Great!Mad Mage wrote: I'm enjoying the game too. This and Leave Home are two fun little indy shmups.
I agree, Leave Home is really interesting.
You're dealing the same number of small shots whether you're expanded/contracted, but the giant laser doesn't shoot when contracted. The game encourages loose play which I realize may put some people off initially, but should feel like is a nice change of pace and a good break from more 'serious' shmups.Mad Mage wrote: I'm having trouble getting the hang of when to expand and when to contract. Even if my ships are a little outward it becomes very hard to not get hit. One the other hand, it looks like I'm dealing way less damage when my ships are all the way in. Am I? At any rate I like the burst shield. It makes it possible to have my ships spread out a bit. At least enough to make the laser.
There's at least five ways to deal lots of damage in Shoot 1UP.
1. Spread out just enough to form the Plasma Auger (the big laser). Check your HUD for 4 pips (the 4th one is white). You will deal more damage like this, with the big laser shooting. The further you spread out, the bigger laser, and the higher the damage.
2. The Flash Shield deals a lot of damage if you get close enough to use it. Every ship deals damage with their own shield, so multiple ships doing a shield attack can kill most enemies in one hit (if not two). There are some bigger enemies that take more hits and skill to bring down (the brown transport ships, the big pink laser shooting ships, the ice shard ships are some that take more hits.)
3. Sacrifice your ships (which you sound like you're reluctant to do, which is understandable but give it some time!). Each ship that dies makes a powerful explosion. Playing strategically, if you are low on ships (5 or less, let's say) but manage to kill several enemies you'll likely get a 1UP in trade (thus getting a free bomb essentially). The more ships you have the longer it takes to get a new 1UP.
4. The classic method, which is to tap the shoot button as fast as possible. Each time you press fire (the A button) your ships shoot two forward shots instead of alternating forward shots (which happens when you simply hold the fire button.) It's a pretty strong attack, but without an arcade style stick can be fatiguing. I do resort to this occasionally though when I'm just trying to squeeze the last bit of life out of a boss.
5. Get a friend over and play coop! The difficulty does not scale based on 2-player. It is actually easier (but also more fun) with two. And if Serious is too easy with two playing, turn up the game play speed a bit!
I like 2 player at 150% on Normal for just 'enjoying' a fun session.
I hope these tips help. I'd love to hear how you're progressing!
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