MARS MATRIX FAQ v1.2 For Arcade By Finaxos@yahoo.com 3 October 2003 This release is meant to be another step towards an in-depth FAQ of Mars Matrix - Hyper Solid Shooting (c) 04/2000 Capcom. I hope to receive contributions of dedicated Mars Matrix players to upgrade and complete this FAQ. Mail me at Finaxos@yahoo.com so we can combine our knowledge and perfect the Art of Playing Mars Matrix. I will definitely include your recommendations in the next version of this guide. Copyright 2003 Friso 'Finaxos' Roest. This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Only www.GameFAQs.com and www.GameSpot.com are allowed to host this document. ========================================================================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ========================================================================= 1. INTRODUCTION 2. BASICS - Normal shot vs. piercing cannon - Capture bullets - Reflecting - Grinder - Gravity hole bomb - Level-up - Player-up - Gold mines 3. SCORE - Time - Level - Shootdown - Total - Score optimization 4. SHIPS - Mosquito 01 - Mosquito 02 - Comparison 5. STORY - AD 2100 - AD 2250 - AD 2309 - December 8, AD 2309, MARS 6. WALKTHROUGH - Stage 1 - Stage 2 - Stage 3 - Stage 4 - Stage 5 - Stage 6 7. MISCELLANEOUS - Ending - Secrets - Technical data - Evil chemistry - Descended Masters 8. DREAMCAST - Arcade mode - Elite mode - Score challenge mode - Extra's 9. REVISION HISTORY 10. SPECIAL THANKS ========================================================================= 1. INTRODUCTION ========================================================================= Mars Matrix is a raw over-the-edge shooter, which challenges the human bounds of reaction. Mastering this dark and splendid game is a true homage to the Altar of Speed. The Arcade does not have a secret shop like in the Dreamcast version, and additional coins for a continued play won't allow you to put a hiscore down. So there is just one way: start at Stage 1 and get there on one coin. As far as ending the game is concerned, i don't know whether it is possible. Let me know if there is anyone who came close, and let me know how you did it! Beware of this great game though, because hidden within it, is an addictive and powerful current of destruction. ========================================================================= 2. BASICS ========================================================================= NORMAL SHOT VS. PIERCING CANNON Typical of the sober and purely functional outer set up of the game, it has assigned all weapons to just one button. So here you have it, the chief among shooters, and all you need is one joystick and one fire button. Tapping the A-button will enable normal shooting. Normal shot has an unlimited range and for this reason is the main weapon to use in attack. As you gain levels the shot will get more powerful and spreads out a little. Interrupted tapping (with minimal a one-second interval) will enable the piercing cannon. It works sort of the other way around as in DonPachi. The piercing cannon is a powerful short-range attack that equals about 10 single shots, depending on how close you are to the enemy. The closer you are, the more damage it will do. Use it for big crafts to save time on the kill. It is absolutely essential to know when to use which type of weapon, especially when dealing with gold mines. More about that later. CAPTURE BULLETS Pushing the A-button and holding it for at least a quarter to half a second, will bring out the 'Mosquito'. It is sort of a black hole that surrounds your ship and sucks in bullets. It is very useful if you want to pass through a wall of enemy fire, because you will be invulnerable when it is activated. The GHB meter will slowly drain and the Mosquito ends when the meter is finished, or when you release the A-button. An essential aspect of this function is that you will be invulnerable for exactly one second after you have released the A-button. So you can release the Mosquito even if you are only half way through a curtain of bullets, and do the rest on invulnerability, while the meter is reloading. When the meter is reloading you will be vulnerable, without a last means of saving yourself, for at least another 1 second or more until the GHB meter is full again. The reaction time of the Mosquito is not good enough for a split second rescue, because the Mosquito just takes more than a split second to activate. It requires anticipation if you want to rely on it. A good way to get a feel of the Mosquito and the refill time is to try to pass a few stages without shooting. You do not get points for sucking in bullets. REFLECTING There is another aspect to the Mosquito that makes it very valuable as well. If you release the Mosquito before the meter is empty, the bullets inside the Gravity Barrier will spin off and form gold cubes wherever they hit steel. The direction in which the bullets fly off is a resultant of the centrifugal force of the rotation of the barrier and that caused by the movement of your ship. You can actually see the bullets trace along the barrier when you move your ship. To reflect bullets to your right, you have to move to the left first, before you release the Mosquito. The move to the left will make the bullets trail to the right of the barrier, from which point they will shoot off once they are released. This function feels very natural and responds well. Always try to reflect bullets in a direction where they will encounter some artillery or other objects, and to a place where the cubes can be gathered without too much difficulty. Reflecting does not give any points other than the damage done to the enemies that are hit by the reflected bullets. GRINDER The grinder is a term for a weapon functionality that is related to the Mosquito bullet capture. The gravity barrier will do damage to any opponent it touches. In most cases it is not strong enough for an immediate kill, but slowly grinds down your opponent. However, small enemies can be taken down by it almost immediately, which can help a lot in keeping an xp chain alive while you are in Mosquito-mode. Big enemies can't be destroyed by it, but since you can't use normal shot or the cannon in Mosquito-mode, you can use it to do some modest damage in the meanwhile. GRAVITY HOLE BOMB Holding down the A-button for 3 seconds until the GHB meter is completely drained will result in a gravitational explosion which will destroy pretty much every visible enemy and all bullets, giving you some space to breathe again. Experienced players will hardly use the GHB. Instead they reflect just a fraction before the GHB kicks in. If you have captured enough bullets this will do even more damage, and more importantly, yield a lot of gold. LEVEL-UP Your ship can rise to greater levels of firepower, by gaining xp's. There are two reasons to try hard to level-up, or at least get as much xp's as possible: 1) Level-up will make your normal shot more powerful. 