Experiences with Progear - tougher than people say

[Taylor]

I'm not sure I fully understand the emphasis here on playing for score vs. survival. Your chances of survival are way better if you are effective at bullet cancelling, which will give you a good score. There is, I suppose, a fair amount of risk-taking involved in getting the rings that allow for maximum gem collecting, but those risks are very often going to pay off survival-wise with subsequent bullet clearing.

I completely agree. If you ignore scoring in Progear you´re basically ignoring the main concept of this game (unlike in, say, DDP or Mushihimesama, at least from my point of view). Turning bullets into diamonds just feels so RIGHT. It´s a shame I dislike almost everything else about this game, but the scoring system is very addicting.

Again, alternating rings and diamonds is not playing for score, that's just playing it properly. Playing for score (hitting the gem streams, milking the big enemies/bosses) is much harder, and puts the rank through the roof. This is made super-fun by the fact one bomb or death will ruin your scoring potential for the rest of the game past the second boss.

[captpain]

Playing without cancelling bullets into diamonds makes the game harder, plain and simple.

[Taylor]

So does playing it without shooting.

[captpain]

So does playing it without shooting.

You know what I meant, damn you.

[Skykid]

Man, I just want to 1cc the damn thing.

Stage 5 is fucking horrible, especially at the beginning.

The namakoteam site has a truck load of replays and guides from the Progear week during STGT that should help you out Skykid.

http://www.thestudio-uk.com/namakoteam/ ... topic=70.0

The resource thread there also has a ton of vids and ICR's stage 1 guide.

http://www.thestudio-uk.com/namakoteam/ ... topic=65.0

Fantastic Freddibamboo, cheers dude! Perfect study material.

I put up a new high score today. I think I'm just impatient, I want things to fall more quickly for me.
I do realise after reading the thread and playing the game that of course Taylor is spot on - bullet cancelling and playing for score is integral to survival anyway. It's incredible when the depth of Progear and it's hidden complexity dawns on you. The scoring system can be worked on and improved in so many ways, it's almost like a game within itself.

I will have get this 1CC - just got to Volvox and he kicked my ass, fast. But I always maked it to stage 5 with at least two lives - just need to perfect the level.

[Taylor]

The hardest part of stage 5 is the beginning because of the Bullshit Planes and large tanks, once you reach the top it's pretty smooth. At the mid-boss I usually keep the Bomb floating in the air, bomb its main pattern and collect it (boo!), going down is fairly easy unless you want to get the gem stream* and the best way to beat the large green planes at the end is to go straight to the top left then nudge your self downwards slowly.

The final boss is a pain... The blue ellipse thing he does always, always kills me. If you just get into one of the paths and follow it to the right corner and bomb you should be okay. Final pattern is also annoying because it goes on for years.

* Kill the first crane, damage the left until it spirals, then kill the right with focused shot - then damage all other cranes you see until they spiral. It's much harder than it looks on the replays :/

[PROMETHEUS]

This is made super-fun by the fact one bomb or death will ruin your scoring potential for the rest of the game past the second boss.

That's ironic right? --

[Skykid]

The hardest part of stage 5 is the beginning because of the Bullshit Planes and large tanks, once you reach the top it's pretty smooth. At the mid-boss I usually keep the Bomb floating in the air, bomb its main pattern and collect it (boo!), going down is fairly easy unless you want to get the gem stream* and the best way to beat the large green planes at the end is to go straight to the top left then nudge your self downwards slowly.

The final boss is a pain... The blue ellipse thing he does always, always kills me. If you just get into one of the paths and follow it to the right corner and bomb you should be okay. Final pattern is also annoying because it goes on for years.

* Kill the first crane, damage the left until it spirals, then kill the right with focused shot - then damage all other cranes you see until they spiral. It's much harder than it looks on the replays :/

Some nice tips there, thanks mate. I do find the initial climb of stg 5 to be seriously frustrating, so I'm going to study some vids. I always bomb the mid boss in exactly the same place just to take him down (his main pattern is stupid). I'm certainly not at gem streaming point yet so I'll play it safe on the cranes - I usually find the section just after where tons of little enemies swarm from all over, eventually coming up from behind. I'm sure there are some scoring possibilities here but I haven't ever got a minute to think at this point.

[Frederik]

This is made super-fun by the fact one bomb or death will ruin your scoring potential for the rest of the game past the second boss.

That's ironic right? --

It sure is!

[Taylor]

This is made super-fun by the fact one bomb or death will ruin your scoring potential for the rest of the game past the second boss.

That's ironic right? --

Yeah, like I said in the previous post this aspect ruins what is otherwise an awesome scoring system. You shouldn't be able to score like mistakes didn't happen, but it's way too harsh.

It doesn't seem as bad as DDP or Guwange. But, the gem counter and x2 multiplier affects how many points you get when a bullet hits something, gives a sick end stage bonus, and at high values it raises up your base gem (until big emerald). Die and you're back at the lowest gem, lose 15% counter and your multiplier. Bomb and you're back at the lowest gem, lose lots of gems (variable, not sure how this works), won't see the multiplier for 2 stages, and won't pick up 10,000/20,000 gems for having excess stock.