+------------------------------+ | Giga Wing 2 Systems FAQ (DC) | | Darren Lo | | lo@math.wisc.edu | | Revision 0.1, 6/23/2001 | +------------------------------+ ==============================| Terms of Use |=============================== The author (Darren Lo, henceforth AUTHOR) retains all rights to this document under US and international copyright law, and grants permission to use it under the terms and conditions listed below. AUTHOR may choose at any time to rescind this permission, in part or in full. Furthermore, any failure of AUTHOR to enforce his rights does not indicate forfeit of those rights. This document is intended for use only by private individuals. It may be reproduced (fully intact and unaltered) electronically for non-profit purposes only. Reproducing this document for profit without the express consent of the author is prohibited. 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If the information on AUTHOR's web page is in conflict with any information in this document, the information on AUTHOR's page shall prevail. ===========================| Table of Contents |============================= Section 0: Foreword 0.1: What is the Giga Wing 2 Systems FAQ? 0.2: What is Giga Wing 2? 0.3: Why play Giga Wing 2? 0.4: Terminology 0.5: Revision History Section 1: The Planes 1.1: Collision Boxes 1.2: Timing Information 1.3: Color Select Section 2: Secrets 2.1: Gallery 2.2: Secret Planes 2.3: "Character Event OFF" Secret Option 2.4: Total Score Display 2.5: Score Attack Stages 2.6: "Multi Character Mode" Secret Option 2.7: Unlock Everything 2.8: Handy Table Section 3: Scoring System 3.1: Score Multiplier/Combo System 3.2: Score Attack Mode 3.3: Item Volcanons 3.4: Base Point Values Section 4: Gameplay Tips 4.1: Reflect Force versus Reflect Laser 4.2: General Scoring Tips 4.3: Plane Evaluations 4.4: Stage Strategies? Section 5: Bibliography ===========================| Section 0: Foreword |=========================== 0.1 What is the Giga Wing 2 Systems FAQ? 0.2 What is Giga Wing 2? 0.3 Why play Giga Wing 2? 0.4 Terminology 0.5 Revision History ============================================================================= ----------------| 0.1 What is the Giga Wing 2 Systems FAQ? |----------------- In essence, it's a collection of any "non-obvious" information about Giga Wing 2 gameplay that I can find. "Non-obvious" is a term that's not easily defined, but let it suffice to say that I won't be reproducing information that's in the manual or that could be found within half an hour by a casual player. I have the Japanese version of the game, but everything I write ought to be applicable to other versions as well. If not, please let me know. ------------------------| 0.2 What is Giga Wing 2? |------------------------- It's a cruelly underrated wide-screen vertical shooter for the Dreamcast. By "wide-screen", I mean that the game's native aspect ratio is 4:3, instead of 3:4 like most vertical shooters. This means a home conversion is possible without using windowboxing, redesigning levels, or requiring that you turn your TV on its side. ------------------------| 0.3 Why play Giga Wing 2? |------------------------ If you just play Giga Wing 2 to beat the game, you won't be very entertained. Your stock of bombs is replenished every time you die, and you have infinite continues. So you can just bomb, reflect, bomb, reflect, die, and repeat as necessary. The scoring in this game is ridiculous, so you can easily rack up tens of billions of points just by blasting through the game in this cheap fashion. If you're not interested in improving your play of your own volition, or if you object to the absurdly inflated scores, there's not much in Giga Wing 2 for you. Most of the unfavorable reviews of the game seem to carry this attitude. However, if you learn a little about the game engine and start playing for score, the game becomes very fun (and very hard). Playing for score makes the bomb-reflect-die tactic unviable and will put a far greater test on your skills of pattern memorization, dodging, and bullet-herding. Even if you don't study the levels and practice intensely, the kleptomaniacal thrill of scooping up thousands of shiny medals and watching your score soar into the stratosphere is quite satisfying. As of this writing, the top Giga Wing 2 solo players can score upwards of 80 quadrillion points in Arcade Mode, and over 10 quintillion points on Score Attack stages. I'm nowhere near that level, nor do I plan to even try to get there. But clearly, this is a game that rewards skillful play, and most mortal players will have plenty of room for improvement. And the pathological fascination of astronomically large numbers will keep them coming