Startropics 1 - Chapter 7 Dungeon 2 No Damage Run

Channel:

Master Knight DH

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Published on July 3, 2019 4:56:39 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cc1xhqyC6M

Game:

StarTropics (1990)

Duration: 6:27

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2

So it turns out that the Supernova is what does 1.5 times as much damage as its predecessor, and the Shooting Star actually deals double that of what the Yoyo does. More importantly, Supernova's shots span the entire screen, although you can have only 2 shots out at a time. Of course, since you're still restricted to cardinal direction firing, some rooms are still misery incarnate leaving me to wonder: WHY weren't HP values better balanced among the spaceship enemies. Oh right, law of diminishing. Even though the Yoyo's upgrades clearly get added range too, even if the range attacks are no faster than the Yoyo whiff.

The green Space Troopers are certainly polarizing as a result: either they're a threat with their 5 space range shots, or they're a non-issue getting outpaced by the Supernova. There's one particular room where they manage the former, by being in a group of 3 in tandem with a Shock Trap, which you can't shoot over, spawning, at random, 2 or 3 columns to the left or right of wherever Mike is. I also come in from the bottom because that minimizes the immediate suffocation, but even then, you also see that I opt to play things safe when the Space Troopers cluster, because you are NOT getting rid of any of them before you get caught by a counterattack.

There's also an earlier room with 4 Track Pod Shooters that surround Mike as he warps in. I take out the ones on the horizontal sides if I can first because they're easier to snipe off with luck and I also get jumping room if I do. That room is still claustrophobic if RNG doesn't like me there. Then again, if RNG doesn't like me in either of the rooms with the red Satellites, I can get clipped way too easily trying to set up shop, never mind that Satellites as a whole are more erratic Noctos as it is. These messes convince me that neither the Ray Gun nor the Super Laser would help much in the moments that matter. (By the way, the Track Pod Shooter ambush has the Track Pod Shooters unreachable by use of the Yoyo. Get into that room with literally no subweapons and less than 6 Hearts, and that's a situation where you have no choice but to die. Cute, game.)

At least Gold Jet Pack Jumper is an exploitable moron. And the Heat Tiles room has the Heat Tiles move so slowly that they actually justify their 7 1/2 Heart damage output.

Of course, Ostroid is at the end of this and can catch me messing up timing to send me straight back to those freaking red Satellites. I had done some practice on him to figure out when to move in to press the step switch--by sheer mercy, he's sending out those purple fireballs 4 times in succession without any attempt to confuse the player about that part. The real kicker, of course, is his bullets, because you have to get close enough to Ostroid that their slow velocity barely lets you react properly in the midst of having to attack frequently enough that you can end up having a jump not get registered when you need it to. The real nasty part, is that they have some minor RNG deviation to when they are fired out. The good news is that direct dodging this only needs to be done once with my strategy, but this being done at the end of all of this, once is more than enough to make sure that Ostroid warranted practice.

By the way, I found the RAM addresses relating to scoring: 0780 has the penalty value to be used for scoring at the end of the level, and 0781 has the number of further KOs, which even includes breakable walls, before the penalty value is incremented. The latter can have bit 7 set in certain rooms to prevent either from being changed while the player is in those certain rooms--this happens with the rooms with Space Stars.

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