Shippu Mahou Daisakusen/Guides
These are general guides not catered to any one specific character/ship. They are categorized by the goal being sought: 1cc, 2-all, or score run, and they attempt to focus on the most relevant parts of their respective run. They skim over unimportant parts of the game or details that the player can probably figure out themselves.
Generally speaking, the first thing one must do is decide which character to choose. See the characters breakdown for details about each character's stats. The most important stats are weapon power, control, and bombs. Other stats are less useful, more situational, or are only important in certain categories. Overall, the most powerful character (and likely easiest one to achieve goals with) is probably Miyamoto, and the weakest one may be Gain because of his lack of any good weapon, or Chitta because of her absolutely awful control. Shippu Mahou Daisakusen typically splits scores based on character when competing for score, so in that case, character selection is less important; one can just compete for the best score with the preferred character. See the Hall of Records for more info about the current highest scores.
Guides
Goal: 1cc
In a 1cc run of Shippu Mahou Daisakusen, racing basically doesn't matter, so you'll usually be going as slowly as possible for maximum safety. Some other tips that would be helpful for a 1cc:
- Damage limits
- Collecting death powerups
- Scrolling enemies around
- Precision diagonal movement
- More damage ticks
- Rank breakpoints
The last thing to think about before getting started is what stages to pick. For a 1cc, most of the stages are about equal in difficulty. For the final stage, one should definitely pick Kobold Tower, as its boss is noticeably easier than the alternatives, and the level isn't too hard once learned either. It's also good practice for building on score runs where Kobold Tower is also last. For the other stages, either choice could be argued as being easier or harder, so simply go with one's personally preferred choice.
Recommended stage choices
- Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean
- Outcast Castle - Crossfire (note however: crossfire gives 2 bombs!)
- Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor
- Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead
- Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower
Anatomy of a 1cc
| Important section: Stage 1 boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The boss of Basalna City, Wild Wyvern, is arguably the very first hurdle in the game after the placid first stage. Because of his highly random nature he's one of the tougher bosses in the game even for experienced players. His behavior is quite random, but destroying one of his wingtip pods will always cause his dangerous central main cannon to open. One good strategy is to damage both wingtip pods until they are almost dead, then destroy them both quickly. This will cause the main body to explode without opening for more than a moment. Another strategy is to only damage the main body while ignoring the wingtip cannons. This is easier with ships that have good forward weapons. However, the main body still has a massive amount of health, and the main cannon may open before it's destroyed. Another strategy is simply hitting the booster and flying past him until the goal line. This can work when he doesn't open his shoulder cannons. Either way just practice this boss and try not to use any bombs here as one needs as many as possible for later. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Air Circus strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Air Circus is full of flying mage enemies who will fire enclosing bullets / even aimed patterns, the solution to which is to simply stop moving once they fire. This gets complicated when there are other enemies also aiming at you, but if you use the right weapon type for this level, that shouldn't be much of a problem. Just remember: when there's lots of mages on the screen, even right in front of you, don't panic and stop moving. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Air Circus boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Generally speaking, the only danger this boss poses is his spinning disc attack which can easily catch one off guard. Usually it's a problem when paired with a forward bullet pattern. The correct move is to travel up between the bullets so the disc passes behind, but it can get tricky with the winding track. Just always try to stay focused on that spinning disc, especially just after he fires forward bullets. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Outcast Castle spinning buzzsaw | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Not a whole lot happens in Outcast Castle besides the fork in the road and spinning saw; that's one reason it's a good choice for an easier 1cc. Since the saw moves counterclockwise, it's safest to pass through following its direction rather than against it. However, the left path of the fork is certainly easier (left: ghosts, right: zombie horde). Therefore the best strategy is to enter the buzzsaw's loop from the right, move forward, and fork over to the left path between the opening in the saws. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Outcast Castle boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
This boss has 3 attacks. Red cards: You want to be closer to the boss when you see him holding red cards. The red cards are aimed in your general direction, either up, left, right, or down, so you are safe if you are close and diagonal to him. A higher damage but slightly riskier strategy when you see him holding red cards is to just move out of the way at the last second as he releases the cards, effectively baiting them into a useless direction. Blue cards: Definitely his most dangerous and annoying attack. The blue cards are homing and have an extremely high turn rate, so you must wait them out. You don't want to be close to him when you see him using blue cards. You want to lure the cards over to a side of the screen and then fly off to the other side while the cards run out of power. Sword summoning: This attack takes an extremely long time to become dangerous. Get some shots in and move out of the way / up to the top of the screen and the swords cannot hit you. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Cold Corridor early enemy rush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Early on in Cold Corridor, just after the two caged giants, is a particularly dangerous set of various enemies who will likely all get to shoot before they are destroyed. The patterns they produce are static and you will generally be safe in the bottom left portion of the screen. If your character has a good forward weapon, like say Chitta, you should probably stay at the center bottom and destroy all the enemies before they can pollute the screen with bullets. For the remainder of the stage, it's best to remain towards the middle and top of the screen (even accelerating). Ice golems who fire very fast beams cannot aim upwards, only down or to their sides. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Cold Corridor treasure horde | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