back for more. ----------------------------| 0.4 Terminology |------------------------------ Large numbers will be expressed using the American system. That is, a "billion" is 10^9, a "trillion" is 10^12, etc. I apologize to the adherents, if any remain, of the British system (in which a "billion" is 10^12). I'll also use scientific notation to help ease any confusion. I'll refer to Reflect Force and Reflect Laser as "RF" and "RL", respectively. --------------------------| 0.5 Revision History |--------------------------- 6/23/2001 Version 0.1, initial release. I hope to release an update soon to clear up some of the "I don't know" points in the FAQ. =========================| Section 1. The Planes |=========================== 1.1 Collision Boxes 1.2 Timing Information 1.3 Color Select ============================================================================= There are 10 selectable planes in all. Each of them works basically the same from a "system" standpoint. They differ only in firepower, firing pattern, and speed. ---------------------------| 1.1 Collision Boxes |--------------------------- The collision box (the area that can get hit by bullets) of the planes is tiny. It's about 10 pixels high and is centered on the cockpit area of the plane, which is visible as a small colored strip somewhere on the plane's fuselage. According to the official webpage, the collision box is circular. It makes no sense that this is the only part of your plane that can get hit, but maybe all the bullets are aimed exactly at the top portion of your cockpit, which sticks up above the plane's fuselage, and the rest of your plane passes harmlessly under the enemy fire. :P The small size of the collision box is a lifesaver when trying to dodge bullets. However, the cockpit location varies from plane to plane, meaning that dodging patterns and safe spots may be different for different planes. Another problem is that the cockpit area is hard to see in the heat of battle, which makes dodging rather harder than it ought to be. When you first select your plane, take good note of where the cockpit is, and learn to dodge accordingly. -------------------------| 1.2 Timing Information |-------------------------- When you hold down the shot button, there is a lag of 29 frames (0.48 seconds) before your reflect barrier develops. After your barrier has expired, it takes 235 frames (3.92 seconds) for the reflect gauge to recharge, and you have a 90-frame (1.5 second) invincibility window. These timings are the same for all planes with both RF and RL. ----------------------------| 1.3 Color Select |----------------------------- It would seem pretty obvious, but somehow this escaped my notice for quite a while... Depending on which button you select your plane with, its color will change. To choose one of the four colors, select the plane with one of the four face buttons (A, B, X, or Y). The mapping of colors corresponds roughly to the color of each button. If the plane is normally red (e.g., Stork), then pressing A will give you red, pressing B will give you blue, pressing X will give you yellow, and pressing Y will give you green. Not coincidentally, these are exactly the colors of the buttons on the standard Dreamcast controller. However, if the plane is not normally red, then the colors get shuffled around a bit, because the A button will always give you the standard color. There's some logic to the color assignment, but also a number of exceptions, so it's probably quicker just to list the colors for each plane below. The colors are given in the order A, B, X, Y. Kingfisher: Blue, Red, Yellow, Green Sparrow: Yellow, Red, Blue, Green Raven: Blue, Red, Green, Purple Stork: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green Albatross: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow Raijin-Kai: Purple, Blue, Green, Red Carmine Plus: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green Porchka Dash: Blue, Red, Yellow, Green Widerstand Zwei: Green, Blue, Red, Purple Neo Stranger: Red, Cyan, Yellow, Green (colors only change for cockpit and wing stripes) ===========================| Section 2: Secrets |============================ 2.1 Gallery 2.2 Secret Planes 2.3 "Character Event OFF" Secret Option 2.4 Total Score Display 2.5 Score Attack Stages 2.6 "Multi Character Mode" Secret Option 2.7 Unlock Everything 2.8 Handy Table ============================================================================= -------------------------------| 2.1 Gallery |------------------------------- There are 110 pictures in the gallery. Each character has 10 portraits (galleries 1-5). When you play Arcade Mode and reach stage 2 or higher, you unlock one portrait of your character. You get