RQ: Thunderforce IV Bio Base cold start

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louisg
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RQ: Thunderforce IV Bio Base cold start

Post by louisg »

I'd love to see someone take on the TF4 Bio Base level without starting maxed out, or any tips people have for surviving it. All the replays I've seen revolve around one-shotting all the minibosses with the sword, but that means they're not dealing with all the various enemy patterns. Any takers?
Humans, think about what you have done
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louisg
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:27 pm
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Re: RQ: Thunderforce IV Bio Base cold start

Post by louisg »

OK, so I had a couple breakthroughs and finally beat this damned level! Here's what I did and where I was going wrong before. Maybe it'll help someone else who's stuck:

- Immediately go to the bottom and grab the hidden Claw (use your railgun) and the hidden Blade in front of it. Some people say to get the homing near the top instead, but I found that the Claw is more important because it will take down that annoying sphere boss in a reasonable amount of time (good thing this stage has good music!). It's not as good as Hunter, but Blade does well enough to thin out those spider droids. If you're quick and daring, you can grab both.

- I took the bottom route the entire time, and I grabbed the powerups in that walled-off nook before the boss (the one where you have to trade a shield or life). The bottom route also has a weapons carrier with a shield that'll come in handy.

- Mech boss: I stayed on the left side of the screen, firing away with my basic shot (I think I'd lost my Blade by then), and taking care to avoid his saber.

- Final boss of the stage: I had no idea until watching SHMUP Master's excellent longplay that the blasts that push your ship into the ceiling were caused by those little flies dropping after being shot. I thought they were just little particles that inevitably would land! This level does have its share of tiny little sprites (like the garbage that falls out of the chutes) leading to a lot of "wtf!" moments. Oh well. So, anyway, being somewhat selective with the shot pays off. Before, I thought the correct strategy was to just press down when the blasts go off! This still does help, but avoiding them entirely is even better :)

- When the bee grabs the final boss and starts flying around, I stayed on the leftmost side of the screen. On Normal, at least, that's safe.
Humans, think about what you have done
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