Since noone seems to know how the game's scoring mechanics exactly work I thought I'd start a thread so we could figure it out.
Links
Japanese wikipedia for HELLSINKER:
http://www40.atwiki.jp/hellsinker/
Hellsinker hs/replay scoreboard:
http://www.hellsinker.net/hsscoreboard/
DirectX9 Patch:
http://sanagimaru.nobody.jp/hs_d3d9_2007.zip
Latest Patch:
http://sanagimaru.nobody.jp/hs_c72_patch_1008f.exe
HELLSINKER basics by Dandy_J:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... hellsinker
-Menus and characters are explained here
Scoring demonstration: (Dead Liar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLqdCuRGQc8&fmt=22 (~10k spirits by end of stage 2, player: riro)
Some basics
Controller config:
First things first! Gotta set up your controller. On the right in bold is a list of all the buttons - they are, in order:
1. Main shot
2. Sub weapon
3. Bomb
4. Pause
5. Hold down the button during play to return to the menu screen.
6. I have no idea
7. There's one that actually isn't listed on the right, looks like a mess of Kanji (I currently have it assigned to button 8 ). This is the slow movement button.
Main config:
Starting at the top left:
1. Check to disable sound effects
2. Check to enable wireframe mode for the background
3. Check to enable 16-bit color (as opposed to 32-bit)
4. Check to enable BGM in-game
5. Check to run in a window
6. Check to enable smoothing filter on the player sprite
7. Check to skip the intro splash screens
8. Check to remove help tips from everywhere except the set up screen
Wait type:
1. Via V SYNC
2. Via timer (use this if you are running the game in something other than 60Hz).
The dropdown menu is varying levels of effects, the thing after that is obviously for the deadzone on your controller.
On the right there are just a bunch of graphics settings for filtering. Just do whatever, if you've got a nice machine crank 'em all up. If there's trouble, lower some. Obviously you'll want to select nVIDIA/ATI on the right depending on what chipset your video card is.
Main menu:
0a. Pressing left or right on the main menu will change your character, which you will see via the yellow text at the bottom of the screen. There are 4 total in the full version.
0b. Pressing the pause button on Dead Liar or Kagura will change their equipment type. Dead Liar has 2, while Kagura has 4 (thanks Macaw!).
0c. Pressing sub-weapon instead of main shot will let you access saved replays for the currently selected character.
1. Full Sequence Order starts the game.
2. Tuning Dipsw is options. Everything is mostly self-explanatory with some thinking. The top option lets you change things that you would normally select right after you start the game, like different control methods.
3. Archivement of Execution is rankings.
4. Away is quit.
Pre-game menu:
After going into Full Sequence Order, there's a few options for your ship.
1. There are 4 speed control types. Automatic will automatically low when you hold the main shot button. Momentary will allow you to slow down via holding the slow button. Alternative will toggle between normal and slow using the slow button. Triphase uses the slow button to scroll through fast (default), medium, and slow speeds.
2. Way of life is the maximum lives you can have at a time. You can choose from 5, 6 (default), or 7.
3. Bootleg ghost is another difficulty option that mostly affect how the Sol gauge is used.
Aspirant (default) - You can bomb when Sol reaches 3 stocks, and take a free hit without dying (except for your first death) when it reaches 5. Bombing or taking a hit will empty the gauge, no matter how much you had. After taking 3 hits, the hit-taking ability will be suspended until the next stage.
Solidstate (easier) - You can bomb or take a hit when the gauge reaches 3 stocks, including your first death. Like Aspirant, the hit-taking ability will be suspended until the next stage after 3 hits.
Adept (harder) - The Sol gauge is used for bombing only. Also, all the aura bullet slowing/eating abilities for all characters are disabled.
In-game GUI:
1. Rank setting (difficulty)
Movement setting
2. Number of MAX lives
Amount of hearts needed for next extend
Amount of lives currently
NOTE: Immortal means you've hit max lives and every new life you recieve will give you an increasing spirits bonus starting from 80 points.
3. Sol gauge (Bombs and guard)
4. Luna gauge (Heat/Power gauge of your main shot)
5. Sub weapon meter (What it means depends on the character you are playing)
6. Stella (Rank) (10 different rank levels, lowest is 1 and highest is A)
7. Name of the enemy you are currently shooting
8. Terra Meter (When this meter goes to 0 next level will be Shrine of Farewell)
9. Sealed enemy (Going close to some enemies will seal them making them unable to shoot)
10. % of health enemy has left
# of spirits you recieve if you kill the enemy (Will increase on certain conditions)
11. a token chip
12. Number of spirit bonus recieved from killing an enemy
13. a sol chip (increases sol gauge)
14. Bootleg ghost settings
Guard (if available) and amount of guards left during this stage.
15. Spirits recieved before this level
Spirits recieved during this level
BREAK means you've hit the spirit break (5000 spirits) which gives you an extra extend.