another when you clear Arcade Mode (continues/restarts OK). Galleries 6-9 are broken into 5 sections of 8 pictures each. When you clear Arcade Mode with a given character, you unlock the next picture in that character's section. If the character's section is filled and you clear Arcade Mode again, you unlock the next picture from Galleries 10-11. I'm writing this paragraph from memory, so it may be slightly inaccurate, but I think this is how it worked. I'll check the exact behavior when I get a chance. If your total score (score from all plays in Arcade Mode and Score Attack Mode) exceeds 60 quintillion (6 * 10^19), one picture will be added to the gallery. I believe it will be the next picture from Galleries 10-11, although it might also go into the character's section from Galleries 5-9 if there's an empty spot available. ----------------------------| 2.2 Secret Planes |---------------------------- To unlock the secret plane for a character, use him/her to clear Arcade Mode without continuing or restarting. You can use any difficulty setting you want, so you can set the level to 1 and bump up the player lives and bomb stock to their maximum if you so desire. The secret planes are as follows: Kart: Raijin-Kai Chery: Carmine Plus Romi: Porchka Dash Largo: Widerstand Zwei Limi: Neo Stranger -----------------| 2.3 "Character Event OFF" Secret Option |----------------- When unlocked, this is located under the "Secret Options" menu. It allows you to disable the character cutscenes in Arcade Mode. This option can be unlocked in two ways: 1. View the good and bad endings for all 5 characters in Arcade Mode. 2. Get a total score exceeding 300 quintillion points (3 * 10^20). -------------------------| 2.4 Total Score Display |------------------------- The Total Score display shows the total number of points you have scored in Arcade and Score Attack modes. It can be seen in the "Ranking" screen and before the character select screen in Arcade mode. Note that aborting a game will cause any points you have scored during that game to be lost. The total score display can be unlocked in two ways: 1. Get a total score exceeding 20 quintillion points (2 * 10^19). 2. Complete Arcade Mode without fulfilling the conditions for unlocking a character portrait, a secret plane, or the Character Event secret option. In other words, all of the following need to be true: a) Your character's portrait gallery (one of Gallery 1-5) was full when you started Arcade Mode; b) Your character's secret plane was already unlocked, OR you continued or restarted while beating Arcade Mode; c) You already unlocked the Character Event option, OR the ending you got was not the final ending necessary to unlock the Character Event option. -------------------------| 2.5 Score Attack Stages |------------------------- Only Stages 1-3 are initially selectable in Score Attack Mode. If you reach stage 4 or higher in Arcade Mode, the corresponding stages (from 4 up to the highest stage you reached) will be unlocked in Score Attack Mode. ----------------| 2.6 "Multi Character Mode" Secret Option |----------------- When unlocked, this allows you to play multiple planes (in formation) with a single player. The "Change" button also becomes available to allow you to adjust your formation, so be sure to update your controller settings appropriately. You can unlock this secret option by getting a total score of over 100 quintillion (1 * 10^20). --------------------------| 2.7 Unlock Everything |-------------------------- If you're the type who likes to cheat, there is a cheat code that will unlock all unlockable items instantaneously. I recommend unlocking things the usual way, but... On the first page of the Gallery (Gallery 1), enter the following code quickly: Up, X, Y, X, Down, Y, X, Y, Y. Use controller 1 or 2. If you have any empty spots on your Gallery 1, you will see them filled immediately. -----------------------------| 2.8 Handy Table |----------------------------- A single event (such as clearing Arcade Mode) will unlock all items whose conditions are satisfied, in order from top to bottom. For instance, clearing Arcade Mode without continuing will unlock items 1, 2, 5, and 6. 6 is considered to happen after 1, which is important when evaluating the conditions for item 4. 