ST: Pink Sweets

[Plasmo]

[deleted]

[Dave_K.]

Thanks for posting this Plasmo, especially the Low Rank Lace strategy in section 7.1! This has definitely peaked my interest to try some of these things out. I hope in the future more can be contributed to the strat with other player type strategies and rank approaches.

[Plasmo]

Small but VERY IMPORTANT update!
Read 3) under section 4.2. for more information!

[Dave_K.]

3) There is an invisible counter that goes +1 if you destroy an enemy or a type 3 bullet with Shot and goes -1 if you destroy them with your Rose Cracker.

Ah! Another penalty for using the rose cracker besides crazy rank increases!

Everytime the counter reaches 2500 an 1 Up item will appear and the counter resetts.

Was this exact number posted somewhere? Just wondering how it was confirmed.

It doesn't affect the counter at all, if you destroy an enemy with your Rose Hips.

At least some good news.

Also should you update section 5.0 on purposely driving up rank with autofire on the B button (as a technique used)?

[Plasmo]

Was this exact number posted somewhere? Just wondering how it was confirmed.

Arcadia No.74

Also should you update section 5.0 on purposely driving up rank with autofire on the B button (as a technique used)?

I haven't really talked about anything High-Rank-Play related in this ST. One reason is that i can't do it myself because i don't have an autofire stick.
I'll keep this ST Low-Rank-Play for now.

[DEL]

Plasmo wrote;

I haven't really talked about anything High-Rank-Play related in this ST. One reason is that i can't do it myself because i don't have an autofire stick.
I'll keep this ST Low-Rank-Play for now.

Strange that you can't go max rank on your board? I certainly can on ill6's board in the arcade. Absolutely no need for autofire. By rapidly tapping B when I have the Rosecraker options I can send the rank through the roof, so much so that Stage 3 becomes worse than ULTRA mode - I'm not joking .
Its more of a fun challenge to go for Multiply Mode this way. ie. Choose MidiMedi (B) then drill B.

EDIT 31.03.08:- One of the problems with this max ranked method is that the midbosses can become too resistant to damage and time-out on you throwing too much at you as they come down the screen. Might be best to try to kill the Stage 3 Midboss just before the time-out , although that itself is a very hard thing to do after you've destroyed some side pods - the rush of type 3s is so fast at that point that your firepower loses all range and struggles to save you (at max rank that is). I also have a feeling that all 4 of the ST3 MidBoss arms do not have to be destroyed to get a huge amount of type 3 bullets, 2 seems enough if you're at max rank. Destroying all 4 is of course fine but can be tricky (and this is the all important bit in the max-ranked run - survival here will open up the 1ups and the extra type 3s from the Stage 3 Boss).
I managed to get my first 1up at the very beginning of Stage 2, by tapping B more than usual on the first stage, causing the Stage 1 midboss to shoot more type 3s and the Stage 1 Boss arms to shoot more also, making sure not to destroy the arms.
I have to return the board to ill6 very soon tho.

[Trevor spencer]

Ive just recently bought this and i was playing through the other day and i noticed stage 4 boss throws out these black hole things , my ship became uncontrolable bouncing around the screen ? is this normal

Thanks

[Plasmo]

Yes, that's intended. The orange holes suck you in, the blue ones push you aside iirc.

[Trevor spencer]

Yes, that's intended. The orange holes suck you in, the blue ones push you aside iirc.

Oh thank god , cheers plasmo

[dunpeal2064]

Yes, I finally understand so many things reguarding rank. I had no idea there were 4 options to chose from on each ship. Thats a lot of variance in ship selection.

I still do not quite grasp suiciding over just trying and dying, but I am sure I will at some point

Thank you very much, can't wait to get home and play some more of this

[Damocles]

How do you cancel out of a charged Rose Cracker in Arcade mode?

[RNGmaster]

How do you cancel out of a charged Rose Cracker in Arcade mode?

Change speed.

[DEL]

Apologies if this question about the port has already come up.

I'm beating my number 1 place scores on Sweets and despite pressing the A button a few times after the game over countdown, my new scores don't seem to be added to the ranking (local)?
Any clues?

[Plasmo]

No idea.

Although I've heard about the ranking resetting itself without any reason, so maybe that's what happened...

[DEL]

Ok thanks. It hasn't reset, it just doesn't seem to add all the new scores I get
When I get to the next million above my best, I'll let you know whether it adds the score to the ranking or not.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

How exactly do the special items work when there's more than 1 weapon or rose hip item on screen? Mainly if more than 1 appears at the same time like in a few spots.

