RQ: Mushihimesama futari scoring help

[lawnspic]

Does anybody have any tips regarding keeping a watch on the counter? I find it really distracting to always keeping a watch for the color changes while trying to dodge bullets. I sometimes rather play BL because even though its harder you can focus more on the game because of the 3K change up and audible chime.

(mod edit - fixed thread title, see strategy guidelines post)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Does anybody have any tips regarding keeping a watch on the counter? I find it really distracting to always keeping a watch for the color changes while trying to dodge bullets. I sometimes rather play BL because even though its harder you can focus more on the game because of the 3K change up and audible chime.

In the Xbox 360 port, if you're playing in a horizontal window, you can go into the screen settings and setup an extra mini-window that's focused just on your counter, and place that lower down on the side of the screen. The best way though is to learn when it's safe to take a peek at your counter or, better yet, pay attention to the numbers that pop up near your character when you grab amber, as they'll be blue or green depending on the counter colour.

Maniac/God scoring is less fiddly as you don't have to worry so much about the colour; it's easier to get a feel for when you've hit enough times with rapid shot that the meter's flashing red, etc.

[brokenhalo]

i've been playing 1.5 original for the last few months and basically you get to a point where you don't look at the counter too much. i've got it memorized to a point where i just glance at it occasionally to make sure i'm at where i think i'm at for the first two stages. stage 3 and 4 i've got down to where i know when i'm going to have a lull to look at the counter. stage 5 is more survival for now.

but yeah, once you start getting your routes down you'll know about how many gems you'll get from each section and you'll just know when to switch.

[Spyke]

I'm switching weapons according to counter, picking up everything I can, but just can't get beyond 7 million at the end of stage 1.
The most score I've had before the end of stage boss is 1,850,000-odd. I don't know what I'm doing wrong - can anyone suggest anything?
I've watched big score replays where the player is finishing the stage with 15 mil or so, and 7-8 mil before the boss?

It must be something...

Ant

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I've watched big score replays where the player is finishing the stage with 15 mil or so, and 7-8 mil before the boss?

What mode are you referring to? 1.5 Original? 1.5 Black Label?

There's a huge amount of extra score to be had in Black Label by pointblanking with the appropriate shot type which causes gem shedding, large gems if the stage counter is maxed (9999).

What's your Stage & Overall counter at by the time the first boss starts (aim for 6k at least in 1.5 Original)? I found the best improvements came from making sure to laser enemies to death when the counter was blue, and to stop shooting until I've gotten their gems to avoid killing any with the rapid shot. Also, suck in ground bullets with a quick tap of laser (so they count as green if you're quick). This run is always really helpful for me.

[Spyke]

I'll get answers to your queries tomorrow night. Thanks

Ant

[brokenhalo]

In regards to 1.5:

Learning stage one is a real joy as there is so much subtlety to the scoring and you can constantly keep improving in tiny ways. I got it to the point where i'd hit 17.8 mil consistantly after the stage one roundup. One of the main things to remember is that you want to be over top of ground enemies when using shot so that you get max value ground gems, and using laser in very short bursts so that you are sucking in gems as soon as the enemies are destroyed. And you always want to be in close proximity to what you're killing, regardless of shot type. Counter wise you want to shoot for over 3000 when you get to the midboss and about 6000 going into the boss to be on a high scoring pace.

Definitely watch sapz vid and get a feel for what he's doing. You might not notice some of the little things he's doing the first 10 times you watch it, but keep coming back to it every once in a while and you'll keep learning new things. The 547 mil replay on xbox live is a great watch as well.

[Spyke]

Ok, Ver 1.5, Xbox 360 mode, counter ~2400 at end of stage boss. Score after boss ~7.2 mil.

Just can't get it higher, even with point-blanking and concentrating on green amber gems.

Great vid, but I'm obviously not absorbing anything from it yet!

Ant

[Spyke]

Edit - I just played stage 1 in 1.5, Arcade mode and scored 9.5 mil playing in my usual style - is the scoring different between Xbox 360 and Arcade modes?

Ant

[Giest118]

Edit - I just played stage 1 in 1.5, Arcade mode and scored 9.5 mil playing in my usual style - is the scoring different between Xbox 360 and Arcade modes?

Ant

It shouldn't be. I seriously hope not.

[brokenhalo]

Edit - I just played stage 1 in 1.5, Arcade mode and scored 9.5 mil playing in my usual style - is the scoring different between Xbox 360 and Arcade modes?

Ant

the pcb and the xbox 360 mode play pretty identically. never messed with arcade mode, but it should be the same. m2 did a fantastic job on that port.

[Spyke]

Ok, must've been just a good run then... (for me that is!)

