Gradius V

[rjpageuk]

On the spider boss I find it easiest to ignore the boss completely when you are below it - try to sit low and take out as many of the turrets as quickly as you can. Concentrate only on the turrets and avoiding the attacks of the boss (the falling blocks, and the beam when it starts). It helps if you sit right on the left hand side.

Once you get to the bottom of the screen you can then focus on attacking the boss - you should be able to kill him before it repeats and you are having to block dodge again! You should move back on top of him as quickly as you can once you are at the bottom as there is more room for maneovure up there. The only attack you really need to watch out for are these big red fireball things he fires at you. You can tell when he is about to start that is he starts to get a fireball thing near his core, then it shoots out at you. You should keep moving at this part as it will fire to where you were positioned.

Hope that helps!

[Saurian]

Nice one for that stuff KempStar! ^^ I'll practice that tonight!

[VR46]

thanks alot Kempstar, guess I just need lots more time on this, must play it when I'm not incredibly tired. Fantastic graphics and gameplay though and I've only seen stage 1-1

[KempStar]

Hello

What I do on this bit is-

1)Worms: Dont kill ANY of them. Keep shooting it, so its tail is red and its just about to die. Then kill it at the last minute. That way you will have an easy path when the two worms come from the left of the screen, as it wont regenerate quickly enough.

Just to clarify what I mean here. If you destroy a worm, another one will appear. However, if you dont kill any, the first one will follow the same patterns, as if a new one had appeared. So, fire on the first one until he is about to die, just keep following him (be careful not to destroy him by mistake) and kill him at the last minute, just as the two worms on the right appear.

[Saurian]

Waaaat? That's a heavyweight tactic man! 8)

Cant wait to play - tonight this stage is:

[venom743]

Just to clarify what I mean here. If you destroy a worm, another one will appear. However, if you dont kill any, the first one will follow the same patterns, as if a new one had appeared. So, fire on the first one until he is about to die, just keep following him (be careful not to destroy him by mistake) and kill him at the last minute, just as the two worms on the right appear.

Those worms are worth some serious points though. If you kill them quick enough you should have no problem when the other two show up.

[KempStar]

Venom743: I have no problems killing the first 2 (or maybe three), its the one that appears just before the two worms on the right that always causes me problems. I cant kill it quick it enough, then there are three worms on the screen and I crash into one of them >__<;;;

Do you kill that one or just fly through the gaps between the worms? If so how do you kill it?

Im currently trying to perfect stage 5. Ive got the level locked down now and can get to the boss consistently without losing a life. But he always nails me. Im fairly OK at getting through the first part (where there are two ships dropping those mines), but when he opens up I seem to cock up. Has anyone got some consistent strategies for this part?

[venom743]

You really have to be extremely quick to get rid of the middle worm before the other 2 show up. It can be done with practice. Just kill it as soon as it appears. Or you can go inbetween the bottom and middle worm. If you have a forcefield you should be fine as you can adjust your position as necessary. As for stage 5, reduce your speed to level 2 to make passing between the rocks easier as the boss sprays its bullets at you. When it stops firing , itll fire its lasers at you. This is the time to attack it. Line up your options making sure that at least one or two of them are behind you( theyll protect you from the rocks ) and move next to the core. It should go down in no time. Then be prepared for level 6!

[Geezer]

Got this yesterday, still not gotten past 2-2, lameness galore

I'll be rinsing this thread for tips and tactics

[dataDave]

Cut from my post in challenges thread:


Another short practice last night thanks to bitch-ass friends.

Spent an hour making sure I'll never again die on the 2nd level boss without the aid of a force field as well as an hour making sure to score at least 60000 before the salamanders appear on level 1 by means of taking out the 5 jump ships after the spinner.

Scored approx. 200000+ by the end of the 1st boss and 228000 at the atmosphere dive on level 2. Beginning to feel good about my early scoring routine now, still need to count up how many salamanders I kill.

When the 4th segment of the level2 boss starts ejecting those orbs that fire vertically you hardly have to move really - before I was darting around trying to dodge them like a tit. I can kill this fool before it even fires off it's dual red laser.

1 lifed it up until the first vertical descent on level 3, (after you blow open the door with the red nipple) then this pincer thing appeared from the left and then did one with all my options! WTF is that all about? Beware. I was as good as toast after that.

Managed to get through stage 4 OK. Apart from the bit with the 3 worms on screen at once, lost a few lives there. The tissue wall section was no big deal, just stuck to the right all the time. Make sure you're about 2 thirds up the screen in order to avoid the bulges coming at you from the rear.

Loving the stage 4 boss, I can 1-life it without any upgrades to my ship apart from 3 or 4 speed-ups, takes a while but is all good practice. Best way to practice bosses I reckon, just never attack making sure to concentrate on survival and absorb the offence.

Decided to continue through to the stage 5 boss in order to select stages for practice so that I don't get pissed after I finally 1-life level 3. Watching it clear the screen of asteroids sure is satisfying, this looks like it might be my favourite boss so far.

How many hours have people spent on this so far then? My clock reads nearly 10 hours although 5, nearly 6 of those are thanks to my mum. Got a ****ing Halo night to attend tonight with my friends, I might ring up ill.

Can't wait for this weekend, gonna spend a solid 2 days on this mother.

Me and my mate are fantasising about playing this on an iMax screen, along with some fine amsterdam hash. That'd be pure erotica.

Your mum rocks! She can kick my arse at GV by the looks of things

She's always liked shooters, only games she plays apart from pinball. (she used to live in a bar with galaxian) It's her that got me into R-Type and Raiden back on the golden days. She's not really interested in 1 credit runs or scores mainly, as long as she gets to the end and kills the final boss with around 3 credits she's happy.

[Kubrick]

then this pincer thing appeared from the left and then did one with all my options! WTF is that all about?

Yeah, that mother shows up there every time you reach that section without losing any lifes. Try and keep your options out of it's reach when it goes after you.

PS. Is the Aprreciation DVD worth getting or do you think there will there be better replays on the web in a week or two ?

I think we'll see better replays on the net in time since the DVD player doesn't go for the ultimate hi-score (he ignores a lot of power-ups and keeps the Forcefield highlighted on the weapon array incase he needs it).
He does takes care of the Stage 4 boss in a sneaky fashion though (and I can't copy his tactics cos' I use Type4) but other than that, it's fairly standard play from knowing the levels well. Mind you, he doesn't even bother using missles untill stage 7

[rjpageuk]

I managed to beat the spider boss thing (stage 3) pretty well and uploaded a vid of it for anyone interested:

http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/files/rjpageuk/rjpageuk_grad_v_ch3_boss.avi

Those comments about the Perfect DVD are rather disappointing - I am in two minds about whether I should get it or not.

I had also wondered what that pincer guy was, I had seen him a few times but I didnt know what he did until the last time - i didnt even realise he stole an option!

[VR46]

Interesting page here comparing level of oponents on Loop 1 and Loop 31 (loop 10 onwards are same Very Hard Difficulty)

http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~yoc/gra.html

use a JPN to English web page translator to explain (couldn't get Babelfish to give me a proper URL but you can get to the translator page here and paste in the above URL)

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/

[rjpageuk]

Bloody hell! Some of those screen shots of the harder loops, I take it the game is like that on very hard?

It does look.... slightly... hard

[venom743]

That makes normal mode seem like a walk in the park! Look at those bullets FFS!