Battle Bakraid

Battle Bakraid バトルバクレイド

Gameplay Overview

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Ships

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  Sky Dragon
  Main: 20mm Autocannon
  Side: Slug Shot

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  Saber Tiger
  Main: 50mm Cannon
  Side: Slug Shot

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  Lightning Wolf
  Main: 35mm Cannon
  Side: Lightning Beam

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  Hammer Shark
  Main: 20mm Autocannon
  Side: Spike Laser

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  Flame Viper
  Main: 50mm Cannon
  Side: Hell's Flame

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  Steel Bat
  Main: 35mm Cannon
  Side: Hunter Laser

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  Solid Ray
  Main: 20mm Autocannon
  Side: Solid Missile

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  Buster Lizard
  Main: 30mm Gatling Gun
  Side: Plasma Arrow

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  Blade Owl
  Main: 20mm Autocannon
  Side: Hivolt Wave

	Sky Dragon	Saber Tiger	Lightning Wolf	Hammer Shark	Flame Viper	Steel Bat	Solid Ray	Buster Lizard	Blade Owl
Minimum Shot Width	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2
Side Shot Power	Very Low	Medium	Very High	Low	High	Low	Medium	Low	Medium
Side Shot Coverage	High	High	Low	Low	High	Low	Medium	Medium	Medium
Side Shot Homing	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Charge Attack Power	Very Low	Low	Very High	High	High	Medium	Low	Low	Medium
Charge Attack Coverage	High	Medium	Medium	High	High	Low	Medium	Low	Very High
Charge Attack Piercing	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Speed	High [6]	Low [2]	Medium [4]	Very High [7]	Medium [3]	Medium [3]	Low [1]	High [5]	Medium [4]
Main Strength	Speed	Side Shot	Side Shot	Speed	Side Shot	Main Shot?	Charge Attack	Speed	Charge Attack
Main Weakness	Power	Speed	Coverage	Power	Minimum Shot Width / Speed	Almost Everything	Speed	Power	Power

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Rank

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There are two separate values determining the rank in Battle Bakraid. One value determines only the starting rank and has no further effect on the gameplay (START RANK in the dip switch settings). This value is the same for Training and Normal mode. After the player has started a run, the rank is then gradually increasing determined by another value, which is the per frame rank increase (TIMER RANK in the dip switch settings).

The starting rank of the first credit after boot-up is always 14,221,312 (D90,000 in hex) on default settings regardless of the Course you choose (the game checks for the starting rank value of Normal Course). The starting rank of all succeeding runs actually depends solely on the Course of the previous run. If your previous run was on Normal Course, the starting rank of your next run is the value of Normal Course regardless whether you have selected Training Course, Advanced Course, or Only Boss Course. However, if your previous run was on Advanced Course instead, the starting rank of your next run is the value of Advanced Course regardless whether you have selected Training Course, Normal Course, or Only Boss Course.

The minimum rank cap behaves in exactly the same way. The first run after boot-up will always start with a minimum rank cap of 16,252,928 (F80,000 in hex) on default settings regardless of the Course you choose.

Therefore, you get a lower starting rank and a lower minimum rank cap for Advanced Course and Only Boss Course when you reset the PCB after each credit (or play a run of Training or Normal Course first). If you choose to continuously play Training or Normal Course, shutting down the PCB has no advantage.

Difficulty	Course	Minimum rank in dec (hex)	Starting rank in dec (hex)
Easy	Training	16,776,960 (FFF,F00)	14,679,840 (DFF,F20)
	Normal
	Advanced	14,679,840 (DFF,F20)	12,844,832 (C3F,F20)
	Only Boss	12,582,720 (BFF,F40)	11,009,824 (A7F,F20)
Normal [default]	Training	16,252,928 (F80,000)	14,221,312 (D90,000)
	Normal
	Advanced	14,221,312 (D90,000)	12,443,648 (BDE,000)
	Only Boss	12,189,696 (BA0,000)	10,665,984 (A2C,000)
Hard	Training	15,728,640 (F00,000)	13,762,560 (D20,000)
	Normal
	Advanced	13,762,560 (D20,000)	12,042,240 (B7C,000)
	Only Boss	11,796,480 (B40,000)	10,321,920 (9D8,000)
Very Hard	Training	14,680,064 (E00,000)	12,845,056 (C40,000)
	Normal
	Advanced	12,845,056 (C40,000)	11,239,424 (AB8,000)
	Only Boss	11,010,048 (A80,000)	9,633,792 (930,000)

