PSN general discussion/game planning thread

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by boffo

What are your Super Stardust secrets, Icemage? You seem to have incredible scores at everything. I know I've only been playing for a couple of days, so I still need practice to improve, but do you have any other free tips that might get overlooked?

Haha. I have many, many Stardust secrets.

- Protip #1: Don't Die.
This seems like a no-brainer but it's true. The longer you stay alive, the bigger your score multiplier gets. I'm not 100% sure what triggers the multiplier to grow faster, but it does have something to do with destroying lots of things - and destroying many things at the same time accumulates more "credit" towards the next multiplier upgrade.

- Protip #2: Use the right weapons
Everything in the game is color-coded, and everything is specifically weak to one weapon. Watch enemies carefully, and see what color they are - whatever it is, they're weak to that weapon and take (roughly) double damage from it.

- Protip #3: Boost is your friend
The L2 button activates Boost, which does all sorts of good things.
(1) You move very quickly while boosting
(2) You are 100% invulnerable while boosting
(3) Any white bonus tokens you pick up while boosting are worth more points. The first one is worth x2, the second one is worth x3, third one x4, etc. I've gotten as many as x17 off of this, from one of the bonus clusters (see below)

- Protip #4: Activate bonus clusters
Every once in a while you'll hear a wierd noise, followed by an asteroid falling near you that has a bright red hexagon in its "impact zone" with a number in it. Destroy that asteroid activate another one, and repeat. Each one you destroy brings the countdown number down by 1, and if you destroy all of them in sequence in time, immediately after destroying the one marked as "1", you'll get a giant asteroid full of green powerup rocks. BOOST THROUGH this for a huge point bonus (if you get it perfect, can get 1.5 million or more points from this alone!).

There's many, many other tricks in the game - killing enemies in groups, activating shields while you already have shields up, special tricks for beating bosses quickly, special tricks for getting more weapon powerups, etc.

This is why Stardust HD is by far my favorite PSN download - and why I consider it significantly better than Geometry Wars.

[gdreaper]

My tactic: Search and DESTROY !!

[xxmynameisjohnxx]

Dude, the game makes so much more sense now! haha.
I usually use the gold melter on most everything since it has the constant beam, unless it's a specific rock that is easier with a different gun.
And I always break up small pieces and enemys with the gold melter.
hmm.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by xxmynameisjohnxx

Dude, the game makes so much more sense now! haha.
I usually use the gold melter on most everything since it has the constant beam, unless it's a specific rock that is easier with a different gun.
And I always break up small pieces and enemys with the gold melter.
hmm.

You get less "credit" toward your multiplier by using the wrong weapons.

Be VERY careful about using the wrong weapon on asteroids. Hitting any asteroid with the wrong weapon will cause the entire cluster, no matter how large, to disintegrate into many tiny pieces, robbing you of the opportunity to get more multiplier credit, as well as cluttering the battlefield (slows you down and makes things much more dangerous).

There are times when it makes sense to use the wrong weapon, however - for instance, those swarms of little ice cube enemies. The Ice Splitter is really good at taking those things down from a distance, but it's worthless against them when they first spawn. For that, the Rock Crusher is better at taking them down in groups, and the Gold Melter is good for protecting yourself (though bad at actually destroying them in numbers).

Here's another protip:

Bomb ships (the ones that fly at the start of some phases) are most easily taken down using the Gold Melter to start with to knock the bombs off the ship, and then using L1 to switch to the Rock Crusher to break the bomb casings open to get the power up (the bomb casings are green - hence why it destroys the casings fastest).

[xxmynameisjohnxx]

Originally Posted by Icemage

You get less "credit" toward your multiplier by using the wrong weapons.

Be VERY careful about using the wrong weapon on asteroids. Hitting any asteroid with the wrong weapon will cause the entire cluster, no matter how large, to disintegrate into many tiny pieces, robbing you of the opportunity to get more multiplier credit, as well as cluttering the battlefield (slows you down and makes things much more dangerous).

There are times when it makes sense to use the wrong weapon, however - for instance, those swarms of little ice cube enemies. The Ice Splitter is really good at taking those things down from a distance, but it's worthless against them when they first spawn. For that, the Rock Crusher is better at taking them down in groups, and the Gold Melter is good for protecting yourself (though bad at actually destroying them in numbers).

Here's another protip:

Bomb ships (the ones that fly at the start of some phases) are most easily taken down using the Gold Melter to start with to knock the bombs off the ship, and then using L1 to switch to the Rock Crusher to break the bomb casings open to get the power up (the bomb casings are green - hence why it destroys the casings fastest).