2) Higher levels will increase the points you get at the result screen. (see the chapter about score) Almost all kills will release one or more gold cubes. If you catch a cube you get 1 experience point. However, if you catch the gold cubes one after another with no more than a one-second interval, you get a bonus, which will increase by one point for every cube caught within the time interval. This is called chaining. The length of the time interval depends on the value of the chain. Chaining the gold cubes will give you +1 xp for the first cube, +2 for the next, +3, +4, +5, etc. If you keep chaining the cubes at the beginning of Stage 1 for example, you will level-up to 2 before arriving at the red pincer crafts. The total number of xp's given rises exponentially as the chain proceeds. Take a look at the numbers below, where i will give an approximation of the total number of xp's corresponding to a few typical chains: +100 chain = 5.000 xp's total +200 = 20.000 +300 = 45.000 +400 = 80.000 +1000 = 500.000 There is a meter that shows the combo or chain rate of xp's on the top of the screen. It is the green line below the icons that display the amount of ships you have left. This meter fills according to the progression of your chain. At +10 it fills only a little, and fades in about a second. However, if you are able to get the next gold cube the meter fills slightly more to +11. When it is empty, your chain ends and you will start at +1 again at the next cube. In Stage 2 the meter is full at +200, which will give you quite a few seconds to link on to the next chain. In Stage 5 the meter is not even half full at +400, giving you only a two to three second time interval. The big blocks of gold cubes are definitely worth catching, because they make the meter shoot up momentarily to +80 or +100, giving you some time to look for the next cube, while maintaining the chain bonus. The points needed for each level are the following: - Level 1 at 0 xp's - Level 2 at 1.000 - Level 3 at 10.000 - Level 4 at 100.000 - Level 5 at 200.000 - Level 6 at 400.000 - Level 7 at 800.000 - Level 8 at 1600.000 PLAYER-UP This paragraph can be kept very short. Giving bonus-5lives does not match the hard no-nonsense character of this game. Mars Matrix is made to take lives, not to give them. Just for the sake of tradition the game does give a life - two in fact... for the entire game. One when you reach 100.000 xp and one after killing the mid-boss in Stage 4. GETTING KILLED Getting killed is something that is made particularly easy in Mars Matrix. Fortunately you can only get killed by bullets. You can't crash into asteroids, buildings or enemy ships. This gives you more flexibility in making chains and avoiding enemy fire. The hitbox of the fighters is realtively small (see Chapter 4) allowing some radical bullet grazing. Similar to neo-classics like ESPrade and Guwange everything lethal is primarily colored pink or blue. If you run into it and get killed, you want to be sure to take full advantage of the fact that your next ship will be invulnerable for an ample 4 seconds. Your ship will be flashing on and off during this time. This also goes for the beginning of a stage. GOLD MINES On every level there are one or more 'gold mines' - that's what i like to call them. These gold mines are enemies that will give you a generous amount of gold in a continuing stream when shot the right way. There is a mine in Stage 5 for example, which turns every single bullet into gold, time after time, filling the screen with hundreds and hundreds of gold cubes. The first mine however is at the beginning of Stage 1. After the rotating black metal craft with the pink bullets, a red lobster shaped craft will appear. Shoot it with your piercing cannon and gather the gold. If you shoot the next two fast enough, you will get a fourth. The gold will smoothly take you up to level 3 with over 10000 xp's. Even though the game has hardly started, life will have become a lot easier already. It is essential to know the right type of shot to fully utilize the gold mines. In level three there is a great mine in the form of ventilators (airco on Mars is a must). Normal shot works best to get the maximum out of this gold mine. ========================================================================= 3. SCORE ========================================================================= The result screen at the end of each Stage counts the total score for that Stage. For each player there is a bar for time, level, shootdown and total. This chapter will give insight in the way the scores for these parts are calculated. I will use a dot signification between each ten thousand points for score, to correspond with the colors of the score in Mars Matrix, being yellow, orange and red. This division also corresponds with the Japanese numbering system, which has a four-digit base, contrary to the Western three digits. Any Dreamcast players reading this FAQ should note that both points for score and level seem to be given differently in the DC version, even if you play it in the Arcade mode. TIME Formula: number of seconds left after shooting the boss X number of experience points X 100 Example: 30 (if you beat the boss quickly) X 20000 (average chaining) X 100 = 6000.0000 LEVEL Formula: number of experience points X level X 1000 Example: 20000 X 3 (level 3 starts at 10000 and ends at 100000) X 1000 = 6000.0000 SHOOTDOWN Formula: ??? score depends on which enemies you shot down. Usually about 20% of the amount for total score TOTAL SCORE Formula: Here the above mentioned scores are summated on top of the basic score (the same total that was on the top of the screen. The basic score is calculated by multiplying the craft specific score by xp and number of kills. The following table gives the specific scores per craft. Table of scores Stage 1 basic score kills chain ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Green H-shaped craft 10 +10 +10 - Red pincers 50 - Golden H-craft 150 - Black metal craft with loads of pink bullets 200 - Red lobster craft 100 - Huge vertical moving tank 500 - Brown double canon tank 100 - Green ball craft 10 - Mini vulcano-shaped turrets 40 - Middle turret 200 - Wooden shed 200 - Metal hangar 200 - Silver rotating darts 40 - Big green sluggish crafts 50 - Green sparrow-like crafts 250 These basic scores are multiplied in the first place by the xp level, similar to the Get Point System in DDP. In addition there seems to be a multiplier involved for the number of previous kills and chain status. The formula is something like this: score*XP + kills*(+10) + (chain+1)*XP I am not overly interested in maths, but i believe understanding of the score system will help to figure what to shoot to get a hiscore. I would be happy to receive input from anyone on this matter. Even good suggestions on the names of the crafts will help, to improve readability of this FAQ. Mail me at Finaxos@yahoo.com. At the result screen all sub-scores are added to the new total score. For the example given above this would be: Time 6000.0000 Level 6000.0000 Shootdown 3000.0000 Total 1.5000.0000 ----------- + New total 3.0000.0000 This score is a good aim for beginners. It cost me quite a few coins before i had a steady score of more than 3.0000.0000 for Stage 1. But then i didn't know the tactics i know now. So after reading walkthrough chapter of this FAQ you might advance a lot quicker. Mars Matrix veterans will have a score with 2 digits in red for Stage 1. SCORE OPTIMIZATION Okay, so who cares about how the score is build up? Well, if you want to go for a hiscore you need to know your point of focus. Here's an example: Milking the boss for xp's on level one (by taking it easy on him until the laser scene) might lose you 15 seconds