PACIFISM
Demonstration
146mil #2915 ReadyFireAim
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- As for that particular mode, it just takes practice. You’ll learn how to mob enemies and understand how to avoid trapping yourself in a corner, or having mobs spawn on you. This WILL happen and it WILL happen a lot. Better get used to it!
- You have to be careful not to get yourself trapped and use the radius of the gates to keep space free.
896mil #36 Etrian
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- Theres not much I can say for this one, just practice dodging so you can fit through small gaps easily. Always try to work it so you can double back on yourself to collect all the geoms, you should aim to collect every one until the groups become so big that it’s no longer possible.
- Another worthwhile thing is to destroy clusters of gates that gather at the sides, as then they can respawn in a more useful position. Leaving them as clusters can really screw you over later on.
915mil #32 Tekunikaru
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- This is a crazy hard mode as a lot of your scoring ability comes down to the luck of where the gates spawn, and how they move. The only control you have over the gates is to destroy them. So if an area is gettin clogged with gates, don’t just wait to take out a group of enemies to use them, go ahead and clear a few extra gates so you don’t accidentally nail the edge of one.
- Beyond that, obviously keep moving in a generally circular sweep around the center, reversing direction if needed to hit gates, or avoid a deadend. Remember there is some luck involved however, so just keep plugging away.
167mil #2359 Netherfiend
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- First thing to do; before you attempt any scoring rounds. Have some practice sessions fucking with the blue diamonds. I want you to draw circles around them. Go up to the very first set that spawns and see how tight you can draw circles around them. This practice will show you just how precise the diamonds turn and how close you can possibly get before your hitbox is touched. Do this until you’re not afraid of being near the diamonds anymore.
- Second thing to do; before you play for score. Go get the Wax On & Wax Off achievements. This isn’t because of gamerscore. You should be watching how well the Wall-Grinding tactic can keep you out of trouble.
This leads into a bullet hoarding strategy I observed: T-Hording
This term derives from an STG (shmup) dodging strategy known as bullet-hoarding. If you’re not familiar with bullet hoarding, fire up the ye olde Team Fremont podcasts of march and look for me, or hit up the shmups.com forum glossary.
- What you’re going to do when you’re forced to a screen side, is draw the letter ‘T’ with your ship. Literally approaching the wall somewhat perpendicularly, going a 90 degree turn, then go 180 degrees and head totally the opposite direction. This fakes-out or dekes the diamonds, allowing you to wall-grind toward safety or to a hole uncovered during the position shifting of the diamonds.
- Let’s talk about gates and running through them. We’ll call it Gate-Running. The most efficient way to enter a gate when being chased is from the backside of it, then circling around and unintentionally collecting some of the geom cluster as you double-back. The biggest benefit is to include slightly more of the mob following you up to the space regularly taken by your ship entering the gate.
- This isn’t to say you should use this method for every gate. Just consider breaking-out this move when you have an easy escape, the gate is by-itself, and it’s in a convenient position to circle around and run through.
- Get enough practice of this tactic and you can use it in the other modes to maximize the cash-ins of those rare opportunities when gates appear.
- As for everything else, use what the other three people said. Run though groups of gates often. You don’t need to save every gate to damage the enemy mobs. Gates spawn more frequently as the rank increases.
- Visit areas near the corners fairly often so you can prevent massive groups of gates that will almost lock-out sections of the screen from easy access.
200mil #1686 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Hitting gates at a reverse angle.
Why? Maximizes that 5*your multiplier bonus per use when gates are more uncommon in the other modes.
KING
Demonstration
13mil #18 dreads3213
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- You have lots of space at the start to collect geoms so do your best to get every one, as later you basically need to clear a path straight to the next area.
- Just be sure to aim for the blue fast blob things first, then the snakes, then whatever else in order when clearing a route.
- Also try manipulating things to the opposite side of where you want to move to give yourself space.
8mil #225 Tekunikaru
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- If the Treaty achievement taught me anything… it’s that there is a set number of enemy pop-ins before the next type of enemy appears. What this means, is that killing enemies faster only makes the harder enemies appear faster. As scoring goes, you should kill the enemies slowly and be sure to collect as many geoms as possible without missing any. For instance, killing the enemies as fast as you can while collecting geoms may result in a 200x multiplier by the time the snakes appear. However if you are more careful to pick up as many geoms as you slowly pick the enemies off, you can easily have over a 300x multiplier before the snakes appear.