[Spyke]

Right.

Put some serious time into it tonight.

Can now reach 12 mil-plus after killing first stage boss, with counter at about 5000.

I experimented with my shot types. Now, bear in mind I may have been playin the game "wrong" for a whole load of time here!

When the counter was green I used to use button A - what I thought to be shot type 1
When counter was blue I used button B on my joystick - which I thought of as shot type 2.
Bombs were set to a third button.

So basically I had a type 1 attack (- tap for shot, hold down for laser); and a type 2 attack (- tap for shot, hold down for laser).

when the counter changed colour I would actually switch buttons to attack.

Now I still don't know if that's right or wrong, but I do know that I couldn't get higher than 9.2 mil.

Now the last few times I've played I've been using one single button (attack type 1) all the way through. When counter is green, tap for shot and when blue hold down for laser. All the way through I'm tapping to absorb ground gems and not firing at all to absorb airborne gems. Pointblanking whenever possible.

Now I'm regularly in the 12 mil range and it looks within my reach to get higher with better route planning.

Does the above make sense to you? Is this new approach the way I should have been playing (using my attacks) all along?

Ant

[Giest118]

Laser when the counter is blue, spread shot when the counter is green. On the XBox controller's defaults, this is as simple as switching between holding A and R.

So, yeah. When you've got that, you know basically everything you need to to score on Original mode. :V

[Spyke]

Phew! It must be something like right anyway - 13.5 mil now!

So basically it can be either laser (either weapon 1 or weapon 2) when the counter is blue, not necessary to swap weapons as I was doing before.

Thanks for listening and helping me out guys - feel a bit dumb having played it so long with the wrong weapon technique completely (for score anyway)!

Ant

[BareKnuckleRoo]

So basically it can be either laser (either weapon 1 or weapon 2)

Um, no. You have to make sure to use the right shot type depending on the counter colour. Green = rapid shot, blue = laser. Basically, there's only one shot button, and which attack you use depends on if you're holding or tapping it (the rapid fire button does the same thing as tapping the shot button and is there for convenience).

Now the last few times I've played I've been using one single button (attack type 1) all the way through. When counter is green, tap for shot and when blue hold down for laser. All the way through I'm tapping to absorb ground gems and not firing at all to absorb airborne gems. Pointblanking whenever possible.

You're actually doing it right, here, this is pretty much what you need to do for scoring, so just keep doing this. I missed this though and typed a whole buncha junk after, but whatevs.

There's two shot types, the rapid shot and the laser shot. Rapid shot is done by tapping A (Shot) or holding C (Rapid Fire). Laser is done by holding A (Shot). For instance, Reco Normal's rapid shot is her wide spreadshot with the beetles lined up beside her, and her laser is where her beetle options spin in front of her. Palm Normal fires blue and green breath shots with rapid shot, and breathes an actual blue laser beam when using laser. Laser just applies to the attack you use when holding shot, it doesn't always resemble a laser. For instance, Palm Abnormal's laser is the lightning breath attack.

All characters except Reco Abnormal have slower movement when using their laser attack.

You'll know you used the right attack if the enemy dropped large gems when they died, they'll drop only small bullets if you used the wrong attack. This applies whether or not you kill flying enemies or enemies on the ground. When the counter is green you need to finish enemies with the rapid shot, and when the counter is blue, you need to finish off enemies with the laser shot. You can damage enemies/bosses as much as you want with any shot, all that matters for gem size is killing them off with the right shot type.

Note that there's a coloured aura around your characters that also changes based on the counter colour you can look at too if you want.

Arcade and XBox 360 mode are identical gameplay-wise, the only difference is cosmetic (higher detail sprites). The only 360 Cave port I think that has the 360 mode not identical to arcade is Deathsmiles as far as I know (you can pick any rank you want for each stage in Xbox 360 mode so play through at Rank 1 in all stages whereas normally you're limited how many times you can pick each rank).

For reference, Cave's official website for the game has a page showing all the shot types in 1.5 (Rapid Shot on the left, Laser on the right).

Something else to mention: pointblanking isn't crucial in 1.5 like it is in Black Label. Enemies do not shed gems when shot at pointblank range in 1.5, so the only key thing is getting close enough to the gems within a second of them appearing to get the green aura bonus. You can kill an enemy from halfway down the screen, and you have time to rush into the gems to get the aura bonus for collecting them, you don't have to be all that close to get the green aura so you can play it a bit safer than in Black Label, where there's both the pointblank gem shedding, and an additional bright blue aura for getting super close to gems as they start appear and start falling that's worth even more than the green aura.

[Spyke]

Thanks. That's a very helpful in-depth round-up!

Ant