ST: Darius -WIP- Updated 04/10/2023

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ACSeraph
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ST: Darius -WIP- Updated 04/10/2023

Post by ACSeraph »

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WARNING
A HUGE
WALL OF TEXT
IS APPROACHING FAST!


Guide By: ACSeraph
Player in Gifs: ACSeraph
Special Thanks:
Prickly Angler, for great contributions and feedback
Blinge, for making me take this game seriously in the first place.


Welp, I’ve been saying I’d make a Darius guide for a long, looong time, but real life combined with terminal procrastination led to it taking more time than I’d care to admit. Anyhow, I’ve finally thrown something together, so I hope it’s helpful to new players.

This guide is primarily based on the arcade version of Darius Extra. I personally find this to be the most fun version of the game, and the most beginner friendly. Learning to clear Extra will give players an excellent foundation if they decide to go back and learn Old and New Ver., so I highly recommend starting with this clear, even if it isn't necessarily the easiest version to 1cc. Every gif in this thread was recorded personally by me on the switch version of Cozmic Collection via the excellent training mode.

While I have gone ahead with the ST moniker for this guide, I would like to point out that I am not the definitive authority on Darius, just someone who deeply adores the game. The information here is all to the best of my knowledge, and my recommendations are basically my own opinions garnered from years of casual play. That said, I highly encourage discussion in the thread about information that may not be correct or alternatives to the strategies detailed here. I’m totally open to feedback. This thread isn’t “mine”; It’s a place for everyone to discuss this awesome game.

The purpose of this guide is to give new players a solid foundation for getting their first clear. There will be some information on scoring, but the guide and routes herein are ultimately survival oriented. I do not usually play Darius for score, as I do not enjoy milking-based scoring systems. If anyone wants to provide that kind of information in the thread, I’m happy to add it.

The same can be said for other information that I haven’t compiled for time reasons, like the exact location of all the powerups and white orbs. If someone wants to spearhead that project I’ll be happy to add it to the guide and credit you. That goes for any other sections you’d like to see added as well.


WARNING
A TON OF DIFFERENT
VERSIONS
ARE APPROACHING FAST!


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A brief overview of the different versions of Darius. The three arcade versions are available on modern systems via Cozmic Collection or ACA. A deeper look into the differences between the arcade versions can be found in this thread: Darius Version Differences Analysis


Darius Old Ver. - Arcade
The original version of Darius from 1986, and the most difficult to clear. The most defining feature of this version is that the rank will increase dramatically as you take powerups, to the point that you are better off never powering up your main shot to laser or wave in survival runs. Very rarely seen in modern Japanese arcades, but you can still play it at Mikado (Confirmed by Stevens as of 04/2023).


Darius New Ver. - Arcade
A second version of Darius from 1986 that is extremely similar to Old Ver.. The rank increase has been lowered, but you are still better off not powering up. While I haven’t tested it thoroughly, I believe that World Ver. is based on New Ver.. I have never encountered this version in Japanese arcades.


Darius Extra - Arcade
The third, and in my opinion definitive, version of Darius, released in 1987. Certain safe spots have been removed, some enemies have more HP (most ground turrets), powerup distribution is somewhat different, and rank increase has been drastically reduced so that powering up is no longer discouraged. There is a significant score bonus awarded for remaining lives at the end of a run, which has dramatic implications for scoring. This is the most common version to find in modern Japanese arcades, notably Taito HEY in Akihabara.


Darius Extra - Megadrive
An impressive Megadrive port of Extra that started as a fan project but eventually saw an official release on cartridge and on the Megadrive Mini. Includes the option to enable bosses that were previously exclusive to the PCE versions of Darius. I don’t have much experience with this version (yet).


Darius Plus - PCE
A 4:3 port of Darius for the PCE that was impressive for its time. Includes a number of additional bosses not found in the arcade version. The smaller screen space brings certain new challenges, but overall this is a much easier clear than the arcade version.


Super Darius - PCE CD
An upgraded version of Darius Plus. CD quality audio is much closer to the arcade version. I haven’t done a lot of research into all of the version differences, but I know that the powerup distribution is slightly different.


Darius Alpha - PCE
A special boss rush based on Darius Plus. Original physical copies are exceedingly rare.


WARNING
A HUGE
SYSTEM GUIDE
IS APPROACHING FAST!


This section will detail the various elements of Darius’ gameplay. Information is primarily based on Darius Extra (Arcade).

Darius is a horizontally scrolling STG from 1986 in the vein of R-Type and Gradius. You’ll pilot a ship called the Silverhawk across 28 different zones, each of which culminate in a boss battle against monstrous mechanical sea creatures. It has a really unique atmosphere, great music, and some of the absolute best art direction in the genre (which only gets better in later entries).

So grab your tackle box, a trucker hat, and a six pack of shitty beer, ‘cause we’re about to go SPACE FISHIN’, partner!


Zone Structure


At the beginning of each credit you will begin in Zone A, and then have a choice between two different Zones after defeating each boss. A single credit will end after clearing 7 stages. Depending on your route, you will encounter different bosses and endings.


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Enemy waves are mostly fixed, but their positioning when they enter the screen can be somewhat random and is dependent on your own location when they spawn. Should you die, you will respawn at a checkpoint, but the checkpoints can take you through areas of the stage you wouldn’t normally encounter on a no-death run. After surviving for a certain amount of time all of the enemies on screen will self-destruct and the screen will fade to black. A warning will then flash informing you of the incoming boss. Upon defeating the boss the path will split into two. Be careful about being too far to the right of the screen when this happens, or you will crash into the terrain before you can react and feel like a dumbass (speaking from personal experience here).


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F**k


Speaking of terrain, Darius has terrain collision and you will die instantly if you crash into it with anything less than a gold shield. While the enemies will still fly right on through the terrain like ghosts, their shots will be nullified. Using the terrain to your advantage to protect yourself from enemy fire is a major key to success in this game and the series as a whole.

Finally, there is an invisible wall 1/4th of the way from the right edge of the screen. Coming into contact with it won’t hurt your ship, but you won’t be able to fly further. There are some techniques in Darius that utilize this wall to your advantage, so when I refer to the “right edge” in this guide, just be aware that what I’m talking about is this invisible wall.


Pickup Orbs


There are six different pickups you will encounter in Darius, appearing as colored orbs. All are found in fixed locations depending on the version you play.

