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Battle Garegga is a vertically scrolling shoot'em up arcade game developed by Raizing and published by Eighting in 1996. It is notable for its rank system that dynamically updates the difficulty of the game during gameplay based upon the player's actions.

It was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1998, and an updated version, Battle Garegga Rev.2016 was released in 2016.

Controls
Battle Garegga uses 3 buttons by default. Many arcade cabinets also feature an additional dial for controlling the game’s autofire rate.


 * A (Press): Fires the ship's main shot and option shots
 * A (Hold): Continuously fires the ship's main shot and option shots at the current autofire rate
 * B: Deploys the ship's special weapon
 * C: Changes the option formation

Auto-fire Rate
The auto-fire rate of the player’s ship may be adjusted in one of two ways. The first method is to tap the A button in the frequency that you want to set auto-fire to. The game counts the amount of frames between button pushes and will then set the auto-fire rate to the corresponding frequency. However, arcade cabinets often install a dial for selecting the rate of auto-fire. The second method, available on such cabinets, is to simply use the autofire dial to manually choose a desired autofire rate. The default autofire rate is 8.6 Hz, with available faster autofire rates of 10 Hz, 12 Hz, 15 Hz, 20 Hz, and 30 Hz available. Care must be taken by the player when choosing an autofire rate since higher rates will cause the game’s rank to increase significantly faster.

In the Battle Garegga Rev.2016 port, the player may assign multiple buttons on their controller as shot buttons and assign different autofire rates to individual buttons, allowing them to change the autofire rate without having to mash at the desired frequency. It is recommended that the player also sets a "clean" shot button without an autofire rate to be held down as their primary shot button so they have a means of inputting A (Hold). Otherwise, using an autofire button can cause the autofire rate to increase beyond the desired rate when the game encounters slowdown, such as during stage transitions or when there are a large amount of objects (such as bullets) on screen.

In addition to these core functions, the Battle Garegga Rev.2016 port also allows the player to set a quick restart button that when held will allow them to restart the game or start from their most recently loaded save state.

Ships
There are four playable ships in Battle Garegga by default, as well as four additional secret characters who originally appeared in the earlier Raizing game Mahou Daisakusen. The secret characters are unlocked by inputting the code "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, C, Start" at the title screen of the arcade version or enabled in the option settings on the console ports.

The button the player uses to select their ship will change its color as well as slightly influence its speed and hitbox size.

Upon the start of a credit, the player starts with shot level 1, a fire rate of 8.6 Hz, and 1 full weapon stock and 20 weapon fragments (equivalent to 1 ½ weapon stocks). These default settings will reset upon continuing after a game over.

Silver Sword

Grasshopper

Flying Baron

Wild Snail

Gain

Chitta

Miyamoto

Bornnam

Weapons
Each ship has a main shot and a special weapon. The main shot is the standard shot and can be upgraded from level 1 to level 5 by collecting shot power ups, as well as a special shot level through a secret power up. The special weapon takes the place of a standard bomb, and can be used to destroy enemy bullets and background scenery in addition to damaging enemies. When a special weapon is triggered, the player will get a brief period of invincibility and the special weapon will then be deployed. All ships have different properties when it comes to special weapon deployment time and invincibility frames. Activating a special weapon consumes a bomb stock. If the player does not have a full bomb stock available, the weapon will use the stocked bomb fragments to activate at reduced power.

Option Formations
Each ship can collect option power ups to gain miniature drones that fly in formation around the player ship. These options shoot when the main shot is fired and their formation may be manually cycled through five preset formations with the C button.

The standard option formations, which are cycled through in order, include:


 * 1) Spread: The default formation. Options point forward with a slight outward angle for more coverage.
 * 2) Tail: Options point backwards in a fan shape.
 * 3) Front: Options point straight forward, giving a much narrower shot than the default formation.
 * 4) Rotate: Options rotate around the ship in a ring, allowing for shooting in all directions.
 * 5) Trace: Options follow behind the ship, pointing in the opposite direction of the player's movements.

In addition to the standard five formations, there are several hidden formations activated through specific circumstances - see Secret Power ups

Items
There are a number of power up items in Battle Garegga. Shot power ups, option power ups, and medals drop in a set order from popcorn enemies. Grounded enemies will drop bomb fragments.