of time. 15 x 20000 x 100 = 3000.0000 points. But you can easily gain 60000 extra xp's, resulting in an extra 60000 x 4 x 1000 = 2.4000.0000 for level score plus an additional 600.0000 points for every second of time left for the time score, just because you earned more xp's. Does this make sense? ...well, just read it again. Take into account that every xp counts again for both basic score and level and time scores in the result screen of all the later Stages! ========================================================================= 4. SHIPS ========================================================================= There are two types of ships you can choose in Mars Matrix: Mosquito 01 and Mosquito 02. For a while i was hoping to discover a secret third ship, but i didn't find one and it probably doesn't exist. Below are the specifications for Mosquito 01 and 02. MOSQUITO 01 Color 1P: red Color 2P: orange Shot type: wide (wide blaster) Fire power: *** (4 seconds to kill a pincer with single normal shot) Max speed: *** (1.9 seconds to traverse the screen horizontally, all levels) Mobility: high Width: 11,2 m Length: 16,4 m Height: 7,4 m Weight: 27.924 kg Engine: R2 Maroni / 2628 Mk IV Max Speed: 5.96/s Below is a representation of a level 5 Mosquito 01 ship. The zeros mark the area of the ship that can not be damaged by bullets. Only if a bullet enters the hitbox as marked with the number 1, the ship is destroyed. Note that the hitbox is just a small portion of the ship, and that the wings and tail can graze through bullets without harm. The size of the hitbox stays the same throughout the game. Even though your ship will get bigger after level 5, the hitbox will still be the front part and the cockpit of your ship, corresponding to the hitbox as depicted in the figures below. Figure 1: Hitbox Level 5 Mosquito 01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0000 000000 000000 1111111111 0 1111111111 0 0 111111 0 000 111111 000 00000 1111111111 00000 00000 1111111111 00000 000000000 000011111111110000 000000000 000000000 0000001111111111000000 000000000 000000000 0000001111111111000000 000000000 000000000 00000000111111111100000000 000000000 00000000000 00000000111111111100000000 00000000000 00000000000 00000000111111111100000000 00000000000 0000000000000 00000000000000000000000000 0000000000000 00000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000 0000000 00 000000000000000000000000 00 0000000 0000000 000000000000000000000000 0000000 0000000 000000000000000000000000 0000000 0000000 00000 00000000000000 00000 0000000 0000000 0000000000 0000000 00000 0000000000 00000 00000 0000000000 00000 000 000000 000 00 000000 00 000000 000000 000000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSQUITO 02 Color 1P: blue Color 2P: light blue Shot type: straight (laser shot) Fire power: ***** (2 seconds to kill a pincer with single normal shot) Max speed: ***** (1.6 seconds to traverse the screen horizontally, all levels) Mobility: low Width: 12,2 m Length: 16,2 m Height: 8,1 m Weight: 21.405 kg Engine: R2 Maroni / 2628 Mk IV Max Speed: 6.56/s Figure 2: Hitbox Level 5 Mosquito 02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0000 000000 0 000000 0 00 000 1111111111 000 00 00 000011111111110000 00 000 00 0001111111111000 00 000 0000000 00 00111111111100 00 0000000 00000000000 00 1111111111 00 00000000000 00000000000 000 1111111111 000 00000000000 000000000000 000 0000 1111111111 0000 000 000000000000 0000000000000 000 00000 111111 00000 000 000000000000 0000000000000 000 000000 111111 000000 000 000000000000 0000000000000000000000000011111111110000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000001111111111000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000111111111100000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000 000000000000000000000000 000 000 000000000000000000000000 000 00 000000000000000000000000 00 000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000 00000 0000000000 00000 000 00000000 000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIREPOWER The Mosquito 01 starts the game with 40% less firepower than the mosquito 02 as a level 1 fighter. However, at experience level 8 the firepower of Mosquito 01 is only 10% less than that of Mosquito 02. This is the case when comparing the impact of the total beam of both normal shots. A single fire strand of the shot from the Mosquito 01 inflicts less damage than the aforementioned 10% when compared to a single laser beam of Mosquito 02, because the total beam of Mosquito 01 is wider and encompasses more separate fire units. The increase of size of your normal shot when you upgrade from level 1 to level 2 would suggest firepower is doubled. This is not the case. There is only a 12% increase in firepower for Mosquito 01 at each level. For the Mosquito 02 it is 9%. So with the advance in levels, Mosquito 01 slowly starts to catch up in firepower with Mosquito 02. The following table shows the amount of damage for all levels and for both fighters. The normal, level 1 shot of Mosquito 01 is used as a reference point, with a value of 1. Table of firepower ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ship Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mosquito 01 1 1.1 1.3 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 Mosquito 02 1.4 1.5 1.7 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The power of the piercing cannon stays is the same for both fighters and remains constant for all levels. The damage per second of the piercing cannon is about 4 times that of a normal shot, if you compare a continual repetition of both shot types. COMPARISON Mosquito was the name for the most powerful ship in the classic Arcade game 19XX. I would say the name Mosquito makes more sense in Mars Matrix because of the ability of the ships to suck in bullets. For Stage 1 and 2 i would say the mosquito 02 is the best ship. It is fast and has the strongest firepower, enabling you to destroy everything in sight and to keep chaining the xp's. However, those aiming to go beyond Stage 2 or 3 could consider taking Mosquito 01. It's mobility is much smoother than Mosquito 02, which makes it easier to swirl elegantly through a screen full of bullets. Bullet grazing is easier because the hitbox is easier to monitor for Mosquito 01 because of its shape. The higher speed of Mosquito 02 sometimes becomes a disadvantage when dodging bullets on the square centimeter. The wider shot beam of Mosquito 01 is useful in the later stages, because in these stages you rarely are able to move nicely in line with the enemy to shoot it. One advice if you are playing with Mosquito 02: the ship moves faster than the gaps in the bullet patterns from bosses. In these cases i recommend tapping the joystick to get a continuous, but slower horizontal movement. Personally, i stick with Mosquito 02, because i prefer problems as a result of moving too fast, over those that are result of not being able to move fast enough. ========================================================================= 5. STORY ========================================================================= AD 2100 The overpopulation of the world has caused starvation problems in developing countries due to massive food shortages. It is during this time that many international disputes and civil wars break out all around the world. AD 2250 