ST: DonPachi

[Erppo]

Hmm, yeah. Those look made up.

In fact I just did a super quick test and it seems to be the same as in all the sequels (I assume you meant score instead of GP counter there). The formulas in the guide would mean that adding a single low value popcorn into the beginning of a chain starting with a high value target would make the whole chain worth way less score (like only a fraction of the shorter chain score), which is obviously false.

I had a look again at the formulae, and it looks like I never corrected them in the first place. Can someone give me a corrected version of the formulae to edit them in? No smart aleck comments needed, thank you.

I don't know how it actually works but it seems to be the basic: "kill something -> add thing's value to the chain value -> add chain value to the score", which would be an arithmetic progression when chaining things of equal value. Maybe it's not exactly that here but at least that should be closer to the truth than the current explanation.

Also, I find all of this extremely dubious:

you also have two other types of chain: the debris-based chain and the scenery-based chain. The debris-based chain is actually the typical chain you get with the smaller planes on stage 4 and on the debris before the secret final boss (hence the name). It's not the sum of hit you get, but just the number of hits multiplied by 100, or:

100N*K

With K being the basic value of the first enemy: this means that you can at least increase the overall value by starting with a carrier and continuing with small planes. Last but not least, you can start chains with scenery elements, which are worth 0 points, and they're worth:

(N-1)N/2*K

With K=100.Scenery is always worth 0 points, at any case, but it can be useful to continue the chain.

It's trivial to check that the worth of scenery (revealing stars/bees) is 200 points. I'm going to bet everything in that part is false.

[Shepardus]

I had a look again at the formulae, and it looks like I never corrected them in the first place. Can someone give me a corrected version of the formulae to edit them in? No smart aleck comments needed, thank you.

I don't know how it actually works but it seems to be the basic: "kill something -> add thing's value to the chain value -> add chain value to the score", which would be an arithmetic progression when chaining things of equal value. Maybe it's not exactly that here but at least that should be closer to the truth than the current explanation.

As far as I can tell that's correct. In other words, each time you kill an enemy the amount of points you get is equal to the point value of whatever you just killed, added onto the sum of the point values of all the previous enemies in the chain.

So if you kill a bunch of 100 point enemies, you get 100 from the first, 200 from the second, 300 from the third, 400 from the fourth, etc. If you kill a 100 point enemy, then a 1000 point enemy, then more 100 point enemies, you'll get 100 from the first, 100 + 1000 from the second, 100 + 1000 + 100 from the third, 100 + 1000 + 100 + 100 from the fourth, etc.

[Erppo]

Considering all of the DDP games use that formula with their own additions (non-killing laser hits in DDP + various hyper-related things in the others), I would be pretty surprised if that isn't exactly how DP works.

[Randorama]

I don't know how it actually works but it seems to be the basic: "kill something -> add thing's value to the chain value -> add chain value to the score", which would be an arithmetic progression when chaining things of equal value. Maybe it's not exactly that here but at least that should be closer to the truth than the current explanation.

It might be closer, but can you just write down a more precise formula that I can copy and paste in the guide?

Also, I find all of this extremely dubious:
It's trivial to check that the worth of scenery (revealing stars/bees) is 200 points. I'm going to bet everything in that part is false.

I don't doubt it, but see comment above.
If you can't help on how to correct the mistake and actually write the correct formulae, I can't edit and improve the guide.

Sorry, but I will not answer back if I don't see a more constructive attitude.

[Shepardus]

So as Erppo said each time you kill something two steps happen, 1) add enemy's value to chain value, 2) add chain value to score. If you add everything up, the score you get from a chain of N enemies is

N * first enemy + (N-1) * second enemy + (N-2) * third enemy + ... + 2 * N-1th enemy + 1 * Nth enemy

[Erppo]

It might be closer, but can you just write down a more precise formula that I can copy and paste in the guide?

I do not understand how is it even possible to express that more precisely. I wrote exactly what happens with the score calculation, assuming the game works like the other DDP games. It has been reworded in the thread multiple times already but every explanation contains the same information.

Also, I find all of this extremely dubious:
It's trivial to check that the worth of scenery (revealing stars/bees) is 200 points. I'm going to bet everything in that part is false.

