RAIDEN MINI FAQ by Briareos Kerensky (briareos@inwind.it), ver 2.0. Table of Contents 1-Update History 2-History Briefing 3-Ship Briefing 4-Red Power Up Briefing 5-Blue Power Up Briefing 6-"Dumb" Missile Power Up Briefing 7-Homing Missile Power Up Briefing 8-Bonus Briefing 9-Boss Briefing 10-Credits and misc **************** 1-UPDATE HISTORY **************** 13/04/2001-version 2.0. Added stage 7 and 8. 17/03/2001-version 1.2. Some errors corrected. 14/03/2001-version 1.0. Initial release. ****************** 2-HISTORY BRIEFING ****************** Raiden is a vertical shoot 'em up videogame released by Seibu Kaihatsu in 1990. The word "vertical" means that you see your ship from above, and the stage scrolls vertically from top to bottom. One of Raiden's peculiar notes is that the horizontal portion of the stage is larger by the actual screen size, and the player can scroll horizontally for about two screens. Main events occour in the central area, however. Raiden is so difficult but extremely beautiful that Seibu eventually released Raiden 2 and 3; in Raiden 2 you can choose between ships with different capabilities and Raiden 3 is even more difficult than the first. Aside the infos above, I have no knowledge of the game's background, though an alien race or something similar is invading Earth and you have to stop them. *************** 3-SHIP BRIEFING *************** Raiden can be played by two players together, which will make the game a lot easier. First player has a red ship while the second a blue one. They differ only in color, and they are the only two ships offered by the game. If you play with one friend, all cargo helicopters (bombs and Power Ups) and brown crates (Missile Power Ups) will be double but the enemies will remain the same; in 2P-mopde you can also shoot at you your friend: this will not shoot him/her down, but you normal fire will create several "stars" when impacting on your friend's ship: these stars are extremely powerful, and cover almost the whole game area. Recomended against anything. Both ships start with a Red-based fire type. If you want to switch to Blue and later back to Red, keep in mind that: 1)you have to collect the correct Power Up color and 2)that when you change color, your shot won't upgrade: this means that if you collected two Red Power Ups, collecting a third Power Up, this time Blue, won't give you a level 3 Blue shot (three/two beams shot), but a Level 2 (two beams shot). This is for Missiles, too. Bombs: they won't destroy everything hostile on the screen but only the enemies and their projectiles (this feature is useful against bosses, where you can damage it and defend yourself against its attacks) inside a predefinite area. It will also take about one second to explode, so be careful. *********************** 4-RED POWER UP BRIEFING *********************** Found in: Cargo Helicopters Shape: once the Helicopter is destroyed, a red square flying over the battlefield in a random pattern. Switch between the Blue power up every 4 seconds approx. Use: good against low-level enemies (most tanks and enemy ships) and during most levels. Higher is the level, larger will be the area covered by a single shoot. Not good against bosses or though enemies as it divides its firepower is lot of small salvos fired across the screen. Power Up Sequence: *(all ships starts with this) single two-bullets fire from the ship nose *two salvos of two bullets each, direct line from the ship nose *three way shot, one from the nose and the other two slightly deviated to the sides; each salvo has two bullets *three way shot, like th previous, but with three bullets for each salvo *five way shot, each salvo two bullets. Adds two salvos roughly deviated 35° from the center to the three way shot. *five way shot, like the previous; three bullets for each salvo *five way shot, but with four bullets for each salvo *seven way shot, four projectiles per salvo. The 6th and 7th salvos follow roughly the trajectory of the 2nd and 3rd salvos. *nine way shot, four projectiles per salvo. 