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Copied from the original available here.
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1.0 Introduction
This guide is for Mushihime-sama Futari ver 1.5. I previously wrote a short explanatory guide for ver 1.0, but that version is rather obsolete these days, with ver 1.5 being the only one people play seriously now.

1.1 CHARACTERS
There are two characters, Reco and Palm. In addition there are two types of each to choose from. These are termed “Normal” and “Abnormal”. All four character-types play quite differently from one another. In the section below, note that I’ve rated Speed (S), Range (R), and Power (P) for each shot type (A and C) for each character-type, from 1-10 (10 is the best). These are based upon my own estimation after extensive use with each character type.

Reco
___Normal: Her A shot [S:3 R:4 P:8] is similar to S-power from the prequel, while her C shot [S:6 R:10 P:6] is similar to W-power from the prequel. Perhaps the most well-rounded character-type in the game.
___Abnormal: Her A shot [S:10 R:4 P:9] moves faster than her C shot, and is similar to S-power from the prequel. In addition, the child pods attach to whatever enemy is near them when the A button is held down. Her C-shot [S:6 R:9 P:6] is similar to a shot-type seen in Ketsui. Overall the hardest character to handle in the game, though when fully powered her A shot is stronger than anything Normal Reco can muster. She is also faster than the Normal-type. She requires a great deal of skill, but in the right hands she can do serious damage.

Palm
___Normal: His A shot [S:4 R:9 P:7] is a DDP-esque laser, moderately powerful but quite effective. His C-shot [S:8 R:7 P:6] is similar to M-power from the prequel, and is strong and fast with a decent range once powered up.
___Abnormal: His A shot [S:2 R:9 P:10] is the strongest shot in the game, beating out Abnormal Reco’s A shot. It also has a great range. His C shot [S:9 R:3 P:5], while it looks very cool, is actually the weakest in the game. It has the worst range as well.

2.0 CONTROLS
A: Shot
B: Bomb
C: Autofire

Like the first game, tapping C very fast allows your lasers to stop firing, so you can do damage solely with your shot. This works best with Normal Reco. This is useful in many instances in Maniac mode, particularly when needing a quick burst to the red zone of the chaining bar on a boss when there is very little life left before its next phase change (or its complete destruction).

IMPORTANT: Anytime you are not pressing A, you suck in all the gems on the screen within a certain range. Any time you press A you suck in all the gems on the ground.

3.0 MODES
There are three modes in the game: Original, Maniac, and Ultra.

[3.1] ORIGINAL MODE
Original mode is characterized by fast but less dense bullet patterns.

[3.1.1] SCORING
Scoring is based on two multipliers: the overall counter and the stage counter. It is unclear how they are combined together, though it is clear that both influence the scoring.

[3.1.1.1]THE OVERALL COUNTER:
This is the bigger of the two counters in the upper left of the screen. It increases from the start of the game until the end of the game with no reachable maximum. The overall counter changes color from green to blue. It is green when the 100 digit is from 0-4, and it is blue when the 100 digit is from 5-9. Each time you die, your counter decreases by 1/3 (e.g. if you have 900 gems, after 1 death you will have 600). When you bomb this counter also decreases over the duration of the bomb (on average 10-15%??).

[3.1.1.2]THE STAGE COUNTER:
This resets at the start of each stage, and maxes out at 9999. The stage counter appears under the overall counter in the upper left of the screen. Each time you die, your counter decreases by 1/3 (e.g. if you have 900 gems, after 1 death you will have 600). When you bomb this counter also decreases over the duration of the bomb (on average 10-15%??).

[3.1.2] GEMS
In order to get large gold gems, you must kill enemies with the C button when the overall counter is GREEN, and the A button when it is BLUE.

[3.1.2.1]GEM VALUES
Here are the values of the different gold gems (in other words, how much each adds to your counters when you get one):

Gems in the sky:
Large: +2
Small: +1
Large green-aura: +4
Small green-aura: +2

Gems on the ground:
Large: +10
Small: +5
Large green-aura: +20 (<--MOST VALUABLE)
Small green-aura: +10

[3.1.2.2] GREEN-AURA GEMS
These are the secret to scoring in Original mode. The closer you are to enemies when they die, the more GREEN-AURA gems you can absorb. In order to trigger them you must kill the enemy with the appropriate shot, based upon the status of the multiplier (see sections 3.1.1.1 and 3.1.2 for details). These are twice the value of regular gold gems, and they only appear for a second or two once an enemy dies, whereupon they revert back to yellow. So, you must be quick, and close to enemies when they die whenever possible (and either let off the A shot or hold C to absorb all the gems quickly).

[3.1.3] RANK
Bullets gradually increase in speed, in effect increasing the game's rank, as the overall counter increases. When you reach 70,000 on the overall counter, you max out the rank in the game.

