RQ: When to shoot and when to laser in DDP games?

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Celestial Nudibranch
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RQ: When to shoot and when to laser in DDP games?

Post by Celestial Nudibranch »

In DDP games, when is it better to be shooting and when should I use the laser?

The two games I have been playing on and off are SDOJ and DOJ with the type A-shot ship. Should I ever be using the Laser if I pick Shot type?
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M.Knight
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Re: RQ: When to shoot and when to laser in DDP games?

Post by M.Knight »

As a rule of thumb, you should be using your shot against small popcorn enemies and the laser against the big enemies. Sometimes it can also be useful to use the laser against popcorns, but the idea is that the slightly wide range of the shot will be better suited to fight clouds of small enemies who die to one player bullet regardless of whether it was a shot or a laser.

Even with shot type there are advantages to using the laser, as it allows you to keep the chain up when damaging big enemies with it. You also have some sort of aura around your ship when firing your laser and it can deal some good damage too (at least in DOJ, no idea about SOJ)

On a side note, you should also try the Expert ship in DOJ and see if it feels better. While it has less bombs, you get increased power for both the shot and the laser.
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: RQ: When to shoot and when to laser in DDP games?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

For survival:

• The shot is wider and better at taking down larger groups of enemies, and keeping mobile if you have to move around. Shot-Type ships generally have a fairly powerful shot at their disposal that's not much weaker than the laser (A-S and B-S in Dodonpachi can kill almost as quickly with their shot as with their laser), but Laser-Type ships have a significantly wider Laser with better movement speed when lasering, so the shot is less useful for them.

• The laser allows you to deal as much damage as possible on a single target, with a significant bonus for getting in close and hitting with the aura it creates. Use the laser when facing single large enemies, bosses, or simply situations where you want to reduce your movement speed to make a more precise dodge. There's generally no reason to use the shot on bosses except if you need to make a quick movement to dodge something.

For scoring:

• Shot gives more combo meter back for killing enemies rather than when the laser scores kills, so using the shot allows you to chain smaller, weaker enemies ("popcorn") together. Tapping it in short bursts as opposed to holding it down also helps keep a combo going.

• Laser keeps a combo from dropping so long as the laser is hitting something, you can see the gauge that shows when your combo will drop stops just below the bottom so long as a laser is touching an enemy such as a large enemy.

Note that the first game, Donpachi, doesn't follow all these rules and has more strict comboing rules that make it difficult to create chains. But generally these will apply to Dodonpachi onwards.
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