Darius Alpha Full FAQ/Walkthrough For The Pc Engine/Turbo Grafx 16 By Kenshin Zlash (Kenshin_zlash@juno.com) ============================================================================== -------- Contents -------- i. Version Info I. Legal Stuff II. Introduction III. Story IV. Controls V. Screen Display VI. Weapons VII. Walkthrough VIII. Ending IX. Closing ============================================================================== i. Version Info ============================================================================== 10/18/02--v1.0-Everything is complete. -Well it seems that you can only make it to Zone Y. If anyone knows about, or finds out if there is a Zone Z and how to get there, email me about it. 11/05/02-- -Only a small legal update ============================================================================== I. Legal Stuff ============================================================================== This FAQ is property of Kenshin Zlash. This FAQ is only allowed to be put up on: (1) gameFAQs.com, (2) Any site owned by the author. No one except the sites listed may use this FAQ. PERIOD! You are allowed to print and distribute this FAQ freely as long as no money is paid for it. If anyone makes money off this FAQ, it better be me. Anyone caught taking this guide as their own at any time will be severely punished. ============================================================================== II. Introduction ============================================================================== I came across this game while on the hunt for more side-scrolling shooters for my Pc Engine. I thought it would be like Darius Plus, but its much different. This game can be described as "Darius Boss Game", as you only fight bosses in this game. As soon as you start, your facing a boss. When you defeat that boss, another boss comes up. Mind you this game is very difficult, as the only way I can ever see passing some bosses is if you didn't die previously. The only thing this game is missing is the warning saying "WARNING: GIANT BATTLE SHIP IS APROACHING FAST!". Now climb into your Silver Hawk and lets take some fish down! ============================================================================== III. Story ============================================================================== Uhh....I have no idea what the story to this game is. I'll just make some thing up to keep you all entertained. :P The year is...after the first Darius and your base has found out that there are still some giant battle ships left on the planet Darius. So they send your lone ship into the "Alpha Zone" to defeat them all. Blah. Just play the game... ============================================================================== IV. Controls ============================================================================== Button Function ------ -------- Up Moves Silver Hawk Up Down Moves Silver Hawk Down Left Moves Silver Hawk Back (toward left of screen) Right Moves Silver Hawk Forward (toward right of screen) Select Press this at the Title screen to have a Timed Game Run Starts the game when pressed at title screen; Pauses game A Fires gun B Drops bombs Run+Select Quits to the title screen ============================================================================== V. Screen Display ============================================================================== Ok, wondering what those things on the top of your screen are? Ok here you go: 0 Time Proco| Zone o Miss o Bomb o Arm | | [][][][][][][] [][][][][][][] [][][][][][][] | | Ok so what's all this mean? "MISS" is short for Missile. This bar tells you what level your normal gun is at, as well as which gun it is. "BOMB" tells what level your bombs are at, and which bombs they are. "ARM" tells what level your shields are at. Also tells what shield it is. The Number above Bomb is your score. The number above Arm is time. Proco is just a picture of your ship. You enter a new zone every time the background color changes. It seems the letter at the top of the screen doesn't change. ============================================================================ VI. Weapons ============================================================================ Everytime you beat a boss, you gain more power-ups making you more powerful. If you die, you lose your power-ups. If you beat multiple enemies without losing, you become more powerful. Here is a listing of each weapon in the order you get them: ---- Guns ---- 1. Missile (normal single shot) 2. Double Shot 3. Triple Shot 4. Laser (straight beam) 5. Better Laser 6. Even better laser 7. Even better laser 8. Even better laser 9. Even better laser 10. Wave beam (VERY powerful gun) 11. Lvl. 1 Wave Beam 12. Lvl. 2 Wave Beam 13. Lvl. 3 Wave Beam 14. Lvl. 4 Wave Beam 15. Lvl. 5 Wave Beam ----- Bombs ----- 1. Regular Bomb 2. More Powerful Bomb 3. Even more Powerful bomb 4. Twin Shot bomb (goes up and down) 5. Better Twin Shot Bombs 6. Even better bombs 7. Even better bombs 8. Even better bombs 9. Even better bombs 10. 