I don't doubt it, but see comment above.
If you can't help on how to correct the mistake and actually write the correct formulae, I can't edit and improve the guide.

I believe the mistake in that part is simply that all of it is nonsense, and the correct course to correct the guide would simply be to delete all of it. Where did you get the info that there are many different kinds of chains?

[Randorama]

It might be closer, but can you just write down a more precise formula that I can copy and paste in the guide?

I do not understand how is it even possible to express that more precisely

with a simple function.

I wrote exactly what happens with the score calculation, assuming the game works like the other DDP games. It has been reworded in the thread multiple times already but every explanation contains the same information.

Here is the answer I was looking for, not some verbose prose:

N * first enemy + (N-1) * second enemy + (N-2) * third enemy + ... + 2 * N-1th enemy + 1 * Nth enemy

Thanks, Shepardus.

The key problem, however, lies here:

I believe the mistake in that part is simply that all of it is nonsense

Yet you couldn't write a simple formula, and have not offered explanation what other parts of the guide present incorrect information...

and the correct course to correct the guide would simply be to delete all of it.

I fail to see what is incorrect with the rest of the guide, because of the vagueness of your comments.
It seems that you have some gripe at something I wrote 10 years ago, forgot about, and never edited.
You kids seem to care, but I don't, anymore.
I am serious: at the moment, I recall that the game is by Cave, and that is about it.

The guide is ten years old, so it wouldn't be a bad idea that those of you who actually play the game sit down and write something at least 10 times better.
You guys can write one and post a new ST online, as you seem to have lots of time and motivation on your hands.

Once you are done, please let me know, but not before.
When you have one online, I can cancel this one.


Good luck with your work.

[Erppo]

I fail to see what is incorrect with the rest of the guide, but you can write one and post it online. The guide is ten years old, so it wouldn't be a bad idea.
This, provided that you can do something beyond criticizing.

There's no need to rewrite anything instead of just deleting that part, unless someone can come up with evidence that there actually are some other kinds of chains. Since this is the only place where I've seen that claim, I see no reason to assume that some targets would chain differently from the rest for some arbitrary reason.

Yet you couldn't write a simple formula, and have not offered explanation what other parts of the guide present incorrect information...

What? I quoted the exact part I believe is untrue.

[trap15]

There is no formula. It's an accumulator. Every enemy is worth its own value plus whatever is in the GP counter, then adds its value to that counter.

[Randorama]

There's no need to rewrite anything instead of just deleting that part, unless someone can come up with evidence that there actually are some other kinds of chains. Since this is the only place where I've seen that claim, I see no reason to assume that some targets would chain differently from the rest for some arbitrary reason.

Errpo, sorry, I may be sleep-deprived, but there was a floating "it" that had a main interpretation: "it=the whole guide".
I can simply say "trust me, I am a linguist", to cut a long story short.
If you mean the part on the different chains, by "it", it is another matter entirely.
It's out now, and please don't ask how it was in to begin with....I can't recall.

Yet you couldn't write a simple formula, and have not offered explanation what other parts of the guide present incorrect information...

What? I quoted the exact part I believe is untrue.[/quote]



Yes, but if you re-read the guide, you will realize that the formula can't be just plugged in: the rest of the explanation of the chaining system should be rewritten accordingly.

Again, I am very serious: if you guys can re-write a guide that is better than this old 10 years junk, I would very happy.
I can't care anymore, so it is your time now to get it right and care about guides.

There is no formula. It's an accumulator. Every enemy is worth its own value plus whatever is in the GP counter, then adds its value to that counter.

I had to google the term, as I could even not recall what an accumulator is.
Please see my answers above, anyhow, or move on, thank you.

[Eaglet]

Sorry dude, you done fucked up.

[system11]

Again, I am very serious: if you guys can re-write a guide that is better than this old 10 years junk, I would very happy.

A small history lesson - much of the information in the older guides on the forum is actually even older than the timestamp, originating from previous incarnations of the forum. At the time finding information in Japanese on the subject was much harder, finding people good at the games was harder, some of the information was worked out in isolation, some even worked out while feeding coins into machines. I remember a time where some games people are now pretty familiar with were only rumoured to exist, nobody in the West had even seen them. The scene has vastly changed since then, more people really know how some of the games actually work, the average skill level of players has increased, Japan is less of a closed door.

