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[usea]

I can understand that the battery system seems like it's holding us back from reaching a bigger audience but I think it really helps push players to experience the game in its most fun form. So while a few more people might be able to get through the game without it I think the people who enjoy the game the most would lose out big time.

Thanks for this. I am a believer in narrowly-focused games. I think that the wider an audience a game has, the less that audience will enjoy it. A generalization which is not always true, but as a principle I believe in it.

It's better to go all-out toward a very specific goal (even if many people are put off by it) than to kind of spread out mediocrity everywhere.

 

[JasonUresti]

Been playing some more, using some tips from here and the steam community threads. Seems like I've got a better handle on things.

I was actually playing too aggressively. I took the emphasis on aggressive play to heart and was being all barry sanders, weaving in and through the enemies. That was causing me to pick up a hit here or there that was wrecking the flow.

Sitting back a bit and playing with a more measured pace seems to have opened things up, and makes things much more manageable.

I guess my Robotron/Ultratron/Doom play had me running through the gears at a higher pace and more streamlined mechanics set than what Assault Android is really tuned for. My mistake. Now that I see what your game is and know how to approach it, I'm back to having fun with blasting away at robots.

I hope for your team's sake that people on the fence can play long enough or get that "Aha!" moment before they move on and dismiss it. I was close, but there was enough class and obvious talent in the execution that I felt like I owed the game another shot.

 

[usea]

I hope for your team's sake that people on the fence can play long enough or get that "Aha!" moment before they move on and dismiss it. I was close, but there was enough class and obvious talent in the execution that I felt like I owed the game another shot.

Yeah the way I've played every other game in this genre is non-stop running away. I always just run from a giant horde of enemies, blasting away at them infinitely until eventually I get caught. I tried that with this game and I got pretty far, but it wasn't fun. Eventually it 'clicked' with me. Hopefully others have the patience for that too.

 

[Kifimbo]

Won the game in the first round of GAF Bingo (thanks again !!!). After playing the first four/five levels, I was worried the game had to depth. Especially since I just played Hammerwatch, another indie game, where you click on one button endlessly. Before the first boss, I was only pressing RT, dancing around enemies. So I was worried.

Then, I quite like the first boss. Then I switch characters and played the second batch of levels. Started getting really crazy and it was a lot more fun. I'm not a twin-stick shooter/bullet hell fan, so I'm not sure I'll play this for hours trying to beat my best scores after beating all the levels once. But you can tell it's a good game.

 

[Paz]

Thanks for this. I am a believer in narrowly-focused games. I think that the wider an audience a game has, the less that audience will enjoy it. A generalization which is not always true, but as a principle I believe in it.

It's better to go all-out toward a very specific goal (even if many people are put off by it) than to kind of spread out mediocrity everywhere.

No mate thank you, I tend to agree with your philosophy. We're not exclusionary, but I'd prefer not to hinder the experience of the people who like the game to appeal to people who don't, I've seen that ruin too many good games

And congratulations Kifimbo on your Bingo win, it's awesome to be at a point where we can actually share the game.

 

[wilflare]

my weekend is finally here. gonna boot this up once I get home and have another go

 

[Hazaro]

Picked it up on Steam now, will be getting around to giving full impressions and shit with video at some point.

 

[Shaneus]

Updated the OP with a "let's play"-ish video from IGN Australia

 

[Hazaro]

3 hours (900p / 45FPS) which covers the entire pre-alpha in levels and characters. Lots of resets, and cursing, and my sick voice at 12-3am

Deep closing thoughts and ranks

Pros:

• Feels really polished
• Characters and art grew on me
• There seems to be a plot and characters are different
• SANIC SPEED
• All the characters and powerups seem to have a place
• A lot of well thought out game decisions to shape how people play (Dual purpose powerups being the main bullet here)
• Levels and bosses really mix it up
• Each character approaches boss fights in their own manner and seem to be able to S rank
• Really fun
• Has local co-op
• Later levels get really challenging (and interesting) for S rank

Cons:

• Battery system seems weighted towards much higher level players (Maybe give more time on the last bit to fuel the 'scramble')
• Powerup cycling should be more precise (Bar blends with aura and goes around back of item) and quicker to change visual states (fading colors make it uncertain which I'll pickup)
• Could be a bit more clear on what powerups do past tutorial (Magnet + Wings for Accel, 2x Haros for FirePower, Zzz + Shield icon for Shutdown)
• Batteries look like health, but Androids only have shields. Just maybe some things to clarify Battery/Shield/and lack of HP.
• Embyro laughs like a douchebag when he gets CHEAP KILLS
• Starch picks her nose
• Boss intros need to be sped up considerably after the first time (8s is too much)

Bugs:

• 2nd/3rd stages of the boss draw micro missile aggro onto an invincible target (I worked around this by going to max range and using splash with Starch)

Misc/Comments:

• What's the damage multi on Shutdown?
• Good job balancing damage/stock with residual special weapon heat (Holly)
• Does stacking powerups (Extended) grant bonus time over the initial max time? e.g. 100->150->200? Or does it just reset to max?
• FWIW I had a lot of close calls with batteries, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable for me since I have no time to savor that relief. It did make for a lot of tense moments as I hunted the screen to kill a high 'value' enemy (Or is it score/combo based?)
• Powerup drops are determined by what? (Guessing scores from base kill values)
• Would like weapon swapping to be the tiniest bit faster
• Fuck bombs
• FUCK Mega bombs

 

[Shaneus]

[*]FWIW I had a lot of close calls with batteries, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable for me since I have no time to savor that relief. It did make for a lot of tense moments as I hunted the screen to kill a high 'value' enemy (Or is it score/combo based?)

Holy shit, idea: What about a second or two of slow-mo (if you're playing single player, not sure how it'd work in 2P+) as you pick it up if it's within, say, 1s of you dying? I'm picturing the slow-motion like at the end of a round of Peggle. Strange comparison, but I think it's apt.

Like your comment on the battery idea, too (giving the last one a little bit of leighway... maybe like the android taps into a reserve bank or something? I guess like the shield/health combination in something like Halo, but obviously it's more 90/10 than 50/50).

 

[Hazaro]

I think that would provide a nice bit of think time and would give good feedback along with the music cutting back in.

 

[Shaneus]

I think that would provide a nice bit of think time and would give good feedback along with the music cutting back in.

Yup. Actually, thinking about it... more like the slight slow-motion when you die in Geometry Wars 2. Slows down a bit (I think?), music warps back in...

 

[Shengar]

Those fukkin bombs, I swear they randomly drop on me one more time and I.....
Anger aside, I've just put 1 hours to the game. It is highly polished and still extremely fun (albeit my Chaining activates my OCD to complete the level with full streak, always failing). The character model is good but I think it should be improved with little more detail. I have no complain with battery system though I die a lot by try grabbing recklessly in the middle of the enemy. My main complaint so far is the lack of enemies variety. Will you add more later into the game Paz?

 

[shaowebb]

I can understand that the battery system seems like it's holding us back from reaching a bigger audience but I think it really helps push players to experience the game in its most fun form. So while a few more people might be able to get through the game without it I think the people who enjoy the game the most would lose out big time. We're still tuning a lot of the properties though (such as the duration it stays on the field which is going way up) but the mechanic itself is definitely at the core of the game.

That sounds good. I really want the battery to stay out longer but possibly come out a little earlier as its really tough to get one currently,

Holy shit, idea: What about a second or two of slow-mo (if you're playing single player, not sure how it'd work in 2P+) as you pick it up if it's within, say, 1s of you dying? I'm picturing the slow-motion like at the end of a round of Peggle. Strange comparison, but I think it's apt.

Like your comment on the battery idea, too (giving the last one a little bit of leighway... maybe like the android taps into a reserve bank or something? I guess like the shield/health combination in something like Halo, but obviously it's more 90/10 than 50/50).

Yup. Actually, thinking about it... more like the slight slow-motion when you die in Geometry Wars 2. Slows down a bit (I think?), music warps back in...

This...this would actually be REALLY good. I'd even throw in a slight slow zoom effect as you go for it so long as it didn't leave you blind to bullets.That or the Need for Speed screen edge blur slowly fades in as it slows down then it all snaps back out as you get it.

