1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 ¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬ REZ ¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬-¬ Contents 1. Story 2. Explanation 3. Controls and Pickups 4. Play Mode Walkthrough a. Area 1 b. Area 2 c. Area 3 d. Area 4 e. Area 5 Infiltration f. Area 5 Bosses 5. Score Attack 6. Unlockables 7. Enemies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Story ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The world has become massively overpopulated. The rapidly expanding network society has been crippled by rising crime rates and is on the verge of meltdown. A new system, 'Project-K', has been created in an attempt to resolve the situation. At the core of the system is an artificial intelligence centre named 'Eden'. Eden has more advanced A.I. than any machine that has ever previously existed. It has the ability to process vast amounts of information at once, and to use that information to form its own uniquely advanced independent thoughts. Some would say that Eden has even developed a degree of conscience. However, Eden became confused when the flow of information being sent to it began to greatly increase in speed and volume. It started to question the meaning of its existence and the consequences of its actions. Finding itself surrounded by paradoxes, and realizing the power of autonomy it possessed, Eden began to shut itself down. Now you are about to travel into the cyberspace of the Project-K network on a mission to reawaken Eden. You must gain access to each area and layer level of the system, destroying any viruses and firewalls you encounter. OPEN YOUR SENSES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Explanation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It can be a little tricky to fully explain this game, but you'll quickly pick up the idea as you play. You start off with the following options at the main menu. Travelling - This mode is like practice, letting you play through a level that you've unlocked without fear of being damaged. Play - For lack of a better term to describe it, this is Story mode. Selecting this will take you to the Sub-system select screen. Options - Various settings, such as vibration or reversing the up/down controls. How to Play - A little movie tutorial. Once you've cleared an Area in Play Mode, you will unlock Score Attack. Later on, you'll unlock Beyond, which has plenty of extra options and bonuses. Subsystem Select Screen. This screen gives you access to the network sub-systems or 'Areas'. Initially you'll only be able to enter Area 1. Other Areas will be unlocked as you progress through the network. The statistics for each Area that you have cleared will be shown in the bottom right of the screen. Analyzation - percentage of layer levels you accessed. Shot Down - percentage of enemies you destroyed. Support Item - percentage of pick-ups you collected. Warning: Exiting this screen will reset your status to the default first form. "Hacking Procedure" Before you gain access to Eden, you must unlock the various Area subsystems by destroying the viruses (virii?) that inhabit them. Each Area is made up of two phases. Infiltration, where you must destroy the viruses to hack into the system and the Boss phase, where you face the firewall boss of this area, protecting the network core. Or to put it more simply, the flying along shooting little things phase and the taking down the big thing phase. Areas are unlocked in sequence, 1-4. To unlock Area 5, you must achieve 100% analyzation in Areas 1-4 by shooting all of the Network Openings in a stage. The 4 'firewall' Bosses come in Mega, Giga and Tera versions, each one meant to be progressively tougher, with varient attacks. Which one you'll face depends on your shot down % during the infiltration stage. I believe that it is 98% or more for Tera, 90-98% for Giga and under 90% for Mega. You get 20000 points for killing the Tera form of a boss, 10000 for Giga. I'm not sure about Mega. The first 4 Areas are made of 10 layer levels. To enter a new layer level, first destroy the password protector, then shoot the network opening 8 times. (Or fully lock on for a MAX shot). The Network opening is basically a cube with a shiny light inside, carried around by a little flying thing (the password protector). You'll get to recognize them, you see plenty and almost all of them are pretty hard to miss. Evolution You have 6 forms, with a special Final Form that shows up in Area 5. You start off at Level 01 and filling your progress guage with progress items levels you up. Each time you get hit, you go down a level. Here are the forms. In Byond mode, once you unlock them, you can set form and the laser type you shoot. Listed here are the default lasers each form shoots, along with the number of that laser in Byond mode. Level 00 - A white sphere made of trianges. (Laser ) Level 01 - Humanoid figure made of horizontally aligned squares. Shoots lasers directly to the target.(Laser ) Level 02 - Skeletal polygonal humanoid figure. Shoots a line of smokey white balls. (Laser ) Level 03 - A humanoid figure, with silvery skin. Laser traces a path at right angles to the target. (Laser ) Level 04 - A human figure doing yoga poses, within a sphere of squares. Shoots lasers from the panels of the sphere to the targets.(Laser ) Form 05 - Tricky to describe. A sphere, surrounded b a webwork of polygons that pulse to the beat. Lasers appear from various directions that go through the target. (Laser ) Final Form - Small baby-like figure within a couple rotating circles. Lasers similar to Form 6, with a different sound and colour. (Laser ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Controls and Pick-ups. