Battle Garegga/Strategy

The ultimate goal of this page is to serve as a reference for scoring and survival routes through the game. However, given the many random factors throughout the game it is often the case that the player will either need multiple plans for different sections or a solid enough grasp on the game mechanics to be able to adapt to untimely mistakes or bad luck. For this reason, the routes given will be somewhat vague, more a general guideline rather than a set of detailed instructions. We will supplement this with a breakdown of the various game mechanics presented in an "FAQ" style format in order to help give the reader the tools to adapt to the many challenges of the game.

General Mechanics

Extra Lives

The amount that rank decreases depends on how many extra lives you have when you die, with the important numbers being a decrease of ~5.8% with one extra life and ~4.8% with two extra lives. Each successive extra life you have will get you ~1% less rank decrease upon death.

Whether this matters depends on your goals and the context of the run. The 1% "loss" from accidentally extending to three lives probably doesn't matter too much in a survival context as long as you don't let rank build up too much in the early game. By late game the lives are far more valuable than ~1-2% here or there. However, repeatedly building up to three or four lives can compound the relative difference and once you start hitting the ~5-7% realm this becomes truly noticeable at endgame and is best avoided.

While staying at one extra life is "optimal" for minimizing rank in a vacuum, there are a few counterpoints to consider. The first and likely most important is how comfortable you are with the game. Making mistakes and dying unexpectedly is normal, so you need to be prepared to play large sections of the game with no extra lives if trying to bank one, one extra life if trying to bank two, etc. Allowing yourself that extra cushion can help you get further in the game, but playing on the edge might help with your mental game in the long run. Ultimately, this is something you need to feel out for yourself.

Another consideration when banking lives is simply your current rank value. Especially in Stages 2-3, it is not uncommon to gain multiple extends in rapid succession. If your current rank is less than the decrease from dying or has been recently zeroed out by a death, there is little point in chain dying purposely even if you have 2-3 lives since rank can never fall below 0%. The rank decrease from dying will be wasted in this case. On that note, chain dying while near 0% rank is probably one of the most frustrating things that can happen in a survival run so it is best avoided.

One final thing to keep in mind is that you will almost never gain (or want) the full decrease from dying since you will generally power back up after a death. Each option power up you collect will immediately increase rank again by ~0.5%, so if you are running two options your "net" rank decrease will be ~1% less than the full value. If you run 4 options the "net" rank decrease will be ~2% lower. This can build up and is the main reason why it is recommended to run less than 4 options in the early game when controlling rank. It is also why you will often see high-level scoring runs completely forego options in early Stage 4 after the Earth Crisis tick milk. That particular trick significantly increases rank, so not picking up any options in between chain deaths will counteract this by maximizing the rank decrease awarded.

Sealing Bullets

In Battle Garegga, it is possible to prevent most enemies from firing at the player by engaging them from point-blank range. However, this has the cost of increasing rank. Every bullet sealed will increase rank by an amount equivalent to picking up one small shot power up or small weapon fragment. While individually this is a very small amount, it is deceptive because few enemies shoot only one bullet at a time. Thus, sealing bullets too aggressively can make a big difference over time.

With that said, bullet sealing remains a very powerful tool that the player should be aware of. There are many places throughout the game where sealing the right enemies can improve safety and reliability. Good examples include the large tank that ambushes the player in Stage 2 (and its brother in Stage 4), the Stage 3 midboss (if the center turret has not been destroyed), and the Stage 3 boss Earth Crisis if dismantling the boss for points. Overall, as with many things in the game, sealing bullets is fine in moderation and can make the game easier.

A noteworthy exception to the above are the spinning turrets on the giant "Slayer" planes in Stages 3 & 5. Don't seal these. They shoot dozens of bullets per second, and can catapult you well towards max rank if you point-blank them for longer than a split-second.

Ship Variants

As a refresher, the different ship variants are activated by selecting a ship with the following buttons:

Button	Effect
A button	Default speed and hitbox
B button	Increased speed
C button	Smaller hitbox
A, B, and C buttons simultaneously (or wait for the selection screen to time out)	Increased speed and smaller hitbox

In general, these differences are subtle but they can be noticeable. Speed is useful throughout the game for item collection and the smaller hitbox is self-explanatory. However, this does not necessarily mean that the ABC variants are objectively the best.

When deciding whether to activate a speed variant, ask yourself whether you can handle the extra speed. Slower ships such as Wild Snail or Bornnam will likely always benefit, but faster ships such as Miyamoto may actually be easier to use without activating the extra speed.

When deciding whether to activate the smaller hitbox, recognize that while the smaller hitbox may make it marginally easier to dodge enemy bullets it also makes it marginally harder to collect medals. In a survival context the smaller hitbox is probably always worth it but when scoring the decision may not be as clear-cut since some sections of the game are quite difficult to score, such as the Stage 4 medal rails. Ultimately, this comes down to personal preference.

If there is a particular ship color that you like more than the others, than it is probably the best choice.