Red Orb: Powers up your main shot
Green Orb: Powers up your Bomb
Blue Orb: Powers up your Shield
White Orb: Random score bonus
Gold Orb: Destroys all on-screen enemies
Extend Orb: Grants an extra life

The red, green, and blue orbs will be dropped when you kill enemies of the corresponding color. The white, Gold, and Extend Orbs are invisible at first and hidden in fixed locations in the terrain. Shooting one of these locations with your main shot or bombs will cause a distinctive round flash to appear. Shoot the location enough times and the pickup will spawn.

Once they spawn the pickups will move around the screen in a semi-predictable way. Generally speaking, they will float up and to the left until they are either picked up, exit the screen, or bounce off the terrain. It’s important to note that they can float up and off of stages that do not have a ceiling, making it important to collect them quickly in these zones. The speed at which they move can be unpredictable at times, and they are also prone to being stuck in or behind the terrain. However, they will eventually dislodge themselves, and you can almost always pick them up by flying close to where they are stuck without damaging your ship. Enemy shots that collide with orbs will dissipate, meaning you can use them as a sort of pseudo-shield.


Powerups


In the upper right section of the screen you will see three gauges representing your main shot (initially “Missile”), Bombs, and Shields. Picking up powerups will fill these gauges, and in the case of the main shot will change the properties of the shot. After collecting 8 of the same powerup the gauge will advance to the next “tier” and the nature of the equipment will change. The gauge will be emptied upon death, but the tier itself will not lower. So for example, if you power up to the Wave, pick up three more red powerups and die, the Wave will reset to Wave Lv.0, but it will not revert to Laser or Missile. This makes the game far more forgiving than say, Darius II, because generally the base tier is more important than the level. This is especially true in the case of the shield.


Main Shot Types


The main shot comes in three tiers: Missile, Laser, and Wave. Missile and Laser have an on-screen shot limit of four, while Wave has a limit of three.

The Missile’s main draw is damage output and speed. The shot limit is less of an issue because shots will dissipate when hitting enemies or terrain, allowing you to point-blank enemies with full-auto for heavy damage. The color and number of shots will change as the Missile levels up, but the damage is actually the same regardless of the level. The only difference between levels is that the 2-shot and 3-shot versions have a bigger hitbox and dissipate upon collision individually. This means if you are intentionally avoiding powerups to keep the Missile, it’s best to stop at the Lv.5 green 3-shot version.

The Laser is a notoriously difficult weapon to master in Darius. Due to the rank increase, it’s far too weak to be effective in Old and New. Ver., but in Extra it can actually be quite powerful. The length of the laser and the damage it deals will increase with each level. Its difficulty lies in the fact that the laser pierces through enemies, making point blanking strategies less effective. Due to the relatively low on-screen shot limit, you have to be careful not to shoot too quickly. I don’t recommend using autofire with this weapon.

Finally, the Wave has a very wide hitbox, deals good damage, and pierces both enemies and the terrain. The terrain piercing effect is a major boon in a number of later stages. The only downside is the reduced on-screen shot limit.


Bombs


Unlike what us STG players usually think of when we hear the term, Bombs in Darius are not screen clearing super attacks, nor are they a limited resource. The Bomb is an air-to-surface weapon that helps you target enemies more strategically across different types of terrain. They do not level up or increase in damage as you collect powerups, but they can be upgraded into a new tier after collecting enough green powerups. Initially you will have a single Bomb firing down and to the right of your ship. Tier two is a 2-way Bomb that fires up and down. Tier three is a 4-way Bomb that covers your rear. Each “way” has an on-screen shot limit of 2 Bombs, meaning you can have a maximum of eight Bombs on screen at once.

Effectively using your Bombs is one of the key mechanics you’ll need to master to find success in Darius. They are extremely powerful, especially in the first Darius game. They have a deceptively large hitbox that will protect you from direct collision with most small enemies, and they can be used to point blank beefier enemies. Most importantly, they are used to protect your rear and target turrets on the ceiling and ground.

One of the more advanced techniques with Bombs lets you change their angle of fire. When you fire the Bombs while holding right their angle of fire also shifts slightly further to the right. The same thing happens when holding left. This will help you hit your targets with more precision or destroy enemies and turrets more quickly. Importantly, holding forward against the invisible right edge of the screen will still cause the Bomb’s angle to change without actually moving your ship forward. This is used to perform what I call a “stage point blank”, allowing you to fire both your main shot and Bombs extremely fast at a tighter angle. It’s a technique that has numerous applications throughout the game. Check out the gif below and take note of how I’m able to change the angle of my Bombs while sitting on the right edge of the screen.


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Manipulating the angle of Bombs


Shields


Shields protect you from enemy fire and collisions. Your shields have an HP value called “ARM”, and you will lose one ARM for each hit you take. ARM can be stacked up to 25, meaning that Shields are much closer to a steady stream of extends than a refillable health bar. Always keep in mind that any hit you take in the early game is one less ARM you have to work with in the late game. It will happen, but try to avoid taking damage needlessly. It’s not like the shield in Gradius where you want to intentionally tank hits with it.

Like the Bomb, the properties of the Shield only change as you increase tiers. You will start with a basic green shield, eventually progressing to a white and then a gold shield. If you have no shield when you pick up a blue powerup you will gain three ARM. If you already have a shield it will add one ARM for the green shield, or two ARM for the silver shield and gold shield. If your ARM drops to one your shield will become visibly smaller.

When you have a shield, the size of your hitbox will increase slightly. There is no difference between the functionality of the green and silver shield, but the gold shield will protect you from terrain collision, causing you to bounce away. It’s not actually that helpful, as it will often bounce you right into another piece of terrain and kill you, so don’t rely on it.


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Boing


Scoring


As I mentioned previously, this guide isn’t meant to teach scoring routes or help you chase world records, but I can give you a basic overview of how scoring works in Darius. In all versions, the bulk of your score will come from your enemy kill ratio. On top of the basic score payout for each enemy destroyed, most formations of enemies will also award a bonus if you kill every enemy in the formation. You’ll see this as a red number that pops up on screen when you shoot down a full wave of enemies. The actual payouts vary between enemy types, and by extension routes.

Some bosses have destructable parts, usually their fins, that will yield extra points. There are also some bosses that spawn small enemies that can increase your score. Importantly, bosses do not time out in Darius. Instead, after a certain amount of time, cube shaped enemies called “Yazuka” will start spawning and making the battle more difficult.


