GD: Mysteries of HELLSINKER and its scoring/secrets

[RNGmaster]

Ok here's what I remember.

You can milk bosses for quite a bit using her subsidiary bomb that's activated with a very brief tap. It lasts long enough to graze some attacks that are normally problematic (the laser suicide bullets in 2 LEAD are worth 1000 spirits or so with this method). It also helps in Shrine because it doesn't activate AL4TH's bomb immunity.

Practice Stage 3 lead. It's worth an absolute shitton of spirits for something so early in the game (4000 - 5000 i think). Scarlet Queen is 1000 spirits, easy. Little optimizations in the early stages mean a lot if you have a good Shrine.

There are some cases where using the yellow flame is worse for raising value than using your normal shot or the blue flame (especially in cases of scratch damage like the ST1 coffins). The attack activated by double-tapping shot can also cause values to skyrocket but I don't know how this operates (honestly enemy value shenanigans are really confusing and I'm not sure what affects what).

[Zaarock]

Ok here's what I remember.

You can milk bosses for quite a bit using her subsidiary bomb that's activated with a very brief tap. It lasts long enough to graze some attacks that are normally problematic (the laser suicide bullets in 2 LEAD are worth 1000 spirits or so with this method). It also helps in Shrine because it doesn't activate AL4TH's bomb immunity.

Practice Stage 3 lead. It's worth an absolute shitton of spirits for something so early in the game (4000 - 5000 i think). Scarlet Queen is 1000 spirits, easy. Little optimizations in the early stages mean a lot if you have a good Shrine.

Woah what, over 4000 in 3 lead? my best is over 3,000.. I'm assuming you go for killing all the small planes tied to masters instead of raising the battleship values all the time?

Need to practice Scarlet Queen a lot I guess. haven't been bothered to milk that fight much since I've been concentrating on no-missing (and I usually still lose a life on the spirit kernel)

edit: that Fossil Maiden WR replay is amazing, lots to learn.. Scarlet Queen milking is pretty damn hard, going to be frustrating until I really get it down.

edit2: been practicing Perpetual Calendar SOL(in training starting with 1 stella), that's a fun score attack section.. up to 1,800 spirits (w/o any immortality bonuses). I guess you could get around 2,000 if you do everything near-perfect.

edit3: Apostles of the Seed are bastards, had to grind them in practice for a while since they made me gameover in a run that was going better than my 44k one.. hardest boss in the game for fossil maiden IMO(apart from LB2 and perfecting shrine? idk) and the bit after them can get you trapped pretty badly.

[RNGmaster]

Yeah, Apostles are frustratingly random and hard to react to. I think speedkilling them is a pretty wise move as Fossilmaiden but they have some funky shielding mechanic that I can't find any info on. It becomes really hard to damage them if you get bad RNG.

[Zaarock]

You can kill the blue one very fast because his attacks are easier to hit, but dealing with the red ones solo attack is way too difficult so I kill him first. The most annoying attack for me is when the apostles do their melee attacks after eachother, though I've only had it happen in practice. I don't think I'll be doing the milking on that fight any time soon lol.. No way to safespot or speedkill yourself through that fight, actually have to dodge quite a few attacks for once.

Would be nice to get shrine after seg 7 consistently, but it's not like you get a lot of spirits in 7 so does it really matter much? Does terra or where you get to shrine change the amount of crystals you get at all?

About this ST thread btw, It'd be great if the english translation of the manual were readable online. that way it could be linked in the opening post, the basic info could be removed and it'd mostly just be scoring system and secrets since the manual is pretty thorough. Also speaking of the manual, it says the stella level option should only be used for practice, you're supposed to play with normal rank. Players going for spirits will stay above 7 Stella anyway so "level" could probably be removed from the hi-score board (unplugged would be required)

btw RNG, you forgot to put my solidstate score on the board.. not that it matters much, I think I'll beat it soon

[RNGmaster]

I think specifying unplugged makes no sense for Full Sequence Order honestly since the rank setting of full sequence order is unplugged and can't be changed by any means. I think Way of All Flesh and Great Majority can be set to Distorted so I'm leaving the rank setting up there for now.

