Hellsinker

Hellsinker.

Title screen 3 of 4. Title screens are unlocked as you progress through the game.

Hellsinker. is a doujin bullet-hell shoot-em-up developed by Ruminant's Whimper for PC in 2006 and re-released on Steam in 2019. It's defining gameplay features are its multiple gauges that affect your attack strength, its enemies with multiple parts to strategically dismember, and its three different tracked scores (Spirit, Kills, and Tokens). The game is also often noted for its unique, sometimes inscrutable, lore and aesthetic. The story follows 4 members of the mysterious organization GRAVEYARD as they attempt to reach and infiltrate the Cardinal Shaft, a giant tower responsible for the end of the world.

Gameplay Overview

Hellsinker. is a four-button with 4 playable characters (one of which has 4 different load-outs for an overall total of 7) and 9 levels, called segments, in the main game. There are also unlockable harder versions of the first 3 segments and 2 extra segments unlocked by 1CC'ing the game and defeating the TLB, Lost Property 771. The scoring system involves destroying enemies (including subparts) to gain Spirit, keeping your Stella (rank) high to spawn extra enemy waves, and collecting extra lives past the life cap for Immortality bonuses.

Controls

• C (Press): Fire your main shot. Tapping rhythmically enables rapid fire. Some characters have an extra attack used by mashing the C button faster than rhythmically tapping.
• C (Hold): Charge up a strong attack based on your main shot. Release to fire this attack. Holding this button in conjunction with pressing the subweapon button can also perform different special attacks.
• X: Fire your subweapon. The mechanics of this attack vary with the character chosen and whether your subweapon gauge is filled.
• Z: Fire your discharge attack (bomb). Discharge attacks do high damage, clear the screen of bullets, and makes the player character invincible for some time.
• V: Activate slowdown. The exact behavior of this button is dependent on a setting chosen at the start of each run.

Characters

Hellsinker. features four playable characters, each with vastly different load-outs and playstyles. Three of the characters are available by default, while the last is unlocked by beating Segment 4 with a 1CC. The characters and their loadouts are as follows:

• Dead Liar: The oldest member of GRAVEYARD. He focuses on strong but narrow main shot attacks while his subweapon, the Misteltoe Tobari-Maru, can be freely placed to attack enemies with a small AOE. His load-out option allows him to change the behavior of this subweapon.
• Fossil Maiden: A particularly sickly member of GRAVEYARD who uses her Misteltoe, Saraba-Maru, to see as well as fight. Her combat focus is on covering extremely large areas of the screen with Saraba-Maru, who fires on all enemies who enter her radius.
• Minogame: An androgynous non-binary robot deity, powerful enough to fight without a Misteltoe. They focus on strong AOE attacks and discharges, allowing them to survive especially dangerous situations.
• Kagura/Kagura-Maru: An Elder Misteltoe used as a living weapons platform. This gives Kagura 4 distinct load-outs to use in combat. Kagura is unlocked by beating Segment 4 1CC.
• Moon Cradle (Multi-Trajectory Shell): Features an aimable burst shot subweapon, and discharges that only cost 2 Sol rather than emptying the gauge.
• Ecliptic Chariot (External Gunner): An external, three-pronged turret that can be launched and retrieved freely.
• Infernal Sabbath (Variable Gun): Load-out with no distinct subweapon; Instead, the subweapon button controls the spread of the main shot.
• Xanthez (Anti-Bacillus Saber): Uses two highly destructive but short range swords to swipe at nearby enemies.

Resources

Hellsinker. uses lives to measure player health, and starts the player at four lives. At the start of each run, players use the Way of Life setting to set their life cap at 5-7. Setting a lower life cap offers less safety but greater score, as it allows the player to rack up Immortality bonuses faster. Extra lives are earned from life chips, the amount of which that are needed for an extra life goes up as you earn more lives, and Revive tokens that are dropped in rare circumstances.

Discharges are governed by the Sol gauge. Using your discharge attack depletes the Sol gauge, which also affects your main shot's strength. The Sol gauge refills over time, or by gathering Sol pieces which refill it quickly. Discharges cost a minimum of 3 Sol (unless you are Moon Cradle Kagura, which costs 2) and always empty the Sol gauge (again, unless Moon Cradle). Having 5 Sol gauge unlocks a more powerful bomb that lasts a longer time.

The Luna gauge affects the rate of fire of your main shot. It goes down as you fire your main shot, and goes up while not firing it. Collecting Luna Crystal tokens also fills it slightly, while also increasing your Token count. The fact that this gauge empties as you fire your main shot encourages the player to use their subweapons and discharges to keep this gauge up.

Your subweapon gauge determines the power (and in some cases, the type of attack) of your subweapon. It empties whenever you fire your subweapon, and fills when you are not firing your subweapon. Firing your main shot locks your subweapon gauge at level 1 if below it, or somewhat quickly empties it down to level 1 if above it.

Bootleg Ghost

The Bootleg Ghost setting, chosen at the start of each run, determines autobomb behavior. All characters can autobomb up to 3 times per segment. The settings work as follows:

• Aspirant: Autobombs will only activate if the Sol gauge is 5 and the player has less than 4 lives.
• Solidstate: Autobombs will activate anytime discharge is available.
• Adept: Disables autobombs entirely. Additionally, disables the suppression field.