This treasure box section is surprisingly dangerous because of the zombie horde inhabiting it. Falling treasures combine with unexpected shots from zombies to create a risky situation. It is quite difficult to do this section when scrolling slowly because of the rank increase and zombies unexpectedly shooting you from point blank range. Speed up and stay above the middle of the screen, mostly looking out behind you for trailing shots from the zombies. After this section is over, make sure to slow down again as some enemies with tough patterns will spawn and shoot you point blank. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Cold Corridor boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 This is one of the more difficult bosses in the game, and one reasons you've been saving up bombs. All of his attacks are solvable in a vacuum, but the problem arises when they overlap with one another unexpectedly. Generally one wants to stay near a wall while their subweapons damage the boss. This will lure rotating ice attacks into a corner. For the pairs of shots from his fists, hopefully you are still near the wall so you can begin leading his shots and changing direction as in the examples. Try to learn the rhythm of the shots and change directions with the rhythm rather than trying to visually read the bullets. Use a bomb if you get cornered. For his random tail bullets, all you can do is try to react and find openings in the pattern. Most important of all is the overlap of the ice vortexes with other attacks. It's vital to try to get near one of the sides between attacks in case he uses the ice attack. The ice attack lingers a very long time, so it must be lured into one area or else it will be too difficult to avoid his other attacks. Use of bombs here is expected and fine. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Strato Sphere Kobold planes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Strato Sphere will be the first introduction to these kobold planes pictured on the right. These enemies have the annoying habit of shooting you from behind while they're exploding, which they take seemingly forever to do. The number one cause of death in the entire stage may just be forgetting about or underestimating these enemies. Their antics can catch even experienced players off guard. In short, always focus on killing these quickly, and if they get behind you while still alive or during a ferocious section, a bomb might be in order to clear out the screen. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Strato Sphere boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
One of the toughest bosses in the game and with a seemingly massive amount of HP (especially because of all the ship parts/armor that's shielding him), he's the main reason you want a good bomb for a 1cc run. One should take into account the properties of their character's bomb. Miyamoto has an incredible bomb for this boss that can easily destroy both of the homing laser turrets, effectively neutralizing its most potent weapon. Unfortunately, a lot of characters have non-piercing bombs, even characters with strong bombs like Gain. For these characters, you may want to get as close as possible to the main body of the boss before letting the bomb off, or else it will explode upon his armor instead. There's not much point discussing the boss's mechanics or advanced strategies for a 1cc as they are horribly complex and inconsistent. Instead, just dump all of your bombs right here, preferably when you feel like you're about to die. If you do die, just dump all of your bombs again. He will go down soon enough. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Go. To. Kobold. Tower. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Up until now most of the stages have been about equal in difficulty. For stage 6, Kobold Tower is the only real choice for a 1cc (and score run). Its boss is noticeably the easiest one in the entire game, and the stage itself isn't too difficult either. Meanwhile, Kingdom Grandprix has arguably an easier but trickier stage and much rougher boss, while Yashiki of Ninja has the toughest boss in the entire game. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Kobold Tower super enemy rush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 After the rock section in Kobold Tower, there will be a fierce rush of enemy mechs. The enemy to watch out for in this is the example depicted on the right. These will fire a fast and long stream of aimed shots that will most likely trap you if they are not killed quickly. This really is the final challenge in a 1cc, so feel free to use a bomb to get rid of these two. If you don't have a bomb, try to get as far to the left as possible and slowly tap dodge to the right until these enemies leave the screen. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Kobold Tower boss timeout strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Simply put, the only danger this boss can really pose is its pod attack. Quickly destroy the turrets depicted to the right that are on both sides of him (bomb if he releases a pod before you can) and you can easily wait out the rest of the level, calmly avoiding the bosses attacks. Side turrets turn to face you: He's about to shoot incredibly dangerous pods. Consider bombing pre-emptively. Whirling side guns: This means he's about to shoot a random cone of bullets from his sides. Just move to the middle of the screen. Back opens: It's going to fire homing missiles. These missiles are quite slow and easily destroyed. Just tap dodge around the screen and they should pose no threat. Main opening glowing: It's about to fire a huge laser. You're always safe at the very edges of the screen or at the top of the screen. Destroying the boss is also fine, it's just that the enemies that appear after that are slightly more dangerous than the boss itself, so technically speaking it is safer for the 1cc to not even bother destroying the boss. | |||
| Examples | |||
Goal: 2-all
Completing all stages of Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is considerably more difficult than a 1cc of the first 6. The difficulty stems from the fact that all powerups are irretrievably lost upon death in the second loop. This limits the player to 1-damage main shots and is certain gameover if there are no powerups nearby.
In order to to even reach the second loop, some racing becomes necessary. Even when not racing hard, coming in 2nd or 3rd place is definitely worth it and helpful overall. It's recommended to familiarize oneself with the general techniques on the techniques page, and since a score of 900,000 awards an extra life beyond a score of 600,000, learning some score techniques may also help survival play.
