ST: Armed Police Batrider (21.7.14 - correct rank info)

[ncp]

I actually said the opposite of what Plasmo said. I avoid small shot powerups like the plague. For that matter, I avoid large shot powerups until Zenovia City too. They can be lucrative for points (5000 per) if you don't mind the rank though. Avoiding them is in contrast to Garegga, where I pick up almost every large shot powerup I see.

This thread has been a long time coming, and no better person to finally write it.

Ah. I mis-read:

I just meant that in Garegga, you want to be wary of picking up option powerups, but big shot icons are "fine." Whereas in Batrider, you want to be wary of picking up big shot icons, but option icons are fine.

Although in light of Twiddle's findings, this is not entirely true either

[Enhasa]

It still makes sense to me. Just like big shot is more useful than small shot for similar rank increase, option is more useful than big shot. My powerup strategy is the same as Icarus's from the last page (picking up option, avoiding big shot until Zenovia City).

Of course, this is for survival play. To maximize score, you need to rank up and pick up everything and power up and chip milk.

[Twiddle]

KET was doing a survival run and still got 8 million by zenovia city (using multicharacters though)

[Twiddle]

Rank modifiers via croikle and myself:

Starting per frame rank = 4 (increased by 1 picking up special level up icons, given that an average clear of Batrider is 30 minutes, that's a potential 108000 rank over the course of the game. I suggest doing it once each to get the extra Rival bosses and pick up Special powerups whenever possible during the stages after Highway.)
Shot action rank (blanks) = 0
Shot action rank (fired shots) = 4
Shot rank (normal shots, option shots) = 4 per shot sprite
Shot rank (piercing shots) = 40 per shot sprite
need to find: value of "special" shots such as Miyamoto's bombs and Gain's broadswords

Grazing = -128 per frame per bullet grazed (despite the incentive, it really isn't worth it)
Small Shot icons = 252 even when leveling up, so don't worry about picking these up at all! Disregard what I previously said about these.
Large Shot icons = 32764
Option icons = 32764
The value of these do not change when you have maxed Shot or Option power.

Small Bomb icons = 2048, and an additional ~16k to levelup
Large Bomb icons = ~131k
need to find: precise value of large bomb icons, small bomb icon levelup, what happens when collected at max

Bomb usage (full bomb) = 0
Bomb usage (partial bomb) = 32764

Medal value: ~512 max for 100-400, ~<100 for 500-900, ~512 max for 1000-10000, so don't worry about these.
need to find: precise value for medal rank increase

Adjusting auto rate has no effect on rank. Adjusting auto rate (up) will also cancel your aura.

More on the way as I figure out a way to make Batrider stop crashing.

[croikle]

We should put something in about how to start the game with the easiest rank.

By default, Batrider starts with a difficult initial rank, only reaching the easiest rank after many attract cycles. To work around this, set the game to enter the test menu on boot (F2 flips this dip in MAME). Press START with the cursor on GAME MODE, and the game boots with minimum rank. The button used is important: pressing A does not get you the desired effect.


Minimum rank value: 0xF80000 = 16252928
Default initial rank value: 0xBA0000 = 12189696

[DEL]

croikle wrote;

Press START with the cursor on GAME MODE, and the game boots with minimum rank. The button used is important: pressing A does not get you the desired effect.

Can't I just hold down START when I switch the pcb on?
Or are you talking from a MAME standpoint?

[Twiddle]

From MAME. There's no reliable way to hold START without going into test mode in there.

[croikle]

Holding START and resetting with F3 seems to work for me.

[Twiddle]

It's not inp-friendly.

[cools]

Dumb question maybe.

Instead of using the Test + Start trick on bootup to minimise the rank, would setting the boards starting rank to Easy achieve the same goal?

[charlie chong]

nah i think that would make the rank rise slowerer than normal so would invalidate your scores.. holding start on that screen is hardly a chore and i just leave the dipswitch on so it always brings the screen up when i turn the board on.the ram checks etc are quicker than garegga at least!

[cools]

Ahh, but there's a seperate dip to control the speed of rank increase.

True, it's not a chore - I'm just curious as to whether there is a difference there or not.

I should investigate with MAME today or something.

[charlie chong]

hmm in that case then god knows.. i think there's a cheat/hack in mame that shows the rank so you could find out for sure .

[cools]

Okay, I've checked it

Default difficulty with start gives a slightly higher starting rank than easy difficulty with start.

Easy difficulty without start is a far, far higher starting rank than normal difficulty with start.

So yeah, setting the starting difficulty is pretty much pointless if you're using the start button to exit test mode.

[charlie chong]

cool! that's pretty interesting that easy without start is higher rank than normal with start. that pesky yagwa and his silly ways

[Icarus]

Ahh, but there's a seperate dip to control the speed of rank increase.

I believe that's for difficulty, not rank increase. Would have thought the fact that it's called "Easy" and not "Low" or "Slower" would have been obvious enough.
And yes, it would invalidate any score you submit to the forum boards.

[cools]

The labels in game are Start Rank and Timer Rank, with the settings available being identical (Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard).

That's just semantics though. I've answered the question I was interested in. As has been stated before, tapping start to enter the game provides by far the lowest starting rank - but it's even lower than regular start when the board is set to easy.

I wouldn't play on anything other than defaults for score anyway

[Plasmo]

While fighting Bashinet2 today, I tried to shoot him with Miyamoto's options from the side to deal some damage during his bomb shower (when he covers). It worked and it's a good way to destroy him, (he often times out for me) but suddenly one arm got completely destroyed and was constantly throwing bombs at me. It was impossible to survive for more than 5secs. Anybody else has experienced this? How many points do you get from destroying the arms?