If you're going for battery drama you may as well make it dramatic. I'd still like a battery drop a bit earlier than currently and more clarification from the game HOW to get batteries to drop. Is it based on high level enemy? Points? Mid point /end point of waves? Clue us in.

 

[Shengar]

If you're going for battery drama you may as well make it dramatic. I'd still like a battery drop a bit earlier than currently and more clarification from the game HOW to get batteries to drop. Is it based on high level enemy? Points? Mid point /end point of waves? Clue us in.

As far as I can tell from the pattern, battery drops on certain point of enemy waves regardless how much chains or pints you have. And any enemy could drop it if the kill means that you hit that point. I could be wrong though since it's very difficult to keep track what's going on the screen.

 

[shaowebb]

As far as I can tell from the pattern, battery drops on certain point of enemy waves regardless how much chains or pints you have. And any enemy could drop it if the kill means that you hit that point. I could be wrong though since it's very difficult to keep track what's going on the screen.

Thats why I wish it was more clear in game how close you were to netting a battery drop so folks would go for that extra push at the enemies to survive. We need some kind of battery clarification at the moment. Heck its possible if there was just an indicator for the current system on how close we were to a battery drop that we wouldn't have the repeat feedback issues on batteries. We just cant tell when we're doing good enough or need to desperately take more risks till its too late.

 

[Hazaro]

Speaking of screen clutter, one thing I forgot to mention is that I feel the geometry of enemies last a little bit too long after death

 

[Shaneus]

Thats why I wish it was more clear in game how close you were to netting a battery drop so folks would go for that extra push at the enemies to survive. We need some kind of battery clarification at the moment. Heck its possible if there was just an indicator for the current system on how close we were to a battery drop that we wouldn't have the repeat feedback issues on batteries. We just cant tell when we're doing good enough or need to desperately take more risks till its too late.

Perhaps if a battery drop was *literally* a battery drop and you saw some kind of other android floating around the top of the screen, before dropping a battery. Would serve as some kind of indicator and give the game a little more personality too (not like it needs it, though).

Or a "Battery, Incoming" voice queue.

 

[Paz]

Battery drop is determined purely by defeating enemies, which is how we tried to word it in the tutorial. By explaining it that way we hope it encourages people to rush and defeat enemies (especially when their battery is low/empty) and not worry about whatever is happening under the hood, which is why you see a lot of people refer to it as driving aggressive play style. One thing to note is that there is no RNG in the entire game, all spawns/drops/everything is deterministic, that's the only way the game can be fair.

There are a few helpers already at play with the battery though, for starters its magnetism is drastically increased if you are about to run out of battery so that you have less frustrating moments where you die with a battery 2 meters from your character, and they also can move over small gaps to be collected in that phase. Batteries drop so frequently that I'm not too keen on adding any special gameplay mechanic to collecting them (ala slow-mo) as I think the pacing of the game is very important, you'll see some slight tweaks to the system in the next patch but the one thing I desperately want to avoid is nerfing the system to the point that it isn't giving us the benefit of pushing aggressive gameplay.

I hope this isn't taken the wrong way but players failing a level by running out of battery is intentional design, it is the only way to fail in the game (As we have no lives) and I believe the game would be poorer if you just walked through the levels by holding fire and spamming to get back up with no consequences.

Btw thanks for the detailed feedback Haz, quite a few useful bits in there

Edit -

Will you add more later into the game Paz?

Yep, there are at least 6 new enemy types that will need to go in to the game.

 

[Hazaro]

From my own play when I found myself about to run out of battery I targeted a high value target with my special and it usually popped one for me. Would taking out say 5 lower score enemies be better?

Also a restart button and maybe binding 'q' as optional swap weapon key would be a nicety

 

[Paz]

Space and LMB currently both weapon swap, but full customisation is on our list of planned features (I should prolly post the roadmap here).