I'd definitely like to get the Search Rose Hip Formation since I think it would help with those stage 4 snakes, but I'm not able to get it in 1.01 at the moment.

[DrTrouserPlank]

Strange game this one.

I can score 2.1M using ship 3 (left to right). Could probably get more.

The rank control seems very odd. I should probably put the rank bar on display so I can see what's happening.

I find the gameplay a little odd. I just hold down fire for the entire game. Is that wrong?

[Deca]

I just hold down fire for the entire game. Is that wrong?

Well it's better than firing rose crackers constantly if you're going for survival.

[DrTrouserPlank]

I just hold down fire for the entire game. Is that wrong?

Well it's better than firing rose crackers constantly if you're going for survival.

Well, I intentionally don't fire rose-crackers. I dodge weapon changes unless I need them, I dodge power ups unless I'm not max. I've tried dodging roses on the floor, and I don't pick up rose hips. I do however pick up medals and try to keep them at 10k.

The game feels odd. I guess it belongs on the disc with MMP because neither of them feel like anything else from Cave that I've played.

[jpeg]

Thanks for the guide, it's very helpful. As for the strategy on 7.1 when fighting against the stage 2 boss, during phase 1 , you can milk for the destructible razor bullets. Don't hit the boss and shoot when she shoots the razors( stay in the corners not to hit socie ). With Lace you should get about half million points or more with the maximum power shot. Avoid the wide shot. It will reduce the milking becuase it will hit the boss, and she'll move on to phase 2. That's all.

[Icarus]

Been writing up my high-rank play notes for reference and further improvement.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdqgurok64fo1 ... s_notes.md (v0.01)

There are no in-depth, point-by-point strategies just yet, as I need to solidify a few thoughts with regards to boss durability and timings, but this should give you an idea of targets, strategies and tricks I use currently.

[ratikal]

Does autofire affect Lace's shot speed at all? I can only get up to #15 on my saturn pad.

[Icarus]

Does autofire affect Lace's shot speed at all? I can only get up to #15 on my saturn pad.

It has a mild effect on her laser firing rate. I believe that a higher rate provides only a tiny amount of added tick points - it's minuscule in all honesty, not worth actively pursuing - and that having a 15 or 20 rate (which is what I usually have) is more than enough to get you by.

Obviously it affects your shot rate when you have no powerups at all, but regardless of whether you're playing low or high rank strategy, your recovery will be with Rose Cracker.

[Plasmo]

Good write up for high rank play! I'm going to completely redo this ST and implement your guide once I get into the game again myself. 2014 is the year.

Thanks!

[CStarFlare]

Thanks for the write up Icarus. I never considered that the game might turn into all rose cracker, all the time - I've been avoiding it as much as possible. Makes me think it might be time to try to break through the stage 4 wall.

[Icarus]

I am currently maintaining a playlist of stage clips and full runs on YT: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... NMBz4Whv_l
And my stream archive has a few highlights from my practice runs as well: http://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw/profile

I never considered that the game might turn into all rose cracker, all the time - I've been avoiding it as much as possible.

This game is going to be at max rank at some point anyway, so why deprive yourself of a valuable scoring and defensive tool? :3
One thing I should note is that my Rose Cracker use is strategic - every use of the Rose Cracker is based on either defense, movement assistance, or scoring. You really have to know how to time and place them, and get the best out of them, because you use them a lot in later stages. It's the best tool you have in the late game. You do still use your Shot, but it is in select situations.

Probably the best example of a stage where you use both Shot and Rose Cracker is stage4, while a stage where I use Rose Cracker exclusively with a very specific "route" planned for its usage is stage5.

[cave hermit]

In the port (v 1.00), dying lowers your rank meter; I thought you can't lower rank at all?

[Icarus]

In the port (v 1.00), dying lowers your rank meter; I thought you can't lower rank at all?

The rank decrease is tiny. The only benefit to dying is lower rank scaling, as the more lives you have, the faster rank increases.

[cave hermit]

I just realized I could use the training mode to train on stage 3 instead of wasting precious time playing through the first two stages (unfortunately, no skip-to-boss option, which is bullshit); how do I decide what rank number I should be using in training mode? I'm trying to go for a low score 1cc.

[trap15]

Figure out where it's approximately at when you normally reach there, then set it to that. If you have the rank display up, you can just sorta play around until it looks about right.