--Basic System Explanation-- NOTE - All advice given in this post is based around the 'Expert' control method. Some advanced system features are not available in other control methods. Gems Gems are obtained by killing enemies. This powers your Awakened Perception mode. As you kill enemies and build this counter up, you can use it as a currency to 'awaken'. Gold When you kill an enemy in Awakened Perception, it creates a small explosion. Any enemy bullets that are caught in this explosion are turned into gold. Awakened Perception Tap the 'Awaken button on screen to go into Awakened Perception. In this mode, gems count down. Killing an enemy will result in a drop in gems, but any bullets around the enemy will be turned into gold. All bullets are in slow motion for the duration of this mode, but bullet patterns may get more intense. The more bullets you cancel at once, the higher your score multiplier goes, up to a maximum of 100x. If you are hit by a bullet in this mode, you will automatically engage your guard barrier at the cost of half your gauge. Awakening Over If you do not disable Awakened Perception by the time your gem counter hits 0, you go into Awakening Over mode. You can identify this mode when bullets turn red. In this mode, your weapons behave as they would in Awakened Perception, however bullets behave normally and do not cancel. Enemies killed drop small amounts of gold instead of gems. The longer you stay in Awakening Over, the faster bullets will begin to travel and the more your 'Awakening Over Level' begins to rise. Guard Barrier This can be used as both a panic button and a fierce attack. As you hold in the Guard Barrier button, a shield surrounds you making you completely invunerable. While your Guard Barrier is up, your Guard Barrier gauge located in the bottom left hand side of the screen will drain. When you release the Guard Barrier, you will unleash a very powerful linear attack. The power of this attack is related to how long you have activated your Guard Barrier for and how many bullets you have absorbed. --Advanced System Explanation-- Absolute Awakened Perception Now here's where the major score starts to happen. Once you have used the basic system explanation to build up a small stockpile of gold AND gems, hold in the Awaken button until the screen flashes white, and you will enable Absolute Awakened Perception. This mode drops both gems AND gold simultaneously. All bullets are in slow motion for this mode, but bullet patterns will get more intense. Destroying an enemy will cancel most, if not all bullets on screen, depending on the size of the enemy. Any bullets cancelled will raise your multiplier up to a maximum of 500x. In this mode however, these cancelled bullets multiply into more bullets... This allows you to create a 'chain reaction' effect, cancelling bullets into more bullets and cancelling those bullets into more, etc etc, building up your multiplier and scoring big time. If you are struck by a bullet in this mode, you will automatically engage your guard barrier, fall down to Awakened Perception (not absolute), and your entire guard barrier gauge will deplete. Absolute Awakening Over This mode occurs when you run out of gems in Absolute Awakened Perception, but you still have gold remaining. Bullets will turn red just the same. This mode is exactly the same as Awakening Over but enemies drop a higher amount of gold. The longer you stay in this mode, the faster bullets will begin to travel and the more your 'Awakening Over Level' begins to rise. Awakening Over Level As mentioned above, this occurs when staying in Awakening Over. The higher your Awakening Over Level, the more gold enemies will drop in Awakening Over/Absolute Awakening Over and the more gems enemies will drop in normal mode. Therefore it helps to have this maxed out early on, allowing you to collect gems and gold easier throughout the game. --Basic Scoring Technique-- Kill enemies with your normal shot. This will build up your gem counter. Use these gems to enter Awakened Perception. Kill enemies and cancel their bullets to gain gold. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 to build up your gold and gems When you are in a potentially high scoring area (Lots of bullets and lots of enemies on screen), hold in the Awaken button to use your gold and gems to enter Absolute Awakened Perception. Kill enemies and cancel as many bullets as possible. Once this is over, repeat the process again from Step 1. --Advanced Scoring Technique-- Right at the very start of Stage 1, immediately enter Awakened Perception and gain at least 1 gold. With 0 gems and at least 1 gold, disengage Awakening Over and enter Absolute Awakened Perception. You will notice you will immediately go into Absolute Awakening Over. Stay in this mode throughout the entirety of Stage 1. This will help build your Awakening Over Level to maximum, and allow you to completely max out your gold counter. Even with a maxed out gold counter, continue collecting gold from all dropped enemies. By the time you have defeated the Stage 1 boss, you should have roughly 5 million including end-level bonus. From Stage 2 onwards, use your normal shot to build up your gems. Once you have a moderate amount of gems, enable Absolute Awakened Perception and use this to kill as many enemies and cancel as many bullets as possible. DO NOT MANUALLY DISENGAGE ABSOLUTE AWAKENED PERCEPTION. Instead, wait for your gems to run out. You will still have Gold as surplus. Stay in Awakening Over to re-build your gold before disengaging. Repeat from Step 5. NOTE: The advanced scoring technique is my personal scoring technique. This has gained me position 2 on the Tateha Arcade Openfeint scoreboards. --Obtaining the Stage 3 Hidden 1UP-- At the Stage 3 Sub-Boss, destroy all 6 optional parts on the first form. (3 parts on the left, 3 on the right) Do not use your Guard Barrier between facing the mid-boss and the end of the stage. At the end of the stage where you pick up the Energy item, on the left hand side of the screen roughly 25% in, go into Absolute Awakened Perception and shoot the scenery. You will see a small life extend appear. I hope this helps any of you. If i've gotten any of this information wrong, then please tell me and i'll correct it. --Fighting 'Hatred Unbound' Seseri-- In order to make Hatred Unbound Seseri (Alternate Stage 5 boss final form) appear, the following two conditions have to be met: Reach the Stage 5 boss on a SINGLE LIFE. If you lose a life at any point in the game, you will not see Hatred Unbound Seseri. Awakening Over Level must be at Level 3 (Near Maximum) or over. This form still appears if you begin on Stage 5 instead of Stage 1. From a scoring perspective, there is little point to fighting this form as the difficulty increase isn't relative to the increase in score. Therefore if you're 1CC clearing the game for score it's best to suicide at the beginning of Stage 5 to make sure you don't end up facing her.