For a 2-all, whatever races weren't picked in the first loop will be encountered in the second loop. Racing difficulty and survival difficulty need to be balanced against each other. One should choose easy-to-win races for the first loop, but one also wants to leave the easy levels for the very dangerous second loop. These two goals sometimes conflict, as there are some very easy races and stage that you would like to have on both loops but can't, like Outcast castle.
Recommended stage choices
- Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean
Both races are very hard to win, so the only difference is second loop difficulty. The Air Circus boss is very tough on loop 2, probably requiring at least one bomb. With practice, Velmatic Ocean can be done bombless, even on loop 2.
- Outcast Castle - Crossfire
Outcast Castle is a noticeably easier level than Crossfire, and is also an extremely easy race to win. Crossfire is both difficult to race and survive, so this is the first tough choice. Outcast Castle is still recommended for first loop as it's so simple to get 1st place, giving a much-increased chance of reaching the 2nd loop.
- Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor
Once again, both levels are roughly equal in difficulty. However, Cold Corridor is noticeably easier to get 1st place in, so that is recommended for first loop. The Deeply Dungeon boss is very inconsistent and difficult on loop 2, but the Cold Corridor boss isn't much better.
- Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead
Strato Sphere is slightly easier to get a good ranking in, and is extremely difficult on loop 2, with many very sturdy enemies shooting very fast aimed shots. Forest of Dead's enemies are a bit easier to speedkill or exploit. Forest of Dead's boss is probably more difficult, but it's expected to die at least once to either boss here, and there are powerups after them.
- Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower
This time, we want to leave the easiest level, Kobold Tower, for the second loop, so Kingdom Grandprix is recommended for the first loop.
- Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower
Yashiki of Ninja is a tough level and has a tough boss. The only real reason to visit there is for fun. Kobold tower is a simpler and more exploitable level, and the boss is ironically the easiest one in the game. It's really a no-brainer for survival play.
Anatomy of a 2-all
The following advice assumes most knowledge of the basic 1cc has already been mastered.
| Important section: Try to win certain races | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Basalna City / Stage 1
Air Circus
Outcast Castle
Cold Corridor
Strato Sphere
Kingdom Grandprix
| |||
| Important section: Dangers in Kingdom Grandprix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 This will be a new stage, not seen in the previous 1cc guide. Overall it's not too difficult because of relatively low enemy health. The enemy to watch for is depicted in the example on the right. Some of these ships will fire an extremely dangerous homing laser after a short time. If you didn't kill them fast enough, consider just bombing on reaction as soon as you see this homing laser come out. Slow ships especially will have trouble avoiding this attack. With practice you should simply learn where they appear and kill them before they can do anything at all. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Bashinet enemy rush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Once you hear the boss music, enemies are about to start coming out of walls. If you don't care about score, one can just stay in the top left corner of the screen until all the enemies have passed. Once the walls on either side end, get ready to try and get to the bottom of the screen to brake as the boss is about to let loose his attacks. By braking hard at that point, you can often trap the boss at the top of the screen where his cannons will fail to fire. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Bashinet R strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The very first tactic to be employed against this boss is to try and get him stuck at the top of the screen. This is as simple as suddenly braking after his shoulder armor latches onto him. This will trap him at the top of the screen for hopefully a long time. However, almost certainly he will eventually start to descend and actually fight. Note that the green explosions have a much smaller hitbox than appears and the player is often safe at the bottom of the screen. The straight lasers from his shoulders have deceptively massive collision rectangles that get bigger and smaller as the beam solidifies and fades. The static lasers combined with the aimed shots from his shoulders creates a classic static / aimed pattern. A helpful strategy against these is to try to lure the aimed shots over the static shots (the lasers). This will free up some other part of the screen which the player can maneuver in. This is probably the most dangerous attack combination the boss can perform. Being trapped by these shoulder lasers or shoulder bullets are the player's cue to bomb. Bombs get refilled at the start of the second loop, so feel free to use them all here. Once his shoulder armor blows away he's almost dead and will throw his hands at you. The safest thing at this point is probably just to move in a steady direction so all of his aimed shots miss you while you try to destroy the hands. Once his hands are off you, just keep tapping steadily in one direction to avoid all the aimed shots. Conserve lives as much as possible as they are the only thing one takes with them to the second loop. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: 2nd loop strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Upon reaching the second loop, it's recommended to stop racing, even in scoring runs. Enemies are more dangerous, sturdier, and rival racer speed is pumped up even further. Losing on purpose is mandatory even for score runs, so there's certainly no reason to bother in a 2-all. However, the very first level is arguably easier using spinbomb racing, especially against the boss. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: 2nd loop Wild Wyvern | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 The very first boss of the second loop is surprisingly dangerous. But you don't even need to use a bomb against him. You can just boost right past him and finish the stage in almsot complete safety. Simply drop to minimum speed when the boss is coming up, then time a boost to boost right past him while his shoulder armor is descending. The boss will be pushed way off the screen, and it will take him several seconds to reach the top and actually become active. The player can stay at the top of the screen and just race to the goal line. Note that he can still activate his shoulder cannons sometimes, and in that situation one may wish to bomb, but just dodging them is also an option. Damaging him by sitting on his head with a charged spin is probably the safest possible way to get past this boss, but it does require a bomb at some point in the level. | |||
