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.

In general, the game gives you a lot of flexibility in how you can approach its mechanics, so please consider much of the following as advice rather than ironclad "laws".

General Mechanics

Powering up

It is easy to look at the +1 frame rank increase from powering up the main shot with a small shot power up and conclude that it is not worth it. In addition, the immediate rank penalty from powering up with a small shot power up is always larger than from a large shot power up, and this difference increases at higher shot levels since more small shot power ups are required. However, the +1 frame rank increase roughly equates to picking up an extra small weapon fragment every 34 seconds or so, or ~0.4% over 15 minutes of play time. Not a huge amount, but it can build up in excess. Other considerations when powering up:

• Most main shots are pretty bad at levels 1&2, and you can get to level 3 with only 3 small shot power ups.
• No ship has a noteworthy break point where powering up the main shot will increases rank significantly more until going from level 4→5, so you can always quickly power up to level 4 without worry. Grasshopper is an exception since it gains a penetrating bullet at level 4, but it really needs that extra power so the rank increase is worth it. In addition, Silver Sword, Grasshopper, Gain, and Chitta take no penalty going to level 5 and Flying Baron probably doesn't mind the penalty since it needs the extra power.
• If you plan on playing at >10 Hz autofire, you can increase the autofire rate after powering up your main shot with small shot power ups to "negate" the frame rank increase from the shot levels.
• Small shot power ups are far more common than large shot power ups, spawning at a rate of 10:1. If knocked down to shot level 3 in a later stage, there is a 70% chance that the 4 small shot power ups you need to get back to level 4 will drop before the next large shot power up.

Collecting Excess Items

That sound effect that plays whenever you pick up an excess power up which sounds like nails on a chalkboard is the game's way of gently suggesting that picking up excess items is a bad idea. Indeed, these will increase rank more than normal but this is generally a small amount of rank increase unless you collect an excessive amount. The problem is that the paltry amount of bonus points awarded is just not worth it. The 5,000 bonus points gained from collecting a large shot power up at max is probably the exception since these power ups are uncommon and the rank increase is equivalent to using an special weapon.

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, so there is some incentive to not hoard lives as the rank decrease from each death will be more effective if you die regularly rather than all at once.

It is often recommended to stick to 1-2 lives when controlling rank, but whether this matters depends on your goals and the context of the run. The 1% difference 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.

Some other considerations for how many extra lives to stock:

• How comfortable are you with the game? Be prepared to play long sections with one less life than you are trying to have in reserve after a mistake or untimely death.
• Rank cannot drop below 0%, so if you are at <5% you likely won't get the full rank decrease from dying.
• Some of the rank loss is immediately offset by powering back up. Each option adds ~0.5%, so playing with two options will lower your net rank drop by 1% and playing with four options will lower your net rank drop by 2%.

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 and it is possible to see success with any variant. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference.

Some good considerations when choosing a ship variant:

• Can you handle the extra speed? Slower ships usually benefit more than faster ships.
• A smaller hitbox makes dodging bullets slightly easier but collecting medals slightly harder.
• Some ship colors just look cooler.