Interestingly: That "global multiplier value" i mentioned with regard to autobombs and deaths? it appears that the value of spirit chips depends on that, too. So high rank means boss cancels are worth more.

[Zaarock]

Yeah boss cancels are something that most people don't think of. Personally I find it weird to do since the chips are pretty difficult to pick up unless you're deadliar. Also fairly interesting is that breakthroughs also turn bullets into chips I think, that could be useful but only with a super optimized route.

Going to practice Seg 1 Lead(been putting that off, always thought the boss milking might be obnoxious) and Rusted Dragon scoring next, might as well add more stuff to learn early on since not dying much will come naturally.

edit: still hate the seg 1 lead boss. Rusted Dragon unchain milking is pretty fun, lots of dodging and speedkilling. Efficient use of Fossil Maiden's laser probably makes the last phase pretty easy (clear bullets with it every once in a while) Probably going to start doing that in full runs.

edit2: I can get 5k spirits on the first two segments sometimes now, 11k after 4. 1 lead is pretty hard but it gives you way more life tokens for one thing. Perpetual Calendar is kicking my ass in full runs for some reason I think I've figured out a strategy to finish off Old Rose without a bomb so I can get more time with fate control perpetual calendar.

edit3: get over 400 crystals in shrine 4 times in a row in training > get to shrine with 17,000 spirits in full run > get 260 crystals in shrine and still improve your best score, ffs. Grinding shrine in training now, I'm surprised how fun it still is.. Millionlives can fuck off though :p

Shrine crystal system works like this I think: Each boss form gives crystals, you lose ~10 every time you die. Same with the spirit stones except they wont give ANY crystals if you bomb them. Some kind of bonus based on lives lost once you've destroyed the last spirit stone. I got 424 even though I had a death at the beginning of a spirit stone though, that was weird.

[asu_tenan]

guys can you tell me what is milking please?

i just recently started to play this game, still confused with all the mechanics, scoring and whatever

for now i just play for clearing the game, but still confused how to score more....

my 1cc with kagura ext gunner i got 15009 spirits... dunno how you guys can achive alot of spirits


and... what is token?

[Zaarock]

"Milking" in this game is increasing the point values of enemies or grazing. The spirit value is the green number on an enemy/enemy part. Generally milking refers to raising the values of boss parts and destroying them right before the boss timer runs out, but there are enemy waves that are worth milking for a while instead of speedkilling too.

Every character has one or two attacks that raise values very fast.. if you're talking about Kagura: Ecliptic Chariot her bomb is the best increasing tool(which is why you might not have noticed)

Scoring on Rusted Dragon and Perpetual Calendar(not sub-bosses) is destroying the wings & options as fast as possible instead of increasing spirit values.

Tokens are big luna recharge items, they have their own counter but aren't related to spirits apart from that collecting lots of them gives you hearts/life tokens. Every extend counts when playing for score, the immortality bonuses(getting extra lives when at max lives) are a big part of high scores.

Another big scoring thing is doing damage to the true last boss / lost property 771 . Fossil Maiden can easily get 16,000 from it, maybe some others can get more(xanthez?).

Shooting destroyable bullets is a pretty good source of spirits in Segment 6.

I'm trying to break 80,000 spirits eventually, playing a credit every day or so.

[Zaarock]

I just got a weird idea..

Anyone know if suiciding before Revive items is profitable? Dying gives you life tokens(so you can get an extend faster) and Revive items give you an extra life only if you don't have max lives.. so if dying doesn't lower the increase per immortality bonus wouldn't this work?