Examples
| |||
| Important section: Velmatic ocean cliffs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The cliff section (brown cliffs at the right) are a notably dangerous part of the run. Many ships are unable to hit the hydro tanks as they are coming in from the cliffs, and those tanks fire fast bullets nearly pointblank. It's recommended to make sure you know which weapon is best for this section given your ship/character, be aware of the limited aiming angle of the hydrotanks and their shot timing, and also of the safespots on top of the hydrotanks which can sometimes be worth getting onto. If all else fails, using a bomb is much preferable to dying here. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Crossfire spawners | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Towards the end of Crossfire is a section where enemy spawners poke out from the side of the battleship. it is quite important to accelerate here at a certain point. If traveling at minimum speed the entire way, the last spawner will spawn extremely dangerous enemies that will shoot you from behind. Accelerating at a certain time (for average ships, it's roughly when the second to last spawner closes. Might need to be earlier for slower ships) causes these enemies to disappear off the side of the screen. If one fails to despawn these enemies, a bomb is recommended, as they fire extremely rapidly and there is not really any safe way to destroy them in the tight spaces of Crossfire. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Crossfire crowded section | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Immediately after the spawner section is a very difficult section with vehicle bays. Be certain you're using your best piercing or forward weapon here and memorize the layout of the dangers ahead. Kill the kobold bazooka on the left, then work on damaging the fat ship being released by the bay. It will end up getting released on the right side of the screen, conveniently where the large round turrets are. Try to damage both the fat ships and the round turrets together (damage is limited on a per enemy basis, so try to hit multiple enemies at once) while tapping left slowly to dodge shots. Repeat this for the next kobold and vehicle bay. If things don't seem to be dying fast enough or you get trapped, just use a bomb. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Crossfire boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
This is another boss you can safely boost through. Simply boost and hang around the very top of the screen. Beware his hitbox when he tries to do his diving attack as he will move upwards and possibly knock you into his fists which are an instant kill. Basically just boost and try to stay away from his body and the stage will be over in no time. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Deeply Dungeon dangers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Worms These seemingly innocuous enemies are the most likely culprit to ruin your 2-all with their deceptively massive hitboxes and high health. Try to lure them to one of the top corners of the screen, wait for their slow down -> pouncing animation, and then circle right and down to where you can safely shoot them. Unfortunately, there are other sewer openings in the way of this plan which you have to try to stay away from. If 3 or 4 worms appear on the screen at once, go ahead and just use a bomb. It's not worth dying and losing all of your powerups before the incredibly dangerous boss. Honest John and characters with a good weapon that hits behind them can excel at these destroying these worms and likely won't need a bomb. Sewer chompers  Don't try to destroy these; they are incredibly sturdy and their gravitational power is shocking. The nearby fish corpse firing suicide bullets basically requires a bomb as well. This is something you'll have to worry about in score runs, but not a full game clear. The simplest solution is to just boost right past all of it, and it absolutely does the trick for non-score runs. Even the slowest ship can breeze through this section so long as they are actually boosting. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Deeply Dungeon boss strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
In the 2nd loop, the battle with Prime Jelly revolves entirely around his bullet wall attack. He has other dangerous attacks, but none are almost certain death if you're out of position like the bullet wall attack. There are no powerups immediately after this boss, so death isn't an option. Since the bullet wall is so important, one needs to plan everything around it. First, the full bullet wall pattern will only be performed when the boss is horizontal and facing downwards. Whenever the boss is in this position, you should be trying to position yourself in the bottom left of the arena; this is the positions from which to begin performing the only known dodging maneuver for the bullet wall. In between his other attacks, one should be thinking about trying to reposition to this spot in the bottom left as well. Slower ships may have to use a bomb as they simply aren't fast enough to macro dodge the bullet walls. Faster ships may want to bomb as well if timing seems off, or just for safety. Remember, dying to this boss is a huge problem as there are no powerups anywhere near here. When the boss is in other positions, that's when the player can be slightly more aggressive in aiming for its eye and maximizing damage. Still, this boss will take a lot of practice to get down. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Forest of dead opener | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The opening of Forest of Dead, just after the suicide-bullet bats, is characterized by a stream of very tanky ghouls with very rapid-firing guns. There is a safe spot for this entire section just to the right of the speedometer. Note that you will still have to avoid the bullets from the final ghoul. It's recommended to move right and into a position where one can shoot the upcoming mages. | |||
| Examples
| |||
| Important section: Forest of dead don't open the coffin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