1. Clear Arcade Mode (continues OK) Get character portrait x 1, if possible 2. Clear Arcade Mode (no continue/restart) Unlock new ship if not already unlocked 3. Get good/bad endings with all characters Unlock secret option "Character Event OFF" 4. If nothing gets unlocked for items 1-3 when you clear Arcade Mode Unlock total score display 5. Clear Arcade Mode (continues OK) Get Gallery picture x 1, if possible 6. Reach Stage 2 or higher on Arcade Mode Get character portrait x 1, if possible 7. Reach Stage 4 or higher on Arcade Mode Corresponding stage unlocked in Score Attack 8. Total Score over 20 quintillion Unlock total score display 9. Total Score over 60 quintillion Get Gallery picture x 1, if possible 10. Total Score over 100 quintillion Unlock secret option "Multi Character Mode" 11. Total Score over 300 quintillion Unlock secret option "Character Event OFF" 12. Enter Up,X,Y,X,Down,Y,X,Y,Y on first Gallery screen (1P or 2P controller) Unlock everything ========================| Section 3: Scoring System |======================== 3.1 Score Multiplier/Combo System 3.2 Score Attack Mode 3.3 Item Volcanons 3.4 Base Point Values ============================================================================= --------------------| 3.1 Score Multiplier/Combo System |-------------------- Actions such as shooting and killing enemies have a base point value. This value is multiplied by the score multiplier before being added to your score. The multiplier is the medal count displayed under your score at the top of the screen. Normal medals have a "combo value" of +1, +5, +10, or +50 depending on their size and color. If you are maxed out on powerups or bombs, the corresponding items are worth +50. Volcano medals are worth +3 (see section 3.3). Your score multiplier starts at 0 at the beginning of the game. When you collect an item, its combo value (+1, +3, +5, +10, or +50) is added to your combo counter, and the result is added to your score multiplier. For instance, if you collect three +1 medals and then a +5 medal, your score multiplier increases as follows: +1, +1+1, +1+1+1, +1+1+1+5 (+14 in all). When you pick up a medal, the current value of the combo counter is briefly displayed on that spot. The combo counter resets to 0 at the beginning of each stage and after every death. The score multiplier resets to 0 when you continue. Note that if you never pick up a medal or a powerup, your score multiplier will remain 0, and thus you won't score any points. It might be interesting to see how low you can keep your score (as opposed to the normal method of play, which is to jack up your score as high as possible). --------------------------| 3.2 Score Attack Mode |-------------------------- Note: In this section only, I will refer to what I usually call the "score multiplier" as the "medal count" to avoid confusion. Scoring in Score Attack Mode works the same as the normal game, except that there is a steadily-increasing "Multiplier x ____" in the upper right corner of the screen. Despite its name, this number does not actually multiply your score multiplier (medal count). What it does is multiply your current combo counter before incrementing your medal count. For example, consider the following scenario: 1. Stage Start 2. Collect +5 medal (Multiplier x 600.0) 3. Hit enemy with one normal shot (Multiplier x 700.0) 4. Collect +1 medal (Multiplier x 800.0) 5. Hit enemy with one normal shot (Multiplier x 900.0) At time 1, your combo counter and medal count are 0. At time 2, your combo counter is 5 and your medal count is 3000 (600.0 * 5). At time 3, you receive 210 * 3000 points for landing a shot. Notice that the "Multiplier" does not factor into this calculation. At time 4, your combo counter is 5+1 = 6, and your medal count is 7800 (3000 + 6 * 800.0). At time 5, you receive 210 * 7800 points for landing a shot. Again, it is the medal count that actually multiplies your score, not the "Multiplier". The "Multiplier" is reset every time you die or use a bomb, so the key to getting big scores is to do neither of those two. You can also let the boss live as long as possible and try to get tons of medals off him for huge score multipliers. ---------------------------| 3.3 Item Volcanons |---------------------------- If you've played Giga Wing 2 much at all, you've probably seen a few Item Volcanons -- the screen suddenly fills with an cascade of beautiful kite-shaped emerald medals. Learning to trigger and exploit Item Volcanons is the key to playing for score. In an Item Volcanon, each on-screen medal splits into 10-13 volcanon medals, depending on its original base value. A +1 item splits into 10 volcanon medals, a +5 item into 11, a +10 item into 12, and a +50 item into 13. I don't believe volcanon medals split if you trigger another Volcanon, although I don't have confirmation either way. Powerup and Bomb items do not split. Each volcanon medal is worth +3. Combined with the combo counter system, you can see how a Volcanon can dramatically increase the value of each medal. If your combo counter is 0 and you pick up all the volcanon medals coming out of a given medal, a +1 medal is now worth +165, a +5 is worth +198, a +10 is worth +234, and a +50 is worth +273. The gains are much greater when you already have a large combo counter to start with. In practice, you'll get huge multipliers even by collecting a small fraction of all the volcanon medals on screen. An Item Volcanon can be triggered in two ways: 1. By causing more than 110 normal medals to be displayed on the screen. 