Shippu Mahou Daisakusen/Guides

These are general guides not catered to any one specific character/ship. They are categorized by the goal being sought: 1cc, 2-all, or score run, and they attempt to focus on the most relevant parts of their respective run. They skim over unimportant parts of the game or details that the player can probably figure out themselves.

Generally speaking, the first thing one must do is decide which character to choose. See the characters breakdown for details about each character's stats. The most important stats are weapon power, control, and bombs. Other stats are less useful, more situational, or are only important in certain categories. Overall, the most powerful character (and likely easiest one to achieve goals with) is probably Miyamoto, and the weakest one may be Gain because of his lack of any good weapon, or Chitta because of her absolutely awful control. Shippu Mahou Daisakusen typically splits scores based on character when competing for score, so in that case, character selection is less important; one can just compete for the best score with the preferred character. See the Hall of Records for more info about the current highest scores.

Guides
1cc Guide=

Goal: 1cc
In a 1cc run of Shippu Mahou Daisakusen, racing basically doesn't matter, so you'll usually be going as slowly as possible for maximum safety. Some other tips that would be helpful for a 1cc:
 * Damage limits
 * Collecting death powerups
 * Scrolling enemies around
 * Precision diagonal movement
 * More damage ticks
 * Rank breakpoints

The last thing to think about before getting started is what stages to pick. For a 1cc, most of the stages are about equal in difficulty. For the final stage, one should definitely pick Kobold Tower, as its boss is noticeably easier than the alternatives, and the level isn't too hard once learned either. It's also good practice for building on score runs where Kobold Tower is also last. For the other stages, either choice could be argued as being easier or harder, so simply go with one's personally preferred choice.

Recommended stage choices

 * Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean
 * Outcast Castle - Crossfire (note however: crossfire gives 2 bombs!)
 * Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor
 * Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead
 * Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower

Anatomy of a 1cc
2-All Guide=

Goal: 2-all
Completing all stages of Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is considerably more difficult than a 1cc of the first 6. The difficulty stems from the fact that all powerups are irretrievably lost upon death in the second loop. This limits the player to 1-damage main shots and is certain gameover if there are no powerups nearby.

In order to to even reach the second loop, some racing becomes necessary. Even when not racing hard, coming in 2nd or 3rd place is definitely worth it and helpful overall. It's recommended to familiarize oneself with the general techniques on the techniques page, and since a score of 900,000 awards an extra life beyond a score of 600,000, learning some score techniques may also help survival play.

For a 2-all, whatever races weren't picked in the first loop will be encountered in the second loop. Racing difficulty and survival difficulty need to be balanced against each other. One should choose easy-to-win races for the first loop, but one also wants to leave the easy levels for the very dangerous second loop. These two goals sometimes conflict, as there are some very easy races and stage that you would like to have on both loops but can't, like Outcast castle.

Recommended stage choices
Both races are very hard to win, so the only difference is second loop difficulty. The Air Circus boss is very tough on loop 2, probably requiring at least one bomb. With practice, Velmatic Ocean can be done bombless, even on loop 2.
 * Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean

Outcast Castle is a noticeably easier level than Crossfire, and is also an extremely easy race to win. Crossfire is both difficult to race and survive, so this is the first tough choice. Outcast Castle is still recommended for first loop as it's so simple to get 1st place, giving a much-increased chance of reaching the 2nd loop.
 * Outcast Castle - Crossfire

Once again, both levels are roughly equal in difficulty. However, Cold Corridor is noticeably easier to get 1st place in, so that is recommended for first loop. The Deeply Dungeon boss is very inconsistent and difficult on loop 2, but the Cold Corridor boss isn't much better.
 * Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor

Strato Sphere is slightly easier to get a good ranking in, and is extremely difficult on loop 2, with many very sturdy enemies shooting very fast aimed shots. Forest of Dead's enemies are a bit easier to speedkill or exploit. Forest of Dead's boss is probably more difficult, but it's expected to die at least once to either boss here, and there are powerups after them.
 * Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead

This time, we want to leave the easiest level, Kobold Tower, for the second loop, so Kingdom Grandprix is recommended for the first loop.
 * Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower

Yashiki of Ninja is a tough level and has a tough boss. The only real reason to visit there is for fun. Kobold tower is a simpler and more exploitable level, and the boss is ironically the easiest one in the game. It's really a no-brainer for survival play.
 * Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower

Anatomy of a 2-all
The following advice assumes most knowledge of the basic 1cc has already been mastered.