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Basic milking


Eventually, the Yazuka will also start firing extremely fast suicide bullets.In the Cozmic Collection version of the game you can see timers that will tell you when the Yazuka will start to spawn and when they will start firing at you. Yazuka yield points, so finding opportunities to milk them is a major element of scoring in Darius. Generally speaking, you want to move to kill the boss about ten seconds before the Yazuka will start firing.


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Yazuka suicide bullets


Most extremely high scores in Darius are achieved by taking the highest scoring route that ends in Zone Z and intentionally prolonging the final battle against Great Thing to milk the drills that it shoots. This is accomplished by using only your missiles to protect yourself from zako and Yazuka, and only firing your Wave to shoot down the dolphins and drills that Great Thing fires at you. The goal is to last as long as possible until you get down to your last shield and then finish off the boss.


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Gettin’ drilled


Additionally you will also increase your score by finding all of the white orbs hidden around the stages. Unfortunately, so far as I am aware, the payouts for these orbs are random and vary drastically, meaning there is some amount of luck involved at the highest levels of scoreplay.

Finally, in Darius Extra, you gain 1,000,000 points for each ship you have remaining at the end of a run. This means that you basically have to no-miss the game and collect all of the Extends to score well, which limits your opportunities to milk.

So to summarize, scoring in Darius comes down to collecting White Orbs, getting as high of a kill ratio as possible in the highest scoring route, destroying boss parts, milking zako and Yazuka in boss fights, and milking Great Thing’s drills in the final battle. On that last point, in Old and New. Ver. you will milk Great Thing as long as you possibly can until you are on your last life, at which point you will finish him off and clear the game. In Extra, you will milk Great Thing until your shield is nearly or completely depleted, and then finish him off.


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Finishing the job


Regarding Autofire


First and foremost, I recommend using a combination of manual fire and full-auto (30hz). I usually have one button mapped as auto-off Shot+Bomb, and another as full-auto Shot+Bomb. For score play I also recommend having separate buttons for full-auto Bomb and auto-off Shot. Regarding the ever-stupid arguments about the legitimacy of autofire that plague this forum, it should be noted that Darius has 30hz autofire as a built-in option on the PCB, so it’s entirely legitimate. I have never encountered a cabinet that did not at least have this option enabled, and the vast majority have extra buttons in a similar configuration to what I described above. For the ultra-purists, a completely unmodified cabinet will have only a (concave) button for Shot and another for Bomb, and they will both be either auto-off or 30hz depending on the PCB settings.

In my opinion, Darius is extremely difficult to play with only full-auto due to the shot limit. It’s important to space out your shots evenly depending on where you are on the screen, and full-auto is way too fast to do this effectively. On an unmodified cabinet with 30hz on you have to learn to very lightly tap the buttons to space out your shots, and trust me, those ancient concave buttons are terrible for it. Enemies don’t actually have that much HP in the first place, so I’d say I spend about 80% of the game using the auto-off button to play. Full-auto is really only used for point blanking situations and milking.

The point is, there’s no “legitimate” way to play. Do what’s comfortable to you. Just know that even as someone who condones autofire, I find its uses to be limited in this title.


General Advice


The next section is just my personal advice to new players. These are not rules about the correct way to approach Darius, just my opinions.

Darius is a fairly easy clear as far as STGs go. It will seem unnervingly difficult when you first pick it up, but that’s really only because it doesn’t play like most other STGs and the first stage is unusually hard given the Silverhawk’s low starting power. I would say that stage A is probably the third hardest stage in the route that this guide will outline, so if you can learn to beat it, there’s a good chance you can learn to beat the rest. I think most players should be able to nab a basic survival clear using the information in this guide.

What sets this game apart from most other STGs is the extremely large playing field combined with a low shot limit. You have to be very deliberate in your shooting; you can’t just mash away at the fire button or hold down full-auto the whole time. The enemies are also pretty small, which only adds to the need for precision.

This results in the need to have a real plan for how to fight different formations of enemies. The enemies in Darius often come at you in groups like schools of fish, with unique behaviors for how they fire and move. Memorizing these behaviors and learning the best times and positions for your own counterattacks is key. Rather than memorizing a strict route, you learn how to combat different enemy types, and then try to utilize the terrain to your advantage as you fight against various combinations of them throughout the stages. In that sense, it’s almost like playing a beat-em-up.

One of the major reasons for this is that there are random elements to enemy positioning in Darius. It is not a manic game, so you can only have a general route and you’ll need to learn to react and make decisions on the fly. No credit of Darius is exactly the same, and for me that’s the most interesting thing about it. It’s the antithesis of the ultra-manic, strictly-routed nature of Darius II.

Another unique aspect of the game is that the “default” position you want to be in is actually the far-right of the screen. The space behind you should be thought of as a resource that you use to defend. As you move back, the effects of the shot limit become more and more severe, lowering your attack potential and demanding more precision. You’ll find yourself in a constant loop of being pushed back by enemy attacks and then fighting your way back to the right. If you try to just passively hang out on the left side of the screen, you will end up dead.

Finally, just know that you will regularly take hits or miss powerups in Darius. It’s part of the semi-random nature of the game. It’s extremely generous with shields, so don’t feel like you need to restart the game or anything just because you took a stray hit at the end of stage one. Just try to minimize it and you’ll be fine.

Anyhow that concludes the basic system guide. Next up I’m going to give you some tips for the stages and bosses.


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Last edited by ACSeraph on Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:32 pm, edited 25 times in total.
<STG.1cc> 死ぬがよい <ACT.1cc>
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ACSeraph
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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

Post by ACSeraph »

WARNING
A HUGE
WALKTHROUGH
IS APPROACHING FAST!


The next part of the guide will give you some general advice about each Zone in the game and tips for specific parts of each stage I found tricky. The information here is really just a compilation of my own notes and the strategies I came up with while originally learning survival clears of the game. There are probably “better” strategies out there, but these are what worked for me and they are achievable for beginners.

In the first draft of the guide, I will only be covering the all up route, ABDGKPZ’, but I would like to eventually cover every stage. Information is primarily based on Darius Extra, though I may include notes about the other versions here and there.

The strategies here will assume that you are taking all of the powerups, and are built around the default powerup levels suggested by Cozmic Collection’s training mode. That said, your actual power level may be different depending on the route you take, and there is a high likelihood that you will miss powerups occasionally throughout the stages due to certain random factors in Darius’ gameplay. I will not be listing out the locations of powerups in detail, but you should make an effort to learn where they are and collect as many as you can.