2. By exceeding the game engine's on-screen object limit. Objects include player shots, reflected bullets, enemy bullets, enemies, medals, powerup items, reflected lasers, etc. If you want to trigger a Volcanon this way, make sure to hold down the rapid fire button. The exact value of the object limit is unknown. You'll know you've successfully triggered a Volcanon when the background starts to fade to black. Once the Volcanon is triggered, collecting medals will not cause the Volcanon to abort, even if you collect enough medals to drop under the 110-medal or object limit threshold. However, it's in your best interest to avoid collecting the medals until they've split. --------------------------| 3.4 Base Point Values |-------------------------- Certain actions and conditions in the game have a base point value. This value is multiplied by the score multiplier before being added to your score. The score multiplier is included in every score calculation, even the stage clear bonuses. Here are the base point values that are currently known. Stage Clear Bonuses ------------------- 1. Boss Time Bonus The time remaining when you defeat each boss is added to a running total. The base value is this total is multiplied by 2000 times the stage number. 2. Bomb Stock Bonus The base value is the number of bombs you have when you clear the stage multiplied by 15000 times the stage number. In-Game Scoring --------------- 1. Shot score Hitting an enemy with a shot (normal shot, reflect shot, or reflect laser shot) has a base value of 210 points. 2. Powerups/Bombs Powerup items and Bomb items are worth 830 points. 3. Medals Normal medals (+1, +5, +10, +50) are worth 830 points each. A volcanon medal (+3) is worth 210 points. Boss Scores: ------------ (note: the first five stage bosses are named after letters of the Hebrew alphabet. I've used Merriam-Webster's transliterations for them.) *) City Stage boss: Gimel First Form ---------- Main body: 1,625,000 points (only when the dome is closed) Flare cannon: 25,000 points Laser cannon: 50,000 points Feet: 50,000 points each Cannon: 25,000 points Side gun platforms: 25,000 points each Missiles: 12,500 points each Second Form ----------- UFO: 375,000 points UFO disk: 25,000 points *) Cloud Sea boss: Daleth Main body: 2,000,000 points Main wings: 250,000 points each Secondary wings: 200,000 points each Proximity bombs: 2500 points each *) Factory boss: Yod First Form ---------- Main body: 1,000,000 points Main engine: 320,000 points Small engine: 80,000 points Large rotating gun turrets: 160,000 points each Second Form ----------- Main body: 1,000,000 points Torpedoes: 5000 points each *) Holy Realm boss: Waw First Form ---------- Main body: 250,000 points Second Form ----------- Main body: 2,500,000 points Exploding bullets: 2500 points each Wings: 50,000 points each Exploding bullet launchers: 50,000 points each Large gun cover: 25,000 points Central gun platform: 25,000 points Left/right guns: 50,000 points each *) Altar Stage Boss: Samekh Main body (Ark): 3,000,000 points Towers and chests: 125,000 points each Bits: 5,000,000 points each *) Seal Stage Boss: Ark First Form ---------- Main body (eyeball): 1,250,000 points Sides (next to main body): 750,000 points each Disks (spinning gear-like parts): 500,000 points each Lenses (outermost parts): 250,000 points each Second Form ----------- Main body (eyeball): 1,000,000 points Ring 2 (final ring): 750,000 points Ring 3 (spinning ring): 625,000 points Ring 4 (double ring): 500,000 points Ring 5 (box ring): 375,000 points Ring 6 (three-needle ring): 250,000 points Shield (outer wall): 125,000 points *) Sanctum boss: LIMI First Form ---------- Main body: 4,500,000 points Second form ----------- Main body: 6,000,000 points ========================| Section 4: Gameplay Tips |========================= 4.1 Reflect Force versus Reflect Laser 4.2 General Scoring Tips 4.3 Plane Evaluations 4.4 Stage Strategies? ============================================================================= -----------------| 4.1 Reflect Force versus Reflect Laser |------------------ Depending on which of RF or RL you choose, gameplay can be quite different. It's natural to wonder which of them is better. Here are my thoughts. *) If you need to clean the screen of bullets, RF is a better choice because it kills