From: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu (have clue, will travel)
Subject: Re: DARIUS: Anyone got huge quantities of info?
Reply-To: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: The Ghost Of Christmas Past Society
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 16:56:05 GMT


acgoldis@athena.mit.edu (Andrew C Goldish) writes:

>A good way to fight Fatty Glutton is to stick with triple missiles and to not
>take lasers at least after Fatty Glutton.  The missiles have the advantage in
>that one of them destroys the small fish spit out by Fatty Glutton while the
>other two can still damage the big one.  When you hit a small fish, stay
>precisely where you are.  The pieces of the small fish will go past you
>without hitting you.

You mean that people actually GO to laser at this stage? ;)

I NEVER go past triple missiles.  That's all you need for ANY opponent.

>Lasers are especially useless for Fatty Glutton as they are thinner and, at
>least at the beginning, are weaker than the missiles.  You may not be able to
>get to wave weapons if you try this tactic, however.  Attempts at the wave
>weapons should only be made by those who can defeat Fatty Glutton with lasers.

Yah.  Laser is a HANDICAP on the way to Wave, which isn't really THAT big an
advantage even when you get it.
With triple missiles:  Line up horizontally with Fatty's mouth.  Echo his 
vertical movement (while firing like a banshee) and slip between whichever
pair of mini-fish will allow you to remain there best.  He dies quickly if
attacked in this fashion.

With lasers:  Hah.  Good luck.

>Two final notes: if you are ever given an opportunity to win the game with
>Z, take it.  The monster at the end of zone Z is as powerful as the others. 
>However, if you hurt it enough before your ship blows up, your next ship can
>simply sit on top of it and bomb it -- if you have MULTIs.  If the monster has
>sustained enough damage from earlier attacks, you can finish the zone.
Actually, I've done this with other ships as well; it's not specific to Great
Thing...

X (Octopus) is the easiest to kill, IMHO; just blow off the arms.  It's a snap
with even the weakest laser, and not hard at all with missiles, either.

>   If you have a shield entering zone Z (in general, the case when your ship
>first flies in to face the monster), shoot and dodge as usual. 

If you don't have a shield at the end of zone Z, save your car fare.  With
the ungodly number of blue shield-bubbles floating around sector Z, there's
no good reason to be shieldless when ENTERING the final battle.

> If you cannot
>take any hits, fly up to the top of the monster (as with King Fossil), near 
>the cannons on top.  The cannons will shoot at you, but the bullets/ships will 
>be destroyed by the two forward pointing MULTIs.  Enemies coming in behind you 
>will be destroyed by the two backward-pointing MULTIs.  The only other thing
> one needs to do is avoid the Fatty Glutton-type fish in the way mentioned 
>above: they bounce back at you but will miss you if you don't move.  This (as
>well as a lot of patience) should help you beat the monster.  In general, the
> cubes are not a problem as the MULTIs take care of them in the process.

I've found that the safest route to beating Great Thing--shield or no shield--
is to echo the Fatty Glutton routine with triple missiles, roughly echoing 
its vertical position while lined up horizontally with its mouth, and firing
continuously.  Drones get wasted by barrages of MULTIs, the splitter-fish are
detonated far enough away from you to dodge, and you're at a nice position
to dodge the bursts of red fireballs that spew out occasionally, as well as 
being too low to get skewered by laser fire.

Keep this position (roughly) while dodging like a madman and blaze away, and
it'll fall.  It just SEEMS like it takes a full year to do.

>  The route I usually follow to win the game is to follow the lowest edge of
> the battle plan until zone T.  If I have MULTIs at this point, I go to zone
> U, which is very easy with MULTIs.  If not, I go to zone T (an asteroid zone). 
> Both of these places, I believe, let you go to zone Z in the end.

Easiest win:  A-C-E-H-M-R-X.  Octopus is a wimp, though sector X isn't.

Most entertaining win: A-C-F-J-O-T-Z.  U is easy with MULTIs if you're a master
at steering between narrow passages with full shield; it's criminally easy to
bounce into walls and watch your triple missiles reduce to a single popgun.

>  Incidentally, whatever became of the Darius sequel, SAGAIA?  I saw it once a
>few years ago and have never seen it since.

Agh!  Anyone with whereabouts of this baby earns my eternal love.

--
     jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu    \\
                  To KLH:      ---   Love ya, Katya!
                                  \\  have clue, will travel.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
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