Kiki Kaikai NKM

Kiki Kaikai - Nazo no Kuro Manto  (奇々怪界-謎の黒マント-) (aka. Pocky & Rocky)
Walkthrough / Guide (v1.0)


     Contents

       Game Basics
       Enemy List
       Stage Guide       A01



- Check the Options to adjust the difficulty level (between Easy, Normal,
and Hard) and key config. There's also a music and sound player.
- These are the button mappings I use:

 X  | Ofuda         | Single Ofuda
 LR | Oharai        | Purify (ie. Deflect)
 B  | Suberikomi    | Slide
 A  | Jutsu         | Special
 Y  | Rensha Ofuda  | Rapid fire Ofuda

- The higher the difficulty level the faster the enemies and their
projectiles are, and a few enemies have more HP (never bosses, though).
Enemies will still deal the same amount of damage regardless of difficulty
level.

- There are two playable characters: Sayo, the miko, and Manuke, the tanuki.
While they have cosmetic differences, their abilities are technically the
same aside from the charge attack and Jutsu (neither of which you'll be
using that much).

- Your HP is indicated by hearts, with a single heart being 2 HP. Your
max HP is 8 by default, but increases by 2 for each stage completed, up
to a maximum of 16. If you get a game over and continue, your max HP
reverts back to default. Getting hit gives you 0,5 seconds of invincibility.
- You start with 3 lives, and one-ups are exceedingly rare, with the only
one apparently being the one found in Stage 1. Continues are infinite.
When you continue, you restart from the beginning of the stage.

- Your main weapon is the ofuda shot (or leaf shot for Manuke). There are
three different shot types: the default one, the Blue Shot, and the Red
Shot. You can change and level up your shot by picking up the blue or red
note power ups. If the note matches your current shot type or your shot
is at Lv0, you'll go up one level. If the note doesn't match your current
shot type, you'll switch shot types with a one level penalty, down to a
minimum of Lv1.
- The ofuda shot has its own HP value - let's call it FP - ranging from
0 to 10. FP determines the level of the shot, as seen below. For every
hit you take, you lose 1 FP (even if you die). Picking up a note will
always set you to one of the default (D) values.
 - The one exception to FP damage is when you fall into a pit or a body
 of water. This will always bring your shot level down by 1 (ie. from
 10 to 6, from 9 to 6, from 5 to 2, from 7 to 2, etc.). While your shot
 level will always go down, fall damage can't actually set your FP lower
 than 2 and will set it to 2 even if you're *below* 2. This means you
 can have a Lv0 shot with 2 FP. This changes nothing in practice, however.
 The note power ups bring you up one level, and that's that. Your FP
 doesn't matter.

    FP    Lv
  |  0 | 0    |
  |  1 |  1   |
  |  2 |D 1   |
  |  3 |  1   |
  |  4 |   2  |
  |  5 |   2  |
  |  6 |D  2  |
  |  7 |   2  |
  |  8 |    3 |
  |  9 |    3 |
  | 10 |D   3 |

- The Blue Shot is a spread shot, whereas the Red Shot remains (kind of)
linear, but (sometimes) deals more damage.
- Sadly, there's no way to hold direction or hold position when firing.

- Blue Shot
 Lv1: Alternate between a single, linear shot and a double, angular shot.
 Lv2: Same as Lv1, only with larger projectiles.
 Lv3: Triple shot.
- Because enemies also have a very brief invincibility period when hit,
the Blue Shot does *not* directly deal more damage due to the increased
number of projectiles; scoring multiple hits on a single target with the
same wave of projectiles does the exact same amount of damage as a single
hit (16 pod) .As such, the blue shot is about increasing damage indirectly,
by making it easier to hit targets.
- The Lv1/2 Blue Shot can indeed give you worse dps than a Lv0 shot, since
it doesn't have a consistent area of effect.

- Red Shot
 Lv1: Basically the same as the default Lv0 shot.
 Lv2: Main shot is wider and will produce three secondary shots on impact
  that have 2 tiles of range. One of them flies in the same direction as
  the main shot and two of them fly perpendicular.
 Lv3: Wider shots, with secondary shots having more range (8 tiles) and
  dealing more damage.
- The enemy's invincibility period limits the Red Shot's effectiveness
in a similar way as the Blue Shot's. A single wave of secondary shots can
only damage a specific target once, at most. In many situations, the
secondary shots won't hit the target at all. It depends on the enemy,
your positioning and your angle.
- Red Shot bullets won't dissipate when hitting enemies with 16 or less
HP, resulting in no secondary shots.

- One of the little quirks of the game mechanics is shot-canceling,
which occurs whenever you press a new directional input while firing
a shot, and causes the shot animation to be canceled. This can result
in some harm, as it creates gaps and delays in your rapid fire that a
fast enemy or projectile can take advantage of. If you're aware of it,
you can try to compensate or avoid it.
- At the same time, it's possible to use shot-canceling to increase your
rate of fire by rapidly pressing in a direction with a good rhythm. At
best, this can double your dps. However, there aren't many situations
where it's useful, since you generally don't want to get closer to the
enemy.

- Oharai is a short range defensive move that is primarily used to block
or deflect enemy projectiles. It ostensibly covers about 180 degrees in
your front, but the hit detection can be rather generous at times. While
it does also deal constant damage, the damage is far too low to make it
effective on anything but enemies with very low HP by default. Using it
to finish off enemies brought to low HP isn't really a good idea due to
how it can trigger respawns (as explained below).
- You're pushed back a little when hitting stuff with oharai.
 - The staff Sayo uses is called a gohei.
- Deflected projectiles can technically deal good damage, but they're
not very likely to hit much, since they fly in varying directions. Most
projectiles aren't deflected anyway; they just dissipate.
- You can use oharai to pick up an item that's just a little out of bounds.

- If you hold down the oharai button for 2,6 seconds, you can do a spinning
charge attack that lasts for 2,3 seconds. This attack deflects projectiles
and damages constantly just like oharai, although a fast enemy or projectile
*can* get through the attack, as it doesn't simply create a constantly
active "field" around you. You can still use the ofuda shot while charging.
If you get hit, the charge is lost. Getting hit will also interrupt the
attack itself. You can also interrupt it yourself with oharai or a slide
(you also have to press the d-pad in some direction). Sliding while charging
will pause the charging.
- Manuke's charge attack turns him into a statue and makes him invincible
for 5 seconds. For 4 of those 5 seconds, he'll do regular deflect damage
on contact. There's no way to cancel it.

- Enemies spawn as a result of a screen position check. To prevent
respawns and despawn abuse, the game uses a death flag check that needs
to fail for the enemy to spawn. For most enemies that aren't meant to
respawn after being killed, the death flag is set when the enemy's dying
animation is triggered,
- However, an issue arises when killing enemies with oharai or a charge
attack. These attacks send the dead enemy flying off, and unless they
collide with another enemy or certain walls, their dying animation is not
triggered and their death flag will not be set, all in spite of being
reduced to 0 HP. What this means is, of course, that the enemy can respawn,
as demonstrated below. This occurs in all versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w96QQgILaNc

- Jutsu is a very powerful special attack that can only be used a limited
number of times. You start with one Jutsu and can have at most three of
them. Your Jutsu stock remains the same after dying.
- Sayo's Jutsu involves two full screen shockwaves (16+2 pod) and a cross-
shaped energy blast (200 pod per hit).
- Manuke's Jutsu involves a full screen shockwave (1 pod) and eight leaves
that spin around him and expand outwards (200 pod per hit).
- Most players use Jutsus to soften up, if not trivialize, bosses, either
out of convenience or because they would simply be overwhelmed otherwise.
I would recommend you try to learn to beat the bosses without them.

- When a character dies and respawns, they create a full screen blast.
This also happens after fall damage and crush damage.

- Damage chart:

                    Dmg   256 in
 Ofuda - Blue    | 16    | 2,1s |
 Ofuda - Red Lv2 | 16+ 8 | 1,5s |
         Red Lv3 | 16+16 | 1,05s|
 Oharai          |  4x   | 4,3s |
 Charge Attack S |  8x   | 2,1s |
 Charge Attack M |  4x   | 4,3s |
 Spin Slide      |  4x   |   -  |
 Deflected proj. | 32    |   -  |
 Respawn Blast   | 64    |   -  |
 Komainu         |  8x   |   -  |

 Jutsu (Sayo)    | 1018-1418 | (16+2+200x)
 Jutsu (Manuke)  | 1400-2000 | (1+200x)

- Suberikomi is an evasive maneuver, where your character quickly slides
in one direction. It doesn't give you any invincibility, but it's still
the only way to avoid damage in some situations. Simply pressing the
suberikomi button is enough to perform a slide; you don't necessarily
have to press in any direction at the same time.
- Regrettably, seemingly all official Super Nintendo controllers have
terrible d-pads that are prone to misinput, mainly unintentional diagonals.
The game is already challenging enough without having to worry about
sliding in the wrong direction due to controller issues. As such, I
highly recommend playing the game in a way that allows you to use a
DualShock 4 as a controller.

- If a player is hit by the other player performing a slide in 2P mode,
they'll be sent on an uncontrollable spinning slide that lasts 4 seconds
and bounces off walls. During the slide, the character will be in an
invincible deflect state, but there are some attacks that will ignore
it. When the slide ends, the character loses 2 HP. If the character has
less than 3 HP, the spin slide will not occur.

- Items:
                Score
 Blue Note     | 1000 | Blue Shot level +1
 Red Note      | 1000 | Red  Shot level +1
 Green Ball    | 5000 | Gain one Jutsu
 Ocha          | 3000 | Heal 4 HP
 Odango        | 5000 | Heal all HP
 Omamori       | 3000 | Grants a barrier that absorbs 2 hits
 Komainu       |    - | Lets you ride a komainu for 14 seconds (invincibility)
 Red Ball      |    - | One Up

- Items are mostly found in crates (technically hampers). Most crates
have fixed contents, but some crates have a pool of a few different
items (mostly Blue Note / Red Note).
- Destroying a group of Otamas also produces a note.
- Items despawn after 5 seconds.
- The Omamori shield's hit box is a bit larger than your character's.
The shield doesn't carry over to the next level.
- Hidden in most stages is also an object (with 32 HP) that can be shot
to spawn one of the Seven Gods of Fortune (Shichifukujin), who will
drop a few items, as seen below. In stage 2, you'll get Odango instead
of Ocha. You can't use save states to reroll the god you'll get once
you've started playing a stage.
 Benzaiten   (chick)       | Ocha     Jutsu      Komainu
 Hotei       (fat, bald)   | Ocha     Jutsu      Omamori
 Juroujin    (old man)     | Ocha     Jutsu      Omamori
 Bishamonten (in armor)    | Ocha     Red Note   Blue Note
 Daikokuten (purple clothes) Ocha     Red Note   Blue Note
 Ebisu       (fisherman)   | Ocha     Blue Note  Red Note
 Fukurokuju  (long head)   | Ocha     Red Note   Blue Note

- Levels allow you to move back in the direction you came from until
you hit a bend in the path.
- Each level features a time limit, and running out of time results in
death. The timer doesn't use seconds, but it's close, with 60 ticks
being 64 seconds. The timer resets on death. The only stages where you
might feasibly run out of time are stages 2 and 5.