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can change the controls in the menus, and the game explains them as well, but here are the controls anyway. Along with a few very minor tips. X button: Shoot. Move your cursor over an enemy and press this button to fire. You can hold it down and get lock-ons to multiple enemies, up to 8 at once. Release the button to fire. When score matters, its better to get as many lock-ons as possible before firing, since the score for the enemy shot down is multiplied by the number of lock-ons. You frequently can't get up to MAX, but its worth it to get as much as you can without letting enemies slip by. O button: Overdrive. Your overdrive meter is on the bottom right, picking up overdrive items increases the gauge by one. When used, everything on screen is destroyed, or at least constantly attacked, for a limited time. I tend to store these for moments of emergency but there are a few times when you need to use one just to get 100% shot down. The right analogue stick or D-pad move your laser sight (the box) around the screen. You are moving on a predetermined route and cannot dodge missiles, only shoot them down, but you can turn yourself around using these controls as well. You have 150 degree range of viewpoint in the Infiltration Phase and 360 degree in Boss Phase. Start button is pause. In menus, X is confirm and O is cancel. There are several items you can get in the game, you pick them up by shooting them. You can also lock onto them, which can help increase your multiplier. Progress items are blue and increase your progress gauge, which leads to a higher form. Progress Nodes are a three-dimensional sort of X shapes, 6 square topped pyramid shapes joined together. (If anyone knows the name of these shapes, it'd be appreciated.) They increases your progress gauge by one. There is also the 3xProgress Node, which increases the gauge by 3 and is almost spherical in shape. Overdrive items are red, made up of triangular prisms joined together, and increase your number of overdrives, up to the maximum of 4. Finally, Point Items, which increase your scrore. These show up during Score Attack and Direct Assault and look like green cylinders. (To be exact, like octagonal prims with elongated square cupola on the ends.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Walkthrough ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is hard to do a walkthrough of this game as it can come down to a certain level of reflexes, precision and timing, or memorization, on the part of the player. A walkthrough would mostly just be a list of the patterns of enemies coming at you, something which playing through the game a few times would much more effectively teach you. If you're not getting 100% analyzation though, or are having trouble getting 100% shot down/support item, this might help a little though. Bear in mind that the enemy groups are very different in some of the modes, this is accurate to the Play Mode. I will mention enemies by name, and note if they take more than one hit during the walkthrough. For more detail, see the enemies section. The names of enemies appear on the top left of the screen when playing, but the font is small and a tad ambiguous, so my names may be rather inaccurate. Also, it will be fairly obvious, but the music is tied closely to whats happening. Layers add more to the basic music, a hi-hat sound accompnies your laser sights, the enemies have noises when they die, which also changes tone to match the lock-on number. And your lasers have their own sounds too. I rather like the default laser for the Level 05 form, with its sampled voices. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4a. Area 1 -Complete- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layer 00: A nice easy start, with enemies that just take a single shot each. You encounter a pair of cv-1 on the right, who drop your first Progress item, then a pair of cv-1 on the left. This is followed by four on the right, four on the left, four on the right, four on the left. Then the password protector shows up, a little to the right. Layer 01: First off, two Lc, the one on the leftdrops an overdrive item. This will be helpful in a little while. Next, a group of 4 Lc swoop in from the sides. Rack them up, then take down the pair of Lc that come from the front, along with the password protector, and a pair from the sides. Layer 02: an Lc, then another which drop a Progress Node, followed by another pair from behind. While you take on those two though, 4 more are heading off to the distance in front of you, in the 4 corners. Next, 4 more Lc show up. They show up one by one, but you can still take them all down with a single shot. Right after that, your next new enemy shows up directly in front of you. Tm is another 1-hit enemy, but they tend to pop up from the 'ground' rather than swoop in from the sides. This first one drops a progress item and is soon followed by a pair of Tm straight ahead. Another pair quickly follow suit, the same area. Next, 4 show up; one pair on the left, one pair straight ahead. Then another quartet, one pair on the right, on straight ahead. At the same time, the password protector shows up, a little to the left. Layer 03: At the beginning of this layer, your view will go over to the left side. 4 cv-1s will fly by the middle of the screen, ready for a nice 4 shot. The view will then switch to the right side and 4 more will fly past. These are a lot closer, so you actually get a better look at these enemies. Same strategy, though perhaps move your sight down line as they pass, to catch them all sooner. You'll get a nice 3xProgress Node for them, down low. Next, view shifts back forwards and 6 Lc will sweep in in a circle formation. They drop a Progress Node. If you just started, this should level you up. Don't get distracted though, since pretty swiftly, rocket-shaped enemies will start showing up. This is likely the part of Area 1 that'll keep you from 100% shot down. These guys, the IF5, can zoom past you pretty quick and a bunch of them show up across the screen, so you'll probably want to use your overdrive. Shoot them down at first, tapping fire rather than getting multiple lock ons and any time it looks like they might sneak by, use the overdrive. Hopefully you were able to hold off long enough that it won't run out too soon. I lost count, I'd hazard that theres 20 or so in no particular pattern. After this, there'll be 12, arranged into three rows. Your overdrive probably