Thanks! This helps a lot! If you have any other tips on boosting scores/staying alive I'd love to hear them. This game rocks, but I feel like I'm letting it down with my weak skills.
What is sad is I have top 10-15 scores playing novice with simple controls on all 3 arcade characters. With this I know I can push the limits even more. I knew this game had a lot of depth but I have not even scratched the surface it seems.
Seriously? That's slightly worrying. Would you be able to do me a favour? Play through it like you normally do and record what your high scores are at the end of each stage? I'm concerned.
Edited post: No, it is NOT easier to score in Novice mode! I misjudged the end-of-game bonus. I just 1CC'd normal mode with Tateha, with a final score of 232mil. That's just put me at position 2 on the scoreboards, holy crap!!
I did novice simple controls 1CC clear with tateha and got 205,547,435. It seems only if you are hardcore enough to take advantage of the extra bullets to the max does playing the next difficulty really help.
As of this posting. All novice simple controls scores Rank 19 arcade ageha 195,013,442 Rank 7 arcade tateha 205,547,435 Rank 20 arcade asagi 164,298,621 (I played expert controls and would have wrecked this score by 70 million but I died because I wasn't used to having to use my barrier myself =X) It seems that people have finally figured it out to some degree because before I kid you not I was in the top 15 with all 3 characters. I do not play simple controls anymore I really want to get into the complexity of the game. I do not understand this levels thing. I have seen the bar around my character before but is there a way to tell what level I have gotten it to because places say there is only 4 levels and it is possible to max in level 1.
I suppose it still makes sure novice players can compete for score. On your 1CC finish, how many of your lives are remaining? I think this might play a part in the end-game bonus.
well with those I would say I had atleast 3 probably 4 lives remaining. All those scores I did not know how to get the extend item in level 3 sadly. I literally can perfect the game until level 6 in novice every time. Normal is just difficult enough that going for score at this point I cannot keep track of it all unless I am playing simple controls.
As a matter of fact, awakening over level max level is 4, the time bar you saw will disappear when it reaches the max level and the awakening level will be retained in the game unless you run of of your lives. If you enter the awakening over mode at the very beginning of game, the max level will be achieved before the first big large zaku ship in stage 1. It doesn't matter to switch back after you get to the maximum level ps: My openfeint account is Xiaoke, currently 1st in Asagi arcade. That score is achieved in novice, you just need to use absolute awakening mode and chain more.
I think I finally understand that whole level thing. To make sure though. I just sit in awakening over mode until the bar around me goes away right. I SHOULD be able to get it done before level 1 is over right?
It was my understanding that in the Iphone version even if you die your level is retained but I do not remember where I read it. Yah I did it before the first big turret I'm sure my scores will go up a good bit thanks for the help.
Oh definitely. The moment the bar around you disappears, you've maxed it out and it stays maxed out even if you die. I'm just absolutely crap at beating 5mil on stage 1 without using the method I posted. Hard difficulty is another story, but I can't seem to get score the proper way on stage 1 very well otherwise
I only get 2 million on stage 1 at this point on novice. Figuring out the best time to use awakening is just trial and error for me at this point. Along with getting used to expert controls.
Try going through the whole of Stage 1 on Absolute Awakening Over. Just collect gold the whole way through. Use your Awaken right at the beginning, get at least one gold, come out of awaken, then hold in the awaken button and play the entirety of stage 1 on novice expert controls like that. You should get yourself 5 mil.
