GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

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Sumez
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GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

A work in progress, but I've uncovered a bunch of secrets in the game by playing it a bit myself, and watching others play.
Most notably, I seem to have figured out what dictates getting 1UPs from the "random" 100 coin stores, which can have a pretty massive effect on scoring. I'll update this post as I discover the missing details. :)


How to score:

Avoid getting hit, and don't use your bombs, etc. Pick up excess items when you already have max. Bombs, healing, and shield (if your current shield hasn't taken any damage). The more you pick up, the bigger the bonus you get from this.
Additional lives at the end of game give a big bonus as well.


Getting specific items from stores:

The item positions you see in the roulette that appears after selecting a store correspond to the last digit of your count count.
What item you get depends on the value of that digit at the moment when you activate the store.
When you want to get a specific item try to limit which coins you pick up in order to get the number you want.

At the end of game bonus, each additional life is a guaranteed 50,000 bonus, so ideally you want to go for those on the 100-coin shops, and shield talismans on the 50-coin ones.
If you already have an undamaged shield when getting the talisman from the shop, you still get the (up to 50,000pt) bonus as if you had picked up the item. Conveniently, the 50-coin shops are usually located quite close to a matching pickup.

*) For some reason this doesn't seem to work as intended when you have the max of 999 coins? I need to look into this.
R=Digit & 50-coin stores & 100-coin stores & 300-coin stores R=0/5 & Blue power & Blue power & 1UP R=1/6 & Red power & Red power & 1UP R=2/7 & Green power & Green power & 1UP R=3/8 & ➡ [b]Shield talisman[/b] & Shield talisman & 1UP R=4/9 & Dog & ➡ [b]1UP[/b] & 1UP


Here's a list of 100-coin stores (that I can recall) each giving a potential 1up:
ImageImageImageImageImage
1: Stage 2, start of stage
2: Stage 2, white snake behind wall
3: Stage 3, after a set of hands before the vertically scrolling section
4: Stage 5. shortly before the 300-coin guaranteed 1up
5: Stage 7, after the bouncing spike balls

Additional secrets or hidden items:
I recorded a video demonstrating every secret in the game (that I know of): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CxxhbAO87E

Stage 1:
- Right before the first cart "miniboss" there's a small island in the water with a hidden chest with healing tea. AFAIK you can only reach this with Ikazuchi and Ame-no-Uzume (??)
- The old guy in the cave right before the midboss will sell you a 1UP if you can grind up 300 coins before that spot (kill ghosts at the start of the stage)
- Right before the bridge, on a pedestal behind a curved wall is a hidden chest with a bomb item

Stage 2:
- Stage 2: Hidden chest with a dog item under the tree right behind the first store at the start of the stage
- Right before the first Rokurokubi building there's a hidden chest with a bomb behind some bamboo on the far left
- Just after that, you can walk above the wall leading into the hallway with several flames jumping around in it, and pick up a barely visible chest with a dog before exiting.
- Right after the three tengu, a white snake can be seen behind a wall. Exit through the wall on the right in the area right above it, this store get can you a 1UP.
- 1UP in a hidden chest behind the destroyed house right after the first fire breathing cyclops
- 1UP from 300-coin shop sitting in a crevice behind some trees near the end of the canyon with the tengu demons (right before the raft). You need to scroll the screen up and then back down to go under the trees. Not strictly hidden, but very easy to miss.

Stage 3:
- Hidden chest with a shield talisman inside the house before the first rock monster
- 1UP in a hidden chest just below the first rock monster (near a different hidden chest in the house which has a barrier powerup)

Stage 4:
- Hidden chest with a bomb on a platform on the right side in the first area with green "bridges".

Stage 5:
- Hidden chest with a bomb item on a completely inconspicious looking platform on the right side on one of the airships
- Right at the start of the horizontal crashing airship ride, there's a hidden chest with healing tea in the upper part

Stage 7:
- 1UP in a hidden chest below a grid ceiling near the jail cells at the start of the stage
- 1UP in a hidden chest in the upper right part of a set of rails where several spiked balls fall through
Last edited by Sumez on Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:08 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Sumez
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

Seems the matching digit for 1UPs was a lot simpler than I previously thought. 4 or 9 both work for all stores, I just got some misleading information, as it seems having 999 coins will not trigger it (?).
Across those extra lives and bonuses for additional shield talismans, you can rack up quite a score.