Note: In Old and New Ver., avoiding the red powerups to keep your Missile is a very valid strategy for survival clears, though most high level score plays appear to use Wave. Avoiding powerups is not necessary in Extra, and the guide will not cover this strategy (aside from a few notes regarding Fatty Glutton).


WE ARE NOW RUSHING INTO
”A” ZONE
BE ON YOUR GUARD!


Regardless of which route you ultimately choose, you will always start each run in an ominous green cave. I would consider this one of the harder first stages I’ve experienced in the genre, but don’t let that scare you away. Zone A will teach you the fundamentals of Darius, and if you can master it, you probably won’t have any problem learning the rest of the game.

You’ll start with no Shield and nothing but a single Bomb and depressingly tiny peashooter to defend yourself. You’ll notice right away that the on-screen shot limit of 4 renders full-auto almost completely useless, so try and get used to slowly, rhythmically firing your shots to maintain good screen coverage. As a general rule, you want to stay in the right half of the playfield as much as possible, so move up a bit and get ready for the first wave of enemies.

You’ll have two rows of zako flying diagonally across the screen. Manually firing your shot at the point the two rows intersect will allow you to shoot down the entire formation. Note that if you miss any of them, they will either fly off screen entirely or loop back around and try to kamikaze you. This is a common behavior for zako in Darius, and something you’ll need to get used to watching out for. You’ll have plenty of chances to practice against similar formations throughout the stage.

Following this you’ll have a formation of larger enemies flying in a straight line. These guys are beefy and a bit troublesome to kill with manual fire, so I recommend getting close and point blanking all of them with full-auto. This is another type of enemy you’ll encounter all throughout the game. They will fire at you if you let them hang out on screen for too long, and will eventually turn around and exit the screen to the right if they aren’t killed.

Continue along and you’ll eventually encounter ceiling and floor turrets. These things will aggressively fire spreads of bullets that can be difficult to navigate with your bulky hitbox, making them high priority targets. The floor turrets are easier to deal with thanks to your Bombs. Tap forward as you fire them to send them a little further while using the terrain to negate the turret’s shots. The ceiling turrets are a bit more annoying at this early point in the game. Some of them can be destroyed by firing as close to the ceiling as you can, but not all of them. In a survival run, it’s easier and safer to just focus on the ground threats and ignore the ceiling turrets entirely. They can only fire to the left, so once you pass under them you are safe.

The final substantial enemy you’ll encounter for the first time in this stage are missile cars. These guys will fire missiles at an angle, and the moment they line up horizontally with your ship they will redirect themselves and fly right at you in a straight line. It doesn’t matter if the car is in front of you or behind you, they will still target you. Deal with them using your bombs, flying under the missiles, never over them. You can also shoot them directly by flying close to the lower edge of the screen. Like the turrets, these are high priority targets.


Key Point 1


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The most difficult point in the stage comes about halfway through, starting with 4 missile cars under a large rock formation. A group of zako holding a shield powerup will start flying by at high speed and can be very difficult to shoot down amidst all the chaos. To make matters worse, there are three ceiling turrets totally protected by the rock formation AND a ground turret immediately after them. Without a plan, you’d better be prepared to lose a lot of ARM.

To deal with this consistently, first shoot down the four cars. Immediately afterwards fly behind the rock formation and sit still firing full-auto at the rock. You’ll end up killing the blue zako as it flies through, so grab the shield and immediately move under the rock before you end up hitting it. Wait for the right moment, and then weave your way through the three turret’s assault, using your missiles to kill the ground turret and make it to safety. Pretty tough for stage one, right?


Key Point 2


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The next part isn’t difficult so much as it’s just important to know. The very last green power up spawns about one second before the boss arrives, and if you don’t kill the zako carrying it as soon as it enters the screen you will lose your chance to grab it. This part also has a group of missile cars that would normally be the priority, but this time you should ignore them and fire on the zako as soon as you see where they are entering from. I mentioned this before, but enemies spawn in slightly different locations each run, so there’s no one sport that will always guarantee this powerup. You need to watch for the zako every time.


WARNING
A HUGE BATTLESHIP
KING FOSSIL
IS APPROACHING FAST!


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After the warning screen the first thing you’ll face is a group of enemies that look like fish eggs I’ll just call “roe”. You’ll encounter these in every stage. If you shoot one, two more show up, but just keep shooting you should kill them all before the boss becomes active. The roe are more aggressive and numerous in Extra version, so make sure to be aggressive yourself and full-auto them as much as possible on the right side of the screen.


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Say hello to the first appearance of Darius’ iconic coelacanth! Beautiful sprite work, don’t you think? He’s also incredibly easy to kill. With full-auto you can actually just start point blanking his mouth to kill him instantly before he can even fire a shot, but go ahead and shoot off his fins first as shown in the gif above for the extra points.


Scoring Notes


Just blow off the fins before you put him out of his misery. There’s not much point in milking him, though I guess it’s technically possible to shoot down a few Yazuka first.


”A” ZONE IS OVER
Last edited by ACSeraph on Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:32 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

Post by ACSeraph »

WE ARE NOW RUSHING INTO
”B” ZONE
BE ON YOUR GUARD!


Zone B will see you traversing a strange looking industrial zone filled with terrain hazards. Overall I’d say it’s quite a bit easier than Zone A. The main challenge is actually collecting all of the powerups, as the terrain can make it hard to shoot down the carriers and the powerups often get stuck in the walls. For the most part, staying on the right edge of the screen will allow you to easily shoot down the carriers. If the powerups get stuck you don’t have to worry, just get close to them and you’ll be able to pick them up without taking damage.

You’ll encounter a new winged enemy early in the stage. They shoot a spread of large red bullets at you in addition to tiny blue shots. The red shots are actually destructible, so they don’t pose any real threat. Mostly just watch out for the blue shots, since they are so tiny you can easily lose track of them.


Key Point 1


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Following the second wave of winged enemies you’ll encounter the first key point in the stage. You’ll see a number of amoeba-like enemies spawn from the lower part of the screen. When you shoot them they will split into two smaller parts which can then be shot down permanently. As soon as they spawn you need to back up to the far left side of the screen, because the last amoeba will drop two Shield powerups. Even though you want to be on the far right most of the time in this stage, for this part you have to be to the left or the amoeba will spawn behind you and prevent you from getting the powerup. Keep this in mind for future situations involving amoeba, as most of them have powerups and require the same strategy.