ran out by now, so just sweep the cursor across the rows as fast as you can and remember to let go and re-press when you hit MAX, or close to. This last block move a little slower, thankfully. You get a progress node for that and the Network Opening shows up too. Layer 04: 4 Lc show up, followed quickly by the Network opening on the left and a pair of LC on either side. These two seem quicker in firing at you than the previous ones, but you get a progress node for them. Wow, short layer. Layer 05: Ooh, nice egyptian symbols. Anyway, starting off, cv-1 are showing up. These ones come in groups of 4 from underneath you and are pretty quick in looping back and off the screen, so don't dawdle. There are 4 groups of 4 and they alternate which side they show up on. With the 4th group, the Network Opening shows up. Layer 06: Up ahead in the distance, you can already lock onto the next new virus. The IV5-300, a blocky sort of enemy with 3 seperate targets to hit. Ones in the distance, you're likely to lock onto all three at once just by aiming at them though. Anyway, after you take out that one, another swoops in close to you and you'll get to see the IV5-300s attack. E_Shots, which are next to no threat, since they're not really aimed. Anyway, collect a progress node. A pair of them show up now, one in the distance, one close up and the moment you kill those, a third shows up above. This one drops an overdrive item. After that, 8 little cv-1s show up in front, in a nice pyramid shape. MAX shot them and get a progress item as prize. Next, more of those shuriken-like Tm pop up, 3 of them. Then 2 more pairs of them along with the the Network Opening. Layer 07: Three Tms right in front of you, followed by a pair a bit further away. These ones seem a little faster at trying to get a shot off. Then you get two, 1 on each side. Another pair, in the middle. The network opening shows up, along with 4 more Tm, one pair on each side. Layer 08: First up, 4 LCs dead ahead, which drop a Progress Node. This is followed by a pair of Lc. A little further on, another pair of Lc, coming in from behind. Nice and easy, huh? Next, 4 Lc straight ahead, which drop a progress node down low, followed by 6 more Lc in a V shape. Keeping up? The Network upening is up high, to the left a little and 3 shuriken Tms pop up. If you're having trouble, maybe try a quick shot to get the node, then hitting the Password protector along with the 6 Lc, then getting the three Tms along with 5 hits on the Network Opening? Layer 09: A nice little group of 4 Tms pop up to be blown away. Next, a pair appear, which drop a progress node. Then, a pair of them show up up close and another pair further away. Feel free to try to get all 4 in one. Next, another 4 Tm show up ahead, which drop a progress node. This is followed by 4 cv-1 flying overhead and a pair of Tm in the middle distance. The Network Opening shows up overhead, while a Tm pops up Little busy, try to keep an eye on Tms about to dive. Might want to use your other overdrive somewhere here or in the next layer, if you're having trouble getting 100%. Layer 10: Things have definately progressed since the first layer. You start off with 4 Tms popping up, while 4 cv-1 fly overhead. Then, 5 Tms pop up, one drops a progress node. Next, a couple Lc from behind. Following that, 4 Tms come up, this group are more spread out in both time and space, but there's still enough time to get all 4 with no problems. Keep an eye on on the left for a sneaky Tm that might be off screen if you just swept over to the right. There's also one on the right. (One of these drops a progress node.) With that done, theres more Tms to deal with. Again, they're staggered in the time they come up and there is more than 4 this time. Feel free to just lock onto 4 then shoot, then get the last two along with the node, if its easier. Next, a group of 4 LC dead ahead, just before the shift to Boss Phase. Relax and enjoy the little journey. Oh hey, what's that big round thing... I have mentioned above, but I'll say it again. All bosses come in Mega, Giga and Tera versions, each one meant to be progressively tougher, with different attacks. Which one you'll face depends on your shot down % so far. I've heard that it is over 98% for Tera, 90-98% for Giga and under 90% for Mega. I tend to get the Tera version a lot, and only extremely rarely encounter Mega so I'm not very familiar with the lower versions. You hopefully should be getting the Tera or at least Giga ones anyway, so for the boss sections I'll describe the Tera version of the boss, mentioning the differences for lower level versions. Bosses will self-destruct after a while, but doing that gets you no points in score attack or direct assault, etc, so you should definately be aiming to kill them before that. Boss: Earth Time to take down the Earth(Tera).bat firewall. You're faced with a big orange ball. This is the shell, surrounding the core. The squares are easily blasted away, so keep sweeping the cursor over the shell and firing every time you hit Max. When surrounded by the shell, Earth attacks with groups of 8 mines inside bubbles. Shoot the bubble, then all the mines. A max shot on all the mines would be nice, but you'll probably get a lock onto a bit of shell or another bubble/set of mines. It shoots a couple of these at a time, as Tera, but if you're quick on blasting away the shell, you still won't see much of the mines. Inside the shell, is the core, X shaped thing of tubes. When you've shot away the shell, (Or just shot away enough of the shell, or its health, for it to discard the rest of the shell with a sorta 'yell' noise)it changes its tactics. It starts to form 8 tentacles or tendrils from squares. You can keep shooting the core, but keep an eye on the tendrils. When the ends turn solid, with a green light on, you can attack them. These things take 8 hits each on Tera, but apparently you need to break it up into 2 shots of 4. Just spread a MAX shot evenly between two tentacles, twice. If allowed to finish the attack, they glow brighter, then shoot large green Bullets out of the end. The tentacles can be