Border Down

[BlackSpy]

So I was playing Border Down this evening, and much as it's fun, I think the only reason I really enjoy is that it's the only recent horizontal shooter I own.

Bottom line is, I really, really suck at it. I can't get half way through the second level without losing a life and as soon as I start my decent of the borders I'm toast.

There are a few things I don't really understand though, are the homing shots more powerful enough that even if you are looking right at your target your best to use them?

What's the little gauge in the bottom right about?

Why can I never see the goddamn enemy bullets?

 

[Kiken]

What's the little gauge in the bottom right about?

That is the Border Guage. The score listed is the minimum requirement necessary to have the option of Bordering Up once you complete the level.

 

[Takumaji]

There are a few things I don't really understand though, are the homing shots more powerful enough that even if you are looking right at your target your best to use them?

What's the little gauge in the bottom right about?

Why can I never see the goddamn enemy bullets?

Normal shot vs. homing missiles -

As a rule of thumb, the normal shot is good against larger, slower enemies and narrow formations of small ships, while the homing missiles are best used against swarming formations that otherwise would surround your ship and force you to use the Break Laser to save your life.

However, sometimes you may want a larger enemy to linger around for a while in order to get a larger bullet spray for a Break Laser bullet bonus, here it's best to use missiles to keep smaller enemy ships at bay while you wait for the bullets to come in.

Gauge at the bottom right -

This is your level score goal gauge, it increases proportional to your normal score and bullet bonus and lets you border-up if the goal is met. This is the core of the gameplay - choose the border that fits you best and border-up after you've reached the level score goal. Some yellow or red borders may be easier to beat for you than the green one, for ex. I find red-2 a lot simpler than green or yellow, but since the borders also determine the number of ships left, it's dangerous to select red border if you don't know it very well or won't reach the score goal.

Some lower borders also give you more scoring/bonus opportunities than the green one, just think of the giant mining drill-like sub boss in the 2nd part of level 1, it spits more bullets when being shot at than in green or yellow border (more bullets = higher bullet bonus = easier to reach level score goal).

Also note there are several ways to milk the bosses for bullet bonus score (see the vids that come with the game for example, the second one of each level/border has the scoring tips), but it's equally important to kill the boss in time, otherwise your score will be much lower.

There are a lot of single zig-zag bullets flying around in many levels, as well as suicide bullets of destroyed enemy ships, these can be particularly nasty in the vertical scrolling parts in level2.

Oh, and BD has a ship speed option, so use it. Most ppl play the game with speed fixed to 75%, but that's not the best choice for flying through narrow passages. Some bosses (3, 4) and sub-bosses (1, 4) are easier to beat with good speed management.

 

[roninbuddha]

this game is pwning my arse as well.. im stuck at stage 3-1 for jizzsakes.. :P

one question, after you do your BL, what's the "best" way to regain your bar? especially in Boss2, after our laser battles, he still doesnt die, and i still had to cope with him using my puny level 1 shots.... poor scoring..

 

[BlackSpy]

So how does the scoring work then? I guess I realised the break stuff was all good but I don't really follow it.

 

[Takumaji]

Level 2 boss and Break Laser reloading -

The best way to beat the level 2 boss IMO is to destroy the rotating cone on top of it first, then keep firing on the arms, then on the body. When he fires his laser for the first time, just ignore it, dodge it and hit him with missiles until he's done firing, then return to shooting his body until he falls down.

He will fire his laser one more time, this is where you should user your Break Laser too to create a large ball of laser energy that kills the little pink rockets and other smaller enemy ships for Break Laser score, and finally the boss.

To reload the BL during boss battle, destroy as many smaller ships as you can and dodge his first BL attack, this way you will get slightly more time for your BL to reload (it reloads by destroying enemies and by time).

General BD scoring -

- You get normal points for ships you destroy in green border, twice the normal score in yellow and three times the score in red

- When firing your BL, the number of enemy ships and bullets you destroy in one go (without releasing the button) becomes your score multiplier for consecutive kills, this works against bosses as well. You also receive 5000 Break pts. for clearing a strage.

- Starting from level 3, a boss kill timer will appear in the upper right corner, and of course it's best to beat a boss as quickly as possible, but that only goes for kill times down to +10 secs., from then on your time bonus will increase dramatically the closer you get to zero secs., reaching exactly zero gives you the highest bonus of a whooping 3 mio. pts. You will get a malus for negative kill times (300k per second).

Here's a nice scoring example, taken from Alan Kwan's "Border Down Manual" FAQ:

In stage 1-3 yellow, you use the blast laser to wipe out 40 blue
bullets (10 points each) and then blow up the first part of the
boss (5000 points).

For the bullets, you get

10 + 10x2 + 10x3 + 10x4 + ... + 10x40 = 8200 points

For the boss part, you get

5000 x 41 = 205 000 points

Since you are in yellow border, the above scores are doubled, for

(8200 + 205000) x 2 = 426 400 points

When you clear the stage, these 41 break will give you an
additional "total break" bonus of

5000 x 41 = 205 000 points

So this use of break laser yields

631 400 points

Compared to using normal shots to destory the same enemies, which
gives

(10x40 + 5000) x 2 = 10 800 points

You can see that good use of the break laser can make a huge
difference!

 

[2Dfan]

Man, the only time I played this game was at a demo in a store in Akihabara in Tokyo on my 2003 trip.

Time flies fuckign hard.

 

[bwodie]

how rare is it to come accross this game as a arcade pcb?

 

[Pingu]

Quite so as it comes on GD-rom, shouldn't be that hard to come across in that form though.

 

[fake]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but does anyone have tips for getting the B, C, or D ending? I know you have to hit the goal in four or more levels and spend 50% of the game in a particular border, but I just can't seem to hit the goals other than the first and (usually) second levels. If I hit goal for the other levels, it's a fluke. When I beat the game I usually have 50% in one of the borders, so I'll leave that to chance for now. Any advice?

 

[Electric Grave]

Good bump, this game is always a treat and I still get my ass handed to me upside down 'cause I suck at it.