If this is true then suiciding on Scarlet Queen and Rex Cavalier could net you one or two more extends. (not counting Rusted Dragon because the unchain milking gives a fair amount of points)

edit: got to seg 8 with 40,000, no-missed the whole stage, did my best button mashing evar and got 67k, what. I guess I fucked up the heart collection at the end of garland. Would've just been barely above 70k though. Getting into shrine with Immortality is definitely something to do.

I only just realized looking at the Fossilmaiden WR replays again that holding subweapon while grazing increases spirits massively (because of having an aura?), this is pretty huge on the first two segments especially.

edit2: Improved strategy on TLB which nets me a couple thousand more spirits. Suiciding before Revives seems to be good.. I actually failed to suicide on cavalier lol.

Looking at it more deeply the Immortality bonuses don't seem to play as big a role as you'd expect, at least with fossil maiden. Her requirements for each extend go up very fast so if you're doing well it'll start taking 60 life tokens to get an extend which is ridiculous. Because of this the FM WR actually goes straight for damaging the TLB instead of even picking up the massive amount of life tokens.

edit3: ffs, I just need a run with a decent shrine and TLB now. they never come together it seems. I just bombed 4L4TH accidentally, eeeeeh

added a scoring evaluation section to my first post here.

edit4: figured out super-lame strats for Millionlives (that still give 424 crystals), whoo

[RNGmaster]

Wow I honestly didn't know that different characters get extends at different rates. Huh.

[Zaarock]

Yeah it's the two numbers on top of the screen on the main menu. Didn't think about it much before either. Also I was wrong about dying reducing the increase per extend, it keeps growing by three (you just get a non-immortality extend faster) so dying before shrine is pretty bad. Suiciding on scarlet queen and rex cavalier definitely seems to work, but those are the only instances where you want to die.

I just had a terrible run with 9 deaths outside shrine but almost broke 80k, so stupid.. that would've been a terrible replay to post. I'm getting better at a lot of stuff but getting too burned out for full runs I guess.. scoring is way optimized than my last runs but I keep getting dumb deaths everywhere. Getting breakthrough in Seg2 now, pretty cool.

No risk strategy for Millionlives: bomb him when he starts throwing cogs, then hold subweapon and sit at the bottom of the screen. Bomb the next form to death as well. You have to shoot the stone for a bit but w/e. Also bomb the last form of 4L4TH unless you get really lucky with her movement.

Low risk for Apostles: damage both bosses equally at the start, bomb blue when he does a good attack for it and finish him off when red is around 40%, he is very easy to finish off with that amount of health. Spawnkill all the big ships with main shot by aiming with slow button and they don't even shoot any aimed shots(the fossilmaiden WR does this)

[Cadrin]

Yeah, Apostles are frustratingly random and hard to react to. I think speedkilling them is a pretty wise move as Fossilmaiden but they have some funky shielding mechanic that I can't find any info on.

It's really simple. The strength of their shields is indicated by the glowing auras. The larger the aura is and the brighter it glows, the more damage resistance the Apostle has. If its aura is not there, it is very fragile. When the aura is very bright and takes up the entire screen (like when they perform their suicide attack, right after losing their limbs), the Apostle becomes incredibly resistant.

Anyone know if suiciding before Revive items is profitable? Dying gives you life tokens(so you can get an extend faster) and Revive items give you an extra life only if you don't have max lives.. so if dying doesn't lower the increase per immortality bonus wouldn't this work?

A brilliant idea. It should work. It probably only gives you about 3-4 tokens per suicide, so that's not a lot.

I only just realized looking at the Fossilmaiden WR replays again that holding subweapon while grazing increases spirits massively (because of having an aura?)

Precisely. Having your suppression field active increases the bonus you get from grazing needle bullets.

Also dangit, I was getting ready to perhaps take on Noah's high score. I am not ready to take you on. Have fun dominating the scoreboard while I gather the motivation to challenge your score somehow one day.

[Zaarock]

Also dangit, I was getting ready to perhaps take on Noah's high score. I am not ready to take you on. Have fun dominating the scoreboard while I gather the motivation to challenge your score somehow one day.