rather close when they fire, making it tricky to shoot these down sometimes. Generally, after it attacks with one pair of tentacles, it will start to use its other tentacle based attack. It will spin itself around, shooting bullets. These bullets will be going off into space and this part doesn't seem dangerous. After spinning through, it'll go back to trying to shoot you with Bullets and it'll use all of its remaining arms, 2 by 2. After it has lost all of the tendrils pause, it then starts to rebuild the shell. Be sure to unload plenty of shots into the Core between phases and while its rebuilding the shell, as well as getting early Max shots on shell and core alike. You shouldn't even see a single bubble/mine group. After forming the tendrils again though, it'll probably shoot off all its arms right away, before the spin attack. They will still be in pairs, but one pair may be firing while another pair is charging up. So work fast and be sure to get any bullets that get fired. As you reduce the bosses health, it will give the yell noise I mentioned earlier. Its pretty noticable, what with the loud drumbeat and many red circles that show up. Interesting sidenote, as you deal damage, the shell that it builds will be greyer and less orange. I don't see much other difference in the bosses behavior, though, so I assume its just cosmetic. Though perhaps the spinning or shooting is a little faster or more erratic. Regardless after further reducing its health, down to a quarter or less, it goes into its final phase. Turquoise squares appear, forming into rings. On Tera, it forms two rings, one horizontal, one vertical, on other difficulties, just one ring. Shooting the core, or these squares both hurt the boss, so you might as well aim for the squares (named Sentry) since they give points. The only way it attacks like this is for the squares to randomly peel off to transform to spinning bladed ships. With the multiple rings, these can show up in quite a large range, especially to the far left and right, so keep an eye out. Other than that, its a straight blast to the finish. Enjoy the fireworks. Differences for Giga: (Mega assumed to have these differences and less life) Less life. Only one bubble-mine at a time in Shell mode. Arms attack slower/not at the same time. One ring for final phase. Targets: Core (5000/10000/20000) The main target. You also get (800) each time it does the yell from taking enough damage. Shell (10) The squares that make up its round outer shell. 1 Hit each. Bubble (50) The shiny thing in the middle of the group of mines, forms protective layer around the mines, so you need to shoot first. 1 hit. Mine (10) Fired in groups of 8, in a circle, protected by 'Bubble'. 1 hit each. Arm (100) The undulating tendrils. Bullets (10) The things the arm shoots. 1 hit each. Sentry (10) These form a rotating ring around Earth and peel off to home in on you. Life differences: Tera: Arm-8 Core-Lots? Giga: Arm-4 Core-Less? Mega: Core-Least? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4b. Area 2 -Under verification- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layer 00: As usual, things start off easy. This is definately a few steps up from layer 1 of area 1 though. First, a row of 5 cv-2 come in. Shoot em all at once. They'll drop a progress node up ahead. There will be pairs of cv-2s coming. I get the first 2 on the left, the progress node and the two on the right in one shot. Getting the next three on the right would make for a max shot, but I usually fire early since I get nervy about things getting off screen. 3 more, bottom right, then 4 ahead. Another 4, the pairs now vertical. Then 4 on the left, 4 on the right. One of this group drops a progress node. Then you another 4 straight ahead, along with the Password Protector. Layer 01: Be quick, because you get 10 cv-2s coming at you right at the start, in a double row. Don't worry if you only get a single max shot and 2 get away though, because you'll turn round and get another shot at them, along with 2 more cv-2s and 2 BYP ships. Lock up and take your shots quick. Don't focus too much on the big ships, because 3 CV-2s, will be flying past. The single one on the right drops a progress node. A couple more Cv-2s, along with 2 more BYPs will be moving in, so keep blasting away at the round blob cores of the BYP ships, catching the little ships as you go. Keep an eye out for the nice little line of CV-2s, you'll turn around as they show, so you can continue to take on the remaining BYPs. Another Progress node will be yours, and then the Password Protector shows up on the left. Layer 02: 4 STX will swoop in at the start, pausing a bit to swish their wings before jetting off. Hopefully you've already shot them. 2 BYPs will come in from beneath, try for a Max shot on their core, get them with two MAX shots using their shields for extra hits if you don't manage. The password protector then shows up, but don't be too quick, another pair of STX show up, far left and right. Layer 03: Joy. An STX Nest. I find these a bit annoying, give them a max shot, then another. You often catch up some enemies around, or the ones it spawns, meaning you have to do a lower multiplier shot to finish them off. Anyway, an STX nest on the left and an STX on the right, along with whatever the nest spews out. After that, a Nest on the right, STX on the left, then another Nest, a bit to the left. After taking them out, 4 CV-2s show up on the right. Take them all out and enjoy the prize of an overdrive node. Quickly followed by the Password Protector on the left. Careful about being two quick here, because 4 CV2 sweep past from behind a second later. I usually forget these and have to quickly get lock ons and fire before the layer shifts. Layer 04: 4 STX straight ahead. View shifts to the left, where theres two BYP ships, one up close, one far away. 1 Max shot each, if you aim just at the cores. No problem. Killing these two though just causes another pair of BYP to show up. Take them down the same way, along with the two Cv-2 that show up in the middle. ANOTHER pair of BYP ships show up. If you didn't have