_______________________________________________________________________ D A R I U S F O R C E _______________________________________________________________________ FAQ By Logan Hodge...Version 2...10/7/2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide Copyright 2001, Logan Hodge. Any copying or reproduction of the guide is prohibited. If you want to put this on your site IN IT'S CURRENT FORM and be notified of updates, follow the instructions at the very bottom of the FAQ. Otherwise, don't touch it, don't tamper with it, just read it and enjoy. :) This FAQ is best viewed in Courier New font, size 10. If this is lined up, then you are viewing it correctly: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 . . . . . . . . . . Since early man first discovered the ability to use weapons made from the bones of his hill, he has fought for survival. A long time has passed since the war with "Belser". And the names of those heroic warriors have long been forgotten. On this day, history is about to repeat itself. It's a saga of war and man's perpetual fight for survival. CONTENTS 01. Introduction/Version History 02. Types 03. Gameplay 04. Walkthrough 05. Credits _____01_____ INTRODUCTION ------------ DARIUS FORCE is an apparently little-known game from Taito. It's a side-scrolling shooter in the vein of Galaga and R-Type. I've always thought it was a pretty fun little game, but noticed when I needed a little assistance that NO ONE had written an FAQ for it. I figured, "Hey, I'll go all out on this one", since a lot of the games I like have been blown out already with numerous, unbeatably good FAQs. Note that because writing about each zone would take WAY too long, I've chosen a beaten path for completing the game. In the future, I plan to make this FAQ branching just like the game. But in the meantime, for anyone reading this, I hope you enjoy Darius Force, and I hope you enjoy this FAQ. :) ________________ Version History: ---------------- Version 1: What you see here. Did it all in one night. ------------------------------------------- Version 2: Fixed some typos, MAJORLY updated the format. It looks so much cleaner now, right? I had just completed version 0.1 of my Lei Tekken 4 FAQ and I felt like revisiting this one. The walkthrough still isn't complete, and won't be for a long time, but I just wanted to make it prettier. _____02_____ TYPES ------------ Here's a run-down of the types of ships available at the outset of the game. __________________________________ TYPE-1 DEV-NO: 229X-0001 ROLL OUT: PLN "DARIUS" EXODUS WAR MAIN ARMS: WAVE SHOT, MULTI BOMB, SWAY LASER ---------------------------------- TYPE-2 FFSA-0019 ROLL OUT: SOLAR SYSTEM, DEFEND WAR MAIN ARMS: NAPALM SHOT, SEARCH BOMB, SWAY LASER __________________________________ TYPE-3 FRSA-6351 ROLL OUT: N/A MAIN ARMS: HI PRESS LASER SHOT, BREAK BOMB, ROUND LASER ---------------------------------- The types are essentially the same besides a few differences in attacks. I have no real preference, but you should play them all yourself and see if you have one. _____03_____ GAMEPLAY ------------ The gameplay is quite simple. The default controls are: Shot.......Y Bomb.......B Change.....R A shot is just that: a regular-powered shot. A bomb drops downward from your ship. Change will change your weapon. That's about it for the gameplay in Darius Force, but don't get cocky just yet; like most side- scrolling shooters, this is one hard game. ______04______ WALKTHROUGH -------------- One really can't be "walked through" Darius Force, so to speak. A massive amount of skill and twitch ability is required. However, I'll do my best to give pointers for each zone, boss, etc. Hope this helps if you're stuck. ******************* -ZONE A * -BOSS: BIO HAZARD * ******************* -The beginning shouldn't be hard at all. Just take the ships out with your lasers and bombs from above, and avoid their attacks. Simple stuff. -As you proceed through the level, pick up all the blue and red orbs; these are power-ups. They'll give you shields, stronger attacks, etc. Put simply, they're your best friends. -Continue through the level, blasting away everything in sight and STAYING INSIDE THE CIRCLES THE ENEMIES MAKE AROUND YOU, until you reach the big, green...thing. Or, if you prefer it, the sub-boss. He's pretty easy. Just get above him and drop bombs on him until he explodes. When he tries to make his way upwards to you, fly down and shoot him with your (hopefully) powered-up double laser. He'll bite the dust in no time. -After blowing away a few more ships, you'll be greeted with a rather annoying formation of four ships: two flying down, and two flying up. Simultaneously. Just swerve your way to them and away from them as they fall. -Grab the triple-laser and shield! Yay! -Next up: asteroid field. Guess those power-ups were there for a reason. Just swerve them and shoot them when you can, making "z" patterns across the screen. Be wary of the debris from the destroyed