes in handy quite often outside of dodging bullets.

 

Boudicca (purple ship) is the most complex one by far, I haven't gotten around to learning it yet as I want to get a Very Hard 1CC on Andraste first. It has 3 types of shots that irreplaceable, the other two replacing what otherwise would be your Burst and Bomb. You can press two of these at the same time to get a... combo? it's really weird 😅. Boudicca also gets a shield which is meant to be the way you absorb bullets, but it only has a limited amount of usage and needs to recharge after a while.

 

So far the roadmap for this game seems to be "Get 2 million points -> Clear with all ships -> Extra Mode 1CC with all ships -> the rest which we haven't got to yet. I'm only missing Boudicca's Extra Stage 1CC and then I'm fully done with Extra Stage but it's really hard 🤣. Scathach's 1CC was probably a 7-8/10 for me despite it only being 3 minutes. I saved my run on YouTube if people need referencing for it, although it's going to come down to formulating your own route. https://youtu.be/G4Dlo_qQKQs

 

I've already said this in one of the other forums for this game, but the difficulty here is ridiculous. Unless we somehow find some crazy exploits that break the game (which I heavily doubt we will), this has the potential for one of the hardest platinums ever. The "All the Warriors" trophy requires three Expert 1CCs in a row, once with each ship, in one sessions and without quitting prematurely. Even one Expert 1CC is brutal and would be enough to make this game a solid 10/10, but this takes it several leagues higher. I'll continue playing it for fun whilst I work on other things, but I'm not expecting anyone to get this platinum for a long while. We finally have a new Crypt 🙃

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by PunisherXD2006
edited to update information

[Vergil]

So you start right after you finish one 1cc. Like a loop?

[PunisherXD]

21 minutes ago, Vergil said:

So you start right after you finish one 1cc. Like a loop?

The only loop I'm aware of is if you 1CC Very Hard, the game asks you if you want to continue the run to Expert or not, which I was told by Kiwi (the only person on PC with significant progress on the game). I'm gonna assume because you need to select different ships between each run, you can't take any loops in for the three Expert 1CCs trophy even if there are any (unless loops allow switching your ship, but I doubt that).

Edited December 17, 2023 by PunisherXD2006