the hang of shooting their cores before, you should by now. After this, 8 CV-2s show up. They're in an odd formation, 4 pairs, the one at the back lower than the one in front, but each pair higher than the pair in front, so you need to move your cursor down then up, down then up. You get more time to lock onto them, as the view shifts back to looking forwards if you miss, but a nice test of reflex if you did it right first time without this guide. Anyway, back on topic, 4 CV-2s show up dead ahead, a progress node on the left drops and the password protector shows up too. Snag it all. Layer 05: FE1 show up now. These guys take 4 hits, if you don't get those 4 locks on them and fire, they build 7 FE1_blocks like a circular shield. This thing gets in the way of locking onto them and hurts if you fly into it. Anyway, you get a pair of them, so MAX lock if you want, then another pair. Then, 2 FE1s straight ahead, while 2 BYP fly past beneath. Take down the FE1s quick, try to get off a Max shot on the core of the front BYP, then the pair of CV-2s that'll show up on the left, the pair that shows up on the right, Max shot the core of the other BYP, then deal with the FE1 that swoops in from behind. Got all that? Good, because there's also a progress node next to the FE1. Another Progress node also shows up, perhaps from the FE1. Its a little hard to tell where the drops come from sometimes. Anyway, the Password Pprotector, which I'll start just calling PP, shows up on the left, along with 2 FE1s in the middle. Also 4 CV-2s, so again, don't leave the layer too quick. Layer 06: Oooh, spikey. First off, FE1, soon joined by another. I usually stick to just getting the 4-lock here. After these two, who drop an overdrive node, an STX shows up on the left, along with a Nest on the right. Next, three STX on the left, and the PP on the right. Layer 07: 4 CV-2s fly past, then loop back, don't dawdle. View shifts right, where you meet 2 VT. These things ride along those energy wires and take a 6 lock. You could just take the pair out nice and quick like that, or wait for them to each fire 2 missiles, giving you a Max shot each. After them, 3 CV-2s fly down the middle. View shifts left, another pair of VT speeding alongside. One of these drops a progress node, as another pair of VT show up, same side but higher up. You might want to be quick here, because 3 CV-2s fly past the middle, then loop back, along with the PP showing up. The view shifts back forwards, so you can catch them before they vanish, but its never good to have to rush like that. Before you leave the layer, 4 CV-2s fly past at the top. Layer 08: First up, the IG5-8005, with its 8 little IG5-100s. Max shot the middle, then shoot the little things that surround it. 1 MAX shot for 2 arms, take them down before they laser you. Then another MAX shot for the main 8005 to finish it off. Hope you got the idea of how to deal with these from that. It drops a progress node, down low, and another IG5 comes in. About the time you're finishing that, another one comes in, top left. This one drops a 3x Progress Node, and the PP shows up behind it. 4 CV-2 show up, bottom left, before you leave. Layer 09: Pairs of CV-2 fly past, bottom left, 8 in total, but you'll probably have to break halfway to deal with the VT showing up on the right. Its energy rail isn't very even, so its a bit harder to aim at. You get 2 Progress Nodes though, from the CV-2s. Another VT shows up, followed by another. Keep an eye out down low though, theres 4 CV-2s around a BYP sneaking past, and another 2 BYP to the lower left. Deal with them, another VT shows up while you are. A 3x Progress Node drops from someone here. Also, 2 CV-2s show up on the left, followed by the PP. Layer 10: 2 FE1s, one of which drops a Progress Node, followed by another pair of FE1s. Don't let the Progress Node screw you up if you're trying to max shot the pair of FE1s. An IG5-8005 shows up in the middle after this, then you're off to the boss. Boss: Mars I find this one pretty fun. You're aiming for that little yellow core, but the amount of time you see it during this fight isn't all that much. Anyway, first step, take out those Claws. Just charge up a max shot, trying to start as early as possible and keeping the cursor away from the side it fires from. Hopefully you'll get 8 shots on just the claw, which'll kill it. If not, no worries, the bullets it fires will nicely fill out your multiplier. Later on, more claws will be firing at once, so you might not be able to be patient in locking onto the shots though. After you take down 4 claws, you go into the belly of the beast. Sort of. The boss will send walls at you, just lock onto all of the targets on them and shoot. The Boundary walls have 4 small targets that take one shot each, and the side that they are on changes, some walls rotating. No biggie, just lock on and shoot them as fast as you can. The walls come pretty quickly on Tera, and it might help to release X a little predictively. Boundry-G walls have one large target to hit, but take a full 8 to take down. Be sure to do a Max shot, its quicker and they give a nice amount of points. Anyway, you then get released, ready for another round of Claw shooting. Same strategy as before, just that Mars is in a different position and the claws are maybe a little quicker/closer together. Shoot down 4 before it swallows you up again and you get your first shot at the core. The core shows up at one end, flies past you in an erratic path to the other end, then hides again. Get as many shots as you can on it. Once it's hidden again, it will begin constructing a bunch of branching white structures. After a second, energy will pulse along one. Aim at the ends of that branch and start blasting the moment you get locks. They will be shooting trios of bullets at you and can be positioned rather close to you, so don't dawdle in taking down the bullets and branches. After taking down the branches, it'll make some more for a second round. You're released and its back to Claw shooting, for the final time. Several of them will be shooting at you at once, so work fast and worry less about multiplier. Once you take down 8 more, you're back inside. (Huh...we shot down 7 and theres 16 legs total. Did I miscount?) The core makes its final appearence and if you work really fast, you can take it down before it even starts to attack. Even when it does attack, its not too much bother, dropping mines, 8 at a time. Just keep wiggling the sight in the right general area and spamming those Max shots as fast as you can. Differences for Giga: (Mega assumed to have these differences and less life) Less life. Walls move towards you slower, giving more time to take them down. Claws fire at you one at a time. Takes longer to first start to fire N-Bullets from the branches? Targets: Core (5000/10000/20000) The main target. Claw (100) Should be obvious. The things that shoot at the end of the arms. M-Bullet (10) The things it shoots. 