As such, if some guides are now wrong given information we now have, then they either need fixing or replacing. If the original author no longer wants to continue it's very simple for us to replace the threads and update the index. If someone can write a better one then please, do so - it makes the world a better place.

There's certainly no reason to be rude or arrogant about it, take for example the post directly above mine - that helps nobody, what was the point?

[Randorama]

I will delete this ST on the 2025/09/30. Anyone who is willing the incorporate information from this ST in future STs is welcome to do so before that date. The STG wiki page for the game represents a simply superior source, but some readers might want to preserve parts of this now obsolete ST for their own personal reasons. Readers who wish to complain about this decision can read Sistem11's message from 10 years ago for some background.

[Despatche]

Honestly, that background makes it seem as if these guides should be carefully preserved, clearly marked as what they are. This is history more than anything else.

I also don't buy that the shmups wiki is any better. Most games have very little info at all. For example, the Soukyugurentai article has almost nothing, the video article is much more interesting.

[Randorama]

I think that these guides should be deleted, as they are now at best obsolete. The wiki for this specific game is more informative; for other games, informativeness (or lack thereof) is a game-specific matter. Of course, you can edit those wikis if you find them unsatisfying.

[aak]

DONPACHI

0.0 FACT FILES

DonPachi (whose translation is "Boss Bee" or an onomathopea for cannons' explosions) is the first Cave game. It was produced in 1995, about one year after Toaplan's bankruptcy and ported to Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation in 1996:both versions usually cost about 30-35$. Its team was in fact composed by mostly ex-Toaplan programmers, the most important of them being Tsuneki Ikeda. This guy was one of the minds behind Batsugun, Tatsujin and Tatsujin Oh (Truxton and Truxton II), which are to be considered the DP's ancestors, to some extent.The game is set in a fictional future in which an elite force, the "DonPachi battallion", has to fight their own comrades (!!!) in order to become the ultimate soldiers, thanks to the insane plots of their general.The game has five stages and, if you can complete it on one credit, it will grant you access to the loop, which features the same 5 stages, but with more aggressive enemies and suicide bullets. Of course, if you can clear them both, you will face the secret final boss!

0.1 AN EXERCISE IN PHILOLOGY

It is usually said that Don Pachi is an unofficial sequel of Batsugun. While this is not basically wrong, Not all elements from Batsugun translated to DonPachi: most of all, the scoring system is quite different (DonPachi is the first game with a true timer for chains) and the pace is a tad slower. Most of the scoring elements to be found in Batsugun were the source of inspiration for Battle Garegga, actually, since its main programmer (Shinobu Yagawa) worked at Toaplan, like Tsuneki Ikeda. Part of this argument has been covered in the : Batsugun's ST ,along other earlier inspirations and sources.

Now, let's make a practical comparison of elements to be found in Batsugun:

BATSUGUN (Special Version)

Three ship types : wide tapping , central laser, mixed. (#1)
Lots of bonuses to be taken for points. (#2)
Bombing in key spots for points. (#3)
Suiciding to get more points with the above trick. (#4)
Suicide bullets in the loops. (#5)
Secret bonuses and tricks for extra points.(#6)
All bosses and major enemies having pattern-based attacks focused on creating "bullet-mazes", the basic premise for "manic shmups".( #7)
Pretty simplied rank, mainly based on difficulty increase when reaching the next round/loop (#8).

Now, which elements were carried in DonPachi?

DONPACHI

Three ships: wide, central, mixed (they also expanded to other ships the idea behind type-C, of a "wider" attack when tapping and a more concentrated attack when holding down the attack button). (#1)
Suicide bullets in the loop (#5)
Secret Bonuses, the bees, to get extra points (#6)
All bosses and major enemies having pattern-based attacks focused on creating "bullet-mazes", the basic premise for "manic shmups".( #7)
Pretty complex rank, based on your bombs stock and survival, it gets nasty on the loop .(#8)

Let's see which elements did appear in Battle Garegga too:

BATTLE GAREGGA

Lots of bonuses to be taken for points (#2)
Bombing in key spots for points (#3)
Suiciding to get more points with the above trick (#4)
Secret bonuses and tricks for extra points (#5)
Pretty complex rank, based on survival time and other (many) aspects. (#7)

Now, we can say that neither of the two heirs have all elements of its "parent", but they take more or less a lot of inspiration from the Toaplan's last shmup. However, both managed to take the Toaplan's legagy, even if in different directions. Now, we'll focus on just on side of this legacy, obviously... DonPachi.One final trivia: if you complete the game, you will see a "censored" version of Toaplan's mascotte!