The enemies are all balanced in such a way that it shouldn't matter too much what you destroy, so long as you're being effective with your weapon (as that is at the core of the whole game, destroying the robots effectively). For example if you have 1 rocket left and there are a few spread out kegs and 1 red bomber on the field you should definitely hit the bomber, he'll be worth quite a few kegs and goes down to 1 rocket while you can't effectively AOE spread out kegs. But if you'r using a spreadshot and far away from the bomber it might make more sense to target down the kegs since you'll be effectively using more of your dps.

Hope that makes sense, the game is essentially a series of puzzles where the goal is to defeat the enemies in the most efficient way possible, with a ton of variables beyond the scenario I just described.

Edit: Early Access Roadmap of new features: http://steamcommunity.com/app/250110/discussions/0/864977564037128718/

 

[Hazaro]

Space and LMB currently both weapon swap, but full customisation is on our list of planned features (I should prolly post the roadmap here).

The enemies are all balanced in such a way that it shouldn't matter too much what you destroy, so long as you're being effective with your weapon (as that is at the core of the whole game, destroying the robots effectively). For example if you have 1 rocket left and there are a few spread out kegs and 1 red bomber on the field you should definitely hit the bomber, he'll be worth quite a few kegs and goes down to 1 rocket while you can't effectively AOE spread out kegs. But if you'r using a spreadshot and far away from the bomber it might make more sense to target down the kegs since you'll be effectively using more of your dps.

Hope that makes sense, the game is essentially a series of puzzles where the goal is to defeat the enemies in the most efficient way possible, with a ton of variables beyond the scenario I just described.

Okay, that's what I figured. I'm talking about 1 or 2 pulses before gg so I run my face into a giant guy and hit my nuke.

I did make notes of some specific points for drops like 125 for powerup on the 2nd boss (So make sure it's on my side), and then new stage over after 150 killed. That's why nothing feels random and everything seems placed very nicely. The spawns follow nicely, it's very tightly controlled, but in a good way. That's why you have that bullet point in Pro

 

[usea]

One thing to note is that there is no RNG in the entire game, all spawns/drops/everything is deterministic, that's the only way the game can be fair.

Definitely noticed this when trying to get S+ on all the levels. You end up restarting a level every 10-30 seconds for a few hours, and you begin to learn exactly where to move to make enemies spawn in advantageous positions. I was happy to learn that I could get deterministic spawns by taking the exact same path every time.

Okay, that's what I figured. I'm talking about 1 or 2 pulses before gg so I run my face into a giant guy and hit my nuke.

I did make notes of some specific points for drops like 125 for powerup on the 2nd boss (So make sure it's on my side), and then new stage over after 150 killed. That's why nothing feels random and everything seems placed very nicely. The spawns follow nicely, it's very tightly controlled, but in a good way. That's why you have that bullet point in Pro

Yep. Also made note of this. I actually did the second boss no problem without dying, and found the first boss to be much more difficult to kill quickly with no deaths. I'm not sure why that is.

 

[Shengar]

Battery drop is determined purely by defeating enemies, which is how we tried to word it in the tutorial. By explaining it that way we hope it encourages people to rush and defeat enemies (especially when their battery is low/empty) and not worry about whatever is happening under the hood, which is why you see a lot of people refer to it as driving aggressive play style. One thing to note is that there is no RNG in the entire game, all spawns/drops/everything is deterministic, that's the only way the game can be fair.

There are a few helpers already at play with the battery though, for starters its magnetism is drastically increased if you are about to run out of battery so that you have less frustrating moments where you die with a battery 2 meters from your character, and they also can move over small gaps to be collected in that phase. Batteries drop so frequently that I'm not too keen on adding any special gameplay mechanic to collecting them (ala slow-mo) as I think the pacing of the game is very important, you'll see some slight tweaks to the system in the next patch but the one thing I desperately want to avoid is nerfing the system to the point that it isn't giving us the benefit of pushing aggressive gameplay.

I hope this isn't taken the wrong way but players failing a level by running out of battery is intentional design, it is the only way to fail in the game (As we have no lives) and I believe the game would be poorer if you just walked through the levels by holding fire and spamming to get back up with no consequences.

Btw thanks for the detailed feedback Haz, quite a few useful bits in there

Edit -

Yep, there are at least 6 new enemy types that will need to go in to the game.

