Weapons, damage and ammo
There are six weapons available:
- Buster: Straight rapid fire, long range. Weak.
- Ranger: Spread weapon which makes it easy to hit. Weak.
- Flame: Short range and high power against organic targets. No effect against machines.
- Homing: Homing, like it says. Cannot be blocked by bosses. Very weak.
- Sword: Straight rapid fire, short range. Weak. Blocked by some organic enemies.
- Lancer: Long range, powerful, all-purpose laser. Blocked by some organic enemies.
There are three other ways to damage enemies:
- Counter force, which also turns enemy bullets into health (for phoenix)
- Zero force, what you fire when you run out of ammo. Very weak, very short range.
- Phoenix, turn into a bird of fire when having full health and performing a zero teleport. Consumes 50 HP. Also turns enemy bullets into health. Causes slowmotion whenever it hits anything.
Damage
Each boss has one or many vulnerable parts, which take different amounts of damage. Damage here is measured in RAM (which is 4 times more than that shown on screen).
| Weapon | DMG/shot at 100% | Avg. DMG/frame at 100% | Ammo/shot, Fixed | Ammo/shot, Free |
|---|
| Buster force | 120 | 40 | 1 | 3 |
| Ranger force | 240 | ~58 [1] | 2x 16 | 2x26 |
| Flame force | 120 | 120 | 3 | 5 |
| Homing force | 40 | 20 | 1 | 5 |
| Sword force | 120 | ~48 | 2 | 4 |
| Lancer force | 4160 | ~73 | 140 | 150 |
| Lancer switch trick | 4160 | ~99 [1] | 140 | 150 |
| Zero force | 40 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Counter force | 640/part | ~53/part | 0 | 0 |
| Phoenix | 18200/part | 280/part | 0 | 0 |
[
1]Under ideal conditions.
Abusing the phoenix
A phoenix that hits an obstacle terminates immediately. But if directed at the edge of the screen, it continues to burn in place. Every part takes damage from the phoenix (and counter force) cumulatively. This means you can do incredible amounts of damage to bosses at the edge of the screen with many parts.
Moving the edge of the screen
As described above, the phoenix is best used against the edge of the screen. During many boss battles, you can turn around to change where the edge of the screen is.
Reaiming after shooting
Lancers travel relative to the screen, not the stage. If the camera pans, the projectile follows. You can use this to keep your slow lances directed at a fast target by turning and moving to manipulate the camera.
Lancer switch trick
The cooldown between lancer shots is fixed. You can however:
- Open and then close the weapon menu. This lets you shoot again immediately. However, any remaining shot on screen is removed when the menu is opened, and you are defenseless while it is opening. For best results, stand very close to the target.
- Use counter force two or three times between shots to fill out the time.
Double counter force
To perform two counter forces in quick succession, do a counter force in the air and land before the animation is complete. The second one will execute automatically.
Counter force abuse
You can use the counter force to remain airborne, gain elevation, and move around in the air. This is useful because you only get one hover per jump and sometimes you need more air time.
Zipping
Under some circumstances which are poorly understood, you can get stuck in the floor and be ejected to the right. This doesn't help much because scrolling speed is capped, but is useful when you have a phoenix you need to preserve.
Lag reduction
Except for the obvious way of less sprites on screen, lag can be reduced be mashing against the edge of the screen and ducking. Hovering and opening the menu can increase lag. During the outer space stages, lag can be reduced by using zero teleport and counter force.
See also