Giga Wing 2 (New Thread)

[EmperorIng]

God damn it lol


66,958,813,638,616,750 - EmperorIng - Romi (RF) - ALL - Demul - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2001056950

Dis is bullshit man At least I recorded it.

But I developed a new strategy to kill the stage 5 boss consistently with a forced death (like the pros, heh), which would still leave me with 2 lives and a bomb for stage 6 (which I need).
I can already see some easy improvement spots - like the double volcanon on the sky stage and the 2 quadrillion I missed from not killing the city boss while its hatch was closed.

or do some casual 1ccs of my backlog. Sadly there's only so much time in the day and so many shmups to play!

I hear you! Sometimes that's my detox after burning out... Or different games/hobbies entirely, ha ha. Or just coming home from work tired.

EDIT: also, in other news, another player (not SPE) has managed to beat SPE's best score and post an impressive 86 quadrillion. Very close to world record now! A different stage 4 route from what I have seen in the past. At the 10-minute mark triggers two volcanons in stage 4 that I never even knew existed! It's also crazy how these guys trigger double volcanons during the stage 5 boss as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWBKzkuX4rw

[marus]

Fuuuuck, that sucks lol. I mean that's an awesome score, but you're just inches away from a new overall PB!

Also I haven't watched that other run fully yet, but holy crap that stage 5 route is wild! They're super aggressive with their medal collecting while still killing both pods, and they manage to finish the boss with 8 seconds left on the timer. Not that the timer matters THAT much for score, but I usually finish that boss with only a couple seconds left at best, and that's while ignoring medal collecting.

[marus]

No score update, but I started doing some stage 1 practice again and I've managed a few runs now with a 600 million multiplier:

Stage 1 PB

Thanks to the plethora of videos now I think I finally understand what to look for when doing first double-volcanon! When you trigger a volcanon, the order that the medals explode somewhat follows the order that the medals were generated from your reflect force. I kind of already knew that intuitively, but it's particularly important for this double volcanon because you need to pick up enough medals from the first volcanon and get the medals on screen below 110 BEFORE you generate medals for the second volcanon. Now that I understand that, I've gotten a setup where I can trigger the double volcanon about 80% of the time! It's still not perfect but I'm doing much better than before, which felt like maybe 5% of the time.

That said, I'm still not picking up enough medals throughout the stage somehow - the best multiplier I've managed going into the boss is 190 million, and I only pulled that off once. Meanwhile SPE and Koizumi are getting over 220/230 million. Also the final volcanon still seems pretty random to me, so I'm not sure what I'm missing there. I finally setup Flycast, and savestates have been helpful for experimentation, but the speed is on crack compared to Dreamcast - I still don't get how you play so well like this EmperorIng lol.

Anyways I'll probably just be doing stage and savestate practice for a while, but I think if I can properly learn stage 2 and then get a run with a good first two stages, then I should be able to get a new PB easily. I need to get some new cables so I can stream my Dreamcast, but hopefully I can stream some practice soon.

[marus]

No new score update still, but I'm getting close to maxing out the multiplier in stage 2 (at least in stage practice):

Spoiler

It turns out there's an extra volcanon you can do on the stage 2 boss if you milk it a bit longer. The tradeoff though is that by doing this you can't consistently kill it while the dome is closed, which costs you a big chunk of score (about 1 to 1.5 quadrillion points depending on how high your multiplier is). Assuming you do all the other volcanon's in the stage correctly, this last extra volcanon nets you about an extra 50 million to your multiplier. Obviously if you max out your multiplier before the boss then it's better to just go for the dome kill, but since I'm not at that point yet I'm leaning towards just going for the extra volcanon. That way if I get a run with a good stages 1 and 2 then I can just coast to a new PB even if I mess up a bunch of the volcanons in stage 3 lol.

[EmperorIng]

Nice! The city stage is the third for Romi for me, and I tend to max the multiplier during the boss fight. Despite that, I don't quick-kill it like i see other players do and opt for the safer (and less resource-intensive) extra volcanon and try to go for that dome kill.

