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This was the stage 1 I watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNXc4g4FYKU

I initially watched his stage 3 for about 10 seconds, as the 3:50 mark is where the 1up appears. I've since watched his entire stage 3. Absolute farm job - you have to tap shot or autofire, can't to hold shot or you won't be fast enough to swoop at the top of the screen like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXkLhTw8 ... ure=relmfu

mjmjr25 wrote:Your averaging 1.5-1.7, hash? That is really good. I'm averaging 1million.

Can you describe your run? As in, do you play in overdrive the whole run? Do you not play in overdrive at all? If both, when are you switching?

I hit stage 5 boss today - score was sorta meh, sorta run where if I had a reset button, I would've reset, only had 2.1 mil through stage 2.

Stage 4 boss is a trip - but managed him with no hits - pretty much luck considering only second time I faced him. For those who haven't tried him yet...it's nuts. Won't say what he does...but it's a trip.

Is Overdrive "kakusei" mode? If so, I am doing it on the 2nd Power Up enemy (quickly double tap so I don't waste gems), the first double-turret along with the following enemies up until the (3rd) Power Up enemy, then again on the next Power Up enemy right before the mid-boss takes him out, then again on the mid boss. Between the mid-boss and the boss, I'm kinda inconsistent. I've only put in about one our of play into this game so I have a lot to practice and I need to become more consistent.

I'm playing the PS2 version with a Saturn pad so a lot of time was wasted resetting and trying different button setting combinations. If it matters, I have the Saturn controller set up as:

x= rapid
a= shot
b= kakusei
c= shield

Blue bullets = normal
Purple bullets = Kasukei mode (can cancel purple bullets)
Red bullets = kasuke mode overdrive (out of gems, so can't cancel bullets, but still collect gold ingot)

I actually figured out a way to hit 1.5 mil consistently, though it's different from what your doing (I think).

Fighting bosses in overdrive is huge points. Fight the mid-boss in overdrive for an extra 100K-ish, fight the stage 1 end boss in overdrive for an extra 300K-ish. Went from 1.1 to 1.5 steadily the last 5 runs just doing that, and those are both very manageable in overdrive.

Also, start your stages in overdrive...you get points just for being in overdrive (your score literally is going up 10pts every 1/4 second you are in overdrive <-- estimate) even if you aren't shooting anything. So starting stage 2 / 3 / 4 in overdrive is just free points.

Is anyone else feeling like they are "so freaking close" to putting it altogether? I just can't do all the things right in the same run. Hitting stage 4 boss / stage 5 area each run now...points start to build up fast in stage 5, especially if you've hit your 1000 meter twice by that point (or 4x by that point if you are one of the guys hitting 50mil).

Somehow I've gotten worse at this game tonight and only had one run over 5mill

I did manage a 1.2 million Stage 1 at one point, though, so I am starting to do something right there. I think ultimately I just don't really care for this scoring system.

Up to 12.3 mil...

Getting close to the 2nd extend right before stage 5 boss, an ALL is possible...

Haven't hit the 1up on stage 3 all day - not sure how I got it before and now i'm not. I'm confused.

Chaz, can you elaborate? What is the trick?

I decided to go on and try the other stages. I kinda half-assed it since I don't memorize which enemies release a lot of bullets for cancelling. I hit 10 million and died on the Stage 4 boss. I'll try mj's technique but once you've burrowed yourself in your own style it's hard to break out of it.

mjmjr25 wrote:Up to 12.3 mil...

Getting close to the 2nd extend right before stage 5 boss, an ALL is possible...

Haven't hit the 1up on stage 3 all day - not sure how I got it before and now i'm not. I'm confused.

Chaz, can you elaborate? What is the trick?

Nice score man!

I'm almost positive that the only requirement to get the extend is to be in Kakesui mode when you fly over the end of the ship, right after these 2 turret things. There is this eye with patterns around it, but you can only see it when in Kakesui (Not Over), and its possible that bombing the thing will lose you the extend. There may be some other requirement too, because Deca was having a hard time getting it.

Guh. 90 minutes tonight and just absolutely stuck.

First 3 stages are relatively cake - sometimes get nicked toward end of stage 3, but usually get through ok. Have not hit the 1up in 2 days (12-15 runs) which is infuriating.

Tonight, more of the same, coast to stage 4, get eaten up by stage 4 boss. I got to him on my last run w/4 hearts, only to lose 3 on him. Then battled my way to stage 5 boss, got her down 2/3 but just got trapped and was done for.

No improvement. Close, but nopers. The run I hit stage 5 on was awful score-wise, never hit my 1000 meter a single time.

Nice score, dood.

That's about where I'm at; coast through to Stage 4 with almost no problem, then most the time I have a stupid death even before the boss. After that I'm pissed, and my run goes down the crapper.

Gonna try and put some time into this tonight, and hopefully have something good to show by week's end.

Putting my final runs in tonight. How do you guys play this?

I've been playing in Overdrive about 90% of the time, just letting my score tally up, and collecting 1,000 gold ingots from kills. I'm at about 16 mil now, and kind of stuck.

Being in OD actually makes some patterns more managable, IMO.