RRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRR RRRRRR RRRR RRRRRR TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT YYYY YYYY PPPPPPPPP EEEEEEEEEE RRRR RRRRRR TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT YYYY YYYY PPPPPPPPPPP EEEEEEEEEE RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR TTTT YYYY YYYY PPPP PPPP EEEE RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR OOOO TTTT YYYY YYYY PPPP PPPP EEEE RRRRRRRRRRRRRR OO 00 TTTT YYYY YYYY PPPP PPPP EEE RRRR RRRRR 0000 TTTT YYYYYY PPPPPPPPPPP EEEEEEEEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPPPPPPP EEEEEEEEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPP EEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPP EEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPP EEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPP EEEEEEEEEE RRRR RRRRR TTTT YYYY PPPP EEEEEEEEEE _______________________________________________________________________________ ======= ====== == == ===== == == == ==== == == == == ======== == == == == ======= == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ====== == === == == ======= _______________________________________________________________________________ V 1.2.8 updated: 4 / JUL / 2004 !! READ THIS FIRST!! READ THIS FIRST!! READ THIS FIRST !! ************************************************************ ******************************************************************************* This document is best viewed with Courier New size 9 fonts using MS word viewer I only have the Japanese version of the game. Therefore many of the names for enemies, weapons and stages are made up until such time I find out their western equivalent. If you have any comment please post them on the R-Type final forum at gamefaqs.com ******************************************************************************* ************************************************************ --------------------------------------------------------------------- This R-Type Final FAQ is (C) 2003 to Starkey Chan. This FAQ can be printed for personal use only. This FAQ CANNOT be copied in part or in whole and used in anyway to gain profit. Publication in magazines, in part or in full is prohibited. This includes free publications. This FAQ CANNOT be used on ANY commercial web sites. By that I mean site that requires paid membership of any sort. Failure to adhere to the above will result with me raising hell!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE HISTORY 3/3/2004 (1.2.6) First run. 5/5/2004 (1.2.7) Updated & Finish Bydo lab section. 4/7/2004 (1.2.8) Added info on AI battle mode, score attack, War record, requirements for unlocking ships. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents Status ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 HISTORY LESSON. Final Draft 2.0 STORY Final Draft 3.0 Game Basics Incomplete 4.0 AI vs. Battle mode Final Draft 5.0 The Ships Almost Finished 6.0 The Weapons Final Draft 7.0 Customisation Final Draft 8.0 The Stages Incomplete 9.0 Credits Work in progress 10.0 About Irem O.K 11.0 Cheats Incomplete =============================================================================== 1.0 HISTORY LESSON =============================================================================== 1.1 R-type ---------- Released in 1987 Collaborators: Nintendo Original Format: Arcade co-op. The Ship: R-9A 'Arrow-Head' Official Blurb: The Bydo Empire, a world where hatred and slaughter are ubiquitous. Here, grotesque creatures which strike fear into the foundation of our souls, subsist. We must destroy these monsters without hesitation. Now, a very sublime battle is about to begin here. When R-Type first hit the arcades in 1987 it was quite a mini revolution. Not only did it contain some of the best graphics and sound for that time it also contained quite a unique power-up system. The key to this was the use of the FORCE device. Whenever the R9 picked up a power-up the FORCE device will appear. This device could be attached to the front or the back of the ship. Any subsequent power-ups picked up would increase the size of the FORCE and allow it to fire a range of beam weapons the most famous of which is the Reflective Laser which bounces of any solid object or Scenery. The flexibility of the FORCE device added another dimension to the basic shoot'em up formula. The FORCE is totally invincible and will absorb enemy shots acting like a shield or even a battering ram. What's more it could be detached from the ship at anytime and continue to fire allowing the player to attack multiple targets at the same time or fire into key areas to dangerous or small for the R9. Because it could be attached to either the front or the back of the ship, the player could easily manoeuvre the FORCE to face the direction the enemy is attacking from. The R9 vessel itself isn't totally reliant on the FORCE device. It had a powerful BEAM weapon which was charged-up by holding down the Fire button. When the button is releases a powerful bolt of energy is fired. Depending on the amount of time you hold the button down for the damaged caused (and the size of the bullet) varies. This gave the player another form of attack at his or her disposal. Needless to say the game became an instant hit in the arcades. Even now many fell it's ingenious level design makes it the best game in the series. 1.2 R-Type II ------------- Released in 1989 Original Format: Arcade co-op. The Ship: R-9C War Head (Custom Model) Official Blurb: The Empire has been revived. With renewed power, they have achieved rapid evolution in a different dimension. Once again, mankind has sent the latest R-9 to the battlefront to save a galaxy gripped with fear. The counterattack against the newly reborn Bydo Empire begins here. Released in 1989 at a time when Irem was at it's peak. R-Type II's game mechanics were almost identical to the original R-Type. What was improved however was the graphics and sound. R-Type II was another big hit for Irem. However this also proved to be it's last for many years. Even though Irem made a number of excellent shooters only the R-Type series was instantly recognizable. For the next few year Irem seemed to be in some sort of cryogenic state, at least in the west where there were hardly any Irem games release. Any that did trickle through were mainly flops. 1.3 Super R-Type ---------------- Released in 1991 Original Format: Super NES The Ship: R-9A Custom Model Super R-type was a special home version of R-Type II with improved graphics and new levels. However something went horribly wrong. While many would say R-Type II wasn't as good as the original R-Type anyway, it was never as bad as this. The problem: restart points or rather the lack of them. Whenever the pilot loses a life he or she had to start from the beginning of the level and start the level all over again. This made progress almost impossible. 1.4 R-Type Leo -------------- Released in 1992 Original Format: Arcade co-op. The Ship: R-9Leo Official Blurb: The idea was to build a quasi-mechanical earth by using a bionic computer called "MAJOR". This project was named the "Paradise Plan". It's purpose was to colonize and create the ideal world. This plan ended in failure due to the malfunction of "MAJOR". As a result of this failure the "Paradise Plan" became a part of history, as it was destroyed by the latest technological weapon known as "LEO". The rejection of this bionic computer system was blamed for this failure. However the actual cause is still unknown. This was the last of the R-type series that was released in the arcades. It was meet with shock and horror from fans all over the world. Not because it played terribly or the graphics were awful, but because Irem removed the most important part of the R-Type series: The FORCE device!! Instead Leo had two large BITs which hovered above and below the R9. When the Detach button was pressed the BITs the shoot forward damaging everything in it's path. The BITs always aim in the opposite direction to the R9's horizontal movement. So if the R9 moved forward the BITs aimed backwards. Needless to say such blasphemy made Leo a bit of a flop. Sad because the gameplay was quite sound. Two played could play simultaneously and the BIT system, given a chance worked quite well. 1.5 R-Type III: The Third Lightning ----------------------------------- Released in 1993 Collaborators: Jaleco Original Format: Super NES The Ship: R90 The title screen reads: 'Blast off and strike the evil Byod empire' For the home console only, R-Type III was a exclusive for the SNES. However I'm sure it was never released in Europe (maybe the US). The main reason could be that so many game Irem released for the western market flopped. Ironically this was one of the few Irem releases that many in the west wanted to buy. Had it been released it could very well had been a hit. Oh Irem what were you thinking? Gameplay wise, R-Type III was one of the best design shooters released by Irem. Perfectly balance with superbly designed (but extremely hard) levels. R-Type III sees the return of the FORCE device, and just like buses when you want one three comes along! Would-be pilots now have 3 FORCE devices to choose from. There was the standard FORCE unit, the Shadow FORCE unit and the Cyclone FORCE unit. As you would expect each type of FORCE also it's unique weapons of mass destruction. The Shadow FORCE is similar to the Tentacle FORCE from Delta. When powered up turrets appear on it and fires and an angle depending on the horizontal movements of the ship. The Cyclone FORCE was used as a wrecking ball, when detached it enlarges in size and cause big damage to any enemies which make contact with it. 1.6 R-Type Delta ---------------- Released in 1998 (JP) 1999 (NA/EU) Collaborators: Agetec Original Format: Sony Playstation. The Ships: R9A2 RX-10 R13 POW Armour Official Blurb: The battle between mankind and the Bydo has ended. The ravaged warship, the R9, destroyed the final remnants of the evil entity called the Bydo Empire. Or at least it seemed... The newest (apart from R-Type Final of course) of the R-Series and see Irem back to it's old self once more. After years in the wilderness they showed the world that they could still make brilliant shoot'em up. The graphics were 3D but the gameplay remains firmly two-dimensional. In this day and age, when gaming is in the mainstream and graphics were just as important if not more important then gameplay as a selling point. Delta was super pleasing to the eye. The level of detail and the number of polygons used meant it looked better then some PS2 games. What really impressed me was the cars and vans you could see at the bottom of the screen during the start of first level, you could actually blow them up for some extra points! As for the way it played, far superior to any other R-Type. Maybe not as hard as R-Type I or the memory test that was R-Type III but delta was really fun to play. Never would you feel cheated by the computer or frustrated by the lack of progress. If you die you'll just try again. Because the game was fair. You always know that there were a ways to get pass a level you just needed to find it. Sadly it didn't sell well either in Japan or America, hailing the end for side scrolling shoot'em up. 1.7 Others ---------- Year: 1988 Platform: Sega Master System, Company: Sega Game: R-Type Year: 1989 Platform: TurboGrafx-16, Company: NEC/Irem Game: R-Type Year: 1990 Platform: Gameboy, Company: Irem Game: R-Type Year: 2000 Platform: Sony Playstation, Company: ASCII/Irem Game: R-Types Year: 2000 Platform: Gameboy Color, Company: Nintendo/Irem Game: R-Type DX =============================================================================== 2.0 STORY (so far...) =============================================================================== Humans engineered the Bydo in the 26th century as a weapon of mass destruction. Half biological and half technological the Bydo were created with only one aim and that was to destroy. Despite this they show an advance degree of intelligence and are able to make logical decisions and well as 'emotional' reaction. Huge numbers of them were placed inside a container which was almost the size of the moon. There they were suppose to 'rest' in suspended animation until such time as they were needed, called upon to defend their human creators. However due to an error or sabotage, the Bydo were activated. With no enemies to fight they turned on their human masters. For almost 4 day the human forces tried in vain to regain control. Eventually they were force to send the container away, into another dimension using a special portal weapon. After the crisis Earth seemed to be safe, in the 26th century at least. Within the container the Bydos continued to evolve, becoming evermore powerful. Their desire to destroy grew stronger with each passing year. Inside this unknown dimension time has no meaning. The Bydo spent what seemed like eternity within their confinement. When their food supply was exhausted they feed on each other. The strong lived and the weak became lunch. Their minds became twisted, their bodies mutated, they became the embodiment of pure evil. One day in the 22nd century an earth exploration vessel discovered a high- energy biomechanical life form and brought a sample back to earth. I wasn't until later that they find out that it was in fact a Bydo organism. Years later an outpost reported a huge numbers of ships heading towards Earth. The Bydo has some how broken free of the container and found a way to escaped their dimensional prison. The exit of the dimensional prison took them back in time to the 22nd century. Now that they can move freely between their dimension and normal space they used their dimension an a base to launch an all out attack against the ones they hated most, the ones who imprisoned them for so long, the humans. Can 22nd century humans with their primitive technology stand up to a 26th century weapon of mass destruction with thousands of years of evolution to back it up? Well yes, not once, not twice but 4 times thanks to apiece new technology called the FORCE. This weapon is based on the one and only thing Bydo's fear.... Themselves. However every time the Bydos were defeated they retreated back into their dimension to regroup then and came back stronger then ever. 4 times they were defeated, 4 times they came back. If this pattern continues Earth would eventually run out of resources to fight them with. To rid the galaxy of the Bydo terror once and for all the Project: Anti Bydo, ultimate weapon was launched, commonly known as 'The Last Dance' This will be the FINAL Battle! =============================================================================== 3.0 Game Basics =============================================================================== 3.1 Controls ------------ Menu Controls ------------- D-pad / Left analog stick: Select item Circle : Confirm selection X : Cancel Battle Controls --------------- D-pad / Left analog stick: Move ship Right analog stick: Move some wave cannons. Square : Fire, hold to charge wave cannon. Triangle : Delta Weapon Circle / R1: Rapid Fire, you can keep it held down for a constant stream of fire. X : Detach & recall the FORCE device. L1 : Speed up L2 : Speed Down R3 : Decrease speed of so wave cannons. Select : Skip text at the start of each stage / Skip ending* * You can't skip the ending the first time you complete the game. 3.2 Pilot Select / Registry --------------------------- Just like in R-Type delta, final gives you the opportunity to register your name and create your own personal profile. This documents everything from the number of times you played to the amount of wave cannon energy you've used. More importantly you can customize and save you own ships set up and colour as well as that all-important high score. When creating a new pilot simply select an empty slot and input your name. Select END when you have finished. You need a memory card to save your data. 3.3 Front End ------------- Menu System: +-------------------+ +--------+ Select +----------------------+ | Start Game | ---> | Hanger | --> Your --> | Start Game | +-------------------+ +--------+ Ship | Customize | | | Replace | | | Delete | V +----------------------+ To R's Museum +-------------------+ | AI VS Mode | ---> Go to AI Battle section for more details +-------------------+ +-------------------+ L / R to Press O Select | Score Attack | ---> select --> to select --> Your +-------------------+ difficulty stage Ship +-------------------+ +-------------------------+ | Data & Gallery | ---> | R's Museum | +-------------------+ | Bydo Lab | | War Record / Chronicles | | Notes | | Gallery | +-------------------------+ +-------------------+ +-------------------+ | Options | ---> | Exit | +-------------------+ | Sound | | Vibration | | Key Configuration | | Screen Adjustment | | Brightness | | Defaults | +-------------------+ +-------------------+ Save you game | Save | ---> Just keep pressing O if you got a Japanese +-------------------+ version and can't read the text. +-------------------+ | Pilot Change | ---> Select a different pilot +-------------------+ +-------------------+ | Tutorial | ---> Shows you the basics of the game. +-------------------+ +-------------------+ | Title Screen | ---> Return to the title screen so you can see the cool +-------------------+ intro. 3.4 Powerups ------------ So what do you have to do in this game? The answer is simple shoot everything! However in execution it proves a lot harder. Not only do you have to contend with thousands of enemies but also hostile environments and terrain, not to mention the all-powerful boss at the end of the level. Your ship will be easy pickings for the enemy unless suitably powered up. There are 4 levels of power you ship can have. When you start the game (in any difficulty higher then baby) you are only armed with the Pulse cannon and the wave cannon. As soon as you pick up an energy crystal a FORCE device will elegantly float on screen, now you are at power level 1. Even though you now have a FORCE device it's small and doesn't do much. It can fire independently of your ship when it's detached (most can anyway), but won't fire when attached. If you pick up another energy crystal you will reach power level 2. At this level the FORCE device will fire when attached to you ship. The type of shots it fires depends on the type of crystal to you last picked up. You will notice that the firepower of the FORCE when detached also increased. Lastly when you pick up a third energy crystal you will reach power level 3, the maximum power level. The firepower of the FORCE device has now increased to it's full potential and you can now dish out some serious death. But remember the energy crystals only increase the firepower of the FORCE device not your ship, the damage your pulse cannon and wave cannon can inflict are fixed. Aside from the energy crystals and the FORCE unit the only other way of powering up your ship is to collect BITs and Missiles crystals. A maximum of two BITs can be collected. The first attaches above your ship, the second one below. Some BITs (like the round BIT) only fires when you collect a red energy crystal. Whatever type of BIT you have you will find they offer great protection from enemies or bullets approaching from above or below your ship. Missile on the other hand is a great offensive weapon but the type of missile you selected is very important. Bombs are useless when there are no ground- based enemies and the effectiveness of Homing missiles is greatly reduced in confined spaces. There are 5 types of powerups. Red Energy Crystals: Give you powerful, concentrated weapons fire. Good against strong enemies like bosses or sub-bossed. Most ships have this weapon fire directly ahead (or behind depending on where you attach the FORCE), so skill is needed when you're trying maneuvering the ship to attack in small spaces. Blue Energy Crystal: Gives you a versatile weapon which either locks-on, reflects or home in on the enemy. Not normally as powerful as the red crystal weapon but easier to use especially when there are many smaller enemies around. Yellow Energy Crystal: A wide range weapon designed to cover as many angles as possible. As powerful as the blue weapon, there are some sections of the game where the yellow weapon really is the weapon of choice. BITs: Add a BIT to your ship. Which type of BIT you have depends on which one you selected in the hanger. See the BIT section for more details. Missile Crystal: Activate the missile weapon system on board your ship. Which type of missile you have depends on which one you selected in the hanger. Some type of missiles such as the 4-way missile requires more then one Missile Crystal to reach full power. 3.5 The Bydo Lab ---------------- The lab consist of a series of 70 odd files containing information on the various enemies you have encountered. You will only see them listed when you have completed the stage the appear in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #01 Name : POW Armour Type: Humankind HP: * Stages : 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 6.0, 6.1, F.A, F.B Comment: POW Armours has appeared in every R-Type game to date. They contain various types of power-up and are vital for your progress through the game. #02 Name : Amphibious POW Armour Type: Humankind HP: * Stages : 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 4.0 Comment: Just like the POW Armour, these vessels contain power-up. They only appear under water. #03 Name : Space POW Armour Type: Humankind HP: * Stages : 5.0, 6.0, F.A, F.C Comment: Think of them as space pizza delivery boys. #04 Name : Meltcraft Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 1.0, F.B Comment: Enemy fighters that mimic the appearance of the R-9 fighter. Following a basic flight paths, they only pose a threat when in large numbers. #05 Name : Strabalt Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 1.0 Comment: A flying version of the garbage truck, it attacks by emptying it's cargo. #06 Name : Gains Type: Large Bydo HP: **** Stages : 1.0, 5.0 Comment: A giant robot armed with a bazooka and can attack with it's shoulder barge. It's lack of speed is it's weakness. #07 Name : Simakranger Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 1.0 Comment: Something that resembles a tractor. It attack with missiles. #08 Name : Gironika Type: Large Bydo HP: **** Stages : 1.0 Comment: A giant robotic crab. See the stage 1.0 walkthrough for more information. #09 Name : Xelf-16 Type: Large Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 1.0 Comment: Stage 1.0 boss. It's outer body is made of a mercury like liquid metal and it can produce a large number of Meltcrafts. A giant laser beam is it's main weapon. See the walkthrough for more details. #10 Name : Surge Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 2.0, 21, 2.3, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, F.C Comment: Green fighter craft that fly in groups, most of the time in a wave formation. Given the opportunity they will take the odd shot at you. #11 Name : Nulaylaf Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Comment: A small fish like enemy. Think back to stage 2 of R-Type delta and you'll know what I mean. They always swim in a fixed path. They don't fire, however their shear numbers can sometimes overwhelm you if your not careful. #12 Name : York Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.0, 2.1 Comment: A large flying reptile that carries a bomb. The bomb sends out bullets in all directions, use your FORCE to block them. The bomb itself can be destroyed. There was an enemy called York in Castlevania S.O.T.N. York is also a type of bowl in Cricket. #13 Name : Yorkmingo Type: Bydo HP: *** Stages : 2.0, 2.2 Comment: A wingless York with two long legs. There are two ways of killing this beast. First by shooting it's body until it explodes or secondly shooting it's legs so it falls over. You can also fly under it, through it's legs. #14 Name : Yorkon Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.3, 2.4 Comment: Long snake like monster with a segmented body. It's body will fall apart when the head is destroyed. #15 Name : Yorkgron Type: Large Bydo HP: *** Stages : 2.4 Comment: A massive version of the Yorkon. Lucky it's a lot slower too. Destroy it before it gets to close. #16 Name : Birashin Sprout Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.1, 2.2 Comment: A small pod that spew out slow moving spores. If you don't know where they will appear from there is a real possibility of crashing into them. #17 Name : Birashin Bulb Type: Large Bydo HP: **** Stages : 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Comment: Giant balloon like creature that spew out large seeds which then falls back down to earth. #18 Name : Birashin Root Type: Large Bydo HP: **** Stages : 2.3, 2.4 Comment: Root of the Birashin Bulb, Fires tiny bubbles that float upwards. #19 Name : Birashin Shoot Type: Bydo HP: *** Stages : 2.3, 2.4 Comment: Birashin Shoot is to Birashin Sprout what Birashin Root is to Birashin Bult. The difference is Birashin Shoot's bubbles hit the ground first before floating upwards. #20 Name : Keet Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 Comment: Tiny flies. I say tiny but if you think about the scale of thing, the R-9 is slightly larger then a mini bus, that would make these flies about the size of a motorbike. Anyway, like most insects they are drawn to light. Use the light from your FORCE device to lure them away from your ship. #21 Name : Marine Keet Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 2.3 Comment: Annoying underwater worms. #22 Name : Keet Colonian Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Comment: A nest of Keets. Immobile they attack by sending out more Keets. #23 Name : Asteroid Taran Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 6.0, F.C Comment: Space dwelling creepy-crawly. Moves along scenery shooting at you. Their no fun at all. #24 Name : Sand Taran Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.0 Comment: Just like the Asteroid Taran except they like in sand. #25 Name : Aqua Taran Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.4 Comment: Underwater version of the Taran. #26 Name : Taran Colony Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 2.0 Comment: An immobile nest of Tarans. #27 Name : Negus O Shin Type: Large Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Comment: The forbidden fruit or R-Type final. See the walkthrough section for more details. #28 Name : Glam Type: Bydo HP: *** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Large, heavily armoured gunship used to escort the large warship in stage 3.0. It's shots can be absorbed by the FORCE. #29 Name : E320 Warship Engine Type: Bydo HP: **** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Large thrusters on the back of the warship. So long as you don't run into it's flames you should be safe. The flames blocks your weapons, keep that in mind. #30 Name : E321 Warship Engine Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Manoeuvring thrusters on the underside of the warship. Only the metal part is vulnerable. #31 Name : Planet Buster Wave Cannon Type: Bydo HP: **** Stages : 3.0 Comment: The giant cannon on the front of the warship. When it's preparing to fire in will suck in nearby object including your ship and other enemies. Don't worry despite it's name Earth will still be around even if it fires. #32 Name : Pulsar Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Small cannons mounted on the warship that can rotate over 180 degrees to target your ship. #33 Name : Lancer Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Fixed laser cannons mounted next to the Planet Buster. #34 Name : Bolt Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Turrets mounted on the top of the warship, fires shells that falls in an arch. It protected by an armoured shell. #35 Name : Braham Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Cannon mounted on the side (it is the side even though it feels like the bottom) of the warship. Fires shells that explodes in all directions, can be blocked by the FORCE. #36 Name : Gemini Type: Bydo HP: **** Stages : 3.0 Comment: The biggest of the turrets, fires a huge plasma burst which cannot be blocked by the FORCE device. It can rotate over 180 degrees but has a rather large blind spot below it's aiming arch. #37 Name : Grant Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Those annoying bomb dispensers on the front of the ship, just below the PBWC. They drop big yellow bombs you can't miss them. #38 Name : Land Gains Type: Large Bydo HP: **** Stages : 3.0 Comment: Variation on Gains, the giant robot you met on stage 1.0. Armed with both bazooka and gatling cannon and with better armour it's superior to Gains in every way. Strangely I've seen it fly off into the sunset after a while which would seem to suggest that it's not just a 'Land' Gains. #39 Name : Wave Core Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 3.0 Comment: R-Type's equivalent of the warp core and the boss of stage 3.0. See the walkthrough for details. #40 Name : Glasie Type: Large Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 3.5 Comment: The large, semi-submerged snake with the large core on it's back. It poses no real danger but is extremely hard to kill. #41 Name : Wight Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 3.5 Comment: A large ball of energy that fires 2 way shots. #42 Name : R-13 Cereberus Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 3.5 Comment: Boss of stage 3.5 and the missing link between R-Type Delta and R- Type Final. For those of you who don't know, the R-13 was trapped in the X dimension at the end of R-Type delta after beating the Bydo Core (final boss). What twisted fate awaited it? Well now you know. See the walkthrough for more details. #43 Name : Geela Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 4.0 Comment: A biomechanical entity. #44 Name : Allene Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 4.0, 6.0 Comment: A blue mach that fires rockets. #45 Name : Relic Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 4.0, 6.0 Comment: A immobile turret. #46 Name : Reevo Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, F.C Comment: Bydo interceptor fighter, forms the backbone of the bydo fleet. #47 Name : Cattepigard Type: Large Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 4.0 Comment: A large worm / fish like creature that is split into 4 segments. #48 Name : Dobkeratops Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 4.0 Comment: The most instantly recognisable baddie of the R-Type series, a modified version of the original R-Type stage 1 boss. #49 Name : Ralma Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 6.2 Comment: The moving barriers of light that appears in stage 6.2. Some of them have weak spots on the end of them and if destroyed removes the whole barrier. #50 Name : Daris Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 6.2 Comment: Wire framed entity that floats about in the grid dimension. Both the blue and pink ones are called Daris. #51 Name : Allene D Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 6.2 Comment: A wire frame version of the Allene mech. #52 Name : POW Armor Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 6.2 Comment: A wire frame version of a POW armor. Despite no longer being Humankind they still releases power-up crystals. #53 Name : Cancer D Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 6.2 Comment: Just like a normal Cancer only now in a cool wire frame outfit. #54 Name : Gridlock Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 6.2 Comment: Stage 6.2 Boss. Appear as a pair and fires both Daris and Ralma at you. See walkthrough for details. #55 Name : McCarron Class Type: Large Bydo HP: *** Stages : 5.0, F.C Comment: Large battle ship armed with loads of cannons on it's top and bottom. The ship it self is split into 3 parts the front, back and middle sections each can be destroyed separately. #56 Name : Photon Dorney Type: Bydo HP: *** Stages : 5.0, F.C Comment: Large enemy ships that fires LRG like homing lasers. Directly in front, above or below it are it's blind spots. #57 Name : Strabalt Bomber Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 5.0, F.C Comment: Midified version of the Strabalt, fires big-ass missiles instead of trash. #58 Name : Fine Motion Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 5.0 Comment: Stage 5.0 boss, looks just like a giant egg but contains a large variety of attacks. See walkthrough for details. #59 Name : Nomemayer Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 6.1 Comment: Boss of stage 6.1. Looks like a giant slug you really can't miss it. See walkthrough for details. #60 Name : Nasreil Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 6.0, F.C Comment: Purple fish like creature with an armoured front. #61 Name : Outslay Type: Large Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 6.0, F.C Comment: Large worm like creature that swims through Gomander. It fires from it's many sections. The sections can be destroyed but the worm itself is invincible. #62 Name : Genneim Type: Bydo HP: ** Stages : 6.2 Comment: Fleshy orb that emits electricity up and down. #63 Name : Cancer Type: Bydo HP: * Stages : 5.0, 6.0, F.C Comment: Small white Mech with red eyes. Called IRONCLAW in R-Type II. #64 Name : Gomander Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : 6.0 Comment: Stage 6.0 boss and another remake of an old R-Type boss. This time however the battle actually takes place inside Gomander! See walkthrough for details. #65 Name : Shutom Type: Other HP: * Stages : F.A Comment: Brownish eyeball that floats about in the liquid dimension. With such a large, massive fleet you would have though that The Bydo would be protected by one of it's own. But no Stutoms and their like are all classed as 'Other' and not Bydo. Is there a mysterious 2nd alien force? Does the Bydo have an ally? Are we going to se a sequel or spin off to R-Type Final? Probably not. #66 Name : Ayden Type: Other HP: ** Stages : F.A Comment: Blue version of the Shutom, fires bullets at set intervals with great accuracy (strange considering it has no depth perception). #67 Name : Guaneem Type: Other HP: N/A Stages : F.A Comment: Indestructible black eyeball. #68 Name : Chimass Type: Other HP: ** Stages : F.A Comment: Red eyeball. When destroyed it will destroy any eyeballs linked to it. #69 Name : Genon Type: Other HP: ** Stages : F.A Comment: No the boss of Zelda but instead a mass of eyeballs joined together. #70 Name : Bydo Type: Huge Bydo HP: ***** Stages : F.A Comment: I always call this The Bydo in order to distinguish it from normal Bydos. The Bydo appears to be a giant heart that beats in synch with all other Bydos. It cannot be destroyed in the conventional way. #71 Name : R-9DH Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.B Comment: Fighter Craft designed and piloted by humans. #72 Name : R-9D Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.B Comment: Fighter Craft designed and piloted by humans. #73 Name : R-9F Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.B Comment: Fighter Craft designed and piloted by humans. #74 Name : R-9W Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.B Comment: Fighter Craft designed and piloted by humans. #75 Name : R-9B Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.B Comment: Fighter Craft designed and piloted by humans. #76 Name : R-9A Type: Humankind HP: ***** Stages : F.B Comment: The original and still the best. The hope of all Humankind rest on this ship. #77 Name : Bat Type: Bydo HP: *** Stages : F.C Comment: Powerful, heavily armoured warships used by the Bydos to protect the future dimension. #78 Name : R-9DH Type: Humankind HP: *** Stages : F.C Comment: Bydo fighter crafts are deplyed from theses hatches. 3.6 War Record / Chronicles --------------------------- Selecting this in Data & Gallery will show you a detail record of all your R- Type activities. Total record: - Number of mission launched - Total play time - Total wave energy used - Number of times special (Delta) weapon was used - Number of times cleared - Total high scores - Number of fighter developed - % of Bydo research completed (Bydo lab) - Number of pictures in gallery AI records: - Current winning streak - Current losing streak - Longest winning streak - Longest losing streak - win / lose record vs. the CPU - win / lose record vs. other pilots - Number of perfect wins - Fasted win Fighter records: Percentage usage of all fighter for both normal and AI battle mode. 3.7 Notes --------- 3.8 Gallery ----------- The gallery contains 32 pictures, which are unlocked by meeting certain conditions such as beating the game once or using a specific ship. 01. 02. 03. Label Design 04. 05. 06. R-Type Final AD2 07. 08. 09. R-9A Arrow Head 10. R-9D Shooting Star 11. R-9E Midnight Eye 12. R-9W Wiseman 13. OF-1 Daedalus 14. TL-T Chiron 15. 16. 17. Force TATAKAI NO ATO 18. R-Fighter -Zettai Zetsumei- 19. Operation -Last Dance- 1 20. Operation -Last Dance- 2 21. R-Type (1987) 22. R-Type II (1989) 23. Gallop (1991) 24. R-Type (1989) 25. Image Flight (1992) 26. Image Flight II (1992) 27. My R-9 Type 1 28. My R-9 Type 2 29. My R-9 Type 3 30. My R-9 Type 4 31. R-Type-R, Type-O and Type-L 32. 3.9 Score Attack ---------------- This is a useful option for practicing a certain stage or to try out a new ship. This is also the pace to get passwords for you high scores. These passwords can be entered at Irem's official web site. You can them compare your scores with people from around the world. Only stages that you have completed are available. Use left and right to select the difficulty. TIP for the high score ---------------------- 1 ) Die! All stages apart from F.C gives you 3 lives, make use of the restart points by killing you own ship. 2 ) Dose! When your Dose is at 100% you get extra points for FORCE attacks. 3 ) FORCE! Don't shoot enemies that you can kill with the FORCE, ramming your enemies with your force yields more points then shooting them and also builds up your Dose. Remember to collect every last stray bullet. Larger enemy's with high HP especially less mobile ones can really give you point. Use your FORCE to push right up against them an watch your score rise, but always remember to destroy them before the they move out of the screen. =============================================================================== 4.0 AI vs. Battle =============================================================================== As far as I know the AI vs. mode does nothing apart from allowing you to view your ship in nice 3D. The whole thing is rather pointless since some ships are just so much more effective in this mode then others. AI Settings ----------- You cannot control your fighter during the battle, however you can alter your crafts behaviour before hand using the AI settings menu. You can store up to ten different AI setting, one for ach or the ten slots listed under AI. There are 5 different variables within each AI setting, you can also set up a primary and secondary AI pattern within each AI setting. AI Settings Screen ------------------ 1st / 2nd Half: Toggles between you primary and secondary AI settings. Basic Strategy: This alter the balance from defence to offence by up to 5 degrees. Select from 1 (defensive) to 5 (offensive). Spacing: Alter the distance your fighter tries to keep between it and it's opponent. Select from 1 (near) to 5 (far). Main Weapon: Determines what type of attack your craft favours, it's main weapon or it's Wave Cannon. Select from 1 (normal weapons) to 5 (wave cannon). Force Shot: Determines the frequency that your craft will launce it FORCE to attack. Select from none, sometime, often and always. Item Tendencies: Chooses what type of power-ups your craft will favours. If you select immediate it will always collect any power-up when they become available. If you select a colour it won't collect any other colour WHEN it's fully powered up. 1st and 2nd Switch: Determines what the conditions are before you ship will switch from it primary AI settings to it's Secondary settings. Time - will switch when there is less then half the time limit left. HP - will switch when your craft has less the 50% HP. Foe HP - will switch when your opponent has less then 50% HP. Equip - will switch when your ship has reached Level 2 or higher. Foe equip - will switch when your opponent has reached level 2 or higher. 1st and 2nd half? ----------------- The main use for this option is to allow your to change tactics half way through the battle. For example you may choose to play defensively until you've become sufficiently powered up. Or you may choose to go all out attacking when your foe is low on energy. Equally you can switch this option off so you use the same tactic throughout the match. Championship ------------ Pit's your ship and AI against a series enemy ships, each with it's own preset AI. There are 4 difficulty levels, with the harder level only available when you beat the easy levels. ----------------------------------------------------- | LEVEL | Ships | ----------------------------------------------------- | Novice | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------- Battle ------ Exhibition match against your own AI or your friends AI. You opponents AI can be loaded from memory card or even from a password. Password -------- Get a password for your fighter and AI. This pass word can then be sent to your friends for use in their AI battles. The password basically contains your ship and it's AI set up. =============================================================================== 5.0 THE SHIPS =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 Evolution ------------- The evolution of the R9 Fighter. (*) | R9A --> R9A2 --> R9A3 --> R9A4 | | | | | |----> R9AF | | | | | |----> R9AD --> R9AD2 --> R9AD3 | | | |---> R9C ---> R9K | | | | | |-----> R9S ---> R90 ----> R90S | | | |---> R9AX --> R9AX2 -> R9Leo --> R9Leo2 | | | | | |------> R98K -----> R98K2 | | | |-----> R9W ----> R9WB -----> R9WF | | |----> R9B ---> R9B2 |------> R9WZ | | | |-----> R9B3 | |----> R9D ---> R9D2 | | | |-----> R9DH --> R9DH --> R9DH2 --> R9DH3 | | | |-----> R9DV --> R9DDX | | | |-----> R9DP ---> R9DP2 --> R9DP3 | |----> R9E ---> R9E2 --> R9E3 | | | |-----> R9ER --> R9ER2 | |----> R9F ---> RX10 --> R11A --> R11B ---> R11S ---> R11S2 | | .|................|............................................................ | | | |-----> TX1 ---> OF1 ----> OFX2 ---> OF3 --> OFX4 --> OF5 | | | .|................|........|................................................... | | | | | |-----> TW1 ----> TW2 | | | | | | | |------> TP1 ----> TP2 --> TP2H --> TP3 | | | | | | | |----> TP2M | | | | | | | |----> TP2S | | | | | |------> TLT ----> TL1A --> TL1A2 | | | | | |------> TL1B --> TL1B2 | | | |-----> RX12 ---> R13T ---> R13A --> R13A2 --> R13B | | .|.........................|................................................... | | | |------> BXT ----> BXA ---> BXA2 ---> BXA3 | | | |------> BXB ---> BXB2 ---> BXB3 | | | |------> BXC ---> BXC2 ---> BXC3 | | | |------> BXD ---> BXD2 ---> BXD3 | | | |------> BX2 ---> BX3A ---> BX3A2 | | | |-----> BX3B ---> BX3B2 | | | |-----> BX3C ---> BX3C2 | | | |-----> BX4 ----> BX5A | | | |------> BX5B | | | |------> BX5C | | | |------> BX5D | |----> R99 | |----> R100 | |----> R101 =============================================================================== 5.2 The R9A to Z =============================================================================== NOTE: All Weapons always fire in the direction the FORCE is facing the only exception are the standard pulse cannons and the Shockwave cannon. * Special mention for daimaou mike's FAQ on unlocking ships. His FAQ can be found in the same location as this FAQ at GameFAQs.com. Had it not been for him I wouldn't have had a clue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #01 Ship Name: Arrow-Head Code Name: R-9A Prerequisite: None Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard FORCE - Red : Counter-Air Laser - Blue : Rebound Laser - Yellow : Counter-Ground Laser Shockwave Cannon: Standard Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None * Releases a powerful bolt of energy straight in front of the fighter. At 200% the wave cannon becomes even more powerful. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter Delta Weapon: Standard Comment: The standard mass production model of the R9. It makes up the bulk of Earth's fighters. Easy to handle (or is that simple) and very effective against almost any foe. Not the most powerful ship but you could do worse. Miscellaneous info: Crew: 1 Weight: 31.0 t Length: 16.2 m Width: 10.8 m Height: 5.1 m Max Speed: 208km/sec Max Power: 9.2e14 cr FORCE Bydo rating: 2.9 FORCE Control Rod: R-Rod Model 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #02 Ship Name: Delta Code Name: R-9A2 Prerequisite: Complete Stage 1.0 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard FORCE - Red : Counter-Air Laser - Blue : Rebound Laser - Yellow : Counter-GroundLaser Shockwave Cannon: Diffusion Wave Cannon Prototype Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Lv1: Straight Characteristic: None LDX: 8-way * Like the R9A's version except it now has a diffuser. You won't notice much difference until you charge it up to 200%. When charged to 200% it can release a powerful bolt of energy just like the R9A, only this time it's followed by a spread of smaller bolts. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon: Comment: A slightly more effective fighter then the Arrow-Head, but not by much. The addition of the delta weapon and the diffuser wave cannon are the only real differences between the two ships. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #03 Ship Name: Ladylove Code Name: R-9A3 Prerequisite: Password 4170 4170 (JP) 5270 0725 (US) Unlocks: R-9A4 after 60 minutes flight time. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE DX - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: None 3 Level cannon WITHOUT the diffuser. You can take out some bosses with just 2 shots in HUMAN difficulty! Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon: Comment: Ladylove is an extremely well rounded ship. Thanks to it's 3 level W. Cannon It's can take out most bosses in just a few shots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #04 Ship Name: Wave Master Code Name: R-9A4 Prerequisite: 10 minutes flight time with R-9A3 Unlocks: Part of the requirements for R-9AF. FORCE Type: Standard - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon III Range: Full Screen Power: Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 4 4 Level cannon WITHOUT the diffuser. Having 4 levels may sound impressive but it takes ages to charge. You'll find anything over level 3 is just overkill since the amount of damage you could inflict is offset by the huge amount of time you spend charging the stupid thing. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #05 Ship Name: Morning Glory Code Name: R-9AF Prerequisite: Have R-9A4 plus 2 hours game time, Have TW-1, Beat stage 3.5 Unlocks: Required for R-9AD. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE DX - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: FORCE Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A wave cannon is added to the FORCE which works simultaneously with the ships own wave cannon. However it only works when detached from the ship and is weaker then the standard W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #06 Ship Name: Escort Time Code Name: R-9AD Prerequisite: Have R-9AF plus 1 hour game time Unlocks: R-9AD2 after 1 hour flight time FORCE Type: Standard FORCE DX - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: Decoy Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Multiple Levels: 2 When this W. Cannon is charged to level 2, two holographic images of your ship will appear either side of it. They aren't just for show either, you can use then to destroy enemies through contact and they can fire W. Cannon just like your ship. Theoretically this should triple your W. Cannon's firepower, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #07 Ship Name: Princedom Code Name: R-9AD2 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with R-9AD Unlocks: R-9AD3 after 2 hours flight time. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE DX - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: Decoy Wave cannon MKII Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Multiple Levels: 3 * Produces 4 holographic images at level 3. Because the beams are spread over a larger area it doesn't produce the same concentrated power as the standard wave cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Missiles: Bomb / Homing Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #08 Ship Name: King's Mind Code Name: R-9AD3 Prerequisite: 2 hours flight time with R-9AD2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard FORCE DX - Red : Anti-Air Laser DX - Blue : Reflection Laser DX - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser DX Shockwave Cannon: Decoy W. Cannon MKIII Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Multiple Levels: 4 * Same as MKII but with 4 levels, producing 6 holograms at level 4. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Missiles: Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #09 Ship Name: War Head Code Name: R-9C Prerequisite: Complete stage 3.0 Unlocks: R-9K after 15 minutes flight time. FORCE Type: Standard Force C - Red : Shotgun Charge - Blue : Search Beam - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser Shockwave Cannon: Diffusion Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Lv1: Straight Characteristic: None Lv2: 8-way Levels: 2 * Like the R9A's version except it now has a diffuser. You won't notice much difference until you charge it up to 200%. When charged to 200% it can release a powerful bolt of energy just like the R9A, only this time it's followed by a spread of smaller bolts. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: First seen in R-type II, this ship is sometimes called the R-9 Custom version. The weapons are different this time though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #10 Ship Name: Sunday Strike Code Name: R-9K Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with R-9C Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard Force K - Red : Shotgun Laser K - Blue : Spread Laser K - Yellow : Anti-Ground Laser Shockwave Cannon: Diffusion Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Lv1: Straight Characteristic: None Lv2: 8-way Levels: 2 * Same as above. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #11 Ship Name: Strike Bomber Code Name: R-9S Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-9C Unlocks: R-90 after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Standard FORCE - Red : Counter-Air Laser - Blue : Rebound Laser - Yellow : Counter-Ground Laser Shockwave Cannon: Mega Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Ludicrous Direction: Straight Characteristic: Penetrating Levels: 2 * One of the most powerful W. Cannons in the game. Just wait till this baby his level 2. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*****) Effectiveness (*****) Skill Level (* ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: This ship is obscene. It has one of the most ridiculously powerful W. Cannon in the game. To give you an idea, playing on human difficulty, I was able to destroy the first, second, third, and forth stage bosses with a single level 2 shot. Stage 5 boss took just 2 level 2 shots. What's more the W. Cannon is penetrating, which mean it is capable of passing through solid objects. Enemies hidden behind scenery or buildings are no longer safe. This make some sections of the games extremely easy. To top it all off it's level 2 shot is so wide it's almost impossible to miss. Only ever use this ship on R-Typer difficulty less your soul burn in hell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #12 Ship Name: Ragnarok Code Name: R9O Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-9S Unlocks: 1 hour flight time required as part of R-902's prerequisite. FORCE Type: Shadow FORCE - Red : Reverse Laser - Blue : All-Range Laser - Yellow : Guild Laser Shockwave Cannon: Hyper Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Variable Direction: Straight Characteristic: Multiple Shots Levels: 2 * Quite a unique W. Cannon. At level 1 it acts just like a normal W. Cannon. However at level 2 it changes completely. At level 2 it releases a spread of bullets which doubles back on them selves and return to your ship. Your W. Cannon is now supercharged, by simply tapping the O fire button you'll release a barrage of energy bolts which cause a good deal of damage. The W. Cannon will remain supercharged for about 8 seconds. Another thing of interest is the effect the W. Cannon has on the Round Bit. When supercharged it causes them spin round and round your ship. They will keep spinning until the W. Cannon is no longer supercharged. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*****) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Miscellaneous info: First seen in R-Type 3. Comment: This is on of my favorite ships. It's not the most powerful, but is very fun to play with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #13 Ship Name: Ragnarok II Code Name: R-9O2 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with R-90, Completed stage 6.2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Cyclone - Red : Passing Laser - Blue : Splash Laser - Yellow : Capsule Laser Shockwave Cannon: Giga Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Extreme Direction: Straight Characteristic: Stella Converter Levels: 7 * An even more powerful version of Strike bomber's W. Cannon, but while strike bombers version only had 2 levels this one have 7. Fully charged it will destroy everything with one shot unless they have abrasive armour. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*****) Wave Cannon (*****) Effectiveness (*****) Skill Level (* ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing Delta Weapon: Comment: I refuse to use it's wave cannon. It's simply no fun to be able to destroy everything with one shot. I love it's FORCE though. It one of most effective around while not being overly powerful. This FORCE was first seen in R-Type 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #14 Ship Name: Delicatessen Code Name: R-9AX Prerequisite: Have R-9A2 plus 2 hours game time. Unlocks: R-9AX2 after 15 minutes flight time. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Standard Wave Cannon X Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A slightly more powerful version of the standard wave cannon. Now in cool purple. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round /Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #15 Ship Name: Dinner Bell Code Name: R-9AX2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with R-9AX Unlocks: R-9Leo after 1 hour flight time. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Standard Wave cannon XX Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: L3 residue. Levels: 3 * An 3 level version of Delicatessen's W. Cannon. At level 3 it produces residue energy which home in on the nearest enemy. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #16 Ship Name: Leo Code Name: R9-Leo Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with R-9AX2,complete stage F.A Unlocks: R-9Leo2 after 1 hour flight time with R-9Leo FORCE Type: Leo FORCE - Red : Claw Laser - Blue : Mirror Laser - Yellow : Search Laser LRG Shockwave Cannon: Standard Wave Cannon Prototype Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 1 * Without the Psy BITs this W. Cannon is one of the worst around. With only one level your going to have a hard time against the bosses. However with the Psy BITs it becomes much more effective. Whenever a fully charged W. Cannon is fired the Psy BITs will fly off to attack any enemies on screen. Unlike the Pods, the Psy BITs actively home in on potential victims. I've given this W. Cannon a 4 rating but with the Psy BITs the rating would go up to 6. Ship Rating With Psy Bit ----------- ------------ Weapons (*** ) (**** ) Wave Cannon (* ) (** ) Effectiveness (** ) (*** ) Skill Level (**** ) (*** ) BIT: Psy Missiles: Homing / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: Let me make this absolutely clear. This ships NEED the Psy bit. It is almost twice as powerful with the BITs. This causes it's own problems. Losing a life now is even more detrimental then normal. With the BITs though, it becomes one of the strongest ships in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #17 Ship Name: Leo II Code Name: R9-Leo2 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with R-9Leo Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Leo FORCE - Red : Claw Laser - Blue : Mirror Laser - Yellow : Search Laser LRG Shockwave Cannon: Standard Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Releases a powerful bolt of energy straight in front of the fighter. At 200% the wave cannon becomes even more powerful. Sounds familiar? This is because it's identical to R-9A's version except of course for the Psy BIT +. Ship Rating With Psy Bit + ----------- -------------- Weapons (*** ) (**** ) Wave Cannon (* ) (** ) Effectiveness (** ) (*** ) Skill Level (**** ) (*** ) BIT: Psy 2 Missiles: Homing / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: There are 2 main differences between Leo and Leo2. Leo2's Psy2 BITs provides it with more firepower then Leo however in practice you'll hardly notice any real difference while playing. The extra level Leo2 has on it's W. Cannon is a real improvement over Leo. You'll really notice the difference, especially during a boss fight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #18 Ship Name: Principalities Code Name: R-9SK Prerequisite: Have R-9Leo plus 15 minute game time Unlocks: R-9SK2 after 15 minute flight time FORCE Type: Fire - Red : Chain Fire - Blue : Fire Bomb - Yellow : Fire Barrier Shockwave Cannon: Flame Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A giant flame thrower. Lacks the punch of the conventional wave cannon making it less effective against bosses. Works well against both small a large enemies. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ***Description*** A ship who's weaponry are all fire based, but despite it's cool red exterior, and flashy flame weaponry it offers nothing new. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #19 Ship Name: Dominions Code Name: R-9SK2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with R-9SK Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Flame FORCE - Red : Chain Flame Thrower - Blue : Angled Flame Thrower - Yellow : Flame Wall Wave Cannon: Flame Wave Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A giant flame thrower. Lacks the punch of the conventional wave cannon making it less effective against bosses. Works well against both small a large enemies. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ***Description*** Almost identical to the Principalities, a sad excuse for another ship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #20 Ship Name: Wiseman Code Name: R-9W Prerequisite: Have R-9SK plus 15 minute game time Unlocks: R-9WB after 5 minute flight time FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Nanomachine W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * You can change the direction of this W. Cannon by using the right analog stick. However to really use it effectively you'll have to change the layout of your control pad. Switch the charge button to R1 or R2. This allows you to charge the W. Cannon with your index / middle finger while aiming the W. Cannon with you thumb on the right analog stick. Needless to say this weapon is difficult to use effectively and most people will use it like a standard W. Cannon. The truth is there no real reason to alter the direction of the W. Cannon. It works just fine facing the front of your ship. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #21 Ship Name: Happy Days Code Name: R-9WB Prerequisite: 5 minute flight time with R-9W Unlocks: R-9WF after 15 flight time. FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Split Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Dividing Levels: 2 * A Wave cannon which fire a green bolt of energy. These bolts splits into two as soon a it makes contact with an enemy or object. Here lies the problem. When confronted with enemies like the assault vessel on stage 1 or the gunships on stage 3, a normal W. Cannon shot will simply pass through it's bullets and hit the target. The Splitting Wave Cannon however will split as soon as it touched the first bullet. Missing the target completely. What is more the Splitting W. Cannon is weaker then the standard type anyway making Happy days rather pointless next to Wiseman. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #22 Ship Name: Sweet Memories Code Name: R-9WF Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with R-9WB Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Illusion Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Expanding Levels: 2 * Fires a ball of energy which explode on contact with any enemy or object causing a image of planets or ruins to appear. Weird. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #23 Ship Name: Disaster Report Code Name: R-9WZ Prerequisite: Have R-9W plus 3 hours game time. Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Standard FORCE H - Red : Anti-Air Laser H - Blue : Search Laser H - Yellow : Vertical Laser H. Shockwave Cannon: Cataclysm Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: Shattering + Lightning Levels: 2 * Fires a large meteor which does great damage. Then the meteor hits an object it shatters sending small pieces flying backwards. At level 2 the meteor is accompanies by a bolt of lightning which can hit enemies both at the top and bottom of the screen. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (*****) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon: Comment: Named after an Irem game of the same name. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #24 Ship Name: Strider Code Name: R-9B Prerequisite: Password: 5050 1060 (JP) 2078 0278 (US) Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Barrier Wave Cannon Range: Short Power: Weak - Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Barrier Levels: 2 * Creates a wall of energy in front of you ship. To me this weapon it totally useless. It has no range, the barrier doesn't remain on screen long enough to be effective and to weak to de any real damage to enemies passing through it. The only real way to damage enemies with this weapon is to move right up close and fire at point blank range. This way all the 'bricks' that make up the barrier will impact on single enemy. You can actually do quite a lot of damage this way, but it's often difficult to do and not really worth the hassle. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shield / Round Missiles: Bomb / Anti-Ground/ Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: A ship designed to be defensive rather then offensive. It uses the very popular Defensive FORCE but despite this it's rather sh*t. I really hate this ship. It's even worst then the R-9Es. Use it to unlock the R-9B2 and R-9B3 ships then forget about it. Infact forget all the R-9B ships. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #25 Ship Name: Stayer Code Name: R-9B2 Prerequisite: Have R-9B plus 15 minute game time Unlocks: R-9B3 after 30 minutes flight time, plus R-9DV unlocked. FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Barrier Wave Cannon II Range: Short Power: Weak - Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Barrier Levels: 3 * Same as before. The extra level does nothing to improve this weapon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shield / Round Missiles: Bomb / Anti-Ground/ Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: Pointless upgrade to the R-9B. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #26 Ship Name: Sleipnir Code Name: R-9B3 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-9B2 plus R-9DV unlocked Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE DX - Red : Twin Laser W - Blue : Impact Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser W Shockwave Cannon: Barrier Wave Cannon II Range: Short Power: Weak - Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Barrier Levels: 3 * 3 level version of the barrier wave cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shield / Round / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Anti-Ground/ Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #27 Ship Name: Shooting Star Code Name: R-9D Prerequisite: None Unlocks: R-9D2 after 15 minute flight time. FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Photon Belt W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * This wave cannon fires a continuous beam of energy. The amount of damage it can inflict over it whole duration is about the same as a standard wave cannon. However because the damage is spread over time it means that you'll have to keep your target in your sights for much longer. This may prove troublesome during later boss encounters. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Scatter / Depth Charge Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #28 Ship Name: Morning Star Code Name: R-9D2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with R-9D Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Photon Belt W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Same as R-9D but with an extra level. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round / Shield Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #29 Ship Name: Grace Note Code Name: R-9DH Prerequisite: Complete stage 2.2 Unlocks: R-9DH2 after 15 minute flight time FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Steady Photon-belt Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Similar to R-9D's w. cannon only it's mounted on the top of the ship and covers a slightly larger area. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #30 Ship Name: Hot Conductor Code Name: R-9DH2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with R-9DH Unlocks: R-9DH3 after 30 minute flight time FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Steady Photon-belt II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Like R-9DH but with an extra level. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #31 Ship Name: Concert Master Code Name: R-9DH3 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-9DH2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Steady Photon-belt III Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 4 * This version has 4 levels and covers 1/4 the screen. While it's not worth charging 4 levels on a standard w. cannon, you can sometimes try 4 levels of this one. Because the beam is continuous the damage can be divided over a larger area. Good if your facing a number of tough enemies all on the screen at once. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round / Shield Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #32 Ship Name: Tears Shower Code Name: R-9DV Prerequisite: Have R-9DH plus 45 minute game time Unlocks: R-9DV2 after 30 minute flight time FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE - Red : Twin Laser - Blue : Dispersion Impact Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser Shockwave Cannon: Photon Vulcan Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Fires a large number of photon shots in a very shot time, Kinda like a machinegun. It is quite powerful and it's power can be distributed over a large area. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #33 Ship Name: Northern Lights Code Name: R-9DV2 Prerequisite: 30 minute flight time with R-9DV Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE DX - Red : Twin Laser W - Blue : Impact Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser W Shockwave Cannon: Photon Vulcan II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Just like the R-9DV only with an extra level. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow / Shield Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #34 Ship Name: Hanrasen Code Name: R-9DP Prerequisite: Have R-9DV plus 2 hours game time Unlocks: R-9DP2 after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE DX - Red : Twin Laser W - Blue : Impact Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser W Shockwave Cannon: Pile Bunker Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Very hard to use due to it's short range. It's rage gets slightly longer at level 2 but not by much. I would presume that the disadvantage of it short rage is offset by it's great power (think Zangief vs. Dhalsim), and while I did notice an increase in power when compared with the standard w. cannon, I do not believe it is enough to make up for it's disadvantages. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #35 Ship Name: Asanogawa Code Name: R-9DP2 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-9DP Unlocks: R-9DP3 after 30 minutes flight time plus stage 6.1 completed. FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE DX - Red : Twin Laser W - Blue : Impact Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser W Shockwave Cannon: Tesla Pile Bunker Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * The electric Pile bunker has an extra level over the normal version. This does makes boss encounters easier. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #36 Ship Name: Kenrokuken Code Name: R-9DP3 Prerequisite: 30 minute flight time with R-9DP2 plus stage 6.1 completed Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Defensive FORCE DX - Red : Twin Laser W - Blue : Impact Dispersion Laser - Yellow : Defense Laser W Shockwave Cannon: Hyper Tesla Pile Bunker Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 4 * I some what disappointed that Irem didn't really come up with 100 different ships all with unique weapons. Having 3 ships with the same weapons and slightly upgraded w. cannon is not giving me 3 different ships. I'm sure if I sat down to it I could think of 300 different weapons (3 for each force, 1 force for each ship). Sure I'll probably copied them from other games but that the way things are. Many companies copied ideas from Irem and R-Type. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #37 Ship Name: Midnight Eye Code Name: R-9E Prerequisite: 5 minutes game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Camera FORCE 1 - Red : Scout Laser Red - Blue : Scout Laser Blue - Yellow : Scout Laser Yellow Shockwave Cannon: Recon W. Cannon Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Extremely short rage and limited power, this is one of the worst W. Cannons about. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (* ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Camera / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #38 Ship Name: Owl Light Code Name: R-9E2 Prerequisite: 45 minutes game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Camera FORCE 2 - Red : Scout Laser Red SP - Blue : Scout Laser Blue SP - Yellow : Scout Laser Yellow SP Shockwave Cannon: Recon W. Cannon EX Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Like the Midnight Eye's but with maximum of 3 levels. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Camera / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #39 Ship Name: Sweet Love Code Name: R-9E3 Prerequisite: 2 hours game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Camera FORCE 3 - Red : Scout Laser Red HG - Blue : Scout Laser Blue HG - Yellow : Scout Laser Yellow HG Shockwave Cannon: Recon W. Cannon EX Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Like the Midnight Eye's but with maximum of 3 levels. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Camera / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #40 Ship Name: Powered Silence Code Name: R-9ER Prerequisite: 6 hours game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Spherical Radome FORCE - Red : Ruby Ray - Blue : Sapphire Ray - Yellow : Topaz Ray Shockwave Cannon: Seizure Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * While charging, a radar tracking beam will project out from the FORCE. Any enemies passing through the tracking beam will be tagged. When the W. Cannon is fired the beams will home-in on the tagged enemies. The beams don't turn very well so can't really hit enemies behind your ship even when they are tagged, which kind of makes the whole tagging thing pointless. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Camera / Shadow Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #41 Ship Name: Unchained Silence Code Name: R-9ER2 Prerequisite: 9 hours game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Spherical Radome FORCE DX - Red : Ruby Ray + - Blue : Sapphire Ray + - Yellow : Topaz Ray + Shockwave Cannon: Seizure Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Same as R-9ER. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Camera / Shadow Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #42 Ship Name: Andromalius Code Name: R-9F Prerequisite: None Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Rodless FORCE - Red : Fractal Laser - Blue : Thunder Laser - Yellow : Tentacle Laser Prototype Shockwave Cannon: Shock Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow Missiles: Scatter / Homing Delta Weapon: Comment: R-9F is the last of the R-9s and is one of the most important ships ever developed. It's an experimental ship and acts as a test bed for weapons and systems which would later be transferred to some of the most advanced ships in the R Series. In fact most of the ships in R-Type final, nearly 50%, are developed from the R-9F. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #43 Ship Name: Albatross Code Name: RX-10 Prerequisite: 90 minutes game time Unlocks: R-11A after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Tentacle FORCE - Red : Sting Ray - Blue : Hound Ray - Yellow : Snail Ray Shockwave Cannon: Shock Wave Cannon Range: Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 *Rather then firing a beam in front of the ship it fires a shock wave which damages a spherical area of the screen roughly 3 ship lengths in front of the RX10. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #44 Ship Name: Future World Code Name: R-11A Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with RX-10 Unlocks: R-11B after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Gallop FORCE - Red : Laser Beam - Blue : Laser Wiper - Yellow : Laser Chaser Shockwave Cannon: Mini Burst W. Cannon Range: Medium Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Much like the Shock W. Cannon only more powerful a prettier. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Anti-Ground/Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #45 Ship Name: Peace Maker Code Name: R-11B Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-11A Unlocks: R-11S after 45 minutes game time FORCE Type: Gallop FORCE - Red : Laser Beam - Blue : Laser Wiper - Yellow : Laser Chaser Shockwave Cannon: Lock-on W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Targets enemies no matter where they are on screen. This W. Cannon fires rapid small shot as opposed to one big shot so damage wise it's weaker then the standard w. cannon. Best used against a group of enemies rather the bosses. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Round Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Scatter /Photon Delta Weapon:: Comment: This ship was first seen in the less-then-a-hit game Gallop for something called an M72. Now I don't now what an M72 is but the game had some relatively nice graphics but with oversized sprites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #46 Ship Name: Tropical Angel Code Name: R-11S Prerequisite: Have R-11B plus 45 minute game time Unlocks: R-11S2 after 1 hour flight time FORCE Type: Gallop FORCE DX - Red : Laser Beam S - Blue : Laser Wiper S - Yellow : Laser Chaser S Shockwave Cannon: Lock-on W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * More levels means more beams, allowing you to hit greater numbers of enemies at the same time. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Scatter / Photon Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #47 Ship Name: No Chaser Code Name: R-11S2 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with R-11S Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Gallop FORCE DX - Red : Laser Beam S - Blue : Laser Wiper S - Yellow : Laser Chaser S Shockwave Cannon: Lock-on W. Cannon III Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 4 * More levels means more beams, allowing you to hit greater numbers of enemies at the same time. *I feel like a parrot* Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow / Shield Missiles: Anti-Ground/ Scatter / Photon Delta Weapon:: Comment: The no chaser has the added 'advantage' of being able to use the Shield BIT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #48 Ship Name: Eclipse Code Name: TX-T Prerequisite: RX-10 plus 20 minute game time Unlocks: OF-1 after 90 minute flight time TW-1 after 15 minute game time FORCE Type: Tentacle FORCE - Red : Sting Ray - Blue : Hound Ray - Yellow : Snail Ray Shockwave Cannon: Shock Wave Cannon II Range: Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * A 3 level version of RX-10's Shock W. Cannon. At level 3 it releases an aftershock of 4 small bursts around the original shockwave. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #49 Ship Name: Daedalus Code Name: OF-1 Prerequisite: 90 minute flight time with TX-T Unlocks: OFX-2 after 15 minute flight time FORCE Type: OF Force - Red : Drill Laser - Blue : V Ball Laser - Yellow : Side Laser Shockwave Cannon: Standard Wave Cannon Prototype Range: Full Screen Power: Poor Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 1 * With just 1 level you'll not only have a hard time against bosses, but normal enemies and mini bosses with high HP will also give you a hard time. There nothing more annoying then seeing the giant robot in stage 1.0 flying away. At a harder difficulty level like R-Typer this W. Cannon can become a real handicap. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (* ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Red / Blue Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: I like the OF ships, it's something to do with the unique look of their FORCE. However this is one of the weaker OF vessels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #50 Ship Name: Valkyrie Code Name: OFX-2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with OF-1 Unlocks: OF-3 after 30 minute flight time FORCE Type: OF Force II - Red : Ring Laser - Blue : Rebound Ball - Yellow : Search Laser LRG Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The standard 2 level W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Red / Blue Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #51 Ship Name: Garuda Code Name: OF-3 Prerequisite: 30 minute flight time with OFX-2 Unlocks: OFX-4 after 1 hour flight time FORCE Type: OF Force III - Red : Wipe Laser - Blue : Plasma Flame - Yellow : Multi-Barrier Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The standard 2 level W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Red / Blue Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: A very difficult ship to use effectively. Not only are most of it's weapons weak but 2 of them are close range (I know you can fire it's yellow weapons but I still think it's a close range weapon). The Plasma Flame in particular is very hard to aim. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #52 Ship Name: Songoku Code Name: OFX-4 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with OF-3 Unlocks: OF-5 after 1 hour flight time FORCE Type: OF Force IV - Red : Gravity Bomb - Blue : Search Missile - Yellow : Grand Missile Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The standard 2 level W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Yellow / Red Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: I'm not a big fan of the Songoku. It's weapons are all pretty unique but lacks power or are slow to fire. FORCE firing missiles? It just don't seem right to me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #53 Ship Name: Kaguya Code Name: OF-5 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with OFX-4 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: OF Force V - Red : Speed Cannon - Blue : 7-Way Vulcan - Yellow : Barrier Shockwave Cannon: Standard W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The standard 2 level W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Green / Yellow Missiles: Homing / Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: I haven't used the Kaguya much but so far it seems a reasonable ship with average weapons, except for the Yellow weapon. Just what the hell an I supposed to do with those two bubbles? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #54 Ship Name: Duckbill Code Name: TW-1 Prerequisite: Have TX-T plus 15 minute game time Unlocks: TW-2 after 30 minutes game time TP-1 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Cube FORCE - Red : Double Fractal Laser - Blue : Slant Fractal Laser - Yellow : Vertical Fractal Laser Shockwave Cannon: Carnival W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Exploding Levels: 2 * Fires a large shell that explodes on contact releasing bullets in all direction. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #55 Ship Name: Kiwi Berry Code Name: TW-2 Prerequisite: Have TW-1 plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Drill FORCE - Red : Drill Laser X - Blue : Whirlwind Laser - Yellow : Napalm Shockwave Cannon: Goliath Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forward Arch Characteristic: Exploding Levels: 2 * Quite a powerful W. Cannon. When Fired it travels in a arch and explodes as soon as it makes contact with anything. The explosion releases shrapnel in every direction. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow / Shield Missiles: Homing / Depth Charge / Scatter / Anti-Area Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #56 Ship Name: Scope Duck Code Name: TP-1 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with TW-1 Unlocks: TP-2 after 30 minute game time TL-T after 30 minutes game time, also must have R-9K FORCE Type: Cube FORCE - Red : Double Fractal Laser - Blue : Slant Fractal Laser - Yellow : Vertical Fractal Laser Shockwave Cannon: Carnival W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forward Arch Characteristic: Exploding Levels: 3 * More powerful version of TW-2's W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shadow / Shield Missiles: Homing / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #57 Ship Name: Pow Armour Code Name: TP-2 Prerequisite: Have TP-1 plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: TP-2H after 30 minutes flight time TP-2S after 15 minute game time FORCE Type: Needle FORCE - Red : Wavy Laser - Blue : 3-Way Reflect Laser - Yellow : Bounce Laser Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 Shoots a bullet out which resembles an Bydo monster. The amount on energy charged determine the speed and size of the bullet which in turn determine the type of monster that appears. The lowest charge fires what's best described as a sperm that hardly move across the screen at all. At full charge the bullet resembles a Alien which moves quickly across the screen. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Enhanced HM / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #58 Ship Name: Pow Armour II Code Name: TP-2H Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with TP-2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Needle FORCE DX - Red : Wavy Laser DX - Blue : Rainbow Laser - Yellow : Irregular Laser Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Same as Pow Armour's. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Enhanced HM / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #59 Ship Name: Mr. Heli Code Name: TP-3 Prerequisite: Password: 5959 5959 (JP) Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Hr. Heli FORCE - Red : Power-up Shot - Blue : 2-Way Shot - Yellow : Propeller Shot Shockwave Cannon: Crystal W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Fires a giant snow flake which shatters into smaller flakes on contact with any enemy or object. Not only does this W. Cannon have great power but the shots it fires are big making it easier to hit your target. The smaller fragments does additional damage to enemies making it more powerful then normal. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Mr. Heli Missiles: Bomb-missiles / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #60 Ship Name: Cyber Nova Code Name: TP-2S Prerequisite: Have TP-2 plus 15 minute game time Unlocks: TP-2M after 15 minutes game time FORCE Type: Needle FORCE - Red : Wavy Laser - Blue : 3-Way Reflect Laser - Yellow : Bounce Laser Shockwave Cannon: Super Nova W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 Very similar to a Shock W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Enhanced HM / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #61 Ship Name: Frogman Code Name: TP-2M Prerequisite: Have TP-2S plus 15 minutes game time Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Needle FORCE - Red : Wavy Laser - Blue : 3-Way Reflect Laser - Yellow : Bounce Laser Shockwave Cannon: Bubble W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Releases a spray of bubbles which moves across and upwards. Each bubbles is considered an individual bullets, so if they all hit the same targets you can get good damage out of this weapon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Enhanced HM / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #62 Ship Name: Chiron Code Name: TL-T Prerequisite: Have TP-1 plus 30 minutes game time, also must have R-9K Unlocks: TL-1A after 15 minutes flight time, also must have R-11A FORCE Type: Shield FORCE - Red : Laser Lance - Blue : Laser Blade - Yellow : Laser Shield Shockwave Cannon: Diffusion / Mini Burst W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Good / Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Diffusion W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Pressure Explosion W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #63 Ship Name: Iason Code Name: TL-1A Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with TL-T, have R-11A Unlocks: TL-1B after 30 minutes flight time, also must have R-9WB FORCE Type: Shield FORCE - Red : Laser Lance - Blue : Laser Blade - Yellow : Laser Shield Shockwave Cannon: Diffusion / Shock W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Diffusion W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Shock W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 4-Way / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #64 Ship Name: Asklepios Code Name: TL-1B Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with TL-1A, also must have R-9WB Unlocks: TL-2A after 30 minutes game time BX-2 after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Mirror Shield FORCE - Red : Laser Lance - Blue : Laser Blade - Yellow : Laser Shield Shockwave Cannon: Split / Mini Burst W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Fair / Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Dividing W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Mini Burst W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 4-Way / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #65 Ship Name: Achilleus Code Name: TL-2A Prerequisite: Have TL-1B plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: TL-2A2 after 15 minutes flight time, also must have R-9A3 TL-2B after 1 hour game time, also must have R-13A FORCE Type: Beam Saber FORCE - Red : Crimson Beam - Blue : Indigo Ray - Yellow : Ochre Ray Shockwave Cannon: Standard / Shock W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Standard W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Shock W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 4-Way / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #66 Ship Name: Meoptolemos Code Name: TL-2A2 Prerequisite: 15 minute flight time with TL-2A, also must have R-9A3 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Beam Saber FORCE - Red : Crimson Beam - Blue : Indigo Ray - Yellow : Ochre Ray Shockwave Cannon: Standard II / Shock Ii W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Standard II W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Shock II W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 4-Way / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #67 Ship Name: Herakles Code Name: TL-2B Prerequisite: Have TL-2B plus 1 hour game time, also must have R-13A Unlocks: TL-2B2 after 30 minutes flight time, also must have R-13A2 FORCE Type: Beam Saber FORCE - Red : Crimson Beam - Blue : Indigo Ray - Yellow : Ochre Ray Shockwave Cannon: Standard / Lightning W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight / Front Characteristic: None / Homing Levels: 2 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Standard W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Lightning W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 6-Way / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #68 Ship Name: Hyllos Code Name: TL-2B2 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with TL-B, have R-13A Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Beam Saber FORCE - Red : Crimson Beam - Blue : Indigo Ray - Yellow : Ochre Ray Shockwave Cannon: Standard II / Bounce Lightning W. Cannon Range: Full Screen / Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * The type of W. Cannon in use depends on which form your ship is in. In ship form you get the Standard II W. Cannon and in Robot form you get the Lightning II W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: 6-Way / Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: All the ships in R-Type Final has the same hit areas (the area of the ship that will kill you if it's hit by a enemy bullet). However the ships graphic size varies greatly. Hyllos for example is gigantic compared to other ships, but it's actual hit area is the same as a smaller ship. This means there are area of Hyllos where bullets pass straight through. In ship form the top and bottom of the hull, in robot form the legs and parts of it's back are all invulnerable. The actual location of the hit area is just behind the FORCE, the area surrounding the cockpit. Try to imagine a R-9 overlaid on the Hyllos and you'll get a rougth idea of it's hit area. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #69 Ship Name: Cross The Rubicon Code Name: RX-12 Prerequisite: 1 hour flight time with RX-10, complete stage F.A Unlocks: R-13T by completing stage 3.5 which can only be accessed with the RX-12 FORCE Type: Flexible FORCE - Red : Lightning Tentacle Laser - Blue : Joint Laser - Yellow : Double Snail Laser Shockwave Cannon: Mini Burst W. Cannon Range: Medium Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A powerful Shock type W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Shield / Shadow Missiles: Photon / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: R-Type Final's version of the X-multiply ship. Sadly it's a very poor imitation, however that doesn't make it a particularly bad ship to use. With it's Flexible FORCE and Mini burst Wave cannon the RX-12 is a very well rounded ship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #70 Ship Name: Echidna Code Name: R-13T Prerequisite: Complete stage 3.5, access only with RX-12 Unlocks: R-13A after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Chain FORCE - Red : Alpha Laser - Blue : Beta Laser - Yellow : Gamma Laser Shockwave Cannon: Lightning W. Cannon Test Range: Full screen Power: Fair Direction: Front Characteristic: Very Slight Homing Levels: 2 * A 3 Way burst of lightning. Has some homing abilities but nowhere near as much as the normal Lightning Wave cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Photon / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #71 Ship Name: Cerberus Code Name: R-13A Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-13T Unlocks: R-13A2 after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Anchor FORCE - Red : Shade Alpha - Blue : Search Beta - Yellow : Terminate Gamma Shockwave Cannon: Lightning W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Front Characteristic: Homing Levels: 2 * This W. Cannon has a very strong homing ability. Able to destroy multiple weaker enemies along it's path, it cuts through whole waves of enemies like a hot knife through butter. It is however also quite weak. If the lightning bolt meets an enemy with higher HP such as a Spore Pod it will stop in it's tracks, whereas a conventional (like the standard) W. Cannons will pass straight through. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Photon / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #72 Ship Name: Hades Code Name: R-13A2 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-13A Unlocks: R-13B after 2 hours flight time FORCE Type: Anchor FORCE - Red : Shade Alpha - Blue : Search Beta - Yellow : Terminate Gamma Shockwave Cannon: Bounce Lightning W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Front Characteristic: Homing Levels: 3 * 3 Level version of the Lightning W. Cannon Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Photon / Bomb / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #73 Ship Name: Charon Code Name: R-13B Prerequisite: 2 hours flight time with R-13A2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Anchor FORCE DX - Red : Shade Alpha + - Blue : Search Beta + - Yellow : Terminate Gamma + Shockwave Cannon: Bounce Lightning W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Front Characteristic: Homing Levels: 3 * 3 Level version of the Lightning W. Cannon Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (**** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Missiles: Delta Weapon:: Comment: A much improved version of the R-13A, the only draw back is the way the Anchor morphs into a claw when attached to an enemy for any length of time. When it morphs it detached from the enemy and the chain disappears. The claw than homing of the nearest enemy. The problem is that the enemy it attacks is not always the one you want it to attack and without the chain your ship becomes more vulnerable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #74 Ship Name: Dantalion Code Name: BX-T Prerequisite: (???????) + complete stage 6.1 Unlocks: B-1A after 5 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Life FORCE - Red : Blood Laser - Blue : Pulse Laser - Yellow : Neuro Laser Shockwave Cannon: Dantalion's Flute Range: Power: Direction: Characteristic: Levels: * Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #75 Ship Name: Digitalius Code Name: B-1A Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with BX-T Unlocks: B-1A2 after 5 minutes flight time B-1B after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Flower FORCE - Red : Seed Cannon - Blue : Spike Laser - Yellow : Flower Swing Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Seed Wave Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Homing Levels: 2 * Fires two chain of bullets which home in on the nearest target. On impact the bullets leave behind seeds which then sprout! Any enemies in contact with the seeds as they are sprouting receive extra damage. How far the seeds sprout depends on the level the W. Cannon is charged to. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #76 Ship Name: Digitalius II Code Name: B-1A2 Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with B-1A Unlocks: B-1A3 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Flower FORCE - Red : Seed Cannon - Blue : Spike Laser - Yellow : Flower Swing Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Seed Wave Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Homing Levels: 3 * 1 more level then the MK 1 version. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #77 Ship Name: Digitalius III Code Name: B-1A3 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-1A2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Flower FORCE - Red : Seed Cannon - Blue : Spike Laser - Yellow : Flower Swing Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Seed Wave Cannon III Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Homing Levels: 4 * Another level. At level 4 the seed sprout into flowers! Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #78 Ship Name: Mad Forest Code Name: B-1B Prerequisite: Have B-1A plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-1B2 after 5 minutes flight time B-1C after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Ivy Force - Red : Vine Laser - Blue : Wall Laser - Yellow : Whip Laser Shockwave Cannon: Ivy Rod W. Cannon Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Shoots out a green vine. The higher the level the greater the range. At higher levels the vines sprout thorns and do additional damage. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball /Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: The Eyeball BIT responds to the Blue Crystal weapon only. It'll produce an extra laser and travel the same way as those from the FORCE, this is true for all the Mad Forest Ships. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #79 Ship Name: Mad Forest II Code Name: B-1B2 Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with B-1B Unlocks: B-1B3 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Ivy Force - Red : Vine Laser - Blue : Wall Laser - Yellow : Whip Laser Shockwave Cannon: Thorn Ivy W. Cannon Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * A 3 level version of the Ivy Rod W. Cannon. At higher levels the vines sprout thorns and do additional damage. The range of the vine at level 3 is much longer then at level 1. This is one of the few W. Cannon that really benefits from the extra level. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball /Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #80 Ship Name: Mad Forest III Code Name: B-1B3 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-1B2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Ivy Force - Red : Vine Laser - Blue : Wall Laser - Yellow : Whip Laser Shockwave Cannon: Princess Ivy W. Cannon Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 4 * 4 Level version of the Ivy Rod W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball /Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #81 Ship Name: Amphibian Code Name: B-1C Prerequisite: Have B-1B plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-1C2 after 5 minutes flight time B-1D after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Beast FORCE - Red : Anti-Air Laser B - Blue : Reflection Laser B - Yellow : Anti-Anti-Ground Laser B Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Spirit Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forwards Characteristic: Homing Levels: 2 * Fires a small stream of purple bullets which can homing on your enemies. Useful against small groups of enemies but is too weak to be effective against bosses. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #82 Ship Name: Amphibian II Code Name: B-1C2 Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with B-1C Unlocks: B-1C3 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Beast FORCE - Red : Anti-Air Laser B - Blue : Reflection Laser B - Yellow : Anti-Anti-Ground Laser B Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Spirit II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forwards Characteristic: Homing Levels: 3 * 3 level Bydo Spirit Cannon, launches even more bullets. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #83 Ship Name: Amphibian III Code Name: B-1C3 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-1C2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Beast FORCE - Red : Anti-Air Laser B - Blue : Reflection Laser B - Yellow : Anti-Anti-Ground Laser B Shockwave Cannon: Bydo Spirit III Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forwards Characteristic: Homing Levels: 4 * The most powerful version of the Bydo Spirit W.Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #84 Ship Name: Bydo System - Alpha Code Name: B-1D Prerequisite: Have B-1C plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-1D2 after 5 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Bydo FORCE - Red : Gondolan Laser - Blue : Dauber Laser - Yellow : Norzarie Laser Shockwave Cannon: Devil W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight / above Characteristic: Homing Levels: 2 * The first thing to remember about this W. Cannon is that it fires from above your ship. Therefore if you have scenery directly above you this could block your W. Cannon. It' has both good power and homing abilities plus it looks so cool. The only downside is it's choice of enemy to attack is not always the one your after. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: This is the ship you see flying away right at the start of stage 1. It is also the ship you morph into at the end of stage 6.1 if your using anything other then a B class ship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #85 Ship Name: Bydo System - Beta Code Name: B-1D2 Prerequisite: 5 minute flight time with B-1D Unlocks: B-1D3 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Bydo FORCE - Red : Gondolan Laser - Blue : Dauber Laser - Yellow : Norzarie Laser Shockwave Cannon: Devil W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight / above Characteristic: Homing Levels: * 3 Levels version of the devil W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #86 Ship Name: Bydo System - Gamma Code Name: B-1D3 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-1D2 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Bydo FORCE - Red : Gondolan Laser - Blue : Dauber Laser - Yellow : Norzarie Laser Shockwave Cannon: Devil W. Cannon III Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight / above Characteristic: Homing Levels: * 4 Levels version of the devil W. Cannon. At level 4 a second bydo devil is fired from the underside of your ship, doubling you firepower. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (*** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #87 Ship Name: Platonic Love Code Name: BX-2 Prerequisite: 3Have TL-1B plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-3A after 5 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Love FORCE - Red : Heart Attack - Blue : Heart Break - Yellow : Heart Beat Shockwave Cannon: Love Sign W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Fires a bolt of energy that looks like a Heart sign (really it does). Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #88 Ship Name: Misty Lady Code Name: B-3A Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with BX-2 Unlocks: B-3A2 after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Mist FORCE - Red : Sun Beam - Blue : Rain Beam - Yellow : Storm Beam Shockwave Cannon: Acid Spray Range: Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight - Curving upwards Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * The problem with this W. Cannon is you have to wait for the first spray to disperse before you can start charging another, what more because of it's limited range you'll have to get relatively close to the enemy to hit them. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (* ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow / Round Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: This is the worst ship ever. All it's weapons fire downwards what more their angel changes with your horizontal movement making maneuvering and aiming even harder. One for experts only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #89 Ship Name: Misty Lady II Code Name: B-3A2 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-3A Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Mist FORCE - Red : Sun Beam - Blue : Rain Beam - Yellow : Storm Beam Shockwave Cannon: Nitro Spray Range: Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight - Curving upwards Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * Thank god for copy and paste or else I'll have to write everything bout this crappy ship out again. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (* ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (* ) Skill Level (*****) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow / Round Missiles: Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #90 Ship Name: Metallic Dawn Code Name: B-3B Prerequisite: Have B-3A, complete stage 6.1 Unlocks: B-3B2 after 15 minutes flight time B-3C after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Metallic FORCE - Red : Lance Metal - Blue : V Metal - Yellow : I Metal Shockwave Cannon: FORCE W. Cannon LM Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * Fires a metallic beam similar to the standard W. Cannon. If your FORCE is detached it will also fire an identical beam, doubling your firepower. The beam doesn't cause any splash damage even though it's graphic seems like it could. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Shadow / Eyeball Missiles: Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #91 Ship Name: Metallic Dawn II Code Name: B-3B2 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-3B Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Metallic FORCE - Red : Lance Metal - Blue : V Metal - Yellow : I Metal Shockwave Cannon: FORCE W. Cannon LM2 Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * 3 Lv ver. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Shadow / Eyeball Missiles: Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #92 Ship Name: Sexy Dynamite Code Name: B-3C Prerequisite: Have B-3B plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-C32 after 15 minutes flight time BX-4 after 30 minutes game time FORCE Type: Sexy FORCE - Red : Lipstick Ray - Blue : Mascara Ray - Yellow : Eye Shadow Ray Shockwave Cannon: Sexy W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * A very odd looking W. Cannon. It fires a slug like blob which crawls slowly across the screen. Not very sexy but very powerful. If you look closely you'll see the blob actually part of Sexy Dynamite's canopy. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball/ Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: Comment: A side note about this ship: It's delta weapon charges up like there's no tomorrow whenever you fire the sexy FORCE into the enemy (did that sound right?). The result is that you can use the delta weapon more often then normal, making the Sexy Dynamite a very powerful ship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #93 Ship Name: Sexy Dynamite II Code Name: B-3C2 Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-3C Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Sexy FORCE - Red : Lipstick Ray - Blue : Mascara Ray - Yellow : Eye Shadow Ray Shockwave Cannon: Sexy W. Cannon II Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 3 * 3 level version with even more power. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (**** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Eyeball/ Shadow Missiles: Bomb / Eyeball / Scatter Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #94 Ship Name: Arvanche Code Name: BX-4 Prerequisite: Have B-C plus 30 minutes game time Unlocks: B-5A after 5 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Scale FORCE - Red : Scale Shoot - Blue : Scale Blaster - Yellow : Scale Lancer Shockwave Cannon: Scale W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Poor - Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Exploding Levels: 2 * This W. Cannon fires a single bullet with releases shots in all directions on contact with enemy or object. Unless all the shots hit a single target (very hard to do) this weapon does very minimal damage. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (**** ) BIT: Eyeball / Shadow Missiles: Eyeball / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #95 Ship Name: Claw Claw Code Name: B-5A Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with BX-4 Unlocks: B-5B after 5 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Claw FORCE - Red : Screw Laser - Blue : Arc Laser - Yellow : Laser Claw Shockwave Cannon: Claw W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Levels: 2 * From the looks of it you'll think that this weapon is very powerful. In actuality it's no more powerful then a standard W. Cannon. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (*** ) BIT: Eyeball / Round / Shadow Missiles: eyeball / Scatter / Bomb Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #96 Ship Name: Golden Selection Code Name: B-5B Prerequisite: 5 minutes flight time with B-5A Unlocks: B-5C after 15 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Gold FORCE - Red : Golden Arrow - Blue : Golden Sphere - Yellow : Golden Seeker Shockwave Cannon: Gold Rush Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Forwards Characteristic: Refractive Levels: 2 * When fired without the FORCE it shoots out a dense golden particle beams which is similar to that of a normal W. Cannon. However when this beam makes contact with the FORCE (even if the FORCE is detached from the ship) the beam splits up into many smaller beams and is dispersed over a larger area. Whether this dispersion reduces the power of the beam or not is unknown. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Missiles: Delta Weapon:: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #97 Ship Name: Platinum Heart Code Name: B-5C Prerequisite: 15 minutes flight time with B-5B Unlocks: B-5D after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Platinum FORCE - Red : Horizontal Beam - Blue : Chase Laser - Yellow : Vertical Laser Shockwave Cannon: Shower W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forward Characteristic: Refractive Levels: 2 * Very similar to the Gold Rush W. Cannon. The only difference apart from the graphics is the way the beams disperse when they hit the FORCE device. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*****) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (**** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow Missiles: Enhanced HM / Scatter / Anti-Ground/ Bomb Delta Weapon:: Comment: Excellent, all of the ships weapons are powerful and the thing looks cool too. The only downside is it's wave cannon which doesn't give enough focused firepower. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #98 Ship Name: Diamond Wedding Code Name: B-5D Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with B-5C Unlocks: None FORCE Type: - Red : Star Spiral - Blue : Shooting Star - Yellow : Stardust Shockwave Cannon: Prism Rhythmic W. Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forward Characteristic: Refractive Levels: 2 * Again similar to the Gold Rush W. Cannon but this time the beam splits into straight rainbow coloured lines when it hits the FORCE. I personally think this make it better then the Gold Rush / Happy shower w. cannon but that's just my personal opinion. Ship Rating ----------- Weapons (*** ) Wave Cannon (*** ) Effectiveness (** ) Skill Level (** ) BIT: Round / Shadow / Eyeball Missiles: Scatter / Homing / Bomb / Photon Delta Weapon: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #99 Ship Name: Last Dance ('Custom' Ship) Code Name: R-99 Prerequisite: Used Ships 1 to 98 Unlocks: None FORCE Type: Any Shockwave Cannon: Any BIT: Any Missiles: Any Delta Weapon:: Comment: If you ask me this is the best looking of all the 'custom' ships. Like all the 'custom' ships it's FORCE and Shockwave Cannon can be customized at the hanger just like the BIT's and Missiles on 'normal' ships. You can choose from any FORCE, W. Cannon. Missile or BIT to go with theses ships. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #100 Ship Name: Curtain Call ('Custom' Ship) Code Name: R-100 Prerequisite: Password: 9910 0101 (JP) Unlocks: R-101 after 30 minutes flight time FORCE Type: Any Shockwave Cannon: Any BIT: Any Missiles: Any Delta Weapon: Comment: An evil looking ship, make it black with red canopy and then equip it with the Anchor FORCE DX then go and kick some ass. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #101 Ship Name: Grand Finale ('Custom' Ship) Code Name: R-101 Prerequisite: 30 minutes flight time with R-100 Unlocks: Mild satisfaction of unlocking all the ships. FORCE Type: Any Shockwave Cannon: Any BIT: Any Missiles: Any Delta Weapon: Comment: A very odd looking ship, it almost appears that a Pow armour has been stuck on to it's ass. =============================================================================== 6.0 WEAPONRY =============================================================================== Probably more then any other shooting game, the ships in R-type all have 6 forms of attacks. 1) Normal attacks 2) FORCE weapon attacks 3) Wave cannon attacks 4) Missile / Bomb attacks 5) BIT / pod weapon attacks 6) Delta Weapon attack This section will go through each the different forms of attack in detail, except from the normal attack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1 The FORCE device. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The main part of the FORCE is actually a heavily modified Bydo embryo. It had the potential of growing into a full grown Bydo, but through extensive genetic and cybernetic manipulation scientists had been able to control it's growth and manipulate it to work for mankind. The embryo is the red and orange sphere we all see. The embryo is controlled by biomechanical implants which are in turn connected to a large, long outer casing that is the white inorganic part of the FORCE. Engineers has nicknames this part of the FORCE 'Rods' because the original FORCE device on the R9A (before powered up) looked like it had 4 rods stuck into it. \----------------\ \----------\_____\ <-------- Outer casing: The Rod 00000000000 0000000000000 |-------000000000000000 <---- Bydo embryo |-------000000000000000 0000000000000 00000000000 /----------/ / /----------------/ The outer casing contains a small computer which responds to the pilots commands, regulating energy supply to the embryo and controlling the manoeuvring thrusters necessary for the FORCE device to fly. Energy regulation is the key to the FORCE device. Sending different frequency of raw energy into the embryo causes it to release equal or even greater energy in a variety of forms. Both the Counter-Air Laser and the reflective laser of the original R9's FORCE device came about by 'feeding' the embryo energy at a specific frequency and wavelength. The FORCE device demands great respect. Should any of the cybernetic implants, or the onboard computer ever fail, the FORCE still has the potential to grow into a Bydo monster. Over the years many different types of FORCE devices has been developed, they are listed below. Standard Movement Pattern ------------------------- All FORCEs follow the standard movement pattern when detached from your ship. They will..... 1) always try to remain horizontal to your ship. 2) remain on the opposite side of the screen. 