THIS IS IT GREEN AND ORANGE (Zero Ranger)

need to put this on ps4 or switch dagonnit

The boss of 2-2 is weirdly misbalanced. The backward shot absolutely destroys it (the battle can last less than 30 seconds) but if you chose the sideways shot the battle is several orders of magnitude more difficult - being able to only shoot the hands is way slower and less effective, especially since the backward shot is far more powerful. Maybe Iā€™m missing some hidden strategy, but it seems to be the only part of the game that clearly favors one weapon type. Almost every other part of the game is really well balanced for any loadout.

The gem on the skeleton doesnā€™t start up until later (and helpfully blinks!) so you can hang out under the chin and sword/drill without being threatened too heavily for a while. Once the gem starts up you can do a bit of a risky positioning under a hand (or head to the top of the screen to be really safe), but once it calms down again youā€™re back into the thick of things.

Oh and thereā€™s a bonus probably from shooting the hands enough times.

Itā€™s really neat that boss is foreshadowed earlier in the level.

you have to shoot a hand while the opposite one is reaching for a rung and then the boss will slip and the bonus will come out. coincidentally, if you can manage to take the other hand out while the boss is slipping, it will fall to its death! (edit: iirc there is a flashing visual cue to how damaged the hands are. i donā€™t generally use the side shot but iā€™m sure this trick was designed with it in mind. you can kill the boss in a matter of seconds this way.) The More You Know

thinking we could really write the definitive guide for this here vidsoft

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I somehow picked up a fourth bonus during one of the levels in the second loop? It was weird seeing it hanging out beside the other three empty ones I failed to accomplish.

I was having difficulties with the enthroned boss because of the timing but I accidentally stumbled into absorbing the orbs for a short time frame by running into them possibly? It might be only for that last phase.

Thatā€™s interesting, I really hated that last phase! I may have only tried it in earlier phases but when I bumped into an orb I would absorb it for a second and then explode.

But yeah most annoying boss in the game by far, I enjoyed the one immediately after a lot more.

Fuck, deletion hotkey removed my post and I couldnā€™t figure how to reinstate it. :angry:
EDIT: Thanks mods!

Anyway, just tested and so long as the orbs arenā€™t damaged when you run into it you can suck them in but I havenā€™t found any way of avoiding the damage you take when the orbs break free from your ship and explode. Does seem like a good way of avoiding most of the rigmarole necessary for the final stage of that boss, though!

Third time the charm for the point of no return. And it does change things afterward! Wondering what happens if I complete it with the other ship.

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i watched nocode beat The Spoiler blind on their first try, long may they reign

ending made me tear up a little even if i was slightly too drunk to follow it. not sure what to make of the resulting aesthetic changes other than the red-blue palette being gorgeous, i hope thereā€™s still more plot/a way to unlock Type A/whatever because making the game more vanilla is strangely melancholy

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i canā€™t beat stage 4 so iā€™ll never see the good stuff

Yeah I ended up ordering a lasagna and watching someone whoā€™s actually good at shoot em ups play it for 2 hours and whooo boy, itā€™s dope. I spoiled myself on absolutely everything and I donā€™t regret a single thing. The lasagna was good as well

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What part is giving you trouble?

I gotta get back into this game.

lost a lot of lives on the glass ball boy, then got to a boss rush and just likeā€¦died.

IRL

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Yeah, glass ball boy is a big old butt, and I donā€™t remember if I ever figured out a prostrat for beating his last phase.

The boss rush isā€¦not that terrible, but only if you get certain bosses. Like screw the Salamander.

wait is it like, a random selection of 8? holy crap.

(or was it 6 i canā€™t remember)

Yeah, you only have to fight 3 of them, i think, and the third one is always the same.

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The (I think) penultimate boss in 2-4 (and probably the game) is the toughest thing I think I know of in this game. Iā€™ve gotten very good at the final phase, but the second and third phases are brutal on me, and tend to leave me with very few continues for the next section.

Holy shit, I love the seemingly final boss. Such great patterns. So exhilarating. I know how to get through every phase unscathed, I thinkā€“I just keep making dumb mistakes. Iā€™ve almost felled it once. I will beat this by New Years. I canā€™t wait.

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Someone should longplay this game freal

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Salamander burns nicely against your secret tech choice or your side/back shot. Heā€™s not as fun as the sleeping man or space invaders, though. There is one that I have yet to see from that set of six for all the times Iā€™ve played that section.

Glass ball skull at the end you sort of hang out just a little bit left/right from the middle and nudge around the curtain fire. Itā€™s not instant death if you get hit but if you donā€™t correct quickly youā€™ll be ballpitted.

Well, I was 1 stage away from 1ccing this game. To be honest I was happy enough that I could 1cc the first loop. The shift in difficulty starting the second loop knocked off a lot of lives in the first stage but I pulled through and kept around 2-3 lives on average through the rest of the stages.

I took a sloppy hit in the first stage of the end boss, sacrificed another to absorb the six-orb section, and was pretty keen through the second stage. Concentration slipped and I took a hit with the large hands attack and the small aimed hands attack shortly afterward.

Backshot, Charge shot and drill were my choices.

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