Favorite unusual weapons in a shmup?

[1000Eyes]

You know, anything that isn't just the narrow/wide shot or focus laser. Bonus points if it makes you see space and aiming in a shooter in a different way.

Some of mine:

- Same3's starting wide shot. When upgraded it behaves like any other wide shot, but the starting point is really interesting. It is a 3-way spread with really wide angles for the left and right shots. This looks pathetic when trying to fight long range, since 2 of your shots just miss. However, it gives excellent coverage for weak zako while actually giving you point-blank opportunities which are definitely felt when playing without auto. A risky weapon with a surprising amount of forgiveness for a checkpoint recovery game, and the most sniper-feeling wide shot ever.

- Raiden's nuclear missiles. Another weapon muddied by using autofire, but if you don't use it you will notice it shoots missiles every time you tap, with a cool down. This promotes both aiming and strategy, esp. if you use vulcan since this will be your individual damage dealer. A cool strategic layer is that you can essentially create a delayed shot, by shooting a missile then moving out of the way. It will continue to fly from the position it was shot, leading to a nice "trapper", set-up gameplay, providing surprising coverage compared to the the more traditional homing missiles.

- Anything Caladrius, because using unusual weapons is the point of the whole game. So many character have neat, unconventional attacks that involves bullets being shot from offscreen, it is hard to name them all. I also like how they have a slight personality associated with the characters. For example, the red haired girl Alex is portrayed in the typical emotionally straightforward anime protagonist way, so her attacks are all very aggressive and speedkill-friendly. However, she is also a military captain, so they are extremely precise to the point of being all or nothing: she can project flame walls that cover 3 positions of the screen, but they are static and costly to keep up, so you have incredible coverage potential, but if you miss it is over. What is cool is that the game has another character you could describe as aggressive, but in a whole different way that is Lilith. She is the manifestation of hatred, so all her attacks are geared towards harvesting weak enemies: a shield that behaves like a licking tongue projecting left and right from her ship, a crossfire of bullets that fire offscreen from the sides that depend on her horizontal position, basically requiring you to play melee and a suicidal highline at all times to be effective. Basically, if Alex is precision, Lilith is inevitability: she will kill everything, but can she stay in the extremely dangerous zones long enough to do it? There is so much more too.

- Xexex's Flint. I think my favorite thing about it is that when launched, it acts as a bullet canceling shiled, but with quirky behavior in that it homes on the nearest target and attacks it in melee, which while it means it can hit things you have a hard time hitting, you have to account for this when trying to use for protection. Its offensive and defensive capabilities are powerful, but if it is doing one job well, it will do the other poorly, like a well-meaning pet that you have to harmonize with.

[Faith]

This not normally super unusual... but Assault Shell decided Double Break wasn't enough... and has Triple Break lol (in the Void Arrange mode anyway). Fk that really melts everything and put huuuuuge smile on face. Assault Shell scoring/break loop is also super fun with the SP Weapon you get! And... the thing Faith <3 most about Assault Shell... is when you are in Triple Break... the whole screen darkens, bullets become ultra high contrast color... it looks like a super serious "focus mode" and is really, really cool! Definitely very fond memory of this in recent times!!~

[JBC]

Toothpaste laser from Raiden II
Napalm shot from Viper Phase 1
Lock-on lighting from RayStorm

I also like using seeker type Force Pods in R-Type Final 2. It's satisfying to watch the enemy slowly frying while it kinda burrows into them