Ships:
Lightning is indeed a good choice as it has good balance in all areas, and the added bonus of having direct homing missiles, making it good for sitting on top of certain targets without having missiles flying all over the shop.
Shinden is almost equivalent to Lightning in power, however, the main problem is that the homing missiles dart out behind the ship a small distance before charging towards the target. While this is a minor issue in stages, with regards to S-ranking certain bosses you are unable to use some of the Lightning's no-bomb techniques and thus have to bomb-assist.
Mosquito is very powerful, and comes with an upgraded Wide as a bonus. However the speed is extremely slow, making collection of items difficult, and the homing missiles fly out the side of the ship a big distance before locking on to the target, making it near impossible to quickly destroy larger enemies and S-rank bosses without bomb-assist. The homing missiles do provide extra width to cover the screen though.
Please note two things:
1) that this is a cross-post from the old namakoteam! forum.
2) that this only goes up to st5 - I may finish it off in the future.
>> Demonstration Playlist - Player: Icarus - 15.4mil ALL, Lightning <<
Complete collection of stage replays (including st6 and 7) is here (thanks to zakk for the hosting!).
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STAGE 1
- At the beginning, make sure you grab Wide from the first set of powerup carriers. You'll need it for catching some of the faster-moving enemies.
- When you see the large Lightning-shaped ship, if you line up with its center like so:
You can then sit at the bottom of the screen and destroy everything that comes on screen without moving. - Throughout the game you'll see these chains of drones with a red fighter at one of the ends.
These chains will yield medals when destroyed. They will only drop five medals if you destroy a grey fighter last, so make sure you destroy the red one at the earliest opportunity. - AYAKO SPECIAL S-RANK: Lightning/Shinden
Recommended weapon: Laser
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st1boss.avi
1) With the Lightning and Shinden, switch to Laser and charge up. When the boss is almost fully on screen, lock on to the tail and shoot up the very center of the ship.
2) As soon as your lock is broken, quickly charge up and fire another lockon missile right up the center of the boss, to hit the cockpit. Make sure you keep firing up the center of the boss, occasionally nudging left and right to hit the fighters that pop out of the hatches. - AYAKO SPECIAL S-RANK: Mosquito
Recommended weapon: Wide
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st1boss_mosq.avi
1) With the Mosquito, make sure you have Wide powered up to maximum. Lock on to the tail as usual, and stay as close to it as you can, aiming to fire your shots down the center of the boss.
2) As soon as your lock is broken, quickly fire a lockon down the center of the boss, and start backing off. You need to back off to catch the fighters that come out of the hatches - as soon as you get some space, pointblank the tail again.
STAGE 2
- Once you see the dock on the right side of the screen, head to the right side as there is a medal generator located at this spot.
This spot is also the key point for 100% destruction. Here, scores of fast moving dart ships will appear. While you're always likely to miss one, you'll improve your chances of getting a high destruction by a) tapping as you move (as some of them appear to aim at your location); and b) destroying all the boats and crane turrets quickly, so they don't obstruct your fire. - There's a secret spaceman icon located here:
Collecting him will screenwipe and give you some points. - RAIMEI S-RANK: Lightning No-Bomb
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st2boss.avi
1) As soon as the music changes, get center of the screen and charge up. Lock on to the ship as soon as it appears, and quickly get over to one side of the boss - your aim is to destroy the smaller turrets at the side on this pass.
2) Quickly sweep the smaller turrets, and then sit on top of and destroy the medium turret (lockon if you have to). Then destroy the large turret in the same manner. Start charging again once you do.
3) Lock on to the main bridge and head to the other side of the boss, and destroy the smaller turrets again.
4) Destroy the medium turret as quickly as you can, then destroy the two large turrets.
5) Charge up and wait for the bridge section to come on screen fully. Lock on as soon as you can, and sit on top of the radar dish like in this screenshot:
In this position, you'll stop all the surrounding turrets from firing. Continue to sit on top of the bridge in this manner, charging and firing as you do. You should destroy it before any support fighters appear. - RAIMEI S-RANK: Mosquito/Shinden Bomb Assisted
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st2boss_mosq.avi
1) As soon as the music changes, get center of the screen and charge up. Lock on to the ship as soon as it appears, and quickly get over to one side of the boss - your aim is to destroy the smaller turrets at the side on this pass.