Hmm. Good to know.
I'll start playing better, hahaha.
And, one more question...how does the upgrade system work?
I seem to get a ton of upgrades right at the start of round one, but after that they're few and far between, just points.
I've never gotten a ship upgrade either.

Oh, and how do you unlock new planets?

[cyclone87]

Originally Posted by xxmynameisjohnxx

Oh, and how do you unlock new planets?

You have to beat 5 phases of each planet to unlock the next as far as I know. It sounded easy but I really struggled, it took me forever just to beat the first planet.

[xxmynameisjohnxx]

Originally Posted by cyclone87

You have to beat 5 phases of each planet to unlock the next as far as I know. It sounded easy but I really struggled, it took me forever just to beat the first planet.

Dang, I was almost done with the fifth when I died in my last game.
:[

[boffo]

Originally Posted by cyclone87

Are the leaderboard done by regions? I couldn't see your high score Icemage. I managed to get to the rank of about 48000 though

What's your PSN ID? I don't think I have you on my list yet. I'm boffo by the way if you want to add me.

[boffo]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Haha. I have many, many Stardust secrets.

- Protip #1: Don't Die.
This seems like a no-brainer but it's true. The longer you stay alive, the bigger your score multiplier gets. I'm not 100% sure what triggers the multiplier to grow faster, but it does have something to do with destroying lots of things - and destroying many things at the same time accumulates more "credit" towards the next multiplier upgrade.

- Protip #2: Use the right weapons
Everything in the game is color-coded, and everything is specifically weak to one weapon. Watch enemies carefully, and see what color they are - whatever it is, they're weak to that weapon and take (roughly) double damage from it.

- Protip #3: Boost is your friend
The L2 button activates Boost, which does all sorts of good things.
(1) You move very quickly while boosting
(2) You are 100% invulnerable while boosting
(3) Any white bonus tokens you pick up while boosting are worth more points. The first one is worth x2, the second one is worth x3, third one x4, etc. I've gotten as many as x17 off of this, from one of the bonus clusters (see below)

- Protip #4: Activate bonus clusters
Every once in a while you'll hear a wierd noise, followed by an asteroid falling near you that has a bright red hexagon in its "impact zone" with a number in it. Destroy that asteroid activate another one, and repeat. Each one you destroy brings the countdown number down by 1, and if you destroy all of them in sequence in time, immediately after destroying the one marked as "1", you'll get a giant asteroid full of green powerup rocks. BOOST THROUGH this for a huge point bonus (if you get it perfect, can get 1.5 million or more points from this alone!).

There's many, many other tricks in the game - killing enemies in groups, activating shields while you already have shields up, special tricks for beating bosses quickly, special tricks for getting more weapon powerups, etc.

This is why Stardust HD is by far my favorite PSN download - and why I consider it significantly better than Geometry Wars.

Looks like I had already figured out most of that. I figured don't die would have to be the first one. I got up to an 8X multiplier once and then died and that really slows you down. I really should boost more often though. It's something that I don't seem to do as often as I should.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by boffo

Looks like I had already figured out most of that. I figured don't die would have to be the first one. I got up to an 8X multiplier once and then died and that really slows you down. I really should boost more often though. It's something that I don't seem to do as often as I should.

I'll give you guys some more advanced tips.

Weapon Upgrades:
Each upgrade improves the power of that specific weapon by ~7% on the meter. The actual improvement in damage potential is much larger than that, however - the % is just a measure of how close to max power you are.

Bonus tokens/upgrades:
Pay close attention to what you need at any given moment in terms of powerups. Tokens degrade over time, and cycle like this:

Extra Ship (Gold) ->
Shield (Purple) ->
Rock Crusher (Green) ->
Gold Melter (Red) ->
Ice Splitter (Blue) ->
Rock Crusher (Green) ->
Gold Melter (Red) ->
Ice Splitter (Blue) ->
Rock Crusher (Green) ->
Point Bonus (White) ->
Disappear

SUPER SECRET TIP #1:
If you already have a Shield on your ship, picking up another one will activate a Bomb-like effect. This can earn you extra points if there's a lot of stuff nearby.

SUPER SECRET TIP #2:
On the very first planet (Lave), there is a trick to picking up a couple of extra weapon powerups right off the bat. There are two rules that are not posted in the game. One is that there can never be more than THREE non-white bonus tokens on the board at any given moment. The second (and sneaky) rule is that if you don't have at least three total weapon powerups picked up, every new token you spawn will be a weapon powerup (unless there are already 3 on the board, in which case it will spawn as a white bonus token).

