Ibara
Contents
Ibara 鋳薔薇
Gameplay Overview
Controls
Ships
Weapons
Items
Rank
Rank System Overview
Ibara features a dynamic difficulty, or "Rank" system similar to that found in Battle Garegga. Most actions taken by the Player will increase the Rank, which also continuously rises with every frame of play time. The only way to decrease the Rank is to die, either by accident or with planned suicides.
Almost every action taken in the game will increase the Rank:
- Firing a bullet from the main weapon or Options
- Collecting an item (all items, including Power-Ups, Options, Medals, and even the 1-UP item, will increase Rank)
- Using a Bomb or Hadou
- Sealing enemy bullets
Ibara's Rank system is quite complex, but there are a few basic principles that can help new players:
- The Rank will decrease more if you die with fewer lives in stock. In other words, if you have only 1 spare life and die (thus leaving you with 0 stock), it will decrease the difficulty twice as much as if you died with 2 lives in stock.
- Partial Bombs will increase rank more rapidly than Full Bombs.
- The Hadou Gun will increase rank even more rapidly than either kind of Bomb.
- Collecting Power-Up and Option items will always increase Rank, even if the items do not impart a change to the Player (IE: collecting Power-Up items while at full shot strength will still raise rank).
- Raising your autofire rate does not affect the per-frame Rank; however, since you are firing bullets more rapidly, it does still affect the rate at which Rank will build over time.
Rank System In-Depth
Rank value is stored internally as a hexadecimal value, which is actually 'inverted' compared to the Player's experience of it - as this value decreases, the game gets harder. Because it is more consistent with the user experience, it is customary to refer to the increase in game difficulty as 'increasing the Rank', even though that is not technically accurate to the internal implementation.
There are two separate settings determining the rank in Ibara. Difficulty 1 determines only the starting rank and has no further effect on the gameplay. After the player has started a run, the rank is then gradually increasing determined by difficulty 2, which is the per frame rank increase.
Depending on the number of runs played during one continuous session, the starting rank is gradually increasing. Starting rank can be reset either by entering the test menu or by powering down the PCB. The values in the table below are taken from the first run after powering up the PCB.
Difficulty 1 (starting rank) | Decimal | Hexadecimal |
---|---|---|
Easy | 15,204,352 | E80,000 |
Normal [default] | 14,680,064 | E00,000 |
Hard | 14,155,776 | D80,000 |
Very Hard | 13,631,488 | D00,000 |
Super Hard | 13,107,200 | C80,000 |
Unbelievable | 12,582,912 | C00,000 |
Difficulty 2 (per frame rank) | ||
Slow | 12 | C |
Medium [default] | 16 | 10 |
Fast | 20 | 14 |
Very Fast | 24 | 18 |
Maximum Fast | 28 | 1C |
Unforgettable | 32 | 20 |
Notes:
- Rank maxes out at 00,000,000 (000,000 in hex) regardless of the difficulty settings.
- Starting rank for Harder mode is 8,808,032 (866,660 in hex) on default settings.
- Starting rank for Extended mode is the same as on Normal mode on default settings.
Rank is influenced by certain actions of the player, e.g. firing your Shot or picking up an item. All of the actions that have an effect on rank are listed in the tables below. 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.
Action | Rank increase in decimal | Rank increase in hexadecimal |
---|---|---|
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 |
Death from 5 lives > 4 lives | -131,072 | -20,000 |
Seal a bullet | 4,096 | 1,000 |
Notes:
- Cancelling bullets turning them into rose items has no effect on rank.
- Grazing enemy bullets has no effect on rank.
Item | Rank increase in decimal | Rank increase in hexadecimal |
---|---|---|
100~900 Medals | 256 | 100 |
1,000~9,000 Medals | 1,024 | 400 |
10,000 Medal | 4,096 | 1,000 |
100pt. Rose Item | 256 | 100 |
200pt. Rose Item | 512 | 200 |
400pt. Rose Item | 768 | 300 |
800pt. Rose Item | 1,024 | 400 |
Shot Power Up (small) | 4,096 | 1,000 |
Shot Power Up (large) | 65,536 | 10,000 |
Bomb Item (small) | 8,192 | 2,000 |
Bomb Item (large) | 131,072 | 20,000 |
Option Item | 65,536 | 10,000 |
1-Up Item | 524,288 | 80,000 |
Notes:
- Dropping a medal has no effect on rank.
- Collecting excess items for score has no additional effect on rank.
- Powering up with with a Shot Power Up (small or large) has no effect on rank.
- Reaching the next full bomb with a Bomb Item (small or large) has no effect on rank.
- Triggering any of the Special Options has no effect on rank.
Attack (per full burst) | Rank increase in decimal | Rank increase in hexadecimal |
---|---|---|
Regular Shot (Shot Level 0~2) | 30 | 1E |
Regular Shot (Shot Level 3) | 40 | 28 |
Regular Shot (Shot Level 4~5 and Special) | 50 | 32 |
Machine Gun | 15 | F |
5-Way | 75 | 4B |
Gatling | 15 | F |
Homing | 40 | 28 |
Rocket | 100 | 64 |
Burner | 32 | 20 |
Napalm | 50 | 32 |
Bomb (fragment) | 20,480 | 5,000 |
Bomb (full) | 8,192 | 2,000 |
Activating a Hadou Gun | 69,632 | 11,000 |
Notes:
- The values for Regular Shot have been tested for Dyne (A). They may or may not differ for Bond and the different sub types.
- While activating a Hadou Gun has an effect on rank as indicated, actually releasing it has no effect on rank.
Scoring
Strategy
References
- Rank info from an unpublished document written by Archer (dated September 17th 2011)