Together Retro: DoDonPachi

[pierrot]

So, it actually seems that I was wrong, and that first midboss really isn't worth much, even with a large chain. I decided to still full chain the first half of the stage, but to drop it before the midboss, and I still ended up with about 2.3m.

Lasering the midboss will increase your max chain for as long as you hold laser fire on it, though. It can add 5-15 hits to your max chain, from what I've seen. This can be a fairly big boost to an unbroken chain up to it.

[dunpeal2064]

I barely noticed a difference in my score when comparing a run where I killed the midboss with 180 chain, and a run where I dropped that chain at 174 before fighting him. I had 1.8m in both cases.

[ExedExes]

So far today, that stage 2 boss has killed me every run. That damn spread that he shoots right as he is about to die, that is twice as fast as the previous spread, is just getting me every time today.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. Always have to end up using a bomb, forfeiting the MAXIMUM bonus and not keeping it for Area 3 where more chains are possible and no bombs have to be used till the end.

this is how I keep dying too -- trying to learn Type A. The thing is when I make it to Stage 3, Type A seems so much more effective than B.

Type A/B ship or Shot/Laser Type?

[noiseredux]

Type A/B ship or Shot/Laser Type?

ship. I keep switching between A & B ships (I can't use C... too slow). And I always use Shot.

[dunpeal2064]

I can't play with anything but C Shot. I get trapped in corners too often and need a way to kill enemies that aren't directly in front of me. Plus, I use the weaker side shots to slow-kill enemies for chaining purposes. For some reason, I can't do this with C Laser though.

I am tempted to start looking at some superplays, because stage 2 has so many spots where I just can't hold that chain.

Also, on stage 2, there is a spot where you kill these 2 silver... things, and a thing in between them, followed by another thing that shoots a pink spread at you. When you kill him and fly over where he was, flowers will pop up. They are similar to the tan piggies in Batsugun, hovering near them will make your score skyrocket.

However, there are so many bees in that spot that I have no idea how you could accomplish both getting all bees AND milking this spot for points.

The more I play this, the more I am finding it to be extreamly well balanced between all play styles. The perfect example of risk/reward, from chaining, to bombing/keeping max bonus, to deciding what bees you can get without dropping chain... there is just so much goodness here.

[pierrot]

I barely noticed a difference in my score when comparing a run where I killed the midboss with 180 chain, and a run where I dropped that chain at 174 before fighting him. I had 1.8m in both cases.

Just as an example, getting the the mid boss with 183 chain (which I think is either max chain up to that point or damn near it) the chain bonus gives you +1,784,460; and type a (laser) can get a max chain of 190 after the mid-boss by holding the chain on it, for a bonus of +1,923,760. At that point, the gain would be 139,300 points, which would be significantly more than shooting through it. You get probably between 30,000 - 50,000 points shooting through the level one mid boss, from what I've noticed. Plus, you most likely give up some of the star dropping enemies, in between the mid boss and the next wave, which drop 10,000 point stars when you kill them in the bottom tenth of the screen. I think it's a wash either way, really. If you don't have a chain, that is.

Also, another point bonus in the first level: If you destroy the first level boss' pods while their gun turrets are out (when it's about to spin them around itself) they drop five 10,000 point stars each, instead of just one.

[dunpeal2064]

Yeah, you are right, it just feels like so much work for 100k, when the bomb bonus and chaining lots of small enemies gives you millions.

I always laser the boss so I can get to those pods. I'm pretty sure you get more stars, up to the big star, the closer you are to them, not them to the bottom of the screen. I could be wrong though.

Good call on that st1 boss trick. I've pulled it of by chance, but I can't time their death yet. It seems worth it though.

[noiseredux]

timing bosses is tough for sure.. if you DO bomb the 2nd boss there's one of his "big sprays" (might be the first one???) that will turn into a bunch of big stars for instance.

[pierrot]

Yeah, you are right, it just feels like so much work for 100k, when the bomb bonus and chaining lots of small enemies gives you millions.

I always laser the boss so I can get to those pods. I'm pretty sure you get more stars, up to the big star, the closer you are to them, not them to the bottom of the screen. I could be wrong though.

Good call on that st1 boss trick. I've pulled it of by chance, but I can't time their death yet. It seems worth it though.

Yeah, there's a lot of things in this game that are a lot of work for seemingly trivial amounts of points, but they add up. Holding the chain on the first level mid-boss isn't all that difficult, I find. It's a lot more work for me to actually get the full chain from the start of the stage up to it.

You could be right about the pods. I haven't tested it that extensively.

I keep trying now to destroy the boss' pods as they open up the gun turrets for the first time (which is apparently possible) but so far it's been a lot more work than it's probably worth....

timing bosses is tough for sure.. if you DO bomb the 2nd boss there's one of his "big sprays" (might be the first one???) that will turn into a bunch of big stars for instance.

That's pretty cool. I had no idea about that. would suck to give up a max bomb just to get those stars, but I might see if I can get it to trigger sometime.

[dunpeal2064]

Yeah, using the normal bomb (not laser bomb) cancels all on-screen bullets into stars.

You are right pierrot that getting to him with chain in tact is the hard part. I was restarting until I got it right everytime, but now Ill keep going as long as I at least hit 160 chain.

I imagine stage 2 could weild massive points, if you could somehow chain it all together, and stage 3 even moreso if you could chain and hold onto that max bonus.

I want to clear the loop before I start working on that though