- Once Snakes appear, and the eventual fast circle enemies, Don’t concentrate on collecting geoms so much as clearing a path to the nearest safe zone. In addition, you’ll need to learn about when a new group of enemies is about to pop-in. This leads to the strategy of not necessarily staying in a single safe zone until it starts to disappear. Waiting and shooting longer isn’t always best for longer survival.
9mil #109 Netherfiend
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- Yeah, basically what they said. You can get a good feel for King by completing the Treaty achievement. You’ll learn that there can be only three safe zones open at any given time. You’ll learn that one zone opens the moment another closes. You’ll learn that you can sometimes use other zones to block the homing path of enemies as you head for more geoms or a better strategically-placed zone.
- Like Teku says, one of the most important parts of King is staying near the rim of a zone, never hang out in the center of the circle. Only near the edges. You should practice this a little bit as it is surprisingly easy to choke doing this with an enemy you think can’t reach you sometimes does.
- Also like Teku states, you should always be planning your exit as soon as you enter a zone. When you figured out what part of the circle you want to exit, make sure your ship is hanging out at the opposite side of the circle. This is so you can force enemies to group together at the farthest possible point from where you want to leave the safe zone.
- A small amount of what you learn from Pacifism comes into play in this mode. If you’re a beginner, practice the hell out of Pacifism before seriously attempting King.
6mil #2187 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Observation of enemy movements and patterns.
Why? Your moments of invincibility allow you to study without worrying continuously about death.
WAVES
Demonstration
27mil #9 K4rn4ge
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- Try to clear every wave for as long as possible, collecting all the geoms as you go, until it reaches the point where you can no longer control them.
- From there, head towards the centre and aim at just destroying the central pieces of every wave to stay safe.
- When the gates appear use them like in the other modes for big points boosts.
10mil #277 Tekunikaru
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- My general strategy for this mode is to completely wipe out the first two smaller waves by shooting diagonally and picking up all the geoms. This will put you near 100x already.
- Then I tend to continue attempting to wipe out entire waves and collect a ton of geoms. At some point however, the action will become too hectic to keep this up, and I will tend toward the bottom of the screen and one corner.
- Always keep moving somewhat, since enemies will try to spawn on top of you (or in your path) At this point, you’re just trying to survive, so just clear a few rows to either side of you and above and below each time a wave spawns. If you’re brave and a gate spawns, feel free to make a run for it, because nailing a gate with lots of enemies around can be worth millions of points (just don’t expect to live much further than hitting the gate)
7mil #626 Netherfiend
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- The diagonal shooting at the beginning is really good. A safe and convenient way to knock out a whole row while keeping your geoms in an easy-to-collect line.
- As soon as I hear a wave spawning that I’m not 100% sure where it spawned, I’ll try to spam one or two shots up or down since those are the waves that can sneak up on you best. It’s a good way to accidentally clear a hole and/or kill a green enemy.
- The main thing I use to get through this mode is Swivel-Fire. When you’re firing in a direction, don’t just hold the stick there. You’re wasting all your spread shots on three enemies. Instead, wiggle the right stick around in the general direction you’re aiming. You’ll use all nine of those three spread shots to kill things and free bigger holes in the waves near-instantaneously.
- The rest of the game is one eye searching for the wave you haven’t shot at, the other eye trying to pick off the regular enemies. You’ll be forced toward the center eventually, where survival is based on just making a hole for yourself with the two or three most center arrowheads using very few shots.
7mil #1066 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Swivel-Fire
Why? Useful while circle-strafing when this is practiced to the point of muscle memory.
DEADLINE
Demonstration
41mil #50 XPSTMIKE
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- Focus on getting the multiplier as high as possible early on, it pays off later. Also, blow up black holes and use gates to really boost your score. The last 30 seconds or so you want to use as many of these as possible as that’s where the real points are.
27mil #258 Tekunikaru
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- Make every second count in this mode. To begin with, you need to make the new groups of enemies pop-in as fast as possible. This means taking out the first few waves as quick as you can, so the harder waves spawn earlier, which in turn gets you more geoms sooner. While 10 seconds doesn’t seem like much when you’re picking off the first 10 enemies. Those 10 seconds are worth millions of points at the end of a solid game when your multiplier has passed 1000x.
