ARCADE
Quick scoring summary:
Basically you get your counter up to 1000 and your multiplier up to 10,000 (or as close as possible) by absorbing red and blue rings. Shot gives you red rings that build up your counter, while laser gives you blue rings that build up your multiplier (some characters have it reversed). There's a proximity effect in this similar to the one in Galuda 2 and MFBL. Press A+B to go into fever (like DS), and you can use shot or laser to leech skulls off enemies and you won't have any suicide bullets to deal with. For high scoring, though, you need to use your lock-shot on groups of multiple enemies, often in the background (a la Soukyuugurentai). When they die they release slow homing suicide bullets (a la Galuda 2's zesshikai mode). When you let off lock shot these suicide bullets are converted to skulls. Time a lock shot right as the counter goes back down to 0, when there are lot of suicide bullets on the screen, and you can instantly respawn it back up to 1000 and go right back into fever mode (similar to the recharge technique in Deathsmiles, but much easier). Rinse and repeat. You can do the 'recharge' over and over in some levels (dozens of times), unlike DS where you could only do it once or twice in a level. It gives the game a very fast pace, and smooth rhythm.
There are no bouncing skulls (that break into smaller skulls) to deal with as in DS. You just absorb everything you can. Skulls you miss just fall off the screen.
In regard to leeching skulls off enemies with your shot, some characters can do this more effectively than others. Lei is the best at this, and he plays much differently from the other characters due to this. You can go through some stages with Lei just doing this and score well.
Your multiplier and counter carry over from stage to stage, but they max at 10,000 and 1000, respectively (just like the original DS). If you die you only lose 10% of your multiplier, which is quite nice. Your multiplier does not reset to zero when you exit fever mode, as it does in DS. It stays the same.
There is more to it, and there are some more advanced scoring techniques you can use with each character, but that's the gist of it.
X360
Basic stuff:
-Try and get your multiplier to 10,000 before you go into power-up mode. If you are around 7000+ and get a bunch of suicide bullets on the screen, you can often power up and get to 10K right away as well.
-If you power up and are not near 10k, try and use lock-shot on enemies, they will release light blue crowns which max out your multiplier faster
-Don't hold shot or laser down through an entire level. Get a dozen or so blue homing missiles near you, let off your fire button, wait a second or two until their trailing lines turn red, then cancel them with lock-shot. Rinse and repeat. Holding shot or laser through crowded parts of a level can really hurt you as the homing missiles can easily whip around and knock you from behind. Remember that while in power up mode touching enemies doesn't hurt you.
-When you get down around 200 on the counter in power up mode, try and get as many blue homing missiles on the screen as possible, keep them near you, and cancel them when the counter is around 20. This will allow you to refill back up to about 6000 on the multiplier if you time it right. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on the character, and different factors in spots of stages.
-In some stages you really need to use lock-shot while in power up mode to take advantage of all the enemies lurking in the background. Once you have a bunch of suicide bullets (sperm-type) tracking you, let go of lock-shot when your circular meter is about to close at the top.
-Boss milking involves holding lock-shot while in power up mode until suicide bullets appear, then let go of lockshot and they turn into red rings. Do this right as your counter is about to expire and you can refill back up to 1000 on the counter. Charge your multiplier by using shot (not laser) while near a boss, and you will do minimal damage to a boss, allowing you to power up when a lot of bullets are on the screen, "power down" with the aforementioned lock-shot>suicide bullets>red rings technique, and repeat a couple times for a nice score boost.
-Try and deliver the final blow to the bosses with the lock-shot. Not just because it lets you fight the TLB, but if you have a lot of suicide bullets on the screen from holding the lockshot, these all convert into skulls at the end, giving a lot of points.
Arrange
-coming soon-