- Defeating enemies and picking up superfluous items gives you points.
However, your score has no bearing on anything. It doesn't give you extra
lives, and there's not even a high score leaderboard.
- Upon completing a stage, you receive 10 points for every "second" left
in the timer and 500 points for every HP left. Consequently, if you use
tools to lock your HP figure, you'll end up stuck in the post-boss sequence
unless you turn off the HP lock.

- I won't be referencing any of the English names, because jelly-filled
donuts are my favorite.
- The western versions have altered default resources, as seen below.
       Lives Jutsu
 Easy   | 5 | 3 |
 Normal | 3 | 1 |
 Hard   | 2 | 0 |
- They also feature a stage select code: In the character select screen,
hold X and Y and press AAAA BBBB ABABABAB.
- The audio sounds kind of different in the NTSC-U/C-version.
- The PAL-version removes all text from the cutscenes and boss intros.

- Here are some memory addresses:

 7E0068    Sayo   HP
 7E0069    Manuke HP
 7E006A    Sayo   Lives
 7E006B    Manuke Lives
 7E0066    Sayo   Jutsu
 7E0067    Manuke Jutsu
 7E00E4    Sayo   Shield
 7E00E5    Manuke Shield
 7E00E6    Sayo   Shot type  (0: Default. 1: Blue. 2: Red)
 7E00E7    Sayo   FP
 7E00E8    Manuke Shot type
 7E00E9    Manuke FP
 7E0FAE    Enemy HP

- 0FAE shows the HP of one of the currently loaded enemies / objects.
The individual HP figures are found in 1x18/38/58 etc. (eg. the boss
is always 1F18~9).
- If you use tools to lock your lives count, don't forget to disable
it if you switch to the other playable character. Otherwise, a second
player will spawn after the first stage.

- While I consider NKM easily the best installment in the series thanks
to its tight, blood-pumping action combined with a reasonable challenge,
I do encourage you to check out the other installments, as seen below.

 1 | 1986 | Kiki Kaikai                       (ARC)
 2 | 1992 | Kiki Kaikai - Nazo no Kuro Manto  (Snes)
 3 | 1994 | Kiki Kaikai - Tsukiyo Soushi      (Snes)
 4 | 2008 | Yukinko Daisenpuu                 (PS2/PS4)
 5 | 2022 | Kiki Kaikai - Kuro Manto no Nazo  (PS4)

- The original Arcade version of Kiki Kaikai has never been re-released
with anything that mitigates the brutal difficulty. You can get it on
the PS2 and PS4, but I wouldn't bother. Should you settle for one of
the inferior console ports then? I don't know. It's your call.
- Sadly, and somewhat ironically, of all the sequels, I find the 2022
Kuro Manto to be the most underwhelming.


  --------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                 Enemy List


           Stage 1 - Osowareta Jinja

                             HP          Dmg
                     Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b  Score
   Crate            |   2 |   2 |   2 | - | - |  400 |     Dmg a: Contact
   7G               |  32 |  32 |  32 | - | - | 7000 |     Dmg b: Projectile

   Otama            |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a ball of fire. They appear in
groups, and destroying the entire group produces a note power up. In
some cases, the whole group will respawn if you fail to take out all
of them.
- The one enemy that appears in every stage.

   Pukapuka         |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A little, ghost-like youkai. They move slowly in a cardinal direction
and will speed up (and possibly turn once) if you're cardinally aligned.

   Matasaburou      |   1 |   1 |   1 | 1 | - |  300 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a gust of wind. They swoop in from
the grove. They're quite unpredictable, so you need to stay sharp and
be ready to shoot diagonally to intercept them.

   Bakeuri          |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |   30 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a melon, because, why not? They
shoot out of a well in rapid succession. There's no end to them, so
just try to get past the well quickly.
- Sometimes, one of the melons will be red in color. Destroying it
produces a note power up.

   Kasabee a        |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  300 |
   Kasabee b        |   4 |   4 |  32 | 1 | - |  300 |
   Kasabee c        |   4 |   4 |   4 | 1 | - |  300 |

- A Kasabake, a youkai that assumes the form of an umbrella. It hops
around and tries to bodyslam you.

   Share Koueihei a |  32 |  32 |  96 | 2 | 1 |  500 |
   Share Koueihei b |  32 |  32 |  32 | 2 | 1 |  500 |

- A skeleton that chases you and throws bones at you. They'll also release
a bone shot on death if you're not that close to them. If there's space,
you can move out of the way instead of deflecting it. And watch out for
bones they throw while off-screen.
- Variant b rises up from the ground.
- On Easy, they don't throw any bones except possibly when dying.
- Deflecting any projectile is worth 10 points.

   Hashiridai       |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a sea bream with legs. They jump onto
land from a body of water and start jumping around. Reel them in and put
them in your backpack to... No, wait. Wrong game.

   Daruma Sayuueimon| 256 | 256 | 256 | 1 | - | 1000 |
   Kodaruma         |   4 |   4 |  48 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a Daruma doll. It hops sideways while
sending out Kodarumas that charge forward (and simply disappear off-screen
if not defeated). If you get behind them as they spawn, they can't do
anything to you.

   Baketourou       |  96 | 128 | 192 | 1 | - |  500 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a tourou, ie. a stone lantern. They sit
still and do nothing until attacked, at which point they start chasing you.
This is one of the few enemies you can get rid of by despawning them. They'll
even despawn right in front of your eyes if you lead them away too far.

   Ichidou a        |  32 |  64 |  64 | 2 | - |  300 |
   Ichidou b        |  32 |  64 |  64 | 1 | - |  300 |

- A hitotsumekozou who only moves in cardinal directions and can't turn
when moving vertically (except when turning around on hitting a wall).
The ones that spawn moving horizontally will turn once when aligned with
you. When moving vertically, they attack by trying to jump on you. You
can go under them while they're in the air.
- No visible difference between a and b.

   Zuzu                  | 2048 |     | 4 | 2 |  10k |

- The boss of Stage 1. An azukiarai.
- Bosses are discussed in detail in the stage guide.



          Stage 2 - Konran no Mori


   Ukizaru          |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A monkey youkai that climbs down from a tree, jumps twice, then charges
at you in a straight line. Only one tree can act as their spawn point at
a given time. If you have to get close to one of these trees, use oharai
on any monkeys that spawn right in your position. That way, even if it
looks like they're going to land right on top of you, you should be fine.

   Ogei-chan        | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | 1 |  500 |

- A rokurokubi that hides in a hexagonal hut and sticks her head out in
a cardinal direction to attack by launching a fireball. After getting
attacked and retreating back inside the hut, she'll launch 7 fireballs
in a ~180d spread. The enemy will respawn if you return to the hut after
it goes off-screen, but there's really no reason to do that.

   Karaten a        |  64 |  96 |  96 | 2 | 1 |  800 |

- A tengu who circles around you and occasionally stops to throw a
projectile at you (two on Hard). After attacking three times (which
usually takes 12-14 seconds), they fly away. They're mainly a concern
when there are more than one of them. They're pushed back when you hit
them, so you tend to get the most hits when shooting diagonally.

   Nyoki a          |  96 | 128 | 160 | 2 | - |  400 |
   Nyoki b          |  16 |  16 |  16 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a bamboo shoot. Variant a does
nothing but sit still and (possibly) block your path. Variant b chases
you underground and then pops up.

   Maruyakenyuudou a/b   | 1024 |     | 4 | 1 | 3000 |

- A hitotsumenyuudou that moves sideways and attacks by breathing fire.
Essentially a mini-boss, since you have to defeat him to proceed.
- When playing above Easy, there will also be three Ukizarus that pop up
periodically and do their usual thing.
- Unlike a, variant b can move in all cardinal directions, so try not to
get bulldozed. At least there aren't any monkeys.

   Sennindake            | 1792 |     | 2 | - | 5000 |
   Sennindake - Arm (x2) |  512 |     | 1 | 1 |  500 |
   Nyoki c          |  64 |  96 | 128 | 1 | - |  200 |

- The first mid-boss of Stage 2. A bamboo youkai.

   Karaten b        |   8 |   8 |   8 | 1 | 1 |  200 |

- A tengu who sends a few projectiles while staying in place then flies off.

   Saratarou        |  16 |  16 |  16 | - | 1 |  300 |

- A kappa who pops up from the river and throws a saucer at you. Your
shots can destroy the saucer.

   Kawatarou a      | 128 | 128 | 128 |(4)| - |  500 |

- A kappa who jumps on your raft and tries to pull you "up" into the
water. They do no contact damage, but falling into the water does 4 pod.
Their HP is set to 128 when they grab you, essentially healing them from
any damage they might've received. You can get grabbed by multiple ones,
which will increase the force of their pull. With just one, you can still
move in the opposite direction. With two, you can only cancel out the
force. With three, you can't stop the pull anymore. You can only slow
it down a bit.
- On Hard, they jump twice when they board the raft.

   Abukugani        |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |

- A crab youkai that falls on your raft after floating in a bubble.
Once on the raft, they'll soon charge at you.

   Kappamaru             | 2048 |     | - | 2 | 7000 |

- The second mid-boss of Stage 2. A kappa leader who attacks from his
own raft by throwing bombs at you, all the while you're also constantly
attacked by Kawatarou b's and Abukuganis.

   Kawatarou b      |  48 |  48 |  48 |(4)| - |  500 |

- These ones appear while fighting Kappamaru. While they start with
less health, they'll also be set to 128 HP if they grab you.

   Snake Kraken          | 1280 |     | - | 2 |  20k |
   Snake a/b/c/d         |   64x|     | - | 1 |    - |

- The boss of Stage 2.



          Stage 3 - Gaijinbochi no Himitsu


   Zombie a         |  32 |  32 |  48 | 2 | - |  300 |
   Zombie b (blue)  |  32 |  32 |  48 | 2 | - |  500 |

- A zombie that rises from a random spot on the ground and chases you.
The blue ones are fixed and move along a fixed path.

   Jack P           | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | 1 | 1000 |

- A Jack-o'-Lantern that moves just slightly while shooting projectiles
one at a time in a three-way spread  Each one shoots in a fixed direction,
so it's generally easy to avoid the shots.

   Mini-Vampire a   |   4 |   4 |   4 | 1 | - |   50 |
   Mini-Vampire b   |   4 |   4 |   4 | 1 | 1 |  100 |
   Mini-Vampire c   |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | - |  100 |
   Mini-Vampire d   |  16 |  16 |  16 | 1 | - |  400 |

- A bat enemy.
- A: Spawns endlessly and moves along a fixed path.
- B: Appears quickly, then stays in place while shooting projectiles at
a slow pace. They release one shot upon being defeated.
- D: These appear from a crate and swarm you.

   Skull Bishop 1        | 1281 |     | 2 |1/2/0|    - |

- The first mid-boss of Stage 3 and also the main boss. An undead high
priest.

