TO-DO LIST
Actually finish the guide
Add a bullet types to the shield thing
Talk about Advanced, but Advanced is dumb.
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Eschatos is the spiritual sequel to Judgement Silversword. This game features similar gameplay elements as JSS but improves on a lot of faults that JSS had.
>>>CONTENTS<<<
>>>GENERAL INFORMATION<<<
- IN-GAME SETUP:
Eschatos has a simple screen set-up as you can see here.
From the top-left corner down we have:- Current mode and difficulty
- Score
- Current lives
- Current multiplier
- Shield energy (bottom left)
- Power meter (Advanced only)
- Ship speed
- Area progression, not important (bottom right)
- WEAPONS:
The Eschatos ship has 3 weapons at is disposal. They are:
- Straight Shot
This is your average forward shot that you would see in any other shooter. It's attack power is pretty strong. - Wide Shot
This weapon shoots from the sides of your ship. The drawbacks are that it has a limited range, it does not cover your front, and it is also weaker than the straight shot. It is best used on enemies that die in one hit. - Shield
The shield can be used as both an offensive and defensive tool. Offensively, it can be used to pointblank enemies. The damage is about the same as the Straight Shot. Defensively, it erases bullets. Depending on the type of bullet, it can take longer to erase than others. Using both of these properties can allow you to pointblank enemies and block their fire while doing so.
- Straight Shot
- ITEMS:
During gameplay, there are 3 possible items you can get. Two of them only appear in Advanced mode. They all are delivered by a container that appears at intervals depending on when you picked up the last one, the first one appearing in Area 2. These containers are more common in Advanced mode. They always appear on the opposite side of the screen of where your ship is.
- F-bomb
The only item in Original mode. Upon picking this up, it will erase all bullets on the screen and also deal small screenwide damage. This damage is powerful enough to destroy most popcorn enemies. - Power Up
Only in Advanced mode. This will increase the power of your ship while lowering the maximum shield gauge and also adding 1 to your multiplier. - Gold F-bomb
Only in Advanced mode. This acts the same way as the normal F-bomb. The difference is that it will turn all bullets into purple triangles that you can collect for points.
- F-bomb
- DIFFICULTIES:
Eschatos has a total of 4 difficulties. Each one plays differently than the others and each rank up will require different strategies.
- Easy
The most basic mode. Enemies here shoot minimal amounts of bullets and die relatively quickly. The maximum multiplier you can have is x5. - Normal
A step up from Easy. Enemies shoot a fair amount of bullets. Most of the bullets from bosses can be absorbed easily through the shield. The maximum multiplier is x10 - Hard
A real toughie and what I think is the games main mode. Enemies shoot a moderate amount of bullets. Most of the bullets from bosses are harder to absorb through the shield since they are bigger. Maximum multiplier is x20. - Hardest
They aren't screwing around with that title, this mode is NUTS. Enemies shoot an OBSCENE amount of bullets. The jump from Hard to Hardest is very dramatic. There is no maximum multiplier in this mode. As of 2/2/2012, only one person has cleared Hardest on the leaderboard's so far. - Endless
This is a combination of difficulties. The game loops (endless I guess) through the difficulties. Loop 1 is Easy, Loop 2 is Normal, Loop 3 is Hard, Loop 4 is Hardest, Loop 5 I suppose is Hardest again, or maybe even HardestER.
- Easy
The scoring system consists of 3 main elements.
- MULTIPLIER:
For every wave you successfully destroy, your multiplier rises by 1. The rate at which it rises may differ between difficulties. This is the first
thing you should focus on if you are playing for score. - WONDERWITCHES:
These are much like the Dodonpachi bees that are scattered throughout the level. When you pick up one, the next one you pick up is doubled. Assuming you pick them all up, I think the values of the wonder witches are: 1k, 2k, 4k, 8k, 20k, 50k, 100k. Your multiplier is applied to the point values. (I.E. 1k x20 = 20k!) An important thing to note is that while these are fixed on when they appear and their y coordinate, the x coordinate is different for each time you play. - END BONUS':
When you complete the game, you are rewarded for both clearing the game and how many lives you have remaining. You are rewarded 1M per ship. The clear bonus differs on which difficulty you are playing. - Easy: 1M
- Normal: 2M
- Hard: 5M
- Hardest: 10M
>>>GAME MODES<<<
- ORIGINAL:
- ADVANCED:
- TIME ATTACK:
>>>STAGE 1<<<
- AREA 4:
Wonderwitch - AREA 5:
boss
>>>STAGE 2<<<
- AREA 6:
If you are playing Normal mode, if you align your wide shot so that both ends hit each corner of the screen, you can sit there for 4 waves without worry. - AREA 8:
The missiles in this area do not need to be destroyed to keep your multiplier intact. - AREA 9:
The wonderwitch is always going to be on top of the pyramid. - AREA 11:
This boss is a gimped version of the Mirror Shield from Area 20 in JSS.
