Aloha. Under Defeat is one of my favorite games, and no one has cared enough to draw up a treatise for it yet, so I am. Any and every amendment/addition/new strat/whatever is completely welcome to consideration. Let's get started.
(Totally awesome bros so far: lgb, ReKleSS, louisg, BER, Enhasa, Kiken, Bill, Hydeux, alamone) (If I've forgotten to credit you, send me a nasty PM. It'll help me sleep better at night.)
Table of Contents
1. Basics and Mechanics
2. Other Misc.
3. Boss Strategies
4. Detailed Stage Walkthroughs (I'll pay for screens in favors...)
5. Loop 2 Advice
Update History
10/22/09
Guide posted, initial tweaks
10/23/09
Added Rank, slight tweaks
10/25/09
Added first third of Stage 1 Walkthrough
10/26/09
Finished Stage 1 Walkthrough, added Boss 1 Walkthrough
10/29/09
Added info on suicides for score
And away we go!
1. Basics and Mechanics
General
Under Defeat is unlike most STGs of this decade in that, not only is it in 3D, but it's strayed away from the common bullet hell trend and back to its roots: it's an oldschool shooter in almost every mechanical aspect, while going above and beyond in its beautifully polished Naomi visuals and an incredible Shinji Hosoe soundtrack. As such, forget your two-pixel CAVE hitboxes and 6,000-bullet danmaku patterns. These are mostly aimed bullets that require good leading and planning on the part of the player; more often than not, trying to squeeze through a tiny criss-crossing gap will get you killed. I feel this is an important point to bring up in the beginning, so the player can try to change his or her manner of thinking and playing right away and avoid as much frustration as possible.
System (Mechanics)
Weapons
Under Defeat, as opposed to the overwhelming majority of shooting games, has no powerups and no extends. You have your mounted vulcan on your beautiful red helicopter, two side-machine guns, and an Option. The mounted vulcan and Option can lock on to any target, ground or air, with the weakling machine guns left to spray into the distance, whether the vulcan is shooting the ground or not. Options are obtained from weapon carrier dual-prop helicopters and certain other enemies, such as the gunships just before the boss on 1-2. Options must charge before use, and cool down after, as indicated by the green and red bars on the bottom of the screen, respectively.
The three types of Options are as follows:
>VULCAN<
It's basically your default mounted vulcan, except it locks on to any enemy it can find. It has the quickest charge and cooldown time of any Option. Useful for popcorn, but harder to use to score with larger enemies. Perfectly useful for an experienced player, however.
>CANNON<
The medium weapon of Under Defeat, the cannon has a slightly slower charge and cooldown time than the vulcan, but will shoot single cannon shells at around a second's interval until it runs out of juice. Will destroy many medium-small enemies in one shot, and is plenty powerful enough to tackle most large enemies with help from your helicopter's mounted chaingun.
>ROCKET<
The heavy weapon that it is, it naturally has the longest charge and cooldown, but also the highest firepower of any weapon available, with exception to the screen-covering bomb (which isn't as powerful per square unit of screen). Incredibly useful for a veteran scoring player and novices alike, this powerhouse can be, however, a boon OR a bane. You only get one shot before having to wait several seconds (5-10) to ready another rocket, so if you miss, you're hosed.
Valuable Resources
The two spare stock are static, but there are a total of nine extra bombs per loop; one on the first stage, and two every stage after that. The max number of bombs to be carried at once is six; for every bomb collected after six, 10000 points are awarded to the player. Bombs and stock are quite influential to scoring, and proper management will reflect a player's score. As Kiken points out, killing a Contribution enemy with a bomb will not award its % to your total, so be wary of their use.
System (Scoring)
The scoring system in Under Defeat is based around killing enemies with the Option and manipulating certain end-of-round multipliers based on speed and life/bomb stock. Every time an enemy is killed with the Option, the point value of the enemy is doubled, as displayed in the upper left corner in green. When multiple enemies are destroyed at a time, they are displayed vertically under a "x2" designation. It does NOT accumulate or chain or anything, it just gives a straight double point value for each enemy.
Code: Select all
x2
100
10000
5000
500
The other component(s) of scoring are the end of stage bonuses, which account for a fifth to a third of the player's score (if anyone would like to narrow this down a bit, that'd be fantastic). The four important parts are as follows:
1. Contribution %
2. Life Count Multiplier
3. Boss Kill Speed
4. Bomb Count
(If anyone knows the proper names, I'd be glad to hear them.)
1. Contribution % & Life Count Multiplier
Contribution % refers to the percentage per stage of special enemies killed. These enemies include, but may not be limited to (depending on whether I realize I've forgotten something):
Random popcorn tanks throughout each stage that are marked differently, have a bit more HP, and fire three shots instead of one. As stated, locations are random, so training one's eyes to seek these tanks in particular will save lots of headaches. As Kiken points out, killing a Contribution enemy with a bomb will not award its % to your total, so be wary of their use.