Immigration to the Arctic of Mars has begun to solve the global problems. This led to improvements within interplanetary transportation technology. Then while digging for resources on Mars, a special encrypted chip was discovered. The chip was named 'Infinity'. After intensive research by the Government they learned that Infinity contained information of a highly advanced technology. AD 2309 The United Army utilized the technology of Infinity to help station the 'MOSQUITO' Local Battle Small Fighter in Mars to settle the dispute for the independence of the planet. December 8, AD 2309, MARS Fifty years has passed since the immigration project to Mars began. The Planet used to be a barren wasteland, but now it is home to millions of families and workers. Apart from the above there is some additional text flashing over the screen. The letters are difficult to read and the text scrolls up so quickly that my first assumption was that it probably is a lot of nonsense that isn't even meant to be read. There is no pause button on an Arcade Cabinet anyway. To save you the trouble of deciphering the text, here it is: AD23050s25 B.Rinn et al. announced the first identification of organic compounds in meteorite. The authors further suggest that these compounds in conjunction with a number of other mineralogical features observed in this rock, may be evidence of ancient civilized society. It is important to note while this evidence is strong, it by no means establishes the fact of extraterrestrial life. ...hmmm, muh-aybe there is extraterrestrial life. I was hoping to decipher a statement that was not stating the obvious. Below is a little bit more babble-text from the intro-screens that in my opinion doesn't do justice to this awesome shooter. It could be some kind of feint though. In a future version of this FAQ i intend to give some interesting background info in the chapter about the chemistry of this game. Anyway, here's the text i mentioned: Mars is the God of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color. Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note: the Roman god Mars was a God of Agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares. Those in favor of colonizing and terra forming Mars may prefer this symbolism) The name of the month March derives from Mars. ========================================================================= 6. WALKTHROUGH ========================================================================= STAGE 1 Title: Securing the Phobos satellite Mission: Immediately after the abrupt declaration of their independence, the Federal Government dispatched the United Army "General Presidential Defense Force" that had been stationed on the moon. In Order to gain control over the airspace of Manitially planned to secure the Phobos Satellite. Strategy: This Stage starts with 24 non-shooting green H-shaped crafts. Make long horizontal strokes back and forth across the screen and chain the gold cubes. The Air Defense Command Center seems to wake up after you shot the first 24 enemies, and the order has goes out to shoot back. Keep up the same strategy and you will level-up just before the next type of crafts appear; the red pincers. Use your piercing cannon on them. Doing a short Mosquito and reflecting the bullets of the H-crafts can help to enhance the chain and link it through to the pincers. The enemy patterns change according to how well you are doing, particularly how quick you destroy the enemies. Don't be too fanatic with the pincers, or you will get 3 gold H-crafts that turn out to be awfully offensive. Wait for the rotating black metal craft with the pink bullets at the top of the screen, while Phobos starts to enfold itself in the background. Pierce the first and move to the middle to pierce the next one. Wait for the third, while moving slightly to the left side of the screen. Activate the Mosquito and absorb as much of the pink bullets as you can from the third black metal craft. At this point you will see a number of asteroids coming into the screen from the right. Move to the left to allign the bullets to the right side of you barrier and reflect the bullets of the mosquito on the biggest asteroid, before the GHB kicks in. The reflected bullets will turn into gold cubes, which will add nicely to your chain. Be quick to welcome the lobster crafts that will arrive in the middle from the top. Pierce the first three lobster-crafts fast enough and you will get a fourth. After the second you can reflect whatever bullets the third might produce to the incoming asteroid at the right. Don't let this interfere with killing the lobsters quick and smooth. The cubes of the third or fourth will smoothly take you up to level 3. By the way, if you killed the first two black metal crafts too slow, the third one won't appear. In this case you still can continue the chain if you move to the formation of green H-crafts that will precede the arrival of the lobsters. After you eliminated the lobsters, don't move to the huge tank right away, but kill some smaller riff-raff first. If you finished with the big block of gold from the last lobster, you will still have a few seconds to continue this chain. So shoot some more gold because 250 xp's for every cube is worth it. Don't bother to shoot the brown double cannon tanks, because they give no gold. Whenever you have a full meter and have any enemy bullets in reach, convert them into gold by absorbing and reflecting them. The huge tank is a willing victim to reflect on and shoots a steady amount of bullets. Keep this up and you will have around 30.000 xp shortly after the lobsters. It is possible to continue the chain until the turret, which idealy takes your xp level up to 80.000. The turret will give you +10 and will thus give you slightly more time to find the next link to your chain. That would be the silver darts, and there is a smooth way to continue your chain. Dive in between the darts and take them down with the grinder in a flash, while you gather the gold. The grinder is ideal for this group, as they are destroyed easily and diving into it without Mosquito is risky. Don't use the grinder too long because you need a full meter again shortly after this, when the green sparrows arrive. First a formation of 15 big green sluggish ships arrive, apparently unaware there is a war going on as they cruise through the screen without shooting a bullet. Maybe just a shuttle service between Phobos and Mars or some tourists. Anyway, wrong time and wrong place for the friendly ships. The next enemies in the form of green sparrow ships make up for the sluggish ones with a serious load of bullets. While you leave the airspace of Phobos, go to the extreme right center of the screen. Stay there until the sparrows appear and shoot at you. Wait until the bullets get near and activate the Mosquito. Move to the extreme left center of the screen absorbing almost all the bullets and release the Mosquito. The screen will be infested with gold cubes, adding more than 30.000 xp's if you are lucky! Be careful not to hold the button too long, or the Gravity Hole Bomb will come out, giving you only a few cubes. Boss: This is the last defense at Phobos standing between you and Mars. In general the boss will flash once after it has arrived, to show the moment from which it will take damage. Shooting it before the flash is a waste