RQ: Raiden V TLB Requirements

[xxx1993]

How do you reach Divine Rampart, the true final boss? And can you do this on any difficulty? I know you have to power up all your weapons. What if you have to power them back up again if you die?

[NTSC-J]

What if you have to power them back up again if you die?

Then you'll have to play better next time.

You don't have lives in this game, you have a shield meter, so getting hit won't make you lose power levels unless you game over.

[xxx1993]

I understand. There's no way to recover your shield, though, is there?

[AxelMill]

I understand. There's no way to recover your shield, though, is there?

According to MachineAres, "Fairies refill your shield gauge a bit".
As for the number of these:

Stage 1 provides 2 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 2 provides 3 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb, 1 Fairy.
Stage 3 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 4 provides 5 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 5 provides 3 Power-Ups, 2 Bombs, 1 Fairy.
Stage 6 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 7 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 8 provides 6 Power-Ups, 2 Bombs, 1 Fairy.

So three "1UPs" in total.

[xxx1993]

All right, thanks.

[ACSeraph]

You should check out the posting guidelines for the strategy forum when making threads here, so things don't get disorganized. You should probably update this thread title to "RQ: Raiden V TLB Requirements"

[xxx1993]

Done. Anyway, am I still not allowed to use bombs? Because usually using a bomb, for whatever reason, automatically disqualifies you from reaching the true final boss in shmups. CAVE did it all time.

[CStarFlare]

Cave did it like once in Ketsui.

[Shepardus]

No-miss or limited miss requirements are pretty common for CAVE TLBs, but no-bomb requirements are rare. DOOM in Ketsui and Inbachi in SDOJ are the only ones I can think of (and Ketsui's requirement is for getting to the Ura loop, once you're in the loop there are no requirements). Several others (Progear, Ketsui Omote loop) limit the number of bombs that you can use without outright prohibiting them.

Anyway, I don't have Raiden V but I doubt they have a no-bomb requirement. Playing the game, however, is most certainly a requirement for getting to the TLB.

[xxx1993]

I hope you're right. If anything, all that matters is going to the S route and powering up.

[Shepardus]

Quoted from the Raiden V thread in Shmups Chat:

I don't think anyone ever actually answered the TLB conditions clearly. It's simple: just do a full clear (play all stages 1-8) and get all weapons to rank 10 before fighting Stage 8 boss.

- 1CC is NOT required, you can use continues (though you won't unlock All Clear 1CC/TLB achievement this way)
- You can do it on any difficulty level (well, at least Very Easy and up - I never tried "Practice"), and can even bump shields/bombs up to max in options
- There doesn't appear to be a "stay in S rank" requirement. I've made it to TLB on Very Easy going 1-2A-3A-4S-5S-6S-7S-8A (note that I missed S rank on stages 3 and 8 )
- Starting on a higher stage via Stage Select doesn't seem to work, even though it's still possible to get all weapons max rank. I tried it out on Stage 8A (which starts you with all weapons at rank 9), got all rank 10 weapons, no TLB appeared.

As far as weapon upgrade strategy, it seems pretty wise to keep weapons balanced throughout the game and not let any one weapon lag more than a few levels behind your top weapon. Otherwise you could find yourself on like Stage 6 with two rank 10 weapons, then have to switch over to a weak rank 1 and level it up - making it really hard on the later stages. Much easier to do a balanced upgrade path, maybe favoring early upgrades toward your less preferred weapons so that you don't have to use them on harder later stages.

[xxx1993]

Trying to max out all your weapons sounds kinda hard, though.

[CStarFlare]

Is it should be.

[xxx1993]

But I hope it isn't. How long would it take to fully power up your weapons, assuming you're still alive at that time?

[Shepardus]

From the Shmups Chat thread (I thought you read this stuff already since it was posted in response to your questions in that thread...):

More information:

Stage 1 provides 2 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 2 provides 3 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb, 1 Fairy.
Stage 3 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 4 provides 5 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 5 provides 3 Power-Ups, 2 Bombs, 1 Fairy.
Stage 6 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 7 provides 4 Power-Ups, 1 Bomb.
Stage 8 provides 6 Power-Ups, 2 Bombs, 1 Fairy.

So, all stages provide 31 Power-Ups, 10 Bombs, 3 Fairies. In order to reach the Final Boss, only up to 4 Power-ups can be wasted.(Because we need 27 Power-Ups to upgrade 3 weapons to maximum)

The time we get all weapons to full power is at Stage 8.

If you're going to be playing shmups and aiming for TLBs and stuff like that you better come to grips with the fact that it's not going to be trivial - these things weren't made for people who wanted the game to be a cakewalk. Though, in your favor, you can apparently trigger the TLB even on low difficulties. Honestly the best way to figure out how hard it is is to try it yourself. Advice and opinions from others, though obviously helpful, is no substitute for personal experience and tribulation, nor is simply hoping going to make things easier for you.

[xxx1993]

I see now... But there should be enough power ups to get all my weapons to 30 points, yes?

[xxx1993]

If there's any consolation, I don't think all your power ups reset if you die and decide to continue.

[postman]

There has to be something more, I just played very easy, had all three weapons up to max level 10, didn't continue and did not face the TLB. So there has to be one more condition.............

[Mero]

This thread is about the original Raiden V I think, maybe they changed it for Directors Cut (If you're playing that)?.

[nZero]

There has to be something more, I just played very easy, had all three weapons up to max level 10, didn't continue and did not face the TLB. So there has to be one more condition.............

Were you on stage 8-A or 8-S? TLB won't appear on 8-B or 8-C even if you meet the other requirements.

[postman]

So yes, it is Director's cut on ps4, and the stage path was not A or S since I was not trying for that - also very easy mode.

From what I read it was just full weapons, but now it seems like full weapons and A or S path?


Edit: Just played on easy, 8B, all weapons level 10, and no TLB. So it looks like rank is a factor.

[postman]

Just got it:

Practice mode, 8-S, weapons L10. So difficulty doesn't matter, but rank does.

This unlocked a lot of boss rush modes, since the TLB is a part of many of those.