   Bota Slime a     | 128 | 128 | 128 | 2 | 2 |  800 |
   Bota Slime b     | 128 | 128 | 192 | 2 | 2 |  800 |

- An immobile slime monster that shoots blobs of slime at you. The blob
does no damage on contact, but instead sticks to you and blows up after
1 second. You can shake it off with oharai (but not with a charge attack).

   Joker a          | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | 1 | 1000 |
   Joker b          |  96 |  96 |  96 | 2 | 1 | 1000 |

- A jester monster that teleports all over the place and appears only
briefly to launch an attack that shoots 8 projectiles in a 360 spread
(can't deflect).
- B has less HP than a, but will recover all HP when they phase out.

   Ma Djinn              | 1536 |     | 2 |2/1| 5000 |
   Shield Cloud           | 256 |     | 1 | - |    - |

- The second mid-boss of Stage 3. A djinni, or genie.

   Dokurock a       |   - |   - |   - | 2 | - |    - |

- A hovering rock in the shape of a skull that slams the ground periodically.
- They're generally impervious to all damage, but there's a bug that allows
you to damage them with a full screen shockwave if there are other enemies
present at the same time. Mind you, they've got 65 280 HP, so it doesn't
really mean anything in practice.

   Skull Bishop 2        | 1665 |     | 2 |1/2/0|  20k |



          Stage 4 - Oozora no Gekisen


   Baribaaru        | 256 | 320 | 384 | 4 | 1 | 1000 |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a cloud. They block your path on
rope bridges with lightning. They move sideways and shoot out two bolts
of lightning at a time. The sharp angle of the bolts combined with the
limited space on the bridge and the potential presence of other enemies
makes it rather difficult to avoid getting hit. You *can* use the
invincibility from a hit to just slide through the lightning, but it
would be preferable to avoid damage altogether.

   Fuu              |  16 |  16 |  16 | 2 | - |    - |

- A youkai that assumes the form of a whirlwind. They appear in fixed
spots. They take a moment to form and then quickly charge at you. If
you don't destroy them, they'll reappear in about 1,2 seconds after
going off-screen. If you do destroy one, it'll respawn after ab. 4,5s
(+/-2s on Easy/Hard).

   Mini Vampire e   |   4 |   4 |   4 | 1 | 1 |   50 |
   Mini Vampire f   |   2 |   2 |   2 | 1 | 1 |  100 |

- E: Same as a, but can also shoot projectiles at you in certain spots.
- F: Same as b, but with less HP (no real difference in practice).

   Dokurock b       |   - |   - |   - | 2 | - |    - |

- A rock in the shape of a skull. These come bouncing down the mountainside.

   Joker b          |  96 |  96 |  96 | 2 | 1 | 1000 |

   Captain Hige a   |32512|32512|32512| 2 | 1 |    - |
   Captain Hige b/c | 512 | 512 | 512 | - |2/1| 1000 |
   Captain Hige d   | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | 1 | 2000 |

- The captain of the airship. Somewhat of a mid-boss, he makes four
appearances throughout the ship. The first one is at the very beginning,
and you probably shouldn't waste time attacking him given his less-than-
modest HP figure. He throws six bombs in front of him then flies off.
 - While it's possible to defeat variant a by messing with the RAM,
 nothing special happens. He just goes down and you get 1000 points.
- The b and c encounters have him trying to align himself with you and
hit you with a chain flail. Attacking him after the flail attack will
prompt him to retreat briefly while throwing a bomb at you. He may or
may not hover downward when preparing for the chain attack. If he doesn't,
you don't have to move to avoid the attack.
- The last encounter (d) is just before the boss. He'll throw bombs
around him one at a time.

   Devil Face 1     | 384 | 384 | 384 | - | 1 | 1000 |

- An animated sculpture that launches two fireball spreadshots, first
one with five shots, second one with four shots (can't deflect). Repeat
after a pause. You can safely attack them from the side so long as you
press against the northern wall right next to them.

   Orb Gate         | 192 | 192 | 192 | - | - |  400 |

- Just a gate that blocks your path.

   Hige Sniper a    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |  200 |
   Hige Sniper b    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |  300 |
   Hige Sniper c    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |  400 |

- An immobile pig youkai that attacks with a gun. Variant a uses a rifle
that simply shoots forward with a low rate of fire. B uses an automatic
rifle with a high rate of fire. C has a shotgun that fires a 3-round spread.

   Hige Jumper      |  96 |  96 |  96 | 2 | - |  400 |

- A pig youkai that tries to jump on you once, then bails.

   Harpyt                | 2048 |     | 2 | 1 |  20k |

- The boss of stage 4. A harpy.



          Stage 5 - Machiukeru Wana


   Gate             | 256 | 256 | 256 | - | - | 1000 |

   Barrel           | 136 | 136 | 136 | 1 | 2 |    - |

- An explosive barrel that detonates if you get too close or if you deal
enough damage.

   Rouban a (green) |  64 |  96 | 128 | 2 | 1 |  200 |

- A prison guard wearing green. It moves in on you while attacking with
throwing knives (cardinal directions only).

   Rouban b (red)   | 128 | 128 | 128 | 2 | - |  400 |

- A prison guard wearing red. It stays in place while tossing out barrels.

   Thrown Barrel    | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | - |    0 |

   Canterror        |  64x|  64x|  64x| - | 1 |    - |

- A lantern that sends out homing flames that you have to deflect. You
can knock it out for 372/1 seconds (E/N/H), but can't kill it.
- This enemy is much easier to handle in the western versions, as they
made it so any amount of damage will knock them out.

   Dokurock c       |   - |   - |   - | - | 1 |    - |

- A skull ornament crafted onto a wall. It shoots four laser shots from
its eyes when you get close. There are usually two of them in a row.
You'll want to quickly get close enough to trigger both skulls so that
they're roughly synched, then walk or slide through the gap between
the cycles. You can also get by if you slide just as you trigger the
first skull.

   Rouban c (blue)  |  96 |  96 |  96 | 2 | 1 |  400 |

- A prison guard wearing blue. It moves sideways and throws knives at
you if vertically aligned. It uses a melee attack instead if you're too
close horizontally.

   One-Hand         |  64 |  64 |  64 | 2 | - |  200 |

- A hand that drops down from above and chases you while moving in
cardinal directions. They speed up once they're aligned with you. Can
be "killed" by despawning them.

   Devil Face 2     | 256 | 256 | 256 | 2 | 2 | 1000 |

- A Devil Face that shoots a long flame in a cardinal direction. The
flame then slowly bends in your direction (fast on Hard, not at all on
Easy). Careful not to walk straight into their line of fire. If you can't
quite remember where they appear, take it slow, since you can see a bit
of them before they attack.

   Pukapuka Strong  |  64 |  64 |  64 | 2 | - |  400 |

- An enhanced Pukapuka that spawns infinitely from a machine. They fly
around for a while, possibly bodyslamming you in the process, then charge
at you. Best to take them out as soon as they come out.

   Mechashare Koueihei 64 |  64 |  64 | - | 1 |  200 |

- An enhanced Koueihei (kind of, not really). They sit on a wall and
(fruitlessly) try to attack you when you get close. You can only hit
them when they're attacking.

   Tekkyuu          |   - |   - |   - | 2 | - |    - |

- A huge iron ball with spikes that rolls down a linear path. Contact
is not recommended. You can actually slide through them with a well-
timed slide, as if the slide had i-frames, which it certainly does not
in any other situation.

   Dr. Lee               | 2049 |     | 1 | 1 |  20k |
   Black Bat        |  32 |  32 |  32 | 2 | - |   50 |

- The boss of Stage 5. A vampire who can turn into a giant bat.



          Stage 6 - Kessen! Kuro Manto


   Zabaon           |  64 |  64 |  64 | 2 | 1 |  400 |

- A mage that shoots three projectiles at you, then pauses for a while
before shooting again. If you see them coming, it's probably better to
avoid the attack by moving left or right instead of deflecting. They'll
attack you off-screen if you spawn them, but then don't move forward.
You could avoid that if you knew their spawn triggers, but it's hardly
easy to learn those, because of how simple and repetitive the level is.

   Armor Guard      |  48 |  48 |  48 | 2 | - |  200 |

- An animated suit of armor that moves forward with some lateral movement.
They mostly spawn from the left and right sides. They're mainly of concern
when combined with the other enemies.

   Mad Spider       |  96 |  96 |  96 | 4 | 1 |  800 |

- A spider that moves sideways and shoots a laser at you when you're in
their line of sight. The lasers expand to become balls after traveling
some distance. The spiders become agitated when attacked, causing them
to move more quickly for a moment and shoot four lasers. It's best to
stay near the middle and attack them just as you're coming into their
line of sight. You can avoid agitating them if you hit them with very
precise timing, but there's no need to try and aim for that.

   Cerberus         | 320 | 320 | 320 | 4 | 2 | 2000 |

- A large, demonic hound. It hops sideways between three different lanes
and breathes fire at you when on the same lane. There are no safe spots
at all, so you just have to keep hopping between lanes. It's easy to get
hit when they first pop up, so try to be prepared. Maybe move up on the
left or right side to get a little more time to react.

   Dark Freed            | 2560 |     | 1 |1/2|  10k |

- The warm-up boss to the final boss. A giant suit of armor that has
come to life through magic.

   Gargoyle Statue       |  640 |     | - | 1 | 8000 |

- A statue that protects Kuro Manto and shoots fireballs.

   Kuro Manto            | 4096 |     | 2 | 1 |  40k |

- The final boss. A powerful mage who wears a black cloak.


  --------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                Stage Guide                         A01


- I've divided each stage by the number of "screens" it has, and then
listed the enemies and objects on a screen-by-screen basis. Further
information about a specific screen will be provided when deemed
necessary.
- For the two auto-scrolling sections, I've listed the enemies and
objects according to timestamps.