Key Point 2


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The second key point will happen multiple times throughout this stage. You’ll see a large piece of terrain protecting a group of ground turrets, with big pink orbs above, usually accompanied by a formation of winged enemies. The pink orbs will stay stationary until you fly under them, at which point they will float down onto your ship. Shooting them will also cause them to drop, but they have a ton of HP and are difficult to kill even with full-auto. You’ll need to fly under the first one to bait it to come down, and then fire on the others while raining down Bombs on the turrets.The key is using the terrain to protect yourself from the turret’s fire. The winged enemies are mostly a non-issue, just shoot them and be wary of their blue shots.


WARNING
A HUGE BATTLESHIP
ELECTRIC FAN
IS APPROACHING FAST!


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The way the body sonic hits on this guy is awesome at the arcade! The boss itself is fairly easy. All it will do is fire a linear blue laser at you while releasing waves of zako that try to kamikaze you. Just shoot it in the mouth as you weave through its shots. The key to avoiding damage is to slowly pace your shots so that you can always take down the zako when they get close. As long as you play it safe and prioritize the zako, you should be fine. Alternatively, you can just speed kill the boss by point blanking its mouth with your Bombs. Don’t try to point blank with Missiles though, or you’ll take a laser to the face.


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Scoring Notes


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If you’re going for score then this is the first boss you’ll want to really milk. Step one is to lower the boss’ health by fighting it as normal. Following this you’ll camp out at the top left corner of the screen and fire your weapons using full-auto only when zako or Yazuka get close to you. Roughly ten seconds before the Yazuka would start firing suicide bullets go ahead and kill off the boss.


”B” ZONE IS OVER
Last edited by ACSeraph on Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

Post by ACSeraph »

WE ARE NOW RUSHING INTO
”D” ZONE
BE ON YOUR GUARD!


Zone D will take you outside to a vast mountain range. You’ll be dealing with a large amount of enemies and ground artillery in a fairly open area. It’s not a terribly difficult stage, it just requires you to aggressively take down the enemies on the ground with your Bombs to avoid being overwhelmed.

The main new enemies you’ll face are formations of zako that fly in from above and below. If you’ve been grabbing all of the green powerups up until now you should get the 2-way Bomb early in this stage. This will mostly protect you from the new enemy type.

Be aware that in this stage there is no ceiling, so powerups will float off of the screen quickly. You’ll need to be very aggressive about grabbing them throughout the entire stage. If you’re having trouble, try waiting to kill the carriers until they are close to your ship. Also watch out for the blue Shield powerups, as they can be extremely hard to see against the stage’s blue background.


Key Point 1


Image


There is a new type of ground artillery that aggressively shoots a line of bullets at a static angle. In isolation, you can just ignore them and fly through the gaps in their shots, but when they’re grouped together you’ll need to use your Bombs to kill the first one while tapping forward to tighten the firing angle and then quickly fly down and kill the rest with your main shot. There will often be powerups behind them that you need to grab, making speed an issue. In Old and New Ver. these enemies can be killed in a single shot, making the segment significantly easier.


WARNING
A HUGE BATTLESHIP
DUAL SHEARS
IS APPROACHING FAST!


Image


This time we’ve got ourselves a lobster dinner in two courses. Phase one has a safe spot that you can see in the gif above. Just hang out there firing away until you blow off his claws.


Image


In the second phase he will start firing a fast aimed shot at you, forcing you to weave up and down constantly. At this point you can only damage him by shooting the exposed core on his chest (do lobsters have chests?). For this part, stop firing continuously and just shoot volleys of full-auto whenever you’re lined up with the core.


Scoring Notes


Image


Scoring in this fight will use a similar safe spot to Electric Fan’s. Once you get close to completely destroying his claws back off and head to the safe spot. From here, try to use manual fire to get an even spacing to your shots before switching to full-auto and just hanging out for a few minutes. As with the previous fight, once you get close to the point the Yazuka will start firing you’ll need to go and finish off the boss. In this case you need to fight the entire second phase, so make sure you give yourself enough time. I recommend taking 15-20 seconds.


”D” ZONE IS OVER
Last edited by ACSeraph on Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:33 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

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Re: ST: SPACE FISH -WIP Please don't post in this thread-

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Re: ST: Darius -WIP-

Post by Prickly Angler »

Wow that’s an impressive guide you’ve been working on lately ! Can’t wait to see the progress :D

As a Darius (the first episode has been my personnal favourite ever since I played it) enjoyer I’ll add my contribution to your guide :

- It’s interesting to hear you say Darius Extra is the easiest version since I’ve seen most people agree with the idea that it was the hardest by far (a statement I agree with). The only things that are easier are that laser and wave are more powerfull on bosses, and that some zones have more power-ups (overall there are less power-ups than in Old/New). Everything else is harder : harder bosses, new red ennemies before the bosses, more ennemies in the stages (zone M for exemple), ground units have more hp and fire more, and pretty much every golden orb has been replaced by grey ones. I’d thus argue that it’s New<Old<Extra. Imo Extra is the worst version, I find it very frustrating and it removes a lot fun I can have playing the game. I like the new p-up balance but hate the other changes, I'm always puzzled when I see players consider it their favourite version.

- I think you underestimate the inefficiency of laser and wave in Old and New versions, bosses don't take that long to deafeat and powering-up after Fatty Glutton (or before if you're a really good player) is a perfectly viable strategy. Keen Bayonet is long, as the boss lasts roughly 1min40 in old/new with laser. Iron Hammer & Strong Shell take 50 secs with laser in old, Octopus takes 20 secs with wave in new, and Great thing takes a minute with laser in Extra. The earlier bosses do take longer with laser, but otherwise it's really not that big of a deal, and it can be really helpfull on recovery to take laser/wave.

- One thing I’ve noticed is that in some zones you get a different amount of power-ups depending on the zones you’ve done before. In M for exemple you get a different amount of power-ups depending if you were in H or in I before that, and the golden and grey orbs are located at different locations. This happens in New Version, dunno about Old and Extra.


- How the orbs behave partially depends on which type of stage you’re in. In caves and bases the orbs will bounce when they meet a wall, while they’ll fly away in the space and sky stages, and float in the sea stages. Note that orbs also block ennemy shots.