Large tanks and turrets (on the ground and battleships, respectively), which are always in the same place, and generally are worth 10,000 points (x2 = 20,000). Examples include: huge tank that exits bunker in 1-1, wide turrets on each battleship in 1-2, huge tank behind bunkers and before midboss in 1-3, etc. Locations of these will be outlined in individual stage guides later on.
Stage-specific structures and bosses, such as 1-3's midboss tank and parts of ships and the bridge of the first battleship (destroyer?) in 1-2. Again, these will be outlined.
If you kill/destroy all of the contribution targets, your life count multiplier is doubled. The default formula is: (Contribution %) x 100 x (number of times died, which is the Life Count Multiplier)
So, if you kill every Contribution enemy, the formula looks like this: (Contribution %) x 100 x (100 + 100(number of times died, which is the Life Count Multiplier)) x 2
So, if you haven't died at all, the max score from this is 10,000 x 2 = 20,000. If you've died once, 40,000. Twice, 60,000.
Yes, this means that to maximise one's score, one must suicide twice in the first stage to maximise the multiplier, and thus one's score, for the rest of the game. Keep in mind that there are no extends whatsoever in Under Defeat, so suiciding may be a very stressful idea.
Note: Suiciding twice on 1-1 is only worth a grand total of around 350,000 points by the end of the game. The world record score is about 7.5 million points. This is a completely unnecessary tactic and should not be overemphasized as a reason not to play the game. Ignore it if it bothers you, and you still have plenty of room to beat Kiken.
By pure virtue of point values, 40,000 points per stage x 10 stages = 400,000 points. Suiciding twice lowers the number of enemies that appear quite noticeably, decreasing scoring opportunities by at least something like 50,000 points.
Side note: An average of 95% or more contribution is required over all five stages to make it to the second loop. This means that 100% + 90% + 70% + 100% + 95% = 91% and no second loop. Cone trees.
3. Boss Kill Speed
Bosses have a set time limit. To get the contribution bonus or any points from the kill, you have to kill it before it times out (or to get points for the kill, with no bomb activated). For every second left on the timer, you get 1,000 points. A second passes, you get 1,000 less points. So, naturally, the best way to score from killing a boss is to smash all its pieces with an option in the quickest time possible, which is why the Rocket is the natural choice for most scoring players. Not much else to this.
BER points out that in Ikaruga, the timer rounds up. In this game, if the timer is at 45'00, 45'01, 45'90, etc., the bonus will be 45,000. 44'99 is still 44,000. No rounding up for you.
4. Bomb Count
For every bomb you have at the end of the stage, you get 10,000 points. Pretty simple. Again, every bomb picked up after six during a stage yields 10,000.
2. Other Miscellaneous
Rank
Disclaimer: Before I even begin writing this, I'm going to ask that you take this with a grain of salt, as the rank in this game is total bullshit and I can't really tell how it actually works. This needs urgent revision.
Rank in this game can be extremely nasty. How so, you ask? Well, by 1-3, it's usually going to be near max. According to the practice mode, the rank can be anywhere on a scale from -10 to +10. One may assume that it starts out at the practice default, 0. Bombing appears to lower rank, however, dying seems to alter it in weird ways. I believe it may have something to do with bomb stock at the time of death.
Personally, I restart whenever I do something that isn't according to my plan, and I haven't yet played around enough with suiciding to determine any hard facts. I'm in dire need of help :)
Random
Every shot from the main gun of the helicopter (not the side guns, not an Option) that connects with either an enemy or certain background structures yields 10 points. It's not a whole hell of a lot, but some players extremely obsessed with score or who get bored when the screen isn't busy for five seconds can get some use out of making sure to land as many shots as possible. Examples include the water tower at the beginning of 1-2. I'll be sure to mention any I know of in individual stage discussion.
Similar situations can also be annoying though; be certain not to be shooting a bunker or building instead of a ground target; the main vulcan actually shoots at the proper angle to connect with a target, and if there's a building in the way, it usually won't penetrate.
Another important item to note is that enemy bullets fired from the ground will NOT reach your helicopter's plane of altitude immediately, so a player familiar with the timing and coloring on this can make good use of it to exploit every possible inch of screen. Comes in especially handy during Stage 2's first battleship/destroyer/huge boat.
[This part needs some fleshing; post some suggestions :)]
How to clear Round 1
Infinite thanks to Hydeux!
This concludes the first part so far; the next posts will be reserved for Boss Strategies, Stage Walkthroughs, and Loop 2 Advice.
Note: ANY player with more expertise than myself is urged to contribute. I'll cry your praises all over the place until the end of time.