Castlevania
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I have been playing through without continues, keeping track of my high score, and restarting when my game is over. I can get to the first part of the last stage, but die miserably from those large bat things. Without trying too hard, my scores reach around 150-160k.
I always knew that killing several enemies with one throw of a weapon netted bonus points. I would do it when I could with the boomerang as I went through the stages, but I never spent much time with it.
Today, I was working my way through the stage, when I realized that the "fire bomb" (I had to look that one up; I still call it holy water) also gave the bonus points. There is a point near some stairs at the end of a section where the zombies just keep coming if you stand around, so I milked some points there, then moved on.
Then I found a much better place to do this. The very beginning of the final section before the boss, you can stand on the bottom left and throw fire at the oncoming groups of three to get 3000 points per group. This area is slightly better than the previous area, because the zombies return immediately after death. I'd estimate you get about 1000 points per second. I stood around there as long as I could before time started getting low. I ended the stage with almost 100k, and that was without rushing. I can imagine breaking 200k if you are determined.
There may be other areas just as good or better than this. I'm not sure how exploitable this is with intentional deaths, as you start with zero hearts. I suppose if you had a seed of 10-20 hearts, you could generate enough from monster deaths to keep going until time runs out.
I will keep an eye out for an area that has the firebomb, a decent amount of hearts, and infinite enemies. You could probably get unlimited lives in this manner.
Comments
Tip for the bats, keep moving and don't stop for anything. The ones up top you need to jump and whip to freeze them for a second, and just keep moving past them. Again, don't stop. Don't even stop to jump and whip, you have to keep moving.
When I got to the bats, I decided to just run for it. I only got hit once near the end of the bridge.
Using my points trick, which is technically on "stage 3", I was able to get 120k in points just from that level. My final score was 261310, which means almost half my points were just from level one. Crazy.
Point scumming is easy in Castlevania with the Zombies, but I wonder if the point value is worth the trade off contrasted with the points garnered from a speed run using no hearts.
I actually find the Grim Reaper easier than Frankenstein. You can use the boomerang, which is usually at level II or III by then.
As for Dracula, no the fire bomb does nothing to his vampire form. The boomerang is the classic method of killing him. It was mentioned in the first issue of Nintendo Power. However, you can kill him without using any weapons by just jumping over his fireballs and whipping. The fire bomb is useful against his monster form. It doesn't do any damage, or very little damage, but it holds him in place, which makes it relatively easy to whip him.
It's convenient that Dracula's room provides both the boomerang and the fire bomb. The problem is that you can't use the boomerang without hitting the candle holding the fire bomb. So I just grab the fire bomb right away.
Hm, maybe I will try that. I recall having a hard time defeating his first form without getting hit, without using the cross.
But yes, you probably earn many more points by point-leeching at the beginning of the game. Maybe we should do a tally on how much points the timer is worth as well? I have a feeling that leeching will still earn you more than that though.
Of course if your just playing for fun, none of that matters.
I've always wondered, how much the Refs at Twin Galaxies allow you to milk points before they disqualify it. I think as long as your moving forward it's ok, when submitting a high score.
Of course if your just playing for fun, none of that matters.
Wait a minute, Castlevania is timed isn't it.
If that's the case, spam away.
Interestingly enough, the Castlevania world record score was just beaten recently.
Another way to farm is to use the bone pillar enemies. They shoot two fireballs, and sitting back at the right distance, you can throw a fire bomb in anticipation of the first fireball. It will hit it, then plow through the second one as well. I think you earn 1,800 points each time you do that. You have to time it perfectly though, and if you don't, your fire bomb will go through the first fireball (even though it clearly looks like it hits), and you will get damaged.
The best point for farming is on Death's stage. You can get the red skeletons (three max from what I was able to do), group them together in one sport and use the fire bomb repeatedly. Their respawn rate is about twice as fast as the reappearing zombies on the first stage. I had nearly 600,000 points by the time I finished this stage, and that's only because I got bored and decided to move on.
I went by the recommendations here and used the fire bomb on Dracula's second form. It worked like a charm! Defeating his first form without the cross though was tricky for me at first. Normally in the past I would use the cross to attack his fireballs, then whip his head. I found last night though that if you wait for him to open his cape and *then* jump, his fireballs will always shoot straight and if you distanced yourself properly, you will clear them without a hitch.
Last night was the first time I really bothered to play the second quest. God damn is it hard! The original Castlevania has been "easy" for me for well over a decade, and actually having to WORK to get through it is proving to be a shock to my system! I got a game over at the cave and had to continue three or four times, maybe more just to get past the water part. The increased numbers of merman and flying bats makes it extremely difficult. Using the stopwatch helps, but you only have a very limited amount of hearts.. d'oh!