In the 2nd loop, the giant coffin near the end of Forest of Dead becomes one of the most dangerous traps in the game. The vampire inside will relentlessly create suicide bullet-spamming worms that will surely wall you off and kill you eventually. The simplest solution then is to just ignore the coffin and leave it closed. Fly around in time with the spiral shot pattern and do not damage the coffin. This will also stop enemies from spawning before the boss. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Forest of dead boss strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The the main difficulty of this boss are the spirits it fires from its sides. These spirits fire enclosing shots that do not enclose; rather, they just hit the player's gigantic hitbox and there's no reliable way to avoid them. Since the entire battle revolves around these killer spirits, one's strategy also must. The only somewhat reliable way to survive the killer spirits is to force one to despawn off the side of the screen whilst moving away from the remaining spirit. This widens the enclosing attack and causes it to actually miss... usually. This is more difficult for characters with weapon ill suited to sitting in the corner, such as Gain and Chitta. These characters need a hair trigger on their bombs as they will often need to be in the center of the screen where there is no escape from the spirits. The boss's other attacks are less dangerous unless they overlap, and mostly they can be avoided on reaction. Beware the boss's tongue; it has no qualms about hitting you at the very bottom of the screen, or even hitting you after the boss has died. The good news is that there are some powerups shortly after the boss to power back up with. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Kobold Tower 2 strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
The final hurdle while full clearing the game is surely the enemy rush in the middle of Kobold Tower. Luckily, one can skip it if they like by boosting and then dodging the gatling mechs by circling the screen as shown in the example. The boss of the level has barely changed from the 1cc, and it can once again be timed out safely rather than fought (after destroying the side launchers). | |||
| Examples | |||
Goal: High score
Score play in Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is quite different from typical shmup survival play and requires a completely different playstyle because of the necessity of spins. Doing everything one can to spin into the bosses for massive point gains is an obvious enough risk one must take; that's the very foundation of a scoring run in this game. However, there are many situations where one must balance the risk against the reward with regard to smaller enemies. Then there's deciding how much risk should be taken when racing for the extra score from winning, and also for the ability to enter the second loop at all. Ultimately it depends on the player's goal and how far they wish to go. For achieving the absolute highest scores, all of the significant risks must be taken. This guide will assume going for the highest reasonably possible score and will assume all the significant risks are taken.
Like other shmups, in order to be effective at scoring, one should first learn to 1cc and 2-all the game as a foundation. One should then get familiar with the scoring techniques. When looking to refine score runs, check the enemy score values in the enemy list to decide which enemies are worth the risk. Score potential is highly based on character traits such as damage, bomb, and control. Character traits may even affect stage choice, but this guide will assume the most likely highest possible scoring stage choice for all characters.
Recommended stage choices
Once score becomes the priority, survival difficulty and race difficulty take a backseat to it. The route with the highest potential must be taken. The highest possible scoring route (probably) is very similar to previous routes however.
- Air Circus - Velmatic Ocean
Air Circus is simply much more difficult to score on the second loop, with much sturdier and more aggressive enemies. Velmatic Ocean on the other hand has very little scoring difference on either loop. Air Circus loop 1 is almost certainly the correct choice here.
- Outcast Castle - Crossfire
Both stages have very little scoring potential or difference between loops, so Outcast Castle is chosen because it is a noticeably easier level than Crossfire, and is also an extremely easy race to win. Remember, one still needs to win the tournament and actually reach loop 2 in a score run.
- Deeply Dungeon - Cold Corridor
Deeply Dungeon has very little scoring potential. Cold Corridor has many high-value enemies and good targets for spin kills (boulders) that might be unkillable on the second loop. Not only that, but it's extremely hard to win Deeply Dungeon, whereas Cold Corridor is an almost certain win and a huge boon when having to win the first loop tournament. The boss of Cold Corridor is also a nightmare to try and spin kill on loop 2, whereas Prime Jelly does not give any spin bonus so there's no need for that. Definitely push Deeply Dungeon away to loop 2.
- Strato Sphere - Forest of Dead
For most characters, Strato Sphere requires the lower enemy health of loop 1 because of the infinite enemy spawn. This section represents a massive score boost which is not matched anywhere in Forest of the Dead loop 1. Characters with bad bombs who are unable to abuse the infinite enemy spawn arguably could choose Forest of Dead instead.
- Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja - Kobold Tower
Likewise, Kobold Tower needs to be picked in loop 1 because of lower enemy health for its infinite enemy spawn after the boss, the highest scoring section in the entire game. On loop 2, these enemies are extremely sturdy, and score potential is greatly reduced.
- Kingdom Grandprix - Yashiki of Ninja
Kingdom Grandprix has generally higher score potential, and is easier to boot. Yashiki of Ninja may theoretically have a higher score potential, but it would requires an astronomically unlikely event to take place (the boss only spawning his 2,000-point ninja over and over for a very long time).
Legacy high scores
Much of the information on the highest scores for Shippu Mahou Daisakusen is lost to time, but the game is actually in a unique position where certain info about runs is encoded in the score itself. The ones digit of each score actually indicates how many races were lost by the player, because that is the only way to gain 1 point in the game. So at least, one can be certain that the world records from the year 2000 applied strategies where 7 races were lost. It's impossible to say which races were lost, or which tracks those players picked, however it is probably similar to the track path suggested by this guide, perhaps with an intentional loss on Air Circus like the guide suggests.
