GD: Granada

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louisg
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GD: Granada

Post by louisg »

I decided to start this Granada strategy thread because of a suggestion made in my off-topic Granada discussion. Strategies for the bosses would be a good place to start. Here are the ones I can actually beat consistently:

St.1 - Be sure to be in the lower-right area of the map when the last target is destroyed. Then, get ready with the blaster. The boss will hop around. When it hits the ground, it'll be vulnerable.

St.2 - When you hold your fire, this boss' shield will open and it'll be vulnerable. This boss will always try to face your tank, so try to keep the tank facing upwards. Dodge side to side slightly when it fires the laser, and then center and fire the blaster.

St.3 - This is an easy one. Use the cannon to shoot the missile launchers on the sides. After those are destroyed, the boss will start opening up its shield periodically. Shoot it with the blaster when it first opens the shield, and as it's closing the shield. You'll have to lead the target slightly.

St.4 - To defeat this boss, you must destroy a certain number of mines. It's not worth saving the discs for this boss. Just go to the left or right side of the screen and continually fire the blaster at an angle, bouncing it off the top of the screen.

St.5 - This boss just needs to be shot with the blaster enough times. The only tricky part is you have to watch out for the pods it shoots out. You can actually go underneath the boss without taking damage, but I'm not sure it helps.

There is also a secret on stage 2: On the left wing, there is a pipe-like structure hanging downwards. Drive down this pipe until the end and wait there for several seconds. A powerup will appear. This will upgrade your blaster.

(edited to change terminology)
Last edited by louisg on Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Enhasa
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

Cool! I guess the biggest thing to do first is agree on terminology though. The game itself (at least the US Genesis version) calls the main shot "normal shot" or "cannon" (which I use, although technically cannon is the name of the actual turret of your tank, that's why you have "locked cannon" for strafing). Big secondary shot is "blaster." I don't really care what we decide to call everything, but we should call whatever it is consistently. I can dig "vulcan" and "cannon," but that might confuse some people. Maybe "vulcan" and "blaster." Who cares, just pick one and I'll go along.


I'll copy this over from the other thread:
st5 boss is really easy. Just go undernearth him like you say, or even better, just get behind him and blaster away. st6 boss is really really tough. First part isn't bad, just lock upwards and strafe left to right between the gaps. When he separates, pinpoint blaster. Next form is tough, dodge while locked upwards and more blaster. Final form is insane and I don't think it's worth dealing with the drones, there's too many of them. I just go all out and try to kill him ASAP. Sometimes in this game, the best defense is a good offense.

Stage 2 powerup is one of the important secrets of the game. Another one is in the final stage:
Last stage: Yeah, it's really tough. Cannon the bases like you said. Biggest thing with this stage is to be careful not to fall off, especially getting pushed off by those rubber explosives and by the pushers on the narrow walkways. For bases, shoot the red shots down with cannon, but hit them with blaster. There is a huge, clearly-intended-as-a-secret shortcut you can take straight to the boss by suiciding and using your invincibility to cross the gap. (Note: I don't remember, but I'm not sure if this works on x68000 version.) It is well worth it. Final boss isn't hard if you know what to do, ask if you need help.

Playing for score: First off, difficulty matters a lot, but this is separated in any high score table anyway. Mania is tons of fun though, it's tough just to get the 1cc. AFAIK (someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) while there are generators, there are no milk points that are worth more than finishing stages faster with the time instead. However, if you're about to lose a life from damage (which would be a big waste of time -> points), you can spend the rest of your time with that life milking to max out your resources. Also, if you can spare the life, instead of beating a boss with very low timer, you can suicide via timeout and beat it with high timer on the next life.

There is no end of game bonus, and additionally, the Genesis version at least (someone please tell me about x68000, I don't remember) has a bug like Thunder Dragon 2 where it doesn't count the points you score at the very end. So if you 1cc, take a screenshot of your last stage bonus, and add that manually to the displayed score on the title screen (your score before final bonus).