That's explain why I rarely have battery problems, since I usually play (too) aggressively. I guess some stationary enemies in some stage that usually would break your chain because the next wave won't until you kill them is built around aggressive playstyle as well? As I can't see to keep your chain rolling unless you move around the map to kill those stationary enemies. It can be frustating sometime whe your chain breaks just because the enemy is too far away from you with no little enemies to channel the chain.

Will be there more stages added? Also, I've seen the fifth android when I'm TotalBiscuit video, where is she now?
EDIT: So she's unlockables, which I presume by defeating Embryo?

 

[KillerTravis]

We want to support both wiimote+nunchuck as a replacement for KB/M (wiimote acting as a reticule pointer) and both the official twin stick controllers.

This is all I wanted to hear.

 

[Hazaro]

Batteries are pretty dumb on the second boss.

So far:

 

[usea]

So far:

better than me. mine:

http://i.imgur.com/elINGTR.jpg

I'm impressed with your embryo and process. I've spent quite a bit of time on them and still haven't gotten s+

edit: okay I literally just now got s+ on both of those. Spoilers:

Spoiler

lemon on embryo, starch on process. (starch on almost all levels imo)

Who do you think is best for vespula? I think it's down to

Spoiler

lemon or coral

. Maybe

Spoiler

starch

would be good without the alt fire bug.

 

[Hazaro]

I've been using Lemon and Holly most of the time, followed by Starch/Coral, and Cactus last.

Starch with a powered laser works even with the missile bug, just fire at the leading edge and make sure you nab the weapon powerups when the enemies pull in. I just keep getting bad luck on battery spawns (GL crossing the boss and 500 flies), but maybe I should plan the entire engagement so I get batteries thrown to good areas? Bleh. Either way I lose and it's frustrating. IMO for an 'easy' S+ Starch is the way to go since a massive distance gap and full DPS makes errors less costly.
Otherwise, yes Lemon or Holly would work if I sunk time into it. I bet Cactus would also, just harder.

The dynamic levels I'm really not enjoying trying to S/S+ them right now. I'm supposed to be good at this shit dammit.

 

[usea]

Yeah I pretty much never use Cactus. I enjoy Coral the most, but I find she has a lower margin for error. Easier to screw up.

My biggest problems from getting s+ on most levels are
1) dying to sudden things like a toaster missile, a red ground wave, an exploding mine, or a spinning laser corners me.
2) dropping my combo. either because I switched to my alt weapon at the wrong time or because I missed an enemy on the other side of the level / behind a wall
3) on levels with moving platforms I die to everything constantly because I can't always move when I want

 

[Shengar]

Batteries are pretty dumb on the second boss.

So far:

And I just mangaed to get S+ for one level. What's your secret? I exclusively used Holly for all level by the way.

 

[IN&OUT]

The amount of polished in this game rivals or even exceeds that of a huge 200+ people team ! mindblown when I realized that it's only 3 people working on this gem. guys you have my full support on steam and PS4

 

[Messofanego]

[Videogamer.com] Assault Android Cactus Gameplay Verdict

Chris does pretty good on the last part.

 

[Shady859]

Not gonna lie I am totally skipping next gen this year but saw this on the release list and thought oh yea that looks good! So when I saw this thread I bought right away.

I am a big fan of twin stick shooters and SHMUPs in general so my biggest dislike is the battery so far. I'm halfway through the missions and HOPING survival unlocks after campaign or soon. That's the bread and butter of these for me and hopefully there will be leaderboards. Interested to see how the battery comes into play in survival as well although i'm thinking it's the same... :/

Good job and congrats on your game.


Edit: Most all of levels done, I didn't notice half were in process still, just started and went along.

 

[usea]

Not gonna lie I am totally skipping next gen this year but saw this on the release list and thought oh yea that looks good! So when I saw this thread I bought right away.

I am a big fan of twin stick shooters and SHMUPs in general so my biggest dislike is the battery so far. I'm halfway through the missions and HOPING survival unlocks after campaign or soon. That's the bread and butter of these for me and hopefully there will be leaderboards. Interested to see how the battery comes into play in survival as well although i'm thinking it's the same... :/

Good job and congrats on your game.