I just tried running through Free Mode on Normal with a somewhat sloppy run (missed out a LOT of 30k and 50k opportunities by a hair) and still got a high enough score to rank #9 on the overall leaderboard on Switch thanks to this information. :P
Recorded the run here to demonstrate: https://youtu.be/IoLXk9dJdTQ
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

According to iconoclast, on the 50 coin shops, you always get the shield if your coin count is 8.

So I think each type of shop needs a certain coin amount to get the optimal item.

I still need to test this myself. But this is some great sleuthing!
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

Yeah you will see I make use of that as well a few places in my playthrough, although I'm not super good at it :) I think it's particularly easy on stage 4 though.
The 50-coin shops are often located near other shield pick-ups, which is probably no accident.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

Chatted a bit more with iconoclast, who did his own sleuthing. His results:

Digits needed to manipulate item shops:

50 coin shops = 3/8
100 coin = 4/9
300 coin = always 1up

Maybe 2 and 7, or 1 and 6 produce similar results for different, nonessential items?
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

Yes, as far as I can tell, 0/5 gives you max blue power, 1/6 gives you red, and 2/7 gives you green. Which, as you probably already figured out, corresponds to the item order in the visible roulette :)

Of course you ideally don't want any of those, you want one of the items that give you 50k points.

I'll update the first post to better illustrate it I guess.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

Great update man, it's awesome to have all this mapped out in one spot. I feel pretty confident to challenge some of the big dogs in the game's leaderboards now.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

There seems to be a glitch where pickups count twice. If this can be replicated consistently that could result in massive scores.

Happens to Vlafaris here with a 1up, pay attention to the lives count: https://clips.twitch.tv/CourteousCalmLe ... PgBtbuAYcv
It also happens here in my Hard Mode NMNB run, where I pick up a shield with none active, and get the 50,000 bonus as if I already had one: https://youtu.be/eHKUMT8ZhdI?t=786
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

I've been trying to suss it out myself. I don't think it has anything to do with coin count. Maybe having the 1up spawn directly on top of you has something to do with it?
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

Too bad the score glitch is going to be patched out... Or maybe not too bad? How many extra lives are in this game without it?

There's a 1up shop in stages 1, 2, and two in stage 7, plus the 5 shops, plus the 4 (?) hidden lives, for a total of 13? That's 650,000 points unless I'm missing a few.

I actually didn't realize, reading this again, that you only get the shield bonus if you have an undamaged shield, I wondered why so many times i never got the extra points... So for the highest score, you really need to never get hit, ever!!!! How maddening.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by XtraSmiley »

Thanks for this thread.

I just beat the game and only unlocked a few of the characters. How do I unlock the final character?
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

Beat the game again - I'm not sure what dictates which character you get on stage 5, it seems random, but at the same time it's my impression it's almost certain you'll get the one you didn't unlock on your next playthrough.
Either way the character you get assigned on that stage will be unlocked after that playthrough, nothing special you can do that I know of.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by EmperorIng »

I watched a replay of vlafaris, who seems to have the highest-scoring replay available for the game (post patch) - maybe the world record? - and he was able to manipulate the shop drops despite having 999 coins!

I asked him how he was able to do this and he explained:

Coins are the only thing worth 10 points in the entire game, so despite the coin counter being maxed, he used his 10s score digit to see what he would get from the shops. So 30/80 for the 50c shops, 40/90 for the 100c shops.

That's a good tip to have, as there are a few spots, especially if you are milking, that you will max out your coins.
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Re: GD: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined - secrets and scoring

Post by Sumez »

That makes sense. It's funny because I was looking at coin digits compared to score digits when trying to figure out the behavior of shops, and quickly realised it was futile as the two will always match.
In retrospect it's pretty silly of me to assume the stores are looking at the coin digit rather than the corresponding score digit.
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