         -----------------------------
        |  Stage 1 - Osowareta Jinja  |
         -----------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         300 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Crate                  |   2 |     | - | - |
 7G                     |  32 |     | - | - |       Dmg a: Contact
 Otama                  |   2 |     | 1 | - |       Dmg b: Projectile
 Pukapuka               |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Matasaburou            |   1 |     | 1 | - |
 Bakeuri                |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Kasabee a              |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Kasabee b        |   4 |   4 |  32 | 1 | - |
 Kasabee c              |   4 |     | 1 | - |
 Share Koueihei a |  32 |  32 |  96 | 2 | 1 |
 Share Koueihei b       |  32 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Hashiridai             |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Daruma Sayuueimon      | 256 |     | 1 | - |
 Kodaruma         |   4 |   4 |  48 | 1 | - |
 Baketourou       |  96 | 128 | 192 | 1 | - |
 Ichidou a        |  32 |  64 |  64 | 2 | - |
 Ichidou b        |  32 |  64 |  64 | 1 | - |


      Map

               | 8
               | 7
               | 6
               | 5
               | 4 C
               | 3
               | 2
               | 1
       6 |------
       5 |123456
       4 |  B
     A 3 |
       2 |
       1 |


 A1 | -
 A2 | 6x Otama (Blue Note),  3x Pukapuka
 A3 | 3x Otama (Red Note),   3x Pukapuka,  3x Otama (Red N),  4x Pukapuka
 A4 | Crate (Omamori),  3x Otama (Blue N),  4+3x Pukapuka,  nx Matasaburou
 A5 | nx Bakeuri,    nx Matasaburou
 A6 | 4x Kasabee a,  nx Matasaburou

 B1 | Crate (Koueihei),   nx Kasabee b
 B2 | 2x Share Koueihei a
 B3 | 3x Share Koueihei a,  nx Ashiridai,  Frog (7G)
 B4 | 4x Share Koueihei a,  nx Ashiridai,  2x Kasabee c
 B5 | 5x Share Koueihei b,  2x Kasabee c
 B6 | Daruma Sayuueimon,  nx Kodaruma,   Crate (Odango)

- Start getting used to pulling out a quick deflect mid-fire. An
absolutely vital skill. You did change the button settings, right?
- B3: Hit the frog on the plant to reveal one of the Shichifukujin. If
you happen to get the Komainu power up, make sure you reach the Daruma
before the time's up. Otherwise, you'll have to contend with respawned
skeletons.
- B5: There's a bend in the path. If you just follow the path, you'll
be surrounded by four skeletons. Instead, push against the second
vertical wall to trigger the spawn from a safer position.
- B6: If you get to the top of the screen before it spawns, you can
just shoot the Daruma in the back. This might cause the crate to have
no attack hitbox (if you move too far north), but you can still destroy
it by pushing it.

 C1 | 6x Otama (Blue Note),  2x Baketourou
 C2 | 3x Pukapuka,  Ichidou a,  Daruma,  2x Baketourou,  6x Otama (Red N)
 C3 | nx Pukapuka,  nx Bakeuri,  Crate (Omamori)
 C4 | nx2x Ichidou b,  nx Ashiridai,  Crate (Jutsu)
 C5 | nx2x Ichidou b,  nx Ashiridai,  3+3+2x Pukapuka, Ichidou a+b
 C6 | 2x Ichidou b,  nx2x Bakeuri
 C7 | Crate (Odango),  Crate (Omamori / Blue N / Red N),  Ichidou b
 C8 | Zuzu (boss)

- C3: With the crate right next to the well, it's a little tricky to
grab it without taking a hit. While there are pauses between the melon
cycles, they can be very short and difficult to predict. You can just
use the pause between individual melons if your timing is good enough.
Either way, you shouldn't stand around for too long because of the
Pukapukas. Of course, if your previous shield is still up, you can just
ignore it.

- C4-C6: This is the toughest part of the level thanks to the infinite
respawns. Since there's a full heal at the end, you don't have to worry
too much about it.
- The infinite Ichidous come from the left and right sides just before
the bridge and right after the bridge. Take out the first two before
getting on the bridge. Avoiding the Ashiridais on the bridge is fairly
difficult. Try to take them out quickly. The crate with the Jutsu spawns
when you're halfway across the bridge. If you're not using Jutsus, you
can ignore it.
- After the bridge, you can either slowly take out the fixed Ichidous
while avoiding the infinite Ichidous or you can blast your way through
the middle. If you don't have any of the infinite Ichidous behind you,
you can briefly stop to make sure you get the fixed ones. If you do have
them behind you, you may not be able to take out the ones ahead of you
in which case you'll need to go below them when they jump.
- So long as you're in the middle, you can pass the two wells safely.
There will be one last Ichidou straight ahead of you. If there's no
one behind, you can easily take him out. Otherwise, you may need to
step aside but not too much or you'll hit a melon.
- Here are a couple of videos for reference. It really doesn't have to
be that precise, though. As long as you don't die, you're okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu5pidmL46Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT7BtRDn2dk

   Zuzu                  | 2048 |     | 4 | 2 |  10k |

- C8: The first boss shouldn't be much of an issue. Zuzu sticks to the
top of the screen while slowly moving sideways. He has three attacks:
1, a bean toss, 2, a machine gun bean spit, and 3, a roll attack.
- The bean toss is quite fast, so be ready to deflect.
- The bean spit requires you to deflect in rapid succession. You can
get some very nice damage from the deflected beans if you're diagonally
aligned with the boss and facing north.
- The roll attack homes in on you a bit, but you can easily avoid it
even without sliding so long as you don't trap yourself against a wall.
He only uses the attack when you're vertically aligned.
- Flashes when below 256 HP.


         ----------------------------
        |  Stage 2 - Konran no Mori  |
         ----------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         500 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Ukizaru                |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Ogei-chan              | 256 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Karaten a        |  64 |  96 |  96 | 2 | 1 |
 Nyoki a          |  96 | 128 | 160 | 2 | - |
 Nyoki b                |  16 |     | 1 | - |
 Maruyakenyuudou a/b   | 1024 |     | 4 | 1 |
 Karaten b              |   8 |     | 1 | 1 |
 Saratarou              |  16 |     | - | 1 |
 Kawatarou a            | 128 |     |(4)| - |
 Abukugani              |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Kawatarou b            |  48 |     |(4)| - |


      Map

                E
         ---------------
       8 |
       7 |
       6 |
     D 5 |
       4 |
       3 | C
       2 |4321
       1 |----
             | 5
             | 4
             | 3 B
             | 2
         ----| 1
         1234
           A


 A1 | 6x Otama (Blue N)
 A2 | nx Ukizaru,  Crate (Red N)
 A3 | nx Ukizaru,  Ogei-chan
 A4+| nx Ukizaru,  Crate (Blue N),  Crate (Red N),  Ogei-chan

- A3: The combination of an Ogei-chan and infinitely respawning monkeys
puts you in a bit of a tight spot, made worse if you don't have a high
level shot. You don't have to worry about the Ogei-chan's normal fireballs
if you stay on the south side, since she stretches just enough off-screen
for the fireball to despawn. If you pass the hut without killing her, she'll
try to launch fireballs at you from the right side to no success, as her
shots will be blocked by a tree.
- A4: You can avoid the second Ogei-chan's normal fireballs the same way
as the first one's, but the problem is this time there's a tree on the
south side as well as a crate with a Red Note you'll want to despawn if
you're using the Blue Shot. You should still stay on the south side and
try to get close to the hut while doing your best to fend off the monkeys.
Once you're close enough to the hut to make the next tree visible, the
spawn point shifts to that tree and you can take out the ogei-chan much
more easily. Try not to open the northern crate with the Blue Note until
afterwards, in case you need it.
- Again, if you pass the hut without killing the Ogei-chan, she'll try
to attack from the right side, but that won't be an issue so long as you
keep moving.

 B1 | Karaten a,     5x Nyoki a
 B2 | Crate (Ocha),  Ogei-chan
 B3 | 3x Nyoki a,    Karaten a
 B4 | Ogei-chan
 B5+| Maruyakenyuudou a

- B3: Take care of the Karaten before you get closer to the next Ogei-chan.

 C1 | nx Nyoki b,  5x Otama (Blue N),  Crate (Ocha)
 C2 | nx Nyoki b,  nx Ukizaru
 C3 | nx Nyoki b,  Crate  (Red N),  Crate (3x Ukizaru),  2x Nyoki a
 C4 | nx Nyoki b,  nx Ukizaru,  5x Nyoki a

- C1~4: A tricky segment. You have to keep moving to avoid the Nyoki b's,
but simply moving left constantly isn't necessarily enough, as they might
come from ahead of you.
- C3:  The two lone Nyoki a's spawn in front of you on the same horizontal
position, the first one right before the crates, the other one soon after
the crates. Don't bother killing them. If you're using the Blue Shot, you
can just ignore the crates. Stay on the south side to avoid the upcoming
monkeys.
- C4: You'll get blocked off by Nyoki a's. You have to take out at least
one of them.

 D1 | nx2x Karaten a,  Crate (Jutsu)
 D2 | Crate (Omamori / Ocha)   Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 D3 | Sennindake (mid-boss)(Odango, Blue N, Red N)

- D1: Don't try to kill the Karatens here, since they'll just respawn.
Maybe try to get a few hits in as they spawn.

                          HP           Dmg
 Sennindake            | 1792 |     | 2 | - |
 Sennindake - Arm (x2) |  512 |     | 1 | 1 |
 Nyoki c          |  64 |  96 | 128 | 1 | - |

- D3: The boss is completely immobile and attacks you by summoning Nyoki
c's and by throwing leaves at you with its arms..The arms can be destroyed,
but it's hardly necessary. The Nyokis hop at you slowly by default, but
pick up the pace briefly when you hit them or hit the boss (not the arms).
- Flashes when below 512 HP.
- Upon its defeat, the boss leaves behind a few goodies, but they despawn
quickly, so snooze it and you lose it.

 D4 | nx3x Karaten a
 D5 | Crate (Blue N / Red N),  2x Nyoki a
 D6 | Crate (Blue N / Red N),  4x Nyoki a,  2x Karaten b
 D7 | 2x Nyoki a,  Karaten b
 D8 | Maruyakenyuudou b,  Crate (Odango)

- D4: The Karatens spawn right next to you, to your left, right and
behind you when you're on the destroyed bamboos. Move straight forward
or you'll take a body hit. Try to get a few shots on one of them just
as they spawn. Afterwards, shoot (mostly) diagonally from either lower
corner and be ready to deflect. Don't go back to the destroyed bamboos
or they'll respawn.
- Don't waste time killing all the Nyokis. You need to get on the raft
before the timer goes below 210. Killing the cyclops shouldn't take more
than 20 ticks.

- The rest of the level is an auto-scrolling segment that takes place on
a raft. Fall into the water and you take 4 pod and your shot levels down.
- At most, four Kawatarous can spawn at the same time.

E0:00 | nx Saratarou
 0:05 | Kawatarou
 0:09 | Kawatarou
 0:14 | Kawatarou
 0:18 | Kawatarou
 0:22 |(Kawatarou)
 0:26 |(Kawatarou)
 0:30 |(Kawatarou)
 0:34 |(Kawatarou)
 0:45 | 10x Abukugani
 0:55 | Kappamaru (mid-boss)(7G),  nx Kawatarou b
 1:13 | nx Abukugani
 1:53 | Snake Kraken (boss)

- You have about a minute to take down Kappamaru, but I wouldn't consider
it a high priority. You can use oharai to get rid of the bombs, but not
when they're in the air (including when they bounce).

                          HP           Dmg
 Kappamaru             | 2048 |     | - | 2 |

 Snake Kraken          | 1280 |     | - | 2 |
 Snake a/b/c/d         |   64x|     | - | 1 |

- The Kraken is submerged most of the time at first, but starts popping
up more frequently as the battle goes on. Whenever he pops up, he'll do
a water blast attack that slowly closes in on you. You can only do at
most 128 pod during one of these cycles, and doing so is indeed the only
way to interrupt and avoid his attack.
- Then you've got the snakes. They appear in random spots on the left and
right (at most two at a time) and shoot a 3 fireball spread at you. Deal
64 pod to knock one out and prevent the attack (if you're fast enough).
Their hitbox is mostly limited to their head.
- Flashes when below 512 HP.