Since score is based on time, I like this type of scoring system where you try to do everything as fast as you can. It works even better in this game for several reasons:

1) Playing for survival already depends on speed. The game is built around it.
2) Bosses have precise weakpoints, and the amount of time two people (or even the same person, different instances) can take to beat them can vary greatly.
3) Route-planning your way through the stages is cool.
4) Strategic suicides, and it's funny and awesome to dodge bullets to survive so you can die by timeout instead.
5) There is a super awesome and skillful/tough risk/reward method for fastest movement.
PLUS, without a dedicated strafe button, you wouldn't be able to execute the best and coolest move in basically any game: pointing your cannon in the opposite direction, strafing backwards, and rapid blaster for fastest method of movement. This technique is absolutely necessary when playing for either score or speed.
This is really too awesome, and even if you use it judiciously because you don't want to get hit while doing it, there are still stretches where you can do it really safely because there are no bullets around. Try it out, it's incredible fun too.
Last edited by Enhasa on Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:40 am, edited 2 times in total.
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louisg
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by louisg »

Enhasa wrote: st6 boss is really really tough. First part isn't bad, just lock upwards and strafe left to right between the gaps. When he separates, pinpoint blaster. Next form is tough, dodge while locked upwards and more blaster. Final form is insane and I don't think it's worth dealing with the drones, there's too many of them. I just go all out and try to kill him ASAP. Sometimes in this game, the best defense is a good offense.
What do you do about the mines (the ones that split open into those yellow shots)? It seems that if you are close to them, you can just go through them when they split open. But, if you shoot them and you are farther away, there doesn't seem to be a way to really dodge. Is it just a matter of selective fire? This is the point at which I just start absorbing damage.

Also, re: the bases on the last stage, the shots circle in a pattern. It's almost like two concentric circles of shots, and you can find a semi-safe spot between the two circles if you want to get closer to the base.
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Enhasa
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

Those mines are what I mean by drones. I don't bother dodging or killing those because there are just too many. That's why I just go for the jugular. Definitely don't stand far away, just unload up close. If you or someone knows a better way to deal with this boss, please share it.


Since they're missing, I'll write some short stuff about the rest of the bosses. Edit: I don't think anything below is outright wrong, but I did write some more three posts down that supplements all of this. The st9 method below is still the fastest way to do it, just not the safest or easiest.

st7: Start off by moving into a lower corner and killing the reflectors close to you at the bottom with blaster. Your first goal is not to be surrounded on all sides. Then you can strafe along the bottom and blaster the other reflectors. For last form, first move in a circle to avoid the bombs, just dodging. Then he fires normal shots that you can strafe between. Make sure to stay right in front of him so you can dodge the next part plus punish him. When he opens up, blaster him. Make sure not to be too close or he will hit you with his arms.
st8: Pretty straightforward to plan, not really to execute. You have a huge area to work with, so use that to your advantage, is the biggest key. Just blow up all the segments.
st9: First form: stay lined up straight upwards just left of dead center and you can squeeze between the walls of bullets and don't move in a little safe spot. If this isn't working for you, alternately stay off to the side and blaster diagonally in. Second form: Strafe to avoid the machine gun fire, avoid the other crap, your goal is this form is to kill the arms as fast as you can. You will probably take a couple hits. Third form: Dodge the shrapnel blasts. This time you need to kill the shoulders. Final form: You want to lock him into a loop where you move way off to the side, dodge his blast to the middle and blaster him, then dodge the next blast back off to the side, repeat until dead. If done correctly, the shrapnel will disappear right as you move into the previous location, and you can do this untouched.
Last edited by Enhasa on Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by gameoverDude »

I had a Time Over on the Stage 4 boss, but killed him IMMEDIATELY after respawning. The timer showed 000, but at the EOS bonus screen, it awarded me 400 seconds of time bonus with a multiplier of 4.

400x100x4 = 40K x 4 = 160000 :)

On stage 5, it seems best to take out the hangars from the sides of the boss. Those spawn the damn pods.
Using the upgraded blaster gives you more recoil (and helps the backpedaling trick work better), but you lose it if you continue. The time bonus multiplier will also reset to 1 if you continue.
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Enhasa
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

Like I said, I think the best 5th boss strategy is just to go behind him. :wink:
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

I started a Granada high score thread. Woo hoo, check it out!