3) be attracted to your ship if you get within one and a half ship space of it. 4) move towards your ship when the X button is pressed. There are some FORCEs which have and active and an inactive state such as the Tentacle FORCE. These FORCEs will still follow the standard movement pattern when inactive. There are a few basic techniques that may or may not be useful but has been developed throughout the R-Type series. FORCE ATTACK. The most basic of the FORCE techniques. Press the X button and watch the FORCE fly across the screen taking out any small fighter along the way. OPTIONS. Anyone who played Gladius would know what a huge advantage it is to have an option. An option is a drone which follows your ship around and fires at the same time you do. While R-Type don't have options the FORCE device is quite good at mimicking one. Simply detach the FORCE and the recall it by pressing the Detach button again. The FORCE should now float back towards your ship. Of course you don't have to make contact with it. As you move around firing the FORCE will follow you acting very much like an option. The Tentacle FORCE makes a very good option. FORCEs that don't fire are obviously useless as options. GOB STOPPER. Throughout the game you will come across areas with fixed or very slow moving gunship or gun-platforms. They often spew out bullets at awkward angles and could overwhelm you R9 if it's not sufficiently powered up. One option would be to stuff the gun hole of one of them with the FORCE device. Simply detach the FORCE or move you ship directly in front of the gunship and it will absorb all the bullets and allow you time to think about you next move. Most effective when combined with a fully charged BEAM. Anchor FORCE [18] ----------------- R-13A Cerberus Weapons:- Red: Shade Alpha Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A continuous beam of energy which can be spread over a larger area, like peanut butter, by moving the ship up and down. A very powerful and concentrated weapon. Blue: Search Beta Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Passive Homing Firing Rate: Medium * Like the Standard FORCE type C's version. Two laser beams fires straight then bends by 45 degrees to intercept enemies. Yellow: Terminate Gamma Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: 180 degrees Characteristic: None Firing Rate: slow *A powerful laser beam starts from the bottom and sweeps a full 180 degrees to the top of the screen. The only problem is when you miss an enemy you have to wait for the laser to finish it's initial sweep before you can shoot it again. This could leave you ship vulnerable. ***Description*** A claw like FORCE. When detached it fly's forward and locks onto the first enemy it touches (so long as the enemy isn't instantly destroyed). While it's locked onto the enemy it does continuous damage, even the most powerful foes will quickly fall under this type of relentless attack. The device is linked to the R13 via Energy Ribbon. This ribbon can damage enemies and block bullets. The Anchor FORCE is easily the most powerful FORCE when used correctly, especially against bosses or large enemies that approach from directly in front or behind the R13. While the Anchor itself is quite powerful don't overlook the energy ribbon. The ribbon does a fair amount of damage to any enemy that comes into contact with it. Holding down the fire button extends the ribbon and releasing the fire button retracts the ribbon (a bit like a vacuum cleaner cord). Anchor FORCE DX [19] -------------------- R-13B Charon Weapons:- Red: Shade Alpha + Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A more powerful version of the Shade Alpha (hence the '+' bit) with a cool electric effect at the start. Blue: Search Beta + Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Passive Homing Firing Rate: Medium * LRG lasers which splits into two, giving you twice the firepower of the normal Search Beta. Yellow: Terminate Gamma + Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: 180 degrees Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Two sweeping laser beams instead of one, this makes it a little too powerful for my liking. Try it out on the Tide-of-eyeballs section of the FA stage. Beam FORCE [52] --------------- TL-2A Achilleus TL-2A2 Neoptolemos TL-2B Herakles TL-2B2 Hyllos Weapons:- Red: Crimson Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * The mechanical arm on the FORCE will swipe at the enemy with a beam sword. The sword is also capable of shooting energy waves from it's tip. Blue: Indigo Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Wide Angle Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * The mechanical arm on the FORCE will poke diagonally upwards and downwards with it's swords, shooting bolts of energy at the same time. Yellow: Ochre Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * The mechanical arm swipes the sword in the same way as the red crystal weapon. Only now it has greater range and no longer shoots out energy waves. Beast FORCE [32] ---------------- B-1C Amphibian B-1C2 Amphibian II B-1C3 Amphibian III Weapons:- Red: Anti-Air Laser B Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires 'Tadpoles' which travel forwards in a wave motion not unlike the Anti- Air laser of the R-9A. It doesn't seem to be a s powerful though. Blue: Reflection Laser B Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Medium * Fires 'Tadpoles' diagonally up and down. The tadpoles are capable of bouncing of walls and other solid surfaces. Yellow: Anti-Ground Laser B Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Vertical moving 'Tadpoles' which creep along the scenery in the same direction as the way the FORCE is facing. Bydo Force [39] --------------- B-1D Bydo Systems Alpha B-1D2 Bydo Systems Beta B-1D3 Bydo Systems Gamma Weapons:- Red: Gondolan Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires doughnut like rings of pink energy. Quite powerful. Blue: Dauber Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Medium * Fires sperm like bullets which reflect off walls and other solid object. The bullets moves quite slowly coupled with it's medium rate of fire makes this weapon less effective then the re-dispersion laser. Yellow: Norzarie Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Shoot Fireballs Firing Rate: Slow * Fires two slow moving 'things' that moves parallel to each other. The 'things' fire shots (upwards or the top one and downwards for the bottom) whenever an enemy pass by it. Camera FORCE 1 [08] ------------------- R-9E Midnight Eye Weapons:- Red: Scout Laser Red Range: Short Power: Poor Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Quick * Very short range and very weak. Blue: Scout Laser Blue Range: Short Power: Poor Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Quick * Shoots lasers diagonally upwards and downwards. Difficult to use effectively. Yellow: Scout Laser Yellow Range: Short Power: Poor Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Quick * Very short range vertical weapon, rather useless if you ask me. Camera FORCEs are the only FORCE which can fire it's primary weapons even when detached from the ship. Unfortunately this version has crap weapons. If you want to use a camera FORCE the MK II or MK III versions are far superior. Only ever use this FORCE if you want a real challenge. Camera FORCE 2 [09] ------------------- R-9E2 Owl Light Weapons:- Red: Scout Laser Red SP Range: Half Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Has a much greater range then the normal version. Blue: Scout Laser Blue SP Range: Half Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Shoots lasers diagonally upwards and downwards. The improvement to range makes this weapon much more effective. Yellow: Scout Laser Yellow SP Range: Half Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * The range has improved but this weapon is still not recommended as it's beams don't cover your ship effectively. This combined with the need to move directly above or below an enemy leaves you ship vulnerable. ***Description*** Much better then the normal Camera Force 1 but still very weak when compared with other FORCEs available. Camera FORCE 3 [10] ------------------- R-9E3 Sweet Luna Weapons:- Red: Scout Laser Red HG Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * At last a long range weapon. No more of the nose to nose combat. Blue: Scout Laser Blue HG Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Reflecting Firing Rate: Medium * This weapons lacks the forward firepower of the reflection laser, which means you have to attack most enemies at an angle. Yellow: Scout Laser Yellow HG Range: Depends of terrain Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Apart from the ascetic changes to the laser it is identical to the Anti- Ground Laser and should be used in the same way. Chain FORCE [17] ---------------- R-13T Echidna Weapons:- Red: Alpha Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * It looks similar to the Gallop FORCE's Laser Beam at a low speed setting. However the difference in power between the two weapons is astronomical. Alpha Laser only has a fraction of the power the Laser Beam has. In terms of power it is probably closer to the Ruby Ray +. Blue: Beta Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Passive Homing Firing Rate: Slow * Singe search laser. It can change direction multiple times to intercept enemies, but it's low rate of fire and the fact that only one beam at a time is fired means that it's not as effective as the Standard FORCE type C's version. Yellow: Gamma Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Intermittent * Vertical firing laser which sweeps backwards and forwards like a wind screen wiper. It is quite powerful and is one of the most effective yellow crystal weapons available. ***Description*** The precursor to the Anchor FORCE. The main difference is it's inability to latch onto the enemy. As a result it's main offensive ability comes from the chain which is not very powerful. All things considered the Chain FORCE is not terrible but it's not that good either. Claw FORCE [44] --------------- B-5A Claw Claw Weapons:- Red: Screw Laser Range: Short Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A 'D' shaped blade which sits in front of the FORCE. The blade rotates whenever your ship moves backwards or forwards, increasing it's power. To prevent your ship from moving to close to the enemy or too far away while trying to rotate the blade set it's speed to 1. This weapon is active for a short time after you release the fire button. Blue: Arc Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Firing Rate: Slow * Fires two spinning sickles which curl up and down the screen. Yellow: Laser Claw Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Frontal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A big yellow claw appears and snaps at your enemies. It has a slightly larger vertical coverage then the Screw Laser but also has less power. ***Description*** For a FORCE and ship that looks so cool, the Claw FORCE is a real disappointment. None of it's weapons packs any real punch. Neither do they offer any variety in there attacks. When detached the Claw FORCE latches on to the enemy just like the Anchor FORCE, only without the ribbon. Because it's missing the ribbon, your ship is more vulnerable with the FORCE detached. With so many cons it's really hard to recommend this FORCE for any reason other then it's looks. Cube FORCE [38] --------------- TP-1 Scope Duck Weapons:- Red: Double Fractal Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * The anti-aircraft laser with added creeping abilities. Blue: Slant Fractal Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Fires diagonally up and down. It added creeping abilities makes this weapon extra effective in confined spaces. Yellow: Vertical Fractal Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Like all of Cube FORCE's weapons the Vertical Fractal laser has creeping abilities and like all vertical firing weapons it's only useful in certain sections of the game. ***Description*** It's Square that's a bonus. Cyclone FORCE [21] ------------------ R-90 Ragnarok II Weapons:- Red: Passing Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Powerful, arrowhead shaped laser beams. Looks kind of boring but it one of the better red weapons. Blue: Splash Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: 5-Way Characteristic: Splash Damage Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a spread of lasers in 5 directions. These lasers explode on contact to damage anything in the surrounding area. This weapon is deceptively powerful. Even more so when you move up close to an enemy so more then one beam hits the. Yellow: Capsule Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Shoot Lasers Firing Rate: Very slow for the FORCE, very fast for the capsules. * The FORCE deposits a yellow capsule, which fires very rapid shots in the direction the FORCE was facing when the capsule was deposited. The shots themselves are very week but the capsule fires for quite a bit of time. This can actually be a disadvantage especially if you deposit the capsule in the wrong place. Which, if you use the rapid fire button, you'll be doing a lot of. I'm sure there may be some way of using this weapon effectively. It's just that I've never found it. ***Description*** This FORCE behaves in quite an unique way when detached from your ship. It enlarges itself and causes major damage to any enemy that makes contact with it. It's movement is similar to those of the Standard FORCE, it will always try to remain horizontal to your ship and on the opposite side of the screen. Knowing this you can move it into the appropriate position to attack the enemy. There one other special thing about this FORCE; when the X button is pressed to recall the FORCE it will move towards your ship just like every other FORCE, but press the button again and you cancelled the recall and it'll float away. You can do this as many times as you like. As far as I know this is the only FORCE where you can cancel the recall operation. Weapon wise both it's red and blue weapons are quite effective and powerful. However it's yellow weapon is very difficult to use effectively. The lack of a proper vertical firing weapon means some sections of the game will cause you more problems then normal. With the 7 level W. Cannon of the Ragnarok there small flaws are worth living with. Defensive FORCE [06] -------------------- R-9B Strider R-9B2 Stayer R-9D Shooting Star R-9D2 Morning Star R-9DH Grace Note R-9DH2 Hot Conductor R-9DH3 Concert Master Weapons:- Red: Twin Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Two straight lasers which crosses over whenever it approaches an enemy. This can actually make it miss the enemy especially when one of the beams has been blocked. An example is during the first boss encounter. Try it out, position yourself in the top part of the screen and block the top beam. You should be able to get the lower beam to pass over the eye. Blue: Dispersion Impact Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Area Firing Rate: Medium * Two diagonal beam which releases sparks when ever it makes contact with enemies or the scenery. The sparks causes additional damage to enemies and can damage other enemies nearby. Yellow: Defensive Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Release vertical shots Firing Rate: Slow * Shoots a small yellow projectile forward. This projectile explodes to release bullets which travel vertically up and down. The projectile explodes automatically whenever it nears an enemy or when it makes contact with the scenery. This weapon is much easier to use then the Anti-Ground Laser and seems to have greater power. ***Description*** I have no idea why they call this the defensive FORCE. It offers no additional protection when compared with the standard FORCE. In fact the Tentacle FORCE and Mirror Shield FORCE offers far better 'Defense'. It is however a very well rounded FORCE. I feel it's actually slightly easier to use then the Standard FORCE but is really a matter of opinion. It's also quite a common FORCE, shared by more the half a dozen ships. When detached it follows the standard movement pattern but fires vertically rather then the 5-way shot of the Standard FORCE. Defensive FORCE DX [07] ----------------------- R-9DV Tears Shower R-9DDX Northern Lights R-9DP Hanrasen R-9DP2 Asangara R-9DP3 Kenrokuken Weapons:- Red: Twin Laser W Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Twin laser W fires 4 shots at a time, two top and tow bottom. The lower beam has now become a nice blue colour. Other then that there aren't any real differences between the Twin laser and the Twin laser W. Power wise it's only marginally stronger then the normal version. Blue: Impact Dispersion Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Area Firing Rate: Medium * A much more advanced version of the Dispersion Impact Laser. Now apart of releasing sparks, the initial laser is capable of reflecting of objects and enemies. Yellow: Defensive Laser W Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Release vertical shots Firing Rate: Slow * Since the name now has a 'W' in it, it must be better right? Well you tell me. ***Description*** The DX version is not much different from the regular version. The added reflective power of the Impact Dispersion Laser makes that particular weapon much more effective. The other two weapons (Red & Yellow) remains very much the same. Diamond FORCE [42] ------------------ B-5D Diamond Wedding Weapons:- Red: Star Spiral Range: Short Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A glowing spiral forms in front of your ship, damaging any enemies that makes contact with it. It's a short range weapon. Blue: Shooting Star Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Forward Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * Fires two wide which move straight forwards. It's quite possible for smaller enemy ships who are directly in between the beams to escape unharmed. Yellow: Stardust Range: Full Screen Power: Good / Fair Direction: Diagonally upwards Characteristic: Rain down particles Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a upward moving beam which crawl across the scenery at the top of the screen. When an enemy moves under it, the beam automatically releases a shower of bullets to destroy it. Drill FORCE [36] ---------------- TW-2 Kiwi Berry Weapons:- Red: Drill Laser X Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * The drill laser fires quick bursts of cone like laser which is no more effective or powerful then other red crystal weapons. Blue: Whirlwind Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Two straight weapons on one FORCE? What is the world coming to? These Tornados has a relatively slow movement rate so it's best to use then at mid range. Yellow: Napalm Range: Power: Direction: Characteristic: Firing Rate: * ***Description*** Unique to the Kiwi Berry, the Drill Force is an odd looking thing. It looks almost like an ice cream cone on it's side. The Drill FORCE is a distant cosine of the Anchor FORCE. When detached it will shoot forward and bore into the enemy. This is in fact it's only offensive ability as it cannot fire when detached. Once it starts drilling you can forget about it and concentrate on your own ship. Most effective against bosses and mini bosses. Fire FORCE [13] --------------- R-9SK Principalities Red: Chain Fire Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires a crisscrossing trail of flame. Slightly more powerful then the standard anti-aircraft laser. Blue: Fire Bomb Range: Long Power: Good Direction: 45 degrees from horizontal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * Fires two jets of blue flame. One 45 degrees up the other 45 degrees down. Surprisingly powerful, their only downside is their slow rate of fire. Yellow: Fire Barrier Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Curved Characteristic: Special Firing Rate: Not very fast. * Creates a wall of flame which curls up and over the ship if the FORCE is on the front of the ship, or down and under the ship if the FORCE is on the back of it. It could have been it useful but it's firing rate is just too slow to cause any real damage to larger enemies. Flame FORCE [14] ---------------- R-9SK2 Dominion Weapons:- Red: Chain Flame Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires TWO crisscrossing trail of flame. More powerful then the Chain Fire (but not by much). Blue: Angled Flame Thrower Range: Long Power: Good Direction: 45 degrees from horizontal Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Slow * This new version of the angled Flame Thrower has added reflective properties to the flame it ejects. A significant improvement over the normal version. Yellow: Flame wall Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Curved Characteristic: Shoot Fireballs Firing Rate: Not very fast. * It has the same curving style of the standard version but now the flames shoot fireballs out in the direction its facing. However power of the actual firewall is the same and since this is what you'll be using to attack enemies most of the time, the MKII version (like the MKI version) isn't really worth using. Flexible FORCE [30] ------------------- RX-12 Cross The Rubicon Weapons:- Red: Lightning Tentacle Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Straight firing laser. It's power can be concentrated by closing the Tentacles in a similar way to the Sting Ray of the Tentacle FORCE. Blue: Joint Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Everywhere Characteristic: Hard to aim Firing Rate: Medium * Joint laser so called because they are fired from the joints on the tentacles. They always fire in the direction the joint is facing. This means that, in theory, by bending the tentacle you can alter the direction the shots are fired. However in practice this proves very difficult because the tentacles don't stay in place like the Tentacle FORCE. Yellow: Double Snail Laser Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A much more powerful version of the Snail Ray. It's superior power means it's effective against all enemies. It's one of a few yellow crystal weapons to be truly effective throughout the game. ***Description*** For a company that's so famous for their shoot'em up it's surprising to know that Irem never actually made that many shooter. Sure there were the 4 R-Types and then there was Mr. Heli and Image Flight, but what else? Released in 1989 X-Multiply was in many ways a more advanced version of R- Type. The innovation came from the two free moving tentacles attached to the ship. These tentacles could be manipulated to form as shield around the front or back of the ship, concentrating or spreading out it's firepower. With great graphics and sound for it's time coupled with classic Irem gameplay it should have been a hit for Irem. Ironically Irem tripped over it's own success. With every one still obsessed with R-Type released the previous year, X-multiply went largely unnoticed and a classic was lost. For those of you hoping to rekindle memories of the late 80's classic, Cross the Rubicon disapoints in every way. Sure the tentacles looks similar and the weapons are pretty close to the originals but the thing just don't play the same. Because the tentacles are on the FORCE and not on the ship and you can't 'swing' the tentacles like on the original, Cross the Rubicon just has lost most of the charm of the original. Having said that the Flexible FORCE is still a very effective device. When fully extended the tentacles form a huge wall in front (or behind) the ship. You can't fully cover one side your ship just by closing the tentacles like in X-multiply so you have to switch the force over if you want to cover a particular side of your ship. The tentacles can however protect the top or bottom of you ship quite effectively regardless of which side your FORCE is attached. When detached it acts in the same way as the Tentacle FORCE but only fires 3 row of bullets and the reduction in power is just about noticeable. Flower FORCE [31] ----------------- B-1A Bydo Seed B-1A2 Bydo Seed II B-1A3 Bydo Seed III Weapons:- Red: Seed Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium / Slow * Not a user friendly weapon. When the tentacles are open, a steady stream of bullets are fired. However when the tentacles are closed the bullets are trapped behind tentacles and start building up. When the tentacles are opened again the trapped bullets are releases as one large shot. This weapon is hard to use because sometimes you just can't help moving backwards and forwards while avoiding enemy fire and often you'll end up with closed tentacles when they should be open. Which also means you HAVE to move forwards to fire. It would have been good if you could build the bullet up to a huge size and destroy everything with one shot, but sadly you can't. In fact even at full size the bullet does less damage then a W. Cannon shot, making it rather pointless. Blue: Spike Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Fast * Rapid firing spikes which travel straight forwards. The best weapon of the three. Yellow: Flower Swing Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Curved Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Similar to the Snail Ray of the Tentacle FORCE. The main difference it that the Flower Swing always wraparound you ship whether the tentacles are opened or closed. This make it good for defense but poor on the attack. ***Description*** Gallop FORCE [15] ----------------- R-11A Future World R-11B Peace Maker Weapons:- Red: Laser Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good - Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * You can change the concentration of the beam by lowering or increasing the ship's speed. The lower the speed the more concentrated the beam. At full power and at speed 1 this becomes one of the most powerful standard weapons in the game. Shifting the speed of your ship at the right time to cause the most damage is the key to using this weapon. Blue: Laser Wiper Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * You can change the angle of the beams of this weapon by changing the ships speed. The lower the speed the wider the angle. At speed 1 the beams fire almost vertically and at speed 4 the beams fire straight ahead. Versatility combined with good firepower makes the Laser Wiper a very effective weapon. Yellow: Laser Chaser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Slow * Think Anti-Ground Laser, only you can change the angles of the beam by changing the ship's speed. No matter what angle your at the beams still travels vertically. This means there is often on need to change the speed of the ship. Instead repositioning will often allow you to hit the enemies you want. Gallop FORCE DX [16] -------------------- R-11S Tropical Angel R-11S2 No Chaser Weapons:- Red: Laser Beam S Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good - Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * As Gallop FORCE but more powerful. Blue: Laser Wiper S Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * As Gallop FORCE but more powerful. Yellow: Laser Chaser S Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Slow * As Gallop FORCE but more powerful. ***Description*** This is a rather sad excuse for another FORCE. The FORCE is totally identical to the Gallop FORCE only the weapons are slightly more powerful now and with some minor graphic changes. Whoopy-do! Gold FORCE [40] --------------- B-5B Golden Selection Weapons:- Red: Golden Arrow Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Straight firing beams of golden energy. Pretty orthodox. Blue: Golden Spheres Range: Medium Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Hovering Firing Rate: Medium * Fires great big golden balls which travels about 3 ship lengths in front of your ship then hovers around for a moment before disappering. Hardly the most useful weapon around but you could do worse. Yellow: Golden Seeker Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Characteristic: Firing Rate: * IVY FORCE [53] -------------- B-1A Mad Forest B-1A2 Mad Forest II B-1A3 Mad Forest III Weapons:- Red: Vine Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Similar to the anti-air laser, but covers a slightly wider area. Blue: Wall laser Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Forwards Characteristic: Parabolic pathway. Firing Rate: Slow * Two lasers which travels round the front of the ship in a parabolic fashion. This results in the beams curing round the top and bottom of the ship forming a protective barrier. Very hard to use effectively and is not that powerful making it a substandard weapon. Yellow: Whip Laser Range: Long Power: Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: Whips up and down. Firing Rate: Continuous * A long tentacle like beam of energy extends forwards from the FORCE. While the FORCE is attached to the front of your ship, pressing forwards will cause the beam to whip upwards and pressing back cause the beam to whip downwards. The controls are reversed if the FORCE is attached to the back of your ship. This is quite an effective weapon to us in confined spaces and where enemies are hard to reach. Leo FORCE [22] -------------- R-9Leo Leo Weapons:- Red: Claw Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A very powerful laser. It's in the same league as the Shade Alpha and more powerful with the Psy BITs. The Psy BITs also allows you to fire in both directions at the same time. Blue: Mirror Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal & Straight Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Quick * A weaker version of the Reflection laser. The beams are shorter and only the diagonal beams reflect. The straight beam is more powerful but not capable of refection. With the Psy BITs two more diagonal lasers are fired. Even with the BITs the beams weak and isn't really worth using. For once the Yellow weapon is better then the blue. Yellow: Search Laser LRG Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Bending Firing Rate: Medium * Short straight laser beams which can turn by 90 degrees to intercept enemies. 