4-way bombs (two in front, two in back) 11. Lvl. 1 4-way 12. Lvl. 2 4-way 13. Lvl. 3 4-way 14. Lvl. 4 4-way 15. Lvl. 5 4-way ------- Sheilds ------- 1. Normal Shield 2. Better Shield 3. Even better shield 4. Super Shield 5. Better Super Shield 6. Even better super shield 7. Even better super shield 8. Even better super shield 9. Even better super shield 10. Hyper Shield 11. Lvl. 1 Hyper Shield 12. Lvl. 2 Hyper Shield 13. Lvl. 3 Hyper Shield 14. Lvl. 4 Hyper Shield 15. Lvl. 5 Hyper Shield ============================================================================ VII. Walkthrough ============================================================================ Ok lets get some ground rules set up before we start this guide: -Taking too long during a fight will cause these red box enemies (the ones that gave you power-ups in previous Darius games) to attack you. They are very hard to kill. -At the beginning of each boss fight, these little circle enemies with come out of no where and fly around the boss randomly. Shoot them for some more points. -Beating every boss will give you another power-up. -You fight through the "Alpha Zones". Each zone (every time the background color changes) has an alphabet letter. -Every boss will be grey when it is appearing on the screen. You'll have a few minutes until the color comes up and it'll attack. --------------------- Boss 1 - Queen Fossil --------------------- I got the name for this boss from Darius Twin, a boss with almost the same attack. Anywho, this is your first boss and you better get used to beating him with no problem. He has three weak points: His backfin, his lower fin, and his mouth when it is open. He attacks by opening his mouth and shooting four shots at you. There are two methods you can kill this guy with. You can stay in front of the mouth and shoot it while dodging his shots, or you can stay above him and drop bombs on his mouth. I choose the second, because I don't loose at all with that technique. -------------------- Boss 2 - Sea Anenome -------------------- I probably spelled that wrong, but as you can tell, its a giant plant. The weakpoint is the center of the plant. It has three petals that shoot out these annoying little guys that follow you around all day. Here's the problem: if you don't destroy those little monsters as soon as they appear, the boss will continue shooting them out and you'll have almost no chance of escape. And you'll want to stay alive to keep your double shot too. Now, shoot at the center of the plant, and watch out for those lasers. As soon as the boss shoots out those homing enemies, kill them. Repeat. ------------------ Boss 3 - Manta Ray ------------------ This guy's easy. His two weakpoints are those bright yellow bars on his wings. He attacks by shooting lasers out of those bars, which can be easily dodged by staying between them. He also shoots those little homing enemies out of his tail, this time they're more easier to kill. So all you must do is keep blasting at a yellow bar on the wings of the boss. Stay between his shots. Then shoot all his homing enemies. Keep blasting at him until both yellow bars are gone, and he'll be dead. ------------------- Boss 4 - Angel Fish ------------------- Yep. Its a giant Angel Fish. This guy's a push over. His attacks are a tackle, where he dashes toward the left of the screen, and he spits out smaller angel fish that, when shot, break into three. The small angel fish are easy to dodge. Just shoot them as they come out and move out of the way. You can shoot his long top and bottom fins which are easily broken off. Then just shoot at the mouth all day and he'll be dead soon. ---------------- Boss 5 - Lobster ---------------- This guy's pretty easy too. He has two claws that he shoots two way bullets out of. You can shoot those off to make things easier, just be sure to stay between the shots. After that, he will shoot shots at you with pellets. You have to shoot where those pellets are coming out of. Also, beware his lasers that come from his mouth. -------------- Boss 6 - Shark -------------- This one is quite a challenge. He has one attack that is very hard to avoid. He shoots out a blast from his mouth that is _very_ fast. His mouth is his weakpoint, but you'll be right in front of it, and you might be caught by surprise. After doing that, he'll shoot six of those dumb homing enemies. Kill them all before starting continuing. He also tackles like the angel fish did. ------------- Boss 7 - Crab ------------- You'll notice something strange here: no little ball things! Anyways, the crab will fall from above. He has a huge claw, which you must drop bombs on to break off. He has this attack where he shoots bullets all over the screen, so stay between the shoots. He also has this attack that comes from his head that are lasers that go straight up and then go left or right to hit you (where ever you are on the screen). Worse is when he'll do both attacks at the same time. The green shots can be blocked with your gun, but the lasers won't. Now once you break the arm, the boss will go crazy and start shooting these green balls