1 hit each. Boundary- (50) The smaller yellow wall targets. 1 hit each. Boundary-G (500) The large yellow wall targets. 8 hits. Branch (30) The thin white branching structures it makes. Shoot the tips. N-Bullet (10) The things the branches shoot. 1 hit each. S-Mine (10) The yellow diamnonds the core shoots. Turn into orange spheres before attacking. 1 hit each. Life differences: Tera: Claw-8 Branch-4 Core Lots Giga: Claw-4 Branch-2 Core Less Mega: Core Least? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4c. Area 3 -Under verification- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layer 00: Ridiculously easy, 4 CV-3 in a row fly past down low. Then the PP appears. Then 4 more CV-3 fly past up high. Layer 01: 4 CV-3 down low and 3 up high, meeting up straight ahead. They drop a Progress Nodeon the right, where 4 S1 show up. This is followed by 4 more S1 top left. Then 4 to the right, then 4 to the left, which you should MAX shot without trouble. Then the PP. Layer 02: 2 EN0 show up. These shrimp-like things arn't much trouble, but you have to work quick with them later. These two are followed by another 2, closer to you, then another pair, down low. Next, an ET8 with its two Hand_of_ET8 flies up. The shield on the main thing is kinda annoying, I generally get a 3 shot to take down the hands and get a hit on the shield, then do a couple single shots on the ET8. This one drops an Override node and keep your eye out, bottom left, for the PP. Layer 03: Two S1 fly up, followed by an ET8 and its two hands. 4 S1 fly up behind the ET8, so you can hopefully get a better multiplier when taking down the main thing. The ET8 drops a 3x progress node, and the 4 S1 drop a progress node down low. Keep an eye out back though, for the DLE, which can quickly lauch a bunch of shots around in a circle if you don't get off enough shots on it. You get a much closer DUE after that, which drops a progress node, and the PP on the left. Layer 04: View shifts right and 7 S1 fly past, pretty spread out. Then, 5 pairs of S1 fly up then past. Don't worry if you miss some, view shifts back forwards. Careful though, they'll start shooting, which can take up locks and let some get away. View shifts to behind where an ET8 is, who drops an overdrive node. Then, 2 S1 up high, 4 S1 in the middle. View shifts to the front, with the PP pretty close down low, and 3 EN0 up high. Make sure to get the PP before it slips by, then deal with the EN0 and any of their shots, then crack your way to the next layer. Layer 05: A pair of EN0 show up, followed by another pair, then a DUE on the right. It drops a progress node, then 2 more EN0 appear. Then, a trio of EN0, 2 low, one high. The PP shows up on the left, and a DUE comes in too. The DUE dops a progress node. Layer 06: View shifts to behind, where two DUE are waiting. 6-shot them them, then 3-shot the third DUE which sweeps in from the left and drops a progress node. Another DUE shows up bottom left, and one off to the top right, 6-shot them if you can. Your view shifts again, just as a DUE shows up and flies to that side. Deal with him quick, because 3 EN0 show up too, two high, one low and they flee pretty quick. Cowardly prawns. Next, to the left, another DUE and an EN0, then another 3 EN0, two to the right, one on the left. Theres probably better ways to deal with this section, but I tend to be rushing here, because of the EN0s rushing off. View shifts to the front, where there are a bunch of SYN flying around. 8 of them? These snake-like things have 4 segments that each take a hit. Not much advice I can give, other than take them out in pairs as fast as you can. Two progress nodes drop and the PP shows up in the middle. You'll probably have to get a few shots on it to keep it from going past while you finish off the SYNs. Use an overdrive if you feel you must. Layer 07: Here you face a larger SYN, that sweep around, then stop and fire at you from their mouth. Just max lock as fast as you can, becing sure to get the head. It drops a progress node and is followed by another large SYN, that also drops a progress node. And is followed by ANOTHER large SYN, that drops a 3x Progress node. Whew. PP shows up on the right, but before you leave, a trio of EN0 show up. Layer 08: 2 EN0. Deal with them quick as usual. Next, 6 EN0 appear, 2 rows of three. The first one will start leaving as the last one shows up though, so you might want to take 2 shots to avoid losing one. Next, 4 EN0 in front. Then the PP, along with another 4 EN0, that drop a Progress Node. Layer 09: 4 EN0 in front of you. You might notice that they're getting faster at shooting missiles at you. Another 4, same pattern. Next, 11 EN0 show up, one at a time, getting closer and more to the right, then further back and to the left. You can't lock onto them all at the once, I generally do groups of 4 and 3. PP down low. Layer 10: 4 EN0, followed by another 4 EN0. You could try for a MAX, but the first groups missiles will probably interfere. The second group drop a Progress Node. Another group of EN0, this time 8 of them in a square show up. Much better to try for a max shot here, but there will probably still be missiles to shoot. Next, boss time. Boss: Venus Before you actually get to the boss, which is the source of those big green