Anatomy of a Score Run
| Important section: Stage 1 unfortunate enemy glitch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Moderate A very common bug that will occur unfortunately often during score runs where some high-value enemies will not spawn at all in the game's first stage. The giant skull ships worth 3,000 for a spin kill will often spawn accelerating in the wrong direction, and this will cause them to instantly disappear. You may or may not want to reset if this happens. A "very good" score to have at the end of stage 1 (perhaps unattainable for certain characters) is 95,000. | |||
| Examples
| |||
| Important section: Air Circus extra enemies | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Moderate Air Circus is one of a few stages with extra enemy spawns for scrolling the screen at the minimum speed. These are all blue mages that are worth 1,000 per spin kill. Altogether, they add about 10,000 points to the overall score, which cancels out the reward for racing and achieving first place (which is very unlikely to occur as well). The player earns no tournament points this way, but they can be made up in other stages, and the 10,000 points from the extra enemies are far more reliable than relying on an unlikely race win. | |||
| Examples
| |||
| Important section: The stop signs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: High The stop signs in Air Circus signal the beginning of one of the most important scoring sections in the game. Numbering 10 in all, destroying them all without touching any awards a total of 35000 points. Minimum speed and the correct strategy based on one's selected character are absolutely vital for scoring here. Character strategies
| |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: The legendary logs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: High Immediately after the stop signs comes another vital scoring section, the log carrier section. Logs award 300 points when destroyed, but a strangely massive 2,000 when destroyed by a spin. For achieving the very best scores, a good log section is similar to Battle Garegga's flamingo section: absolutely vital. The log section can help decide whether or not you're on track for your goal score or reseting. 190,000 points after this section would be considered extremely good. Actually extracting score from the log section is far more difficult than the stop signs before it. Log carriers die and sprays logs all over the place. The outer logs are much faster than any ship. Trying to bump into them is difficult and highly character and weapon dependent. In practice, it's impossible to get most or maybe even half of the logs. A consistent method for one's chosen character should be sought, such as using a forward weapon to break the log carriers to either side of the ship, spraying two streams of logs into the player which hopefully bounce them back and forth between the log streams; however this may not be possible for some characters. Shooting the log carriers point blank from the bottom and hoping to bump into the bottoms of the logs instantly when they spawn may be a better strategy for some characters. A horde of mages appears quickly during this section so it all has to be done quickly as well. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Zombie path in Outcast Castle | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Low Simply put, the right path in Outcast Castle is worth a lot more points than the left path. Even though it can be extremely dangerous depending on one's chosen character and weapon, it provides a much-needed score boost over the safer left path. Note that it's possible to get extra points by glitching some subweapons through the top of the left wall, such as Miyamoto's shurikens, in order to damage enemies on the left path while enjoying the extra score from the right path. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Milking boulders in Cold Corridor | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Moderate In any of the ice boulder sections in Cold Corridor, spin killing the boulders is worth more than spin killing the enemies. The large boulder-spitting worms are themselves only worth 800/1000 points, yet they can spit up to 4,000 points worth of boulders each. Actually bumping into the boulders is extremely risky and error prone, especially due to ice golems that appear in the same section, but it can also provide a lot of extra points if going for the maximum amount of risk. Slowing down and bumping into boulders allows enemy racers to catch up, and chances are, you need the tournament points from winning Cold Corridor. Check the enemy positions on the map in the empty area before the boulder section to make sure you are safely in first place. The further ahead oneself is, the harder they might push this boulder section for maximum points. The boulders themselves are quite sturdy compared to even Kobold Tower's boulders, so one should probably shoot them a bit first before apply the bump. Just before this section, both a green and pink weapon are dropped, so it's highly recommended to experiment and figure out which is the best weapon for your character for this section, weighing both boulder damage and damage to the enemies behind them. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: The treasure hoard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Moderate The treasure hoard is a section in Cold Corridor filled with treasure boxes and zombies. The zombies fire unexpectedly and are a serious threat. There are arguably different ways to tackle the treasure hoard. The absolute highest scoring method would seem to be to slow to minimum speed and zigzag across the treasures while shooting and collecting the drops. Sometimes this produces up to 5,000 points of extra score, but sometimes it produces equal or less score than safer methods. One issues with going slowly is that it increases rank and causes zombies to shoot more aggressively. Yet another issue is that enemy racers will catch up to you during this long section, throwing the entire run into jeopardy. Another strategy is to travel at maximum acceleration while doing the same zigzag pattern upwards along the screen to better collect the drops. This seems to work best when done from the middle of the screen vertically, depending on the character. This strategy has less overall potential, but enemy racers won't catch up, and you won't get shot because zombies don't shoot that far up the screen and don't aim well when one is behind them. Different weapons should be experimented with to discover the best one for your ship at this point. It can definitely be worth switching weapons for this section and losing out on the 1,000 point same-weapon bonus. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Suicide at the start of Strato Sphere (maybe) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
If you haven't died in your score run yet, you should probably be running out of bombs by now. Some characters can gain a massive amount of score in the upcoming infinite enemy section in Strato Sphere, and may even suicide during the section for more bombs. This is a scoring technique which sacrifices survival resources purely to gain score, so if still focusing somewhat on survival, or if your character doesn't benefit from the infinite enemy section, this suicide should be avoided. | |||