[3.2]MANIAC MODE
Maniac mode is characterized by dense bullet patterns at moderate speeds, as well as the most complex scoring of any of the game modes.

[3.2.1] SCORING
Scoring is based on one multiplier, which is termed the overall counter. This counter is only triggered by killing enemies with the A shot when the chaining bar is at zero. Each gem absorbed at this time has a blue-aura, and the value of the multiplier is added to the value of each of these gems, which increases your score once you absorb them.

[3.2.1.1]THE OVERALL COUNTER:
This is the counter in the upper left of the screen. It serves as a multiplier added to the value of the blue gems you obtain. It maxes out at 9999 and is reset to 0 at the start of each level. Gold and green-aura gems increase this counter, while blue-aura gems decrease it. Each time you die, your counter decreases by 1/3 (e.g. if you have 900 gems, after 1 death you will have 600). When you bomb this counter also decreases over the duration of the bomb (on average 10-15%??).

[3.2.2.2]THE CHAINING BAR:
This appears under the overall counter and increases from blue to red. As long as you chain enemies with the C shot, it will increase. In addition, it increases to red as long as you hold your C shot on a large enemy (like a boss). This bar decreases rapidly to zero as you hold the A shot. Kill an enemy with the A shot when the chaining bar is red and you’ll get double the gems. Kill an enemy with the A shot when this bar is empty and you’ll spawn blue-aura gems (see below). Basically, the scoring system and gameplay flow are based upon using the C shot when the chaining bar is between zero and MAX, and using A when it is at either zero or MAX.

[3.2.3]GEMS
Whenever you kill an enemy, all the bullets on the screen from that enemy are changed into gems, and in addition some gems are spawned from the enemy itself. In order to get large gold gems, you must kill enemies with the C button when the chaining bar is red (any time the chaining bar isn't red you will get small gems). Kill them with the A shot when the bar is red and you get double (or more??) the large gems, which can quite literally fill the entire screen with gems!

[3.2.3.1]GEM VALUES:

Point values:
Small gem: 5pts
Large gem: 10pts
Small blue-aura gem: 5 x multiplier
Large blue-aura gem: 10 x multiplier

Values added or subtracted from the Overall Counter (i.e your multiplier):
Small gem: +2
Large gem: +5
Small gem (on ground): +10
Large gem (on ground): +20
Small Blue-aura gem: -15
Large Blue-aura gem: -30


[3.2.3.2]GREEN-AURA GEMS
To trigger these in Maniac mode, you need to kill enemies when the chaining counter is red and not be holding the A shot when you absorb them. These are worth double the normal gems (large and small), so it’s well worth it to learn how to trigger these if you want to score well. They only glow green for a second or two before they revert back to yellow, so you must be quick and suck them in by letting off the A button. The best way to get a ton of gems quickly is to wait for an enemy to fill the screen with bullets, then kill it with the A shot when the chaining bar is red, then quickly switch to the C shot (or just don’t hold any button down) to have the nearby gems turn green as you absorb them.

[3.2.3.3]BLUE-AURA GEMS
To trigger these you must destroy an enemy with the A shot when the chaining bar is empty (no color showing). Every blue-aura gem is worth the value of the overall counter x5 for small gems and x10 for large gems at the time it is absorbed. Once absorbed, they are subtracted from the overall counter. Since the max multiplier is 9999, the max point value you can get from a single large blue-aura gem is 99,990pts.

[3.3] ULTRA MODE
Ultra mode's scoring is the same as Original mode with the following changes:

-Counter changes from green to blue every 2000
-Stage counter does not max at 9999, but rather continues indefinitely
-Bullets never change speed as your overall counter increases
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*There is no rank in Maniac or Ultra mode*

Thank TWE.
I must all this damn original mode and beat my high score!
Even if i can't all it,i made always that same mistake on the level 4,i lost one life on a boss pattern and obviously all my gems stage gone

I corrected a silly mistake: I previously wrote "anytime you aren't pressing A you suck in all the gems on the screen (even those on the ground)". I don't know why I wrote that, as to suck in the gems on the ground you have to press the A shot. Holding C or not pressing any button allows you to suck in all the gems in the air (but not those on the ground). Sorry for the confusion.

ALL clear remaining life bonus = ?

thanks in advance

You get 10mil for every spare life left at the end. This is the same across all 3 game modes.

Something else I forgot to mention: Lantern chaining. In stage 5, there are a bunch of lanterns around the level. Maybe 15-20 of these. If you keep destroying all of them in succession, they seem to increase in value, and towards the end of the "lantern route", when the last big purple dragon is descending, these can be worth 5-8 million EACH (I think there are 4 of them here, it's hard to knock down all 4 but if you do it's about 30mil just in this spot). It's a great way to rack up points in Stage 5. This works for all 3 game modes, and the point values are the same for each mode.