8th and 9th salvos follow roughly the trajectory of the 4th and 5th salvos. ************************ 5-BLUE POWER UP BRIEFING ************************ Found in: Cargo Helicopters Shape: once the Helicopter is destroyed, a Blue square flying over the battlefield in a random pattern. Switch between the Red power up every 4 seconds approx. Use: Useful against bosses and though enemies. Concentrated fire which can maul everything that get too close. Not ideal during levels as you have to move your ship to align with the enemy. However, it's my favourite power up. Power Up Sequence: *single laser fire from the ship nose *single laser fire, but continous *two laser beams per salvo, continuos fire. The pression of the fire button releases five salvo *three/two laser beams, continuos fire. First two salvos with three beams and the last three with two beams. *all salvos with three beams *four/three laser beams, like the previous, with the same proportion (2 with 4 beams and 3 with 3) *all salvos with 4 beams *large laser beam, continuos but "short" *large laser beams, longer than the previous ************************* 6-"DUMB" MISSILE POWER UP ************************* Found in: Brown Crates Shape: once the Crate is destroyed, a square with the letter a yellow "M" flying over the battlefield in a random pattern. Switch between the Homing Missile power up every 4 seconds approx. Use: "Dumb" Missiles will follow a pre-calculated trajectory and will impact on the first thing between them and the end of the screen. They are more powerful than Homing Missiles. Ideal for bosses and for ships with Red-based weaponry. Power Up Sequence: *two missiles with a trajectory deviated from the nose roughly of 5° *four missiles. The first starts with a normal trajectory and the other four follow it, circling the first missile. *four missiles: the central missiles goes straight, while the later two slightly deviate from the ship nose. ********************************** 7-HOMING MISSILE POWER UP BRIEFING ********************************** Found in: Brown Crates Shape: once the Crate is destroyed, a square with the letter a green "H" flying over the battlefield in a random pattern. Switch between the Homing Missile power up every 4 seconds approx. Use: Homing Missiles will automatically search an enemy. Ideal during levels and for ships with a Blue-based weaponry. Power Up Sequence: *two missiles, limited tracking capabilities *four missiles, faster and with better tracking capabilities *four missiles, bigger and with the same capabilities of the previous. **************** 8-BONUS BRIEFING **************** Type: Fire Power Up Shape: Red/Blue square flying over the battlefield Points: none (increase/switch the current fire type; worth 5000 points when collecting the right letter with a complete Fire type) Found in: Cargo Helicopters Type: Missile Power Up Shape: square with a green "H" or yellow "M" letter flying over the battlefield Points: none (increase/switch the current missile type; worth 5000 points when collecting the right letter with a complete Missile type) Found in: brown crates Type: Perfect Power Up Shape: square with a blue "P" letter flying over the battlefield Points: none (increase the current weapon load, Missiles included to its maximum level; worth 10000 points if already at max level) Found in: Cargo Helicopters (AI randomly decides when the "P" is present or not) Type: Bombs Shape: spinning grey triangle with a red "B" letter flying over the battlefield Points: none (increase you bomb load of one unit; you can have seven bombs at max; over that, worth 5000 points; worth 1000 bonus points when you complete the level; read below) Found in: Cargo Helicopters Type: Ribbon Shape: a ribbon with yellow medal and red and white stripes, fixed Points: 500 (worth 1000 bonus points when you complete the level; read below) Found in: beige crates, hidden in the background Type: Blue Dragon Shape: blue asian-like dragon, fixed Points: 3000 Found in: crates, hidden in the background Type: Fairy Shape: a fairy with a red suit flying over the battlefield Points: 10000 Found in: hidden in the background, usually in trees (it will usually take more than a single shot to make it appear) Type: 1UP Shape: grey rectangle with the "1UP" text in flashing green Points: none (adde one life) Found in: only once in the game, in stage 4. It can be randomly exchanged with other kinds of bonuses. End of a Stage bonus: the Ai will multiply your current Bomb load (1000 points each Bomb) for the number of Ribbons you collected; for example, if you collected 5 Ribbons and you have one Bomb left, you will gain 5000 points (1000-1 Bomb-X5-number of Ribbons-). *************** 9-BOSS BRIEFING *************** Note: all boss names are invented. And for the stages...just keep firing and dodging all missiles! ------------------------------- STAGE 1: TWIN MEGA BATTLE TANKS ------------------------------- You will encounter a brown mega tank first; it will exit from a not-so hidden armored door. For now keep firing without using bombs; you should have to dodge some shots but it is nothing so difficult. The tank will follow the tracks until it will rendez-vous with its grey twin. Now release a Bomb and try to hit both tanks. If you kept firing at the brown tank, it should be destroyed by now. Concentrate on the grey tank now: it will fire