>>>STAGE 3<<<
This stage is when the game gets very difficult. Do not feel inclined to try to keep your multiplier during this stage as it is very hard to do. Just try to survive as you will not get any extends in this area.
- AREA 13:
There is a wonderwitch right at the start of this area. It is near the top. Use your wide shot to search for it.
This area is what I like to call the CRYSTAL CLUSTERFUCK. In this area, you will need to be extremely careful of the oncoming crystals. Important things to note are: - The red crystals hitboxes are actually on the ends. You can fly through the middle of these crystals unharmed.
- The yellow crystals cannot be flown through at all.
>>>STAGE 4<<<
This stage will be your biggest source of points. Use the starting area to build your multiplier up to high levels and sustain to the boss to gain mass amounts of points! You will get at least 3 extends in this area.
- AREA 16:
Use this video for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... zvo#t=709s
The wonderwitch in this area is located on one of the corners during the last wave. - AREA 18:
This is the bossrush area. You will face 3 bosses one after another. The only really boss to note is the 2nd one. The first five shots that they shoot are aimed AWAY from you. The three shots after are aimed AT you. This applies for all difficulties. - AREA 19:
This is the UFO rush area. Very reminiscent of Space Invaders, eh? The best course of action is destroy the UFO's first as when they are destroyed, they will explode and take out some of the other ships with it. The purple things that will spawn throughout the area do not need to be killed to sustained your multiplier.
If you manage to kill everything in this area, you will be rewarded 80,000 * current multiplier! - AREA 20:
PHASE 1:
The first phase is very simple. Many enemies will come down that you can simply stream to the left or right of. However, there is a wonderwitch in this phase in the opposite corner of where you were when the phase started.
To tackle this, start from one bottom corner and immediately move to the opposite corner. Shoot the wonderwitch, you will be able to unlock it before any bullets hit you (does not apply for Hardest). After you acquire it, just simply kill all the enemies to advance to the next phase.
The boss is a call-back to the Stage 1 boss only much bigger and badder. The more "turrets" you kill, the less enemies will spawn.
The best trick for both scoring and survival is to milk 5 waves. You do this by going to a corner and use W-Shot. This will hit both the purple spheres as well as damage the turrets slightly. Once the spheres have stopped, bullets will shoot out of the turrets. Simply stream to the opposite corner. Hold W-Shot for the first 3 waves, and then only use it when the spheres are out.
After the fifth wave, switch to S-Shot immediately and begin kill the turrets. Since they were damaged from the W-Shot, they should go down easily. You will get one more wave, but keep using S-Shot. You NEED to kill every turret that runs by you. If done correctly, expect a smooth, clean kill, avoiding those annoying crystal things that come down.
Phase 3:
Phase 3 has you attacking the core, or cores in this case. This phase is fairly simple, you just need to dodge the bullets the cores spit out and also dodge the Xevious plates as well. Use S-Shot and Shield accordingly.
Phase 4:
The final phase has you attacking the only core remaining. It will send out 3 recurring patterns. The third pattern is important to note as it uses it homing lasers. For this, try to time a F-Bomb as soon as you hear them come out. Otherwise, you shield the core directly to erase most of them. Back out before the 1st attack repeats.
At around 25%, it will begin shooting out an increasingly rapid spiral attack at you. The best way to do this is to simply tap dodge along the core with your S-Shot.
>>>STAGE 5<<<
- AREA 22:
wonderwitch - AREA 24:
hand thingy - AREA 25:
wonderwtich, fucking lasers - AREA 26:
dat boss
>>>CONCLUSION AND THANKS<<<
Special thanks to Icarus for writing nice guides to st- I mean borrow the format of.