Difference between revisions of "Battle Bakraid"

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(Special formation per-frame rank info)
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=== Ships ===
 
=== Ships ===
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There are nine ships in the game, with four different variations each. You can choose each ship's special variation by pressing a button when selecting the ship, right before starting a run:
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* '''A''' = Main Shot Enhancement
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* '''B''' = Bomb Enhancement
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* '''C''' = Side Shot Enhancement
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* '''START''' = Speed Enhancement
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----
 
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<gallery class="center">
 
<gallery class="center">

Revision as of 04:02, 11 January 2021

Battle Bakraid バトルバクレイド

Bakraid Title Extract.png

Gameplay Overview

Controls


Ships

There are nine ships in the game, with four different variations each. You can choose each ship's special variation by pressing a button when selecting the ship, right before starting a run:

  • A = Main Shot Enhancement
  • B = Bomb Enhancement
  • C = Side Shot Enhancement
  • START = Speed Enhancement



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 Partial Full No No Partial No Full
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

Full piercing attacks penetrate through all obstacles.

Partial piercing attacks stop when they hit something, but their impact can damage objects slightly above the impact point, which can be all you need on some bosses like Grell.

Items


Medals

Medals.gif


Special Option Formations

Wide 1) Miss exactly 5 Side-Shot Power Ups
2) Pick up the next Option item
Search 1) Miss exactly 5 Option items
2) Pick up the next Option item
Homing 1) Miss exactly 5 Bomb items
2) Pick up the next Option item
Shadow 1) Miss exactly 5 Medals
2) Pick up the next Option item
Rolling 1) Miss exactly 5 Shot Power Ups
2) Pick up the next Option item

Rank


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 selection 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)

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 increased by 655,360 (A0,000 in hex), regardless of if you timed out the boss, or killed it.

Per frame rank has the following base values (decided by the TIMER RANK dip setting).

Per Frame Rank Rank Rank (Starting game by pressing Start in test menu)
Low 0 (0x00) 1 (0x01)
Normal [default] 3 (0x03) 4 (0x04)
High 14 (0x0E) 16 (0x10)
Very High 112 (0x70) 128 (0x80)

The following things will also increase your per-frame rank for all runs:

  • Pressing "Yes" on Stage Select screen (+1 per-frame rank)
  • Having more than 0 credits inserted while playing (+X per-frame rank, where X are credits inserted)

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 2 (2)
Homing Formation 2 (2)
Shadow Formation 0 (0)
Rolling Formation 0 (0)


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)
Attacks
Bomb 32768 (8,000)
Shot (per bullet) 4 (04)
Option shot (per bullet) 6 (06)
Side shot (per bullet) See table below
Ship Side shot rank increase in dec (hex)
Sky Dragon 6 (06) per bullet
Saber Tiger 56 (38) per missile
Lightning Wolf 6 (06) per frame, per laser
Hammer Shark 6 (06) per beam
Flame Viper 56 (38) per fireball
Steel Bat 26 (1A) per bullet
Solid Ray 36 (24) per missile
Buster Lizard 26 (1A) per bullet
Blade Owl 6 (06) per bullet

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.
  • Aura attacks have no 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

Mame debugging rank

Address to rank in Mame debugger: 20f2e6

Address to per-frame rank in Mame debugger: 20f2ea

Scoring


Strategy

Suiciding

Destroying your ship on purpose is very important in order to keep chains going and get more bombs once you've run out.

The chain is frozen while your ship is exploding and its debris is flying around, your ship will also not respawn until the debris has completely left the screen.

This means that just like in Armed Police Batrider, you can control the respawn time depending on where you die on the screen, corner deaths or deaths at the top or bottom of the screen will create the longest respawn time, which is useful for chaining, while deaths close to the center of the screen will create the shortest respawn time, which is useful for catching extends or medals before they fall off the screen.

Trivia

Bugs

  • Collecting an option item while a charge-shot is ending (while the options are returning to their normal placement) is buggy, and behaves differently between the original release and Unlimited version of the game.
    • In the original release, the collected option becomes the only option, and the options that were acquired previously are hidden. By dying or releasing a charge-shot, the previous options are restored to normal behavior.
    • In Unlimited, the collected option does not actually give an option, but the space where an option would be is considered occupied. As a result, collecting more options will never fill that slot. By dying or releasing a charge-shot, the empty option is removed, allowing its space to be occupied again, but the option that was collected is lost forever.

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)