GD: Mushihimesama shottypes power balance

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CyberAngel
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GD: Mushihimesama shottypes power balance

Post by CyberAngel »

There's a lot of information around about this game but one topic that I find somewhat lacking is comparison of different available shottypes and their strengths. Everyone's advice seems to be limited to stuff like "use whatever" or "S for survival, W for scoring", which doesn't really help anyone going for their first survival clear. Well, after playing around with all of them for some time I think I can provide some tips about their powers and how they're best used for damage.

S-Power (blue): Sniper king. Narrow stream of shots lacking any kind of spread makes sure it's equally powerful regardless of distance, making it the best-performing shot at long range (half of screen height and more). For that reason it's a very reliable boss killer, good enough to skip a whole pattern on certain phases. Said lack of spread is also its Achilles heel - you'll have to move around the whole screen width all the time if you want to take care of all enemies coming at you. Highest speed among all available shots can help with that, though. But as strong as it is, it loses damage-wise to wider shots when enemies are up close. Still, it's a good shot for bottom huggers.

W-Power (red): Point blank monster. Aside from the first few power levels, it outdamages any other shottype if you can manage to hit your mark with all shots. And considering it has the widest spread, that's usually when you're very close. At any other distance it loses power compared to other shots, though not by much. Thus it benefits the most from heavy routing, which is something you'd have to do for scoring anyway. This is a shottype for masters, through and through.

M-Power (green): Usually brushed off by everyone as a shot that's not all that good for any specific purpose, this one actually does have an area it excels at - and that's right between the expertise areas of the other two shots. It's not as strong at point blank as W, but it doesn't have to be as close to the target to hit it with most of its spread. Speaking of which, the spread itself seems to be stronger per area covered than W, so it can deal the most damage to peripheral targets (i.e. those you don't concentrate on at the moment). This shottype needs only a little bit of strategy and is one I can advise to those who prefer to wing it without moving left-to-right like crazy.

There's one other thing I wish to point out.

Options: You can have them in one of two forms - Trace and Formation. Well, after playing through same places with either of them enough times, I can claim with confidence that in Formation mode they're just plain stronger than in Trace, whether spread out or focused next to you. It's not by a significant amount but it's noticeable enough. Considering I've never found Trace options especially useful at any point in the game, I'd advise to stick to Formation type and avoid switching if possible.

So there, here are my findings on the topic. Feel free to comment or share your own. I hope new players will find these tips useful. I know I would.
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EmperorIng
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Re: GD: Mushihimesama shottypes power balance

Post by EmperorIng »

I've wondered about Trace vs Formation myself. I tend to stick to Straight shot partly for reasons you mention (shorter bosses = Ing a happy man). Trace has the use of setting up your options to take out incoming zako, notably on stage 3 (but I switch to Formation there anyway, ha).
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