Akai Katana Shin
The Sharpened Blade Achievement

Achievement description: Earned 300,000,000 points (Origin Mode).
Gamerscore: 20G.

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Text Guide

*Continues not allowed*
(If you continue it resets your score to 0)

Shot types / Fighter form

Rapid fire - Enemies will drop items which refill your phantom energy. The amount of energy items released depends on how close your option is upon destroying the enemy. When using rapid fire, the option will trail your ship and the energy items will simply float off-screen.

Laser - Phantom energy will be generated in the same manner as using rapid fire (i.e. the closer your option is to an enemy, the more energy the enemy will release). However, when using the laser, your option will stay in place and the phantom energy will gather around your option. Grazing bullets will make the energy items grow in size and once you release the button, the items will be pulled into your ship.

Shot types / Phantom form

Rapid fire - Enemies will drop items which refill your phantom energy. The amount of energy items released depends on how close your option is upon destroying the enemy. When using rapid fire, the option will trail your ship and the energy items will simply float off-screen.

Laser - This is a stronger attack at the cost of higher phantom energy consumption. The protective barrier vanishes and if the player is hit while using the laser, he will revert back to fighter form. Destroying enemies with the laser will cause an explosion that will cancel surrounding enemy bullets into gold. Some gold will also be produced by the destruction of the enemy itself.

Scoring in a nutshell

1. Destroy enemies in fighter form to gather phantom energy
2. Destroy enemies in phantom form to collect gold
3. Suck in the gold

Tips and Tricks to score well

Gold

• As long as the players stays in phantom form, the gold rotated around the ship will grow in size. It is mandatory to grow the gold to maximum size as it will be worth MUCH more points both when cashing in and when calculating the end-stage bonus. However, once the gold has reached maximum size, it will vanish after a while.
  
• The maximum pieces of gold that can rotate around the ship at the same time is 256. Everything generated above that is a waste. So the most basic rule is generate LOTS of gold AT ONCE (to quickly get the combo above 200 and then have enough time to let the gold grow)
  
• When you cancel an enemy laser, the cancelled laser will be turned into large gold pieces. Less growth time required to get these large gold pieces to maximum size, so you will have more time to recharge for the next combo.
  
  Tricks to Charge Your Phantom Energy Fast
  
  
• As mentioned above, point blanking with your option produces more energy items while grazing bullets will make the items grow in size. You must do both to gather phantom energy efficiently.
  
• Lots of energy items can be spawned if the option is placed on top of an enemy and the laser-button is tapped while the shot button is held down. This works on all bigger airborne enemies as well as all enemies on ground level. This technique is essential to produce lots of items in a short time and it is often faster than destroying enemies. This strategy works best with Type C.
  
• Every energy item will give you a certain percentage of phantom energy back. If you kill yourself at the beginning of the game, you will get a bigger energy gauge to work with. In return, this will increase the amount of energy a single energy item will restore. This technique can also boost your score significantly.
  
• Enemy lasers will partially damage your ship, but they will also restore a good amount of phantom energy. If there is no other opportunity to get phantom energy, an enemy laser is a good way to quickly recharge it.

How to Swap Forms Effectively

• In general, the goal is to switch to phantom form as much as possible. The idea is to only cancel enemy bullets at the beginning of the phantom phase. This will give the gold time to grow in size as well as let the enemies cloud the screen with bullets. When phantom form is over, all bullets are propelled away. The enemies are vulnerable and can be killed at close range to gather energy. The returning bullets can be used to grow the energy items. If the player is fast enough and the positioning of the ship is good, the suicide bullets can also be turned into gold to boost the next combo.
  
• Bullets get propelled further away when the phantom energy runs out. When the player leaves phantom form by choice, there is less of a risk that the bullets wander off-screen.
  
• When phantom form ends, the option's position is similar to the ship's position which makes point blanking easier. You could be easily misled to get away from the enemy as quick as possible. However, this will often make the option harder to control. Instead, it is easier to wait until the option emerges and then move in the opposite direction that the option is supposed to go.

Bombs

• Bombs are the last resort weapon to use. However, there is almost no penalty for bombing. It is still better to lose a bomb than a life.
  
• Picking up a bomb in phantom form will turn all bullets on the screen into gold. That means you will get a free 256 combo per bomb pickup if the pickup is saved until the boss fight starts.

Boss Milking

• Options to milk the bosses are very limited in Akai Katana. The first way is the method of picking up a bomb item in phantom form which is mentioned above. The other option is to end a boss-phase in phantom form to turn all bullets on the screen into gold. You can get up to 256 gold items. The exception to the rule is when destroying a boss in phantom form. Then, bullets and lasers add up and it is possible to break the restriction of the 256 items.

Rank

• The less lives you lose, the higher the rank you will get. A higher rank will result in denser patterns, especially in phantom form. This is essential to build combos fast in the later stages. If more than two lives are lost before the stage 5 mid-boss, the rank will usually be too low to score efficiently.

Route planning

• During the earlier stages, it is essential to have a plan of attack. Supereplays can help develop new tactics, but the most important thing is to practice. As a rough outline, you should meet the following score requirements after each stage (including the stage bonus):
  
  
• Stage 1: 18,000,000
  
• Stage 2: 60,000,000
  
• Stage 3: 125,000,000
  
• Stage 4: 185,000,000
  
• Stage 5: 260,000,000
  
• Stage 6: 300,000,000+

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Video Guide