Proto's UFO Scoring Guide

Proto's UFO Scoring Guide
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[b]Basic Scoring Concepts: UFO Score Multiplier[/b]

The most important aspect of UFO scoring lies in the UFO itself. As you know, collecting three UFO tokens of the same color summons a UFO of the same color (or a rainbow UFO from tokens of all three colors). The UFO will suck up ALL items released while it is active. This will increase the circular meter. When it becomes full, the UFO will drop a saturation reward. When you destroy a UFO, it will drop a destruction reward and a rainbow UFO token.

Additionally, from a scoring perspective, all items sucked up by the UFO will go to you when you destroy the UFO. Point items inside the UFO would be at their maximum point value i.e. as if you collected them above the PoC. Furthermore, the total point value will be multiplied by a multiplier that is determined based on the type of UFO and how much of its circular meter is filled.

Red UFO: Maximum Multiplier = 1x (if you're not at full power) or 2x (if you're at full power). Additionally, the power items will be equal to the point item value.

Green UFO: Maximum Multiplier = 2x

Rainbow UFO: Maximum Multiplier = 4x. Also, power items will change to point items and vice versa.

Blue UFO: Maximum Multiplier = 8x.

[b]Basic Scoring Concepts: Point Item Value[/b]

The maximum point item value is shown at the right side of the screen. It starts at 5000 in Easy, but it's higher on other difficulties. By "maximum", I mean that this is the value of point items collected at the PoC or above. Below the PoC, the point items would have a value of up to half the max point item value, depending on how high you are.

The maximum point item value is not fixed, however. It can be increased by three ways, but they're always rounded to the nearest 10. The three ways are:
1. Every Graze acquired adds 1 to the point item value.
2. Every cancelled bullet adds 0.1 to the point item value. This includes bullets cancelled by bombs, UFOs, clearing boss attacks, etc.
3. Every UFO token collected while a UFO is active will add 1000 to the point item value.

[b]Scoring Overview[/b]

It may be tempting to spam blue UFOs from the start for that huge 8x multiplier, but that's not a good idea. Most of the high-point-item-volume sections are in Stages 4-6 so it's better to dedicate Stages 1-3 to increase point item value. The key to doing this is by abusing rainbow UFOs. The most effective way of raising point item value is by collecting UFO tokens while a UFO is already active. One UFO token collected this way is equivalent to 1000 grazed bullets or 10000 cancelled bullets. Rainbow UFOs are special because they generate rainbow UFO tokens when saturated, which you can collect for a free +1000 point value. Therefore, it's better to dedicate Stages 1-3 to rainbow UFOs to increase point value, and abuse Stages 4-6 with blue UFOs to generate enormously huge points.

Note that this does not mean you should just spam rainbow UFOs as much as possible. The objective is to collect as many UFO tokens as possible while UFOs are active. If there is a UFO active, you should not be avoiding any UFO token, no matter what its color is. Just try to collect as many tokens as you can while UFOs are active.

The other purpose of rainbow UFOs is that they turn power items into point items. Power items are useless for scoring unless they are collected by red or rainbow UFOs, so summoning a rainbow UFO during specific moments with nothing but power items would be better than summoning a blue UFO, despite blue having a higher multiplier.

A pure scoring run involves abusing rainbow and blue UFOs. This means that you won't be summoning any red UFOs, and you'll summon no more than one green UFO. In other words, you'll have to clear the whole game with only five extra lives, with two bombs per life, plus one extra bomb. If this is okay, then go ahead. If you have issues with clearing the game, you might be more comfortable with summoning a few red or green UFOs instead. However, try to make sure you do not compromise the final blue UFO in Stage 5 or any of the blue UFOs in Stage 6, since they are essential for scoring. Note that even while summoning red/green UFOs, you can and should continue to increase point item value by collecting UFO tokens.

Note that Graze and bullet cancelling contribute to your score but they're not as significant so you don't have to worry about them. Still, though, if you have an opportunity to graze with little or no risk, might as well go for it.

[b]Stage 1[/b]

Kill the first two big fairies, collect their UFO tokens. I would suggest collecting the rainbow token as blue. As for the third big fairy, don't collect its token yet, not even after the token becomes the third color. Wait until it completes a full color cycle before collecting it. This is because you want the rainbow UFO to be active when you release the next two tokens from the fairies later. Collect those tokens, saturate the UFO, collect the saturation reward and THEN destroy the UFO and collect its destruction token (I go with green here). Make sure you kill the last big fairy before Nazrin, since it drops a UFO token too, which you should collect (I go with blue here). For reference, you should have at least 8000 point value and two UFO tokens when Nazrin arrives.

After Nazrin, summon a rainbow UFO immediately, collect other UFO tokens, saturate the UFO, collect saturation token, destroy it, and collect the reward (I go with red here, but blue works too). After killing more enemies, you'll come across a green and a rainbow token. Summon a rainbow UFO but try to avoid having blue as the third color. Collect its saturation token, destroy it and collect the destruction token as any color EXCEPT blue.

You should reach boss Nazrin with 11000 point value and one non-blue UFO token.

[b]Nazrin[/b]

You can get into shotgun range during her first spell to rack up a lot of Graze. This is not as risky as it sounds since the bullets aren't actually very threatening in that area. Just make sure you don't bump into Nazrin herself.

[b]Stage 2[/b]

Kill the two big fairies, collect one token but don't summon the UFO yet. Yin-yang orbs are annoying to farm items from. Leave the pure blue UFO token until after you get rid of the yin-yang orbs, when the fairies arrive.