So how do you abuse this?

Shoot THREE green powerup rocks out of that big huge asteroid that starts the level. Wait (if necessary) for the weapon powerup tokens to turn green and pick up TWO of them ASAP. LEAVE the last one. You'll get some more small asteroids that fall into the playfield right at the beginning, each with one powerup rock inside. Shoot those and get two MORE weapon powerups. Once you have three on the board, wait (again if necessary) for them to turn green and you'll have a total of FIVE Rock Crusher powerups (rapid-fire twin shot) right off the bat, instead of just THREE random powerups for weapons you may not be using.

NOTE: This trick ONLY works on planet Lave, since it's the only time when you start with 0% power on all weapons. Don't try it on any other planet, in any mode - it doesn't work. It's a great way to kick-start yourself in Arcade mode, however.

---

Bombs give you points. Not only do you get 500 points for picking one up, but for each bomb you have at the end of a level, you get 100 points added to your end-of-phase bonus multiplier. Yes, that means you can save many, many bombs and have big huge bonus over time. If you look at my Arcade high score (440-some million points or so), that's how I achieved that - the game starts over on a harder difficulty every time you finish it, so having those extra points really adds up after a while.

---

Extra lives are earned at 500,000, 1 million, 5 million, and every multiple of 10 million points. See above-mentioned save-your-bombs trick once you get good enough at staying alive without using bombs to rack up your score.

---

Boss tips:

Boss #1 - Lave : UFO

This guy is really easy. He has 4 engines, each of which has a limited amount of life. He spawns on the board with only about 50% health. One thing you'll want to try to do (and this will take some practice) is to destroy as many of the free-floating asteroids as you can at the end of Phase 4 of this planet before going into the boss fight.

The boss has a gravity field that brings in nearby asteroids. Any asteroids that he manages to destroy with his engines will heal him. You do NOT want this to happen. Make it a point to destroy any asteroids that come near him if you possibly can, because that's more damage that you'll need to do to him.

His attack pattern is simple. He will just fly around and try to suck in asteroids, attempting to keep you away from his exposed engine by turning away from you. Counter this by L2 Boosting either around him or THROUGH him (yes, you can safely Boost through anything - even bosses!) to get a clear shot at exposed engines.

When an engine is destroyed, he'll clam up and throw up an impenetrable armor plating while spinning around shooting purple fireballs in a spiral pattern. You can either try to fly between the shots (takes some practice to do successfully), or retreat to the far side of the planet, where there is a small area that will be immune since the shots will fade after a while. When the wall of fireballs fades, L2 Boost through any fireballs that are between you and the boss to close the distance, and go back onto the attack as above.

NOTE: Although the UFO is BLUE and is weak to the Ice Splitter, chances are you have not powered up your Ice Splitter at this point (and I don't recommend doing so at ALL). Use your (hopefully max-powered) ROCK CRUSHER that you've been developing throughout the previous 4 phases to take him out, as it will do more damage than a 0% Ice Splitter.

Destroying all 4 engines defeats the boss.

---

Boss 2: Space Crab

This guy is a lot easier than he seems. Like the UFO, he has two phases. The first is the one he starts in - arms waving, and he spits out fireballs semi-randomly in front of him. His weak point is the bright red eye in the center.

Hopefully you've been powering up your Gold Melter, as that is the weapon he is weak to. Stay at extreme range and use the heat-seeking beam to keep damage on his eye while sidestepping his shots with small, conservative corrections in position using the left analog stick.

After a certain amount of time, he will "flip" to the other side and go 100% passive. A short time after that, he will "clam up", curling his arms into a circle and firing seeker missiles every which way. This is NOT as hard as it seems, which brings me to my...

SUPER SECRET #3: Beating Space Crabs, the easy way
When he "flips" and stops shooting, BOOST through him and get RIGHT IN FRONT of his "eye", blasting away with your Gold Melter. Keep blasting. When he curls his arms in to protect himself, you will be INSIDE the circle. The only attack he can hit you with while you're there is a the occasional small stream of non-seeking missiles - which he telegraphs by firing a burst of neon green tracer bullets along their path first. Simply use a SMALL (and I do mean small - you don't have a lot of maneuvering room) correction on your left analog stick to avoid the incoming missiles. Keep your Gold Melter focused on his eye the whole time. Rinse and repeat a couple times to win with ease.