shockwaves, a bunch of Cubes will be bouncing their way towards you. Take down as many as you can for points, they can also drop Point Items when you're in score based modes. Aim over to the left for the last group. Anyway, next you see Venus constructing its outer defence shell and you'll start to fly about it. Basically, parts of the shell flip over to fire lasers. You can destroy the shell by shooting at those parts. They can use two kinds of attack, indicated by the colour they show when charging up their laser (Shoop da whoop); red and blue. Blue fire directly fowards, red fire two beams at 45 degress up and down. Otherwise the same, be sure to prioritize shooting out the ones that you might fly into or are aiming at you. Remember to keep an eye on the red ones, you can miss the ones at the top and bottom when focusing on the blue and they sometimes get lucky. After shattering that level of defence, Venus moves to its next stage. This one can be a bit trickier for some people. Feel free to use an overdrive if you're struggling. It deploys 3 rows of 4 F-pods on each of its 3 sides, (36 total) which are your next targets. These will deploy large numbers of 'Fish' in waves, so you'll have to snatch time shooting at the Pods, in between taking down all of the Fish. Take down the ones closest to you first, and be sure to get them all. Otherwise, the one you miss will sneak up behind you when you're taking more shots at the Pods. Also, keep an eye out for the different colours, the purple ones take a whole Max shot to destroy and the red ones are worth the most points of any of the cannon fodder in this battle. Anyway, keep it up, snatching as many hits at the pods as you can. Thankfully it doesn't take as long as you might think. Perhaps because they don't take as much punishment as you might think, and you'll often be locking onto the ones on the far side as well. The pods then collapse and you fly yourself into the next layer of defence. This part is pretty simple, you just need to shoot all of the D-pods, the red squares around the cylinder. It'll spin, so just aim a bit to the left. There is a nice sweet spot, where you'll lock onto the Pods as they spin past as well as most of the Debris being fired. Speaking of which, the Debris isn't much threat, just take it down when it swoops past. After the pods are gone, you get a limited time to blast at the core. This core really doesn't take all much punishment before it blows, and will likely kill it with 2 or 3 rounds taking down the D-pods. Enjoy the nice explosion. Differences for Giga: (Mega assumed to have these differences and less life) Less life. ? Targets: Core (5000/10000/20000) The main target. Cube (10) Bouncing cubes that show up at the beginning. Shell (30) The protective layer of hexagons. you can shoot them when they flip over to fire. Red and Blue versions are identical other than firing method. F-Pod (20) Second layer, these things shoot out 'Fish' and take 4 hits each. G-Fish (10) Yellow little ships from the F-Pods. Take 1 hit. R-Fish (100) Red little ships from the F-Pods. Take 2 hits. B-Fish (50) Purplish Ships. Take 8 hits. D-Pod (20) The red squares on the rotating inner core cover. Depris (10) Fired from D-Pods. Life differences: Tera: Shell-4 Core-Lots? Giga: Shell-2 Core-Less? Mega: Core-Least? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4d. Area 4 -Under construction.- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layer 00: Layer 01: Layer 02: Layer 03: Layer 04: Layer 05: Layer 06: Layer 07: Layer 08: Layer 09: Layer 10: Boss: Uranus Oh, I hate this one. Its not so much the boss as the support items hidden away down the side passages which I often missed. Its hard to really map this out. Differences for Giga: (Mega assumed to have these differences and less life) Less life. Targets: Core (?) The main target. The score for this is not the standard. You seem to get chunks of points when destroying the sets of cubes. 1000 first set, 2000 second set, missed third set, 12500 last. V-Block (10) There are multiple versions of these, ranging from purple cubes to orange ones, to purple diamond shapes. They all start off large and break into smaller shapes when you shoot them. The small ones take a single hit. M-Bullet (10) Named the same as what Mars shoots from its claws, but look more like the things that Earth shot from its Arms. M-Switch (200) These appear on the walls, shoot them early enough and you'll open up a little side passage with a support item. Also useful to dodge Uranus. Life: Tera: Core-Lots? Giga: Core-Less? Mega: Core-Least? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4e. Area 5 - Infiltration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here instead of the normal number of layers or PPs, you get Gates of Truth, large gates with 8 targets in a circle for you to hit. There are 14 gates, with the 15th section leading into the Bosses. Many enemies require 4 or 8 hits to destroy, be sure to use that well. 0% - Start You start off with 6 ETX, 4 in a line ahead and one to each side. These guys require 4 hits each, so match them up in pairs. Progress Node drops. From now I'll just say Progress or Overdrive, since theres a lot here. Then MAX shot the Gate of Truth. Before you go through, 4 more ETX at the bottom, who drop an Overdrive. 7% - "Ages ago, life was born in the primitive seas." View shifts to the left and 2 Trios of ETX fly past, up and left. One drops a Progress. Hopefully you've gotten good at getting 4-locks on pairs of targets, without accidentally hitting others. Theres another 2 that show up in the same place, dropping another Progress. View shifts to front, take out the Gate. Then the 2 ETX on either side that show up before you go through. 14% - "Young life forms constantly evolved in order to survive." Off in the distance, is a snake-like enemy coming out of the ground. These are called TC-502 with _Head and _Body for the respective segments, but I'll just call them 502. Be sure to aim at the head, it takes at least 8 hits just on the head to destroy it. This one drops a Progress. 