TWE/EOJ awesome work on the guide

I was wondering if you have got any links to complete Futari superplays ?

rtw

Hi rtw:

I have uploaded a full Maniac mode ALL run with Normal Reco here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MTI9LRW7

Final score is 650mil. The player shows some good techniques in Stages 3,4 and 5.

Thank you, currently downloading

May I ask why you changed from TWE to EOJ ? I've had my handle
for years...

rtw

EOJ has two of my initials in it, and it is also the initialism for my primary research focus in academia. TWE is an acronym for my music project, The Waterfall Effect.

Basically I just like EOJ better and want to retire the old TWE name.

Thanks for the explanation and thanks for the video, the quality was
very good

rtw

I've discovered there is an interesting distribution of boss difficulty across the three game modes. I'll list them from hardest to easiest relative difficulty.

Stage 1 - Ultra - Maniac - Original
Stage 2 - Ultra - Maniac - Original
Stage 3 (Form 1) - Ultra - Maniac - Original
Stage 3 (Form 2) - Ultra - Maniac - Original
Stage 3 (Form 3) - Maniac - Original - Ultra
Stage 4 (Form 1) - Ultra - Maniac - Original
Stage 4 (Form 2) - Maniac - Ultra - Original
Stage 4 (Form 3) - Original - Maniac - Ultra
Stage 5 - Ultra - Maniac - Original

This is based upon my own experience. It's interesting how the difficulty is shifted in forms of the stage 3 and 4 bosses across the modes! Anyone differ in their opinion?

Any chance the information could be put back here please? Two reasons:

1) It's nice if all information is stored on this forum, so we're never reliant on another site still existing.

2) That link is dead.

I'm just going to keep all my strategy threads on my new site. It's going to be there for the long haul, so no need to worry about if it will go under.



Sorry, I'll update it right now. Just moved the site to a new site/server.

This might be relevant to some people: There's a new Mushi Futari run available at superplay.co, clearing god mode. Final score is around 2,6 billion points.

EDIT: I'd like someone to tell me why the player didn't face the TLB on this run.

You have to no-miss the whole game to get Spiritual Larsa (the TLB) to show up.

oO

i'm struggling with manic mode scoring in this game, and not getting on that well with the game in general which is surprising as it seems so highly recommended. anyway the guide is great and very detailed but i find it a little confusing, any chance someone could give me a basic idea of what i need to do to get some points?

C shot is the same as tapping A, and A shot means holding A, right?

and on the video it looks like they switch to C shot to kill each stage of the boss, but reading the guide it sounds like they will be doing this to build up the chaining bar thing then kill ing off each stage with the A shot?

Thanks!

As I am banned from viewing this strategy guide, could someone kindly point me in the direction of another in-depth (preferably English) guide? It is rather optimistic of me, but I would like to find something with all the information together. Failing that, if there is a rather informative post that I have missed in another thread here, I would be grateful if you could link me to it. Thanks!

[It is clear from above that the original author does not want his guide posted in this forum, so respect EOJ's wishes and do not copy/paste it here.]

Edit: Problem solved. Thanks!!

Could somebody explain the scoring system in 1.01 and Arrange Mode? Maybe in a new thread?

Thanks EOJ, that helped me a bunch although all those complex scoring rules are going to have to just sit in the back of my head while I first try and memorize the levels.
What a great game, really pleased with this one

Yep same here please. Not sure I fully understand the Arrange modes.

Arrange mode in short:

One character is in play, one character is following. There is no slowdown in Arrange Mode.

Each character has a counter, for the in play character collecting gems increases it, for the other character bullets being nearby but not in the hitbox increases it while reflecting bullets or a bullet crossing that character's hitbox decreases it.

As long as the reserve character's counter is non-zero, they can slow nearby bullets with C-shot, and then reflect slowed bullets with A-shot. Reflected bullets create small gems along the path of reflection.

Once the reserve character's counter is at 9999, you can reflect in short bursts with no penalty. You can use this to rapidly build the in-play character's counter.

Once both characters' counters are at 9999, using A-shot will cause you to enter FEVER MODE, where both counters rapidly count back to zero but you can reflect constantly during fever with A-shot for massive amounts of gold to spew in every direction.

There is also a main counter and a stage counter. Collecting gems will increase these. Bombing, dying, or being at a boss area will cause them to decrease. Using the A-shot to kill enemies will decrease the stage counter which acts as a multiplier, similar to Maniac mode. Stage counter caps at 99999, main counter goes indefinitely. At the bosses, your main counter is a hit multiplier. The stage counter never seems to stick around during a boss fight, and both counters reset after a stage is cleared.