         ------------------------------------
        |  Stage 3 - Gaijinbochi no Himitsu  |
         ------------------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         500 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Zombie a         |  32 |  32 |  48 | 2 | - |
 Zombie b         |  32 |  32 |  48 | 2 | - |
 Jack P                 | 256 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Mini-Vampire a         |   4 |     | 1 | - |
 Mini-Vampire b         |   4 |     | 1 | 1 |
 Mini-Vampire c         |   2 |     | 1 | - |
 Mini-Vampire d         |  16 |     | 1 | - |
 Bota Slime a           | 128 |     | 2 | 2 |
 Bota Slime b     | 128 | 128 | 192 | 2 | 2 |
 Joker a                | 256 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Joker b                |  96 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Dokurock a             |   - |     | 2 | - |


      Map

                        15 |
                        14 |
                        13 |
       9 |              12 |
       8 |              11 |
       7 |              10 |
       6 |      B2       9 |
     A 5 |             C 8 |
       4 |      B1       7 |
       3 |               6 |
       2 |               5 |
       1 |               4 |
                         3 |
                         2 |
                         1 |


 A1 | -
 A2 | 4x Otama (Red N),  4x Otama (Blue N)
 A3 | Jack P,  nx Zombie a,  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 A4 | Jack P
 A5 | Jack P,  nx2x4x Mini-Vampire a,  Grave (7G)
 A6 | 2x Mini-Vampire b,  2x Zombie b,  nx Zombie a
 A7 | nx Zombie a,  3x Zombie b,  Crate (Omamori),  Crate (Blue N / Red N),
       nx5x Mini-Vampire a
 A8 | Jack P,  6x Mini-Vampire b
 A9 | Skull Bishop 1 (mid-boss)

- I'd go with the Blue Shot. Makes B1 a bit less tough (if you can manage
to keep the level up).
- A7: A pretty tough section thanks to the tight spaces and randomness.
You need to take the left path to proceed, but there's an Omamori in the
middle that's a bit risky to get, but would really help avoid FP damage
when fighting the boss (*if* you don't lose the shield before the boss).
Furthermore, it makes it easier to get through on the left side, as it
creates a pause in the bat spawning and allows you to take out the last
blue zombie, who might otherwise slow you down.
- Right, so, go in from the right and quickly take out the blue zombie
going down the left path as you're grabbing the Omamori (usually the
zombie won't respawn even if you don't kill it, but it's best not to
risk it). If you hit the crate with the note on the other side, you can
grab it with oharai. Go down from the right to the horizontal level where
you access the left path. You can take out the two blue zombies that spawn
in your way, but it's not strictly necessary. When you take the left path,
slide past the demon statue. If the bats are spawning, stay on the right
side of the path and go as far north as you safely can. You'll be between
the two demon statues. Shoot southwest to take out a couple of bats, then
quickly slip through. This is *much* less safe than creating a spawn delay,
since there could also be zombies spawning *very* aggressively. A video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK-Uh4E6smI
- If you happen to get a Komainu from the 7G, you could use that to just
cruise all the way to the boss, but then you'd have to skip the Omamori,
You can't pick it up while riding a Komainu (you *can*, but nothing happens).

                          HP           Dmg
 Skull Bishop 1        | 1025 |     | 2 |1/2/0|

- A9: He has three attacks: 1, a ring of flame (1 pod), 2, an ice beam (0
pod), and 3, a double chakram (2 pod). He moves in quick bursts and largely
sticks to the northern side of the battlefield. He won't use the same attack
twice in a row except possibly when he moves twice in a row between attacks,
which happens after every seven attacks.
- The ring of flame can be avoided with basic movement so long as you're
cardinally aligned and not too close. Ie. if he's north of you, just move
directly left or right. Diagonal movement is often not enough. Resort to
a slide if you're misaligned or too close (not uncommon given how quickly
he warps all over the place and the fact that you kind of *need* to get
closer in order to avoid the double chakram).
- The ice beam is of little concern, as it's strictly linear in only one
possible direction. It doesn't even deal any damage. It just freezes you
in place for a while, meaning you probably can't avoid the next attack.
- The double chakram homes in on you pretty aggressively (without straight
up following you around) or at least the closer one does. There's a safe
spot right in front of the boss (or behind), and using that is the ideal
way to avoid it. If you can't make it there in time, you can just slide
away, but don't do it too early.
- Nothing you can deflect.
- Flashes when below 256 HP (technically below 512 HP, since he's got
1280 HP, but the battle ends once he's below 256).

 B1 | nx Mini-Vampire c,  1+1+2x Bota Slime a,  Joker a,
       Crate (Blue N / Red N),  Crate (Omamori)

- B1: One of the toughest parts in the whole game. Bats will come at
you from all directions. They move slowly at first, but then dash at
you in a straight line after a little while. After 16 seconds, the
first slime spawns. Take out all the slimes, and the Joker spawns.
The bats stop spawning at this point. Take out the Joker, and the two
crates appear and you can proceed.
- As long as you manage to avoid dying here, that's good enough.

 B2 | Ma Djinn (mid-boss),  Crate (Odango)

                          HP           Dmg
 Ma Djinn              | 1536 |     | 2 |2/1|
 Shield Cloud           | 256 |     | 1 | - |

- B2: This one's pretty easy. There's a pot in each corner. He'll appear
from one pot and move to a pot in an adjacent corner. He'll throw a
flame at you when you're aligned, but you can easily avoid it with
regular movement unless you're too close (easily happens when he's
moving at the bottom). Every four cycles he'll turn into a cloud and
chase you while surrounded by five protective clouds that can be broken
up briefly by hitting them. Don't get greedy and get trapped in a corner.
Get some hits in at the beginning, but then focus on evasion. Move around
him (counter-)clockwise. Soon, he'll give up on chasing you and start
retreating towards one of the pots while shooting a few waves of eight
cloud projectiles in a 360 spread (can't deflect). The crate appears
once he's down.

- The last part of the level mostly revolves around moving segments of
the mountain that can block your path, crush you (4 pod, shot level down),
or push you into a pit (4 pod).

 C1 | -
 C2 | Bota Slime b,  Crate (Blue N)
 C3 | Bota Slime b,  Mini-Vampire b,  Dokurock b
 C4 | 3x Dokurock b,  Crate (Jutsu)
 C5 | Bota Slime b
 C6 | 3x Bota Slime b,  Crate (5x Mini-Vampire d)
 C7 | 3x Mini-Vampire b,  Crate (Omamori)
 C8 | Joker b
 C9 | Bota Slime b,  Dokurock b
C10 | 2x Mini-Vampire b,  Dokurock b
C11 | Bota Slime b,  Joker b
C12 | 5x Mini-Vampire b,  2x Dokurock b,  Crate (Odango)
C13 | Bota Slime b,  Crate (Red N)
C14 | Bota Slime b,  Crate (Blue N)
C15 | Skull Bishop 2 (boss)

- C7: Stay off the wider area (where the crate is) until you've taken
out the Joker. If you go in, he could spawn right on top of you.
- C11: Again, if you're unlucky, the Joker might spawn right on top of
you. This time, you may not be able to avoid the risk, as the safe area
is the area that's periodically blocked by the moving mountainside. You
can still stay there for a while, though.
- C13-14: This is the longest crushing section. With two slimes and two
crates in your way, you shouldn't try to clear out everything in one go
(although it's possible).

                          HP           Dmg
 Skull Bishop 2        | 1409 |     | 2 |1/2/0|

- C15: He's still using the same three attacks, but this time he can
move around more freely. This doesn't really make things much harder
aside from the added the possibility of getting bodyslammed. And watch
out for the pits on the left and right sides of the battlefield.
- Flashes when below 256 HP (technically below 512 HP. since he's got
1664 HP, but he dies once he goes below 256 HP).


         -------------------------------
        |  Stage 4 - Oozora no Gekisen  |
         -------------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         550 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Baribaaru        | 256 | 320 | 384 | 4 | 1 |
 Fuu                    |  16 |     | 2 | - |
 Dokurock b             |   - |     | 2 | - |
 Mini Vampire e         |   4 |     | 1 | 1 |
 Mini Vampire f         |   2 |     | 1 | 1 |
 Joker b                |  96 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Captain Hige a         |32512|     | 2 | 1 |
 Captain Hige b/c       | 512 |     | - |2/1|
 Captain Hige d         | 256 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Devil Face 1           | 384 |     | - | 1 |
 Orb Gate               | 192 |     | - | - |
 Hige Sniper a    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |
 Hige Sniper b    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |
 Hige Sniper c    | 128 | 160 | 192 | 2 | 1 |
 Hige Jumper            |  96 |     | 2 | - |


      Map

                        |
       6 |              |
       5 |              |
       4 |              |
     C 3 |  B           |
       2 |4321        D |
       1 |----          |
           3 |          |
         A 2 |          |
           1 |          |
                        |

 A1 | -
 A2 | 4x Otama (Red N),  4x Otama (Blue N),  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 A3 | Baribaaru

- A2: Again, I recommend the Blue Shot.
- A3: The first Baribaaru is either the easiest or hardest of the three,
depending on how you handle the other two. While the first one doesn't
have any other enemies present, it's the only one where you *have* to
dance around to avoid the bolts. Doing it consistently takes practice.
The Baribaaru moves more right than left, so the ideal position is fairly
close. Getting into position safely is rather tricky, since the Baribaaru
starts taking potshots at you from a varying position soon after you get
on the bridge. You can just risk it and go in and hope for the best or
you can try to figure out the Baribaaru's heading based on the incoming
shots, but you'd also have to avoid those shots.

 B1 | nx2x3x Mini-Vampire e,  nx Fuu
 B2 | nx Dokurock,  nx Fuu
 B3 | Eagle (7G),   2xnx Fuu
 B4 | nx Dokurock,  2xnx Fuu

- B1: A tricky part thanks to the infinite respawns. There are two groups
of three bats (the first batch often has only two for some reason) that
split up and surround you. The bats briefly stop in two spots, where they
may shoot a projectile at you. If you go in without a plan, you can easily
end up in a situation where you've got shots and the Fuu coming at you at
the same time. Note that the skulls at the ends of the bridges can block
your shots. They won't shield you from a Fuu, though.
- With the Blue Shot, you can keep things simple and use the fastest
method, where you go right in, guns blazing, and take out both groups
just before the Fuu charges at you.
- Without the Blue Shot, you can forget about taking out all of the bats
and instead slip past the gap between the cycles. As for dealing with
the Fuu, you can either take it out *as* you're going through the gap
(single cycle method) or take it out during one gap while you're still
on the bridge and move through using the next gap (two cycle method).
- Either way, get familiar with the spawn points and shot points. The
bats start spawning once the little patch of snow in the upper left is
pretty much completely visible. The Fuu starts spawning once some of the
dead tree in the upper left becomes visible. The bats' first shot point
becomes visible at the same time as the Fuu's spawn point.
- Single cycle method: Get close to the Fuu's spawn point. Once the bats
pass the first shot point, just go in and mow down the Fuu as you're
going through the gap. Here's a video (I have the Blue Shot, but still):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHapSVusqw4
- Two cycle method: Get close to the Fuu's spawn point and wait for the
bats to reach the second shot point. Avoid the shots as you move forward
to spawn the Fuu. Take out the Fuu, then start getting off the bridge
while deflecting whatever the respawning bats throw at you in the first
shot point. As they move out of the way, you can proceed. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVd_hZkVA38
- With either of the previous two methods, there will be rocks appearing
very close to the tree with the eagle, so you'll have to be more careful
in B3.