Just need to play and practice for that confidence

Also as you know Minogame and Deadliar have more scoring potential than Fossilmaiden. Only things Fossilmaiden has going for her are 20k more points from the TLB, shooting in all directions and ease of use. Even though she has a dedicated attack for raising spirits it doesn't raise them as fast as say Deadliars red shot. Grazing is obviously worse and she gets less extends.. Deadliar can get 10k spirits in the first two segments, fossilmaiden doesn't even come close. (6,000, maybe) Haven't watched the Minogame WR yet.

edit(17/4): getting to seg 5 with almost 14,000 now sometimes if anyone is interested. 100k is very possible. The game is strarting to crash my computer more often though which might make me stop playing if I can't fix it somehow.

[Zaarock]

Just tried out changing the fossil maiden WRs route with some better kill strategies so you get the kill breakthrough (5000 kills) before shrine, it turns out to be very easy to get.
You can seemingly get it without sacrificing spirits before segment 7, which is great because breakthrough resets the amount of life tokens required per extend.. So you can get at least 3 more immortality bonuses before shrine, which is pretty huge (at least 3,000 more spirits than the WR).

Having to concentrate on kills also makes the scoring quite a bit more interesting, and it seems to me it's designed so that you generally get breakthrough in shrine(the bonus enemy waves at the end don't really serve any other purpose), but with good play can get it before and double the gains once you get to shrine. Makes me appreciate the game a bit more.

easy sources of kills:

- destroying the flak/whatever in 1L, the fossilmaiden WR opts for getting around 50 spirits on them but as a result loses 200+ kills
- bombing some of the early enemy waves in 3L, killing missiles
- concentrating on destroying the constantly respawning passive enemies in seg 5, destroying the tiles perpetual calendar's "drawing" attacks throw out(tricky..)
- speedkilling slug lady in seg6 for bonus waves, bombing the final wave after apostles(you get hundreds of enemies thrown at you at once)

not many kills to get in segment 7 so it's good to get the 5k in 6 if possible or you won't get much benefit.

[Zaarock]

Been doing some stage select practice the last couple days. Among other things I found an even easier way of dealing with AL4TH in shrine, have to stay calm in the last form though.


Here's a replay with the easiest strategies I could find for Shrine of Farewell with Fossilmaiden.

notes for things not obvious in the replay:

- Don't hit the "spirit stones" with bombs or you won't get crystals. Spirit stones appear in the same order regardless of the boss order you choose.

- Ninelives: your height on the screen determines the size of the "web" of shots in the first form, stay near the middle. stay close to ninelives on the last form because the fire circle is formed around your own position. Spirit stone (1st): the first spirit stone is the only one that doesn't have a safespot above it, but dodging the aimed shot is very easy.

- Temperament Nil: the drawn "lines" in the first form damage the boss more than anything you can do. She always moves in the same pattern in the first form, so you can finish it very quickly with some practice. Spirit stone (2nd): Be quick with destroying it, if you take too long it won't be safe above it anymore.

- Millionlives: you can't shoot through the lines of blood but your subweapon can. Fossilmaiden can only cancel the gear projectiles in the corner with subweapon active. If you're confident with the last form you can save the bomb for the spirit stone.

- AL4TH: don't move while trapped in the last form unless necessary. Laser her the first time she passes you. Remember not to bomb her during Strange Moon Spirit stone (4th): You can milk the last stone for a while if you have enough time left.

- Bonus waves: you have no penalty for deaths here. Just stream/tap dodge everything to show off and bomb waves of enemies to get kills. This is usually where people get the Kill Breakthrough if they haven't been trying to get it early.

- I'm not sure what causes the difference between 420 and 424 crystals, I get 420 in the replay but usually get 424.


I've been thinking of making a new ST thread consisting of the english manual(gotta upload it somewhere), secrets, scoring system and character specific strategy(survival&scoring).

The manual is very thorough about everything gameplay related in addition to story so it obsoletes most of this old ST(which is about "mysteries" because the manual wasn't translated at the time).