enemies as soon as you reflect the bullets. With RL, you need to wait for the barrier to expire before it shoots. During that charging time, the enemies are still alive and are happily filling the screen with more bullets -- bullets that you will have to dodge after your invincibility window runs out. *) RF requires aiming and some degree of bullet herding (luring shots to the location and direction that you need), whereas RL does not require this. RF can easily miss a moving target, whereas RL does not. On the flip side, RF allows you to control which direction you want to reflect bullets in or to concentrate your fire on a single enemy, whereas RL automatically spreads its fire over all targets. *) It is believed that RL can only hold 256 shots. If you collect bullets beyond this limit, RL's attack power will not increase. There is no comparable limit for RF. The net effect is that RF is a more damaging attack in most situations. *) If you want to trigger an Item Volcanon by exceeding the object limit, RF is preferable because you can fire while reflecting. You cannot fire at the same time as your RL lasers. RL also absorbs bullets while the barrier is up, thus decreasing the number of objects. *) It's impossible, or at least very hard, to perform double Item Volcanons with RL. Since RL attacks all enemies at the same time, you don't have the control over timing that's necessary for a double Volcanon. *) For its part, RL can trigger some Item Volcanons which are very difficult or impossible to trigger with RF. For example, the second form of the Stage 6 boss teleports after you've done a certain amount of damage to it. Since RF spreads its hits over time, the boss tends to disappear before you can get the Volcanon. With RL, you just suck up shots and then hit the boss all at once before it can move, generating the required number of medals. *) The game cutscenes say that the ray of hope that can stop Ark is "Reflect Force", not "Reflect Laser". :) I think it would have been a nice touch to change the dialogue depending on which reflect method you had selected. Conclusion: Because of the auto-lockon, RL is best for beginners. They can swoop around collecting enemy bullets without the added hassles of bullet herding, aiming, and the like. A good RL charge will easily clear the screen of weak enemies, which is quite useful. I recommend RF for intermediate and advanced players due to its greater firepower and control. RF is also the choice of most scorers, although some choose to play RL and do quite well with it. RL may be useful as an added challenge for experts, and in those limited situations where it's better than RF (such as the Stage 6 boss second form). ------------------------| 4.2 General Scoring Tips |------------------------- First and foremost, don't die unless you're at the very beginning or very end of a stage. If you die, your combo counter resets. Since the majority of your score multiplier will be obtained when your combo counter is highest, dying effectively incurs a huge penalty. At the very end of a stage, since your combo counter will reset anyway, it may be advantageous to die (depending on the situation) if your bomb stock will increase as a result. However, the number of points you get this way is relatively small. Second, learn to get Item Volcanons. This takes some experimentation. You will either need to leave vast swarms of weak enemies around, or else collect a few big guys who can take a pounding and give you lots of medals. Either way, learn not to keep the rapid fire button down, since this will do unnecessary damage to your enemies and you won't get medals out of it. Sometimes it helps to first try to draw enemy fire into the center of the screen or to the middle of one side, so that you can get more coverage off your reflect. Third, learn to get double Item Volcanons. In certain situations, you can trigger two separate Item Volcanons off a single reflect. The key to this technique is to trigger the first Volcanon as fast as possible, and the second Volcanon as late as possible off your barrier's flare-out. One of the easiest places to see how this works is on Score Attack stage 2 (the sky stage) with RF. Right after the beginning swarm of cannon fodder, two large white shield-shaped enemies will come in from either side. As soon as they start their volleys of pink bullets, get up close to the left one (but not so close that you run into any medals) and reflect. If all goes well, the background should start fading to black right when your barrier has finished its initial expansion. Make sure NOT to reflect any shots from the right enemy during this phase. While your barrier contracts in size, pick up medals while avoiding