DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label Arrange
Title screen
| Developer: | Cave |
|---|---|
| Music: | Jake "virt" Kaufman |
| Program: | Tsuneki Ikeda |
| Release date: | Xbox 360: Feb 3, 2011 Steam: Oct 3, 2016 |
Contents
DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label Arrange
DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label Arrange (often nicknamed Ketsuipachi) is an arranged mode of Black Label that borrows from Ketsui the chip system and the Tiger Schwert ship.
Gameplay Overview
Ketsuipachi is a four-button game with five levels and an extra last boss stage in the end. Completing these levels under certain conditions will trigger a fight with the true last boss, HIVAC. The scoring system involves destroying enemies up close with the wide shot to start a chip chain, and then by destroying enemies with the laser to collect chips and increase the hit combo.
- Red gauge: rank meter which can be increase & decreased through various actions.
- Maximum hit chain
- GP Value
- Hyper/bomb charge: when this meter fills, the player will receive a hyper/bomb; or, will get put into Maximum mode if their stock is full.
- Life stock
- Chain timer
- Hit counter
- Bomb/hyper stock
- Chip cache; each slot tells how many of each chip size you have picked up on a stage.
- Remaining hyper duration
- "Status"; when this circle is red you cannot bomb/hyper - you must wait until it turns green to do so. It can also turn red when you have exhausted your bomb/hyper stock.
- Countdown chip timer: the number of frames remaining wherein all enemies killed with Shot will drop a specific chip size regardless of proximity.
- Countdown chip size: the size of chips that can be dropped in the current span of chip time; can be increased during said span. Resets to and stays at a 1-chip (unless a new chain begins) when the timer hits 0, on death, or using a bomb.
- Countdown chip timer
Controls
- A (Press): Fires the standard wide shot weapon
- A (Hold): Fires the laser weapon
- B: Uses a bomb
- C: Auto-fire for the standard wide shot
- D: Activate a hyper
Additionally, holding shot+auto produces a slightly stronger laser.
Ship and Resources
There is only one ship available to the player, the Tiger Schwert. This ship has 6 options, and its firepower is similar to bomb style from the standard Black Label mode. Bombs and hypers are a shared resource. Filling up the hyper gauge adds an additional bomb, if there is a spare bomb slot available.
Like Black Label’s strong style, your laser can push back large enemy lasers. There are, however, some important differences in Black Label Arrange. The number of bomb slots cannot be increased from the starting 3. Using a bomb will not temporarily max out the RED gauge. Autobombs cannot be enabled.
Game Mechanics
RED Gauge System
Ketsuipachi has a dynamic rank system, with the current rank denoted by the RED gauge. There are jumps in difficulty that occur when the RED gauge reaches 33%, 66%, and 100% full. Shot+auto does slightly more damage with a full RED gauge. RED gauge also influences the chip system and hyper system, explained below.
Actions that increase RED gauge:
- Collecting 10 and 5chips (sharply increased with 10chips).
- Holding shot+auto.
- Collecting a bee medal (flashing bees give twice as much RED gauge increase).
- All options locking on to a single point (sharp increase, depending on ship's proximity to lock-on point and whether a hyper is active)(this is most relevant during midboss and boss fights).
Actions that decrease RED gauge:
- Collecting chips of size 3 or lower.
- Only pressing shot, only pressing auto, or not shooting at all.
- Dying or using a bomb (sets RED gauge to 0).
- Collecting small or large stars (sharply decreased with large stars).
Chip System
Chip chaining works very similarly to Ketsui. When an enemy is destroyed with wide shot, chips are created. Chips can have a value of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10. The value of the chips created depends primarily on your vertical distance from the enemy, as well as current RED gauge and whether a hyper is active. Higher than 66% RED gauge increases minimum distance needed for a given value chip, while an active hyper lowers the minimum distance. Destroying an enemy with wide shot also starts a chip timer, starting at 55, that decreases as time progresses. Destroying enemies with laser will generate chips based on the chip value attached to that timer, regardless of distance to the enemy ship. This timer increases whenever an enemy is destroyed. Using wide shot increases the timer greatly, but less chips are generated. Using laser generates more chips, but the timer increases less. If too much time passes without shooting, the chip chain timer will decrease rapidly. Chips add to the hit combo, get point value, hyper gauge, and (a small amount to) your score. Note, chip chains can be started with laser, but they have a value of 1 and a very short timer.
If you destroy the source of a laser with your wide shot, the enemy's laser will be cancelled into chips based on the current chip chain. If that enemy is instead destroyed with laser, the enemy's laser will instead be cancelled into stars (small stars for small laser, large stars for large laser).
Chip chains can be started by using wide shot when destroying boss phases as well. The remaining bullets onscreen between phases will converted into chips. This is primarily useful for increasing the hyper gauge.
Hyper System
Hyper gauge is increased by collecting chips, hitting enemies (especially with laser aura), and collecting flashing bees. Larger chips add more to the hyper gauge than smaller chips. In addition, more hyper is gained with a higher RED gauge.
When activating a hyper, all bullets onscreen are canceled and your hit combo is increased by the bullet count. If a chip chain is active, all bullets onscreen are cancelled into chips. If there is no chip chain active, bullets are cancelled into stars instead. Large stars are created when the RED gauge is 66% or greater (when the RED gauge is "red"), and small stars are created when the RED gauge is less than 66% (when the RED gauge is "blue"). Additionally, when a hyper expires naturally, bullets are cancelled into stars based on the same RED gauge rules above. Cancelling a hyper results in the removal of all bullets onscreen, but no chips or stars are generated.
