Darius II (Difficulty D, autofire) Clear (ABEIMSX)

Played with 5, 10, 12, 15, and 30hz autofire

Final score : 2 534 410

Darius II's D difficulty setting (also known as "very hard" or "hardest" ) is a brutal difficulty mode that has become a meme amongst Darius fans because of the abysmal number of power-ups (3 missiles, 2 bombs, 3 armors, and no laser) and high rank. Nevertheless very hard mode can be cleared with an appropriate approach and very good execution :

The first strategy I use for obtaining better weapons is to suicide until I get to one remaing life so I make the special power-up (called "energy ball") appear. This strat is only doable on stages 4 (I), 5 (M), and 6 (S) as stage 3 and 6 don't have any power-ups, and you can only do it before getting the only power-up available on said stages. If I have more than one life in stock in the beginning of any of those stages I generally suicide. This also leaves some room for some accidental deaths before stage 6.

The second strategy I use in conjunction with the suicides is low-scoring in order to not suicide more lives than I need to. Indeed if I gain an unwanted extend before suiciding that will mean I will have to suicide another life just to get to one life remaining. I thus avoid shooting as much as possible during the first stage so that I make sure to not reach the 2,1M extend before the stage 6 suicide (occasionnally I also aim to reach less than 1,4M before stage 5 if I decide not to suicide on stage 4). This is not nearly as important as suiciding but it's worth considering getting every possible ressource for this mode.

Guidelines for every zone. Note that to avoid confusion I used the official names of every ennemy you can find the full list here : https://darius.fandom.com/wiki/Darius....

Zone A : I go for low-score in this zone since it's where it's the easiest to do, the goal is to get around 50k by the time I reach the boss. I shoot as little as possible and do not care much about getting hit and lose my armor since it will not matter much for the rest of the game.

Zone B : This stage doesn't require a fundamentally different approach compared to normal mode. If I ever have a good armor stock (3 or 4 units) I go for low-scoring strategies in the end of the stage.

Zone E : The lack of power-ups makes this stage a lot harder than in normal mode since you have much more to dodge, but dying there is not a run breaker since I usually suicide two lives in the next stage.

Zone I : This stage is perhaps the hardest of the run, the one that requires both the most different approach compared to normal mode, and the most precise execution. If I didn't no-miss with a good armor stock up to this point I suicide there once or twice to get the small energy ball (one power-up level for each weapon), and the armor. It's important to suicide early on so to get the last invicibility frames after passing the second floating greek ruins. If I suicide too late I risk missing the power-ups, as the invicibility frames last for a while. On the two hectic sections with all the zakos I fly low and ignore most of the ennemies as I do not have the means for destroying them. At the end of the stage it's best to not shoot the tank in order to avoid revenge bullets. The very last section is best to be done with slow taps so to not get cornered.

Zone M : Another difficult stage due to the lack of diagonal lasers. There's some tricky sections and it can be hard to recover after a death, but with some anticipation this stage isn't that much of an issue. It's important to not shoot as soon as Strong Shell appears otherwise the tanks will fire revenge bullets. Point-blanking Yamato is very important since its the only way to deal substantial damage.

Zone S : With the big energy ball this stage isn't that much different than other difficulty modes (aside that dying here is basically a game over) as the weapon range is somehow similar. In order to get it I suicide if needed on the very beginning of the stage.

Zone X : Except from the end section this stage mostly doesn't require a different approach compared to normal. I use lower autofire frequencies at times so that my shots are more continuous (helps with the meteors). The real chokepoint of this stage, and perhaps of the run, is the Green Coronatus fight, which you need to survive as long as possible at max rank with very few lives. It is mandatory to learn where exactly zako spawn from behind so to anticipate them while dodging the lasers. An eisei formation can randomly appear, and force to dodge the missiles very close to the boss. Losing one or two lives to Coronatus doesn't necesseraly mean the end of the run, but it greatly reduces the number of mistakes allowed against Little Stripes (with three lives in stock and invicibility frames abuse the fight is almost free)

Played live on twitch on November 26th of 2022 :   / 1660260313  

Played on the Darius Cozmic Collection for Playstation 4