[DMC]

I think you get 50k each. Right now, I avoid breaking the shoulders just to keep the napalm orgy from happening. But yea, it's probably 100 k available there. Are you sure you kill him much faster though?

[Plasmo]

Are you sure you kill him much faster though?

When one shoulder is destroyed and he freaks out, I won't be faster of course, but if I damage him with my options when he covers his weakpoint, I have a better chance of killing him. Remember that during his second phase he only has one attack where he's vulnerable!

[Icarus]

Yeah, you can pop off a shoulder pad for some decent points, but the downside is that Bashi2 will start spewing bombs constantly from that side. The only real way to avoid him after that is to stay horizontally aligned with him, and pray he moves high up the screen.

You can't swing over the top of him either like you can with some bosses such as Gob-Robo (and like Midi's first form in Ibara), as the bombs fire depending on where you are positioned vertically, relative to him. So if you are above him, he fires them upwards and vice versa.

[Plasmo]

GAREGGA OPTION FORMATION CODES
The Garegga ships are unique in that their options can be set to a variety of different formations. Typically, this is done by pushing button C, just as in Battle Garegga. However, since Batrider is "officially" a 2-button PCB, some cabinets may not have a third button. If you're stuck playing on one of these cabs, use these "Street Fighter" moves instead:

• Front - UP, DOWN, A
• Back - DOWN, UP, DOWN, A
• Wide - RIGHT, DOWN, DOWN-RIGHT, A
• Control - LEFT, DOWN, DOWN-LEFT, A
• Rolling - LEFT, DOWN-LEFT, DOWN, DOWN-RIGHT, RIGHT, A

Is this really true? I thought these were only the commands for the Japan A version where you only have A and B button.

[Icarus]

Is this really true? I thought these were only the commands for the Japan A version where you only have A and B button.

Yup, just tested it out in MacMAME with Japan B and they work. I also recall doing it by accident a number of times in past plays, much to my irritation. To use them, you have to input the command in a very quick Street Fighter style. Not useful if you have a three button setup, obviously.

This guide is has been neglected lately. I'll try and dig up some time next week to work on boss strategies, to start off the main body of the guide.

[croikle]

Minimum rank value: 0xF80000 = 16,252,928
Default initial rank value: 0xBA0000 = 12,189,696

These are only true for Normal Course and Training Course. Difference = 0x3E0000 = 4,063,232.

Advanced Course
Default: 0xA2C000 = 10,665,984
Minimal: 0xD90000 = 14,221,312
Difference: 0x364000 = 3,555,328

Special Course
Default: 0x972000 = 9,904,128 (!)
Minimal: 0xC98000 = 13,205,504
Difference: 0x326000 = 3,301,376

[brannon]

awesome to finally see this, soon nobody will have any excuse to not be playing it \o/

had a quick glance through, all i can think of that's missing that nobody's mentioned yet is how to boot it into special version (hold A+B+C when booting into test mode). also, if you think people will need a stern reminder of why it's a good idea to keep your rank low, this ought to do the trick :<

[DMC]

also, if you think people will need a stern reminder of why it's a good idea to keep your rank low, this ought to do the trick :<

Cool stuff, I guess rank is maxed on the second run? Would you like to do something similar with Bashinet (on sky high) or Airport boss (the flying dragon). I would be eager to see how many popcorn enemies there are with maximized rank. Also, is the timer on the bosses related to rank in any way?

[brannon]

you can boot into special version and move left or right on special course to pick an individual stage/boss, it plays it at what seems fairly likely to be minimum rank and then maximum rank (edit: iirc the invulnerability dipswitch does the same thing, and unless you're fighting sobut you'll probably need that on anyway). i'm pretty sure it's always the normal course version, if there's a way to get the advanced course version then i've not found it yet, but knowing raizing it'll be in there somewhere.

rank doesn't appear to affect the timer at all, i just checked against confrict and he ran away in 1:40 both times. destructible enemies seem to roughly double in number, but much worse than that is that they get a fairly hefty buff in health; against confrict's missiles i could sit back centre and still take a bunch of hits cause half of the missiles went straight through my aura. i'll have a look at some bosses where rank might actually matter :]

i also saw two attacks from bashi's first form at max rank that i've never seen before:

he was about 1hp away from switching forms here so that might have had something to do with it, and just before this he started dropping a bunch of BH2-style black mines, which i bombed for about 500k (!)

[DMC]

but much worse than that is that they get a fairly hefty buff in health; against confrict's missiles i could sit back centre and still take a bunch of hits cause half of the missiles went straight through my aura.

Ah, that clarifies why I sometimes die when using aura on airport boss' popcorn enemies, but only when playing advanced. The rank is higher there.

The black bullets you mention may have something to do with destroying a particular part of the boss, like the tail? 500k sounds much, maybe too much, hmm have to check it. Cool if it's correct!

[Plasmo]

The black bullets you mention may have something to do with destroying a particular part of the boss, like the tail?

It's the tail. Both arms can still be intact, as long as you've destroyed the tail, Bashinet will constantly spew these little bombs at you. Get ready for quite a hefty bullet hell.

[brannon]

500k sounds much, maybe too much, hmm have to check it. Cool if it's correct!

i was obviously a bit out of it when i wrote that, just checked again and it's closer to 250k from a bomb and a half with strawman or flying baron at max rank. destroying the tail without destroying bashi isn't a pleasant task in general, and i reckon you'd have to crank the rank up quite a bit for it to be worth more than saving your bombs for the next stage :<