Native Evolutional Species

The Native Evolutional Species is a Mech Armour piloted by Mirna and is an upgraded version of the Space Native. It is first encountered at Stage 64 of Stage Mode.

## Appearance

### First Form

The Native Evolutional Species looks very much like the Space Native. At this point, the Native Evolutional Species looks like a mechanical caterpillar with orange grey-webbed wings and is mainly orange in colour, with a long abdomen and something that looks like a gas mask on its head. It has 3 red eyes, one on top of the other two.

### Second Form

After having its blue health bar depleted, the Native Evolutional Species will shed 2 shell pieces along its sides, allowing its wings to expand. Its abdomen then shortens, and six reddish, yellow-geared, red tipped legs sprout from its revealed body. Green markings appear on its wings, and two mechanical red, silver-jointed antennae sprout from its head. This process can be considered metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a moth, skipping the pupa stage.

## Attacks

### First Form

1) The Native Evolutional Species will fire a moving ring of bullets from beside its abdomen.

2) The Native Evolutional Species will collect 2 roughly star-shaped rings of bullets and fire them out one after the other.

3) The Native Evolutional Species will fire waves of 5-6 groups of bullets in the shape of reuleaux triangles without the bottom side. It can also combine this attack with the first one.

4) The Native Evolutional Species will collect 3, then 2, streams of bullets at its abdomen and fire them in different downwards directions.

5) The Native Evolutional Species will charge a red OHKO beam at its abdomen. It can combine this attack with the second one and sixth one.

6) Similarly to its predecessor, the ship will fire out streams of bullets from its back that will soon fall down the length of the screen. Just that this time, the crafty bug has added in 2 shots of 3 bullets, aimed at the player's current them location, and will fire them at any two moments within this attack. Take not that these special bullets deal more damage than its OHKO Laser.

### Second Form

1) The Native Evolutional Species will use its triangle attack, but this time the bullets are in the shape of 2 reuleaux triangles back-to-back.

2) The Native Evolutional Species' legs will glow and fire 5 bullet streams at the player's current location.

3) The Native Evolutional Species will vibrate its wings and materialize fodder planes found in the Gemini Star Field and fire them at the player's current location.

4) The Native Evolutional Species will rapidly fire 6 waves of fast bullets in different directions.

5) The Native Evolutional Species will vibrate its wings, materializing bullets at its wing level, which will travel downwards at different speeds.

6) The Native Evolutional Species will use its legs to fire many streams of bullets along the length of the screen. It can also combine this attack with the fifth one.

7) The Native Evolutional Species can still use its OHKO beam.

## Strategies

The Native Evolutional Species is, in a few words, an improved deadlier version of an already challenging boss. While many may find the Space Native the first challenging boss in the beginning, experience and skill has allowed them to defeat the boss more easily. This being said, the first encounter with this boss shows that the ship still has a few tricks up its... wings...

For starters, this ship has more attacks than its predecessor, with few similarities between the two. This Mech Armour can throw anything in its arsenal at you, as such one must keep dodging to stay alive. While the easier attacks may be fired first, they usually prevent you from targeting the front of the ship. Coupled with the Mech Armours already small hitbox, dealing damage may not be that easy in the early phases of the battle.

A good idea is not to use your spare overloads (if you have any) right at the start. One should wait for the Mech Armour to transform before picking them up, since its Second Form has a much larger hitbox and less Overload damage will be wasted.

Upon transforming into its Second Form, things get serious. Dodge decisively between the reuleaux triangles and watch out for the streams. Do NOT underestimate the fodder planes -- they have large amounts of health and ramming into them WILL destroy your ship. Destroy the planes early and you should be fine.

The deadliest attack this ship can throw at you is definitely the spinning wave attack. The bullets are very fast and numerous, thus the window of time and space to dodge is very small, leaving little room for error while trying to dodge this attack. A theoretical method to dodge this attack is to find a blind spot(somewhere near the center, towards the left) that happens to avoid all 4 waves of the attack and stay there until the attack is over, but that in itself is risky and taking damage is still somewhat probable.

Another deadly attack is when it fires the stream of bullets from its legs while dropping the bullets from its wings. Having so many bullets on the screen can easily scare an experienced player, especially when they move at different speeds. Those who have fought the Space Native would also recognize this. One has to keep calm and focus on all the bullets in their area and predict when they will reach his/her level all at the same time.

Challenging this boss requires preparation, a fiendish amount of wit and quick reflexes. While the first phase introduces less dangerous and/or more sudden attacks, the second phase requires quick finger speed and courage to stand up to the odds that face you. Be intrepid and bold, for anything less leads to slim chances in defeating this boss.

Defeating the Space Native was only the beginning.