| Examples
| |||
| Important section: Infinite enemy spawn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Very high The infinite enemy spawn is a section in the middle of Strato Sphere where extra enemies spawn as fast as they can be killed. Ships with good bombs can convert their bombs and lives into score here. Miyamoto for instance can gain 50,000 extra points from bombs compared to what he would have been awarded normally in this section. Nirvana and Kickle & Laycle gain virtually no extra score from using bombs here due to the properties of their bombs. They should probably focus on killing as quickly as possible using their best normal means to do so while conserving their lives and bombs for other things. It's recommended to somehow end up with at least 2 bombs after this section, suiciding yet again if necessary. At least one bomb will probably have to be used for the boss, and another will be needed to activate the spinbomb glitch for the next stage. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Strato Sphere boss scoring strategy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Very high The game developers themselves admit that, due to its high armor and homing lasers, one should probably be using bombs against this boss. And indeed, due to there being very little room to even attempt to fight this boss, players should try to find an easy and replicable strategy for spin killing the boss of Strato Sphere with 1 bomb. Possible character strategies
| |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Kobold Tower boulder rush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Moderate It's seemingly impossible to bump into all of the boulders in Kobold Tower. Shooting a boulder is better than missing one, but worse than spin killing one. When shooting, some of the shots will surely accidentally destroy more than just the targeted boulder. One must decide on the fly at which points shooting will be worth it. A good rule of thumb is to begin shooting when one of the enemy mechs or missiles appears; it's too dangerous and would accelerate the screen to try and bump the mechs, and the missiles must be avoided at all costs. Most of all, make sure to bump the 5 missile pots on either side of this section as they award 3,000 points. Quite a bit more important than the 250/500 point boulders. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Kobold Tower infinite battleship spawn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Extremely high The highest scoring area in the game comes immediately after the boss of Kobold Tower (this also means kill it as quickly as you possibly can to increase spawns). When looking for the greatest possible improvement points-wise, this section should be practiced more than any other. Kobold battleships award 6600 points when spin killed, more than any non-boss related enemy, and they will typically show two turrets on their backs that can be destroyed by piercing weapons for 1,000 points each. The turrets are just a bonus though, and one that only certain characters can enjoy. The real score comes from damaging and spin killing the battleships as quickly as possible, because they spawn infinitely until the player reaches the goal area. The order the battleships appear around the screen is fixed, and eventually loops, so one should develop a safe route based on their character to fly around the screen to spin kill them all as fast as possible. Along with the Strato Sphere infinite enemy area, this section is what mainly determines a ship's scoring potential. Interestingly enough, ship acceleration is a strongly negative stat for scoring all because of these battleships; most of them spawn at the top of the screen, and high acceleration causes inconsistent battleship spawn control, while also causing fewer battleships to spawn overall as the section ends more quickly the faster one travels. Conversely, wall brakes / enemy brakes are amazingly useful here as they keep one's ship slow at the top of the screen while bumping into the battleships. This is one reason why Bornnam (great wall brakes, worst acceleration in the game, great piercing weapon) has massive scoring potential, while Chitta (Extreme acceleration, terrible brakes, very bad weight) has some of the worst scoring potential in the game. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Winning 2-1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Low Rival racers are weaker on Basalna City than other tracks for whatever reason. Even on the second loop, it's possible to win this race and receive the significant sum of 10,000 points. On the first loop one can stay boosted the entire race and instantly defeat all enemies with one bump. However, enemy health and aggression are higher on the second loop, so it's recommended to stop boosting when enemies such as the flying purple (brown on second loop) tank appear. Start boosting again once dangerous enemies are destroyed. Try to bump the large skull ships cautiously and from behind for maximum safety. After 2-1, go back to losing on purpose. | |||
Examples
| |||
| Important section: Vehicle bays & Crossfire spinbomb glitch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Low On the second loop, Crossfire's vehicle bays become extremely sturdy. This is a problem, because the area they appear in is hectic and full of enemies and bullets. Keep damage limits in mind while routing this section, as basic ship shots cannot destroy the vehicle bays in time; in fact they will only cancel the higher damage from subweapons. Even so, it's likely that not all ships will be able to destroy the bays with weapons alone. Too many ships lack reliable high damage weapons that can take out the extremely high health vehicle bays AND all the dangerous enemies flooding the screen. It's more likely that a bomb will be required here. The good news is that bombing here has synergy with the fact that Crossfire generally isn't worth activating the spinbomb glitch for early. Rather than activating the glitch at the start of the race, just charge up a wall spin (note that you can charge up a wall spin from inside a destroyed vehicle bay) and activate the glitch in this section, clearing it of vehicle bays and enemies at the same time. From there one can guard the spin charge all the way up to the boss and spin kill his arms. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Some bosses don't give a spin bonus | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Simply put, the bosses of Crossfire and Deeply Dungeon are bugged and don't give any extra score for a spin kill. Code analysis reveals that these bosses erroneously check themselves rather than the player for the "spin bit" upon being killed. Since the bosses were not coded to ever touch the "spin bit," the bit will never be flipped on, and they cannot ever award extra points. If this bug weren't present, Crossfire's boss could award 40,000 points, and Deeply Dungeon's boss could award 66,000 points.