of bullets and your spaz endurance. The boss of Stage 1 can either be killed fast, or milked for xp's to get a maximum score. If you go for gold you will be confronted with four attack modes. First use your piercing cannon 4 times while you wait for the red bullets. Absorb the bullets and reflect them just above the bridge. This way you will catch them in one move up, giving +100. Secondly, little blue bullets will spread like a disease. Move to the side of the screen and dodge while you work the wings with your pierce shot. The third attack comes in the form of big groups of bullets. Dodge two groups and absorb the other two. Reflect above the bridge again to get a +200 chain. Ideally you will have more than 100.000 xp's now, and gained a life. Stay above the bridge while you wait for the fourth attack mode. This attack consists of wedge- shaped bullet patterns. Just stay on the upper side of the bridge where the bullets won't reach you. As soon as your meter is full again, move directly on top of its guns, to absorb as much bullets as possible. Reflect one last time to bring the final blow and collect more than +300 in gold. Whith 18 seconds left on the timer, the boss falls down. You can see the shadow of Mars waiting for you in the background. The boss can also be killed quickly. If you want things to be over in 15 seconds - with 30 seconds left on the timer - this is the way to do it: Start with 3 piercing shots in the middle of the boss and activate the Mosquito when the bombs come directly towards you. Explode the GHB on the bridge of the ship. If you did a good job so far, the boss will skip the part where he shoots the square formations of bombs. He will continue with the wedge shape patterns of bombs. You will have a full GHB again by now, which you can use for the final blow. STAGE 2 Title: Descending to Mars Mission: The Phobos satellite has been secured. We are preparing to execute mission code 009 and are ready to enter the Mars' atmosphere. The entrance point is at 3557. Each unit should move to the attack point by 12:00 hour. The next target is Marineris Front Base. Strategy: This Stage starts with another gold mine, as you enter the airspace of Mars through the clouds. This time the lobsters are blue and there are a bit more of them. All the better for the xp-rate! If you divide the screen in three vertical columns from left to right as 1 2 and 3, it will be easier to memorize the sequence in which the lobster-crafts will appear. They will do so in the following sequence: 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3. If you have the sequence memorized you can welcome them with the piercing cannon before they start throwing out too many bombs. In order to keep gathering gold cubes, you can give some of them some slack and kill them later. After the last one, pierce the engine building on the right two times. You might want to activate your Mosquito while you gather the huge blocks of gold from this building, and empty your gauge with a GHB to catch the gold blocks of the building and to clean the screen. Shoot everything on sight in the next few scenes and keep active (kicking in an open door). Stay on the left side of the screen when the nasty gold colored frantic-bomb-throwing H-crafts come in. I suggest you use the GHB one or two times. Don't forget to have a look at the awesome scenery of this Front Base if you happen to have some spare time. At some locations the openings in the infrastructure allow you to look through and see the structures of Marineris below, clouded in blue. In one of the next scenes there is a round mounted gun turret slightly on the left side of the center, which shoots a lot of bullets in a radial manner. This one is not as nasty as it looks. Just line up vertically below it and eliminate it with a sequence of normal shots or pierces. Shoot some of the buildings on both sides after that, to collect some gold. You can develop a reasonable +200 chain from here. When the four-legged vehicles march in, use a GHB. Three tanks are barely vissible on the top of the screen. Be sure to take them out with your GHB in order to get another gold mine: the green rooftop-shaped crafts (a bit like the ones from Gigawing). Try to find a link from the +200 chain to these rooftop crafts. You can choose either halfway left or right when they arrive and stay on that side or switch from side to side to take down a few more rooftops. The latter method works best with a pierce shot, while the first runs quite smooth with normal shot. Just keep the rain of gold falling and you will get over +300 even if you didn't link up from the four-legged vehicles. Prerequisite of getting this mine is that you immediately finished off the tree tanks after the regiment of four-legged vehicles. Boss: Start directly underneath the left track wheel of this tank, because it will be easier to dodge the first set of bullets. Use your piercing cannon. Move to the right track wheel to dodge the first set of bullets, and move to the center to avoid the second load. Don't use your GHB or even mosquito yet. It is easy enough without them. The formations of v-shaped bullets are easy to dodge as well. In the meanwhile, hit the boss with as many pierces as you can, preferable in the center. Activate the GHB when the boss starts spewing out the fan-patterned bullet series, and move on top of it to reflect with maximum impact. Reflecting is indeed a rewarding option, and even more damaging than a GHB if you captured enough bullets. It will be enough to take him down and stop the timer at 32 seconds or so. Don't forget (yeah...right) to collect +250 in gold while the boss explodes. On a sidenote: if you don't feel like beating the boss for some reason, you can ignore it and it will go away by itself once the timer reaches zero. Pretty funny isn't it... that the boss will go away if you ignore it? I never tried that in real life yet. Keep it in mind for later stages, where keeping alive by dodging might be an alternative for dying while getting points. STAGE 3 Title: Surprise attack Mission: The 'ACID' unit that belongs to the number 201 Independent Armada is starting to make a feint alone. The goal of this mission is to secure the 'Marineris Spaceport' that has been occupied by the rebellion. Since this mission has been classified as extreme, no support will be available. Strategy: Rising out from the canyon in which Marineris Front Base is located, you will get a glimpse of the sun as it is set in the cyan sky of Mars. Hovering above you is the outline of something that looks like a machinated insect. You will find out its real nature later. Start on the bottom left of the screen and wait for the black hawk type of crafts to appear. On black hawk is immediately followed by two others on each side, forming a semi-circle formation. Their shots diverge nicely, and all you have to do is move slowly to the right to avoid the bullets. Take down the five fixed double turrets in the bunker with your piercing cannon and end with the command post in the centre of the bunker. Some goodies will appear which you can take down by reflecting gold. Don't expect to build any significant chain yet. After a pause things will start to get a bit crowded and dodging will have to be your main point of focus. Red and green Y-shaped crafts start materializing and they start shooting loads of bombs