3 beams are fired when powered up and 5 beams with the Psy bits. This weapon has greater power then the Mirror Laser and with it's homing ability makes it the weapon of choice throughout most of the stages. The only time you might want to change to a different weapon is during boss fights, where the superior power of the Claw Laser might be needed. ***Description*** First this FORCE looks larger then it really is, thanks to the huge rods it has. It's styled to look like the mane of a lion (use your imagination). The FORCE on it's own is quite average. However because Leo has quite a weak W. Cannon it's feels weaker then it really is. Especially when you struggle even against a mini boss. Leo FORCE DX [23] ----------------- R-9Leo Leo II Weapons:- Red: Claw Laser DX Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * This version is more powerful then the normal Claw Laser however how much of this extra power comes from the actual FORCE and how much comes from the Psy BITs 2 is unknown. Blue: Mirror Laser DX Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal & Straight Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Quick * More powerful version of the Mirror Laser. Again I'm not sure how much of the power increase comes from the actual FORCE. Yellow: Search Laser LRG DX Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Bending Firing Rate: Medium * A upgrade of the normal Search Laser LRG. ***Description*** The Leo FORCE DX has the same movement and firing patterns as the Standard FORCE. Life FORCE [46] --------------- BX-T Dantalion Weapons:- Red: Blood Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Firsts a single large bullet straight forward. Blue: Pulse Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Splits Firing Rate: Medium * Diagonal shot, at full power the bullets spits into smaller bullets which then move a short distance along the scenery. Yellow: Neuro Laser Range: Short Power: Very Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Vertical tendrils similar to the tentacle laser only it not as flexible. ***Description*** This cell like FORCE uses variations of the standard FORCE's weapons. In fact many of the B-Class vessels has the same weapon as the R-9A only with slightly different graphics. The Life FORCE itself fires vertically at level 1, X like at level 2 and 6-way (3 up, 3 down) at full power. Love FORCE [49] ------------------ BX-2 Platonic Love Weapons:- Red: Heart Attack Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Attacks in the same way as the Anti-aircraft laser except it fires hearts instead of leasers. Blue: Heart Break Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires hearts diagonally up and down. Yellow: Heart Beat Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires hearts vertically up and down. ***Description*** This FORCE doesn't fire when detached, instead when fire button is pressed it emits a heart shaped energy field around it which will damage any enemies near it. A useful FORCE but the whole idea of shooting hearts at the Bydo just don't seem right to me. Metallic FORCE [48] ------------------- R-9B Metallic Dawn R-9B2 Metallic Dawn II Weapons:- Red: Lance Metal Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A bubble like growths will emerge from the FORCE. It has a range of about 2 ship lengths. Simply smash it against enemies to damage them. However this will cause the bubbles to burst and it requires a short time to grow again. Blue: V Metal Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous. * Same as the Lance metal except the are two growths now one diaginally upwards the other diagonally downwards. Yellow: I Metal Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous. * Same as the Lance metal except the are two growths now one upwards the other downwards. ***Description*** The metallic for looks like an floating blob of mercury. When detached it morphs into another ship. This ship is capable of firing the same time as you do, it even fires W. Cannons the same time you do. The metallic FORCE also follows the standard movement pattern. Mirror Shield FORCE [51] ------------------------ TL-1B Asklepios Weapons:- Red: Laser Lance Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous (sort of) * Creates a swirling wall of energy around the front of the ship. Because the range is so short you would inevitably have to get up close and personal to the enemy. In such situations it's vital to have the enemy in front of you to avoid stay shots from the enemy passing over your FORCE. For this reason and because it's the more powerful of the 3 weapon. The laser lance should be the only weapon you use while using the Shield FORCE. Blue: Laser Blade Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous (sort of) * Like the laser lance but because the beams are now separated, it's power has been diluted. This make the laser blade useful only when the enemy cannot be reached with the laser lance. Yellow: Laser Shield Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: * There are absolutely no reasons why you should pick this weapon over the other two. ***Description** The weapons of the Mirror Shield FORCE is identical to the Shield FORCE. The difference between the two FORCES is that the Mirror Shield FORCE is capable of reflecting enemy bullet back towards the enemy. This only happens when the FORCE is at full spin (by holding down the rapid fire button). This is a very cool feature but is of limited use during battle. Mist FORCE [47] --------------- B-3A Misty Lady B-3A2 Misty Lady II Weapons:- Red: Sun Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Downwards Characteristic: Variable angle Firing Rate: Continuous * Any of you ever tried setting fire to things using nothing but a big magnifying glass and the power of the sun? Any of you spend hours in the back garden frying ants while badly damaging your retinas at the same time through the miracle of focused light? If so then this weapon is for you, it's just as pointless and just as stupid. Blue: Rain Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Downwards Characteristic: Variable angle Firing Rate: Rapid * The graphics make it look like there's thousands of bullets raining down on your enemy, but there really only 3 or 4 'hit' there. Yellow: Storm Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Downwards Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Contrary to popular myth that lightning comes straight down, lightning actually moves upwards from earth on the point of impact in order to complete the circuit. Mr. Heli FORCE [37] ------------------- TP-3 Mr. Heli Weapons:- Red: Power Up Shot Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Small direct firing bullets, an effective no-thrills weapon. Blue: 2 Way Shot Range: Long Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Diagonally moving bullets. Somewhat less effective due to it's limited range. Yellow: Propeller Laser Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A very short range weapon. Use it the same way you use the Laser Shields on the Shield FORCE, with caution. Needle FORCE [34] ----------------- TP-2 Pow Armor Weapons:- Red: Wavy Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * This weapon fires an ECG like pulse across the screen. Its power is equal to that of the anti-aircraft laser of the R9-A but has a wider range Blue: 3-Way Reflect Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Medium * Fires 6 reflective lasers at the same time! 3 diagonally upwards and 3 diagonally downwards. The lasers are shorter then the R9-A's and only reflect once. Yellow: Bouncing Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Bouncing Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a bouncing orb which leaves a trial of running fire behind it. Similar to the R9-A's Anti-Ground Laser but with more erratic movement. ***Description*** The Needle FORCE was called the Bydo FORCE in delta which makes things a little confusing. The best thing about the Needle FORCE must be the 360 degree shower of bullets it produces when detached from it's ship. It makes certain section of the game 100% easier. A great example is stage 6.1, the all round fire destroy most of the balls produced by the giant slug AND damaged the boss at the same time, allowing you to concentrate on maneuvering your ship. Needle FORCE DX [35] -------------------- TP-2H Pow Armor II Weapons:- Red: Wavy Laser DX Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Another Anti-Air weapon. One would presume it will have more power then the normal Wavy Laser but I didn't notice any difference. Blue: Rainbow Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Medium * Fires two laser beams diagonally. There beams splits into a number of different colour beams whenever they touch an enemy or part of the scenery. Yellow: Irregular Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Bouncing Firing Rate: Slow * More bouncy version of the Bouncing laser, with a more erratic bounce. ***Description*** Most of what's said about the Needle FORCE is true for the Needle FORCE DX. However the DX version's Rainbow Laser and Irregular Laser are actually inferior to the 3 Way Reflect Laser and Bouncing Laser in my opinion. OF FORCE [24] ------------- OF-1 Daedalus Weapons:- Red: Drill Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires two beam of blue and red lasers. The OF equivalent of the Anti-air laser. Blue: V Ball Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Fast * V ball? That must be the worst name for a weapon I've ever heard, hardly fills you with fear does it? In the Forums I've heard it called the V Vulcan which is quite cool. Fire 'balls' diagonally up and down, if low power is offset by it's above average firing rate. Yellow: Side Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Shoot blue bullets directly upwards and downwards from your ship. The bullets expands as the get further from your ship. Whether or not this increases it's power is as yet unknown. ***Description*** OF FORCE II [25] ---------------- OFX-2 Valkyrie Weapons:- Red: Ring Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fire rings of energy in all sorts of direction your FORCE is facing. This weapon has the novelty of being the Red weapon with the widest range. It has good power too. Blue: Rebound Ball Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Rebound Firing Rate: Fast * An upgraded version of the V ball weapon from OF-1. The balls are now able to bounce of scenery. Bounce baby bounce!!! Yellow: Search Laser LRB Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight (tuning) Characteristic: Homing (90 degrees) Firing Rate: Medium * Fires twin lasers which can turn by 90 degrees to intercept enemies. This is quite a versatile weapon, however it does leave the front of your ship somewhat exposed. ***Description*** OF FORCE III [26] ----------------- OF-3 Garuda Weapons:- Red: Wipe Laser Range: Full screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Stays in front of ship Firing Rate: Medium * Would have been another forward firing leaser weapon if its in for the fact that it's shots always stay in front of your ship. There is no practical application for this characteristic, so it's basically just a gimmick. Blue: Plasma Flames Range: Short Power: Poor Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A short range weapon. The direction of the two columns of flame can be changed by moving your ship. However unlike the Snail Ray of the tentacle FORCE it's not just the horizontal movements that effects it direction, vertical movement also effect it. Since your ship never stays still for very long, especially when using a short-range weapon where you are constantly correcting your ship's position to compensate for your targets movement, the Plasma Flame weapon can become incredibly unwieldy. Yellow: Multi Barrier Range: Short / Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Difficult Firing Rate: Continuous / Slow * By holding down the fire button you will projects two round circles next to the FORCE. There Circles will stick to the FORCE acting like an extra barrier until such time as you release the fire button. When you release the fire button the two circles fly off and damage enemies coming into contact with them. Uniquely it doesn't matter which fire button you hold down. Which means you can have constant fire or a charge W. cannon it's up to you. While stuck to the FORCE the circles are quite weak but once released they do good damage. All thing considered this is a useless weapon. ***Description*** OF FORCE IV [27] ---------------- OFX-4 Songoku Weapons:- Red: Thunder Ball Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a slow moving bolt of energy which don't actually seem to be that powerful. Coupled with it's slow rate of fire and you have a rather useless weapon. Blue: Homing Missile Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Homing Firing Rate: Medium * Fires a bunch of big fat homing missiles. Big and fat but not very powerful. To me a FORCE firing missiles just don't seem right. Yellow: Grand Missile Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Fires the same type of missiles as the Blue weapon only this time their launched vertically. When they make contact with the scenery, they'll move along it just like the Anti-Groundmissile sub-weapon. ***Description*** OF FORCE V [28] --------------- OF-5 Kaguya Weapons:- Red: Speed Cannon Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Fast * Fast moving small red bullets that travels straight ahead. Does exactly what it say's on the tin. Blue: 7 Way Vulcan Range: Long Power: Fair Direction: 7 Way Spread Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a spread of 7 Bullet. You can only have 7 bullets on the screen at any one time. Yellow: Barrier Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Front Characteristic: None Firing Rate: * creates two round circles around your FORCE device, similar to the Multi Barrier, only without the ability to release them. You can change the size of the circles by altering your ship's speed. The faster the ship the smaller the circles, the slower the ship the larger the circles. The Barrier is only really effective when the circle is large. Even then the damage inflicted is quite low, you'll be far better off using one of the other two weapons. Just like the Multi Barrier you can charge the Barrier using either fire button. History: Originally, in Image Flight where the OF ships comes from, there was no FORCE device so the Multi Barrier act as a poor replica allowing the OF- ships to ram the enemy. Platinum FORCE [41] ------------------- B-5C Platinum Heart Weapons:- Red: Horizontal Beam Range: Full Screen Power: Excellent Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Emits a shinny laser beams that travels in a straight line. Blue: Chase Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Excellent Direction: Forward Characteristic: Homing Firing Rate: Medium - Fast * Fires two blue laser beams that homes-in on the nearest enemy. This must be one of the most powerful homing weapons in the game, much better then the search beta, Highly recommended. Yellow: Vertical Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Shoot Fireballs Firing Rate: Continuous * A vertical version of the Horizontal beam, hence the name: Vertical Laser. Because the beam is so narrow and travels straight up and down it's quite difficult to use effectively. ***Description*** Rodless FORCE [33] ------------------ R-9F Andromalius Weapons:- Red: Fractal Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Direct firing Anti-air laser, basic yet effective. Blue: Thunder Laser Range: Long Power: Good Direction: Characteristic: Firing Rate: Slow * This is cool. This weapon launches a lightning bolt into the air which then bounces of top of the screen (or any enemy or scenery) and come back down again. It moves quickly so your ship is never left vulnerable. The only problem is trying to hit enemies on the other side of the screen. Yellow: Tentacle Laser Prototype Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A flexible beam of energy, it responds to both your ship's horizontal and vertical movements. Its more of a fun novelty weapon the anything else. ***Description*** One of the first FORCE you'll have access to. The Rodless FORCE is quite a departure from the Standard FORCE and it's variants. Firstly it's weapons are new and original, secondly this is the first "automatic" FORCE that you would have come across. Scale FORCE [43] ---------------- BX-4 Arvanche Weapons:- Red: Scale Shot Range: Medium / Long Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Fast * Shoots red scales straight in front of the ship. The firing rate is high but it's range is limited. Blue: Scale Blaster Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal (Spread) Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires a spread of blue scales (a 6 way shot at full power). An effective weapon if somewhat boring. Yellow: Scale Launcher Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: Impaling Firing Rate: Medium * A very unique weapon, it fires lance like projectile that impales themselves in the scenery. They stay there for quite a while and any enemy that touches them gets damage. You can only have 6 shots on the screen at any one time. While it is a very original weapon it not very effective. ***Description*** An ugly FORCE that's for sure, to make matters worst it's attached to a giant king prawn. It's weapons are OK, their certainly nothing to write home about. When detached it acts just like the Standard FORCE. Sexy FORCE [45] --------------- B-C3 Sexy Dynamite B-C32 Sexy Dynamite II Weapons:- Red: Lipstick Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Continuous * Fires a continuous pink laser beam from the tip of it's tentacles. The angle of the beams can be altered through the ships horizontal movement much like the Tentacle FORCE. The beams also have a reflective property giving it an edge over similar weapons. Blue: Eye Shadow Ray Range: Short Power: Very Good Direction: Variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Powerful energy blades appear at the tip of tentacles. You can change the angle of the blades though your horizontal movement but it really doesn't make much difference. Yellow: Mascara Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires large yellow bullets that curl up and downwards. Again the firing angel can be changed via your movement but the difference is negligible. ***Description*** One of the best FORCEs in the game. Not only are it's basic weaponry highly effective and powerful, it's Delta weapon charges up like mad. You can get 3 or 4 charges just from the crab mini-boss in stage one alone. When detached it doesn't fire, instead it extends all 4 of its tentacles to increase it's size and just rams the enemy. It's movement pattern is more like the Tentacle FORCE then the standard FORCE although it does seem to have less of a homing ability. Shadow FORCE [20] ----------------- R-90 Ragnarok Weapons:- Red: Reverse Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight forwards & behind Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * Fire 4 lasers, two of which travels straight forward, the other two travels diagonally up and down for a very short distance before heading in the opposite direction in a straight line. Not really that useful. Blue: All Range Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight & variable Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Slow * This weapon causes both the FORCE and the miniature turrets fire short blue laser beams. Beams fired from the FORCE travels in a straight forward while the direction of the beams fired from the turrets can be altered by moving the ship about. This is a reasonably powerful weapon but the turrets are often difficult to aim. Yellow: Guild Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight & Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Medium * Fires lasers straight forward and also vertically up and down. This beams of energy will creep across and scenery it contacts. Because it also fires forwards it much more effective then the Anti-Ground Laser. ***Description*** One of my favorite FORCEs. Not too powerful, in fact quite challenging to use. What's more it's green and it big! When detached it acts like a poor man's Tactical FORCE, It has no homing ability but it angle of fire can be changed. Misc info. Rolled on in 2243 AD Generates 3.76 Bydo Shield FORCE [50] ----------------- TL-T Chiron TL-1A Iason Weapons:- Red: Laser Lance Range: Short Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous (sort of) * Creates a swirling wall of energy around the front of the ship. Because the range is so short you would inevitably have to get up close and personal to the enemy. In such situations it's vital to have the enemy in front of you to avoid stay shots from the enemy passing over your FORCE. For this reason and because it's the more powerful of the 3 weapon. The laser lance should be the only weapon you use while using the Shield FORCE. Blue: Laser Blade Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous (sort of) * Like the laser lance but because the beams are now separated, it's power has been diluted. This make the laser blade useful only when the enemy cannot be reached with the laser lance. Yellow: Laser Shield Range: Short Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: * There are absolutely no reasons why you should pick this weapon over the other two. ***Description*** A close rage FORCE. I suppose it had to happen. The main 'gimmick' of the Shield FORCE is that acts like a fly wheel. Requiring time to reach full speed and power. Once it's at full spin the rods on the FORCE open up and acts kind of like a shield (hence the name). Even at full spin the area the 'shield' covers is tiny compared with the Tentacle FORCE with it's tentacles open. To make matters worse the thing doesn't do anything when detached. This severely limits your options during combat. Spherical Radome FORCE [11] --------------------------- R-9ER Powered Silence Weapons:- Red: Ruby Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * A thin red line going across the screen. If you hoping for high power compressed energy from this weapon then you'll be deeply disappointed. Blue: Sapphire Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Suffers from the same lack of power as the Ruby Ray. Yellow: Topaz Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * Nice looking vertical lasers. ***Description*** The lasers on this FORCE looks rather nice but all it's weapons are very weak. Add to this the fact that it doesn't fire when detached and you have a very poor FORCE. The only thing it can do when detached is scan for enemies with it's radar enabling you to lock onto the with the R-9E's W. Cannon. This would have been half useful if the W. Cannon could travel round to hit enemies behind the ship, but sadly this isn't the case. The only positive aspect of this FORCE is that only one ship uses it, which means you won't have to. Spherical Radome FORCE DX [12] ------------------------------ R-9ER2 Unchained Silence Weapons:- Red: Ruby Ray + Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * The thin red line has been joined by another. This theoretically doubles it's firepower. However I'm not sure this is true. Blue: Sapphire Ray + Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Diagonal Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * It's extra power finally make it's half useful. Yellow: Topaz Ray + Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous * This weapon can form a nice wall for weaker enemies to commit suicide on. ***Description*** With the extra power the improved DX model has, the Spherical Radome FORCE finally become a half decent FORCE. In fact it makes the Unchained Silence probably the best ship in the R-9E category. Having said that it's still miles behind the competition. Try the thing in R-Typer mode for a real challenge. Standard FORCE [01] (Also called the Round FORCE) ------------------- R-9A Arrow Head R-9A2 Delta Weapons:- Red: Counter-Air Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None. Firing Rate: Medium * The classic crisscross Laser. A trademark of the R-type series. Blue: Rebound Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: 3-way Characteristic: Reflective Firing Rate: Slow * A laser beam which reflects of any solid object. A single laser beam can reflect up to 4 times and fires in 3 direction simultaneously. Yellow: Counter-Ground Laser Range: Depends of terrain Power: Fair Direction: Vertical up + down Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Slow * Two Trails of running fire are launched up and down from the fighter. They move in the direction the FORCE is facing and will travels along any solid object, include some enemies! A weapon not to be under estimated. ***Description*** The standard FORCE has been in use for many years now. It is the most reliable and of all the FORCE units the standard force and has the most combat data. When detached the FORCE it shoots outwards and has a range of about 3/4 of the length of the screen. It doesn't move about much. If there's no enemy or object pushing it, it'll normally just float about 1/5 screen length from the edge of the screen. It will however try to remain horizontal to the R9. So if the R9 moves down the FORCE will also move down. One final note the FORCE has a attraction towards the R9. If the ship moves within one and a half ship length of the FORCE, the FORCE will move towards the it. Standard FORCE Type C [02] -------------------------- R-9C War Head Red: Shotgun Laser Range: Quarter Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Spread Firing Rate: Medium * Fires large warheads which explodes not far from the ship causing damage to nearby enemies. Blue: Search Laser L45 Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Straight Characteristic: Passive Homing Firing Rate: Slow * This laser can bend direction by 45 degrees to target enemies. The upper beam only ever bend upwards and the lower beam downwards. After they bend they can straighten out again, but that's it, they won't bend a second time. Yellow: Anti-Ground Laser Range: Depends of terrain Power: Good Direction: Vertical up + down Characteristic: Running Firing Rate: Slow * Exactly the same as Standard FORCE's version. ***Description*** An enhanced version of the standard FORCE. This FORCE is unique to the R-9C. It packs a great punch thanks to it's shotgun charge. The Search Beam is extremely effective against groups of fighters. Standard FORCE DX [04] ---------------------- R-9A3 Ladylove R-9A4 Wave Master Weapons:- Red: Anti-Air Laser DX Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None. Firing Rate: Medium * Slightly more powerful version of the standard anti-aircraft laser. Blue: Reflection Laser DX Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: 3-way Characteristic: Reflective / Spread Firing Rate: Slow * Same as the normal version except with sparkly bits round the beam. This version also makes a small shockwave whenever it reflects of an object. The shockwave can cause slight damage to enemies. Yellow: Anti-Ground Laser DX Range: Depends of terrain Power: Fair Direction: Vertical up + down Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Slow * This version of the Anti-Ground Laser is tilted away from the front of the ship. As a result it fires vertically but also slightly backwards. This can cause problems when aiming. Apart from making life difficult, this version of the Anti-Ground Laser appears to have no actual benefits over the standard (Counter-Ground) version. ***Description*** An slightly improved version of the Standard FORCE. DX offers greater firepower while keeping to the same tried and tested formula. Apart form the changes to the main weapons everything else about the FORCE remains the same. This ensures that most of the tactics employed using the Standard FORCE will still work with DX. Standard Force H [05] --------------------- R-9AX Delicatessen R-9AX2 Dinner Bell R-9W Wiseman R-9WB Happy Days R-9WF Sweet Memories R-9WZ Disaster Report Red: Anti-Air Laser H Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Fires a mesh of hexagons which travels in a straight line. The hexagons are capable of passing through weaker enemies. Blue: Search Laser H Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: 3-way (ish) Characteristic: Slight Homing Firing Rate: Medium * Fires a row of blue hexagons diagonally up, straight, and diagonally down in sequence. They have a very slight homing ability. When compared with Search Laser L45, H is more effective since it does a little bit more damage and because the hexagons cover a wider area it makes up for it's weaker homing abilities. Yellow: Vertical Laser H. Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Medium * Launches hexagons directly up and down. It seems more powerful then normal yellow weapons. ***Description*** The H is the next true next step up from the standard FORCE. This is the latest version of the FORCE device and is said to be superior to the previous version in every way. Providing greater firepower and defense. One of the most commonly used FORCEs in the game (used by 6 ships no less) it's a good thing that it's actually quite good. The Anti-Air Laser H and the Search Laser H in particular are very effective in any situation. Standard FORCE Type K [03] -------------------------- R-9K Sunday Strike Weapons:- Red: Shotgun Laser K Range: Half Screen Power: Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: Spread Firing Rate: Slow * Similar to the shotgun Charge of the R-9C only this time it also releases of 360 degree spread of bullets. Also the rate of fire has been greatly reduced. Blue: Spread Laser K Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Straight (wide area) Characteristic: Slight Homing Firing Rate: Slow * Fires a spread of bullets in from of the ship. The bullets quickly spread out to cover a large area before moving straight forward. They have a very slight homing ability and are drawn towards enemies. Yellow: Anti-Ground Laser Range: Full Screen Power: Good Direction: Vertical Characteristic: Creeping Firing Rate: Slow * Similar to the R-9A's version. ***Description*** In many ways the Type K is both a step forward and a step back from the Type C. Both it Blue and Red Crystal weapons has a very slow firing rate leaving your ship vulnerable to attack. While they maybe slightly more powerful, Type C's versions are more effective in combat. When detached it acts just like a standard FORCE. Tentacle FORCE [29] ------------------- RX-10 Albatross TX-1 Eclipse Weapons:- Red: Sting Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Good - Very Good Direction: Straight Characteristic: None Firing Rate: Continuous *Can be concentrated or dispersed depending on weather the tentacles are open or closed. Blue: Hound Ray Range: Full Screen Power: Fair Direction: Variable Characteristic: Locking Firing Rate: Continuous *A blue laser beam which lock onto any enemies which aren't instantly destroyed by it. It's actually quite weak. Yellow: Snail Ray Range: Short Power: Weak Direction: Variable Characteristic: Flexible Firing Rate: Continuous *Acts like an extension to the tentacles. Can be opened and closed reaching 360 degrees around the force. Not as powerful as other yellow crystal weapons. What more the power seems to have been toned down since delta. ***Description*** The Tentacle FORCE could be quite difficult use effectively if your just a beginner. Difficulty arise from the moving tentacles them selves. They respond to your fighters horizontal (left and right) movement. Moving your fighter in the opposite direction to the way the FORCE is facing will result in the tentacles closing together. If you move in the same direction to the way the FORCE is facing then the tentacles will spread apart. Because all it's weapons act differently when the tentacles are open or closed, you'll find yourself constantly moving backwards and forward, trying to get the weapons to fire the way you want them to. The vertical (up or down) movement of the ship has no effect on the tentacles. The tentacles FORCE behaves in a rather unique way when detached from your fighter. It will automatically turn to face the strongest or closest enemy, slowly floating towards it. When your ship fires and only when you fire, the FORCE will also fire a concentrated stream of bullets. If there are no enemies around it will become inactive and follow the standard movement pattern. If you press the detach button again then it will move towards your ship (as all FORCEs do). However now it will only fire straight ahead. This makes it a very good drone. When fully powered up it will fire 4 streams of bullets directly ahead, providing you with greater firepower then if you're using the blue or yellow weapon. Many bosses can be destroyed quite easily by simply firing the FORCE straight next to their weak spot and holding down the O button. The stage 3.5, 5.0 and 6.0 are examples where this FORCE proves super effective. Trivia: When detached, look closely at it. It looks a lot like Pac-man the way it constantly opening and closing it's 'mouth'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2 BITS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BITS are much like their bigger cousins the FORCE. Instead on an embryo the bit contains a piece of Bydo flesh partly incased in a shell. The shell acts in the same way as the Rods of the FORCE device. 