The 3 meters below simply are spirit gain. The highest is ones, the middle one is tens and the lowest is hundreds (of spirits).
16. Amount of kills
Kill break is at 5000 kills (?)
17. Amount of Tokens
18. Time spent on current level
19. Token level and amount of needed for next token level
NOTE: Tokens are separate from spirit score completely.
20. Unchain bonus When you kill a master that has other enemies chained into it you will recieve a spirit bonus marked in blue at this spot.
Scoring and tips/tricks
Scoring demonstration video (Dead Liar) for first 2 LEAD stages. (~10k spirits from first 2 stages)
You get spirits from:
-Your spirit will increase on it's own slowly during levels
-Damaging anything
-Unchaining enemies from its master
-Spirit bonus recieved from killing enemies (see Points 10. and 12. mentioned before)
NOTE: Spirit bonus will increase as you damage enemies, the closer you are to the enemy, the faster the bonus rises.
NOTE: Some enemies have their value skyrocketed if you get into close range and damage them. For example some of the enemies in stage 3LEAD or the enemies that shoot the laser beams during stage 5 (beginning before the bosses).
-Grazing certain types of bullets (Mostly bullets like needle lasers that cannot be slowed with aura) For example these lasers
-End of level bonus (Small)
-Immortality bonus (Gets larger and larger the more you get)
-Collect spirit chips (1 spirit per chip) (Rare items)
-Shrine of farewell bonus
-Having higher rank will result in more spirit gain overall as well and also at some points gives you extra enemy spawn or secret bosses/attacks
Spirit chips appear when:
-Kill boss or its attack phase
-During BREAKTHROUGHs all bullets on screen turn into spirit chips
-After stage 4 section 2 ends all bullets turn into spirit chips
-At stage 4 sector 10 (???)
-When stage 6 ends
-Some parts during final bosses
You will gain rank if:
-Don't bomb for long periods of time
-Gain rank + items
-Stay close to the top of the screen
-Damaging anything increases rank over time
-Collect rank+ chips (Recieved from turning bullets into rank+ items with aura or shooting invulnerable parts of some enemies)
-???????
You will lose rank if:
-Stay in the bottom of the screen
-Kill enemies as soon as they enter screen
-Using bomb AND having Luna chips on screen
-Gain rank - items
-Kill bosses without killing its other parts. (Killing the core asap and ignoring rest parts).
-Having bullets shot into your bomb
-???????
NOTE: Being in contact with bullets while having your aura on will trigger a countdown for self-eclipse; once it counts down to 0 two Stella -1 items will fall down from the top of the screen.
Items:
Items in this game can be confusing because most of the time you don't even need to collect anything.
Stella +1
Stella +, will appear after you die with high rank.
Stella -1
Sol Chip, Increases SOL Gauge
Luna chip, Increases luna meter (If you use bomb when these items are on screen your rank will go down.)
Heart, required for extends/immortality bonus.
Token (lv6). These items don't affect spirit score.
Spirit item (Each is worth 1 spirit)
Terra Chip, increases Terra meter
Stella + item, minor stella increase. Turn bullets into them with aura or shoot invulnerable parts of certain enemies
Extends:
-Collecting hearts
-You gain ??? amount of hearts after completing each stage
-Every 100 spirits you gain 1 heart.
-BREAKTHROUGH bonuses, at 5000 spirits and at 2500 kills.
-Each life recieved above MAX lives will result into IMMORTALITY bonus which starts from 80 and increases each time.
Shrine of Farewell
-You will face this stage once your terra reaches 0 or after stage 7 if it never reaches 0
-You will not lose any lives even if you die during this stage
-All your spirits get taken away in the beginning of stage
This stage is basically a boss rush. In the beginning you can choose the order of bosses so just pick one that you're most comfortable with. You will gain crystals for defeating each boss form. Mistakes like bombing or dying will decrease the bonus you get from each boss/boss form.
-Once the stage is over your spirits will return BUT the amount of spirits that return depends on the AMOUNT OF CRYSTALS you gained during the stage
-Think of it like gamble, if you do really well you can get even twice the amount of spirits in the end. It's not very hard to get back 100% of the spirits you had so you don't have to worry about it much unless you play like a total idiot. But if you do play like an idiot; practise the stage in segment select.
-You will also recieve a couple extends at the end of stage depending how much crystals you got.
Terra:
-You lose terra by dying or auto-guard.
-You lose 1 terra by collecting each heart.
-You lose ??? amount of terra after each stage
-You lose terra if ??????
-You gain terra from terra chips
-You gain terra each time you kill perpetual calendar's true form
-You gain terra after each extend
-You gain terra if ?????
Secrets:
Segment 1B: Sealed War Relics Outskirts
-You can kill the boss' options twice, after that they're invulnerable.