Shot power ups are brown, circular items. Small shot power ups drop relatively frequently from popcorn enemies and will level up the player's main shot when enough are collected. The number of small shot power ups required to level up the main shot increases as the current shot level increases. Large shot power ups will drop infrequently and will immediately level up the player's main shot regardless of current shot level when collected.

Option power ups are green crests and will summon an option drone to assist the player ship. The formation of the options can be changed to one of five presets with the C button, and there are additional secret formations that can be accessed by dropping a certain number of power ups before picking up the next. Up to four options may be summoned at one time. Both shot and options are fired by holding the A button.

Bomb fragments are blue, rectangular items with bullet icons. Picking up 40 small bomb fragments gives the player one full bomb stock, whereas a large bomb fragment will award a full bomb stock. Up to five bombs may be stocked at once. The player can use their special weapon without a full bomb stock, but doing so will consume all held bomb fragments and the duration or strength of the bomb will be reduced according to the number of fragments used.

Medals are golden icons that may be collected for points. Every time a Medal is collected, the next one that spawns will be worth more, from 100 to 10,000 points. However, if a medal falls off the bottom of the screen, the next one to spawn will be of the lowest value. Medals can also be found upon using a bomb on certain items of scenery.

Secret Power ups
Special Shot Level During the game, let five small shot items fall off the screen. If you pick up the sixth small shot item and are at shot level 5, your main shot will be upgraded to its most powerful shot level. The main shot will downgrade to level 5 upon the next death. If you pick up an option after the fifth dropped small shot item, the wide option formation is triggered. If you want to trigger special shot, you will therefore need to collect the next small shot item, then let 5 more small shot items fall off the screen before having another opportunity to activate special shot level.

Wide During the game, let five small shot items fall off the screen. If you pick up an option item before the sixth small shoot item falls off the screen, you will activate the wide formation. Options in the wide formation provide wider coverage than the standard spread formation, being aimed nearly horizontally. This formation will persist until death or cycling option formations with the C button.

Homing During the game, let five small bomb fragments fall off the screen. If you pick up an option item before the sixth small bomb fragment falls off the screen, you will activate the homing formation. Options in the homing formation will automatically fly across the screen to shoot enemies from point-blank range. This formation will persist until death or cycling option formations with the C button.

Search During the game, let five option items fall off the screen. If you pick up the sixth option item before it falls off the screen, you will activate the search formation. Options in the search formation will automatically rotate in place to aim at enemies on screen. This formation will persist until death or cycling option formations with the C button.

Shadow During the game, let five medals fall off the screen. If you pick up an option item before the sixth medal falls off the screen, you will activate the shadow formation. Options in the shadow formation will follow the player ship while shooting straight up, similar to the options in Gradius. This formation will persist until death or cycling option formations with the C button.

Chain In a two-player game, the chain formation will have a 50% chance of activating whenever the conditions to activate any secret option formation are satisfied. Options in the chain formation will link the two player ships while shooting upwards. The options of the player who did not activate chain formation will remain unaffected.

Obtain a 1UP from the Stage 3 Midboss
The conditions are destroying the two main side parts and then destroy the midboss when it has come to a full stop in the rectangular yellow-striped area before the stage boss. If done successfully, the boss will drop a golden plane (1UP).

Rank
The game features an adjustable difficulty system ( rank) that will increase difficulty based on the actions of the player. As rank increases, more popcorn enemies spawn, enemies gain more health, enemies shoot more frequently, enemy bullets travel faster, and items fall off the screen faster. Uncontrolled increase of the game's rank can quickly turn it into a manic shooter. In brief, things that increase rank are:


 * Time: rank increases by a set value every frame, the value primarily determined by the player's autofire rate
 * Shots: rank increases by a set value for every shot fired, the value determined by the player's ship, shot level, and number of options
 * Items: rank increases every time an item is collected, with the value determined by the item
 * Special Weapons: rank increases by a set value every time the player deploys their special weapon
 * Bullets Sealed: rank increases by a set value for every enemy bullet sealed (note that cancelling bullets by bombing does not affect rank)

Losing a life will decrease the rank. The fewer lives a player has when they die, the more rank is decreased. Thus, the game rewards a player who doesn't stock up many lives at a time by more drastically reducing its difficulty.