[serys]

i found out about this game about a year ago but I just recently started playing it seriously to figure out about it.

my main focus is Fossil Maiden and Kagura (Groom Eater) atm so if you have any questions that I'm able to answer I'd be more than happy.

i am far behind many of you (i've only barely unlocked the second title menu and kagura and am only well versed in s1 s2 and s3 behind routes) though my goal is to learn every point scoring aspect of the two ships and have learned some useful techniques

also, my keyboard layout is

z - slowed movement
x - main shot
c - sub shot
v - bomb
o - pause

[serys]

In Adept mode the bullet erasing auras can only be operated manually; they are not entirely disabled. For most characters holding the main shot will activate the aura. It changes how you usually play a character.

[nasty_wolverine]

In Adept mode the bullet erasing auras can only be operated manually; they are not entirely disabled. For most characters holding the main shot will activate the aura. It changes how you usually play a character.

WR's for kagura are on adept because its easier to get more spirits from TLB, better safety on the shrine.

[Zaarock]

The aura is more powerful and/or has more range on Adept which I'm pretty sure makes grazing give more points. So in theory almost every character has more scoring potential on Adept, but even the japanese scores haven't gone far enough to start using it for characters other than Kagura.

[nasty_wolverine]

The aura is more powerful and/or has more range on Adept which I'm pretty sure makes grazing give more points. So in theory almost every character has more scoring potential on Adept, but even the japanese scores haven't gone far enough to start using it for characters other than Kagura.

For Kagura, you need aura off to graze lasers. I am not sure how it works for other characters. WR's are on adept for kagura because i think to avoid accidental aura triggers. There very few places the WR uses aura actually.

[Rex Cavalier]

Something worth adding to guide, about Segment 2 Lead, exact conditions for hidden crystal enemies that i've discovered with a few tests:

Small crystals: Quickly kill the big master that appears after bulletspam masters, always works.

Huge crystals: Kill 4 legged enemies by destroying legs first, that's exact condition, i've literally went through segment killing only them that exact way and crystals appeared.

[Zaarock]

Excellent, I always wondered about that second condition. Will add to my first post here

[gs68]

Same problem as AliceMargatroid regarding LP771. I got to Garland, filled up the health bar, then once time runs out, ＴＨＥ　ＥＮＤ． Either I was a few pixels short or something else is happening here.

Doing Short Mission too. FSO takes up so much time (45-50 minutes). Also jumping straight from Segment 4 to 7 is hilarious.

[nasty_wolverine]

Same problem as AliceMargatroid regarding LP771. I got to Garland, filled up the health bar, then once time runs out, ＴＨＥ　ＥＮＤ． Either I was a few pixels short or something else is happening here.

Doing Short Mission too. FSO takes up so much time (45-50 minutes). Also jumping straight from Segment 4 to 7 is hilarious.

First thing, did you continue? if you did then it wont go to the TLB. Also, you know if you are going to reach the TLB when at lost property if you fill up the health to complete, the color filter changes to something like half reversed or so...

[gs68]

Nope, no continue.

[gs68]

Okay so I did a couple more runs and got 771 every time. I think when I got the premature ending the "returning property" dialogue didn't happen, so I'm guessing that's the key to getting 771 to appear.

I think Way of All Flesh and Great Majority can be set to Distorted so I'm leaving the rank setting up there for now.

Tested it, nope. They are locked into Unplugged. Stella range only affects Segment Location.

[Kuroonehalf]

Yay! I finally managed to 1cc Hellsinker!
I've been trying to get it for a few months now and it feels super sweet to finally get it. Not 100% proud of it since I used the easiest character (Kagura External Gunner) but I'm still really happy regardless and felt like sharing. Now onto the others.