asteroids. Your shield should've only taken one hit, if you're good. ;) -Oh, no! The screen fades to black after a few more pesky ships, and the screen reads: WARNING A HUGE BATTLESHIP "BIO HAZARD" IS APPROACHING FAST -Uh-huh. And then...the "Bio Hazard", a big, goofy-looking repltilian ship, comes up the screen threateningly. I think it's time to take this mofo out. Aim for the right arm, as it's the only limb you can hit at the moment. He'll fire from that arm three bombs at one second intervals, so be sure to get out of it's way. Another (easier) strategy is to have the double bomb, and sit below or above him and bomb him. Whatever your method, his arm will eventually explode and he'll start firing those same bombs rapidly all over the screen. He'll let out large blue bubbles that work like the asteroids you encountered earlier: shoot them, and they'll explode into two smaller pieces. It's best to be right in front of him and fire at him with the triple lasers. After the blue shield is destroyed, he actually starts getting tough. He'll start firing combinations of the blue bubbles, even BIGGER blue bubbles, small bombs, and new homing missiles at your ship. Be crafty and dodge the homing missiles, but try not to run into a bubble whilst being crafty. Also remember, you can blow those missiles away, so when they get in front of you, do so. As it turns out, this "Bio Hazard" character is actually a pansey in a big suit. :) Move onto Zone B. ******************* -ZONE B * -BOSS:MUDY CRYSTAL* ******************* -What a change of setting, eh? Knock out those big, annoying lines of ships at the beginning. You know the drill from the first level. Grab the power-up, which gives you an even cooler, much more powerful laser. Be wary of those goofy tiny bombs that the circling ships like to throw at you. This part can be very challenging...and frustrating. If you have too much trouble, try taking out the ships as they appear on screen. This will keep them from even delivering the bombs in the first place. -For the eight or so ships that move up and down over the screen, use the same strategy used in Zone A. Move forward and back, avoiding them. Don't try to blast them with your lasers; it's pretty futile. -After a few minutes of this, you'll head down into a much more familar setting: space. As you go down, tons of tiny, silver saucers will be waiting to take you out, so take them out and collect the red power up, followed by the blue. -Now, head down into the rocks. Be sure not to collide with the walls, as they'll kill you instantly, shield or not. Some very vicious red spinning ships will come after you and explode next to you. Easy to avoid, but deadly. -When you reach the bottom of the pit, a small turret will be firing at you, and two rockets will fire up from where you probably came in. Be ready! This will kill you if you aren't. -As you continue, you'll be greeted by more blue turrets, then a flash of white light, and......a flying snail?! Yep. Time to battle. Fire at him as you would any sub-boss or boss, taking out the blue turrets along the way. He has some MEASLEY attacks. It's really pathetic, actually. -After showing this embarrassment of an enemy what he's made of, you'll go through more small battles, including more silver saucers and more of those aggrivating spinning red bombs. Follow the same strategy you did earlier while avoiding the rock hill. More rockets will shoot up at you. Blast through the weird brown gunk, and be wary of the rockets that shoot up at you. -Once outta there, you're almost finished. Take out the circle of enemies and... WARNING: HUGE BATTLESHIP "MUDY CRYSTAL" IS APPROACHING FAST -Finally, a tough customer. And one that looks the part, too! Be ready for a challenge. First, a snake-like tentacle will pop out. Avoid it. It will shoot out small green pods that, when destroyed, will fire three small bombs. Hint: don't destroy them. Instead, focus on the tentacle itself, and the green shell around it's upper half. Fire at both, avoiding the attacks. After destroying it's green shell there at the top, you will need to start aiming at the green shell on the back. Around this time, Mudy Crystal will start firing out large green orbs. These are DEADLY. Stay out of their way. After a few more attacks, he's gone. Time for Zone D. ******************* -ZONE D * -BOSS:SPIRAL SNAIL* ******************* -This is where the game stops playing around with you and gets tough. When you enter, some green turrets will say "hi." Dispose. This area's pretty complex with a lot of enemies, so good luck! And oh yeah...GET THAT SHIELD AND POWER UP! You'll definitely need it, and the green beam is very useful. -Traverse through this extremely difficult section. Avoid the rockets from the bottom, as usual. Next you'll be met with some "smashing tubes", for the lack of a better phrase. These things aren't too tough, until you reach the part with the turrets and you're trapped inside the tubes with nowhere