The only difference between levels is that the 2-shot and 3-shot versions have a bigger hitbox. This means if you are intentionally avoiding powerups to keep the Missile, it’s best to stop at the Lv.5 green 3-shot version.

I don’t think this is entirely correct : when firing the 2 or 3-shot any bullet than won’t hit the ennemy will still travel across the screen until it hits something. But it's true that if all shots connect with the same target it won't do more dammage.

- The golden shield only gives +2. It’s not until Darius Gaiden that golden shield adds +3

- A completely unmodified cabinet will have only a button for Missile and a button for Bomb, and they will both be either auto-off of 30hz. Are you certain about that ? Itrust your experience but I'm wonderring since the attract mode doesn't show 30hz.

I'll add some more stuff about the stages later on ;)
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Re: ST: Darius -WIP-

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Prickly Angler wrote:Ichthyology
This is why I love shmups forum. 8)
I crap out a passion project about some ancient fossil of a game from 1986, and within days a like-minded lover of space fishin' will come and look over my gigantic wall of text in detail and offer tons of advice to make it even better. Thanks for reading through it. If you don't mind, I'd like to credit you as a contributor/editor to the guide in the opening section and I'll be adding some of your suggested edits tonight. (Side note: sorry I never got around to updating the Darius II guide with your info, the reason I didn't is because the guide needs a rewrite from the ground up, so it's going to take a while to get around to that project.
Prickly Angler wrote:- The golden shield only gives +2. It’s not until Darius Gaiden that golden shield adds +3
Yes, this is correct. I actually found this error in my first round of editing. I think you based your feedback on the rough draft of the guide instead of the new version. I've changed and reworded a lot of stuff actually. I probably should have waited until everything was finished to post, but I knew if I did that I'd just procrastinate the project for another decade... :|
Prickly Angler wrote:- How the orbs behave partially depends on which type of stage you’re in. In caves and bases the orbs will bounce when they meet a wall, while they’ll fly away in the space and sky stages, and float in the sea stages. Note that orbs also block ennemy shots.
The part about bouncing around/flying off screen is already in there, but I forgot to add the detail about them blocking shots, so I'll add that in. Good catch!
Prickly Angler wrote:- One thing I’ve noticed is that in some zones you get a different amount of power-ups depending on the zones you’ve done before. In M for exemple you get a different amount of power-ups depending if you were in H or in I before that, and the golden and grey orbs are located at different locations. This happens in New Version, dunno about Old and Extra.
I've noticed this kind of weird stuff going on too, but we need more concrete research and examples/footage if we want to add it to the guide. My priority is the walkthrough right now, but if you want to gather this information I'll gladly add it.
Prickly Angler wrote:when firing the 2 or 3-shot any bullet than won’t hit the ennemy will still travel across the screen until it hits something.
This is a good point that I'll add into the Missile section.
Prickly Angler wrote:- A completely unmodified cabinet will have only a button for Missile and a button for Bomb, and they will both be either auto-off of 30hz. Are you certain about that ? Itrust your experience but I'm wonderring since the attract mode doesn't show 30hz.
Yes, I'm sure, at least in the case of Extra. An arcade called TRY Amusement Tower in Akihabara used to have an unmodified Extra cabinet which I cleared on countless times. It ran full-auto only and was kind of a pain in the ass to play. I can't actually say for sure about New/Old, since I've never played them unmodified. I've never once encountered an auto-off Darius 1 cab in Japan, and I've played at quite a lot of different places.


------


Alright, we're gonna have to address the elephant in the room, so strap in for a long post, cause god knows uncle ACS loves to ramble. :lol:

Well, before we even start, I think the Old vs New vs Extra argument has more to do with player opinion than anything else, so your argument on the matter is every bit as valid as mine. Nonetheless I feel strongly that new players should start with Extra. I'm going to add a section to the opening discussing why in more detail, and if you want to write up a counter-argument to it I'll quote you and post it right next to mine in the opening post. That way players can read both sides and make their own choice in the matter.
Prickly Angler wrote:- It’s interesting to hear you say Darius Extra is the easiest version since I’ve seen most people agree with the idea that it was the hardest by far (a statement I agree with).
This question is really complicated. The tldr version is that Extra is the easiest version for the strategy this guide details.
If you just want to know what the "easiest" clear is overall, I would say it's New Ver. ACEHMRX, waiting to power up until after Fatty Glutton (or not at all). I have absolutely zero interest in writing a detailed guide about this strategy and I should probably go ahead and explain why now.

My goal with this guide is NOT to teach new players the path of least resistance and net them an easy clear for their 1cc list.

My goal is to get new players started on the first steps of the path to Darius mastery. What I mean by that is:

Getting your first clear -> Clearing every course -> Score Play

While getting your first clear is most easily achieved using the missile method, certain stages are extremely difficult using that method (L for example), and Score Play against G.T. uses the wave. So basically what I'm saying is, learning to clear with the Missile method does not prepare you for a larger "career" in Darius. Not to mention there is already plenty of documentation out there detailing how to do that. That's also why the initial guide is being written around Z', it's because learning the basics of G.T. prepares you for higher level play.


"Give a man a point-blank-missile strategy for Fatty Glutton and he 1ccs for a day.
Teach a man to laser Fatty Glutton and he 1ccs for life." - Jesus Christ (Probably)



So the question then becomes why Extra? Even if the goal is to laser the shit out of Glutton's fat ass, why base the guide on that particular version?
Prickly Angler wrote:- I think you underestimate the inefficiency of laser and wave in Old and New versions, bosses don't take that long to deafeat and powering-up after Fatty Glutton (or before if you're a really good player) is a perfectly viable strategy.
I can beat Glutton in New and Old with the laser, but it's an absolutely miserable experience, especially in Old. I agree that in New powering up after Glutton makes a lot of sense (depending on the course) but in Old it usually doesn't for less advanced players. Old version (and to a lesser extent New) actively punishes you for powering up. To a new player, that just feels bad, even if it's possible for advanced players to argue the merits of powering up anyhow.