When in hyper, your ship outputs more damage. However, if enemy bullets contact your shot, your shot damage will be reduced. This has some notable effects. When there are bullets onscreen and a hyper is active, wide shot is your most damaging attack, especially at midrange and far away. Laser+hyper will often be weaker than standard laser, unless you are close enough to an enemy for laser aura damage to contribute. When close up, hyper+laser is approximately equal in damage to hyper+wide shot. Additionally, when using laser, only the lock-on options contribute to erasing bullets. As a result, without a lock-on, your ship can be quite vulnerable to stray bullets.
There is a hyper rank system as well. Using a hyper increases hyper rank by 1, and hyper rank can reach a maximum of 5. Dying decreases hyper rank by 1. Hyper rank is reset to 0 at the start of each stage. Unique to this mode, higher hyper rank results in more effective erasing of bullets. Activating a hyper, cancelling a hyper, or letting a hyper wear off grants a short period of invincibility. For hyper activation, the duration of invincibility you are granted is dependent on your hyper rank: the higher your hyper rank, the shorter your period of invincibility. Cancelling a hyper or letting a hyper expire grants a longer and constant invincibility period, unaffected by hyper rank.
Items
Chips
Come in sizes of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10. Chips add to your hit combo based on their number value, increase your hyper gauge, increase or decrease the RED gauge, and give a small increase to GP.
Airborne Star
Come in two varieties, large and small. Large stars are important for scoring. Large stars give score equivalent to your current GP, and slightly increases your GP value. Small stars give score equivalent to your current GP/10, and very slightly increases your GP value.
Ground Star
Come in two varieties, large and small. Large stars give score equivalent to 500 * hit combo, and small stars give score equivalent to 200 * hit combo.
Bee Medals
All stages contain 7 hidden bee items, with 2 extra in the Ura route. Bee medals are revealed by hitting their location with the tip of your laser. Bees periodically flash white. Revealed bees start out flashed white, but turn yellow quickly. Collecting a bee when it is flashing white will cancel all bullets onscreen into large stars and increase your hyper gauge by an amount dependent on your current RED gauge. Higher RED gauge yields more hyper gauge increase. Collecting a yellow bee turns all bullets onscreen into small stars.
Bomb
Gives an extra bomb if there is any room left in the stock. If the stock if full after that, makes you enter the Maximum mode. Being in the Maximum mode gives a negligible continuous score bonus.
1up
Gives an extra life and turns all bullets onscreen into small stars. Found by destroying the big generator tower in stage 3 after the midboss. You will get the item unless you destroy the tower with a bomb.
Routes
There is no second loop, but there are Ura midbosses. Stage 1 Ura route requirements:?
- no-miss
- destroy containers before they can be run over by tanks
- high RED gauge over some duration, perhaps once you reach land
(bee medals NOT required)
TLB requirements:
- 1 credit
- Collect all 45 bees (thus, Ura midbosses route required)
- Before the extra stage, sum of misses and bombs must be no greater than 6
Scoring
Despite the addition of Ketsui’s chip system, the base of the scoring in this game is the DFK combo system. Refer to the DFK page for a more detailed description. There are, however, some notable differences. The only way to drop a chain is to use a bomb (and even then, the chain can be saved if a hyper is used immediately following the bomb). The multiplier gets applied at different hit values:
- 0 - 999 hits: 1x
- 1000 - 1999 hits: 2x
- 2000 - 3999 hits: 3x
- 4000 - 5999 hits: 4x
- 6000 - 7999 hits: 5x
- 8000 - 99,999 hits: 6x
- 100,000 - 199,999 hits: 7x
- 200,000 - 299,999 hits: 8x
- 300,000 or more hits: 9x
The multiplier is applied when a hyper is active or when the RED gauge is greater than 66% full. Chips can be used to rapidly increase the hit combo.
Strategy
See (Template Page)/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.
This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.
(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)
Story
Basic story breakdowns, plot information, and endings are included here.
If there is no story at all, or any information about the setting, then this section can be omitted. Try to include at least small things here when you can.
Development History
If available, you can include information here about the hardware, the development of the game, and its general reception. Try to have as much information in this section cited as possible.
Version Differences
- Include information here about differences in a game between various versions. This includes regional differences, patch updates/bugfixes, and the like.
Trivia
- Cool facts and random tidbits go here!
Gallery
See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.
Video References
Video index for Black Label Arrange
Other
Raw Data Tables
Item scores chart:
item GP gain score increase -------------------------------------------------------- small star 5 GP / 10 large star 10 GP small ground star 0 200 * hit combo large ground star 0 500 * hit combo 1chip 1 1 * hit combo + 101 2chip 2 2 * hit combo + 204 3chip 4 3 * hit combo + 409 4chip 8 4 * hit combo + 816 5chip 16 5 * hit combo + 1625 10chip 64 10 * hit combo + 6400
Chip timer countdown chart:
ship status rate of timer countdown
-----------------------------------------------------
hyper off and:
shooting 1 per 3 frames
not shooting 3 per frame
hyper on and:
shooting 1 per 2 frames
not shooting 2 per frame
References & Contributors
- Raadgiver: initial author, original research; additional info gained from:
- ZPS: suggested HIVAC requirements are the same as Ketsui omote loop requirements
- trap15: suggested that RED gauge affected the type of chip created when starting a chain
- NoutA RiN: provided hit combo multiplier table
- SpinoSTG: provided info about standard Black Label, used for highlighting contrasts between it and Black Label Arrange
- SMayfield: provided UI screencap and explanation; provided cheat engine tables, useful for confirming what the RED gauge influences