in a caterpillar-like pattern. Apart from this, there are quite a few fixed white ASA units on the ground that shoot long straight rays of bullets that can totally block your way. Both the Y-shaped crafts and the white ASA units are equally threatening, so you will just have to kill 'em all. Move in strokes between the patterns of bullets and use the GHB whenever you get trapped. Try to see the big picture in this maze of bullets. You will be rewarded for your endurance by a gold mine. Leading out from the right of the large square building (with the metal mushroom shaped radar posts) is a transport belt, which carries something that looks like ventilators or so. You can see only three of them, but in fact there is an unlimited number of them being transported away rapidly from the square building. This is a huge gold mine. Keep shooting them with your normal shot and you can get more than 400.000 xp's for this chain alone! Since this is such a fine gold mine i suggest you drop whatever you were doing when the ventilators get in sight. Never mind about the remaining enemies and bullets and start mining. You will survive. Watch out for the tanks that ride into battle just after the mine. They shoot from short range. Basically all you keep doing in the rest of this Stage is swirling from left to right and back. Keep this up when you come to the crossing where the large tracked artillery moves in. The black hawks deserve the main focus because they drop the most bombs. Boss: Remember this one from the beginning of the stage? Now you have a nice frontal view on this crabby bastard with its four ugly eyes. Start a little to the left at the bottom of the screen again. The boss will releases 14 blue balls that will make a formation on both sides of the boss and shoot a group of straight bullets. Quickly move to the left to avoid them and move slowly to the right directly afterwards to avoid the next series. Activate your GHB before the pink bombs from the boss reach you and detonate it on the head of this mutant war machine. Avoid the random moving purple force fields, and stay in the center of the boss. He will start to fire his Goalkeeper / Vulcan Phalanx in a straight line down. As a result of its own movement, the bullets will form two zigzag lines between which you have to move as if driving a Formula-1 race. This will give you enough time to reload your GHB for the next scene, where the boss will fire a spiral pattern of blue bullets. Reflect for maximum impact. You will be done with him - or maybe need one or two pierces. Collect the +300 in gold while crab seems to get cooked. STAGE 4 Title: Red sky project Mission: With the success of the feint mission, the spaceport has been secured. The decision has been made to alter the next assignment to mission code 075. The ACID unit should assemble with the fleet and destroy the remaining enemy forces. Keep in mind that there is a powerful gravity source high up in the air and in the Antarctic. Strategy: Congratulations if you made it until here on one coin. Your skills will start to look impressive to the layman, but in the light of what is ahead, you merely passed the warm-up. So let's move on. Start this stage by flying through the bullets for as long as you are invincible - that is 4 seconds - to get the best aim at your opponents. Incoming from the right are 6 silver rotating darts, which you already know from Stage 1. In the middle a formation of 4 blue space-shuttle-like crafts moves in. Their bullets come in blocks of two rows with about 10 bullets per row. The short interval with which they fire allows you to move in for a kill. Using the piercing cannon almost exclusively gives the best results, especially if you kill the blue enemies before they come into the screen. The piercing cannon is ideal for the upcoming spaceships as well, because each gunturret takes one piercing shot. First another 6 silver darts come in, followed by another group of 4 blue shuttles. In the meanwhile, on the left side of the scene the spaceship arrives. When the front deck of this ship has traveled half of the screen, your invincibility will be at an end. Get ready to use a GHB to get some space again. You may want to reflect bullets. The presence of the huge battleship and a steady stream of bullets are the right ingredients for a great chain. However, staying alive is starting to become a bit of an issue at this point as well. The battleship has a number of defending turrets, which are aligned in the following way: X X X X X x x x x x X x x x X While you take this ship apart piece by piece with your piercing cannon, i suggest you make an occasional sortie to the side to wipe the blue shuttles from the sky. The second spaceship from the rebellion fleet will arrive and you can take it apart as well, using a GHB only when things get crowded. You will come to the mid-boss shortly after this. It looks like a capital X. Start with the piercing cannon on its upper right side, where its first attack mode won't reach you. Use the Mosquito yet when the linear blue bullets come in and reflect on him. It will take him down if you have done well. Collect the gold and the Player-up. In the next part of the stage the golden H-crafts spread an ocean of bullets. These golden H-crafts have been incredibly offense all through the game, but this time things get extra crowded because there are so damn much of them. You have to stay on one side and move from down to halfway the screen until the bullets surround you. Use a quick Mosquito to pass through the bullets half way to the other side of the screen, and take the rest on invincibility. The other side is still relatively empty when you arrive, and you can repeat the same tactic moving up as the bullets come at you. You will have a full meter just in time to escape to the other side of the screen with a short Mosquito again. I did not encounter the powerful gravity source that is mentioned in the mission statement. There is no difference in the refill or drain speed of the GHB. Pre-boss: Before you will get to the final boss you will have to pass the enormous purple blue enemy command ship 'Exodus' that spans the entire screen. Immediately after its arrival, i advice you to start working on its rocket exhausts with your piercing cannon. It won't do any damage at first, but it will add to your score. From the moment it will take damage, you will need two piercing shots for each exhaust pipe. Continue with another two pierces for both the cupolas above the exhaust pipe. Don't use a GHB on the middle gun turret, but gather as much bullets with the Mosquito as you can and reflect on it. Reflecting with this amount of bullets will take it down at once, while a GHB won't. When fighting this ship, keep in mind that most of the cupola's can be destroyed before they start shooting. Take down the long oval turret that shoots the pink bombs on the left with just one pierce. Move directly to the one on the left and dismantle it with 4 pierces. Now you have a rare break in the continual shoot-out this game presents, and you can you use it wisely by destroying as many separate units of this ship as you can. Move to the left side of the screen when the upper central turret starts shooting, because it will be easy to start avoiding bullets from there. Use a GHB when the ship starts moving to the left, to reveal the shooting