How to score:

During the stage-- Build one character's counter up to 9999 by shooting enemies with C-shot and using A-shot to reflect bullets with the reserve character and then collecting the gems. Once the main character has 9999, swap them to reserve and use them to reflect in constant bursts (not continuously, this drains the counter) until both counters are at 9999. Now you are in fever mode. Hold A-shot to reflect bullets for massive amounts of gems. Try not to kill enemies with A-shot unless your stage counter is maxed out, you want them to produce bullets which you will reflect for gems which will let you perpetuate the counter-building->fever loop in order to boost your counter in preparation for...

The boss--

Ideal strategy with high counter: Hold A-shot, dodge everything, don't die or bomb. Watch points skyrocket. You have more firepower in arrange than in ver 1.5 so bosses will go down quicker.

Secondary strategy for fewer points but more likelihood of surviving: Go into the fight with one character at 9999 counter. Switch them into reserve. C-shot to slow, A-shot to reflect until the primary character has 8-9000 counter. Swap the characters again, Hold A to reflect bullets and get points until the counter drains to 0. Switch 9999 counter character back to reserve. Repeat until boss is down to final lifebar, then jack up both counters to enter FEVER MODE and waste the boss while getting massive gold and nailing them with A-shot for MAD POINTZ.

Ultra TLB strategy: You can't dodge all of that without slowdown, are you nuts? Use the pussy strategy, but enter fever mode more regularly. After fever ends: wait for the screen to fill up with bullets, then BOMB. Then do it again. If your main character now has 9999 counter again you did it right. Repeat until TLB dies or you run out of bombs. I'm talking over 1 billion points for the stage 5 boss + TLB going in with your main counter over 150,000. If you have bombs and lives left when you clear the game, you did it wrong, 20m per reserve life isn't worth crap compared to milking your counter with FEVER MODE given you simultaneous reflecting and A-shot scoring at the TLB.

Cheers. I *think* I understand it now!

On a side note, are we going to see all the Cave strategy guides appear on the new wiki soon? Hunting through old 50+ page threads to get at full guides for all the old titles is a real chore.

I'm just curious about these 1B+ scores on Novice Ultra... How?

I understand the shot-switching and being close/quick enough to get green-aura gems, but what else goes into it to make up for 300 million points (my best is a 1cc with only around 700M). Granted, I blow all but one or two lives, but does it really make that much of a difference or am I just completely missing something?

Or even on 1.5 Original... I typically finish stage 1 with 11-13M and stage 2 with 28-32M, yet I see all clears with average scores of 300M+. Do the later stages really make up that much of the score, or, again, am I just missing something?

Playing for the 1cc is fine and all, but I want to start working on my scoring for a change. =)

Your score goes into real overdrive by the 4th and 5th stages if you don't die use bomb and boost your overall counter. Basically playing without mistakes.

Ah, the good old "hit things and don't get hit" strategy! Thanks. =) I wish I wasn't so horrible at this game. I swear, my scores are going DOWN as I work harder at the scoring system. Probably because I pay too much attention to the color/number of the counter and end up getting hit, thus violating the cardinal rule.

I'm not even trying to work with the scoring system right now, but I'll bet if I tried, my score would go down, too. BTW, as much as I hate Stage 5, it really is generous with the ambers, and the opportunities to increase your score. Although, I think I can do more in Stage 2 or 3 than I can 5, but that's because it's impossible for me to go through 4 or 5 without using a bomb or dying, at any rate.

Of course, since I'm primarily playing Novice... auto bomb is both my friend, and my foe. :/

MUST. IMPROVE. DODGING. On the other hand, while my twitchy fingers are bad for Raiden, they're prime for danmaku like Mushi. I can't explain why, it's just that my habit of twitching Reco randomly causes me to graze really well... I think because my "technique" (more like fail) was born from playing danmaku too much.

BTW, X is autoshot/rapidfire/whatev, right? I totally have not done anything with that... And maybe I should.

Well, I shoot for understanding the scoring mechanism and playing for score over survival from the get-go. Playing for score will get you the survival... eventually... =/

Of course, that doesn't explain how I'm losing score on most of the credits I play. Bluhhhhhhhh.



Yes, yes you should. Holding down the auto-shot is much easier than tapping the shot button. =)

I think it all boils down on the fact that I need to be more intuitive at my dodging, before I try playing for score. So far, I haven't quite got a feel for my ship, but I'm getting closer. When I get around to that, I think I'll concentrate on scoring some more.

Considering what a fan I am of Quick Shot!/Flash Shot! in the Raiden series, I probably will go a little nuts when it comes to grabbing green ambers (weird game comparison, I think?). I only recently noticed the enemies dropping those, and I was a little surprised. I think I should try some pacifist runs to see where I am moving unnecessarily, since that is oftentimes how I die in a shmup...

EDIT: Ah, should there be a GD Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 thread, by the way, or is this on-topic? (I guess the one in the shmups chat is beginning to morph into one, I would think?)