ST: Trigonometry Wars 3 Redux

[Pteriforever]

I was thinking, this awesome game needs a guide, and I think I feel qualified to write one, so here it is ^.^

Buttons:

The game uses three buttons. By default, they are assigned to Z, X, and C.

Z: Normal shot attack -- Uses a basic, weak, wide attack.
X: Focus/laser attack -- Uses a strong attack which only goes straight forward, reduces movement speed, and displays hitbox.
C: Bomb/hyper -- Uses whatever level hyper you have if you have one; Otherwise, uses a bomb. This will be gone into in further detail later.

Ships:

Choice of ship is less important than in many games, as it doesn't affect the X attack at all.

Type A -- Fast. All bullets from Z attack go straight ahead; One from the ship itself, two from either side of the ship, and four more from pairs of options which circle around each other a little further to each side. Extra options from hyper fire directly forwards as well.

Type B -- Slow. Three centremost bullets from Z attack go straight ahead, while the other four are fired at set angles from either side. Extra options from hyper fire at a large angle.

Type C -- Moderate speed. As with the others, three centremost bullets from Z attack go straight ahead. The other four -- two from either side of the ship -- fire straight ahead while neither horizontal arrow key is held, fire left at an angle while the left arrow key is held, and fire right at an angle while the right arrow key is held. Right overrides left in this case and this case only. Holding down both arrow keys will result in no horizontal movement. Extra options from hyper fire at a small angle.

There is no difference in damage rate at all. However, Type A tends to complicate a few parts of the later stages and so can be considered slightly underpowered.

The X attack is always more powerful than the combined total of the Z attack.

Bombing:

You begin every stage with three bombs, and bomb stock resets to three on death. Bombs last a few seconds; while they are active, everything takes minor damage -- enough to kill most small and medium-sized enemies, but basically negligible against bosses. While they are active, all bullets are prevented from spawning, while existing bullets are immediately cancelled without converting them into point items. They grant invincibility while they're active and for roughly 1.5 seconds afterwards. Using a bomb will reset hitcount and getpoint values to zero.

Hypers:

Hypers are charged by two bars; completely filling up either bar will gain a hyper level. You may use a hyper as long as you have at least one hyper level. You can only have five hyper levels at a time from either bar; after filling up one bar five times, it will appear solid yellow and will do nothing until a hyper is used. Thus, the maximum number of hyper levels one can have at a time is 10.

The first bar is filled by destroying enemies and dealing damage with the X attack, while the second bar is filled by grazetime and both kinds of point items.

Is the C key is hit with at least one hyper level, a hyper will be used. Using a hyper will immediately cancel all bullets onscreen.

While hypers are active:

--A small amount of points are given for grazing, dependent on hyper level.
--Both the Z and X attacks look cool and black.
--A number of temporary options, equal to the hyper level, circle around underneath your ship, behaving depending on ship type.
--Point items are bumped up one colour category.
--Both hyper charge bars are locked to zero.
--The combo meter's timer is lengthened.
--The combo meter sustain level will be raised, up to the entire bar at maximum hyper level.
--Getpoint increases by (7,000 * hyper level), which can go far beyond the usual maximum of 30,000.
--All enemies attack slightly faster.

Higher-level hypers also have a longer duration.

When a hyper ends, all bullets onscreen are cancelled and converted into flying point items.

Rank:

In this game, rank is nothing to worry about in most cases. The majority of enemies will simply attack more quickly while a hyper is active. The change is always the same; more hyper levels won't make the effect larger or smaller.

The effect against normal enemies is usually fairly minor and is more than offset by the increased firepower hypers give, but specific attacks of bosses often react differently to hyper rank and can become much more threatening.

Combo meter:

The combo meter lasts one second under normal circumstances.

The combo meter is slowed by:
--Grazing
--Hypers

The combo meter is sustained by:
--Hitting normal enemies with X attack (Resets to 10% if hyper inactive, (10 + hyper level * 9)% if hyper active)
--Hitting bosses with X attack (Resets to 100%)
--Picking up ground point items (Resets to 100%)
--Using a hyper (Resets to 100%)
--Picking up flying point items (Adds some small amount, around 10%)

When the combo drops:
--Hitcount is divided by 2
--Getpoint is divided by 4

Hitcount is rounded to the nearest integer while getpoint is rounded to the nearest 10. If the product ends in a decimal or a 5 respectively, it is rounded down for some reason.

Hitcount:

Hitcount is a one of two major chaining-based variables which affects scoring. Hitcount increases when:

--Enemies are destroyed
--Damage is dealt with the X attack (Given every 0.5 seconds against bosses and 1 second against normal enemies)

Both of these raise hitcount by 1 if hyper is inactive, and by (hyper level + 1) if hyper is active.

Hitcount has an effect on end-of-stage bonuses, and causes the hyper charging bars to fill faster by a factor of (hitcount / 1000 + 1).

There is no hardcoded maximum to hitcount, although it's only possible to reach a few thousand.