- If you can’t take out the first 3 waves in about 5 seconds or so… I’d recommend just restarting the mode. You could still get a great score of course, but it was just 5 seconds… why not get those as good as you can each time?
- The basic safe strategy is to get to approximately a 100x multiplier, and then begin crawling one edge of the stage (I use the bottom) Go back and forth, left to right, killing everything that comes through, and collecting geoms the whole way. Crawling the edge makes it much easier to trap and kill the green enemies.
- Note that dying in this mode not only removes scoring and geom collection for about 5 seconds, but it also lessens the amount of enemies that spawn in, until they build back up again (as shmup people would say, the rank).
- For more advanced scoring, but much harder play, you’ll need to circle the arena as you do in most other modes rather than crawling an edge. When doing this, be sure to take advantage of big scoring opportunities of killing enemies with gates and blackhole shockwaves. You’ll collect more geoms with this method, and destroy more enemies, but have much higher risk of dying.
21mil #701 Netherfiend
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So remember kids, the Gates and Black Holes are the money shots.
I would usually divide Deadline into three phases:
Phase 1 - Quick Shot & Geom Collection
- As Boric says, kill as fast as possible while picking up all geoms left behind.
- Drift towards the biggest clumps of enemies for geoms. If there are no clumps at the time, follow after the orange arrowheads, as they tend to leave the most behind.
- At about 80x to 100x multiplier, or when you feel there is a constant stream of enemies on-screen, switch to Phase 2.
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Phase 2 – Multiplier Building.
You can go about this two ways. The Circle-Strafe Method or the One-Edge Method.
Circle-Strafe Method = Circling around the entire playfield, only shooting forward. Allow a mob of enemies to follow you, but don’t shoot them unless you have a sec or enemies are accelerating too greatly.
+Same as Phase 3, so less memorization of this guide.
+Easy positioning to score a large-group gate kill or black hole kill.
-Slightly slower collection of geoms, leading to a lesser multiplier when Rank maxes out.
-Harder to perform than One-Edge Method.
One-Edge Method = pick a side of the screen and hang out there; preferably the top or bottom. The idea is to generally move only left and right near the edge while only shooting left or right. When done correctly, you can pick up virtually most if not all geoms of every single enemy you kill.
+Faster geom collection than circle-strafe (when done correctly).
+Easier to perform, as enemies are more bottlenecked for quicker kills than other strategies.
+Allows time to spawn many gates or ignored black holes for Phase 3 (circle-strafe) use.
-Does not take direct advantage of gate or black hole bonuses.
-if you accidentally hit a black hole not directly in your planned path, it’s more likely to explode and force you out of position, leading to death.
-Strategy becomes dangerous when Repulsars appear (the armored balls).
- I would not attempt to destroy gates until you see the danger of a Black Hole sucking a gate in. Do not destroy gates in quick succession unless your enemy mob is still large. The longer you can hold gates toward the end, the better.
- Stick to a Phase 2 strategy until either your multiplier hits roughly 400x or you have a continuous stream of enemies (or feel the Rank is very high or maxed); at this time, switch to Phase 3.
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Phase 3 – Circle-Strafing into Gate & Black Hole Cash-ins.
- Begin Circle-Strafing exactly as explained in the Phase 2 strategy. Attract an enemy mob following you. Lead them to a gate or hole conveniently in your path. Destroy it as the mob closes in. Use what you’ve learned from Pacifism and other modes to maximize the 5x bonus per use.
- During the final seconds, make sure every gate and black hole are used. That 5x at the highest peak of your multiplier is critical.
- IF YOU DIE: revert back to Phase 1 (during first 2 min) or Phase 2 (during last min) strategy until rank rises again and enemy spawning once again becomes continuous, then go back to Phase 3. It usually takes around three waves of enemy spawning before this happens. Normally sooner sometime during the final minute.
Finally: Go for the 1 Life Clear. A 1LC will probably get you your personal best score no matter what method you use to get there…provided you’re shooting the whole time. A continuous game on maximum rank will yield more points than dying a few times in a typical game following all these tactics.