'Feeding' the piece of flash energy. However due to the limited variety of cells in the flesh the original BIT (round) only reacted to one specific energy frequency and therefore only emits one type of beam. Over the years new a types of BITs has been invented which can perform a much wider range of functions. A maximum of two BITS can be equipped on any one ship, one above and one below. Most ships are only compatible with 2 or 3 types of BITs. [A] The Round BIT ----------------- This is the same BIT that has appeared in all the previous R-Type games. It fires in the same direction as the FORCE and ONLY fires when using the RED power crystal. You can use it to destroy enemies by touching the enemy with it. You can also block most type of bullets with it in much the same way. However because of its size this isn't always easy. [B] Blue Pod ------------ Shoot two streams of bullets straight forward. When the detach button is pressed they fly out to damage enemies. You can use this as a secondary weapon. [C] Camera BIT -------------- It doesn't seem to do much. My theory is that certain images in the Bydo lab can only be unlocked by playing a level through using the camera bit but who knows. [D] Shadow BIT -------------- This BIT generates a trail of light or 'shadow' behind it which can damage enemies. [E] Eyeball BIT --------------- Acts in the same way as the round BIT but reacts to different energy crystals depending on the ship. Only B series ships uses these type of BITs. [G] Green Pod ------------- Nice green pod that fires in opposing directions, that angle of which could be altered by moving you ship. Like all pod they can "launch attack". The best pod / bit in the game? Maybe. [M] Mr. Heli BIT ---------------- Cut little helicopters. They face the same direction as your horizontal movement. So if you move right it will face right. They fire standard shot regardless of which type of energy crystal your using. Only Mr. Heli uses there BITs. [P] Psy BIT ----------- This BIT can only be used with the R-9Leo. It fires different weapons depending on which weapon crystal your currently using. If the FORCE is detached then it will fire standard shots. Psy BITs always fire in the opposite direct to your ships horizontal movement. By this I mean if you move to the left it will fire to the right and if you move to the right it will fire to the left. Whenever your ship fires it's W. Cannon at level 1 or more the BITs will fly off and home in of the nearest enemy, ramming them for substantial damage. This greatly improve the effectiveness of the R-9Leo's wave cannon making it seem more powerful then it really is. It also allows you to hit enemies normally out of you line of fire. To top it all off you get two BITs from just one BIT crystal. Instantly giving you protection top and bottom. How that! [R] Red Pod ----------- Shoot two streams of bullets in the opposite direction to your ships movement. When the detach button is pressed they fly out to damage enemies just like the Blue pod. [S] Shield BIT -------------- Bigger them most BIT devices. The Shield BIT is just that, it's used to shield the R9 against enemy bullets and ships. [Y] Yellow Pod -------------- This Pod doesn't fire instead it inflict extra damage when it's launched (by pressing the detach button). The problem with using the pods "launch attack" is that you always end up with your FORECE detached from your ship or causes a detached FORCE it to move back towards your ship. This really screws up any well made plans you might have had. [Z] Psy BIT + ------------- Used with Leo II. There is no real differences between the Psy BIT as Psy Bit +. Below is the complete list of ships and which bit type they are compatible with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | BITS Type | Number| Ship | A | B | C | D | E | G | R | S | Y | Z | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 001 | R-9A | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 002 | R-9A2 | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 003 | R-9A3 | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 004 | R-9A4 | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 005 | R-9AF | 006 | R-9AD | 007 | R-9AD2 | 008 | R-9AD3 | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 009 | R-9C 010 | R-9K 011 | R-9S 012 | R-9O 013 | R-9O2 014 | R-9AX 015 | R-9AX2 016 | R-9Leo 017 | R-9Leo2 018 | R-9SK 019 | R-9SK2 020 | R-9W | A | - | - | D | - | - | - | - | - | - | 021 | R-9WB 022 | R-9WF 023 | R-9WZ 024 | R-9B 025 | R-9B2 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | 026 | R-9B3 027 | R-9D | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 028 | R-9D2 029 | R-9DH 030 | R-9DH2 031 | R-9DH3 032 | R-9DV 033 | R-9DDX | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 034 | R-9DP 035 | R-9DP2 036 | R-9DP3 037 | R-9E | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 038 | R-9E2 039 | R-9E3 040 | R-9ER 041 | R-9ER2 042 | R-9F | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 043 | RX-10 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 044 | R-11A 045 | R-11B 046 | R-11S 047 | R-11S2 048 | TX-T 049 | OF-1 | - | B | - | - | - | - | R | - | - | - | 050 | OFX-2 | - | B | - | - | - | - | R | - | - | - | 051 | OF-3 052 | OFX-4 053 | OF-5 054 | TW-1 055 | TW-2 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | 056 | TP-1 057 | TP-2 058 | TP-2H 059 | TP-3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | 060 | TP-2S 061 | TP-2M 062 | TL-T 063 | TL-1A 064 | TL-1B 065 | TL-2A 066 | TL-2A2 067 | TL-2B 068 | TL-2B2 069 | RX-12 070 | R-13T 071 | R-13A 072 | R-13A2 073 | R-13B 074 | BX-T 075 | B-1A 076 | B-1A2 077 | B-1A3 078 | B-1B 079 | B-1B2 080 | B-1B3 081 | B-1C 082 | B-1C2 083 | B-1C3 084 | B-1D 085 | B-1D2 086 | B-1D3 087 | BX-2 088 | B-3A 089 | B-3A2 090 | B-3B 091 | B-3B2 092 | B-3C 093 | B-3C2 094 | BX-4 095 | B-5A | X | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | 096 | B-5B 097 | B-5C 098 | B-5D 099 | R-99 100 | R-100 101 | R-101 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISSLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With so much emphasis put on the FORCE device it's sometimes easy to forget the humble missile. Hard working and ever reliable, missiles can hit enemies hidings in hard to reach places and is the only weapon that fires when charging the wave cannon. There are 10 different types of missiles. [A] 4 Way Homing Missile (4-Way Missile) ----------------- Homing missile, only you can fire up to 4 at a time. You need to collect 2 missile powerups first though. Most transformers can use these missiles. [B] 6 Way Homing Missile (6-Way Missile) ------------------------ Homing missile, only now you can fire up to 6 at a time. Requires 2 missile powerups. [D] Enhanced Homing Missile (Homing Missile 2) --------------------------- Much like the standard homing missile, only this version can destroy multiple enemies. You can knock out whole waves of small enemy fighters with just a single missile. On of the best missiles around. Pow Armour and their kin can use this type of missiles. [E] Eyeball Homing Missile (Eyeball Missile) -------------------------- This missile acts just like the normal homing missile only it has 2 levels of power. Collect another Missile crystal to increase it's size and strength. It CANNOT pass through multiple enemies like the Enhanced Homing Missile. [F] Scatter Bomb (Spread Bomb) ---------------- Dropped downwards and bursts on contact with any enemy or solid object. On impact is creates an explosive trail that travels forwards, causing more damage. This weapon is quite powerful but hard to aim and is only effective against ground based enemies. [G] Anti-Ground Missile (Creeping Missile) ----------------------- When dropped it will move along the topography of the landscape until it comes into contact with an enemy. [H] Homing Missile ------------------ Two Homing missiles fire at once, each are capable of homing in on different targets. Not the most powerful but it's a fire and forget weapon. [T] Photon Missile (Torpedo) ------------------ A single missile that fires straight forward. More powerful then the Homing Missile but only has limited homing function. [U] Vertical Missile / Depth Bomb (Missile Bomb) ------------------------------------------------ Used by Mr. Heli, this weapon fires a spread of missiles vertically. While this weapon is quite effective in open space it can be blocked easily by scenery when fighting in confined areas. [V] Depth Bombs (Bombs) --------------- Drops straight down and causes a nice explosion. The blast radius around the bomb damages any enemies too close to it. Not as powerful as you would have thought powerful and very hard to use effectively. On some levels you find it completely useless as there are so few ground based enemies. Below is the complete list of ships and which missile type they are compatible with. | MISSLE Type | Number| Ship | A | B | D | E | F | G | H | T | U | V | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 001 | R-9A | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 002 | R-9A2 | 003 | R-9A3 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 004 | R-9A4 | 005 | R-9AF | 006 | R-9AD | 007 | R-9AD2 | 008 | R-9AD3 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 009 | R-9C 010 | R-9K 011 | R-9S 012 | R-9O 013 | R-9O2 014 | R-9AX 015 | R-9AX2 016 | R-9Leo 017 | R-9Leo2 018 | R-9SK 019 | R-9SK2 020 | R-9W | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 021 | R-9WB 022 | R-9WF 023 | R-9WZ 024 | R-9B 025 | R-9B2 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | 026 | R-9B3 027 | R-9D | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 028 | R-9D2 029 | R-9DH 030 | R-9DH2 031 | R-9DH3 032 | R-9DV 033 | R-9DDX | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 034 | R-9DP 035 | R-9DP2 036 | R-9DP3 037 | R-9E | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 038 | R-9E2 039 | R-9E3 040 | R-9ER 041 | R-9ER2 042 | R-9F | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 043 | RX-10 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | 044 | R-11A 045 | R-11B 046 | R-11S 047 | R-11S2 048 | TX-T 049 | OF-1 050 | OFX-2 051 | OF-3 052 | OFX-4 053 | OF-5 054 | TW-1 055 | TW-2 | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | 056 | TP-1 057 | TP-2 058 | TP-2H 059 | TP-3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | 060 | TP-2S 061 | TP-2M 062 | TL-T 063 | TL-1A 064 | TL-1B 065 | TL-2A 066 | TL-2A2 067 | TL-2B 068 | TL-2B2 069 | RX-12 070 | R-13T 071 | R-13A 072 | R-13A2 073 | R-13B 074 | BX-T 075 | B-1A 076 | B-1A2 077 | B-1A3 078 | B-1B 079 | B-1B2 080 | B-1B3 081 | B-1C 082 | B-1C2 083 | B-1C3 084 | B-1D 085 | B-1D2 086 | B-1D3 087 | BX-2 088 | B-3A 089 | B-3A2 090 | B-3B 091 | B-3B2 092 | B-3C 093 | B-3C2 094 | BX-4 095 | B-5A | X | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | 096 | B-5B 097 | B-5C 098 | B-5D 099 | R-99 100 | R-100 101 | R-101 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2 Delta Weapon ------------ First seen in R-Type delta, the delta weapon is basically a 'smart bomb' which cause great damage to all enemies on screen. You can only use the delta weapon when you have 100% dose. Every time the FORCE device absorbs an enemy bullet it's dose increases slightly. You can charge the dose up even quicker by destroying enemies with the FORCE device. There are variations in the appearance of the delta weapon but they all cause the same amount of damage. Delta Weapons are best used against large groups of enemies since they are not very effective against bosses. 6.4 R-Type Development History ------------------------------ This is the official timeline for the development of the R-series fighter craft released by Irem. Year 2043: Spacecraft planned. Spacecraft development project (called the RX Project) was started and headed by Dr. Jim Client. 2045: General machine equipped with R-Engine model type 3. Problems with output inertia control. 2047: Program modified. Machine equipped with 12 rocket motors for stability, 4 motors added. RXT1 Skeleton completed, a simple machine designed for experiments and not equipped with armor. 2048: RXT1 improved, equipped with armor for test with Japanese Spacecraft SAKURA. 2051: RXT1, formerly named R1A, begins practical use. R designation used because of the shape of the canopy, and the original project name. 2055: New, standardized RXT2 enters development. 2063: R1 Class models, R1a through R1j, created by modifying minor parts. 2065: With the unification of the Manned Mobile Unit, R1 series production ceases. 2067: R2 series (RXT2 Base) enters use. The MMU becomes standardized. 2075: R Twin engine developed. R2 series ends with model R2d. Production of R3 series begins (units interchangeable due to MMU standardization). 2083: R3 models become ready for use, equipping twin engine gives this series high mobility. 2088: Development of low output model wave cannon begins. 2098: Exploration Spaceship rolled out, development based on a new theory. 2102: FORERUNNER, an exploration craft begins maiden journey, expected return on June 27, 2120. 2103: Compact R Engine successfully equipped to ship. Low output (RS 3rd engine E-Unit) completed. 2104: R4 series with E unit engine finished. 2108: Low output wave cannon model completed. Development begins on R5 series spaceships. 2112: FORERUNNER receives a signal from space of an unusual living body and energy increase. 2115: R5 series unit equipped with a low output Wave Cannon Asteroid blaster. Not provided for public use, because of equipped weapon. 2120: FORERUNNER returns with a section of the BYDO, a compact high energy/living organism. 2121: R series selected for use in the mission against the Bydo Empire. 2122: Production of General Operation models halted with R5F, due to weapon development. 2123: Development begins on experimental (RX6). No pilot, but has a high output wave cannon. 2125: Compact, high energy, organic weapons project started in a lab near Jupiter. 2127: An RX6 is tested with a power release booster attached to the wave cannon. 2129: When the power booster overloads, causing unstable energy vectoring, a regulator is added. 2134: Contact with Jupiter lab lost. SKY HOPE spacecraft investigates and finds 3 million meters of space missing. A Bydo fragment is located in the missing space area that includes the Lab. 2136: Experimental R7 Model, requiring a pilot and equipped with a high output wave cannon is introduced. 2141: Succeeded in controlling the super compact, high energy organism called THE FORCE POD. 2143: Experiment combining the Force Pod with the R7 fails. Attaching the Force Pod to back of R7 causes regulator to overheat when cannon is fired. R7 evaporates. Force Pod retrieved undamaged and unscathed. 2144: Development of Artificial Force (The Force Bit) begins. 2147: Unmanned spacecraft RX8 finished. Equipped three R Engines (Type 4) and two E-Units. 2151: Results of RX8 wave cannon experiment are good, Force Pod experiments also completed successfully. 2153: Decided to develop RX8 for a pilot (R9). 2154: High output wave cannon finalized. These are 5.7 times more powerful than its low output counterparts. 2160: Artificial Force a success though unstable. 2162: PLOT TYPE R9 is introduced, a highly mobile patrol unit with a low output cannon. 2163: Here begins the first Bydo Mission, an R9 Squadron is assigned, and this will be the first space battle against the Bydo Empire and for the people of Earth (Irem's R-Type in 1987). 2164: January. An offensive weapon experiment, using a cyber interface to receive signals from the pilots nervous system is started. 2164: June. THE SEED OF BYDO affair. Crushed by the PLOT TYPE R9 Group. 2165: The second strike against the Bydo Empire. Confirmation of Bydo's regeneration received. The R9 Custom Model (Super Power Spacecraft) is sent to destroy Bydo once and for all (Irem's R-Type II in 1989). 2180*:Development of the Anti-Bydo ultimate weapon started, code name "Last Dance". (The setting for R-Type Final) Note that Delta didn't have a specific date. In the manual it mentioned the date R-9A and the original battle (R-Type I) took place but not when R-Type delta took place. Some internet sites posted the date 2164 but that would clash with R-Type II. *R-Type Final took place 17 years after the original battle so that puts it around year 2180. =============================================================================== 7.0 CUSTOMIZATION =============================================================================== A new feature in R-Type final is the ability to customize almost every aspect of your vessel. There are 4 areas that can be customized. BIT devices, Missiles, Body Work and Canopy Colour. Of these BIT and Missile selection is obviously the most important since it has a quite a large effect on the effectiveness of your ship. However Body Work and Canopy Colour provides the major feel-good factor of having your ship just the way you want it. So in some ways they are just as important. Body Work --------- You can alter the colour of you ship by simply selecting one of the preset colour available. In the hanger select a ship then select customisation and then select colour. Canopy Colour ------------- In the same way that the ships body can be customized the canopy colour can also be changed. BITS ---- Unlike the FORCE devices which are unique to each ship, you can select which BIT device you want to use in the customisation screen. There are 10 different types, however not all of them are compatible with every type of ship. All the BITs are reasonably effective and which one you chose depend on you personal taste and playing style but you may find that some BITs compensate for the weakness of the force device your using more then others. More information about Bits are in the weapons section. Missiles -------- Just like the BIT there are 10 type of Missiles in the game to choose from, and like the bits most ships are only compatible with some of them. More information about missiles are in the weapons section. Wave Cannon & FORCE ------------------- R-99, R-100 and R-101 can also customize their Wave cannon and FORCE devices. Select Customize then FORCE or Wave cannon in the Hanger menu to bring up a list of all the FORCE and Wave cannons available. WAVE CANNON --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NUMBER | NAME --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Standard Wave Cannon 2. Standard Wave Cannon II 3. Standard Wave Cannon III 4. Standard Wave Cannon X 5. Standard Wave Cannon XX 6. Standard Wave Cannon Prototype 7. Force Wave Cannon 8. Decoy Wave Cannon 9. Decoy Wave Cannon II 10. Decoy Wave Cannon III 11. Mega Wave Cannon 12. Giga Wave Cannon 13. Photon-Belt Wave Cannon 14. Photon-Belt Wave Cannon II 15. Steady Photon-Belt 16. Steady Photon-Belt II 17. Steady Photon-Belt III 18. Diffusion Wave Cannon 19. Diffusion Wave Cannon Prototype 20. Shock Wave Cannon 21. Shock Wave Cannon II 22. Supernova Wave Cannon 23. Illusion Wave Cannon 24. Lightning Wave Cannon 25. Lightning Wave Cannon Test 26. Bounce Lightning Wave Cannon 27. Bydo Cannon 28. Hyper Wave Cannon 29. Cataclysm Wave Cannon 30. Nanomachine Wave Cannon 31. Split Wave Cannon 32. Goliath 33. Bubble Wave Cannon 34. Crystal Wave Cannon 35 Mini Burst Wave Cannon 36. Shower Cannon 37. Gold Rush Cannon 38. Prism Rhythm Cannon 39. Claw Wave Cannon 40. Dantalion Flute 41. Scale Wave Cannon 42. Pile Bunker 43. Tesla Pile Bunker 44. Hyper Tesla Pile Bunker 45. Photon Vulcan 46. Photon Vulcan II 47. Recon Wave Cannon 48. Recon Wave Cannon EX 49. Seizure Wave Cannon 50. Lock-On Wave Cannon 51. Lock-On Wave Cannon II 52. Lock-On Wave Cannon III 53. Bydo Spirit Cannon 54. Bydo Spirit Cannon II 55. Bydo Spirit Cannon III 56. Ivy Rod 57. Thorn Ivy 58. Princess Ivy 59. Devil Wave 60. Devil Wave II 61. Devil Wave III 62. Acid Spray 63. Nitro Spray 64. SEXY Wave Cannon 65. SEXY Wave Cannon II 66. Force Wave Cannon LM 67. Force Wave Cannon LM2 68. Bydo Seed Gun 69. Bydo Seed Gun II 70. Bydo Seed Gun III 71. Flame Wave Cannon 72. Flame Wave Cannon II 73. Barrier Wave Cannon 74. Barrier Wave Cannon II 75. Diffusion Test / Shock Wave Cannon 76. Diffusion / Mini Burst Wave Cannon 77. Split / Mini Burst Wave Cannon 78. Standard / Shock Wave Cannon 79. Standard II / Shock II Wave Cannon 80. Standard / Lightning Wave Cannon 81. Standard II / Bounce Lightning Wave Cannon 82. Carnival Wave Cannon 83. Carnival Wave Cannon II 84. Love Sign Wave Cannon FORCE DEVICES --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NUMBER | NAME --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Standard Force 2. Standard Force C 3. Standard Force K 4. Standard Force DX 5. Standard Force H 6. Defensive Force 7. Defense Force DX 8. Camera Force 1 9. Camera Force 2 10. Camera Force 3 11. Spherical Radome Force 12. Spherical Radome Force DX 13. Fire Force 14. Flame Force 15. Gallop Force 16. Gallop Force DX 17. Chain Force 18. Anchor Force 19. Anchor Force DX 20. Shadow Force 21. Cyclone Force 22. Leo Force 23. Leo Force DX 24. OF Force 25. OF Force II 26. OF Force III 27. OF Force IV 28. OF Force V 29. Tentacle Force 30. Flexible Force 31. Flower Force 32. Beast Force 33. Rodless Force 34. Needle Force 35. Needle Force DX 36. Drill Force 37. Mr. Heli Force 38. Cube Force 39. Bydo Force 40. Gold Force 41. Platnium Force 42. Diamond Force 43. Scale Force 44. Claw Force 45. Sexy Force 46. Life Force 47. Mist Force 48. Metallic Force 49. Love Force 50. Shield Force 51. Mirror Shield Force 52. Beam Saber Force 53. Ivy Force =============================================================================== 8.0 THE STAGES =============================================================================== But before that lets take a look at the differences the difficulty setting makes: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Difficulty |start w/ | Enemy | Extra | Enemy | Dose Charge | |FORCE | HP | Enemies | Firing Rate | Rate ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Baby | Yes | V.Low | No | Very Low | Quick | | No | Low | No | Low | Normal | Human | No | Normal| No | Normal | Normal | Bydo | No | High | No | High | Slower | R-Typer | No | V.High| Yes | Very High | Very Slow | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I order to complete your war record you will have to finish the game in all 5 difficulty setting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 1 Metropolis Quietus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This stage is just so easy. After the intro of your ship flying low, 3 waves of Meltcraft will appear from the right of the screen one after another followed by a POW. They are followed by 2 Strabalt which spew junk at you. The junk can be destroyed. Next comes: ............................................................................... MINI-BOSS: S1-A1-#1 NAME: Gains TIME: 0m 30s HP: 4 TOUGHNESS: Jelly Just like R-type delta your first mini boss is a giant mech-robat. Gains is a little tougher them the delta version with a bigger variety of attacks. Even so it's very slow so there really shouldn't be any problems. It attacks first directly with it's cannon. Then it will try to shoulder barge your ship. Then it'll try the cannon again. All it's attacks can easily be avoided. Just hit it a few times with the wave cannon and it should be over quick. ............................................................................... After the mini boss a POW and two more waves of R-9's will appear. The screen will then flip and you'll be attacked by enemies from above. 3 Simakronger will approach from the upper left of the screen. The missile they fire can easily be destroyed. Make sure not to run into the POW's which appear from the left. Get ready for mini boss no.2. ............................................................................... MINI-BOSS: S1-A1-#2 NAME: Gironika TIME: 1m 40s HP: 5 TOUGHNESS: Marshmallow This mini boss certainly looks very impressive, but like so many boxers it's all looks and no punch. In fact this thing only has one attack and one that is not that hard to handle. It shoots bubbles from its main body, they bounce off the bottom of the screen and move back upwards. The bubbles can be shot, try to destroy them before they bounce. When the POW Armour containing a BIT appears that's your cue to switch your FORCE over to the rear of your ship and move to the right of the screen or else you risk being crushed by the crab. A few more shots and it should all be over. ............................................................................... Depending on how fast you defeated Gironika you will fight between 1 and 3 waves of Simakrongers but the only real danger is remembering not to run into the Meltcrafts coming up from the bottom left of the screen. The final part of the level consist of more R-9 and assault vessels before the approach to the level boss. ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: Xelf-16 TIME: 4m 15s HP: 5 TOUGHNESS: Egg This boss appears to be a giant ball of liquid mercury that can morph into different shapes much like the T-1000 from terminator 2. It has 3 basic attacks patterns. 1) The giant laser-beam-of-death, 2) Spikes from the top and bottom of the screen and 3) falling / rising orbs which morph into R-9s. ------------ --------------- | \_/ \_/ | | \_/ \_/ | | (A) | | (A) | | | | | | (1) | | ---------- | | | / -- ---- ::: (B) (B) ::: (EYE) \ (B) (B) ---------- ---- ---- ---- | | (2) | | (2) | | | | _ _ | | _ _ | | | |/ \ / \ | | / \ / \ | | | |---------| |---------| |--| Fig 1. STAGE 1 Boss As soon as it's eye pop out blast it with a full charged W. Cannon. Then retreat to the upper left hand corner (1). This will allow you to avoid the giant laser beam. At the same time you should be charging a second W. Cannon. As soon as the eye finish firing move in and blast it again. Then move the ship into the bottom right or left (2) to avoid the spikes (B) which are actually the pillars elongated. You will always know when the spikes are coming because the pillars will sparkle. Watch out for the two spikes at the back of the screen as the curl round towards you. If you move to the bottom right you could sneak in a third W. Cannon by moving in between the two spikes while the eye is exposed. Before its 3rd attack the lower part of the boss will melt away giving you more room to manoeuvre and the eye will appear again allowing you to get a few more hits in. Liquid orbs will fall from the from the ceiling (A) and then morph into R-9s and fly towards you. They fall straight down an could easily be avoided by keeping to the left of the screen. If you have the FORCE you can use it to destroy the orbs / Ships. If boss is still alive at this point the lower part of the boss will reappear and the pattern repeats itself. The only exception is that the orbs will appear from the bottom of the screen this time round. ******************************************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 2 Twisted Ecology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The are 5 different versions of stage 2. Which one you go to depends on which switch you press while fighting the stage 2 boss. If you press the Red button the next time you play the game this stage will be hotter. If you press the blue button the next time you the game this stage will be wetter (and colder). Hotter <------------- 0 -------------> Colder Stage: [2.0] [2.1] [2.2] [2.3] [2.4] STAGE 2.0: Desert ----------------- The first thing you meet on this stage are some Keets. They are easy to deal with now but they'll be back to cause you more problems later on. Next comes some Surges, their flight path are fixed an they pose no real threat. The first real enemy you meet are giant flying reptile which called Yorks. They carry a bio bomb. When these are dropped they burst open after a short period of time, releasing spores in all direction. The spores can easily be avoided or blocked with the FORCE. Next you will find a hole in the ground where a updraft is blowing. Tarans - small bug like creatures will crawl out of it. These bugs are capable of firing bullets so watch out. When you see an overhead branch that's your cue to put your FORCE on the back of your ship. This is because Yorks will approach from the left side of the screen. After you destroy the Yorks turn your attention back to the right side of the screen. Keets will appear just in front of an wall. Move over the wall and you'll notice a round thing on the ground spewing things out of it. This "Birashins Bulb" can take quite a bit of punishment so use your W. Cannon. Destroying the pod quickly allows you to concentrate on the Yorks which are approaching or else you'll have to concentrate on two things at once. A second Birashins Bulb awaits you further on. Next you'll come to a building. You will get this building in all 5 versions of stage 2 but depending on the stage you will meet different enemies and enter from a different window. For this stage you have to enter through the upper window. There "Creeper nests" on to the right and on below. They will let of a large number of Tarans. One column of Tarans will move across the top of the screen while a second come up from bottom left. A third column will move across the bottom of the screen. The safest option is to keep to the left, just in front of the window you entered through. Wait for the Tarans on the bottom of the screen to move of to the right then follow them. When you are in the second chamber of the building, Tarans will appear from the left. More Tarans will come from the right. If you don't have sufficient firepower then exit the building as soon as possible and dodge the bullets. Make sure you don't crash into the POW armours that approach from the right. Now it's onto the boss. STAGE 2.1: Forest ----------------- A much greener stage 2, the Forest stage looks a lot different but there