1.0 BASIC MECHANICS

DonPachi is a simple game to learn and a very hard game to master. Its peculiarity lies in the relatively complex and elastic score system: there are two main aspects for score (chaining and bombing) and two others very minor aspects (bees and various bonuses). The three ships are more or less balanced, even if type-b can be difficult to manage (even more than type-a) . Without much ado, however, let's analyze the

1.1 SHIPS

Maybe i should call them planes...?At any case, These are your RGB vehicles of doom! Their speed and attack vary a lot, their score potential not too much (well, except for type-c, but we'll cover it later).Let's start with

1.1.1 TYPE-A (Red ship for player 1)

This ship is more or less the direct heir of type-b from Batsugun.It has a full-frontal normal shot and a pretty powerful laser. It is the fastest ship and,what's more important, it doesn't slow down too much when using laser. It is suggested for advanced players and anyone who's comfortable with a full-frontal attack.It's probably the easiest ship to use in the loop, because of its normal shot, since it has low chances to destroy a random enemy and get unwanted suicide bullets:not only that, its high speed can be useful to completely side-step suicide bullets and other patterned attacks.

1.1.2 TYPE-B (Green ship for player 1)

Actually an helicopter, It vaguely resembles type-c from Batsugun. The main attack is a powerful full frontal stream, but moving forward will cause the pods to rotate and sweep the screen, until the can shoot an horizontal stream (90° of rotation to their respective sides).Moving backwards will quickly bring them back in their "full frontal" orientation.The main problem with this ship is the big difference in speed between normal shot and laser speed:while normal shot speed is fast as type-A, the laser speed is quite slower, as shown in the specific tables.The best score has been obtained with this ship, but it's surely the most difficult to use, especially for its sweeping turrets and its consistent slowdown while lasering.

.


1.1.3 TYPE-C (Blue ship for player 1)

This is the classical "Spread shot ship", resembling type-a from Batsugun. Its main attack is one frontal stream and two side streams (roughly at 30° on the sides) with an arc-like form, very good to sweep the screen for mass destruction.It also has the most powerful laser, and the slowdown is pretty negligible. It's the slowest speed, but still fast enough to properly dodge bullets: the ship for beginners, but for advanced players too, since its spread shot and its moderate speed make it the most difficult ship to use in the loop.

Once we've covered the ships, let's have a simple table to confront them for their skills:

TYPE-A TYPE-B TYPE-C

SPEED 1st 2nd 3rd
POWER 3rd 2nd 1st
LESS L-SLOWD. 1st 3rd 2st
EASE OF USE 2nd 3rd 1st
LASER BOMB 2nd 1st 2nd

As you can see, type-b results as the "worst" ship, with a tie between type-a and type-c. However, the best record has been obtained with type-b, a good reward for its slightly inferior abilities. But, more than anything, you should try all of them and find which one suits your style of play best: probably the first parameter to be taken in account!

At this point, let's talk about the

2.1 BASIC SHOT

The basic shot is basically divided in two types: normal shot (tapping) and laser (holding down). It is mapped to the first button, but you can use a third button to use the autofire for normal shot. The basic idea behind this feature is to have a "wider" attack that can be more useful to cover the screen, whereas holding down the button will grant a more powerful and focused attack.As i have already said in the 0.1 chapter, this difference stems from type-c in Batsugun and is applied to all ships. Let's start analyzing the

2.1.1 NORMAL SHOT

The normal shot can be used in two ways:

1)By simply tapping the first button, so you shoot a stream of bullets;
2)By triggering the auto-fire feature, so you map the auto-fire function to a third button, so you can hold down that button and also have a stream of bullets;