In other news, koizumi has just posted an absolutely incredible 87 quadrillion replay!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKb72aff6v8

Just one quadrillion away from the WR.

[marus]

Whaaaaat! Damn we really went from having no videos to having almost WR-level videos. Koizumi is absolutely insane.

I just got done learning the stage 2 volcanons, and now Koizumi found a better setup for the 3rd one. It's a minor difference but compared to the old setup all of the medals are grouped together, so you can pick up more of them. I'll have to try for that one if it's not too difficult.

EDIT: After experimenting some more today, I found a mostly consistent setup to get the dome kill while still getting the 3rd volcanon. I imagine the speed-kill is still more optimal if you can max the multiplier beforehand, but for scrubby old me this'll work just fine.

[marus]

Alright, after doing stage practice all month I did some full runs today, and I have a new submission:

74,572,074,043,765,970 - marus-MPO - Carmine Plus (RF) - ALL - DC - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2048777853

My first day of doing full runs and I already hit my goal of 70 quadrillion! I knew now that we have all these replays to reference that 70 wasn't like a super ambitious goal, but I still was expecting it to take a while. I guess I should aim higher lol. 75 quadrillion is definitely doable if I cleaned this run up. I had a really good stage 1, but missed a few volcanons on stages 2 and 4. Stage 6 was really sloppy too - I died and spent 2 bombs there, which forced me to play it safe on stage 7.

Part of me would like to think 80 quadrillion is in reach too if I really grinded, but I'd need to go back and make some improvements to my routes. If I learned how to medal better on stage 1, I could max my multiplier by the stage 2 boss and go for the quick kill, which would get me a little over 1 quadrillion extra points. I also save a lot of my bombs to make the last two stages more consistent, but if I was willing to play more risky I could spend some more bombs on the bosses to kill more boss parts and get more tick points. Even then I'm not sure if that would be enough to cross 80 quadrillion without really honing down my medal collecting through all the stages. For now though, I'll keep pushing with my current routes and then see how much I want to grind this game, haha.

[EmperorIng]

You didn't just pass the record, you totally crushed it!!! I am in awe, great job man!!!!!!!!!!

If you didn't mess up on stage 6 and 7, you probably would have netted an extra 2 or 3 quadrillion is my guess. You were pretty crazy during stage 5, super clean and efficient. This is a great run!

[marus]

Thanks! Yeah after rewatching my run a second time, there's definitely a lot of room for improvement if I just played more cleanly at the end. I'll be pushing higher for sure!

That said I'd be lying if I said I wasn't being carried by SPE and Koizumi's replays lol. I have been thinking about how to score higher with Limi though, and now that I understand the game better I have some ideas. For one, I'm starting to think though that SPE had a point about what he said way back about speedkilling the train-stage boss:

Interestingly, his big piece of advice (and I am not sure I believe him) is that I should just quick-kill the stage 1 boss after two reflects in order to have a big time bonus to bank on later in the game. I am not sure if that is worth missing the extra one (or more?) volcanon.

If you speedkill the boss you can pretty realistically have 30 seconds left over while still getting the first 2 volcanons and the dome kill. This is compared to about 4 seconds if you milk it for the extra volcanon, so a net total of 26 seconds. The boss timer bonus continues to take effect through the entire rest of the game, so if you were to max the multiplier during stage 2, the total amount of extra points you'd get from speedkilling is:

Code: Select all

26 * 2000 * (2+3+4+5+6+7) * 999999999 ≈ 1.6 quadrillion

Now, maxing the multiplier is still the hard and most important part, but I can see a path for it. There's the double-volcanon at the beginning of the train stage - that would make up for the volcanon you'd sacrifice by speedkilling the boss. Then for the factory stage, there's the double-volcanon on the tank + planes, and the volcanon on the turrets at the end (though I'm honestly not sure if this one's possible for stage 2). In your current run you already get 13 volcanons - if you added those 2 that would get you to 15. For comparison, that's the same as Chery's stage 1. There's also another double volcanon you can do on the second phase of the factory boss - although I don't know if the boss has enough health to let you do that plus the other volcanons you're already doing. If yes then that'd be 16 volcanons; otherwise, it'd at least let you kill the boss faster for more bonus points.