Items

Hellsinker. features 11 items (called relics) that govern score and gameplay. Sol pieces are dropped by many enemies and slightly refill the Sol Gauge. Luna crystals mostly function to increase the Token score while also slightly refilling the Luna gauge. They are dropped by specific enemies, or created by erasing bullets inside your suppression field. Stella relics allow you to control your Stella, changing the gauge by 1 whole number when picked up, and filling or emptying it for several seconds after, depending on the relic. Stella relics are dropped from scripted events, either certain moments in the stage or certain actions taken against bosses. Life chips are somewhat more rare reduce the counter for your next extend by 1. Other relics will have a fractional impact on this extend count. Ingots are made when a boss is destroyed and give you some Spirit, as well as around 1/50th of an extend count. Terra tokens are rarely made by exploding subparts of some enemies. They increase your token count, Stella, and Terra, a resource that determines when you visit a special stage.

Finally, the rarest relics are Comet relics and Revive tokens. Comet relics are dropped when the player character dies, and allow them to recover some of their lost Stella. You wil drop 1 Comet relic for each Stella you had on death, and they each give .75 Stella back. Revive tokens are dropped in very specific circumstances and immediately offer an extra life. However, they have no effect on the extend counter and do not offer Immortality bonuses.

(pictures incoming)

Rank

Rank in Hellsinker. is governed by the Stella gauge. High Stella will spawn extra waves of enemies and slightly adjust the Spirit value of all enemies upward, making it vital for score. Conversely, Stella has little to no effect on bosses, with a few notable exceptions. The beginning of a run always sets the Stella gauge to 1 (adjustable for practice mode only in the options) and a proportion of your ending Stella is carried forward to the next stage.

Outside of this system, the following actions increase the Stella gauge:

• Destroying enemies and subparts.
• Picking up green Stella items, Terra tokens, and Comet relics.
• Fine play, which includes staying alive for a long time and grazing many bullets and lasers.
• Surviving for at least 30 seconds after a death.
• Playing aggressively by staying at the top of the screen and pointblanking enemies.
• Shooting indestructible parts of enemies.

And the following actions decrease the Stella gauge:

• Dying, compounded greatly by dying twice within 30 seconds.
• Autobombing
• Using discharge attacks, by an amount based on the number of enemies hit.
• Picking up pink Stella items
• Grazing a certain numbers of bullets over time will always drop 2 pink Stella items from the top of the screen. The number needed is indicated under the character and labelled "Appeasement". This is only visible while currently grazing.
• Spending long periods of time at the bottom of the screen.

Suppression Field

All characters have a suppression field which can be activated by not firing the main shot for several seconds. Fossil Maiden works differently, and her suppression radius is only active while her subweapon button is held down. The suppression field takes the form of a light blue circle around the character. It slows down many types of bullets and, for a smaller number of them, will destroy them entirely. Destroying bullets with your suppression field creates small Luna tokens. You can create slightly bigger ones by pointblanking enemies whose bullets you have also suppressed.

Sealing Enemies

When you approach certain enemies pointblank, a blue box and the word SEAL will appear on them. Enemies sealed in this manner cannot fire as long as you remain close to them as well as for a few moments after you move away. This encourages aggressive play rather than waiting for enemies to fly down to you.

Collision

In a departure from the genre, colliding into walls or enemies in Hellsinker does not kill you. Instead, you will be knocked back a certain distance away from the object collided with. If you are in a position to get knocked back several times (for example, wedged between two objects) your movement can become quite erratic. This also encourages aggressive gameplay, as making a mistake and getting too close won't kill you. Unless you get knocked back into a bullet. Additionally, any time the player character is invulnerable they are also immune to knockbacks.

Scoring

Hellsinker. features 3 different scores: Spirit, Kills, and Tokens and as a result 3 different ways to score. Spirit is the closest to a general score. Aside from destroying enemies, spirit can be raised by destroying subparts, destroying many destructible bullets at once, grazing many needle bullets at once, and unchaining special Master enemies which are tethered to slave enemies. Kills are simply a track of enemies killed. However, undestroyed subparts that die along with the main enemy, and slave enemies that self destruct during an Unchain do not count. Tokens measures how many Luna Crystals you have picked up during play.

Breakthrough

At certain Spirit and Kill amounts, the character will earn a Breakthrough. Breakthrough not only adds a life but resets the number of life chips needed for an extend, which makes future immortal bonuses easier to obtain. Breakthrough can only be triggered once each for Spirit and Kills, and the number needed is dependent on which one is triggered first. Spirit Breakthrough happens at 5200 Spirit if the Kill Breakthrough is untriggered, or 6200 otherwise. Likewise, Kill Breakthrough occurs at 2500 or 5000 kills.

Immortality

If a player earns a life while already at the life cap, they instead earn an Immortality bonus, increasing their Spirit. Immortality bonus starts at 80 Spirit and increases by 40 for each subsequent bonus. Immortality bonuses earned through a Breakthrough are instead worth 200 spirit.

Strategy

no way hombre. this one will take awhile.