I've been playing this game some more recently and have some stuff to add.


Stage 1 boss: Best way to handle this guy is to start at the bottom near where he comes out, then stay between him and the bottom wall. His jumps will be really short because he will try to land on you but can't -- if he were to actually land on you there, he would crush himself on the wall, which is why he doesn't do it -- and you don't have to move and can keep blastering him.

Stage 4 boss: I said this in the appreciation thread but not here I guess. It's not very well known that you can actually ride along the walls. So keep strafed north, and ride along the walls until you are behind him. Makes things a lot faster and simpler, although bouncing shots along the walls is way cool.

Stage 6 boss: I figured this guy out finally. For the final form, you can blow off the sides and that makes him unable to spawn those annoying drones. Then when you kill off any remaining drones, they are gone for good. Then his only other attack is the homing shrapnel. I used to not know how to avoid this, but this is what you do. Hang to either the left or right side, so the incoming payload is moving roughly horizontal itself before it explodes. Then as soon as it does, run towards it either left or right, and all the homing shrapnel will fly around you and miss you. Pretty awesome once you figure it out.

Stage 7 boss: Forgot to say earlier, while you are evading in a circle, you want to end this attack directly below him, so you aren't hit by his spread attack.

Stage 8 boss: Forgot to mention the pyramid at the start, but that's pretty straightforward. For the centipede, it comes straight at you and you don't want to let it get close. Shoot the head and it will take an arc around you to the side, which gives you the opportunity to shoot off its tail segment.

Stage 9 boss: I don't know why I never realized this, but you can make this dude a ton easier by exploiting the field. There are platforms to the left and right that let you attack him as well! But if you venture into the bottom area below him (the part that juts out) or enough into the left platform, the screen will scroll and you will be locked into the final fight.

Here is the easiest way to handle this guy. Go near him to trigger his first attack, but don't scroll the screen. Then retreat to the open area in the south. Point at an angle (say, 2 o'clock) and strafe side-to-side (9 o'clock) while blastering. When you get to the edge, repeat the process in the other direction (10 o'clock and 3 o'clock). With the first attack dead, go over to the left side. Don't go too far or you will regret it. Blaster right to blow off his right arm. The biggest advantage of this method by far is that you don't have to worry about his machine gun fire. You still have to avoid orbs and such though.

Then loop all the way around to the right side. Blow off his remaining arm, and then his shoulders and other parts, until you trigger his final stage. You can tackle this from any side, but the bottom is easiest since you have the most room. So go back to the bottom and trigger the screen scrolling. Blaster him while in the middle, then strafe to the far left or right, strafe back and repeat, and if you do set this up correctly, you shouldn't get hit by the dust. Anyway, this method helps out a lot if you're low on health.
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Enhasa
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

Linking to this other thread with maps for posterity.


Edit: Learned some more random tidbits.

It's well known that the spinning option, the disc, the rotating options, etc all block bullets, but did you know the missile launcher does too? I don't mean the missiles but the actual launcher attachment itself. It's not the best policy to rely on it since it doesn't cover a lot of area, but it is something neat and potentially useful.

In stage 9, you can go around the gates along the edge, meaning you don't have to wait for them to open and close. Also it is possible to get locked in on the right vs the final boss (what you don't want to happen prematurely), just like on the left or bottom. It's harder to do, but do watch out for it.


Some stuff I was told by different people:
Stage 7 shortcut:
In the third area, right after the second bridge, you can use the blaster's recoil to go through the wall that's separating the water from the ground

you need to hold the right button while doing this skip. So make your Granada face the left side, lock it into that angle, get against the wall, and keep moving right as you use your blaster.
There is also an invisible bridge in level 7. No blaster required, you just drive right across. It connects the first landmass to the second landmass and it's located somewhere around the center of the map (north to south).

It may not be a big time-saver, though, since there are still some targets in the north that you'd be missing if you took the shortcut.
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Re: GD: Granada

Post by Enhasa »

Sorry to bump again, but I have a 2.6 million Mania replay at YouTube: 1 2 3
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