Of course that's all just theory - actually executing all of that is a whole 'nother thing. You definitely picked the harder character to master lol.

[marus]

75,407,690,967,070,250 - marus-MPO - Carmine Plus (RF) - ALL - DC - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2052527882

I got another small PB, and broke 75 quadrillion! Overall this was a little sloppier than my last PB, but doing the quick kill on the stage 2 boss made up the difference - I should have been doing that the whole time lol.

I'm not 100% sure if I'll push this too much farther. I need to go back to stage practice - I'm "only" 3 quadrillion behind Koizumi at the end of stage 3, but I'm missing a lot of volcanons and points in the later stages. I'd love to pull off 80 quadrillion somehow, but I'd need a really clean run to pull it off.

[marus]

79,326,302,635,742,900 - marus-MPO - Carmine Plus (RF) - ALL - DC - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2074811769

Ugh, this was just a few small mistakes away from 80 quadrillion! I missed a double volcanon on the stage 3 boss (plus the double volcanon on the stage 3 tank but I don't really plan on getting that), and I killed the stage 7 boss too early which cost me another volcanon. Besides that this was mostly a perfect run with my routes.

I'm happy I got the PB, and this was a pretty clean run, but I reaaaaaly would have liked 80 quadrillion lol. But with my current routes I'm going to need an actually perfect run, not just "almost" perfect. I don't know if I'll actually make it but I'll grind for a bit longer and see if I can pull it off!

[EmperorIng]

That's a really masterful work you have there marus. Simply amazing - with the big dream of mine to see western players break 70 quads, I didn't think you'd be able to get right to the edge of 80, that's some insane dedication and talent. I'm glad i have a lot of catching up to do, there's clearly so much more to learn! Here's my first step in that direction, finally getting the 70 quadrillion goal I've had for myself for years.

72,149,798,082,579,790 - EmperorIng - Limi/NeoStranger (RF) - ALL - Demul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKO-tHLXyPs



This run is full of terrible mistakes (missed volcanons in stage 2 and 3, unplanned deaths in stage 6) and funnily enough I almost completely blew it on the final boss when I failed to kill it in time. It was only through sheer literal luck that I managed to survive the attack and get into a safespot. But the early game work has paid off as well as the new routes we are learning on stage 4.

[marus]

Updated! Huge congrats on getting the first recorded 70 quadrillion run with Limi! I'm glad all your hard work and research is paying off.

[third_strike]

Well done guys!

[marus]

79,900,622,371,472,300 - marus-MPO - Carmine Plus (RF) - ALL - DC - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2083552531



EDIT: Okay I'm not actually that upset but GFDI this was so close to 80 quadrillion! The beginning of stage 4 was really bad and cost me a ton of points - if I had just done even a fraction of my normal performance there then this would have been 80q for sure.

Oh well, at least I know for sure that 80q is in reach now.

[marus]

80,319,486,475,606,250 - marus-MPO - Carmine Plus (RF) - ALL - DC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTWeazRAVjk

Woohoo, I got the 80 quadrillion! I'm glad I broke out of the 79.9 quadrillion trap quickly, haha. This run wasn't flawless, but I had a really good stage 1 which made up for one missed volcanon in stage 2. Aside from that I dropped a couple volcanons here and there, but I pulled off all of the important strats while getting the clear. I've gotten 81 quadrillion before in practice, but I'd need to play near perfectly to pull that off in a real run.

I'm happy enough with this score that I'm done trying to improve my PB for now. Originally my goal was just 70 quadrillion, but with all of the footage that we have now it turns out I was able to put together enough strategies to blow way past that! I'm still a ways off from SPE's 85 quadrillion or Koizumi's 87 quadrillion though, so maybe I'll come back in the future once I have the motivation to grind this game again. For now I want to just play something casually for a little bit until I decide what game I want to grind next. I'd like to mess around with Reflect Laser a little bit too just to get a taste of what scoring with that is like lol.

