Solo Shmup League #4 - Dimahoo (CLOSED)

[chempop]

Tap into your dormant idiot savant and memorize the checklist in between stages... or hold start for a second and press shot to activate the realtime item list (and look at the topic in strategy and start memorizing). Let the magical shopping war DIME-A-HOE begin.

Serious answer though, you need to develop a plan and slowly chip away at it. Stage 1 you should complete Food and Shoes no problem (unless you are expert and go after the less common items). Besides those, Accessories and Axes should be your next target, but doesn't overlook shields because you absolutely will want a full set of those before stage 4 to unlock legend shields in all the mimic treasure chests (4+ bombs required and full set of shields). It's easy to get almost ever accessory in the very opening wave of dude when the first big dragon appears. Get shields from dragons and big tanks. Axes from the turrets that pop out of the ground, etc.

Stage 2 I like to complete axes asap (from the opening enemies and the very tops of the long airships) while going after swords and lots of armor and helmets especially after that rush following the stealth bomber.

By stage 3 you should be filling in the gaps in your list. I've never completed all the sets by the end of stage 3, but yes an expect is going to need to do this in order to maximize the treasure chests in stage 4 (the magical-shopping-spree-money stage).

[Bananamatic]

Or just complete 3 sets(shoes+food+axe), hope for a 4th somewhere and focus on getting special items

Around 11m is still not that bad

[chempop]

Last night I had X6 multiplier by stage 2 boss (food, shoes, accessories, axes, armor)

I AM GREAT

Forgot to mention, if you don't have entirely complete standard sets by stage 4, the regular chests give you a random (iirc) item that you don't have, so it's very likely (with a tad of luck) to have X7-X10 going through most of that stage. Now you are getting close to a million points for each special item (and there are almost 20 in stage 4 alone).

Something to consider.

[chempop]

| SSL | 11,242,070 | broke 11mil | 5 | Solo-Bang | CPS2

[DocHauser]

| SSL | 4,054,350 | Screenshot | 5 | Golden | Shmupmame4.2

Just to bump my SP up slightly...

[saucykobold]

| SSL | 10,118,420 | Quest for the Vaunted Champion Beef | 6 | Grimlen | MAME

[Jaimers]

| SSL | 24,435,560 | Screenshot | 6 | Solo-Bang | ShmupMame 2.2

I love invisible chaining and luckshit.

[chempop]

Nice score Jaimers!! What chaining are you referring to? I gather the "luckshit" is in regards to bosses being able to mix and match attack patterns somewhat randomly. I'm fairly convinced it has something to do with rank, but I could certainly be wrong.

[Jaimers]

I'm fairly convinced it has something to do with rank

No I can definitely say that it is completely randomized.
If you load a state at the stage 5 midboss and do the same thing every time, Infernon will use different attacks every single time.
Speaking of, in every one of Infernon's phases he can use either one of two different attacks. One that does absolutely nothing (two aimed lasers seriously?), and something varying from hellish to pretty much impossible.
It's a pokemon battle where the enemy either uses tackle or growl except every tackle has the potential to kill you.

Aside from that the stage 6 Dribling fight constantly has attacks overlapping that cannot overlap because it just makes an impossible mess, as well as the robot ninja using random attacks that last random times, one of which being another borderline impossible one.
Going for the stage 1 tail secret item also seems to be luck as the boss can sometimes back all the way up the screen leaving you no room to do anything and you can't afford to wait because you need all of the time you have to get all the turret rings before the timeout phase.

And unless you know exactly what item drops you're supposed to be getting you're pretty much doing invisible chaining. Except the game doesn't tell you when you broke the chain.
I'd use the shopping list but it's really not helpful in the slightest especially because you need to hold start for like two seconds and press shot. Not even mentioning that you're pretty much holding down the shot button 90% of the time, it's like they tried making this as unintuitive as possible. It even goes away between stages.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but this nonsense is really rubbing me the wrong way.

[heisenbergman]

Updated the OP.

12 scores tallied, around one more day left for score submission.

I myself haven't submitted a score. Gotta get past a million sometime in the next 24 hours.

This game is brutal.

[WizardYuuka]

| SSL | 5,838,400 | Screenshot | 5 | Miyamoto | MAME

[Zerst]

Activating the grocery list is actually part of my muscle memory within the stage "chaining route", even down to how many times I have to hit start to get to the page I need at various points.

[chempop]

...i really need to memorize the order of button presses to get the hang of pulling up which list I need to check.

[heisenbergman]

okay I can sleep easier now that I've cracked 1M

| SSL | 1,117,550 | Screenshot | 2 | Gain | MAME

Now I have to work on clearing at least the first two stages while also being able to get the Pinwheel, Legend Sword, Ruby & Fairy Drop.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting any multipliers going

[Pinehed]

| SSL | 1,529,950 | http://postimg.org/image/3utfow8a5/ | 4 | Karte | MAME

[PedroMD]

| SSL | 1,283,400 | Meh. | 3 | Miyamoto | ShmupMame 4.2

Didn't really like the game and definitely not a fan of the scoring system. Got this early on the week and then forgot to keep playing.

[DocHauser]

| SSL | 5,369,940 | Screenshot | 5 | Golden | Shmupmame4.2

Managing to go into Stage 5 with a X5 or X6 multiplier in some recent runs. My main problem is not getting the secret items to really cash in on those points.

[ciox]

| SSL | 1,605,730 | http://i.imgur.com/vLtSbzz.png | 3 | Solo-Bang | shmupmame3b

lul

[Sakurei]

through a bit of new knowledge put on here, I thought I would give it another try - maybe it sucks less when you know a bit more about the game. Well, I still can't really say I like it. In fact, I think it sucks balls hard and I doubt I will ever try hard enough to 1cc, but talk is cheap, let actions speak: Deleted the rom, so I will never be tempted to play it again. however, before doing so, I had to reaffirm myself in that I really don't want to play this game again. By playing. Got something that looks like an okay score, so I'll post it.

| SSL | 12,860,240 | Screenshot | 6 | Miyamoto | shmupmame 2.2

I lol'd at the stage 5 boss. I dropped like 2 lives with full bombs on it or some shit. What is dodging?

[chempop]

Stealing my bronze medal, darn whippersnapper.. maybe I'll give it another go. It is, after all, the best shmup of all time.

[WizardYuuka]

| SSL | 5,968,660 | Screenshot | 5 | Miyamoto | MAME

Another day another Infernon.

[heisenbergman]

scores updated. 17 score so far. a bit under two hours left before the deadline and we cycle to the next game (which looks like it's going to be Cho Ren Sha 68k)

[DocHauser]

Sakurei appears to be in the table twice at the minute.

[heisenbergman]

Oh crap, yeah thanks, fixed.

[Chaos]

| SSL | 7,109,130 | http://i.imgur.com/z4yy7h9.png| 5 | Golden | Shmupmame 4.2