- B2: However you make it past the B1 enemies, be quick and slide left
twice to pass this screen. Your goal is to be fast enough that you'll make
it through before any of Dokurocks manage to spawn and block your path.
- The normal method to get through involves just waiting for an ideal
opening to slide through. Nearly all of the rocks change direction on
their first bounce when they appear (ie. if it's initially going left,
it will bounce right and vice versa). It could take a little while
before a good window emerges and before you actually learn to recognize
one. The rocks don't bounce high enough to let you go underneath them.
While you're waiting for that window, try to scroll the screen far enough
ahead that you don't have to worry about the B1 enemies. When you slide
through, you'll be right next to a Fuu spawn.

- B3: Take out the B2 Fuu, then hit the 7G eagle without moving forward
much (unless there are Dokurocks raining on you). Grab the items you
want while preparing to take care of the B2 Fuu again. Without the Blue
Shot, you won't be able to hit the eagle without spawning the first Fuu.
- There are two Fuus ahead of you. The first one spawns by the green
tree when you reach the eagle. The second one spawns southwest of the
first one once the next dead tree is mostly visible. Even without the
Blue Shot, you can easily take out both at the same time if you just
back away a bit. Don't forget about the B2 Fuu.
- In the unlikely event that the 7G gives you the dog power up, you can
use it to safely pass the next few screens (up to C3).

- B4: Getting through the second rolling rock section without taking
a hit is rather difficult. There's more space, but there are also two
Fuu spawns to contend with: one at the beginning, on the south side of
the path, and another near the end, on the north side of the path. The
second Fuu from B3 will also be an issue until you've scrolled the screen
ahead. You can't just speed through before the rocks start spawning like
you can in B2.
- Because of the sheer randomness of the rocks, there really is no simple,
one-size-fits-all solution here. I'd say the best course of action is
to slide from the dead tree so you'll be just north of the first Fuu,
take out the Fuu, then see if there's an opening that allows you to
avoid the second Fuu and slip past the rocks simultaneously with a
down-left slide. If there isn't, take out the second Fuu and hope some
kind of opening presents itself before the Fuus start respawning.
- It's quite common to get a pattern that allows you to use a down-left
slide to get through unscathed without having to kill the first Fuu,
as seen in the video below. With enough practice, you could learn to
recognize the patterns that are not favorable, but there's really no
need to go that far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kBeWD-cMI0

 C1 | 3x Mini-Vampire f,  nx Fuu,  Crate (Ocha)
 C2 | Baribaaru,  5x Mini-Vampire f
 C3 | Joker b,  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 C4 | Baribaaru,  nx4+4+6x Mini-Vampire e
 C5 | 4x Otama (Blue N),  4x Otama (Red N),  4xnx Fuu
 C6 | 4 + 2x4 + 4 + 2x3 + 8 + 8 + 2x4x Mini-Vampire e,  2xnx Fuu

- C1~2: The C1 bats spawn once you've scrolled the screen all the way
left. The third bat pops up right by the crate, so watch out. Take out
the Fuu first and try to take care of the bats before it respawns.
- Take out the Fuu again, then press against the mountainside where the
Fuu spawns to scroll the screen north enough to spawn the C2 bats (two
on the left, three on the right) without getting any bolts. You can
take out four of the bats without scrolling the screen any farther,
so do so while also being ready for the respawning Fuu. If you happen
to scroll the screen back south a bit too much, the fourth bat (the
second on the left) will be out of range. In this case, you should
probably go press against the mountainside again, so as not to risk
getting bolts. Either way, the third bat on the right is the one that's
the farthest away. Take out the Fuu again, then move up along the
mountainside and fire a few shots to take out the last bat and quickly
get in line with the bridge to avoid the bolts.
- You're safe from the bolts when in line with the bridge and not on it,
so once the bats are gone, you can easily take out the Baribaaru while
standing at the very beginning of the bridge (between the skulls).
Whether you still have to worry about the Fuu or not depends on how far
north the screen has scrolled. If you can still see a clear line of snow
in the spot at the base of the mountainside where the Fuu spawns, then
it hasn't scrolled far north enough yet. You don't really have much
time to check for that, but if you take a couple of steps forward on
the bridge (watch for the bolts), that should be enough.

- C3: Keep shooting as you move up along the left side of the bridge.
Although unlikely, the Joker might spawn at the end of the bridge and
block you, in which case the only way to avoid a hit (as Sayo) is to
take him out before he gets the shot. If he's not already getting hit
the moment he appears, you won't make it. Generally, he won't spawn
in line with the bridge, but even then, you should stay on the bridge
until you manage to take him out. If you get off the bridge, bats will
start spawning and you might even get bolts.

- C4: There are two bridges here. Ostensibly, you're supposed to take
out the Baribaaru while also avoiding the bats. While it's certainly
an interesting challenge, you can forego all of that by scrolling the
screen forward just enough so that you can hit the Baribaaru from the
safe spot between the bridges. Approach the ledge between the bridges
and observe the bolts to determine which side the Baribaaru is approaching.
You have a small, safe window (safe from the bolts, anyway) to get on
either bridge just as the Baribaaru reaches the end of its path and
turns back. Left bridge for the left end, right for right. In either
case, you have to watch out for the bats and their shots, mainly the
group that spawns from the right. They cross the beginning of the right
bridge and have a shot point almost right in front of the safe spot.
When coming off the bridge, your movement has to be pretty precise to
avoid scrolling the screen back down. The aforementioned bat group might
not be an issue anymore once you're shooting at the Baribaaru. With a
Lv2 or 3 Blue Shot, you can just keep shooting (maybe move just a little
bit to the right), but otherwise, go with deflect.
- If you get on one of the bridges and get close to the lightning, you're
largely safe from the bolts, as you only have to worry about it when the
Baribaaru gets close to you, but it's still far from safe, since you also
have to worry about the bats and the lightning that jumps around a bit.
- Once the Baribaaru is down, go up the left bridge, but try not to bump
into any bats. The bats that spawn from the left side and move up along
the left side of the left bridge are the ones that could easily shoot
you in the back at the beginning of C5. Once you're off the bridge, they
can no longer spawn.

- C5: There are four Fuus. Their spawn points are roughly diamond-shaped
sideways. Stick to the left side, which is where the Otamas with the Blue
Note appear. All you need to do for a safe passage is take out the bottom
and left Fuus, then you can just avoid the other two.

- C6: The screen will lock in place, and bats will start spawning. You
can proceed after 38 seconds regardless of whether you defeat any of
the bats or not. For starters, get the Fuus out of synch. When you first
reach the area, take out the left Fuu while avoiding the right one (just
once). Stay somewhere around the middle. Try to take out the bats as
quickly as you can, but always prioritize the respawning Fuus. The most
dangerous bats are the ones that appear from the top and move in a
'rectangular' wave pattern (the 4th wave and the last wave). Of all the
groups, they have the earliest shot point (two of them, in fact), so
unless you take them out very quickly, you're going to have some bullets
coming your way.
- Here's where bats come from:
 1-TM  2-TL&TR  3-BM  4-TL  5-TR  6-TM  7-BM  8-TL&TR

- The rest of the stage is an auto-scrolling segment that takes place
aboard an airship. The scrolling shifts direction at times, as seen
below. I've marked each stretch of the scrolling with alphabets. The
length of each stretch is: a: 17s, b: 6s, c: 23s, d: 5s, e: 17s, f: 6s,
g: 22s, h: 6s, i: 48s.
- Try to take advantage of shot canceling when attacking Orb Gates and
Devil Faces.
- There are some small parts with missing railing, so it's technically
possible to take fall damage, but it's very unlikely in practice.

- a: Ignore the cap'n and move to the left side. You can take out the
first Devil Face if you want, but it's really not necessary, and if you
want the Odango, you don't really have time for it.

- b: Don't bother attacking the second Devil Face. If you made the mistake
of taking the right path in a, you'll have to watch out for the Devil Face
as you make your way to the gate on the left.
- Stand a little left of the center of the gate to avoid shots from the
sniper up ahead.

- c: There are three snipers. The first one is a little right of center.
The other two are on the left and right sides.
- Captain Hige makes his second appearance here and sticks around until
the end of the stretch or until you take him down (he'll still appear
later even if you do).
- You basically have two options here. 1, you take out Hige and make
things easier during the rest of c, while e becomes a little trickier.
Or 2, you let Hige stick around while you try to take out gates 5 and
4 on the middle path. This could make c quite a bit trickier (depending
on how quickly you manage to take out the gates, if at all), whereas e
will be a bit easier. 2 is tricky if you have Blue Shot Lv3, since it
can't hit the partially visible gates unless you're at just the right
distance. It *is*, of course, possible to take out both the gates and
Hige, but there's really no need to get that greedy. Even if you go with
1, you could try taking a few shots at the gates just to make them a
little faster to take down later.
- Even with the Lv3 Blue Shot, you can easily take out the two gates if
you find the sweet spot where you can hit both gates at the same time,
shooting diagonally. It's in the center of the path in front of where
the first sniper was. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGJtTzC1c9w
- The Devil Face won't actually fire until d. Either way, you'll need
to take care of it (I mean, not strictly necessary).

- d: You can easily take out the closer one of the two snipers on the
other side. The one farther away is only partially visible and, as such,
has the same hit box issues as the orb gates during c. Finding the right
spot isn't hard (stay a couple of steps away from the wall), but even so,
don't waste too much time on it. If either or both of them survive, they'll
be in your path in g (with full health again if you damaged them without
finishing them off).
- Orb Gate 6 is briefly visible, but you can't damage it yet.

- e: Taking out all the jumpers is technically possible if you took out
gates 4 and 5 earlier, but it's far from necessary. Just focus on avoiding
hits.