that follow you while jumping around and shooting the green balls that go all over the screen. The easiest way to deal with this is to stay at the mouth level of the boss and shoot. do NOT shoot the green balls that are following you. Instead, keep moving in circles while shoooting at the boss to avoid them. He'll die pretty quickly. Destroying the green balls will cause him to shoot more out. ----------------------------- Boss 8 - Porgesues Man of War ----------------------------- This guy's a pushover if you know what to do. Stay under his eye level, as moving over his eye level will make him shoot thousands of lasers at you. Dodge his three way shots and shoot all the homing enemies he throws at you. Keep shooting the tentacles to stop them from coming. After that you can shoot away at his mouth to finish him off. And some of those red box enemies will come after a while, since it might take you a while to beat him. ----------------- Boss 9 - Plankton ----------------- Yes, this is indeed one HUGE plankton. I can't even believe this is a boss. It is so easy you won't believe it. This guy shoots two way bullets up in the air, and cresent shots from his tail. Just stay in the center and keep shooting and you won't get hurt. He releases three little plankton on the ground and then they shoot one shot from where you are. Simply wait til the last minute and move forward, then back to where you were. It really is that simple. ------------------- Boss 10 - Swordfish ------------------- Another easy one. Stay at the same level of his top fin, and you'll get shot at with 5 lasers. They are very slow. Stay at the same level as his bottom side and you'll be shot at with 4 or 5 shots which can be easily dodged. You can shoot off either fin, but the weak point is the mouth. Out of his mouth he shoots fireballs. Just keep blasting away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: If you were able to keep all your power-ups up to here, you'll get a wave beam, hyper shield, and 4-way bombs! The game is a peice of cake (sorta) from here on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Boss 11 - Hermit Crab --------------------- So easy. If you have your hyper-beam by now, just shoot away at the body. He just drops bombs that can be blocked, and when you see the gun at the top of the shell aiming at you, move away because he's gonna blast a laser at you. ----------------------- Boss 12 - Hermit Crab 2 ----------------------- Even easier. He shoots those homing enemies at you, so again, blast them down. Shoot at the body, while dodging those easy three way shots. He also has this cresent shot that works as a boomerang, so move around it when it is shot. ------------------- Boss 13 - Star Fish ------------------- The weakpoint is the center, only when it is lit yellow. This guy shoots out red homing beams. They are slow enough to be dodged. He shoots out smaller starfish that, when shot, turn into pellets that come straight at you (they do not home in on you). Just keep shooting away and you'll be done soon. ------------------ Boss 14 - SeaHorse ------------------ This game is starting to remind you of a trip to the aquarium huh? This guy is hard even if you have every power-up. He shoots 4 sets of 2-way shots at you. Don't think of going between them. You'll have to manuever around them. He shoots out those homing enemies that are oh-so-common by now. Aim at the head to kill. Also avoid that little laser he shoots at you from his tail. ----------------- Boss 15 - Octopus ----------------- This one is also tough. He only has 6 legs that you need to kill. The legs shoot out those darned homing enemies. He shoots out three way shots three at a time. Stay between the shots while firing. Also, don't go over his head level or you'll pretty much be killed by his lasers. He dies when all his legs are gone. ------------------ Final Boss - Squid ------------------ I hate this guy! He has two long arms that shoot huge fireballs at you where ever you are on the screen. He shoots a multi-directional fireball and he shoots like 5 lasers from his mouth! This guy is such a pesk! Do your best to dodge everything while trying to kill him. You must destroy all three parts to kill him. This guy is very hard. ============================================================================ VIII. Ending ============================================================================ Horay! You finally beat that pesky Squid, the master of the Darius Alpha Zone!* So after flying down this long tunnel, your ship will fly out and the heroes will be staring out at the sun, proud of their acomplishment. *Note: I just made up most of this stuff. ============================================================================ IX. Closing ============================================================================ After playing R-Type III, I've really turned into a side scroller freak. I've been on the hunt for almost all the Side-Scrolling shooters on Pc Engine ever since my cousin gave me his. Look for more side-scrolling shooter game FAQs from me!