Segment 1L: WAR RELICS / Sealed War Relics
-Don't kill enemies in the beginning, different enemies will spawn
Segment 2B: RUINED CASTLE / Old 7th Sect
Segment 2L: RUINED CASTLE / Sea Area
-High rank and different enemies spawn during stage.
-Keep high stella during the boss and don't die much during the boss and you will face a secret form of the boss that rewards you with tons of tokens and an extend if you kill it within time limit.
-Shoot the boss into this condition to make it shoot lots of graze'able lasers
Segment 3B: CLOUDY OCEAN / Beyond Nimbus
-The squids during later half of the stage release considerable amount of Terra chips. This is a good route to take if you're low on terra after stage 2.
Segment 3L: CLOUDY OCEAN / Ocean of Regret
-The lowest parts of each big ship give a +1 Stella item.
-Killing off all the parts from the big enemy that spawns later during the stage will make it shoot a lot of missiles.
Segment 4: UNDERPATH / Garden Sewage System
-Kill everything everything in this stage as fast as possible you will get extra enemy spawn in the end.
-Kill the boss' wings and it will go into a different mode with options, wait some more longer and it goes once again into different mode
Segment 5: ON THE MEDALLION / Garden Huge Archive (aka: Sol Cathedral / Luna Crypt)
-The bosses and order of bosses in stage 5 depends on if you take the luna or sol route.
-Kill off Perpetual Calendar's (The last boss) options twice in its last form and it will change into its true form which increases your terra every time you kill it. You can keep killing it as long as it times out.
Segment 6: INTO CARDINAL / Cardinalshaft Frame
-secret extend fountain
-You can use the laser attacking from behind to greatly damage the midboss
-Depending on how you kill the bosses they will use different final attacks.
Segment 7: PAST RISINGS AGAIN / Irreversible Lane
-Unchain the masters that come to the right side, kill off the options of the ones that appear on the left side, will result in extra hearts
-The boss' attacks vary greatly on which parts you kill and what your rank is.
Segment 8: LAST DAWN / Cardinalshaft Central
-Rank affects some enemies' spawn during stage (????)
-To face Last boss (1) have satisfaction meter 1 by the end of stage 8 boss
-To face Last boss (2) have satisfaction meter 2 by the end of stage 8 boss
-To face Last boss (3) have satisfaction meter 3 by the end of stage 8 boss
-To face True Last Boss kill Last boss (3) within time limit
-You cannot kill the true last boss, it will time out.
Segment 9: SHRINE OF FAREWELL / Under the seal
-BROKEN ONE: TEMPERAMENT NIL's first attack can be used to damage the boss itself if you direct the attack at it.
-Kill all of the bosses in the time limit and you will face an extra boss. You cannot kill this boss however.
Unlockables:Kuroonehalf wrote:- The fourth menu screen is obtained after reading all of the "Scribbles In Graveyard" (1-8) in the "Inspect Strategy Recorder" menu, not after beating "The Way Of All Flesh" (extra stage 2).
- "Sound Memoirs" is unlocked after unlocking the fourth menu screen and restarting the game.
- In the Shrine of Farewell, Temperament Nil's (the red-haired girl with the hammer) first attack phase has a unique counter-bombing mechanic - bombing heals her. Make sure not to use that button during that phase or else you'll never take her down :p.
- [Unconfirmed] The first half of the boss in Segment 8 works similar to Temperament Nil where bombing works against you, except instead of healing him, it makes his satisfaction level decrease a ton.
- [Unconfirmed] Another quirk about the first half of the boss in Segment 8 is that attacking him while invincible (like using Minogame's invincible subweapon attack or during most bombs) does not increase his satisfaction.
- [Inconclusive] During Segment 8's pre-boss the phase with the enemies Unnamed 487 has 2 variations. In the second variation they have a lot more health and smaller enemies come from some of them in a spiral pattern. I'll try to grab a screenshot of that later.
- Tip: The luna route of Segment 5 (the right portal) has a lot more wall-rooted enemies than the sol route. This means more hearts. If you find yourself low on life when you get to that stage going through the luna route could help you gain a life. And, if you prefer the sol version of the bosses, you can always switch back to the sol route near the end.
Kagura (Playable character with 4 different shot types/equipments)
-Clear past stage 4 on 1 credit
Alternative first 3 stages (The LEAD stages (Normal ones are called BEHIND))
-Clear past stage 4 on 1 credit
Title menus:
-Second one recieved after 1cc'ing past stage 4.
-Third menu recieved after 1cc'ing past stage 7.
-Fourth menu recieved after beating extra stage 2.
After unlocking all the menus you can switch between them from settings.
Extra Stage 1 (Score attack):
-Beat the TLB
Extra Stage 2:
-Beat Extra stage 1
Short Mission mode
-1cc past stage 7
Inspect strategy recorder:
-Beat Extra stage 2
Scribbles of the graveyard 1-8:
-Watch all strategy recordings
????????
-Unlock everything and exit game
-Restart game and sound mode will be unlocked