2 ETX fly overhead. Another 502 pops up on the right, dropping a 3xProgress and 2 more ETX fly past. Then one last 502 shows up, dropping an Overdrive. Take out the door, and the 2 ETX that fly past up above. 21% - "Some prospered, some did not, all sorts of life ebbed and flowed like the tide." Warning before you get going, there are flying 502s here. You'll hate these, because their head is on the furthest side so you can end up using a lot of shots on them before they drop. The first one is possibly the toughest in here because of its body being in the way most of the time, and can easily cost you some shot down %. Unload on it as fast as you can. Ignore the balls they shoot out, you can lock onto them, but they don't hurt your %. Anyway, starting off, 2 ETX above, then a flying 502 and two ETX up high. Another flying 502 comes out of a hole down low, this one drops a Progress. Two floating sphere enemies, RCK, show up. They take 8 hits each but theres a flying 502 in the distance past them you should be aware of, who drops a 3x Progress. Theres some piller like things that show up, 2 on the right and one on the far right. I'm not certain if these count towards shot %, but just in case, they take 1 shot each. 2 ETX are flying past and the Gate shows up. While you're heading through, theres 2 grounded 502s popping out of holes on the far side, so blast away. 28% - "In the quiet rhythm of the mother sea, life grew" A flying 502 pops up nearby to the left, try to get a full max shot off on its head before it gets far. An ETX flies above, while 2 ground 502s, one right, one left, pop up. Blast at them, but notice the hole you're passing on the right starting to release a flying 502. Hopefully you've killed the two ground ones by the time the flying one is sweeping straight across the middle of the screen. The 502 will loop around the wireframe stuff, giving you time to blast away at it repeatedly, so don't miss the ETX that flies past above it. It drops Progress. Another ETX flies past above, then another flying 502 comes out of the ground, dropping 3xProgress. An ETX is up and to the left. 2 RCK drop down, 1 MAX shot each. First one drops Progress. Gate. Huh, nothing behind it. Must be being kind after that annoying section. 35% - "always seeking to survive and flourish." I take it back. Well, as the massive craft flies overhead, you've got 11 ETX to destroy. Then deal with GEL. I generally unload on the centre bit of the large tube, ignoring the small craft for the most part. If any of the somewhat larger reddish craft happen to fly near my sight or look like they're heading for me, I spare a shot, but generally just blast away. Once you take down the big tube, the rest drop out of the sky. If you've killed it very quick, before it even finished turning itself horizontal, then aim left, shoot down some extra GEL, then right and do the same. If you were slow, you don't seem to get these. Also if you take too long, GEL seems to self-destruct, robbing you of the points. After that blastathon, 5 ETX fly up. 2 in front, deal with them first. Then 2, further right and left and one overhead. Pair them up, how you want. 4 more ETX then show up, 2 left, 2 right. Gate. And one more ETX up above. 42% - "Soon life began the advance towards land, opening new habitats." Busy. Definately worth using an overdrive here. A couple RCK drop down, and some 4 hit enemies, LF, fly up. There's a stream of 13 of them, I believe. On the right, I got more of those pillers, which seem to be named RCK_Wall. Are they the attack of the RCKs? Next, Gate, with 5 LF behind it. The time is definately getting tight to be able to shoot them all, so be efficient. You don't want to 2 shot something and have to try and re-aim. 50% - "A great prosperity came, as life conquered even the highest mountains." 57% - "Mass extinctions came wave after wave," 64% - "but empty niches always quickly refilled," 71% - "to once again prosper, grow, and reproduce." 78% - "Someday the next great emigration will occur," 85% - "as we leave this existence looking for another." 92% - "The journey will begin anew." 100% - "I hold within me, the memories of all that has passed." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4f. Area 5 - Bosses -Under construction.- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each of the bosses drop 2 or 3 Nodes, which can be 3x, Progress or Overdrive. Boss: Who Are You? This boss is based off the Arm form of Earth. The arms cannot be so easily destroyed though, taking quite a lot of punishment before dying. They also will regenerate even after you destroy them, until the boss is low on health but damaging the arms (named E-blocks here), does damage equal to if you were shooting the core anyway, so aim for whichever you want. When it is spinning around firing, instead of shooting bullets off into the distance, it releases E-Sentry, which home in on you, so shoot them all down. After spinning, it will aim its arms at you and shoot bullets, like the original Earth. It switches back and forth between these two modes of attack until destroyed. E-Block (100) E-Sentry (20) E-Bullet (10) Core (1000) Boss: don't come any closer! This boss is based off Mars, but the core never actually hides so you can take shots at it, even when its firing walls at you. It uses M-Boundry, which is the equivilant of Boundry-G, the walls with the large single yellow target. Remember that you'll likely be targeting the core as well as the wall, so do a couple max shots to be sure. After a wall, it'll then skip to using Mars's Branch attack. You can't destroy the branches this time and instead it just fires the Bullets out of all the tips at once, then moves. Quickly shoot down the swarm of bullets, then turn your attention back to the core. Hopefully you were quick enough to not get hit in the side by M-Boundry. It swaps between these forms, using more M-Boundrys in a row when its low on health, until destroyed. M-Boundry (200) N-Bullet (10) Core (1000) Boss: Why? Predictably enough, this one is based off Venus, specifically the final stage of the fight, the spinning cylinder with 'Pods' at the top to shoot. These are