8mil #8192 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Circle-Strafing
Why? Infinite lives.
SEQUENCE
Smile Demonstration
59mil #2739 ReadyFireAim
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Scoring Demonstration
245mil #3 Petiephant
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- The key stages are the ones where gates appear, be sure to destroy everything on these stages with the gates, as they can boost your score a hell of a lot. The same applies to black holes also.
- Also making sure you collect as many geoms on each stage as possible is important. Sometimes its better to take your time on a stage just to make sure you collect everything thoroughly. On stages where you are running out of time with lots of enemies left, use a bomb just to make sure your multiplier is increasing as much as possible.
- The 2 blue diamond stages are pretty important score wise (especially the latter one), so try to figure a way to clear it without using bombs.
128mil #67 Tekunikaru
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- This one is all about learning the levels. Obviously not dying is crucial to scoring, since each stage ends instantly when you die.
- Be sure to bomb if you feel you’re going to die, gaining the extra multipliers is huge towards your final score. However remember that the act of bombing itself earns you no points. So if you can avoid bombing, while still gathering most of the geoms from the enemies, try to do that.
79mil #680 Netherfiend
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- You have 30 seconds per section. Use ALL OF IT. You get no time bonus for finishing a stage early. That means get in close to everything you kill in the earlier stages. Do not kill an enemy unless you know you can get its geoms. That means going as far as to stop shooting until you get closer to certain enemies. Never shoot across the screen if you can help it. Only kill at a near point-blank range.
- Do not bomb until the final second. Only bomb if there are a significant number of enemies remaining as time is running out. Try not to panic bomb, but do it if you gotta.
- If there is a large cluster of direct homing enemies (usually green ones) during the final seconds, stop shooting and let them cluster, then bomb and collect the massive density of geoms.
- The four starting enemies in every section is a good indication for remembering what the major waves will be about.
Memorizing 20 sections is kinda tedious; even for survival. Insta-kill surround-spawning bullshit doesn’t help. I will write some footnotes for each stage of the sequence. Unfortunately, you’ll prolly have to memorize this list for it to get you anywhere.
#1 - Turn on the black holes. Let them draw targets in.
#2 - Without shooting, lead the Blue and Purple into a mob. Now do a small circle-strafe while firing directly at the mob so you can collect geoms as you spin. Break from the circle when you see too much fallout from the Purple.
#3 - Green enemies from the right. Clear out some enemies and use the One-Edge Method. You can also choose to circle-strafe the arena then pin the Green to an edge or corner.
#4 - Notice 2 Blue & 2 Green at start.
A. Green spawns from bottom-right, Blue from upper-left.
B. Arrowheads from bottom-left, Purple from upper-right.
Only shoot at Arrowheads. Lead everything else into the 2 Gates.
#5 - Multiple surround-spawn Arrowheads. Be near center of playfield. Move (tapping) just off center after every spawn. Shoot into the center of intersection or shoot out a hole for yourself.
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#6 - 2nd major wave is surround-spawn Arrowhead trap. The direction you move from the center is the direction you shoot to free a hole for yourself. Shoot the other direction after uncovering a hole.
#7 - Circle-Strafe the blue. Destroy the mob using two black holes.
#8 - Destroy black holes as fast as you can.
#9 - All Green. Circle-strafe and heard them into a mob, then move to the center. Go from right to left shooting directly through the center of the mob. Watch Petiephant’s vid.
#10 - Chasers. Tap in a small oval around the reduced playfield. Or force your way to the outside and circle-strafe the arena. Kill all standard enemies first, chasers last.
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#11 - Notice 4 Purple at start.
A. Line of Purple Left/Right, Line of Blue Top/Bottom.
B. Line of Purple Top/Bottom, Line of Blue Left/Right.
Shoot holes through the blue. Save as many as you can for the gates.
#12 - Arrowheads ‘n Snakes. Use what you learned from Waves. Swivel-Fire. All waves are horizontal, so you can hang out at top or bottom edge.
#13 - Green ‘n Amoeba Clumps. Get to the lower-left of the playfield. Pin the Green against an edge or thin the heard by firing along the edges of the mob. Deal with Amoebas later.
#14 - Black Holes. Speedkill first set. Move toward center. Shoot only one side of second set. Only finish off active black holes before firing on inactive ones. If you let the group bunch together, keep your distance and/or bomb.
