Arcade shmup bosses that are infinitely milkable

[Jeneki]

I was playing my Sky Soldiers pcb yesterday, and noticed that a few bosses spawn popcorn enemies which give points. For example, the second stage boss has a launching bay in the middle, which spawns planes worth 300 points each. I wondered how long I could milk that, so I sat around for 15 minutes or so and it never timed out. Granted, it's not completely dummy proof since they do get shots off at you, but it's not too difficult.

I did a search here but didn't find any topics on bosses that can be milked for as long as you want. So, any other arcade games with this "feature"? I'm sure there are some of console games with infinitely milkable bosses, but for an arcade game I'd hope this isn't very common.

[BulletMagnet]

One of ESP Ra.de's bosses is somewhat infamous for being infinitely milkable, if memory serves. I also seem to recall that Guwange's bosses can be milked a fair deal, but get very nasty if you do it for very long.

[trap15]

Dogyuun's stage 4 boss can be infinitely "milked" by killing any stuff that can hit you, then you just camp in the top-left corner while letting your "carried" enemy rack up the points.

[EmperorIng]

Pretty much every incarnation of Great Thing in the Darius series can be feasibly milked, if not infinitely, then a really damn long time.

[Squire Grooktook]

Pretty much every incarnation of Great Thing in the Darius series can be feasibly milked, if not infinitely, then a really damn long time.

I think all the final bosses in Darius Gaiden have no time out, and in addition for the ones that don't already have milkable attacks, there's also those random homing cubes that appear on maxed rank when you fight them (though if you try to milk a Darius Gaiden final boss on maxed rank, you have to be pretty insane/awesome).

[Ruldra]

Dogyuun's stage 4 boss can be infinitely "milked" by killing any stuff that can hit you, then you just camp in the top-left corner while letting your "carried" enemy rack up the points.

The 5th boss theoretically can be milked too, but it's much tougher to pull it off. Once he gets angry he shoots a fast, constant spread pattern but that attack has a safespot. Just sit tight and shoot the platforms coming out of him forever.

[NTSC-J]

One of ESP Ra.de's bosses is somewhat infamous for being infinitely milkable, if memory serves.

No, they eventually do time out (otherwise there would be a counterstop), but they do last for quite a while.

Doesn't Blazing Star's final boss have some milking trick that can lead to a counterstop? The world record high scores aren't counterstops so maybe the technique isn't considered acceptable.

[BIL]

Every boss in Gun.Smoke (AC) can be infinitely milked of its popcorn lackeys, right from the first.

Game still fucking owns, but yeah, not one to play for score.

[MathU]

I think all the final bosses in Darius Gaiden have no time out, and in addition for the ones that don't already have milkable attacks, there's also those random homing cubes that appear on maxed rank when you fight them (though if you try to milk a Darius Gaiden final boss on maxed rank, you have to be pretty insane/awesome).

All bosses in Darius Gaiden auto-destruct after enough time passes. The time it takes for the spinning cubes of doom to appear also does not change with adaptive difficulty, but they do become faster and more appear at once at higher levels. If you can survive them long enough while keeping the boss alive, it will die and you'll receive no points. This is important when you're playing for score because boss kills are worth 100,000 points.

Edited for more accuracy.

[KAI]

Chaos Field?

[Squire Grooktook]

All bosses in Darius Gaiden auto-destruct after enough time passes.

Are you SURE about that? Because when I was practicing Hysteric Empress, I would just initiate her third phase, and then just credit feed for ten minutes straight. I kept expecting her to randomly explode, but she never did, and I got to practice her ultimate attacks as much as I wanted.

Does continuing reset the self destruct timer or something?

The spinning cubes of doom also do not depend on adaptive difficulty.

In the practice session mentioned above, my rank was lowered significantly and I do not recall seeing the cubes once in the entire battle.

[MathU]

Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that the timer for both auto-destruct and spinning cube appearance resets a bit whenever you lose a ship. So yeah you can infinitely milk in the sense that if you just keep dying they'll never time out, but good luck making up for extra ship and bomb bonuses with it.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, that explains it. Thanks for the knowledge.

[MathU]

Chaos Field?

Has a timer for all bosses.

[Ghegs]

Doesn't Blazing Star's final boss have some milking trick that can lead to a counterstop? The world record high scores aren't counterstops so maybe the technique isn't considered acceptable.

The Peplos can milk the final boss for all eternity, but the other ships can't. That's why Peplos is banned from official score competitions in Japan.

[jepjepjep]

Area 88 has regenerating turrets at the final boss.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The Peplos can milk the final boss for all eternity, but the other ships can't. That's why Peplos is banned from official score competitions in Japan.

I've heard of this exploit before; what is it exactly that makes the Peplos special in this regard? Is it a bug directly related to just this ship? I can't imagine it's because of the thin shot type, because something like Aryustailm's Sword could milk popcorn without damaging the boss too or whatnot...

[Ghegs]

The Peplos can milk the final boss for all eternity, but the other ships can't. That's why Peplos is banned from official score competitions in Japan.

I've heard of this exploit before; what is it exactly that makes the Peplos special in this regard? Is it a bug directly related to just this ship? I can't imagine it's because of the thin shot type, because something like Aryustailm's Sword could milk popcorn without damaging the boss too or whatnot...

It's covered here and here in more detail but basically if you can rapid fire fast enough (or use autofire) the Peplos is the strongest ship in the game, and with it it's possible to milk the final boss infinitely.