Getpoint:

Getpoint is an even more important chaining-related variable for scoring. It is gained in a variety of ways:

--Destroying enemies: this varies, from +80 for "popcorn" type enemies, all the way up to +5,000 for the spiral-producing box enemies in Stage 5.
--Dealing damage to normal enemies with the X attack: +10 per second, or per 0.5 seconds if pointblanking.
--Dealing damage to bosses with the X attack: +50 per 0.5 seconds to most bosses, or per 0.25 seconds if pointblanking. +100 instead if the boss in question happens to be Idryo the Creator.
--Collecting point items: +50 for ground point items, +10 for flying point items.

Getpoint is limited to 30,000, although there's a large bonus to getpoint while hyper is active, up to +70,000 with 10 hyper levels, which raises the limit accordingly up to an absolute maximum of 100,000.

Whenever any of the first three things in this list happens, you will gain score equal to the current getpoint value. This is a very major source of score. Point items have special mathematics which will be described later.

While getpoint is at maximum, point items will also gain a colour category.

Special Boss Mechanics:

Firstly, whenever a boss's phase ends, all bullets get cancelled and converted to flying point items. This shouldn't surprise you.

Secondly, although a small amount of score is gained automatically while dealing damage to anything with either the Z or X attacks, most enemies have no intrinsic score value from destroying them; there is only the getpoint value plus whatever point items are dropped.

Stage bosses, however, have extra bonuses gained from destroying them. In most cases, this is equal to (stage * 1,000,000). Apollyon's Eye gives 5,000,000, and Idryo gives 10,000,000. Being in the second loop does not affect this.

Finally, bosses and midbosses can eventually time out. Time spent on midbosses counts towards the stage timer, so completing them quickly can reveal new waves of enemies.

Pointblanking:

While using the X attack and with the laser's "base" in contact with an enemy, you are considered to be pointblanking. This deals double damage to the enemy in question, and doubles the rate of anything to do with spending time dealing damage with the X attack, that is, hitcount gains, getpoint gains, and hyper charging. This is relatively useless against most normal enemies, however, it's quite useful against the Stage 1, 3, and 5 bosses, as well as the Stage 1 and 4 midbosses.

Point Items:

There are two kinds of point items. Firstly, ground point items, which are only dropped by ground-based enemies and stay where they are, slowly moving downwards along with the background. Unlike some other games with similar systems, there is no time limit to collecting them. Secondly are flying point items, which fly towards you and are dropped by pretty much everything.

Point item drops are usually the same, with three exceptions, which, except for the last one, have negligible effects.

--"popcorn"-type enemies drop more items when destroyed with the Z attack.
--Medium-strength, non-ground-based enemies drop more items if they're more than halfway down the screen when they're destroyed.
--Very large enemies, both ground-based and non-ground-based, will cancel bullets in a considerable area around them -- this means the entire screen for the largest enemies -- and convert them into flying point items.

Point items have a "colour category", which is raised by one while a hyper is active and by another one while getpoint is at maximum. The base category is blue, while the elevated categories are gold and then red.

Point items are worth the following:

Blue Flying: 100
Blue Ground: 500
Gold Flying: 100 + hitcount
Gold Ground: 500 + 5 * hitcount
Red Flying: 100 + hitcount + 1,000 * hyper level
Red Ground: 500 + 5 * hitcount + 5,000 * hyper level

In all these cases, hitcount is rounded down to the nearest 10. Ground items are always worth five times as much as flying items.

End of Stage Bonus:

End of Stage bonus is equal to:

lives * 500,000 + bombs * 100,000 + hitcount * 1,000

Special Requirements:

--The only requirement for any of the TLBs is no continues. This means there's no way to avoid fighting Apollyon's Eye and still get a 1-all.
--The second loop is accessed if the first loop is finished with at least four lives in stock.

In the second loop, everything is, predictably, powered up drastically, and all the midbosses have been completely replaced with new ones inspired by various MLP: KDPP and TW4 bosses.

Extends:

There are a maximum of seven lives attainable:

--The game begins with two.
--Three more are given for 20,000,000, 50,000,000, and 100,000,000 points. These should all be easily attainable.
--There is a blue pod fairly late in Stage 3; destroying it with a high enough getpoint (Developer states 7,500; it seems closer to 10,000 however) gives an extend. This can be done in both 1-3 and 2-3. Getpoint used for the purposes of this criterion does not factor in the bonus from hyper being active.

[ACSeraph]

Awesome! It's always nice to see new guides on here. I haven't played this before, but this guide seems like a great gateway into it.

By the way, if you are interested, advertise it in shmups chat here. I'll even change the topic title for you

[Pteriforever]

Thanks ^.^

[Cagar]

I thought that the requirement for the stage 3 blue pod extend is just 'don't drop your chain during it'?

[Pteriforever]

That's not what Giest said, but I'll go check.

EDIT: Nope, can't seem to get it if I have a really low getpoint at the time.

[Cagar]

That's not what Giest said, but I'll go check.

EDIT: Nope, can't seem to get it if I have a really low getpoint at the time.

I see. He said to me that it's the "don't drop chain" requirement, maybe it's almost the same thing so he tried to simplify it

[Pteriforever]

Hmm.

From what I've seen, it could well be both?