one or two all-out salvos, composed of a powerful blast from its main cannon and several smaller projectiles from its secondary guns. You should be able to kill it without using any other bomb. ------------------------------- STAGE 2: AIRBORNE DRONE CARRIER ------------------------------- The first twin to do is to destroy the two smaller wings on the carrier's sides; they'll need only few salvos, but they carry a gun, so be careful. Once both wings are gone, destroy the frontal plate with the two cannons. Note that the carrier will keep throwing these black, triangle-like drones at you: they won't fire back but they are enough to distract you from the carrier's blasts. As the plate is destroyed, keep firing at the carrier's main body; once its damage reached a certain level, it will release the last wave of drones, revealing a big turret on its spin and other cannons. Now keep firing and release Bombs as the carrier starts to fire with its turret: these shots are nearly impossible to evitate, so keep throwing bombs. ------------------------ STAGE 3: MEGA BATTLESHIP ------------------------ The battleship is docked, guarded by four pop-up turrets; destroy these first and then the grey and black machinery: the battleship will be released and will start to fire with its back turrets. When the ship will begin to fire with its main batteries, release a bomb to take care of them in a single shot, and if the bomb has not destroyed them all, just shoot. Now the battleship will reveal its true main guns: five large-caliber artillery-like cannons. Fire an other bomb, whihc should take care of all guns and now concentrate on the ship's controlling tower (or whatever it is), releasing bombs when the back turrets start to fire. --------------------------------- STAGE 4: SEMI-MOBILE MODULAR BASE --------------------------------- Ignore the lateral modules and keep shooting at the center pyramid, releasing as many bombs as you can. This boss is not so difficult. Dodge shots when necessary. ------------------------------------------ STAGE 5: MEGA BATTLE/ARTILLERY FLYING TANK ------------------------------------------ There is no tactic for this one. Just keep firng at its main gun and releasing bombs. Its bullets are too fast and too many to be dodged. Do not let it take off or it will begin to fire even more bullets. --------------------------------- STAGE 6: MOON SPHINX-LIKE STATUES --------------------------------- This stage is guarded by two twin-headed, Sphinx-like statues. To destroy them you should destroy both heads. Fire as soon as the statues ended to glow, and concentrate on a single head of a single statue until it is destroyed. Release one or two bombs if necessary. ------------------ STAGE 7: MEGA SHIP ------------------ Before this boss, you should notice two mhm..."space trucks" carrying some kind of equipment: try to destroy them as long as the asteroids keep coming: these two pieces of equipment are two batteries of cannons for the stage boss. The Ship has also four guns near the cockpit, and two holes where those "crawling gun" exit and walk on the rods in the ship's tail section. Fire a bomb when the Mega Ship starts to fire with its nose turrets and destroy the crawling guns ASAP. -------------------- STAGE 8: FINAL ENEMY -------------------- The final boss is compose by six sections: one central body (the weak spot), the first part to show up, two forward "wings", two rear "wings" and one rear support with additional gun. Yopu should be able to destroy the central part before it reachs the second pair of wings by concentrating bombs and fire on it. After defeating this boss, the game is finished. You will recieve 1.000.000 bonus pionts and the game will restart from level 1, with faster projectiles. My high score is 2.334.217 points ******************* 10-CREDITS and MISC ******************* Credits to Seibu for this game and a rant for the one that made it so difficult. You should be millionaire to finish it in an arcade floor. Then to me, myslef and I and MAME for existing. Site allowed to show this FAQ: + GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) + The Clans Hall (http://www.sealteamsix.com/briareos/index.html visit it, it's my personal site ;) To ask permission to post this document, just send a mail writing down the URL. To contact me, write at briareos@inwind.it; ICQ UIN is 40534369; Odigo ID is 264286. Write only about this FAQ or if you have a cute (female)friend/sister to introduce. Copyright (c) Briareos Kerensky 2000/2001. Reproduction and translation of this document (as a whole or parts of its) in any mode without permission is strictly forbidden. All names and marks are proprieties of respective owners.