to go. Just time your movements and hope for the best. ;) -In by far the most difficult section you've faced yet, a barrage of bombs from missile turrets all around the screen will fire at you. I hope you have some lives left. There's no real strategy for this section except to jump around. One thing to avoid is to head into the upper or lower tunnels. They're dead ends and VERY cheap deaths. I learned the hard way. Head through the middle, and you're home free! Congratulations. -Don't slack off just yet, though. You're moving into a moderately difficult area with some new ships you haven't seen yet, as well as some old foes like the turrets. Keep it moving and, as always, avoid the rockets. Move into the next section, avoide the circles, and it's sub-boss time! -For such a small guy, he's pretty tough. I recommend moving constantly, and using your bomb when you move up to avoid his bombs, and laser when you move down. Be aware of the ships that will join in once in a while. If you're not ready they can kill you. Take advantage of his leaps across the screen and blast the crap out of him when he does. You can easily get six or seven hits in doing this. -After that little encounter, a big formation of ships will come toward you. Seems pretty hard at first, but it's actually very easy: stay in the very center of them, continually firing. Their bombs will fly right around you, and you'll barely scrape by. Next, a large fleet of ships will fly around randomly. Fly to the far right of the screen and avoid the fire. They'll disappear after a few seconds. Move on; this section ain't very tough. -You'll encounter a big blue gem after flying for a minute or so. Avoid it. It'll just kill you. Some laser turrets and "smashing tubes" wait ahead. It's tough, but nothing you can't handle at this point. -More turrets. Take these out for a few seconds of peace. Two pods will wait for you, opposite of each other, and release a few ships. Destroy them both quickly, and then...the screen fades to black. Guess what? WARNING: A HUGE BATTLESHIP "SPIRAL SNAIL" IS APPROACHING FAST -Geez, another snail? What's Taito's obsession with snails? Whatever. Anyways, this is one cool lookin' snail. When he opens up, be sure to avoid the turret's fires while taking shots at it when possible. The small bombs the Spiral Snail shoots can be avoided by hanging around in the bottom-left corner of the screen. After some damage is dealt, the big shell will fly away and then come back. Destroy the turret then. It will transform into a blue orb and the shell will reattach and then disattach once again. Time for some new attacks. The blue orbs the shell shoots are pretty dangerous, so destroy them as they come at you. Also, the orb-turret has a deadly "homing laser" attack that must be avoided. When the shell flies away again, take the orb out. It's over; time to move on. ******************* -ZONE G * -BOSS:DEVIL FISH * ******************* -Ooooh, what a cool looking level, eh? Start out with some pretty basic formations. Easy stuff. -Jeez, another asteroid field. If this brings back memories of the first level, good. Use the same strategy. More basic stuff awaits you. I really don't feel any need to instruct you on how to destroy these very simple formations. -Wow, another reminder of the first level awaits with the brown...whatever. I still can't tell what it is. Maybe a stingray? I guess I'll call it that. Anyways, take him out, he has the same attacks as the other stingray. -Some new enemies show up next, but they're all very easy. Just hang at the left of the screen and fire away. They won't get in your territory. -You'll next meet a group of silver orbs that fire four ways. Dodge them by staying in the upper left, then move down to take them out before they can attack again. After this, a rather hard section ensues with a lot of aggrivating pods flying all around you. Try to stay in the center left of the screen and bomb/fire at them when possible. Once through, you'll realize how amazingly short this level is as... WARNING: A HUGE BATTLESHIP "DEVIL FISH" IS APPROACHING FAST -Once you get over how fearsome he looks, you'll realize he's actually only of moderate difficulty. He's quite similar to Mudy Crystal in that he has a large tentacle that fires at you. The only actual attack to worry about is the semi-head's five-way laser. It's a pretty annoying attack, and he does it often, so focus on destroying him as quickly as possible. Don't worry much about the tentacle. You might die a couple of times because of that deadly five-way laser, but keep it up and the semi-head will explode. Now the tentacle will start lunging out at you. Destroy it quickly and easily; it almost always misses if you're fast. Now for the final stage of the boss, and the most difficult. The main head will open up every few seconds and fire five lasers in your general direction. Swerve and dodge, is all I can say. And when you get the chance, fire as much as possible. As