Hail Discordia!
A few more tips for interested:
1. Don't accept less than 750-800k on stage 1. Ensure that you have a good chain going by the boss fight. Milk the boss by destroying the money tanks with aura and collect the money. Whenever it's shooting missiles, just stand still or move very slowly, and the aura will destroy them all safely. Milking this boss that way is worth over 200k points. It's a good headstart for getting an extend in stage 3.
2. Use Sky High as your second stage. The reason is simple: you need to maximize the medal chain before the end of the stage. Considering the enemies there are sparse and there are no medal vaults, it is easy. If everything went as planned, you will get an extend during the first half of stage 3.
3. I choose Sewage System as my 3rd stage because I have to bomb a lot on it due to hidden medals and whatnot, and there's a high probability I will lose a life either on Boredom just before it or somewhere in the first half of the stage, so the extend comes in handy. You may have to suicide right before getting an extend if you've run out of bombs, to be able to bomb when needed later into the stage.
4. There are many, many hidden metal vaults in sewers and the airport. Learn 'em, bomb 'em. Thus, it is mandatory that you have a full chain through either. This is a LOT of points right there. As such, it is equally mandatory that you collect bomb fragments as much as possible to have enough bombs for everything.
5. Download Icarus's Strawman superplay and learn where the profitable places and medal vaults are. I've been studying it very carefully, and it helped a lot.
6. Stage 5: It is possible to hit the tank you encounter in the beginning when the highway goes to the right. If you scroll the screen to just enough, you'll be able to deal damage to it with Strawman's homing options without having to dodge all of its bullets. You can destroy one of the turrets in this manner and wait until the tank goes offscreen (to get a secret extend from it later on; having to kill both turrets will make it harder to do in time). Also, Blunt is pretty easy if you make effort to stream his V-shaped volleys (i.e., move as little as possible, then jerk to make a room to get back and repeat). Only the last phase becomes hard then, but you can just bomb through it. One good bomb is enough.
7. Scoring helps survival. Getting 1.5 millions is not too hard if you have a full chain going, and there are also other extends lying around. Moreover, medal vaults are often located in busy parts of the levels, so by bombing you both clear a way and uncover the medals.
8. Remember to detach your options more often (so stop shooting from time to time). It's good both because you can locate them where they do more damage, and because your main shot becomes stronger while they're detached.
9. Zenovia City is more intimidating than it is hard (to be honest, I didn't find it particularly harder than Highway, apart from the boss). There are two or three parts I know I can't pass without bombing, but I usually don't care, because the boss — Grubby — owns me anyway (I credit-fed to him a couple times to practice, and found myself totally unable to do anything after he starts the mass arm attack), and also because bombing in those places is good for score, anyway. So I just collect everything indiscriminantly (big shot levelups = 5k each!) until I die.
Also, I'm going to be out of town for the holidays, and I have no idea if I'll be able to put some time into playing on Sunday evening, so expect a good score from me tomorrow.
1. Don't accept less than 750-800k on stage 1. Ensure that you have a good chain going by the boss fight. Milk the boss by destroying the money tanks with aura and collect the money. Whenever it's shooting missiles, just stand still or move very slowly, and the aura will destroy them all safely. Milking this boss that way is worth over 200k points. It's a good headstart for getting an extend in stage 3.
2. Use Sky High as your second stage. The reason is simple: you need to maximize the medal chain before the end of the stage. Considering the enemies there are sparse and there are no medal vaults, it is easy. If everything went as planned, you will get an extend during the first half of stage 3.
3. I choose Sewage System as my 3rd stage because I have to bomb a lot on it due to hidden medals and whatnot, and there's a high probability I will lose a life either on Boredom just before it or somewhere in the first half of the stage, so the extend comes in handy. You may have to suicide right before getting an extend if you've run out of bombs, to be able to bomb when needed later into the stage.
4. There are many, many hidden metal vaults in sewers and the airport. Learn 'em, bomb 'em. Thus, it is mandatory that you have a full chain through either. This is a LOT of points right there. As such, it is equally mandatory that you collect bomb fragments as much as possible to have enough bombs for everything.
5. Download Icarus's Strawman superplay and learn where the profitable places and medal vaults are. I've been studying it very carefully, and it helped a lot.
6. Stage 5: It is possible to hit the tank you encounter in the beginning when the highway goes to the right. If you scroll the screen to just enough, you'll be able to deal damage to it with Strawman's homing options without having to dodge all of its bullets. You can destroy one of the turrets in this manner and wait until the tank goes offscreen (to get a secret extend from it later on; having to kill both turrets will make it harder to do in time). Also, Blunt is pretty easy if you make effort to stream his V-shaped volleys (i.e., move as little as possible, then jerk to make a room to get back and repeat). Only the last phase becomes hard then, but you can just bomb through it. One good bomb is enough.
7. Scoring helps survival. Getting 1.5 millions is not too hard if you have a full chain going, and there are also other extends lying around. Moreover, medal vaults are often located in busy parts of the levels, so by bombing you both clear a way and uncover the medals.
8. Remember to detach your options more often (so stop shooting from time to time). It's good both because you can locate them where they do more damage, and because your main shot becomes stronger while they're detached.
9. Zenovia City is more intimidating than it is hard (to be honest, I didn't find it particularly harder than Highway, apart from the boss). There are two or three parts I know I can't pass without bombing, but I usually don't care, because the boss — Grubby — owns me anyway (I credit-fed to him a couple times to practice, and found myself totally unable to do anything after he starts the mass arm attack), and also because bombing in those places is good for score, anyway. So I just collect everything indiscriminantly (big shot levelups = 5k each!) until I die.
Also, I'm going to be out of town for the holidays, and I have no idea if I'll be able to put some time into playing on Sunday evening, so expect a good score from me tomorrow.