platform on the right side. Empty your GHB on that one, and give it whatever pierces it needs after that. Once again you will have a moment of peace in which you can destroy the ship in a more comfortable way. Stay on the outer edge of the screen when the bullets start coming in again. It is easy enough to avoid them up to the point where the ship starts moving down. Use your mosquito and you have made it! ...Passed the pre-boss that is. Don't bother to destroy the last central turret of the ship, because it can soak up an awful lot of damage. If you do manage to destroy it, it will spew forth a jet of gold cubes until it disappears from the screen. If you were quick you'll get a +150 chain from that. In any case, shoot it for some extra points as soon as it stops throwing bombs. Boss: This boss reminds me of one of those Swiss army knifes when you fold everything out. Be that as it may, it is definitely the hardest boss so far. Give it 5 pierces after the 'ready-flash' and move to the lower right side. Trace the moves of the boss to avoid the bullet whip and to slide between the spaces in the bullet front. I use one GHB when the rain of bombs starts falling. Then i die and use another GHB. Staying in the middle and dodging bullets by moving up and down works for the next series. The vertical line shaped bullets are harder to dodge than i assumed, the first time they came at me. Small and delicate moves do the trick. If you continued your normal shot while doing this, you will kill the boss with about 40 seconds left on the timer. Get ready for Stage 5. Just as in Area 5 of Rayforce you head towards the darkness. STAGE 5 Title: True darkness Mission: The remaining enemy armada and the enemy command ship 'EXODUS' have been destroyed. At this time, the enemy's remaining forces are assumed to be down to 20% approximately. The mission is now entering the final phase. Our fleet will stay in orbit, backing up the ACID unit, while you attack the headquarters of the enemy. Strategy: Those who get to level 5 on one coin have definitely been able to cross a boundary of some sort. There are a numerous who can make it to level 4, but i have not heard of very few who made it to level 5 on the Original Arcade. I have not been able to do it myself, and for that reason i don't consider myself worthy to write this part of the walkthrough. I call upon those who did it, to be an inspiration and guide for those who are destined as well. Please mail me at Finaxos@yahoo.com. STAGE 6 Title: Forbidden fruit Mission: no data Strategy: - I am not worthy yet again. ========================================================================= 7. MISCELLANEOUS ========================================================================= ENDING December 13, AD 2309 The rebellion has been crushed and the Mars independence wars have come to an end. Needless to say, ACID Unit has made a strong name for themselves. But despite the victory, what was the true purpose of this war? The Federal Government has been investigating, but the truth has yet to surface. There are many different opinions, but no real conclusions. It will be only a matter of time before the investigation closes and all the questions will be left unanswered. But within the ashes of Mars, people slowly began to rebuild their homes and lives. They do not care about the controversy of the war, they only know that they want to start rebuilding their homes and lives on Mars. After the war, civilization improved in all areas. The technology of Infinity was utilized for the P.N.T., Planetary Network System. People began to immigrate to planets outside the Solar System. Also, the Neuro Network System 'EDEN' has been installed, which controls all the systems in the planets. Peace has finally been restored... [The last image is a petal of the rose. At this point you will be allowed to enter your initials.] STAFF PROJECT 'RED ALERT' Takumi Programmer: Takafumi Nishi, Kaju Ishii, Toshihiko Onodera, Naoto Sakurada Object designer: Ken Taketoshi, Tatsuhiro Suzuki, Hiroki Akiyama, Yuki Ootou Scroll designer: Kazumi Yogi, Tadahiro Mukaide, Akemi Ootaka Music composer: Yasushi Kaminishi Sound programmer: Masahiro Yuge Concept Mechanic design: Choco, Shorp, Nadialove Kitty, Norihiro Takikawa Planning: Ikuwo Satoh Producer: Yukikazu ozaki Executive producer: Tomoaki Fujimoto Capcom Producer: Tatuya Minami Support: R&Dept. #3, Tomoshi Sadamoto Presented by Capcom Developed by Takumi SECRETS There are number of places where a specific mode of operation will trigger score- or xp bonuses. The following is a list of secrets that i have encountered so far: Red tank in Stage 2 While you finish off the lobsters at the beginning of Stage 2 a little red tank may appear on the mountain ridge at the middle right side of the screen. The order to finish of the first five lobsters is 1,3,1,2,3, based on the divisions in columns as presented in the walkthrough chapter. After finishing these lobsters fast enough the red double cannon tank will appear. The base score bonus for blowing up this little tank is around 1 oku. Destroying the tank has no further effect on the score or difficulty level. Teapots in Stage 2: Three teapots will appear when you destroy the first three square gun turrets at the left side at your point of entrance of Marineris Front Base. Use your piercing cannon from right to left and do not damage any other ground artillery before the gun turrets are down. When you shoot anything after that the teapots will pop up. You can get a base score bonus of about half an oku for each teapot. Teapots in Stage 3: At the start of Stage 3 you will arrive at a large bunker. The order in which you destroy the bunker determines whether or not you will reveal the hidden score bonus. If you destroy all the black double turrets first and end with the middle piece of the bunker, ten teapots will appear. The remains of each turret will turn into a gas stove on which the teapot is heated. Shooting the teapots will give you a score of around a 1 or 2 oku per teapot. So the 10 teapots are good for an addition to your score of a two-digit number in red. Last picture in DC gallery: The last picture in the image gallery of the DC version is completely blank, except for a kettle on a stove in the bottom right corner. Those designers at Takumi must have had something going for these teapots. Maybe they scheduled test-playing the stages at tea-time. TECHNICAL DATA This paragraph is intended for reference for those blessed arcade purists that either have, or intend to build a cabinet with an original Japanese Mars Matrix board. The data are available all over the net, but i have included them because i prefer to have a summary at hand in this document. Table of menufunctions ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Input Test (test the buttons and joysticks) 2) Output Test 3) Sound & Voice Test 4) Color Test 5) Dot Cross Hatch 6) Game Data (Coin Counter) 7) Game Settings 7.1) - Difficulty 1-8 (factory setting=4) - Number of ships (factory setting=3) 7.2) - Coins per play and continue - Continue on/off - Monitor flip - Attract sound on/off/half volume - Sound Qsound/mono 8) Memory check Table of Hardware specs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conversion class: Capcom CPS II Jamma Screen type: raster Screen orientation: horizontal Screen aspect: 4x3 Resolution