Scoring Guide=

Goal: High score
Score play in Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is quite different from typical shmup survival play and requires a completely different playstyle because of the necessity of spins. Doing everything one can to spin into the bosses for massive point gains is an obvious enough risk one must take; that's the very foundation of a scoring run in this game. However, there are many situations where one must balance the risk against the reward with regard to smaller enemies. Then there's deciding how much risk should be taken when racing for the extra score from winning, and also for the ability to enter the second loop at all. Ultimately it depends on the player's goal and how far they wish to go. For achieving the absolute highest scores, all of the significant risks must be taken. This guide will assume going for the highest reasonably possible score and will assume all the significant risks are taken.

Like other shmups, in order to be effective at scoring, one should first learn to 1cc and 2-all the game as a foundation. One should then get familiar with the scoring techniques. When looking to refine score runs, check the enemy score values in the enemy list to decide which enemies are worth the risk. Score potential is highly based on character traits such as damage, bomb, and control. Character traits may even affect stage choice, but this guide will assume the most likely highest possible scoring stage choice for all characters.

Recommended stage choices
Once score becomes the priority, survival difficulty and race difficulty take a backseat to it. The route with the highest potential must be taken. The highest possible scoring route (probably) is very similar to previous routes however.

Air Circus is simply much more difficult to score on the second loop, with much sturdier and more aggressive enemies. Velmatic Ocean on the other hand has very little scoring difference on either loop. Air Circus loop 1 is almost certainly the correct choice here.
 * Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean

Both stages have very little scoring potential or difference between loops, so Outcast Castle is chosen because it is a noticeably easier level than Crossfire, and is also an extremely easy race to win. Remember, one still needs to win the tournament and actually reach loop 2 in a score run.
 * Outcast Castle - Crossfire

Deeply Dungeon has very little scoring potential. Cold Corridor has many high-value enemies and good targets for spin kills (boulders) that might be unkillable on the second loop. Not only that, but it's extremely hard to win Deeply Dungeon, whereas Cold Corridor is an almost certain win and a huge boon when having to win the first loop tournament. The boss of Cold Corridor is also a nightmare to try and spin kill on loop 2, whereas Prime Jelly does not give any spin bonus so there's no need for that. Definitely push Deeply Dungeon away to loop 2.
 * Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor

For most characters, Strato Sphere requires the lower enemy health of loop 1 because of the infinite enemy spawn. This section represents a massive score boost which is not matched anywhere in Forest of the Dead loop 1. Characters with bad bombs who are unable to abuse the infinite enemy spawn arguably could choose Forest of Dead instead.
 * Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead

Likewise, Kobold Tower needs to be picked in loop 1 because of lower enemy health for its infinite enemy spawn after the boss, the highest scoring section in the entire game. On loop 2, these enemies are extremely sturdy, and score potential is greatly reduced.
 * Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower

Kingdom Grandprix has generally higher score potential, and is easier to boot. Yashiki of Ninja may theoretically have a higher score potential, but it would requires an astronomically unlikely event to take place (the boss only spawning his 2,000-point ninja over and over for a very long time).
 * Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja

Legacy high scores
Much of the information on the highest scores for Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is lost to time, but the game is actually in a unique position where certain info about runs is encoded in the score itself. The ones digit of each score actually indicates how many races were lost by the player, because that is the only way to gain 1 point in the game. So at least, one can be certain that the world records from the year 2000 applied strategies where 7 races were lost. It's impossible to say which races were lost, or which tracks those players picked, however it is probably similar to the track path suggested by this guide, perhaps with an intentional loss on Air Circus like the guide suggests.