So far in the current release there's nothing except the missions. Also I'd wager survival will use the battery too, but that's just my guess.

Also, I finally got S+ on Vespura. I used Starch (!) although I'm sure the same run would have been a win with lemon.

 

[Shaneus]

Update received! What magic will it bring? I don't know!

Edit: First major upgrade I've noticed certainly improves the experiEnce

Edit #2: LEADERBOARDS!!! I don't think they mention what Android you use per level, but perhaps that's for the best... means less reliance on finding *the* best and just finding the best one that works for you (kinda like using those shitty tunes on Forza that are guaranteed to have the best performance, but suck all the fun out of it). I suspect there are extra sound cues as well, but can't be too sure.

 

[Paz]

Our first update is now live! Steam Leaderboards integrated in to the clear screens, various bug fixes and tuning changes. All detailed in a Steam page announcement (http://steamcommunity.com/games/250110/announcements/detail/2109097506762773788)

Shengar - Yep there will be more levels and characters, capping out at 25 missions + 2 extra modes and 8 characters, Starch is the only unlockable right now (Defeat Embryo).

$hady - Aside from Starch there are no unlockables in the game right now, endless/boss rush and EX options are yet to come, along with the remaining 9 campaign levels, 6+ new enemies, and 3 more characters.

Shaneus - You can tell which character was used on the main leaderboards, they are pretty rough right now (we plan to pretty them up at some point but wanted them in sooner than later) but the coloured icon next to the rank indicates the android used.

 

[Shaneus]

Did I just get another update? I think the "downloads" section of Steam is still thinking of the previous update (it says it started at 6pm-ish) but I'm sure it's a different size and a bunch of files have been updated.

 

[Paz]

Yeah we noticed a few issues with blank names and leaderboard sorting now that there are more than 3 people with logged scores, so we fixed them and added some improved music from Jeff. Probably won't do change logs for little bug fixing patches like that

Next update will be more content heavy I imagine, probably closer to when I head over to the Eurogamer Expo to show off Cactus at the end of the month.

 

[Shaneus]

Sweet I haven't tried playing with more than one player, but has there been any consideration toward drop-in multiplayer? I'm picturing something along the lines of TMNT or Gauntlet in the arcades, where you could just drop in some coins and jump right into the game. Some funny little animation of an android falling from the sky and straight into combat could be a bit rad!

Might be worth considering for the console versions, at least.

 

[aeolist]

i played the demo and liked it, will probably pick it up at some point

my only complaint was that the characters didn't really feel balanced, they were all fun to play but (for example) the homing missile gun made the game too easy and the shotgun was too hard

 

[Shengar]

The leaderboard update is nice, and now I'm having true experience, not experiance

Spoiler

Playing as Starch, I notice her laser attack is significantly powerful than other android's (at least compared to Holly), so I want to asked if the androids have different "stats" among them beside their attack and power attack difference?

 

[Hazaro]

i played the demo and liked it, will probably pick it up at some point

my only complaint was that the characters didn't really feel balanced, they were all fun to play but (for example) the homing missile gun made the game too easy and the shotgun was too hard

Holly's a good character (But limited range and need to time cannons to not lose chain) and so are Lemon and Starch. Shotgun is a strong gun and the plasma field which repels bullets which can be a life saver. The only one I'm not feeling is Cactus.
Some characters might have easier times or suit your playstyle on different stages that stop just being simple levels.

Play a bit more and aim for S+

 

[Haunted]

Saw this on Northernlion's channel, everything about it looked solid and well-made except for the bad character designs.

They remind me of faux-Japanese garbage like Sudeki or My Sims for Wii (sorry to be so blunt).

 

[Hazaro]

These leaderboards are going to do terrible things to me.

Amazing presentation by the way (ticking up on the score). Menus could be a bit easier to navagate now that I'm checking leaderboards and scores.

Maybe display my score and position under the levels?

*I'd really like an explanation for how my score (before time bonus) is calculated because I'm really stumped at how my scores are different each run if I pickup the batteries.
I even tried to double stack batteries to get a multi bonus (2x over 1.5x) to help make up that 1,000 point difference but apparently only 1 battery can spawn at a time.
This person being 1 second faster than me is really frustrating.