| |||
| Important section: Crossfire boss arms | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Score potential: Low Crossfire's boss's head doesn't give any extra score for spin kills because of a bug, but his arms certainly do. The most obvious solution is to just sit on his head (where he really cannot threaten the player) and bounce around between his shoulder blades until both arms are spin killed. However, perhaps more than any other boss in the game, this one seems most likely to be slipped off of and into a sudden and unexpected death. Ships with good weight and control are less likely to fall victim to this. Lowering the health of the arms while under the boss is recommended for ships with bad weight/control. Ultimately, it comes down to experimenting with one's own ship to find out which strategy has the highest chance of success. Note that faster strategies technically are better as this boss does block enemy spawns, although they aren't very high value spawns overall and they are spread out over a very large area. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Sewer heads | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Score potential: Low The giant chomping heads in Deeply Dungeon become extremely sturdy on the second loop, so much so that most characters seemingly cannot kill all 4 without a bomb. The dead fish nearby firing suicide bullets signals a forced bomb as well. If not going for the absolute maximum score, the first two or three heads might be destroyed with subweapons, while the last one is skipped and boosted past. 2,800 points are sacrificed per head skipped. Miyamoto can do this section without a bomb by wedging himself into the top of the second chomper's alcove and using his homing weapon to exploit the limited firing angles of the suicide bullets. | |||
Examples
| |||
| Important section: Forest of Dead's eye rush | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Very high In terms of probability of success, this seems to be the most difficult part of a score run, followed closely by the upcoming boss fight. 40,000 to 60,000 points can be gained here by spin killing all of the eyes, and half or less than that by just shooting them. Minimum speed is absolutely required here so that the maximum number of eyes spawn, thus staying below the middle portion of the screen is mandatory. The only valid strategy for scoring here seems to be to wait until the eyes activate their "tracking" mode, spread out, and bump into the player one at a time. The problem is the likelihood that the eyes simply surround the player and force them into the eyes' own suicide bullets. The eyes are essentially a form of homing missiles with very high turn rate, so the logical counter strategy would be to try and funnel them all together and "wear them out" over an area. Staying in the very center of the screen and then moving left once they spread out seems to work for funneling them all to the left side of the screen (the left is better than the right because one of the ghost enemies can be killed on the left later). This seems to give the greatest probability of not getting totally surrounded. Once they track onto the player, let them bump you down the screen, and then right, carefully avoiding suicide bullets along the way. Keep repeating this until all of the waves of eyes are gone. It's recommended to kill the various ghosts inhabiting this area with incidental bump damage, as firing would likely destroy some of the eyes for half points or less. It is possible for an extra wave of eyes to appear, but it's unknown how this works, perhaps having something to do with sprite limitations. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Forest of Dead's boss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score potential: Very high Essentially this boss is the same as in a 2-all survival run except with the added trickiness of having to perform the coup de grace with a spin. Other than survival, the most difficult part is going to be correctly assessing when the boss's health is low enough for the bump; with its very dangerous, overlapping, and sometimes impossible-to-avoid attacks, there's very little time to sit and think about it. A solution for some characters (which is helpful for other bosses, too) is shot counting. Characters with homing weapons like Miyamoto can sit near the bottom corner where it's somewhat safe from the enclosing spirits while counting the number of shuriken volleys they fire. In Miyamoto's case, 22 to 23 volleys is enough to put the boss into spin kill range. If on a very strong run and overflowing with bombs, characters can instead count bombs, and drop bomb after bomb onto the boss. Three bombs from Honest John will put the boss near spin kill range... or it may kill the boss, or not actually do enough damage; unfortunately, bomb damage can be hard to gauge properly. The final hurdle is actually getting up to the boss's head and performing the bump. There is practically no opening for this maneuver. Any of the boss's attacks - bullet spray, energy ball, spirits - will result in death as the player ascends. Simply put, one generally can't spin kill this boss without an extra life in stock, or a bomb which can be aimed away from the boss and used for invincibility frames (yet again, Miyamoto excels here). This boss gives the highest extra bonus for a spin kill - 54,000 extra points. | |||
| Examples | |||
| Important section: Bashinet frozen hands | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Score loss: Moderate For reasons unknown, Bashinet R's hands sometimes freeze, usually when switching from his laser attack to his green explosions. When this happens, his AI will stop advancing and he will just float around aimlessly. Unfortunately, this means he will not react to having low health and shooting his arms at the player; he will just die instead. Score wise, this will cost a run 12,800 points, on top of making him much harder to spin kill. There's not any way to avoid or counter the glitch unfortunately except perhaps speedkilling bashinet by dumping as many bombs as possible on him. If you're on a score run and the glitch happens, it's just a guaranteed loss of 12,800 points. Note that the hand glitch does make Bashinet easier to survive, so for survival runs it is actually a blessing. | |||
| Examples | |||