#15 - Larger multiple surround-spawn Arrowheads. Inward spawn then outward spawn. Be near center of playfield. Do same as #5 or use Petiephant’s vid.
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#16 - Notice the 4 Pinwheels at start.
A. Purple from Bottom. Green from Top.
B. Trap surround-spawn of pinwheels
Start from one end and strafe as much of the Purple as you can. When you reach the other end of the screen, distance yourself from the Purple fallout and prepare for the surround-spawn. Shootout a hole.
C. Arrowhead waves from Right/Left. Swivel-Fire.
Gates are available near the end.
#17 - Notice the 4 Blue at start.
A. 3 full arena-border spawns of Blue Diamonds. Shoot a hole, circle-strafe, shoot a hole, circle-strafe, shoot a hole, cut a path and move inward…
B. 4 simultaneous arena-border spawns of Arrowheads. 2 waves will hit you wherever you are. Circle-strafe and let the blue mob follow you. Concentrate on Arrowheads first.
#18 - Notice the 2 Purple & 2 Arrowhead at start.
A. Purple from left border, Arrowhead from right border.
B. Purple from left border, Arrowhead from right border.
C. Purple from right border, Arrowhead from left border.
D. Purple from right border, Arrowhead from left border.
#19 - Notice the 4 Snakes at start.
A. Wide circle of (6) multiple snake spawns. Use One-Edge Method or Circle-Strafe Method. Your pick.
B. Multiple Photon spawns (black hole fallout). Shoot a hole then circle-strafe.
#20 - Notice the 2 Chasers & 2 Photons at start.
A. Random spawns of Chasers & Photons.
B. Amoebas and 4 simultaneous arena-border spawns of Arrowheads. Like #17.
64mil #1626 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Finding holes in surround-spawns.
Why? You know when they’re coming and you need this technique for Evolved.
EVOLVED
Demonstration
60mil #976 The Decode
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- Similar to deadline, aim for boosting your multiplier quickly then aiming for gates/blackholes later on, as thats where the real points are.
- People seem to have different methods for moving/shooting, I tend to aim straight ahead while going around the edge as I lets me pick up more geoms.
- Another useful thing is using the 4 black holes in the corners (when they spawn) to control everything following you. Shoot one, and as everything is sucked towards it blow it up, trying to take out as much as possible. if you repeat this corner to corner you can score well, especially later on.
114mil #212 Tekunikaru
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- This is similar to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, except starting faster and with different enemies. You still get the big groups of enemies surrounding you, that you need to blast right through. You still get the spawns of large groups from each corner. And most importantly, you still get the “pause” groups from the corners as well.
- If you’re not sure what I mean by that last part. The “pause” groups are when a blackhole, and a few enemies spawn in each corner at once. Generally when this happens, no other enemies spawn on the screen for about 5-10 seconds. And as in Retro Evolved, this is your time to relax and clean up the rest of the stage. Otherwise, there’s no real strategy here that’s different from the original.
- Generally making a wide circle of the level is helpful once things start getting hectic. Be sure to shoot in front of you while moving in case a Wave of the yellow wave ships heads for you from the blind end of the arena.
59mil #1064 Netherfiend
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They are talking about the Circle-Strafe Method.
Let me tell you more about the Circle-Strafe Method:
- In GW1, the idea was to circle-strafe the board infinitely and fire backward only when you had a sec of nothing else on-screen in front, either from every possible enemy on-screen baited to follow the player or because it was during a break wave where there are black holes in every corner and nothing spawning.
- In GW2, the idea is to circle-strafe long enough to lead large groups of enemies to a trap of either a gate or a black hole to kill off large groups at your multiplier-times-five.
Evolved is like the final exam of Geometry Wars. Little tactics and nuances you pick up from all the other modes can be used here all as one mode.
- The Circle-Strafing practiced in Deadline is your base tactics for survival.
- Studying the enemy movements in King may help your timing and anticipate when a Snake will unintentionally clear a path or predict where fallout from an exploding black hole will group together.
- Gate-Running from Pacifism should translate well into leading the largest sections of the enemy mob to the gate explosions. Also, Wall-Grinding as an escape tactic.
