ST: Battle Bakraid (15.09.10 - rank modifiers added)

[Rastan78]

Anyone who's tried to get down the 11 million axebeak thing that Icarus detailed above has probably noticed that sometimes his cockpit goes off the top of the screen at the inappropriate time. Well, this turns out to be no big deal, you just have to learn two slightly different techniques to take out the cockpit depending on where he is positioned.

The first is the way shown on the Y.K replay. After destroying the second wing artillery the cockpit is in position to be taken out with the aura right away. You take it out right before destroying the first form and then suicide.

So what do you do when you get as far as destroying the second wing artillery just like on the replay but the cockpit is already positioned off the top of the screen?

The second way I've found is actually not difficult at all. Simply ignore the cockpit for now, use your aura to destroy the first form and then suicide. You revive, launch your bomb in an out of the way place and then go up to destroy the cockpit with the aura. Then uickly go down to shoot out the tail gun, launch your final half bomb and destroy the second form.

Be ready to destroy the cockpit during axebeak's first or second form depending on the situation and you can get the 11 million every time.

[Rastan78]

Another quick general tip:

Always play with the timer on and learn to keep an eye on it. With practice you can watch the tens digit on the timer counting down and learn to release a bomb at the last instant. This is important in a lot of situations where you need to stall to buy some time in order to keep a multiplier going or just get in a better position to place your bomb.

You also get an idea how quickly you need to bomb after suiciding and reviving. If you suicide and see around an 80 or above (100 or above means a very well timed suicide) you've got a little time to position before bombing so feel comfortable taking the time to get it right. If you see around 50 be prepared to bomb or destroy something immediately. 30 or below . . . panic. Start rapidly tapping on the bomb button so that one will be released the first possible instant but there's a good chance that it's already too late to save the multiplier. Next time suicide more quickly.

Once you get used to watching the timer (as well as having the little musical bleeps turned on) you feel like you're playing completely blind without it.

[Icarus]

The second way I've found is actually not difficult at all. Simply ignore the cockpit for now, use your aura to destroy the first form and then suicide. You revive, launch your bomb in an out of the way place and then go up to destroy the cockpit with the aura. Then uickly go down to shoot out the tail gun, launch your final half bomb and destroy the second form.

That's a pretty tricky method to implement.

There is a slightly easier method to catch the cockpit if it's drifting off the screen. Around about point no. 7 in the Scoring Demonstration - after taking out one wing battery and suiciding - if the cockpit target is offscreen, use your full bomb to take out the remaining wing battery, and then sit near the cockpit while the bomb burns out. when it does, wait for about one second, then drop your half-bomb out of the way of the boss, and take out the cockpit, which should be available to attack now. After taking out the cockpit, suicide as normal and send the boss into it's second form, and continue on at point 8 - attacking the rear turret on the second form of the boss, and 64x kill the boss.

I can consistently execute this method if required, just takes a bit of readjustment depending on how the boss is moving around onscreen.

[Rastan78]

^^^

Yeah, looks like that way is easier, Icarus. Thanks for the input. The technique I described actually works like a charm on normal, but is much more difficult to execute on Advanced. Your technique is easy and reliable on either course.

[Rastan78]

Thought I'd post a few random observations if anyone's interested.

To anyone just starting out playing Bakraid: Normal is not worth it! Just go straight to Advanced after you can 1cc Normal for survival. Trying to perfect multipliers etc. is not worth it. I shifted to Advanced and after getting used to it I can never go back to Normal. A big reason is Axebeak is actually MORE DIFFICULT to x64 completely on normal. The reason is that his wing artillery (that fire the pink bullets and don't activate for a while) stay open longer on advanced because they fire a longer salvo. This makes the chain timing so much more forgiving. Forget pulling your hair out trying to get the timing right on normal.

Also, perfectly timing your suicides down to the split second(so important in this game and also very, very difficult in certain instances) becomes easier on certain sections because of higher bullet count. Besides the challenge in Advanced from a pure survival standpoint is still not very intimidating.

I'm just starting to realize that Bakraid is a very unusual game (in spite of its very normal looking graphics) that requires a completely different set of skills than any other STG I've so far played. Its gameplay is worlds apart from even Batrider once you start trying to x64 through entire levels. More notes on this to come . . .

[Rastan78]

One more little trick on the desert stage. At the beginning, when you kill the huge flame thrower turret to the right, position your plane exactly in the center of the turret as it explodes. It will release eight medals in a circle around the base.