are many similarities in it's layout. At the start of the stage you are greeted by POW Armours and some Keets. The Keets are coming from a creature on the Ground called a Keet Colonian. It's totally immobile but continually spew out more Keets. Just behind the nest is a Yorkmingo, it's only means of attack is to launch spike out from it's back. So long as you stay in front of it you will be safe. It's does have high HP however so fly under it if you don't think you can destroy it. Just like the desert stage you will come to a branch hanging overhead. In front, Birashins Sprouts will appear above and below you ship. Surges will approach from behind to make matters more complicated. If you have an bit you can keep the FORCE in front of you ship and use the BIT to destroy the Surges by positioning it in their flight path. If you don't you should stick the FORCE on the back of you ship and just let the Fighters crash into it. Be careful of the Keet Colonian in the ditch. After the last Surges has been destroyed switch the FORCE back to the front of you ship and blowup the remaining Birashins Sprout. Once you go over the wall you'll be faced with another Yorkmingo. You will also have to contend with more Green Fighter both from the left and right hand side of the screen. Birashins Sprout and Birashins Bulbs will also try to ruin your day but they pose no real threat. Yorks and another Yorkmingo are the last enemies you meet before entering the building. This time round you go in through the opening at the bottom of the screen. The are two Keet Colonian on in the to half of the building. If you have a vertically firing weapon then this it's easy to destroy the top nest. If you don't have a vertically firing weapon then the best thing to do is to fire the FORCE into the top half of the building. The Keets, attracted to the light will follow the FORCE and ignore you. There is a cutoff point were the nest will no longer spit out Keets, wait for this point then quickly move across to the next room. When you enter the next room, keep left to avoid crashing into the Birashins Sprouts. When dealing with the Keet Colonians at the bottom of the screen, don't be afraid to poke them with your FORCE. Spore pod will materialize at the end of the small corridor. They are followed by Surge Fighters so keep your FORCE in front. Once your through the corridor it's onto the boss. STAGE 2.2: Swamp ---------------- This version of stage 2 has some sections where you are able to dive underwater. This doesn't effect the handling of your ship in any way but it will make it difficult to see dangers above water. To start off this stage, your greeted by 3 waves of Surges. Followed by a Yorkmingo and some Keets. So far so good. When you reach the branch, spore pod will appear on the to and bottom of the screen. To make life more difficult for you Surges will approach from behind. Use your FORCE to destroy the fighters while charging your W. Cannon. Its helpful to have a fully charged W. Cannon because as you move further on a Yorkmingo will block your path. Quickly switch the FORCE back to the front of your ship. The Yorkmingo only pose a small threat. After this more spore pod will appear above and below you ship. Stay in the middle of the screen to avoid crashing into them when the appear. Next you'll stumble across another Yorkmingo but this time it's backed up by some Surges which fly in from the bottom and top right of the screen. They can be troublesome especially on higher difficulty levels where they fire more. Once you get pass the wall, you will see a Birashins Bulb floating on the water. Dive under the water to destroy the Marine Keets. Try to stay underwater and use a wide angle weapon to hit enemies above. When you reach the waterfall Watch out for the POW armour which falls from it. The entrance to the building is guarded by a number of Keet Colonians. It is very important, especially if your is not fully powered up, to move into the water in the bottom half of the room as soon as possible. A string of Nulaylaf will approach from the bottom right and double back when they hit the wall on the left. If you are not underwater by the time they appear it will be very difficult to reach the next room. Use your W. Cannon to off the first two Keet Colonians then dive underwater. Only destroy the 3rd if you are sure you can do so before the Nulaylaf appear. Once you are underwater keep the FORCE in front and prevent any Nulaylafs from passing you. Keep an eye on the POW Armour behind you, make sure you don't crash into it. When in the second room, use your vertical weapon to destroy the Keet Colonians on the top and left of the room. You should have gotten a yellow powerup crystal from the POW armour in the previous room. If your ship don't have a vertical weapon then detach your FORCE to lure the Keets away from your ship. The corridor contains a number of Birashins Sprouts so remember to stay out of it until they are destroyed. Surges will appear just beyond the corridor but they shouldn't pose any threat unless you don't have a force. Restarting this section is a nightmare in R-Typer mode. Without the FORCE the Surges bullets will overwhelm you. Plus there's no room to manoeuvre in the corridor. It's not so bad if you have a good W. Cannon and you can destroy the Birashins Sprouts before the Surges appear. Then it's simply a matter of staying in top of the corridor and firing. However if you don't have a good W. Cannon then you'll have a problem. Knockout the fighters and prepare yourself for the boss. STAGE 2.3: Ocean ---------------- I was very disappointed to find that the sound didn't change when your underwater like it did in R-Type Delta. This just shows a lack of attention to detail from the programmers. Anyway, this stage is pretty straight forward. The first enemy you meet are Nulaylafs. They are the same ones from stage 2.2 and are very easy to kill. Next 2 big Yorkon will appear. These things look like the flying Yorks from 2.0 and 2.1 except they have no wings, instead they have a large segmented tail. Yorkons can take as much damage as a York. When they die their tails fall off and float to the surface so take care not to run into it's tail segments when it dies. After the Yorkons you'll meet another new enemy which has a large protruding tongue called the Birashin shoot. The Root fires bubbles which bounce off the floor and float to the top of the screen. They can take quite a bit of damage too. Luckily they can't move from their spot making them easy targets. Just be careful of their shots as they float back up to the surface. Moving on you'll meet the parent of the Birashin shoots the Birashin Root, it moves slowly across the screen releasing bubbles which can be destroyed. You can't miss the thing so just keep shooting until it blows up. Once again you will have to complete the building section. This time Nulaylafs will swim down from the top right corner of the screen, blocking your route. There is also a Yorkon in the top left of the screen. More Yorkons will follow the Nulaylafs. It is important to reach the top right of the screen before the screen scrolls too far to the right, but don't be hasty, let the Yorkon on the left swim away first. Once you reach the right side of the building it should be clear sailing to the boss with only a few Yourkons to deal with. STAGE 2.4: Glacier ------------------ It's too cold for a swim so stay in your R-Type. Loads of over friendly Nulaylafs will greet you at the start of the stage, but there should be no problems in despatching them and their Yorkon friends. A big Yorkgon will appear first behind you, then another one in front then another one from behind. Attach the FORCE as necessary to deal with them. Only their head is vulnerable and when they die their body segments will float to the surface. These segments seem to be invincible so be careful not to run into them. More Nulaylaf and Yorkgon follows as you pass the wall. Some annoying Marine Keets will creep across the top of the screen but poses no real threat. In the next section you'll meet a Birashin Root and an Yorkgon which comes from behind. Between then they'll try to give you the squeeze, but you should be able to defeat one or the other with time to spare. More Marine Keet will attack from above but again they should be no real threat. As you enter the building Nulaylaf will swim up from below and Marine Keets will approach you from behind. This could cause problems if your not careful or your playing in R-Typer mode. Attach the FORCE to the rear of your ship and move to the fare right where you'll have some breathing space. As soon as you see an opening move into the lower chamber of the building. Watch out for any stray bullets coming from the Marine Keets if you failed to destroy them all. Now all that's left are some Birashin Shoots and the boss. ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: Negus O Shin TIME: 4m 30s HP: 5 TOUGHNESS: Sponge Taking the form of a giant Aubergine this boss a few simple attack patterns. Its main offence is to grow branches containing a number of nodes. These node, if not destroyed, will shoot bullets out (which the FORCE can block). The best way to deal with the nodes is to memories the path the branch takes and then stick the FORCE next to it path. As the branch moves on so the nodes passes through the FORCE getting instantly destroyed. You could just try shooting the nodes but if you miss one it could cost you. It's weak spot it the big yellow light bulb that can appear on either side. Once it appears on one side it will stay on that side until it gets hit enough times. Whack it with the W. Cannon a few time and it should all be over. Try not to use normal weapons as this might encourage it to switch sides. If it appears on the right hand side you have 3 options. 1) Attach the FORCE to the rear of your ship and move under the boss to reach the right hand side of the screen. The downside is the bulb could switch side again and move to the left of the screen. 2) Just send the FORCE over. This works best if you FORCE fires vertically. Remember your FORCE will always try to stay horizontal to your ship. Move you ship level with the bulb and your FORCE fly into it. Causing it to retreat and hopefully reappear on the left side of the screen. You can destroy the node on the left using just your normal weapon. I find this method works very well for me. 3) If you have a Burst type W. Cannon like the one on the Albatross. Fully charge it then move right up to the boss and fire. The resulting shockwave should pass through the boss and hit the bulb. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 3 Battleship Raid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You approach the behemoth from below. Take out the first two thrusters with some wave cannon shots. A Glam will appear from the right (2 if your in R-Typer mode). These gunships can take a bit of punishment. The thing to remember is that their bullets can be destroyed. A fully charged W. Cannon should take out the gunship. Now go back for the remaining thrusters. The screen will scroll to the rear of the battleship. Attack the main thrusters then move to the top of the screen. Take out the two turrets and collect what the POW's leave behind then work on the main thrusters some more. The main thrusters can take a lot of damage so use your W. Cannon or a continuous weapon. The screen will then rotate so you'll view the action top down (this has no effect on the gameplay). Move to the bottom of the screen and destroy the first few turrets. Use the wave cannon on the Glam and the next few turrets. There are two more turrets coming up but they are in an indent on the battle ship. If you are not sufficiently powered up then you'll have to move right up next to them to destroy them. Keep the force on the front of your ship and avoid colliding with the battle ship. Watch out for the round shot from the side cannon (brabam). The shots can be destroyed but will become a real problem if you get too close. For this reason should destroy the Brabam as soon as possible, preferably before the second Glam starts firing. Quikly attack your FORCE to the back of your ship. For a moment your path will be blocked by a turbine thing, however it's easily destroyed. A Glam will emerge from a hanger door behind you, this is why you should have your FORCE on the back of your ship. Don't wonder too far to the right as you might collide with the POW armour coming towards you. Still keeping your FORCE on the rear of your ship take out the Lancers (laser beam cannon). Whatever you do don't fly directly in front of them, you should be able to take them out from an angle, even with the red crystal weapon. Next you will see the Planet Buster Wave Cannon (PBWC), the screen will pass over it once, where you will see a Lancer just above it, then move back down again. Just before the cannon fires it will suck in the surrounding air and you too if your not careful. | < < Surges | < \------ < \=========== | BEAM /=========== /------ < @|R> Your ship | < | < < Surges | There will be a Pow armour coming from the top right of the screen before this thought, giving you a Red weapon crystal. Position your ship level with the bottom of the PBWC and fly to the far right, as shown in the crappy ASCII art. This allows you to keep firing on the cannon while avoiding the Surges that gets sucked into the cannon! Regardless of whether your able to destroy the cannon or not you'll move on to the Grants, those tubes that fire yellow colour Depth Bombs. A good Red crystal weapon will easily deal with them. Directly below the Grants is a big Gemini turret. The Gemini turret only has a 180 degree firing arch, so if you fly below or in this case above it's line of sight it will be unable to hit you. As soon as you can switch the FORCE back to the front of your ship and move to the top left of the screen. Here you can shoot at the Gemini turret without fear of reprisals. If you have a FORCE that fires it may be easier to shoot the FORCE into the turret and use rapid fire to destroy it instead of a W. Cannon, this is especially true if you have a weak wave cannon. Ideally you should have destroyed the turret before the Surges appear. The buildings on the right can be destroyed for extras points. As the battleship S.l.o.w.l.y turns, be prepared foe a mini-boss fight. ............................................................................... MINI-BOSS: NAME: Land Gains TIME: 1 min 30 sec HP: 4 TOUGHNESS: Soft putty The key to this boss is stillness. During the first part of the fight stay in the upper left of the screen and destroy the turret first before moving on the Gains itself. If your armed with a firing FORCE just shoot the FORCE into Gains stomach, move back to the upper left of the screen and keep firing. However if your FORCE doesn't fire then you'll have to brave the bullets and attack the Land Gains directly. However since everything is in slow motion (the slow down in this part of the game is horrid) you should have little problems in avoiding the bullets. Smack Gains enough a it will retreat back into the battleship. For the second part of the boss fight Gains returns with a large gatling gun. Just like the Gemini Turret the Gatling gun only has a 180 degrees firing arch. By staying below it's line of fire you can attack Gains without fear of reprisal. If you don't destroy Gains within the time limit it will fly off making you look stupid. ............................................................................... With the Land Gains in pieces you can now turn your attention to the two Pulsar turret and Gemini turret behind it. The Pulsar turrets are easy to deal with but the Gemini turret need a little bit more work. To complicate matters a Glam will try to take advantage of the situation. You must destroy one of the two quickly. Most of the time the Glam seems to be the better choices. It has lower HP and by destroying it first allows you to concentrate on the Gemini turret. For the final stretch of this stage attach the FORCE to the rear of your ship. Reevos will appear first from the right and then from the left of the screen. Next you have two sets of Bolts. The ore only vulnerable when they are activated and are only activated when they are all on screen. Two on the right and three on the left, stay close to the one on the bottom left and destroy it with your FORCE. Simultaneously use your normal fire to destroy the on the right. Repeat for the ones above it. Alls that between you and the boss now is a turbine and the outer casing of the battleship. Don't worry if you missed some of the ships outer casing they will explode when the boss fight starts. ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: Warp Core TIME: 1m 30s HP: 6 TOUGHNESS: Coke Can This boss has 3 areas of interest. ONE: the two indestructible mortar cannon of the left. TWO: the attacking cylinder which emerges from the tube on the left and fires a spread of bullets upwards. THREE: The core, the red thing which emerges from the tube on the right and scatters bullets everywhere. The bullets from the cannons and the core can be blocked but the shot from the attacking cylinder cannot. This boss only has a single attack pattern. It always attack with the cylinder first then the core then finally the cannons. Your target here is the core. Lower your speed to 3, maybe even 2 and position your ship directly between the two gun ports on the cylinder. Keep the ship low as possible and only make small adjustments when moving your ship to keep yourself from crashing into either the wall of bullets or the cylinder itself. The cylinder will more to the right then back again. Use this time to charge your W. Cannon. When half of the cylinder is back in the tube the core will emerge. You must wait for the cylinder to stop firing first. As soon as it does, quick as you can move in front of the core and blast it with your W. Cannon. Use your FORCE to block it's shots. As soon as the core retreats switch the FORCE to the back of you ship and start firing to destroy the shots from the cannon. If you can get close enough you can block all the cannons shot with your FORCE. If you can't there is a relatively safe place in the upper right of the screen, under the damaged ceiling. As soon as the cannons stop firing move the FORCE back to the front of you ship and get ready for the cylinder to appear again. This attack pattern will repeat itself over and over again, so once you know what your doing it should be a push over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 3.5 Forest Watchdog ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 4 Deserted Lab ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lab stage, reminiscent of the lab stage in R-Type Delta. Personally I fell that the Delta's version is far superior. That not to say that Final's version isn't without it's charm. At the start of the stage charge your W. Cannon to destroy the three Geelas that blocks your path. The Allens and the Relic behind the Geelas are easily dealt with. A convoy of Surge emerges from a hatch that opens, don't spend too much time on them because you got some Allens to deal with too as they all from the top of the screen. ............................................................................... MINI-BOSS: NAME: . TIME: . HP: TOUGHNESS: ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: TIME: PART 1: 3m 40s PART 2: 9m 40s HP: Medium TOUGHNESS: Frozen Butter This boss battle is split into 2 parts. The first part involes battling it's head while in the second part you have to fight what looks like it's heart. PART 1: Variations of this boss has appeared in almost every R-type game and R- Type final is no exception. Approach this boss with the FORCE on the front of your ship. Two POW armor will appear from the right of the screen, giving you the options of either the red or blue power up crystals. Select the weapon with the highest firepower, for most ships this will be the Red power up crystal. This boss has 3 forms of attack; 1) shooting spawns from it's 'heart', 2 shooting spawns from it's 'tongue' which also happens to be it's weak spot, and 3) whipping it tail in from the left of the screen. It will always attack heart first then tongue. Use your FORCE to destroy the spawns from the 'heart' by moving right up next to it, do this while charging up your W. Cannon. When it's 'tongue' appears from it's mouth look out for the glowing core at it's tip. That's it's weak spot, it is also where the next batch of spawns will be launched. Again, use your FORCE to destroy the spawns by moving right up next to the core, make sure the FORCE is actually touching the core and wait until the last moment before the 'tongue' retracts to fire your W. Cannon. Do this a few time and the head will fall off! Move to the bottom left of the screen as the head falls, look out for the stray spawns coming from above and zoom to the bottom right before you get trapped. Watch out for the odd spawn swimming up from the bottom left of the screen and prepare your self for the Boss Fight Part II: Attack of the Beating Heart! PART 2: The 'heart' is protected by a outer shell made up of little bits. It only form of attack is to shoot bit of it's shell towards you. Some of the bit travel quite fast and they will bounce off the edge of the screen to stick back onto the 'heart' after a while. Luckily the bit of shell can be destroyed, what more missing parts of the shell reveals the 'heart's vulnerable fleshy insides. I find the best way to tackle this boss is by fixing the FORCE to the front of the ship and holding down the rapid fire button. Charging the W. Cannon will leave your ship far too exposed. Concentrate on manoeuvring the ship to safety and whenever you have clear air move in to get a few shot onto the heart. Your stay shots will destroy the bits of the shell and eventually the 'heart' will be very exposed. However don't take too long as the shell will regenerate after a while. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 5 Dimension 26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 6.0 Floating Graves ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: TIME: HP: TOUGHNESS: With 2 of the boss in the game remakes from previous games you have to wonder if Irem are running out of ideas. Depending of which ship your using this boss is either ridiculously easy or stupidly hard. ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: TIME: HP: TOUGHNESS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 6.1 Beautiful Erasure ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 6.1 Also known as the washing machine stage. The whole stage takes place inside an rotating tube. Here you are trapped with nothing except an giant slug for company. The stage itself is split into two parts, the first part involves you avoiding various sized balls which are released from the giant slug's behind. The second part of the stage is the boss fight which is actually a lot easier then the first part of the stage. As far as I can tell when the boss fight starts is not time dependent, instead it hinges on how much damage the slug takes during the first part of the stage. The most important thing to do in this stage is to concentrate on avoiding the falling balls. Every thing else like shooting the slug and picking up power-ups takes second stage. Don't use your W. Cannon, to stop firing is to leave yourself open to attack. The only time you need to charge the wave cannon is when your targeting the POW armours right at the start of the stage, other then that you should only use your normal weapons. If you have a choice, favour blue and red weapons over yellow. Try to keep to the left of the screen, the balls tends to fall to the right of the screen making it hazardous. There are three main tactics for getting through this stage. However their dependent on the type of ship or weapon your using. If your using a POW armour with one of those FORCEs that fires in all direction, keep it detached, keep firing and the only thing you have to do is avoid the balls, avoid the boss and proceed to the next stage. By far the easiest method. If your using a powerful concentrated weapon like the anti-aircraft laser, attach the FORCE to the rear of your ship. This way you can destroy most of the balls before they have a chance of reaching the to of the screen and falling on your head. Keep as far to the left as possible to maximize your firing rate. If your using a blue weapon like the reflective laser then keep the FORCE on the front of the ship and move as far left as possible. Leave just enougth room for one of those big white crystal bass to pass and concentrate on moving you ship up and down to avoid the falling balls and the giant slug. Remember to keep you thumb on the firing button. ............................................................................... . MINI-BOSS: S1-A1-#1 . . NAME: . . TIME: . . HP: . TOUGHNESS: . . ******************************************************************************* LEVEL BOSS: NAME: TIME: HP: TOUGHNESS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE 6.2 Anti-Space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE F.A The Bydo.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ............................................................................... . MINI-BOSS: S1-A1-#1 . . NAME: . . TIME: . . HP: . TOUGHNESS: . . ******************************************************************************* * LEVEL BOSS: * NAME: * TIME: * HP: * TOUGHNESS: * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE F.B Summer Night ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE F.C Wherever ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 9.0 CREDITS =============================================================================== Special Thanks Chronomeg [Gamesfaq forum] .........................................Preliminary FORCE and W. Cannon names. Slateman [Gamesfaq & www.godflesh.com/slateman/rtype ] - Slateman also has 2 very good FAQs on the subject of R-type take a look at GameFAQs.com. ........................................................Locked ships passwords. ........................................................Preliminary ship names. ...........................................................Western weapon name. Moroz [www.zone.ee/rtype ] .....................................................R-Type (the game) history. .................................Official R-Type spaceship development history. FOnewearl Lina [Gamesfaq Forum] ...............for all sorts of little scraps of knowledge which proved useful. =============================================================================== 10.0 ABOUT IREM =============================================================================== Date of Establishment April 15, 1997 Location Fukudome 655 Matto, Ishikawa 924-0051 Japan TEL:(076)277-3800 FAX:(076)277-3622 Home page www.irem.co.jp Type of Business Development and manufacture of coin operated electronic machines and video game software for home and business use. History: April 1997 Irem Software Engineering Corporation founded. July 1997 IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC. All rights reserved. Takes over the management of the Development Department from Irem Corporation. End of an era. This marks the end of an era. An era when gameplay was more important then graphics. A time when people enjoyed playing games rather then watching them. An age when were players bought games based on their knowledge of it rather then the cover of the box or the film it was based on. =============================================================================== 11.0 HINTS, TIPS & CHEATS =============================================================================== Hints & Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Nusakan | Posted: 2/26/2004 7:21:47 PM | Message Detail Here's a way to take out a lot of damage using the Scratching method. This technique can be used with a majority of other ships like the Arrow-head's couter-air laser or Delicatessen's Anti-Air Laser H. The idea of this method is to use your weapon to "scratch" your enemies but not make the laser you fired disappear due to a direct hit. In this Video, I took a R-9 Leo II and used the claw laser to destroy the first two portion of the giant bydo worm by having the claw laser fly very close to it and not even having the main laser touch the worm. T To FURTHER show you that I wasn't joking, I had the bits pointed to the rear and tried to take out the flying bydo, as you can see the first one took about four seconds to kill but the last three was instantanious because the claw beam was scratching and not making direct contact. Cheats -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pause the game then enter the following codes. Charge Dose to 99.9% R2, R2, Left, Right, Up, Down, Right, Left, Up, Down, Triangle. Full Blue Power, Missiles & Bits R2, R2, Left, Right, Up, Down, Right, Left, Up, Down, X. Full Red Power, Missiles & Bits R2, R2, Left, Right, Up, Down, Right, Left, Up, Down, Square. Full Yellow Power, Missiles & Bits R2, R2, Left, Right, Up, Down, Right, Left, Up, Down, Circle. Invincibility* (JP Version) Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Left, R2, Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, R2. Invincibility* (PAL version) Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Left, R1, Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, R1 Invincibility* (US version) Right, Right, Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Left, L1, Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, L1. *Re-enter the code to switch off invincibility. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TYPE FINAL THE END R-TYPE FINAL THE END R-TYPE FINAL THE END R-TYPE FINAL THE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------