Its power is always inferior to laser, but the ship moves faster and has a different/wider range.The normal shot can be powered up 7 times, 4 for power, 3 for speed: When dying, it will always go back at the starting level.Its usage depends mainly on chaining, as most of the time it's better to use it when dealing with small enemies or pretty crowded sections.One important thing to take in consideration is how its power-ups work: the first power-up (and all odd-numbered ones, i.e. the third, fifth and seventh) will increase fire rate (and make the shots a bit darker), the second power-up (and all even-numbered ones, i.e. the second,fourth and sixth) will increase the effective power. Once you max out your power, every power-up icon is worth 10k points.One note on powering-up: when you take fire rate-increasing power-ups, a small P icon will be at the right corner of your bomb stock:it will disappear when you get a power-increasing power-up. In case you continue, you will get a MP icon, which automatically gives you the Maximum Power (hence MP). Now, let's talk about the other attack, the

2.1.2 LASER

One fundamental innovation in shmups, based on type-b of Batsugun and extended to all ships: the giant laser of doom (TM)! The laser works in this way: hold on the main fire shot and your ship will slow down, unite its pods in front of her and produce a giant laser which will deliver massive destruction to everything in its path. The power increase for laser is derived from its continuous nature, not an effective increase in power.Even with the fastest autofire rate, the amount of hits delivered to an enemy is lower than the uninterrupted stream of energy from the laser. Not only that (and the slowdown), but the laser actually has a very useful function: it produces an aura. Said aura basically surrounds your ship completely (except for your rear part) and lands damage to all enemies as a separate attack: i.e. if you laser an enemy and also are close enough to "hit" it with the aura, it's like you hit it with two laser streams!As you can guess, aura is very useful for enemies who try to side-step you when you're lasering: the average grunt-helicopter will immediately die, when hit by the aura (and it also counts for chains, of course). One final note: if you play with autofire, holding down autofire button will grant you a stream of normal bullets: if you also hold down the normal button, you will switch to laser, so the best configuration is holding down autofire (when needed) and holding down normal shot too, in key spots.

2.2 BOMB

Guess what?

2.2.1 BOMB TYPES AND THEIR EFFECT
Called "Bomber" in the basic manual, The bomb is, uh, the bomb. The interesting thing is that what you will shoot, in case of need, depends on your attack. The default bomb is a giant nuclear fungus that will cancel all bullets on screen, deal massive damage on the zone hit by the fungus (roughly the vertical side in size) and damage all other enemies on screen.
If you're using the laser and then you shoot a bomb, you will get a giant stream of energy, which can be pretty devastating! One note: the laser bomb is the only aspect in which the type-b helicopter has an advantage, but it's a consistent advantage. Its laser bomb, if used properly, is devastating, given its sheer power and vast dimensions (almost half of the horizontal side).

2.2.2 BOMB STORAGE

The bomb storage can actually increase, the amount and usage of bombs themselves being related to rank and score. These aspects will be covered in the advanced tecniques of the game, but let's analyze how the bomb storage works. If you bomb, it means that you may not be too good at dodging bullets: it's ok, as the game will realize it and give you room for more than three bombs, if you use them.Let's see how:

If you use 2 bombs, you will get a fourth slot for bombs in stock;
If you use 3 bombs, you will get a fifth slot for bombs in stock;
Your maximum amount of bombs in stock is 7.

How this mechanic actually works? Starting from 2 bombs used , you will get an 2 number of slots at your disposal. Once you get an extra slot, the counter resets and has arrive at 2+1=3 bombs used. Now, if you use 2 bombs, you will virtually (i.e. without getting any extra bombs) remain with one bomb: at four maximum bombs, you will virtually be at 1 bomb left after using 3 bombs.Do you recognize the pattern? Let's try with this simple algorythm:

Start with N=3 bombs and the bomb storage value as Ns;
Arrive at N-U=K=1 bombs (U=Used bombs);
Get the bomb storage value at Ns+1;
repeat until Ns=7

In short: if you bomb, the game will recognize your skill level and give you room for more bombs. Since you get extra bombs at the end of a stage (stage number= extra bombs number,i.e. clearing stage 2 will grant you 2 extra bombs), you can actually bomb and get an higher amount of bombs in stock, by doing so!This will also keep rank low, but that's an issue covered in the proper section.

Once we've covered the Basic aspects of the games, let's switch to the advanced aspects.

3.0 ADVANCED MECHANICS

I will divide this section in two parts: advanced mechanics and scoring mechanics. The latters depend mainly on the advanced mechanics, as you will see, hence the said order.