D0:00a|
 0:01 | 5x Otama (Blue N)
 0:05 |       Captain Hige a
 0:06 |     Devil Face 1
 0 09 | 2x Orb Gate 1a/1b
 0:10 |  Crate (Odango)
 0:15 |  Crate (Red N)                                 |
 0:17b|                                                |
 0:18 |     Devil Face 2                               |
 0:20 | Orb Gate 2                                    _\
 0:23c|                                               |||
 0:24 |   Hige Sniper a                               |L|
 0:26 |(Orb Gate 5)                                   \
 0:28 |   Hige Sniper a                                |
 0:29 |   Hige Sniper a, (Orb Gate 4)
 0:31 |       Captain Hige b
 0:36 | Orb Gate 3
 0:42 |     Devil Face 3
 0:43 |    Hige Jumper,  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 0:44 |    Hige Jumper
 0:45 |    Hige Jumper
 0:46d|
 0:48 |   Hige Sniper b
 0:51e|   Hige Sniper b
 0:56 |    Hige Jumper
 0:57 |    Hige Jumper
 0:58 | Orb Gate 4
 0:59 |    2x Hige Jumper,  Hige Sniper d
 1:00 |    Hige Jumper
 1:01 | Orb Gate 5
 1:02 |    3x Hige Jumper
 1:06 |    2x Hige Jumper
 1:08f|
 1:14g|       Captain Hige c
 1:26 |  (2x Hige Sniper b)
 1:32 | Orb Gate 6
 1:36h|
 1:38 |     Devil Face 4
 1:39 |   2x Hige Sniper a
 1:41 | Orb Gate 7
 1:42i|  Crate (Ocha)
 1:49 |   2x Hige Sniper c
 1:57 |   2x Hige Sniper b,  2x Devil Face
 1:59 | Orb Gate 8
 2:02 | Orb Gate 9
 2:06 |   3x Hige Sniper a
 2:09 | 1+1x Orb Gate 10a/10b,   2x Hige Jumper
 2:10 |  Crate (Omamori)(left),  Crate (Jutsu)(right)
 2:12 | 1+1x Orb Gate 11a/11b
 2:13 | 1+1x Orb Gate 12a/12b,   Captain Hige d
 2:17 |  Crate (Odango)(left),   Crate (Blue N / Red N)(right)
 2:22 |    3x Hige Jumper
 2:30 | Harpyt (boss)

- g: You have plenty of time to take care of Captain Hige this time.

- h: The two snipers are right ahead of you after Orb Gate 6. You can
go ahead and ignore them and head straight for the next gate coming up
on the left.

- i: Get to the right side after gate 7, but watch out for sniper fire
(the first two are the spread shot type). You'll want to be on the right
side, because the left upcoming Devil Face fires first.
- There are two snipers and two Devil Faces in front of the next gates.
Don't waste your time on them. The sniper ahead of you should only fire
once, giving you a window to slip past. If you miss the window, get in
the safe spot between the sniper and the Devil Face, and take out the
sniper from there.
- After gates 8 & 9, you'll be going through a bottleneck with three
snipers ahead. There's just enough space between the lines of fire to
avoid getting hit, but if you're not confident you can position your
character correctly, you can just dodge (the middle one will be out of
synch with the other two, so you can just move out of the way as needed)
or deflect instead. I wouldn't bother attacking them. You could maybe
take out the closer one of the two jumpers, but even that's not necessary.
- In the last part, you have to choose between the left and right sides
again, with three gates and two crates on both sides. Take the left side
if you're not using Jutsus. Otherwise, take the right. Try to take out
two of the three gates before Captain Hige shows up. That way you can
easily take him out even if you only have a linear shot. It's easier
on the left side, where you'll want to shoot diagonally from the outer
edge of the path left from where the crate was. On the right side, you
start by mirroring the left side positioning, but you have to briefly
move south to avoid the third bomb he throws. Then again, if you're
quick enough, he'll go down before he even gets to the third one. Indeed,
if you take him out quickly, you can pretty easily get both of the two
latter items. If you're too slow to set things up, you should just focus
on avoiding the bombs (stay at the bottom) and taking down the gates.
Even if you manage to take out Hige a little later, you probably won't
be able to get both of the latter items, since you likely hit the other
crate unintentionally, leading to the item despawning before you get to it.
 - It *is* possible to get all four items if you're fast enough, but
 it's a bit too risky to be worth it.

                          HP           Dmg
 Harpyt                | 2048 |     | 2 | 1 |

- Harpyt may initially feel like a brutal boss, but once you know what
to do, it's really quite simple.
- She has only two attacks: a feather shot and a dive attack. Instead
of dancing around, trying to avoid the feathers, the easiest way to
handle them is to deflect them while facing northeast and standing a
little left of the center. Get a few shots in whenever the boss moves
to the right side.
- After shooting seven (or possibly eight) series of feathers, she'll
fly away to do her dive attack. There are two slightly different ones.
One where she appears a little left of center from the top, one where
she appears a little right of center. In both cases, you're supposed
to be at the bottom of the screen and slide away at the last moment,
preferably directly left or right, as sliding diagonally isn't always
enough. The main significance between the two versions is that they
determine from which side of the screen she reappears afterwards. Left
side for left, right side for right. If it's the left, she'll fire an
extra series of feathers before getting to her usual position on your
right. Her positioning during the feather attack phase indeed depends
on your current position.
- A more aggressive approach involves avoiding the feathers with minimal
movement while taking as many shots as you can in the process. You can
indeed easily avoid the feathers coming from the right by moving a little
right and the feathers coming from the left by moving back left. Nothing
more to it, *except* when she does the extra feather shot after the left
dive attack. So long as you're paying attention and you see it coming,
you can just block it and then get to the usual program. Here's a video
(NSFW):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQEtqLUekE
- Flashes when below 512 HP.


         -----------------------------
        |  Stage 5 - Machiukeru Wana  |
         -----------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         550 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Gate                   | 256 |     | - | - |
 Barrel                 | 136 |     | 1 | 2 |
 Rouban a (green) |  64 |  96 | 128 | 2 | 1 |
 Rouban b (red)         | 128 |     | 2 | - |
 Thrown Barrel          | 256 |     | 2 | - |
 Canterror              |  64x|     | - | 1 |
 Dokurock c             |   - |     | - | 1 |
 Rouban c (blue)        |  96 |     | 2 | 1 |
 One-Hand               |  64 |     | 2 | - |
 Devil Face 2           | 256 |     | 2 | 2 |
 Pukapuka Strong        |  64 |     | 2 | - |
 Mechashare Koueihei    |  64 |     | - | 1 |
 Tekkyuu                |   - |     | 2 | - |


      Map

                             6 |
                             5 |
                             4 |
                           H 3 | G
               | 6           2 |321
               | 5           1 |---| 6
               | 4                 | 5
            B  | 3 C               | 4
         123456| 2               E | 3 F
         ------| 1             1234| 2
       4 |                     ----| 1
     A 3 |                   3 |
       2 |                 D 2 |
       1 |                   1 |


 A1 | Crate (Blue N)
 A2 | 4x Otama (Red N),  4x Otama (Red N),  Gate
 A3 | 2x Rouban a,  Crate (Blue N),  Barrel
 A4+| 4x Rouban a,  Rouban b,  3x Barrel

- A4: There are two sets of stairs, with the left one blocked by a red
guard impersonating Donkey Kong. Just take the right one, but be prepared
for the green guard right ahead of you. Better not waste time taking out
the red guard.

 B1 | Canterror,  2x Crate (Blue N / Red N),  Rouban a
 B2 | 2x Rouban a
 B3 | 3x Rouban a,  2x Dokurock c
 B4 | 3x Barrel,  Canterror,  Rouban a
 B5 | 2x Dokurock c,  2x Barrel,  Rouban c,  3x Rouban a,  Crate (Ocha)
 B6+| 2x Canterror,  3x Rouban a

- B3: There's a guard right after the Dokurocks. If you slide from too close
and you're in his line of fire, you may not have enough time to deflect.
- B4: A guard will spawn behind you once the third barrel is fully visible.
- B5: The blue guard spawns once a bit of the barrels is visible, a green
guard spawns from the right once half of the barrels is visible, and another
green guard spawns from the left once the two barrels are fully visible (or
once the crate is almost visible). The B4 Canterror will still be an issue
up until the last guard spawns.
- B6: You're looking at five guards (three in B6, two in C1) backed up by
Canterrors: Top lane, bottom lane, bottom lane, middle lane, top lane.
- C1: 3rd green guard spawns behind you once you scroll all the way right.

 C1 | 3x Rouban a,  Rouban b
 C2 | 2x Rouban c,  2x Rouban a,  Barrel
 C3 | Canterror, Rouban c,  Barrel
 C4 | 3x Dokurock c,  Rouban b,  Rouban a
 C5 | 3x Canterror,  2x Rouban c,  Rouban a,  Gate
 C6 | 4x Rouban a,  Rouban c,  Crate (Ocha),  Crate (Blue N / Red N),  Gate

- C5: The green guard spawns behind you once the gate is fully visible
(and them some). Take him out before you do anything about the gate.
Knock out the first Canterror, then move forward just enough to spawn
the guard southwest from you. Take him out, then move left so you can
hit the gate diagonally. Once the gate is down, knock out the first
Canterror and get closer to the gate so it can't hit you anymore.
- The next part is tough. Deal some damage to both of the Canterrors by
the destroyed gate, so you can knock them out about the same time. Once
they're out, you need to move in so they can't hit you anymore.
- C6: Four guards will be coming at you, and you can't exactly retreat
because you'd just be greeted by the Canterrors (also, the screen locks
once you scroll it all the way north). Take out one diagonally, slide to
the corresponding corner, take out the one north from you, then slide north
and the rest should be easy. Something like that. As long you don't die,
you're fine. There's a full heal and two Blue Notes in the next area
(although you might want to switch to red now). Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iri4L8U6QmE

 D1 | -
 D2 | Crate (Odango),  Crate (Blue N),  4x Otama (Blue N),  4x Otama (Red N)
 D3 | 2x One-Hand,  Devil Face 2

- D3: Don't go in too fast and certainly not from the left. Take out the
One-Hands before you make a move on the Devil Face.

 E1 | 2xnx Pukapuka Strong
 E2 | 2x One-Hand,  Devil Face 2
 E3 | 2xnx Pukapuka Strong,  Crate (Red N)
 E4 | nx Pukapuka Strong,  Devil Face 2

- E1: Don't move forward too fast. You don't want to get pincered by the
Pukapukas and One-Hands. And don't try to leave any Pukapukas behind you.
They *will* catch up with you.

 F1 | nx Tekkyuu,  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 F2 | nx Tekkyuu
 F3 | nx Tekkyuu,  2x Mecha Koueihei
 F4 | nx Tekkyuu,  3x Mecha Koueihei,  Crate (Ocha)
 F5 | nx Tekkyuu,  2x Mecha Koueihei
 F6 | nx Tekkyuu

- F1~: Use a diagonal slide to get to a safe spot faster. I wouldn't
recommend sliding through the balls even if you've got the hang of the
timing, since there could easily just be another ball right behind them.
Use it only as a last resort.
- F4: You really shouldn't have taken damage in D or E, but if you did,
better go grab the tea. You'll need to come back after getting it, though.
Following the left lane from the crate would take you all the way to the
end, but it's the longest stretch with no safe spots, so I don't think
you should risk it. Take the right lane instead. If you can't see that
far ahead, go up along the left safe area first to scroll the screen up.
- F5: Go with the right lane. If you can't see the safe spot, push
against the south wall, then the north wall, and that should fix it.
Either way, this is the longest stretch on the easiest path, but it's
not that bad. The balls aren't that frequent on this lane.