long as you're moving, his lasers can't hit you. Soon he'll fade to grey, and you're moving on! ******************* -ZONE J * -BOSS:STEALTHER * ******************* -You'll notice immediately that large grey blocks will be all around you. This is dangerous, as you now have a very narrow passage for moving around. It's harder to avoid incoming fire. Take out the turrets and other enemies and make your way through the level. -The next section's pretty tough; it gets harder and harder to move around and dodge fire, and you may find yourself dying a lot. Keep at it, though. There's no real strategy for this place. It's truly luck. -Ooooh. Rotating sprites! How impressive. Anyway, you'll need to use all your skills to stay alive on this section. You're scrolling down, and it's often hard to tell what obstacle is next. Watch out for those darned disappearing/reappearing blue orbs that fire four bullets each time they appear. -It's pretty difficult, but try to destroy the two silver saucers on the way down to get a shield and weapon power-up. It'll help for the rest of the level, not to mention the boss! -More amazing rotating sprites, and you're side-scrolling again. More rotation, and you're going up! Blasphemy! -This section is HARD, as those disappearing/reappearing little pods are all over the place. Try to take them out if you can, but mainly focus on staying away from their fire and moving a lot. If you can make it through this, more rotating sprites await you, and you're back to normal side-scrolling. This part's easy. Just ride along and take out the turrets on your way. Destroy the silver saucers to get yet more nice weapon and shield power ups, if you missed out earlier. Continue strolling along and... WARNING: A HUGE BATTLESHIP "STEALTHER" IS APPROACHING FAST -Stealther? What kind of name is that? Well, while the boss isn't really very stealthy, he's pretty tough in his own right. Begin by firing at him with your powered up green beams. Avoid his orange fireballs, and the moving ceiling (?!) that tries to kill you. His tongue attack puts a little blue circle around you and disables your weapon. It's deadly and wastes valuable time. Try to stay above his mouth so this doesn't get you. Anyhoo, keep blasting Stealther and in no time he'll be dead. ******************* -ZONE M * * ******************* -As you enter, take out the small turrets and large red turrets that you should be absolutely used to by now. Right? Right. So I shouldn't even need to explain to you how to get through the first section. Right? Right. The only new item of concern is the numerous falling rocks as you traverse through the beginning of the level. Oh yeah, and be sure to get the shield and weapon powerup. -Next, you'll be heading downward again. Take out the agressive turrets that will hinder your progress on the way down, especially as you're first entering. After that, just glide down and BE SURE TO TAKE THE RIGHT PATH WHEN IT SLIPS. The other results in an instant cheap death. Now it gets more difficult as the passage becomes narrower and it's harder to avoid the small bombs from the turrets. ______05______ CREDITS -------------- _______________________________________________________________________ Logan Hodge is a 14-year-old gamer/film buff/Beatles maniac that is found on a regular basis at the Central Mall in Texarkana, Texas. He's a freshman at Texas High School and also plays DDR. You can find him in Silverball arcade every Wednsday, when a new time-release character comes out. He can be identified with brown hair and glasses, and is usually telling mashers to "stop moving the sticks around so hard" in a harsh tone. But...feel free to. :) Contact me with any corrections, information, strategies, or...anything...and I will surely add it as soon as possible! E-mail Mitsishima@aol.com to get a hold of him, and put "DARIUS FAQ" as the subject. Or you can IM me if I'm on. I'd like to thank: -GameFAQs. You own. -Taito. You made a fun little shooter worthy of my time. -Anyone who reads this. Because I doubt anyone will. _______________________________________________________________________ This file is currently only available at: *GameFAQs If you see it anywhere else, please contact me at the above e-mail address. Thanks! --to add this file to your site-- If you want to use this FAQ on your webpage or site, there's a few very simple instructions you need to follow to insure that you can. 1. E-mail me with your name and a link to your page or site, and label the subject "Darius Force FAQ". 2. I'll check out your site; give me two days at the most. 3. I'll reply with a yes or no answer. Simple, eh? Yes, it is. When you are permitted to put my FAQ up on your site, you will be sent regular updates of this file and be put on the distribution list. Thanks, and remember: my standards aren't that high, so if you e-mail me, chances are you can put it on your page. ________________________________________________________________________