Hot take personal opinion starts here: I hate games where you need to avoid powering up. It seems like such jank, badly designed bullshit, and Taito must've agreed or New and Extra wouldn't exist. I want players to experience Darius with no bullshit, and Extra is the only version of the three that unquestionably tells you to take all the firepower you can get and go kick some ass. In truth, I actually kinda hate Old and New Ver.. I only see them (mostly Old) as alternative scoring systems for highly advanced players. Or players looking for the absolute easiest 1-and-done 1cc. Who I didn't write this guide for. /end-hot-take

I have a lot of experience and clears spanning all 3 arcade versions of Darius. The first draft of this guide will focus on the Z' route, and it's a route that I have cleared in all three versions. I consider there to be basically two approaches to this route that make sense: Either you take all of the powerups, resulting in easier Zone P/Z' but harder bosses, or you avoid red powerups to keep the Missile and trivialize the bosses while dealing with somewhat harder stages. I have cleared all 3 versions using both methods, and the difficulty varies wildly between them. I first learned the clear on New Ver. (World), then Extra, then Old.

Using the Missile method, New is unquestionably the easiest, followed by Old, and then Extra as the hardest.

Using the Powered Up method, Extra is the easiest, followed by New, with Old lying somewhere in the 9th ring of Hell.

Side Rant: Why is Darius Extra harder using the missile method?
The answer is because enemies and bosses fire faster and more aggressively in Extra, many cheesy strategies were removed (the Hammer safe spot, instantly speed killing G.T., etc.), and most ground based enemies take multiple hits to kill whereas they die in a single hit in New and Old. The overall balance of the stages is much harder on the whole in Extra, while the bosses are about equal in terms difficulty using the missile method.

However, being able to power up in Extra arguably makes later stages easier, and while the bosses can no longer be cheesed to death, they are very manageable. The need for new players to avoid powerups until after Fatty Glutton in New makes it a lot harder than Extra, especially in Z' where a beginner would want the wave early on in Zone P.

And one final personal opinion here, but even as a beginner I thought the difficulty adjustments actually made Extra more interesting, especially some of the brain-dead-easy bosses. Anyhow that's about it. The guide is about powering up, and powering up is easier in Extra.


------


I also seriously considered calling this thread "ST: Darius Extra", but I'm worried less familiar players might not realize that almost everything in here is applicable to other versions as well, not to mention the fact that I do want to add information about other versions eventually. All of different versions make it kind of a pain in the ass to write an all-encompassing guide to Darius, so I feel like you need to choose one version as a basic starting point. For me that's gotta be Extra, because Extra is Life. What do you think? Should I change the name?
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Re: ST: Darius -WIP- Updated 04/10/2023

Post by Prickly Angler »

Thanks a lot for adding my contribution ! I look forward to reading your revised Darius II guide. I still have a hard time overcoming my writer's block so I'm very thankfully there's someone like you to share the Darius love :oops:

I've noticed this kind of weird stuff going on too, but we need more concrete research and examples/footage if we want to add it to the guide. My priority is the walkthrough right now, but if you want to gather this information I'll gladly add it.

The orbs at zone M are not exactly at the same place depending on if reached it throught zone H or I. Here the location of the first golden orb is at the left of the pillar, and there's 5 red power-ups, that's one more than what is indicated on M2's map :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLDo ... e=youtu.be

Here the first golden orb is at the right of the pillar, and there's four red power-ups :

https://youtu.be/pOIE93k33Es?list=PLDos ... W_c6&t=824

In zone A you can also get the last blue power-up to appear during the last Zoyd wave (usually you get it earlier), I have no idea as to what causes this : https://youtu.be/twzInZLliPM?t=115.

It's a real shame M2 kept silent about this, it almost feels like they never really played those games.
If you just want to know what the "easiest" clear is overall, I would say it's New Ver. ACEHMRX
Imo the easiest clears overall are New Ver. ABDHMRX or ABDGKPV, as C and E are tricky and less generous with shield items.
Old version (and to a lesser extent New) actively punishes you for powering up. To a new player, that just feels bad, even if it's possible for advanced players to argue the merits of powering up anyhow.
It depends. If said player is used to just picking up every item like a (Fatty) Glutton then yes, it is pretty bad to start there. But for someone like myself who started playing shmups with Darius Gaiden and Soukyugurentai it's pretty obvious that powering up isn't always a good idea. I could list you countless shmups were powering-up brainlessly isn't the best decision and that doesn't make it bad game design in any way, in the contrary : it adds another depth, as you can choose to power-up or not depending on your strategy. Again it's all a question of personnal preference :https://youtu.be/Ea22PsbxmHQ?t=2104. Imo it's not so much that Old/New punish players for powering-up rather than game designers didn't balancing things correctly, nor really took into account the shot limit.
Extra is the only version of the three that unquestionably tells you to take all the firepower you can get and go kick some ass
I think it can be interesting to not pick up wave and stay to laser in Darius Extra (on some routes)
However, being able to power up in Extra arguably makes later stages easier
I disagree, Extra is still has some significantly harder sections due to all the changes I've highlighted in my former post.
What do you think? Should I change the name?
No.

About Darius Extra : as I’ve said before, it’s not the laser/wave balance that I mind, the game was inherently flawed from the start due to the 3 screen + shot limit + weapons with penetrating propreties combo and even Extra doesn’t exactly solve that problem (it just makes it less worse). What I do mind in Extra all though the stupid game design decisions that were added into the mix and that make the playing experience worst for me. I know Extra was designed by a superplayer, but when I look at all the decisions taken I can’t help but feel this dude must have seriously hated Darius players and really wanted make their life worse in every possible way. I’ll go over each decision and explain why I think they are inherently bad. This should not be taken as a counterpoint, but rather as an anti-Extra rant you can feel free to ignore, or to disagree with :

- Replacing golden orbs for grey orbs : Like seriously, what sort of mentally disturbed person would think of doing something like that ? God knows I’ve never in my life whined about the rng in video games (I feel ppl who do should just play games without rng and move along) and honestly like the fact that a part of Darius’s scoring is random (it can lead to funny situations on Switch leaderboards). But adding more randomness into that just so that players go nuts with reset hell and throw even more credits in the machine just to get better grey orb rng is just pure evil. But more importantly the golden orbs were part of the design of the game, removing them causes a lot of annoying situations where you’ll get cornered more easily, or where you will have to mash a lot (side note : as I’ve never played Darius with anything higher than a 5hz autofire, I’ll consider any change made to Extra that involves using high frequencies autofire or very high rate mashing to be inherentbly bad, as old/new do not require to mash a lot. I don’t really care how they play the game in Japan, but for me if a game forces me to go into the dipswitches to set 30hz+ putting an external button setup to not just have an unplayable 30hz only set-up, then I’m sorry but your game is just shit.). The way those golden orbs are located in strategic parts of the background so to cancel everything is something that was really interesting for the time, and that is something that will later inspire Darius II, and even Cave games. Removing that gameplay element was an awfull idea imo

- Red bubbles before the fight : Now you can get hit randomly for absolutely no other reason at all other than the game arbitrarly decided to, what a brilliant idea. I can’t count how many times I lost shield units and died because of that. Recovering on a boss and getting hit by the red bubbles without being able to do anything to prevent it (thanks rng) is one of the worst experiences I’ve had in any shoot them up. I know some will say « just use auto dude, it’s easy », but since the original game didn’t asked for ot it’s just bad game design to me.