Also if there was an in game timer I could time my powerup pickups much quicker rather than relying on checkpoints in weapon heat and boss patterns...

*Finally got 1:00 and S+ on Coral, had to miss batteries because they spawned too far from the boss. Really annoying and not fun. I'm not sure where the boss is going to jet (if it's my position, looking direction, proximity, area of the map)? Blehhhhhhhh.

 

[usea]

On embryo, after each phase I'm pretty sure he goes to the point furthest away from you. So it's position. edit: okay, maybe not.

Also that's a great score with starch. Last time I looked all the top ones were cactus, who I don't even play. I use starch and lemon on embryo, but I haven't gotten faster than 1:09. edit2: okay now I'm right behind you

So, is blue or red powerup better on embryo? I'm pretty sure you do extra damage when an enemy is stunned via blue, but there has to be a trick to it or something because it doesn't always work. Like on vespula with lemon I could sometimes knock her back into her ball in a single blue stun, but other times it would only do half the damage necessary.

 

[Hazaro]

On embryo, after each phase I'm pretty sure he goes to the point furthest away from you. So it's position. edit: okay, maybe not.

Also that's a great score with starch. Last time I looked all the top ones were cactus, who I don't even play. I use starch and lemon on embryo, but I haven't gotten faster than 1:09. edit2: okay now I'm right behind you

So, is blue or red powerup better on embryo? I'm pretty sure you do extra damage when an enemy is stunned via blue, but there has to be a trick to it or something because it doesn't always work. Like on vespula with lemon I could sometimes knock her back into her ball in a single blue stun, but other times it would only do half the damage necessary.

Red imo. I used to think Blue, but since you can take down the boss so quickly it persist past 1 stage.
Honestly, without a lot more work into timing powerup drops (Timing anything after the 2nd is a chore) you just hope it's not Yellow (Unless you are Coral).

Likewise on Vespula Red will help clear flies which gives it a large benefit.

I can get 1:05 times with Holly as well S+, but they don't show up since it's not my fastest

 

[usea]

Yeah all my sub-1:09 times were red powerups. I think you're right.

I noticed all the high scores on vespula were with lemon, so I was doing starch for a while. I got some scores that would be in the top 5, but they didn't beat my lemon score so they don't show up on the table I was only 10k behind.

 

[Paz]

Score is calculated per phase based on how quickly you defeat them, and batteries award score too. His positions (and battery spawns) are deterministic based on your position relative to his position, so work out a new pattern if you're creating frustrating scenarios because you're causing them

Blue powerups can be great for Embryo, especially on his final phase where you want to just clear it asap, but yes in general red powerup is going to last longer. Yellow powerup is actually great against Vespula non wasp phases though as you can maximise your weapons dmg without fear of her attacks.

p.s I've broken 400k with Cactus, Holly, and Lemon previously. Pretty sure it's possible with all of them if you try hard enough.

Edit - Yeah it seems like Lemon is basically the ultimate Vespula killer, still not sure if we want to do anything about that since it's just down to the nature of her weapons and the boss... The other characters are still within like 5% score range andI think Coral could take the crown on that fight if played PERFECT but that's just theory craft.

 

[Hazaro]

Score is calculated per phase based on how quickly you defeat them, and batteries award score too. His positions (and battery spawns) are deterministic based on your position relative to his position, so work out a new pattern if you're creating frustrating scenarios because you're causing them

The other characters are still within like 5% score range andI think Coral could take the crown on that fight if played PERFECT but that's just theory craft.

That's what I thought. Waiting for powerups is bleh. Needs more planning than I thought.
I'm already cutting into bullets on Phase 1 to grab the weapon ups energy faster and making sure to hug for the same reason.

I did a little bit of trial and error by standing in mid/ near him / away / and facing different directions, but didn't figure out anything that seemed obvious.

*Finally #1 on something, yay. Yay again

 

[Paz]

It's now entirely possible that outside of the dev team you have played this game the most of anyone in the world, not sure if that says more about our low player count or your dedication

I think you currently hold the most #1's don't you?