Although rank is hidden from the player in the arcade release, in the Battle Garegga Rev.2016 port rank may be displayed in a widget on the side of the screen. The rank is displayed on a graph as a percentage ranging from 0.0% to 100.0% that updates in real time during gameplay.

See Battle Garegga/Advanced Rank for a detailed discussion on rank in Battle Garegga.

Extends
Extends, or extra lives, are gained every 1,000,000 points or from collecting the secret 1UP in stage 3.

Scoring
The primary intended scoring mechanic of Battle Garegga is to maintain a chain of maximum-value medals throughout the entire game. In addition, certain background elements may be destroyed using the ship's special weapon for points or to reveal hidden caches of medals. Some bosses have multiple parts that may be destroyed for extra points, and these parts (as well as many enemies throughout the game) are often worth different amounts of points when destroyed with regular, non-penetrating bullets, penetrating bullets, or special weapons.

See Battle Garegga/Scoring for a detailed discussion on scoring in Battle Garegga.

Strategy
Even for a survival clear, it is recommended for the player to devise a strategy that accounts for the rank system in order to keep the last few stages of the game playable. Since the player gains an extend for every 1,000,000 points scored, the rank system encourages players to make at least a modest attempt to score points to gain extends that can then be traded for reduced difficulty via intentional suicide. Other rank mitigation strategies that focus on reducing the rate that rank increases include keeping a low autofire rate, slowly powering up, and conserving shots fired. It is possible to finish the game in one life, but this requires intricate knowledge of the game's rank system and an ultra-prudent playstyle.

Some useful tips for beginners aiming for a 1 credit clear:
 * The ABC variant of Wild Snail (aka "Golden Bat") is a popular ship for obtaining a first clear because of its powerful main shot whose penetrating bullets simplify many boss fights. Miyamoto is another good ship due to his powerful options and defensive special weapon, but only if you can handle his speed.
 * It is more important to learn the stage layouts then to stress out about rank when first picking up the game.
 * Think of the game as having two distinct parts. During the first part, Stages 1 through 5, you should aim to control rank by suiciding and maintaining a lower than maximum power level. Stages 6 & 7 are very difficult even at low rank and seemingly impenetrable at high rank. During these stages you should stop worrying about rank control and fully power up, activate homing options, and horde lives and bombs to maximize your chances of surviving the Stage 7 bosses.
 * Keep an eye out for easy scoring opportunities to more quickly gain extra lives. Learning how to maintain a max-level medal chain is a fundamental first step that allows you to use special weapons to harvest lots of max-value medals from background scenery for lots of points at little risk.
 * Learn how to obtain the secret 1-up from the Stage 3 mid-boss.
 * Try to stay at one extra life when controlling rank. Ideally you will suicide right before gaining an extra life from scoring. Don't fret about having two extra lives, particularly when playing through a section of the game you are not yet comfortable with and liable to die in anyway.
 * Try to limit yourself to 2 options when controlling rank. In addition, power up the main shot slowly with large shot icons.
 * Try to stay at the default autofire rate. If you need a little extra fire power, shift up to 10 Hz but no higher. Once you are at the Stage 7 bosses you can shift up to 15 Hz.
 * Do not pick up excess items, including small weapon fragments if you only need a few for bombing scenery. The trick to controlling rank is to take only what you need to survive and score.
 * Try to stop firing when there are no enemies on screen. In addition, you can often tap fire to wipe out popcorn waves.
 * Finally, don't fret if you accidentally make a mistake such as picking up an extra power up. None of these tips are absolute, and you can always re-calibrate your power level upon your next suicide.

Trivia
Unlike in most other scrolling shooter games, where bullets are often brightly colored to distinguish from the background, bullets are realistically colored, making it difficult for players to see them. Exploding enemies and objects also create flying debris, further camouflaging incoming fire. This was ameliorated to some extent in the Type 2 version, which replaces most of the standard bullets with yellow dots.

References & Contributors

 * 1) Battle Garegga Rev.2016 Online Manual, https://m2stg.com/en/battle-garegga/ps4/manual/index.php
 * 2) Icarus, ST: Battle Garegga, https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=351
 * 3) https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/arcade/577456-battle-garegga/cheats
 * 4) Primary info provided by IrateIrem
 * 5) Additional info provided by VxD

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