 G1 | 2x Pukapuka Strong,  Devil Face 2
 G2 | Pukapuka Strong,  nx Tekkyuu,  Crate (Omamori),  Furnace (7G)
 G3 | Pukapuka Strong,  nx Tekkyuu

- If you get a Komainu, don't take it. You need to be able to take out
those Pukapukas as soon as they spawn.

 H1 | Devil Face 2,  2x One-Hand,  Crate (Blue N / Red N)
 H2 | 3x One-Hand
 H3 | Devil Face 2,  2x Mecha Koueihei,  2x One-Hand
 H4 | 2x Devil Face 2
 H5 | 3x One-Hand, Crate (Blue N), Crate(Blue/Red), Crate (Red N), Crate(Ocha)
 H6 | Dr. Lee (boss)

- H3: Don't let the skeletons distract you from the One-Hands. Focus
on those first.
- H4: Get behind the wall in the middle and wait until it's safe to
move to the left (or right) side. You'll have a decent amount of time
to take out the Devil Face north of you (on Hard, you need the Red
Shot). Next, bait the remaining one to shoot south, then circle around
the wall to get close.
- H5: Try not to hit the crates until you've taken out the One-Hands.
One of them spawns ahead of you in the middle once the latter crates
are fully visible. If you have Red Shot Lv3, you should move to the
side and take out the One-Hand horizontally to avoid hitting the crates.
Going a bit farther north will trigger the other two. They spawn on
the left and right to pincer you. As long as you already took out the
northern one, you can just move a little north (close to the same level
as the first two crates), turn around and blast them away. If you move
too far north, the left one will move north, and you could easily get
blindsided. If you don't think you can handle them for some reason, you
can fall back south and despawn them.
- Here's what the crates have:
    Blue N / Red N       Ocha
    Blue N               Red N

 Dr. Lee               | 2049 |     | 1 | 1 |  20k |
 Black Bat        |  32 |  32 |  32 | 2 | - |   50 |

- H6: Dr. Lee is potentially the hardest boss in the game (at least
without Jutsus). He has two forms/phases: human and bat. Phase 1 ends
once you've dealt 513 pod. In Phase 2, he has 1536 HP.

- In Phase 1, he'll fly all over the place in quick bursts while mostly
sending out numerous small, white bats (1 pod) that you have to deflect.
He can also send a black bat directly at you (2 pod). Worst of all,
though, is the trap floor. The floor is divided into six horizontal
segments that are randomly electrified (or something)(2 pod). At most,
two segments are affected simultaneously. The devices on the sides will
flash when a segment is about to become active, but even so, you only
have a fraction of a second to react. And even if you get off one
segment in time, the adjacent one might be going online as well. You
can make life so much easier for you by positioning your character in
a safe spot between the segments (and then shooting diagonally). You
get the best damage in the second gap from the bottom, but it does
leave a small possibility of Lee (or the black bats surrounding him)
bodyslamming you. Go with the first gap if you'd rather not risk it.

- In Phase 2, Lee slowly flies around while surrounding himself with
bats that block your shots and charge at you 3 seconds after spawning.
These are the same kind of bats as the black ones in Phase 1. They have
32 HP while swirling around Lee, but can be dispatched with just one
hit when they're charging at you. He can summon at most 9 of them at
the same time. After about 4 seconds, the bats stop spawning and Lee
tries to bodyslam you. This leaves him vulnerable for a while before
the cycle repeats.

- If you can make it to Phase 2 with a Lv3 shot, you don't really have
anything to worry about. Blue or red, doesn't matter. Blue is better
in Phase 1, whereas Red is better in Phase 2. Either way, you'll mow
down those bats easily. Then you just back away a bit when he tries to
bodyslam you. Lv2 is substantially less effective, but still ok. Even
if you can't take out all the bats, you'll still be fine so long as
the remaining bats are ones that spawned later, meaning they won't be
coming at you when you evade Lee's bodyslam. Even without swooping at
you, though, the bats might still hit you if Lee gets too close.

- With a low level shot (and no Jutsus), Phase 2 may seem unbeatable,
what with the bats easily doing 6 pod per cycle. However, with just the
right strategy and solid execution, it's still doable. Since you can't
take out enough of the bats (and you shouldn't even try), you have to
avoid as many as you can and deflect the remaining ones. This is fairly
challenging. For starters, you need favorable positioning. Ideally,
Lee will be vertically in the middle on the left or right side. You
can then avoid a varying number of bats by moving counter-clockwise
when he's on the right and clockwise when he's on the left. It works
better when he's on the right, possibly allowing you to avoid all the
bats with just regular movement. If it doesn't seem like that's going
to happen, switch to deflecting or maybe use a slide. When he's on the
left, you'll need to switch to deflecting after avoiding a few or so
bats. It's usually best to use a charge attack (except when playing as
Manuke). To an extent, you can manipulate his movements to create the
favorable positioning you need. You can sort of "push" him away by
moving in his direction. Indeed, you'll typically switch sides after
each cycle. Sometimes, though, things just won't work in favor. He might
go too far north or south or stay right in the middle. In any case,
he should go down in 7 cycles. If you can avoid damage on a few cycles
and don't take more than one hit on the others, you'll be fine.

- Flashes when below 512 HP.
- A few videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdggLmoNxMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amvY4ing-Gw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0RhtemGck8



         --------------------------------
        |  Stage 6 - Kessen! Kuro Manto  |
         --------------------------------

                           HP          Dmg         550 T
Enemies:           Easy  Norm. Hard   a   b
 Zabaon                 |  64 |     | 2 | 1 |
 Armor Guard            |  48 |     | 2 | - |
 Mad Spider             |  96 |     | 4 | 1 |
 Cerberus               | 320 |     | 4 | 2 |


        B1

      12 |
      11 |
      10 |
       9 |
       8 |
       7 |
     A 6 |
       5 |
       4 |
       3 |
       2 |
       1 |

 A1 | -
 A2 | 6x Otama (Red N),  3x Otama (Blue N),  Zabaon
 A3 | nx Armor Guard,  3x Otama (Red N)
 A4 | Mad Spider,     Cerberus
 A5 | 2x Zabaon,      nx Armor Guard,  Crate (Blue N),  Crate (Jutsu)
 A6 | Cerberus,       nx Armor Guard,  2x Zabaon
 A7 | 2x Mad Spider,  Cerberus
 A8 | 4x Zabaon,      nx Armor Guard
 A9 | 2x Zabaon,      nx Armor Guard,  Mad Spider
A10 | Cerberus,  Crate (Red N),  Crate (Blue N)
A11 | 4x Armor Guard,  2x Crate (Ocha)
A12+| Dark Freed (mid-boss)

- A7: This is pretty much the trickiest part of the level. Two spiders
at the same time with no option of bypassing them thanks to the Cerberus
behind them. Especially with high level shots, you need to be careful
and not hit both spiders around the same time (unless they're moving in
synch). The easiest way to handle this is scrolling the screen ahead
only enough to see the first spider, so that there's simply no way for
you to hit the other one. The second one will still be shooting lasers
at you, so you'll need to be ready to dodge those.

- A8: Don't let the Armor Guards distract you too much from the Zabaons.
Take it slow to be safe.

- A9: A spider backed up by Armor Guards. This would be worse than the
double spider encounter were it not for the fact that you can (and should)
get behind this one. Another option is the same thing you did with the
twin spiders; only scroll the screen ahead enough that you can hit it.
Not only do you get more time to avoid the lasers, this makes it easier
to dispatch the Armor Guards without hitting the spider and you also
can't unintentionally hit the A10 crates with a Lv3 Red Shot.

 Dark Freed            | 2560 |     | 1 |1/2|  10k |

- A12: Dark Freed slowly moves left and right, trying to align itself
with you. When you're in its line of sight, it sends out a fast, linear
attack (1 pod) that you can still evade with normal movement. After 9
seconds, the shield attacks by spewing out some flames (2 pod), and then
the sword attacks by flying at you (2 pod). You'll need to use regular
movement to avoid the flames and you need to have enough space. Use a
slide for the sword (walking tends to be enough, but better not risk it).
- Flashes when below 512 HP.

 B1 | Kuro Manto

 Kuro Manto            | 4096 |     | 2 | 1 |  40k |
 Gargoyle Statue       |  640 |     | - | 1 | 8000 |

- You have to take out the two Gargoyle Statues first. When both statues
are still intact, Kuro Manto is invincible. During this time, there
are two attack phases: one where the statues attack you and one where
Kuro Manto attacks you. The battle starts with the statues attacking
you. They take turns in shooting four fireball spread shots four times.
The shots are very fast and can't be deflected, so you have to dodge
correctly and without hesitation or you *will* get hit. Stay in the
middle at the bottom and move a little bit left for the left statue's
shots and a little bit right for the right statue's shots. Listen to
the audio cues. While you could attack the statues during this phase,
doing so without getting hit is tricky, and the limited damage you'd
get out of it is not worth the risk. Destroying one statue is enough
to make Kuro Manto vulnerable, but it will result in the remaining
statue attacking you constantly all the while Kuro Manto attacks you
as well. There's no way you can avoid hits in that situation, so do
your best to take out the statues around the same time.
- The shield that protects Kuro Manto during the statues' attack phase
will indeed damage you on contact (1 pod), but there's no need to get
close to it.

- Kuro Manto has three attacks that are always used in the same order:
 1. He throws two magic balls at the walls, which will then break up
into three projectiles, with the middle one aimed right at you. The
other two shots are of little to no concern. Either way, avoid the
attack by moving down in the middle of the screen.
 2. He throws two pieces of his cloak at you. If it hits you, it does no
damage, but instead binds you in place until you've either gotten hit
or until you do 32 d-pad inputs. The attack is pretty fast, so a slide
may be necessary to avoid it depending on the angle.
 3. A lightning bolt attack that lasts 10 seconds. The bolt seeks you
out fairly quickly, so some sliding will be necessary to avoid it. Try
to move in a rectangle pattern, where you can get a few shots in as
you're moving up. If you have a Lv3 Red Shot, you may want to try and
position your character in a safe spot in front of Kuro Manto, which
will then allow you to unload on Kuro Manto thanks to the secondary
T-fire. Stay vertically aligned with the boss (he's not always in the
same spot even when he's on the same side) and stand just a little bit
south of the second horizontal line you see on the floor (the first one
being right by the northern boundary).
 - While it's easy to get into a 'vertical' safe spot, such as the one
 mentioned above, it's also possible to create a horizontal safe spot,
 from which you could potentially attack the boss with a Lv0 or 1 shot,
 as seen in the third video below. However, it's exceedingly difficult
 to pull off, so it's not really useful in practice. I'm just bringing
 it up to point out that it's there. It exists.
 - Technically, there are two bolts, but in single player, it's not
 very noticeable. In 2P mode, there will indeed be separate bolts for
 each character.

- Flashes when below 512 HP.
- Some videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32CJSqpKosQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZtpCSG4QZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOKfXn6qTOI

- Once you can beat the game on Normal without even getting close to
dying, there's a good chance you can do the same on Hard. You should
also try doing a playthrough where you use the shot type you *don't*
normally use.




e