Per Frame Rank	in dec (hex)
Low	1 (01)
Normal [default]	4 (04)
High	16 (10)
Very High	128 (80)

Notes

• Rank maxes out at 00,000,000 (000,000 in hex) regardless of the difficulty setting or Course.
• At the end of every stage, rank is decreased by 655,360 (A0,000 in hex), regardless of if you timed out the boss, or killed it.

Both the overall rank counter and the per frame rank are influenced by certain actions of the player, e.g. firing your Shot or picking up an item. The actions that have an effect on rank are listed in the tables below (incomplete listing as of now). Even though, an increase in difficulty is actually measured by a decreasing rank counter, the numbers below are listed as if the rank counter would count up. This is simply to make things easier to follow.

Rank can only be lowered by one of the following actions.

Action	Rank increase in dec (hex)
Death from 0 lives > Game Over	-4,194,304 (-400,000)
Death from 1 life > 0 lives	-2,097,152 (-200,000)
Death from 2 lives > 1 life	-1,048,576 (-100,000)
Death from 3 lives > 2 lives	-524,288 (-80,000)
Death from 4 lives > 3 lives	-262,144 (-40,000)
Graze a bullet (per frame)	-512 (-200)

Activating Shot Special Power Up and secret Option Formations results in a permanent per frame rank increase that stays even after the player dies or unequips them.

Action	Per Frame Rank increase in dec (hex)
Shot Special Power Up	2 (2)
Wide Formation	1 (1)
Search Formation	? (?)
Homing Formation	? (?)
Shadow Formation	? (?)
Rolling Formation	? (?)

Item	Rank increase in dec (hex)
100~900 Medals	1,024 (400)
1,000~9,000 Medals	2,048 (800)
10,000 Medal	4,096 (1,000)
100,000 Medal	131,072 (20,000)
Shot Power Up	4,096 (1,000)
Side-Shot Power Up	4,096 (1,000)
Option	4,096 (1,000)
Bomb Item (small)	2,048 (800)
Bomb Item (large)	65,536 (10,000)
Extend Items
0 lives > 1 life	131,072 (20,000)
1 life > 2 lives	262,144 (40,000)
2 lives > 3 lives	524,288 (80,000)
3 lives > 4 lives	1,048,576 (100,000)
4 lives (surplus)	2,097,152 (200,000)

Notes:

• Dropping a medal or an extend item has no effect on rank.
• Collecting excess items for score has no additional effect on rank.
• Reaching the next full bomb with a Bomb Item (small or large) has no additional effect on rank.

Killing large enemies that have an effect on the multiplier while a multiplier is already active (so anything higher than x1) increases the rank as follows. Small enemies that do not have an effect on the multiplier also do not increase the rank this way.

Multiplier Chaining	Rank increase in dec (hex)
Large enemy at (x1) > x2	4,096 (1,000)
Large enemy at x2 > x4	8,192 (2,000)
Large enemy at x4 > x8	16,384 (4,000)
Large enemy at x8 > x16	32,768 (8,000)
Large enemy at x16 > x32	65,536 (10,000)
Large enemy at x32 > x64	262,144 (40,000)
Large enemy at x64

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References

1. Pictures of the ships from Eighting's official website (https://www.8ing.co.jp/museum/prd/bakraid/)
2. Table for the classification of the ships from shmups forum member "ciox" (forum post dated October 21th 2016; cf. https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=1218735#p1218735)
3. Rank info from shmups forum member "croikle" (forum post dated August 6th 2010; cf. https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=599952#p599952) and "trap15" (http://daifukkat.su/strats/bakraid/system)