GD: TxK

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Despatche
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GD: TxK

Post by Despatche »

This game alone is worth buying a Vita for. Everyone on the forum needs a copy.

TxK is actually very different from 2000 or 3000. Those games are filled with dirty tricks, but TxK is probably one of the most well-designed games in the genre.

The three modes are sorta like "difficulties":
-Classic is the "easy" mode. It's basically continues done right; you can start from any level you've reached, and you basically replay each level to make later levels easier and to raise each level's PB. You can even still play bonus rounds. Unfortunately, scoring is heavily tied to Pure performance.
-Pure is the "normal" mode. You start with three lives and work your way through all 100 levels. You gain extends and play bonus rounds.
-Survival is the "hard" mode. It's like Pure, but there are no extends or bonus rounds.

You get the same enemies at the same times, but they spawn in different locations. Powerups appear to be a specific order that runs throughout the entire game. Do not miss any powerups, as you will get some sizeable bonuses from them, and in Classic/Pure you'll eventually get warp triangles for even more points. Whenever you pass 80,000 points, an extend is also thrown in the schedule. There's a lives cap of eleven (ten claw symbols), you even get an achievement for hitting the cap. Once you reach the cap, you can build up one "hidden" extend that is added to the schedule if you die. There's an end of game bonus of 100,000 per life.

Scoring is similar to Raiden III/IV, shoot enemies quicker for more points. This appears to be x1 to x4 the base value depending on distance. If you miss some enemies and they get past the x2 point (e.g. they reach your side of the web), the Supertapper can give you x2. The Supertapper does not stack with or add to the flash multiplier, enemies at any distance will produce x2. I do not know if the Supertapper gives you x2 for "special enemies" such as Fuseballs and those d20(?) projectile things.

Jumping kills your score during. If you fire a Supertapper and then jump you will still get points, but you won't if you fire it after jumping. However, firing a Supertapper after jumping increases the duration, which is great for surviving. Any enemy shot by the AI droid also awards nothing. If you're grabbed (by Flippers), either firing the Supertapper or praying to the droid can rescue you!

Hold the L button and press left or right to "lean", allowing you to "hover" over the lanes near you. This can help you shoot off Flippers that are on your end, or grab nearby powerups. Destroying Flippers that are on your end do not reward points.

After every level is a short minigame where you drive through hexagon gates, kinda like the Rings bonus round. Make sure the Vita is level before this begins; do not move the system abruptly. You can either move the Vita or use the left stick/d-pad to steer. You're the small star, and you have to align the star with the center of each hexagon. You can get either 250, 500, 750, or 1000 (the heart) based on how close you are. Either the starting trajectory is different and you constantly have to adjust, or my Vita's gyro is busted.

After collecting a fourth warp triangle, you will proceed to one of the two bonus rounds after that game level is over:
-Rings: Use the left stick or d-pad to steer through each ring, using the crosshair as a guide. The closer you are to the center, the more points you get: 250, 500, or 750 (if there is anything higher, I do not know of it). Some rings affect your driving: the double arrow ring speeds you up, the arrow circle ring rotates the camera in the direction the arrows are pointing, and there are likely more. The last ring has a large triangle on it.
-Path: Use the left stick or d-pad to steer the pin along the green path. You'll earn 600(?) points at certain intervals while you're on the path. The path will end as an orange gate appears, which finishes the level.

You can't lose any lives in either round, and you can only gain points. You do not skip game levels from bonus rounds, they are entirely for points. Complete a bonus level for 50,000 points. Each time you play a round (whether you completed it or not) in a run, the next round of that type will be different/harder.

There are thirteen stages across 100 levels. Every eight levels is a stage, denoted by new web colors/music/stage gimmick; the last stage is only four levels long. Each stage starts out easier than the later levels of the stage before it, then gets harder.
Last edited by Despatche on Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:01 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Icarus
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Re: GD: TxK

Post by Icarus »

Despatche wrote:There's a lives cap of ten, I think? You even get an achievement for hitting the cap. There's an end of game bonus of 1,000,000 per life.
The lives are capped at 10+1, in that you have ten spare stocked and visible at the top of the screen, and one stored instant drop from passing an extend milestone while at max stock (which is every 80k).
If you die at any point with a +1 available, it'll drop immediately on the next powerup spawned, and then you have to wait until the next extend milestone for another extend drop.

A little trick you should learn is leaning, where you hold the left trigger to lock yourself in place (disabling jumping and moving) but you can then lean into an adjacent lane, shooting at an angle down it into your lane. This is a good trick for dealing with things on the edge of the web, but note that it doesn't work for every enemy, and certainly not for electric sparks that fly around the edge. It can help clear the edge of roaming Flippers though.

Playing on Survival Mode is easily the best way to teach yourself survival concepts and tricks, of which there are many in TxK.
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Despatche
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Re: GD: TxK

Post by Despatche »

That "hidden" extend is interesting. The end of game bonus still counts only the number of claw icons, right? So it'd be a max of 10,000,000?

I knew I was forgeting something, completely forgot to mention leaning.
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Icarus
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Re: GD: TxK

Post by Icarus »

Despatche wrote:That "hidden" extend is interesting. The end of game bonus still counts only the number of claw icons, right? So it'd be a max of 10,000,000?
Yep, it'll only count the number of visible stock, not the instant drop extend.
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Despatche
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Re: GD: TxK

Post by Despatche »

Added some things. I just noticed that the end of game bonus is actually 100,000 per life, and the current life counts, so max bonus is 1,100,000. Point gains suggest that this makes way more sense.

Classic isn't quite as good as I was hoping. It's supposed to be a sort of "fix any mistakes in your Pure runs", but it doesn't let you do a very good job of it. Restart bests consider bonus levels as well, so you need to make sure you're getting enough warp triangles. Aside from that, scrambling for powerups is already annoying enough without having to worry about yet another huge chunk of points; you shouldn't reward the player so many times for doing a single thing.

There's an easy fix for both. Bonus levels could just be this extra thing you could always choose to play at the end of specific levels, every 4th and 8th sounds good. Then you could also have a unique "boss" bonus level for level 100. Maybe one day...
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Despatche
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Re: GD: TxK

Post by Despatche »

Tempest 4000 is out. Unfortunately, I don't have it yet. It's basically TxK Black Label... a lot is the same, a few things have changed, and I have no idea what these things are yet. It seems to be meant for PS4, surprise surprise. There are a few weird issues in the PC port, like keyboard controls being bonkers. Also big surprise, the devs and Atari don't have the best communication, so putting out fixes is difficult right now. Noone is talking about anything in this game... it's very frustrating.
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