the enemy bullets. By the time your barrier reaches its minimum radius and starts to expand again, the first Volcanon should be almost over. Just as your barrier flashes outward to its maximum size and disappears, fly straight into the volley of bullets as fast as you can. If you've done it correctly, a second Volcanon will be triggered. If you did the second reflection too early, the medals from both enemies will split during the same Volcanon and you will collect fewer of them. It's critical to wait for the final flare-out before going for the double Volcanon. Fourth, collect as many medals as possible. This sounds obvious, but it's important. When you've triggered Volcanons, especially, you will want to get up right below where most of the medals are. Then when they split, you can get a good portion of them. When using RF, try to concentrate medals in a spot where you can collect them all. Finally, destroy as many parts of the bosses as you can. Boss parts are worth a lot of points even before the score multiplier is considered. With most bosses you can trigger a Volcanon every time you reflect, so you will want to do most of your damage via reflection and not via your normal gun (don't use it at all if possible). You don't want to kill the boss's main body before you get the other parts, so if you're using RF, make sure to distribute the damage appropriately. Subject to these constraints, you should try to kill the boss as quickly as possible, since you get a bonus for the time remaining. Don't let the timer run out. --------------------------| 4.3 Plane Evaluations |-------------------------- In order from top to bottom, based on the score rankings I've seen (secret planes excluded because I've barely played them): Chery/Stork: This seems to be the highest-scoring plane in Arcade Mode. It's the second-fastest plane there is, and the seeking fire is pretty useful for taking out scattered enemies. On the other hand, the seeking fire can also end up damaging enemies you don't want to hit. Although the Stork's gun is quite weak, you will still want to avoid constantly mashing down the auto-fire button all the time. Chery's Stage 1 is the Cloud Sea stage, where you can build up a massive score multiplier, and her Stage 3 is the Factory stage, where you can score lots of points. Kart/Kingfisher: This is the slowest plane, but the spread on the main gun is good without being excessive, and the Spark Bomb is very strong. Kart also has the high-scoring Cloud Sea/City/Factory stage ordering. Among the standard planes, most top score attackers seem to prefer the Kingfisher. I'm not sure why, though. Romi/Sparrow: Fastest plane of the lot. The main gun is strong but not exceptionally so, and doesn't have any spread. Limi/Raven: This plane has average speed -- it's faster than the Kingfisher and Albatross, but slower than the Stork and Sparrow. The exploding pods that it fires are extremely strong, perhaps the strongest normal gun in the game behind the Neo Stranger. Largo/Albatross: This is the second-slowest and most unpopular plane. Its firing pattern is quite different from the rest of the planes, which means you'll have to play quite a different strategy to do well with the Albatross. The plane shines in up-close fights, but is somewhat difficult to get used to. High Albatross scorers can score very high (though not as high as the other planes). --------------------------| 4.4 Stage Strategies? |-------------------------- This is where I will put stage strategies, if I ever discover any decent ones for scoring. My current high scores are anywhere from 6-20 times below "state of the art". If you have a strategy you would like to submit, feel free to do so. :) =========================| Section 5: Bibliography |========================= Official Giga Wing 2 home page (Japanese) http://gw-2.dricas.ne.jp/ Your one-stop source for Giga Wing 2 info. It includes a lot of the system information given in this document, and a Rankings page where you can check out the scores of other players. You can also learn a lot by lurking on the BBS and reading the old messages. Arcadia home page (Japanese) http://www.arcadiamagazine.com/ Though I've never seen an issue of Arcadia Magazine, I gather that a lot of information on Giga Wing 2 has been published in past issues. Unfortunately they don't put their content online, but you can take a look around and try to order some back issues if you want/dare. Ushinawareta Game o Motomete (Japanese) (notice a trend? :) http://w3222.nsk.ne.jp/~aphrodite Contains lots of great info, strategies, and essays on Giga Wing 2 and several other shooting games, as well as general musings on the shooter genre and video games. Highly recommended.