- Ground units have more hp and fire more : This has to be one of the worst changes made to Extra, not only it punishes you for trying to use your bombs correctly (you're encouraged to destroy ground units with shot and autofire), but suck up all your shield if you even try to go for it. Overall you’re just more prone to get hit stupidly in a very frustrating manner every time there’s ground units and removes one of most fun aspect of the original game.

- More ennemies in the stages : Again, I don’t see how this is a good idea, as some zones (zone M for exemple) become harder in an absurd manner due to having ennemies flying between the asteroids (add to injury the lack of golden orbs and stupid ground turrets). Since you’re supposed to have laser here you better aim your shots very well if you want to destroy every ennemy, and you’ll likey get hit because you won’t destroy them unless you’re really good. On the other hand the stage is quite managable in old/new even with low laser level thanks to the golden orbs and lack of ennemies.

- Harder bosses : I didn’t fight Great Thing, Vermillion Coronatus, nor Cuttle Fish, but for all the other bosses I beat the changes a bad in my opinion. It becomes difficult and frustrating to not be able to not lose shield on Keen Bayonet, I much prefer the pace of the original one. Iron Hammer is also more annoying in Extra : it spreads out its shots sustematicaly, meanwhile the original pattern had some cool but fair rng which made you adapt on the fly. I really hate the Octopus changes as well, why the hell do you take my fun away killing Octopussy, the easiest final boss of any Darius game, and force me to dodge some stupid spread pattern that doesn’t fit the bossffight instead ? What is even more stupid is that despite the boss being harder it takes like 10 seconds to kill it, which is even less than new. And I don’t use the safespots or cheese strats, so their removal doesn’t concern me.

- Removal of the milk about replacing it with no-miss cringe : I get that near endless milk isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s really not something I like to watch, but I really like doing Darius old/new milk. I like the feeling of milking the best you can like there’s no tommorow (until your last life), there’s a great rythm to it with the music and it takes quite some skill to be able to survive Yazuka’s revenge fire, and it’s I’d like to study more in the future. I also like it that for scoring W zone it’s best to suicide on M. I admit that rewarding no-miss was a pretty unique idea for the time though, can’t think of many shmups released before 1987 that.

- Powerup distribution is somewhat different : I have opinion on this actually as I haven’t played the game enough and don’t know how rebalancing was done in the other zones.

- One last thing that I’ll which echoes what Bofner was saying for Darius II : despite the rebalancing that I like the power-up system inevitably has less depth in Darius Extra where it’s pretty much just « pick-up every power-up » up to a certain point. In old/new powering-up to laser is a decision with many consequences whereas in Extra you don’t really have the choice.

To me the power-up rebalancing doesn’t make up for all those bad decisions. Of all the arrange modes I’ve ever played on any shoot’em up Darius Extra was the worst by far. Feel free to disagree, but I don’t think I’ll ever change my opinion about it (despite that really enjoyed reading you defend this version ;) ).

Since Extra is without a doubt the hardest version of the game, and an arrange which is somehow far from the original game on many points, I feel that new players should start with new (or old), so to get a more approachable experience. However for what you have in mind for your guide (learning to do Glutton with the laser) I think Extra is indeed the best version to start with so you should really leave your guide as it is :).
"Give a man a point-blank-missile strategy for Fatty Glutton and he 1ccs for a day.
Teach a man to laser Fatty Glutton and he 1ccs for life." - Jesus Christ (Probably)
It was God himself who said that I believe. Looking forward to read the rest of your guide ! 8)
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Re: ST: Darius -WIP- Updated 04/10/2023

Post by ancestral-knowledge »

Just wanted to post that with the help of this guide I was able to succesfully beat Darius 1 Extra on one credit. Thanks a lot for the excellent guide. I picked the ABDGKPZ route and defeated Great Thing with my last shield. :D

This guide really lures you into the game but then leaves you hanging at the most important part which is Stage G if you take the ABDGKPZ route. It's really easy to get obliterated in Stage G if you don't have a good route. Also I think I've found a method which allows me to cheese through Fatty Glutton with only loosing a single shield power. I place myself underneath Fatty Glutton and then just hold right while autofiring (30KHz) with Twin. To pull this off you'll need to have "Twin" with 2 Green powerups for this though. I think ABDGKPZ requires you to not miss a single weapon and bomb powerup. That makes the whole route very dangerous. It's very important to already have the Laser at dual shears and a laser lvl 5 at the end of stage G. This is because you need to take the first 2 red powerups at the beginning of K to make the stage more manageable.

Several things I've noticed:

1) I noticed that Great Thing's health varied. When Iwould get there fully powered up it had about 750HP. When I died it had about 250HP. Am I wrong?
2) When I was going through stage A it would occasionally happen that a wave of enemies that normally would carry a red powerup was not coming. => Restart :evil:
3) The swirling enemies before each boss fights would increasingly swirl with each boss I've defeated. While at stage A they would be quite tame in comparison to stage K and P where they would swirl way more aggressively when killed. Also these things would turn red and "go crazy" swirling around in even more in chaotic arcs. I could not see such behaviour in the Old and New version.
4) I played on the Cozmic Collection and it allows you to see your current shield/arms count and the boss health. This is super helpful. I highly advise everybody to turn it on to learn about the mechanics of the game.

I think I'll move on to Darius II but I have questions regarding the difficulty settings in the Cosmic Collection.
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Re: ST: Darius -WIP- Updated 04/10/2023

Post by ACSeraph »

Yeah... I definitely left everyone hanging with this one...
Shit has kinda hit the fan for me irl, so it might be a while before I can get back in here and finish this project. Sorry to everyone in advance.
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