x: 384 pixels Resolution y: 224 pixels Colors used: 4096 Video frequency: 59.63 Hz Joystick: Sanwa JLF-TM-8T Sound: Capcom Q-Sound, amplified stereo ------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVIL CHEMISTRY The outer shell of Mars Matrix appears to be nothing more or less than a hard-core genocide shooter. However, the game contains subtle hints of a deeper layer and a message of another kind. Appendix 1 shows the image of the Kircher Tree of Life, which is visible in flashes in the introductional scenes of the game. Beyond it is yet another image... I intend to release this paragraph when the game has achieved cult status and when i have finaly worked out for myself the conceiled nature of the game. DESCENDED MASTERS Gathered below are the names of the Descended Masters, those that have made it into Stage 5, the stage of True Darkness. These Masters have conquered the Four Elemental Stages and have been initiated into the Pentagon of War by the Fifth. Stooped down into the Red Ray of Mars, the Descended Masters have proved by their powerful Will and the red color of Mars, to be worthy of partaking in the Forbidden Fruit which lies beyond human endeavor, being the Sixth and Final Stage. May these hiscores be a guide and inspiration for those that are destined to descend onto Mars. Since few players have revealed themselves as being able to made it into Stage 5, for the time being i will just list the top hiscores of dedicated Mars Matrix players. Please send your score to Finaxos@yahoo.com so i can complete the list. In a future version of this FAQ i hope this list will be dedicated exclusively to those that have made it to Stage 5 or beyond. Table of hiscores ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rank Name Score Xp Ship Stage E-mail address ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1st XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 2nd XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 3rd XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 4th XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 5th XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 6th XXX 0000.0000.0000 00000000 02 0 @ 7th KAI 744.8270.2480 734326 02 5 Kaihawaii@hotmail.com 8th F 382.6933.0480 672045 02 4 Finaxos@yahoo.com 9th DPF 245,1478,8152 ? 02 4 10th LAO 174.2632.3890 150683 01 4 Leandro_u2@iq.com.br ========================================================================= 8. DREAMCAST ========================================================================= Mars Matrix owes part of its fame to the Dreamcast version. Even though the DC version of the game may not be the real thing, it comes pretty close and has a lot of extra's that make it fun to play. In this chapter i will give a quick overview of DC matters, so that the Arcade player at least knows what the Sega player is talking about. The Dreamcast version has three score modes. I willgive a quick overview of these below. ARCADE MODE According to the booklet this is "A perfect conversion from the original game". Well, forget it! It is not. Unfortunately the specific scores per craft are different, and possibly the scoring system as well. On the Dreamcast you will easily score a factor three higher than on the Original Arcade. Other than that, the game is indeed identical. It is the same in regards to speed and number of bullets as the Arcade with factoy settings (difficulty 4). If you use a PAL-DC with Utopia bootdisk, it will be 20% slower, so make sure to use the DC-X in that case. As in the Original Arcade, putting the game to difficulty 8 will not change the speed, but only slightly increases the number of bullets the enemies shoot. The difference between difficulty levels is just a nuance, so the balance of the game is not disturbed. ELITE MODE Elite mode is an enhanced mode in the sense that you can adjust various options like combo time, ship speed and GHB charge speed. There are two Elite modes: A and B. - Elite mode A is almost a completely new game. The background graphics and the bosses are the same, but all other enemy ships and formations differ from the arcade mode. It is definately a lot of fun and almost equally addictive as the Arcade Mode. - Elite mode B uses the same line-up as arcade mode. SCORE CHALLENGE MODE Score challenge mode has a special feature: killing an enemy with the piercing cannon results in a spray of small stardust gold cubes. Each counts as a regular +1 in any chain, so you chains go skyhigh. The ringing of the gold cubes all through this stage is very enjoyable and you can move up to level 8 in just one stage. EXTRA'S Since cd's can pack a lot more information than the outdated CPSII, Sega managed to include a lot of extra's. A long intro, a shop where you can buy all kinds of options, A gallery with pictures and last but not least: Strategy modes. There is one strategy mode for each stage, which gives a replay of a very proficient player. The strategies that are shown are a great inspiration but are by no means the ultimate way to play Mars Matrix. Even though the player in those replays is more skillfull than i am, i found strageties that yield higher scores and more gold. This is the beauty of Mars Matrix. No matter how many times you have played it, you will improve and find better ways to maximize your score everytime you play it. ========================================================================= 9. REVISION HISTORY ========================================================================= v1.2, 3 October 2003: - updated chapter about score; - rearranged chapters to a more logic set-up; - added the paragraphs secrets and technical data; - added a chapter about the Dreamcast version; v1.1, 1 June 2003: - added a copyright statement; - added a paragraph about the grinder; - added a paragraph about getting killed; - added the hitbox figures; - added tactics for maximal xp score in Stage 1; - added a walkthrough for Stage 4 and improved the walkthrough chapter as a whole; - updated hiscore list; - added revision history. v1.0, 6 May 2003: - basic set-up. ========================================================================= 10. SPECIAL THANKS ========================================================================= I want to send out special thanks to the following: - AlchemistA, for sharing his insights about the evil chemistry of the game; - Kai Albrecht, for sharing the screenshots of his excellent Stage 1 xp combo's and his translation of the menu options of his Japanese B-board. - Leandro Almeida, for the detailed description of some hyper solid tactics to maximize xp level in Stage 1. I love that line: '...and tbe screen will be infestined with gold!' - MrMonkeyman, for giving me info on the number of xp's needed for level 7 and 8 and for his efforts in comparing Original Arcade and DC Arcade; - Randorama for taking the time to answer some of my many questions; - Shmups shooterforum at www.shmup.com, www.the-nextlevel.com and sheep's www.world-of.arcades.com; - Takumi, for making the greatest shooter ever! From now on, i will have to try every single shooter from this company. I guess i'll start with High Raine, although it just can't get any better than Mars Matrix. ========================================================================= Appendix 1 =========================================================================