- Swivel-Fire from Waves will help you when the inevitable random screen-long wave of arrowheads attempts to fuck up your shit. It’s good for spreading some of your fire wider while you circle the playfield.
- Finding holes in Surrounding-Spawns practiced in Sequence while they were predictable can help you in Evolved where they are familiar, but sudden in appearance.
However, one thing Evolve does a little better than Deadline and Sequence is put out predictably-placed black holes during consistent combat. So this is where I will give more detail on how to destroy a black hole during circle-strafe for maximum gain.
- The ideal on black holes is never to shoot them from a distance. Every attack on a black hole should be met with heading directly toward it and then circling behind it. Only when you begin to circle behind the black hole do you fire upon it. In this way, do you initiate the gravity field for a minimized period while drawing the enemy mob following you around the black hole to maximize the destruction of the enemy mob in the blast radius when you murder the black hole. Then you quickly double-back (if there’s room) and resume circle-strafing in the opposite direction, picking up the dense cluster of geoms dropped by the mob while resuming your circle-strafe strategy.
- This is a tricky maneuver with variable results. If you attack the Gravity Well too early, you catch little of the enemy mob in the 5x blast radius. If you attack the Gravity Well too late, the enemy swarm will enter and explode the black hole before you could ever have destroyed it. Only hands-on practice will be able to show you when it is best to start and finish-off a black hole. But it does function kinda like The Price is Right in tryin’ to hit it as close as you can without going over.
- I suppose the final thing about enemy technique to mention besides “how to not completely choke after losing a life” (which is my problem) is sessions of all corner-spawning enemies. I handle this the same way most circle-strafers do, with drilling into one corner of enemies until a hole is found, then drilling into the next corner or wall-grinding my way around the corner after.
26mil #6801 DJ Incompetent
The skill to practice using this mode: Remembering everything you’ve learned in one run.
Why? There are things to know from all the other modes that can apply to this mode if you’re interested in maximizing your score.
— Super Final Bonus Guide Number One! —
Dealing with Frustration.
- Find your trance: they call this “in the zone” among many other things. You’re trying to find the best playing environment where you can just zone-out yet play the best you’ve ever been. Serious zen shit. Many STG players understand the concept of this, but nobody can put it into good words without a guy on a forum coming down on somebody for claiming to have explained it wrong. If you’ve never experienced this kind of feeling on your own, look into playing in conditions opposite to what you’re used to. This can be as easy as changing the music, temperature, sitting position, time of day, or the place you’re playing in.
- Take a break: Some players have their best runs when they first start their playing session…not to sound like a Wii or anything.
- Mix a mild drink: If you always play sober, as you probably should, maybe you could consider changing it up. Your results could be unexpected.
- Switch modes temporarily: Any mode pissing you off? Play Waves once or twice. Waves pissing you off? Play Pacifism once or twice.
- Switch games: Go play Braid. Find yerself a goddamn puzzle piece.
- Move to a quiet area: Being distracted or interrupted constantly isn’t the best. If you got another HD screen elsewhere, bust it out.
- Invite somebody in to talk to you. However, too much quiet for a long period can make you go nuts. I’ve had my best runs in other games while just bullshittin’ with my girlfriend while playin’ something I’ve tried and failed many many times.
- Turn on a podcast: similar to above, but possible to ignore when positive things start happening in your game. Go to game settings and shut the Music (BGM) to off.
- Use the custom soundtracks: The right music can change you.
- Mute the music or sound: I used this when I got past the Megaman 1 Yellow Devil my first time.
- Fuck with your TV configuration: Some people have issues with Bloom Effect not because of quick contrast issues, but things just getting so bright the shapes will bleed together. If the TV is yours, play with your contrast, brightness, color temperature, and other similar settings. Or just give your own eyes a jolt of paying attention more and totally screw with the tint. Slight changes in anything can trigger your mind to simply pay attention more.
- Finally, remember to never be discouraged at the next player’s score. GW2 is exponential scoring, so that 17 or 70 million that next guy is right above you may just happen if you can live another 30 seconds after your personal best score, or even just one slick use of a gate or black hole…
It’s just a video game.
Massive thanks to Teku @ shmups.com, Boric @ VGEvo.com, Etrian @ shmups.com, and Drunken Gamers Radio podcast at RobotPanic.com