3.1 RANK

While Rank is not a stictly score-related mechanic, it does depend from a score-related aspect.In short: Rank depends from your survival time (minor component, though) and from your bomb bonus (major aspect). Rank is pretty simple: get to stage 4 without using bombs (or to the loop without dying) and the game will switch to "Hard". Get to the loop without bombing (or to 2-4 without dying) and the game will switch to "Very Hard". Die, and the difficulty will go one level back: on your last life, it will switch to "Easy"!That's all you really need to know about rank, other minor aspects will be touched in the other sections.

3.2 LOOP AND SUICIDE BULLETS

The game has a loop, which is accessible by just completing (regardless of the amount of credits used) the first round. Like all good ol' loops, you basically play all the first five stages again but, this time, the enemies will release nasty suicide bullets, which are influenced by rank: better, if the difficulty level is higher than "Normal", the suicide bullets will be faster (but not as fast as the normal bullets) and more chaotic in their trajectory: at "Easy", to make an example, they almost go in straight lines, like the second round of Batsugun. Suicide bullets are actually meant to be damaging debris from explosion (aimed debris?Wtf?), so as long as you will have an explosion animation on screen, it will release them.However, if you're at point-blank distance, the bullets won't be released: point-blank being basically the equivalent of your ship being at least on the explosion's border.Speaking of point-blank:

3.2 POINT BLANK

No, Namco's not involved, but...in short, if you're near an enemy (i.e. if you can touch it with your aura when lasering), you're in point-blank range. Point-blank involves smaller enemies to stop shooting at you (if you dont' already fry them with the aura), while bigger ones usually don't care: better, most of them can only stop using some (but not all) attacks, so you may want to avoid any point-blank temptative on them. This tecnique is very useful in the loop, as risky as it can be: it implies that you need to risk a bullet on the nose by staying close to enemies, to avoid having 100 suicide bullets coming from the explosion.

3.3 SCREEN SIZE AND BULLET CANCELLING

Yes, DonPachi is like old-skool games, and you have 10% of the screen (per side) not showing unless you go on one side.This is very useful to cancel bullets, since many enemies won't shoot unless they're on screen.Which ones?Sadly, only the "carriers" (big ones).There are a few cases, on stage 4 and more on stage 5, where you get snipers from the bottom part of the screen or from sides, shooting at you even if they're not visible.One flaw (the only one) of the game is that, near the last boss, you get some planes that will actually shoot without even coming on-screen, unless you're in the point-blank range!Now that you know it, though, it's easy to avoid random bullets from below, no?

3.4 AURA

As i said, Aura is the energy surrounding the ship when you use the laser: it damages all enemies coming in contact with it,dealing the equivalent of the laser in damage.This means that you can take down big enemies very quickly, if you know how to point-blank them. Not only that, but it does provide a good protection against all small enemies, since it destroys them quickly (upon contact, basically). Aura is also the key to simplify some sections: in some points, for instance the second boss, you can easily sit down and laser the boss, the thrown discs will not damage you, as they will be destroyed by aura itself. Last but not least, Aura is a good method to clear the screen of enemies if moving on the extra portions of the screen, since it will deal damage to enemies that won't shoot to you (bullet cancelling) and won't even start (point-blank).

Said that, let's talk about score and how to get points.

4.0 SCORING MECHANICS

DonPachi has two main sources of score: the bomb bonus and chains.Two minor aspects are bees-collecting and stars, end-of-stage bonus items and random destruction.To give you an idea, in a virtual perfect play (1-LC), with all the best chains, you'd get about 80M: about 40M come from chaining, 30M from the bomb bonus, the rest from the other factors. The scoring mechanism that you will probably try to learn is chaining, though, as the bomb bonus also influences rank,as i said.