Also, at this point, there is an invisible fairy that is off-screen at the right side. Why should an off-screen fairy be important? Because it drops a UFO token. All shot types except ReimuA can use their bomb to kill this invisible fairy. ReimuA can only kill it by dying (death wave goes offscreen) but that's not really advised lol.

After this comes two sets of yin-yang orbs + a big fairy that drops a UFO token. The token from the second fairy can technically be used to summon a UFO, but Kogasa is gonna come soon, so don't summon anything now. Try to finish off Kogasa quickly and THEN try to use that token to summon. You might not make it, because the UFO token color might not match and it would try to leave, but don't worry too much about it.

Summon a rainbow UFO right after Kogasa, and collect as many tokens as you can. Saturate, collect, kill, collect. Kill the two big fairies, collect one token but wait a bit before collecting the other because again, yin-yang orbs are hard to farm. After the yin-yang orbs are out, THEN you should collect that token to summon a rainbow UFO and collect other tokens. Try to make sure this UFO gets as many power items from the red fairies as you can. Anyway, saturate UFO, collect saturation reward, and then destroy the UFO and collect the token.

By Kogasa, you should have at least 18,000 point value with one UFO token. 20,000 is feasible if you killed the offscreen fairy and collected the pre-Kogasa token in time.

[b]Kogasa[/b]

No noteworthy graze areas AFAIK. Her last spell is kinda hard on Easy (tougher than its Normal version anyway) so you might wanna bomb to it.

[b]Stage 3[/b]

I'll make this as simple as possible. Summon as many rainbow UFOs as you can and try to collect as many UFO tokens while the UFO is active, including the saturation reward. After the last big fairy, however, is a section with lots of red fairies, so you'll really want a rainbow UFO up at that time.

A point value above 25,000 before boss!Ichirin should be fine here.

[b]Ichirin[/b]

GRAZE THE LASERS! This applies to her midboss nonspell too. Even her non-laser non-spells have a lot of bullets clustered together so you should graze those if you can. Her final spell has tons of lasers so try to graze a lot there. Depending on your shot type, you can try to sit on Unzan's eye while bombing to rack up lots of graze, but it won't work if your bomb clears the lasers during that time.

[b]Stage 4[/b]

Pre-Nue, try to summon as many blue UFOs as possible and collect as many tokens while a UFO is active. Summoning rainbow UFOs instead is also fine, to raise point value further, but I'd suggest focussing on blue for now. Make sure you have one blue UFO token when you reach Nue.

Don't screw up Nue, for Minoriko's sake, you need that 1up!

Kill the fairies, wait a bit and then summon a blue UFO when the yin-yang orbs are rolling in. After that, try to summon a rainbow UFO. Note that you can get red and blue UFO tokens in this part, so try to collect the previous UFO destruction reward at green. This rainbow UFO will absorb all the delicious power items. The power item section lasts for quite a while, so summoning two rainbow UFOs here would be awesome.

Once the yin-yang orbs are gone and the fairies show up, try to summon a blue UFO. If that's not realistic, then go for a rainbow for point value. Do not waste this moment by being too indecisive to summon anything.

[b]Murasa[/b]

lolEasyMurasa. Come back when you have Sinker Ghost

[b]Stage 5[/b]

Kill the two fairies, then wait for the next wave of enemies before summoning the blue UFO. This is a pretty long wave of enemies btw. Try to milk the UFO and collect a lot of tokens. After this, three big fairies will arrive, carrying a token of each color. Summon a rainbow UFO, and try to kill the yin-yang orbs (the columns spawn near the edges) to saturate the UFO. The next red fairy drops a UFO token too. More yin-yang orbs. Make sure you reach Nazrin with at least one UFO token, preferably blue)

Spend two bombs on Nazrin, one for her nonspell, another for her spell. Trust me on this. Killing Nazrin quickly will allow you to encounter more big fairies than usual, which you can abuse by summoning a UFO from Nazrin's two rainbow tokens (preferably a blue UFO, but rainbow works if you didn't have a blue token from before Nazrin).

These big fairies keep coming in pairs. Eventually you'll find a pair that drops two green tokens, then a pair with two red tokens, and finall a pair with two blue tokens. Summon a rainbow UFO if you wish but the most important thing is that you summon a blue UFO some time after the big fairies are gone and the small blue fairies start swarming. Wait until after the small red fairies are done before summoning the blue UFO. This blue UFO alone can be worth a hundred million points if you time it right and have a high enough point value. This is not a joke. Spend a bomb to destroy it if you must. But do NOT waste this UFO opportunity.

Also, try to get a green UFO token from the destroyed blue UFO, if you can.

[b]Shou[/b]

You don't need to intentionally try grazing. You'll end up grazing a lot of lasers whether you like it or not

[b]Stage 6[/b]

Summon a green UFO, get the bomb, quickly destroy this green monstrosity so you can start summon the beautiful blue angels instead. To be safe, you can try to spam as many blue UFOs as you can in this stage. If you're feeling bold, you can try to reduce the number of blue UFO summons by keeping them on the screen for longer time, thus allowing you to utilize extra tokens for point value. But DO NOT LET A SINGLE BLUE UFO LEAVE THE SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

[b]Byakuren[/b]

Bombskip the non-spell after Maelstrom when you see Byakuren going a little too low on the screen. You can bombskip Maelstrom too if you want.