Stages are based around destroying six enemy spawn points, at which point sirens sound and the boss appears. When sirens start sounding, enemies start to flee and gems, items and the environment begin to disappear so the last spawner should not bet destroyed until you're sure you have everything you want out of the stage. Each stage has many environmental bonuses, covered later. Normal Difficult has 4 stages, True Difficulty has a TLB.
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Want to understand:
* How should one plan to move through the stage - prioritise air over ground, maintaining combo for right spawns etc
* Difficulty differences - spawn schedule seems the same, but are there changes to powerups or bonuses? Do gems fall faster?
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Want to understand:
* Are there any spawns triggered by certain events or bonuses?
* Are big enemies on the same timer or are they triggered?
* Do enemy clusters stop spawning at a certain point?
Stage 1 seems to be easiest to collect if you kill it while he's near the bottom.
Stage 2 is very easy to collect if you kill it while it's on a downward bounce.
Stage 3 doesn't seem to be manipulatable at all?
Stage 4 doesn't either.
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Want to understand:
* How to handle the stage 4 boss's wing attack
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Want to understand:
* Do bouncing gems reduce in their powerup value or is the shrinking just a visual indication of how much longer they're on the screen?
* Is it worth trying to collect them all, or can single/tiny gems be safely ignored?
- Life
- Speed
- Bomb
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Want to understand:
* Is it ever worth picking up life/speed, or is optimal play all about bomb pickups?
* What causes disappearance - is it time based or going off the screen?
* How many/locations in each stage
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Want to understand:
* Confirm that the multiplier growth/max rate is tied to your current power level.
* Max multiplier is x80 at full power, yes?
* What are the things the bonus doesn't apply to (Max power gem pickups, asparagus? Is it applied to individual enemy kill values or just the wave kill bonuses?)
Bonuses present through all stages include:
- Bonus for destroying enemy waves or specific enemies/an enemy spawner.
- Asparagus
- Wizards (I think they're wizards? I think they show up on every stages?)
- Spinning targets
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Want to understand:
* List of stage specific bonuses, their triggers and their value
* What uncovers asparagus/where are they
* Which bonuses aren't affected by the multiplier?
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Want to understand:
* Are the different types of bomb bonuses (Tiny, Needle, Thunder etc) based on how any enemies get taken in with them?
* Is the multiplier tied to the bomb bonus type?
* What does the multiplier apply to and how is the bonus calculated? Does the multiplier affect things like the asparagus, which don't typically use the multiplier?
* Is there a "best way" to catch the falling gems?
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Want to understand:
* Is it worth going for time bonuses or do in-stage kill points make up for it if you fall to a Superb bonus?
* What is a good way to determine when it's time to exit a stage (an enemy spawn cue, for example)