2) Quickly sweep the smaller turrets, and then sit on top of and destroy the medium turret (lockon if you have to). Then destroy the large turret in the same manner. Start charging again once you do.
3) Lock on to the main bridge and head to the other side of the boss, and destroy the smaller turrets again.
4) Destroy the medium turret as quickly as you can, then destroy the two large turrets. As soon as you have destroyed the second of the large turrets, immediately charge a Level 3 Bomb.
5) As with the Lightning, wait until the bridge comes into view, lockon and sit in the deadzone like so:
As you do this, the Lv3 Bomb should activate. Back off and quickly lockon again when you get the opportunity, and the boss should go down with a tiny bit more damage.
STAGE 3
- The first key percentage section is after the trees end. Stay low on screen and use your wide to sweep any small jets that appear. These tend to come on screen, fire and then dart off, so you'll need to be quick.
- There's a spaceman hidden in the lake here.
- At the bottom of the waterfall is a hidden medal generator, here.
- Make sure you destroy both support choppers that appear with the Blackbird. Easiest way to do this is to wait until they appear before locking onto the Blackbird.
- The section inside the mine isn't too taxing, but it is easy to miss some of the small tanks that appear, so make sure you sweep both sides of the screen periodically. Also, when you come to the end of the mineshaft, make sure you wait until these two tanks appear on the right side:
If you go too quickly, you destroy the first one, which obstructs the second one from appearing, costing you a percent. Wait until they both appear before destroying them. - There's a secret medal located here:
However, on only two occasions in the past seven(!) years I've had it yield an Extend icon instead. I am still unsure of the conditions for this, however, so don't rely on it to give you an Extend. - KARBERT ARMOR S-RANK
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st3boss.avi
1)Wait until the boss appears fully before locking onto the center turret, marked here:
As you fire, try to do as much damage to the two front rail turrets as you can. Destroying them both will help, as they can be quite annoying and fire fast aimed shots at you.
2) As soon as you have destroyed the center turret, lock on to one of the two disc turrets, marked in this screenshot:
Alternate your lockons between them and try to destroy them as quickly as you can. If you need to do a bomb-assisted destruction, start charging a Level 3 Bomb after you've destroyed one of the two discs.
3) As soon as you've destroyed the two disc turrets, the main weakpoint will appear in the center of the boss's main body. Quickly move up to meet it and lockon. Pointblank it for just a split second and then back off, and dodge through the spray attack.
4) Quickly reestablish lockon as the boss ends its spray attack, move towards it as quickly as you can, and sit on top of the weakpoint as you attack. It should be destroyed after this.
5) Quickly lock onto and pointblank the two back turrets. This is still timed at this point, so be quick. These things like to pointblank as well, so make sure you get some distance when you attack the second one.
STAGE 4
- The most important thing to remember in this stage is to destroy all the large rockets (those white things that fire a spread before darting off the screen) quickly.
- There's a medal generator located here:
Make sure you take out the laser batteries and rocket tank to the right of the generator first, or else they'll make it hard to get the medals. - There is a simple way to handle the large cluster of submarines without resorting to a bomb. First, they appear in this order:
You only need to lock onto specific ones, and let your Shot and homing missiles do the rest of the work. The technique is:Code: Select all
2 2 3 1 5 1 4 1 2
1) Lock onto the bottom left one that appears, and move across to the bottom right one.
2) Quickly lock onto the right of the pair, and sit on top of the left one as you attack to destroy both.
3) Lock onto the left of the three that appear, and sit on top of the right side one. The missiles and Shot should destroy all three (the middle one occasionally survives, but is destroyed on the next attack).
4) Lock onto the left side one and destroy it at distance. Watch for bullets.
5&6) Lock onto and destroy the remaining subs. - GRANTZ S-RANK
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st4boss.avi
1) Sit at the top of the screen and charge up. Wait for the bridge section to come on screen, and immediately lock onto and sit on top of the bridge section. Track it as it comes on screen, and you should destroy it before the turrets around you can fire.
2) As soon as the bridge is destroyed, immediately start charging a Level 3 Bomb, as well as a charge shot. When Grantz flips over, try to lock onto the bridge or the turret above it (if you can), then back off down the screen again. Start attacking with shot and homing missiles, and the Level 3 Bomb should eliminate all the turrets for you.