4.1 CHAINING

Chaining in DonPachi is simple: destroy something and keep destroying stuff with an interval equal to 0.5 seconds or less, regardless of the basic attack you use. What does matters is the first enemy you start the chain with: the bigger the enemy (and thus its value), the higher the multiplier.Let's proceed with order, though.The amount of points you do with a chain is the sum of the N enemies destroyed, multiplied by the first enemy's value .This means that, if you destroy 50 enemies starting from an enemy worth 100 points, you get:

N(N+1)/2*100*K

points, with N=50 and K=100 it's:

50(51)/2*100=127,5k points

Now, you have to add an additional multiplier, based on first enemy's value: for instance, if you start with an enemy worth 800 points, you will get:

N(N+1)/2*100*K

points, with N=50 and K=800 it's:

N(+1)/2*800= 1,02M

Not bad!

you also have two other types of chain: the debris-based chain and the scenery-based chain. The debris-based chain is actually the typical chain you get with the smaller planes on stage 4 and on the debris before the secret final boss (hence the name). It's not the sum of hit you get, but just the number of hits multiplied by 100, or:

100N*K

With K being the basic value of the first enemy: this means that you can at least increase the overall value by starting with a carrier and continuing with small planes. Last but not least, you can start chains with scenery elements, which are worth 0 points, and they're worth:

(N-1)N/2*K

With K=100.Scenery is always worth 0 points, at any case, but it can be useful to continue the chain.

As i said, as long as enemies are destroyed with a basic attack (normal shot, laser, aura) they do count for the chain.Bombing will always reset the chain, regardless of the conditions.Once we know this, let's pass to

4.2 BOMB BONUS

The bomb bonus is simple: if you don't use bombs, the game will reward you at the end of a stage. This bonus follows this progression:

1st stage...............................100k
2nd stage..............................200k
3rd stage...............................400k
4th stage...............................800k
5th stage...............................2M
Every stage of the loop......5M

Die or bomb, and sorry, no bonus.In case you are on your remaining lives, or your bomb stock has increased, you get these bonuses instead:

3 bombs in stock.................100k
4 bombs in stock.................60k
5 bombs in stock.................40k
6 bombs in stock.................20k
7 bombs in stock.................0

Now, let's make a few comparisons: in a virtual flawless play, you'd roughly get about 40M from chaining and 28,5M from not bombing:not only that, 25M out of 28,5M (~87%) comes from the loop-based bonuses.Not bombing increases difficulty and at an higher speed than mere survival,bombing increases your chances of survival and the bomb stock (and thus your chances of survival, again). So, it's pretty obvious: unless you're going for the top spot, it's easier to just bomb without minding too much that bonus.
4.3 BEE BONUS

It is pretty simple (and small, about 2,65M on 75M total: roughly 3%): you will have hidden bees in key spots, hovering on them will make them flash, laser them to make them collectable. They can be added to chain (+1 hit), but their main point is giving you something to look for. Their value increase is this:

1st-4th bee 5th-8th 9th-12th 13th
100 1k 10k 100k
200 2k 20k
400 4k 40k
800 8k 80k

Finally, ShaperMC's guides for the first two stages:

Level 1 Bee Capture Guide
Level 2 Bee Capture Guide

4.4 STARS

Stars are the final aspect of the scoring mechanisms: they're worth 300 points if taken outside a chain, but they will act as enemies if revealed in in a chain (and will also give you the said 300 points when taken). Their value goes to the bonus capacity value, which will multiply the stars (and other secret items) by 1k.

4.5 RANDOM STUFF (AND THE 1P)

Ok, what's left? Let's recap a bit: you can chain, you can get a bonus for not using bombs, you have bees and stars,the number of items you get in a stage is multiplied by 1k at the end of a stage...ah, you get one extra ship at 2M points, there's another ship at the fourth stage too. Once you get past the first aerial section and start flying on the flying fortress, don't shoot bombs and destroy all turrets.At some point you will get a giant turret shooting two streams of spread shot, destroy it and it will release a 1p icon. This trick doesn't work at the loop, sorry!Ah, final note: the last boss is worth 1M

5.0 CONCLUSIONS

DonPachi marked the turning point, along other shmups, in shmups history: it has a lot of interesting features and scoring opportunities, even if the main focus is on chaining. The best approach to the game is finding the ship that suits better your style and figure out how to chain well, since there's some room for improvisation: as long as you start a chain with a high-value enemy, it's fine. You can also play it for sheer survival and still have a nice experience: The game is challenging, even without going for score.

FUTURE UPDATES:

I will post a few lines (and screens, i think) on stages approaches in the near future, but the main core of the guide is complete. I hope you will appreciate it and find it useful.

[Randorama]

Keep going, lads. I wonder what you are saying.