Game Tengoku's Time Attack mode is fairly easy to get through, but is a challenge to score in. This is a short guide to getting at least a quick-and-dirty 7mil with practice.
First, some quick notes about the game and Time Attack:
- Certain enemies will release aubergines when destroyed. These act as the medals, and will increment in value as long as you collect the next eggplant within a set time limit (usually one second, or as long as it takes for your character to say something in true Blazing Star style).
The values are:
1000 > 2000 > 3000 > 5000 > 7000 > 10000 - However, there is a secret giant eggplant that appears when you have chained over 7000pts. Once you get your eggplant values up to 7000 or higher, the next eggplant to be released will be a large one, for something like 48050pts. And like the normal eggplants, you can continue to release giant ones by chaining them within an invisible timer.
- You will lose nearly 100k in points for every death in Time Attack, so try not to die!
- Your eggplant count will be multiplied by 5000 at the end of the stage, but the game will only count the amount you have collected on the current life. If you no-miss the stage, you can get over 1.1mil as a bonus for over 240 eggplants.
- There is an abundance of bombs in time attack, so feel free to go nuts. You need to use bombs a lot anyway, to help generate lots of 48k eggplants.
Demonstration Input File - Player: Icarus - 8.11mil, Seria (wolfmame 0.106 required)
So lets start the guide.
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- In the beginning you'll have the chance to get two Options and six powerups. The choice of Options I leave to you (I tend to get mini-Serias for the extra width), but you will definitely need to get all six powerups quickly.
- The next part leading up to another set of powerups and two bombs should be done in one fluid motion:
1) Destroy the three bombers quickly. They shoot aimed three-ways so their attack should be easy to sidestep. DO NOT collect their eggplants yet.
2) Hang back and wipe out the drones that appear.
3) As soon as the wave stops, move to the rightmost eggplant and quickly sweep left, collecting them as you go, and as soon as you collect the leftmost eggplant, move upwards to meet the rocks that appear. Activate a bomb to overlap the nearest set of rocks to up your medal count...
4) ... and then sweep right through the rocks while your bomb is working. You should destroy most if not all of the remaining rocks for a bunch of 48k eggplants. You're looking for at least 500k on your score here.
5) Quickly back off and destroy whatever comes, and soon, some powerups should come into view. Grab the bombs and powerup to max. - After grabbing the powerups...
1) A cluster of seven yellow blocks should come in from the left, followed by a line of Tetris L-blocks on the right. In this part there are five groups of yellow block clusters, in the order:
Code: Select all
5 4 3 2 1
Destroy the first group along with the Tetris blocks, but DO NOT collect the eggplants just yet. What you want to do is wait for the next couple of groups to appear. When they do...
2) ... move to collect the first group, then quickly move towards the second group, and activate a bomb just before you overlap the group of blocks. Try to quickly collect the second group, and again, move towards the third group, and do the same.
All this should be done in one fluid motion. As soon as you sense your bomb about to run out, start jamming on the bomb button...
3) ... and repeat with groups four and five.
4) You should only require two bombs at most for this bit.
Powerup and bomb boxes follow, so take a few seconds to recharge. - After the powerups...
1) Head to the left of the screen to meet the bubble cluster.
2) They explode in order, starting from the left. Shoot a few, and then move up while activating a bomb to start the big eggplant chain...
3) ... and move right as the bomb burns, using your Shot as well to destroy all the bubbles. Your aim here is to keep your chain going by overlapping all the bubbles as the bomb is working.
4) Four lines of discs will sweep the bottom of the screen here. The easiest way to avoid them is to start at the top-right corner (where you would end up after dealing with the bubbles), and tap towards the left to avoid their fire.
A few seconds break should follow after this, so get back down the screen. - Following the last pattern of discs is a set of ten yellow boxes, which drop eggplants.