NOTE: I say "should" because on occasion the turret just above the bridge section is still intact, even after a Level 3 Bomb, so be careful.
Skip to the Boss Kill Technique if you don't feel comfortable with the scoring technique just yet.
3) Scoring Technique
At this point the only thing that is left on the boss is the bridge section, which will periodically spawn a floating mine. This mine is not hostile, and you can sit on top of it. When you shoot the mine, it'll spit out a 300pt medal and will continue to spit out more until it self-destructs. Feel free to milk two mines completely, but beware of the missiles that the boss fires on occasion.
Also, when you're milking the second mine, make sure you weaken the bridge enough so that it starts flashing.
4) Boss Kill Technique
Charge up (and wait for the third mine to appear if you are going for score), then quickly lock onto and destroy the bridge. As you do this, move up towards the weakpoint of the boss which is located at the top of the submarine, because the weakpoint will activate as soon as the bridge is destroyed.
5) When the weakpoint is activated, quickly lock onto and sit on top of it, and destroy it. It'll blow up before it has a chance to fire.
6) Milk the third mine if it is on screen.
STAGE 5
- During the early part of the stage, you'll find fast moving jets that fly down the screen in formation, with a greyish jet at the head of the formation, like so:
If you destroy the greyish jet first, you'll get 1k for each ship in the formation that is destroyed (either 5k or 7k). They always appear in a specific order, which is...
...but the large choppers floating around can make it tricky to get them all. My method is:Code: Select all
5 3 4 2 1
1) Quickly lock onto the chopper, but do not fire just yet. Wait until the first formation on the left comes in, and destroy the leader.
2) Quickly lock onto and destroy the right side bomber, then destroy the formation on the right. Then immediately...
3) ... sweep over to the left and destroy the left side formation.
4) Lock onto the left side bomber and swing over to the right side of the screen to destroy the formation.
5) Head back to the left side of the screen to destroy the remaining formation. Mop up whatever is left on screen. - Stay back and quickly lock onto the Blackbird as it sweeps onto the screen. When you get space, go and pointblank it. The Blackbird, once destroyed, and all its support fighters should spew lots of large medals for free.
- There's an Extend item located at the gates to the factory, here:
- One of the more difficult techniques to do in this game is to force-generate 1k medals from all the tanks spawned by the conveyor machines. The only way to do this is to use Shot to destroy the tanks with circular turrets:
When you destroy one of these tanks, all the smaller tanks on that conveyor will explode into 1k medals. It is a tricky technique to do, and in most cases it is better just to lock onto the machine and destroy it. Only attempt this if you have some confidence in your technique. - To quickly destroy the large bomber, pointblank all the small turrets on its body, then lock onto and destroy the weakpoint by sitting on top of it as you attack.
- There are two medal generators before the boss, located here:
The first one is on the left when the large bomber appears, the second is on the right of the landing platform. Make sure you destroy the large bomber first, to make collection easier. - SANCHO PEDRO S-RANK
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/19xx/st5boss.avi
1) First and most important thing to note is that these two turrets located on the front of the train...
...will regenerate a few seconds after being destroyed. They aim their shots and their bullets can be destroyed, but they can be a massive irritation on particular forms of the boss, so be wary of them.
2) Destroy the cover of the missile unit on the carriage, and lock onto and attack the weakpoint. You might have to wait until after it does a missile attack before you get another chance to lock on and destroy the first form.
3) Weaken the two front turrets until they are flashing, but do not destroy them. Sit in line with the middle railtrack and their bullets should miss you. Wait until the second form appears.
4) When the second form appears, quickly destroy the front turrets to get them out of the way, and then quickly move towards the weakpoint located on the back center of the second form, behind the gatling gun. Quickly lock on and sit on top of the weakpoint to destroy it in one go.
5) Swing round the outside edge of the screen and get back in line with the middle rail, and again damage but do not destroy the front turrets.
6) Wait until the third form is about to appear, then destroy the two front turrets. Quickly lock onto the large central turret and sit right in the middle of it as you attack. You will have to lock on twice here to destroy it.
7) Once it is destroyed, quickly get back in line with the middle rail, and quickly destroy the escaping train carriage for 100k.