[Icarus]

Replay list updated.
I'm considering coming back to this at some point soon, as I kinda miss the game, so expect some new footage and guide material to follow. ^_-

[Vexorg]

Nice replays... One thing I can't figure out though, where are all the extends at the beginning of railroad coming from?

[zakk]

Nice replays... One thing I can't figure out though, where are all the extends at the beginning of railroad coming from?

From the points received during the Axebeak battle (stage 1/forest boss fight)

[Dave_K.]

I have the Y.K Replay avi file (I believe downloaded from Icarus' featheredwings torrent), but am now looking for the actual mame replay file. Hoping someone still has it, as the original link/page poieo posted is broken.

[Rastan78]

www.mog-rep.net

[PPA]

Nice replays... One thing I can't figure out though, where are all the extends at the beginning of railroad coming from?

From the points received during the Axebeak battle (stage 1/forest boss fight)

but why they appear after?

[zakk]

Nice replays... One thing I can't figure out though, where are all the extends at the beginning of railroad coming from?

From the points received during the Axebeak battle (stage 1/forest boss fight)

but why they appear after?

extends don't drop during boss battles

[PPA]

a lil thing ive discovered is that if you kill enemies with the beam (that light beam from your ship when you dont shot) and not with the shot you gain more point!

For example the yellow planes in forest stages give 200pts if killed by shooting and 2k point if killed with beam
!

(however i have to investigate further)

[Dave_K.]

www.mog-rep.net

Aww crap! Looks like www.mog-rep.net went down!? Thankfully I downloaded the replays I wanted, but that was building up to be one heck of a shmup replay site.

[Rastan78]

Looks like the inp files can still be found at mogrep.jp

[Dave_K.]

Looks like the inp files can still be found at mogrep.jp

Most exellent, thanks!

[Dave_K.]

Does "Team Edit" mode get you any additional or secret bosses (like Batrider)? Whats the advantage?

[Acid King]

Does "Team Edit" mode get you any additional or secret bosses (like Batrider)? Whats the advantage?

I don't think there's any secrets to unlock. The obvious advantage is that you cycle through your ships and so could time suicides dependent on what ship you want for a specific chaining segment.

[Dave_K.]

Does "Team Edit" mode get you any additional or secret bosses (like Batrider)? Whats the advantage?

I don't think there's any secrets to unlock. The obvious advantage is that you cycle through your ships and so could time suicides dependent on what ship you want for a specific chaining segment.

Thanks, I guess that makes sense, although I'm not at the point where I can see an advantage between different ships and different bosses or chaining sections.

[Acid King]

I think something like that would be unnecessary unless you had the game pretty much memorized. Maybe the most optimal of optimal scoring paths require it. That said, I don't think I've seen any scores submitted here that have used it and I'm pretty sure the current world record holder only used one ship.

[freddiebamboo]

I think something like that would be unnecessary unless you had the game pretty much memorized. Maybe the most optimal of optimal scoring paths require it. That said, I don't think I've seen any scores submitted here that have used it and I'm pretty sure the current world record holder only used one ship.

Yeah, I thought the WR was done just using the Flame Viper, although Plasmo doesn't list the ship(s) used in his WR archive. I'm sure someone mentioned here at some point that most Japanese players use Flame Viper though.

[croikle]

I just did some testing, and I'm pretty sure that B selection really does increase your bomb. For example, Axebeak may be killed using the 1.5 bombs from one life with type B, but not with any other type. What's more, I think that some of this damage increase is due to a slightly longer-lasting bomb, though this is harder to test. I should record videos or get a stopwatch or something.

Whether increased bomb length is enough of an advantage to give up side or shot power, and possibly do too much damage with the bombs, is an open question.

Semi-OT: should we get together a list of corrections for rtw's World of Arcades? Shot frequency being misrepresented as enemy shot speed, Garegga and Batrider selection types, etcetera are things that come to mind, and given those I was reluctant to believe B = bomb type.

[sunburstbasser]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I'll point it out.

Scratching bullets gives points! 10 at a time, and at the rate that damaging something with the tickle laser would give them. I haven't noticed any other effects. Since the gain is fairly small, I don't think this is really important for scoring well, more of a bonus than anything.

Unconfirmed: It appears that the timer is counting in frames. Bakraid runs at 60 fps, so 90 is 1.5 seconds, 120 is 2 seconds. I have not confirmed this.

[Skyknight]

Echoing along Alluro's point about Axebeak's name...

