Gunvolt PAX Prime Goods!

Just wanted to take a moment to share a couple cool things I received from my associate Ryan King today. He recently had the opportunity to meet with Takuya Aizu and Matt Papa at PAX Prime for an interview, and was kind enough to pick up a couple sweet pieces of Gunvolt swag for me during his trip. You can check 'em out below after the jump!

How to Make "Cerberus" One of Your Most Useful Weapons

The Cerberus is normally a rather mediocre weapon. It's a good starting bolt, but once you obtain the likes of the Naga and Orochi, chances are you won't be using it ever again. After all, three tags is just too low to suit your needs most of the time.

Did you know that there's a way to make the Cerberus better, though? Mind you, I'm not talking about a minor upgrade, I'm referring to a method that can actually make it one of the most useful weapons in the game. This is all thanks to a certain lens item called Cerberus Sight+. This lens boosts the Cerberus' max amount of tags by a whopping two! It doesn't end there, though. Like all lenses, you can equip two Cerberus Sight+ items and the effects will stack! So, in addition to the three tags that the Cerberus is already capable of, you can add four more, making a total of seven tags! That's second only to the Orochi (which has eight)!

"Luring" The Chainsaw Enemy to Score Bigger Combos

An iconic enemy in Azure Striker Gunvolt is the big red, grey and white chainsaw robot. It's also a very versatile enemy for combos. You may have noticed that, if you tag this enemy and then run away from it, it'll start pursuing you at super fast speed. This can be a pain at times, but it can also be very advantageous. Since the robot will chase you pretty far, you can often lure it into an area with more enemies to score bigger combos! Just tag it, zap it with your flashfield a bit, and watch it come running after you! This technique is incredibly useful to know for various stages if you're going for an S+ rank, particularly in Pharma Lab (where these enemies come in droves). 

You can see how I utilize this technique below. The first two videos are from Pharma Lab and the third is from Gauntlet 2. The third video's probably my favorite, as I literally lure the enemy into a bed of (unseeable) spikes to score a 4-combo. Too good!

(As always, apologies for the shaky camera!)

On the "Skip-Jump", a Recurring Inti Creates Game Mechanic

Today I'd like to talk about an often overlooked--but nonetheless interesting--game mechanic that's been present in several of Inti Creates' platformers. It's what I like to call the "skip-jump". It's a very simple technique, but can be rather difficult to perform consistently. All you have to do is execute a dash jump, and then press the jump button again the very second you hit the ground. If you do this right, you'll flow into another dash jump, without needing to press the dash button again. You can perform this technique consecutively if you get the timing down. Here's a video of me showing it off in Gunvolt:

I call this mechanic the "skip-jump" because, to me, it resembles a rock skipping across water. As I said above, this technique has been present in several of Inti Creates' platformers. It was first useable in Mega Man Zero 3, and then afterwards in Mega Man Zero 4, Mega Man ZX, Mega Man ZX Advent, and, of course, Azure Striker Gunvolt. I've always found it to be a very interesting feature, even though I only really used it when I was goofing off. It's just such an obscure little mechanic that it fascinates me. I have to wonder if it originated from a bug in MMZ3's programming, as it requires such precise timing that you're normally better off just doing a normal dash jump to get around. In any case, I was really glad to see that the "skip-jump" made it back in for Gunvolt. It makes the game feel that much more like an Inti Creates platformer!

How to Keep an S+ Score in Special Mission 5 (Boss Rush Stage)

Ever since the 1.2 update for the 3DS version of Gunvolt was released, I've seen a fair amount of people wondering how you can maintain an S+ score in Special Mission 5, the boss rush stage. There's no denying that this can be a pretty tricky thing to figure out, what with the true final boss and all, so I've decided to detail the method I use to ensure that I obtain the most amount of kudos possible in the stage.
As a quick note, this post will presuppose that the reader knows how to avoid most, if not all of the boss attacks. With that said, you can read my strategy below.

The Easy Way to Avoid Viper's Special Skill; Unlimited Invincibility Trick

Ever since I started playing Gunvolt, Viper has been the bane of my existence. He's simply the worst boss in the game, with an unpredictable attack pattern, lightning-fast movements, and--his most defining attribute--his catastrophic special skill, Sunshine Nova (aka Refulgence). 

This skill is incredibly hard to dodge normally. In the first phase of the attack, Viper throws a rain of small fireballs down on you, and the only apparent way to avoid them is to move slowly through the small gaps in the attack (and pray that you don't activate your command-dash). This strategy requires very pixel-perfect timing, however, and it's very difficult to get down.
I've always sought an easier way to get around this attack, as, to me, it just seems like the cheapest move in the entire game.
Welp, as of today, I've officially found an equally cheap move of my own to counter it.