A few things. I'd suggest some info to be added/changed to the main post, in case the OP still visits this thread:
- The fourth menu screen is obtained after reading all of the "Scribbles In Graveyard" (1-8) in the "Inspect Strategy Recorder" menu, not after beating "The Way Of All Flesh" (extra stage 2).
- "Sound Memoirs" is unlocked after unlocking the fourth menu screen and restarting the game.
- In the Shrine of Farewell, Temperament Nil's (the red-haired girl with the hammer) first attack phase has a unique counter-bombing mechanic - bombing heals her. Make sure not to use that button during that phase or else you'll never take her down :p.
- [Unconfirmed] The first half of the boss in Segment 8 works similar to Temperament Nil where bombing works against you, except instead of healing him, it makes his satisfaction level decrease a ton.
- [Unconfirmed] Another quirk about the first half of the boss in Segment 8 is that attacking him while invincible (like using Minogame's invincible subweapon attack or during most bombs) does not increase his satisfaction.
- [Inconclusive] During Segment 8's pre-boss the phase with the enemies Unnamed 487 has 2 variations. In the second variation they have a lot more health and smaller enemies come from some of them in a spiral pattern. I'll try to grab a screenshot of that later.
- Tip: The luna route of Segment 5 (the right portal) has a lot more wall-rooted enemies than the sol route. This means more hearts. If you find yourself low on life when you get to that stage going through the luna route could help you gain a life. And, if you prefer the sol version of the bosses, you can always switch back to the sol route near the end.

And I have a few questions if you guys don't mind:
- Are there any secrets/variations that make the extra stages worth replaying?
- Regarding the Short Mission menu, how exactly does it work?. From what I've tested it's the same as Full Sequence Order except it allows you to randomly skip segments. Is there more to it than that?
- Any idea where one could find doujin works of this game such as this one? An old 4chan thread mentions Suruga-ya but as you can see they seem to no longer have that book.
- Slightly off topic but could someone help me get Radio Zonde to work? It initially asked for a DLL file I didn't have but I got it and the program no longer errors but nothing shows up. You see the icon on the taskbar but there's no window or sound. I've tried all sorts of things and asking around and no one seems to know the solution. :C I'm on 64bit W7 if it helps.

I also found this web page that seems to contain info and images of some beta version of the game. Pretty cool.

Lastly, the English Wiki for the game seems to have been deleted recently, which is a big bummer as it had some nice info. Would some of you folks be up for getting together and making a new one?

ps: That Segment 8 true boss is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, holy moly.

[SuperSoaker360]

- [Inconclusive] During Segment 8's pre-boss the phase with the enemies Unnamed 487 has 2 variations. In the second variation they have a lot more health and smaller enemies come from some of them in a spiral pattern. I'll try to grab a screenshot of that later.

If I remember correctly, bombing as they appear will have them shoot out several enemies in a spiral. This is a bit of a secret for those who want to rack up their Kills count.

[Kuroonehalf]

- [Inconclusive] During Segment 8's pre-boss the phase with the enemies Unnamed 487 has 2 variations. In the second variation they have a lot more health and smaller enemies come from some of them in a spiral pattern. I'll try to grab a screenshot of that later.

If I remember correctly, bombing as they appear will have them shoot out several enemies in a spiral. This is a bit of a secret for those who want to rack up their Kills count.

Oh, I wonder if that's it, I'll have to test it later. I managed to get it again yesterday and grabbed a screenshot of it. You can easily tell the difference by their darker tone of color.

Also managed to 1cc the game with Fossil Maiden and Minogame in the meantime too. (although with Fossil Maiden it was the lv2 satisfaction last boss :<)

[LtC]

I added the info Kuroonehalf wrote to the first post. I can also add any other stuff if any of you like as long as you specify what and to where. But to be honest I believe it would be easier if someone else took over the Hellsinker guide (Zaarock I know you want to). I haven't played the game in a very long time and I don't have any way of playing the game myself right now. If you do start a new thread you are free to copy-paste the guide in this thread and edit it however you like. I will link the new guide in the first post and ask a mod to close the thread afterwards.