Bahamut: Interestingly, this is a primal sea-being. Think "Behemoth".
St. 6 mid-bosses...
Gargoyle (brown mid-boss)
Grell (dull pink mid-boss): No idea. There's a monster named that in D&D (sort of like a giant brain-like creature with a beak and lots of tendrils), but otherwise...
Phoenix (dark blue mid-boss)
Jabberwock (light blue mid-boss...I may be mixing it and Phoenix up. Jabberwock's the one doing an Axebeak impression): The dreaded monster referenced in "Through the Looking-Glass"'s poem "Jabberwocky". The illustration makes it look like a sort of long-necked dragon.
Tiamat (green mid-boss): In Babylonian lore, this was a dragon of salt water who was incited by Qingu to try to exterminate the gods. Instead, Marduk cut her in two, and used the components of her body to create the heavens and earth.
Kraken (red mid-boss)

[Aru-san]

1. investigate the theory that scratching bullets extends the multiplier chain timer

Myth debunked. Tool-assisting this game a bit on MAME (by Shift+P for each frame), I grazed on a multipler; the timer did not rise up one bit.

[Kaiser]

Got a question regarding medalling in Naval. (I'm using Icarus's route) whenever I get to the part with constantly reappearing cannons on sides of the screens. when I collect lots of 10k medals and I lose one, suddenly a 100 point medal appears and my chain is broken after I pick it up. WHat now? CHain also breaks when I focus on collecting those 10k/100k medals depending whenever I chain or not

[Plasmo]

Pick up the 100 medal before you let another 10k medal appear (by destroying an enemy for example) and everything's fine. Just stop shooting for a sec.

[Kaiser]

Pick up the 100 medal before you let another 10k medal appear (by destroying an enemy for example) and everything's fine. Just stop shooting for a sec.

Thanks, that will help. BY the way i'm slowly developing a strategy for that section. Also hey, your method of playing does really help (read: Keep suiciding extends until stage 6). I noticed the rank at gigamanta is 3 times lower than when I was playing it like a crazy macho. I can both chain/score, get medals and still be safe at Vampire. Yay. (My average score ranges now from 6 millions to 10)

[croikle]

Big news! I just found the rank address, so we can figure out what's going on in this beast. It's 3 bytes starting at 0x20F2E7 (or a double at 0x20F2E6), and behaves quite like Garegga and Batrider rank.

Here's a cheat to watch the value, in the modern cheat.xml format (I can make one for the old style if needed):

Code: Select all

<cheat desc="Watch Game Rank">
  <script state="run">
    <output format="Rank : %x">
      <argument>maincpu.pd@(20f2e6)</argument>
    </output>
  </script>
</cheat>

I'll update this with values as I discover them. From memory, death at 4 stock is minimal rank relief, death at 1 is major, and scratching bullets relieves rank too.

Rank starts at 0xD90000 at the black screen before mode selection. Batrider methods for decreasing start rank don't affect this, nor do attract screen cycles. The value isn't different for the different modes. Rank doesn't seem to carry over between credits.

The minimum value is 0; no soft min like the others.

Rank decrease (value increase) at death:
4 stock: 0x040000
3 stock: 0x080000
2 stock: 0x100000
1 stock: 0x200000
0 stock: 0x400000 and gameover

Rank increase (value decrease) from extend at:
0 stock: 0x020000
1 stock: 0x040000
2 stock: 0x080000
3 stock: 0x100000
4 stock (surplus): 0x020000 (surprisingly small)

Dropping extends doesn't seem to affect anything.

There's a sizable increase from killing a chain-prolonging enemy at x64. Looks like 0x040000. Fixed 0x0a0000 for bosses, regardless of chain.
Chain rank increase (only for "large" = timer reset enemies):
Multiplier here is the value before the kill, will be +1 afterward. Not absolutely sure on these values.
x1: 0x001000
x2: 0x002000
x4: 0x004000
x8: 0x008000
x16: 0x010000
x32: 0x040000 (odd)
x64: 0x040000

Per-frame increase starts out at 3. Looks like it can be increased. Special power up seems to +2, though maybe Wide is only +1.

Each of the 3 types of powerups increase rank by 0x001000. (surplus too)

Medal increase:
100-900: 0x400
1000-9000: 0x800
10000: 0x1000
100000: 0x20000 (!?)

Bomb fragment: 0x800, even when filling to full bomb
Collecting full bomb: 0x10000
Bombing (full or partial): 0x8000


Graze: 0x200 rank decrease. Kinda randomly every few frames. (2 on, 2 off?) Applies for each bullet, so graze a swarm during a bomb for more.