[EmperorIng]

Simply incredible. Great job marus! It's crazy to think that just about a year ago is when things really started picking up in the game. And that only two months ago you passed the 70 quadrillion barrier. What a wild ride! Great run, I had to chuckle at the commentary still pointing out how dumb you think the s4 midboss looks - I recall you saying that during my shmup slam run last year, lol. I hope I can find a way to close the gap

[EmperorIng]

Not the score I want, but I'm inching up!

73,808,281,585,908,710 - EmperorIng - Limi/NeoStranger (RF) - ALL - Demul - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2086245498



I so wanted this to be 74 or 75, but I made too many mistakes in stage 4 (missed two volcanons), and due to a bad death I was too spooked for stages 6 and 7 to collect and be aggressive like I wanted to - including bombing during phase 1 of the final because i didn't want to lose there again, lol. On the plus side, I think I figured out a good way to maximize my potential with the stage 2 boss while still having a decent amount of timer left to give me an extra boost with the time bonus.

Theoretically I think my current strategies/skill put me in the 76quad range at best, so I need to figure out what I can do to start gaining back the early deficit from stage 1.

[marus]

Good stuff! You’re making steady progress. My internet sucks right now so I’ll have to wait to watch it.

Yeah unfortunately missing out on killing the stage 1 boss hurts. What SPE said about the edge of Limi’s shot not doing damage but generating tick points is interesting though.

[EmperorIng]

Meh, it's barely an improvement but let's give the thread more activity, right?

74,295,757,829,672,770 - EmperorIng - Limi/NeoStranger (RF) - ALL - Demul - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2091233153



This had a kind of lousy stage 1 (only just barely over 400, which is my threshold for continuing), and missed some volcanons on stage 3 and several on stage 4, not to mention three more on stage 6. All those missed volcanons probably really added up - I wouldn't be surprised if my final tally would have been closer to 76 quad had I been a little bit more consistent. But still, I guess I'm inching forward!

If I can just somehow get a real run going with a 430+ stage 1, I think I can really make something big happen. My 72quad above was with a 386m stage 1 multiplier... just think what you can do with a 50m difference in score output.

[marus]

Updated! Yeah with a cleaner stage 6 this would have been 75 quadrillion easy, maybe 76 quadrillion.

I noticed that after I improved my stage 1 average multiplier from 620 million to 650 million, I would be about 1 quadrillion points ahead after stage 3. So yeah if you could figure that out then that would give you a good score bump. Honestly with that and the factory turrets volcanon you’d have a clear (if not obnoxious) path to 80q.

[EmperorIng]

Sheesh, it took 10 days to climb a quadrillion... though I guess I did take a 4 day break. I was getting sick of restarting stage 1, lol.

75,361,655,403,222,250 - EmperorIng - Limi/NeoStranger (RF) - ALL - Demul - https://youtu.be/q1VowupFzZs

This finally has footage of the elusive 4-turret volcanon in stage 2! I still can't believe you figured that one out last week, and I am still riding off that high, heh. I unfortunately missed the double volcanon in stage 2 right before, which cost me 30-40 million multiplier. I would have easily gotten over 900M in stage 2, which is my next goal. Though as you can see, these milestones are really spread out, lol.

Despite that I had an almost perfect stage 4, 5, and 6, which made up for those dumb mistakes. Well I did miss one volcanon in stage 4.... I have panic-died twice now - right as the final attack of phase 1 of the final boss is ending. It's really frustrating here since I literally ran INTO a bullet from a safe zone. This is why I keep my safety life for the final boss at this point.

Onward to 76/77 quads!

[marus]

Updated. I'm glad you got a full run with the 4-turrent volcanon already! That was the last thing I really wanted to figure out for this game after getting the 80 quad score.

I think if you can pull off a run with at least 900 million out of stage 2 then you'll get the 76/77 quad score no problem. But yeah stage 7 phase 1 is always a nail biter. There's so many ways to die there. You had some really clutch dodges on stage 4 too lol.