There are a variety of things you can do here. The easiest thing to do is to destroy the first five, then chain them before destroying the next five, for 5x 48k eggplants. There is also a way of chaining the ten eggplants into the first midboss, but that is a little tricky to do. - Now, regarding the midbosses: in Time Attack, if you want to ensure you have a safe 7mil score, you want to run out of time when you get to the end of stage boss. To do this, you have to stall for as long as you can during the midbosses. Done correctly, you should end the time attack before the end of stage boss has a chance to use its nastier patterns on you.
Now, the first midboss...
...is easy. Stay back and tap-dodge to lead the aimed attack, then dodge through the gap in the spread. Get back to center, and pummel the boss, and it should be destroyed before it can release the hands. - The teddy bear...
... is also easy. Just stay back as it comes on screen. It'll sweep to the left side, then to the right side, both times without attacking. Once it comes back from the right side, it'll fire some fireballs straight down the screen, which are easily avoided. It should die before it has a chance to get back to the right side of the screen. - The third midboss is a little tricker.
1) Stay in line with its center, and stay far back, and you should avoid the first spread laser attack with ease.
2) Quickly get away from its center to avoid the straight laser. Stay back...
3) ... as after the laser, it'll quickly release a cluster of mines and homing turrets.
4) You can safely release a bomb here to clear the screen and allow yourself a few moments of pointblanking. You should destroy it after the bomb attack. - After a set of powerup and bomb blocks...
You'll be bombarded by two sets of discs, followed by Tetris blocks and cocktail cabinets. Try and work your way through as best as you can - sometimes staying to one side of the screen and dodging past anything that comes close works. - A turtle should come into view on the left side:
1) This is the first of six turtles that appear, in the order:
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6 5 4 3 2 1
Destroy the first two, but DO NOT collect their eggplants. This is to set up for the chain.
2) Once the third one appears, start your chain by moving left along the bottom of the circular group, up the left side, then back round the top of the group towards the bottom of the next group...
... actually, I'll show you a diagram of a decent way of collecting and chaining the eggplants here:
As you see here, the aim is to minimise the amount of time between each collection, which prolongs the chain. The best way to do this is to go around the circular group of eggplants in a U formation, sweeping along the bottom, up the side then back around the top towards the next group.
3) If you keep firing as you collect, you should destroy each turtle quickly enough to prolong your chain. - Drop a bomb or two during the section with the 8bit bombers to keep yourself safe. It isn't worth messing on with them at this point.
- After a lull, you should see a set of yellow blocks come in from the top left.
1) They'll be followed by a cab in the center, then a set of yellow blocks on the right, then another cab in the center.
2) Destroy them all, but DO NOT collect the eggplants yet.
3) As soon as you destroy the second cocktail cabinet, quickly drop down and start collecting the eggplants in order, and then quickly move to meet the corner of the mass of yellow blocks coming into view.
4) Activate a bomb as you fire, and overlap the first row of blocks. Drop a second bomb if required to wipe out the rest quickly. - You'll have to be alert, because right after a set of powerup and bomb blocks...
1) Five bombers will appear. These ones are the ones that fire an aimed threeway at you. With there being five on screen at once, it can get difficult here, so feel free to drop a bomb if you have one spare. DO NOT collect their eggplants just yet.
2) Once the asteroids appear, start your chain, and quickly head up to meet the asteroid group with a bomb. Keep your chain going as best as you can with bombs and Shot.
3) You should get a lot of eggplants here. Watch out for the waves of drones that appear. Best thing to do here is after you've spent all your bombs keeping your eggplant chain going, back off and use Shot before mopping up. You'll have to be vigilant, however, as... - The stage boss appears!
It'll most likely speed onto the screen as you're picking up eggplants, so be careful. Stay to the left side of the screen to avoid the machine gun on the right side, and dodge the bursts of aimed fire.
If you are slow enough, you should run out of time before it does its really nasty aimed fast fireball attack.
FINISHED!
When I get a bit of time, I'll supplement this guide with a proper stageboss kill guide.
