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Darklaga Online Manual
 Introduction
Current score
When you destroy enemies, pick up bonuses, or receive awards at the end of a level, you gain points. The total of these points that you have accumulated over the course of your game is displayed here.
If, at the end of the game, your score is greater than one of the scores in the corresponding top 3, you get a chance to enter your name and be remembered for your achievements.
Multiplier
The bonus you receive for destroying an enemy depends on the type of enemy (the harder it was to destroy, the more points it will give you). This amount is multiplied by the current multiplier value, and then is added to your score.
The value of the multiplier is altered by the current combo counter, as well as the two multiplier upgrades (blue or yellow arrows).
The multiplier only affects the bonus from destroyed enemies, it does not interact with any other bonuses.
Combo counter
Whenever you destroy an enemy, your combo counter increases by one. After that, you are allowed a short duration to destroy another enemy (this duration is shown as a decreasing bar behind the counter). If you destroy an enemy before the time runs out, the combo counter increases again, and you can repeat the process.
If you fail to destroy another enemy, the combo counter returns to zero, and you have to start all over again.
Upgrade
Sometimes, destroyed enemies leave behind them such upgrade pickups that slowly move down the screen.
To pick up such an upgrade, simply touch it with your ship. It will either enhance the upgrades you currently have equipped (if the symbol on the item is an exclamation mark), or replace one of them with another one.
Graze counter
While it is interesting to stay away from enemy bullets that can cause you harm, allowing a bullet to come near the Georoid (also known as "grazing" the bullet) increases your Graze Counter. The higher it is, the shorter the duration you are allowed to graze another bullet before the counter goes back to zero, but when this happens, you receive a score bonus. The higher the counter, the bigger the bonus. If you get hit while grazing, the counter is also reset to zero, but you do not receive any bonus.
As long as the graze counter is above 20, the efficiency of your equipment is greatly enhanced.
Active upgrades
The Georoid has three upgrade slots: Offense, Weapon, and Defense. Each slot can contain at most one upgrade. You start with none, and must pick them up. Picking up an upgrade of a color you already have replaces that upgrade with the new one. Each upgrade (that you can recognize by its symbol) has a different power.
Having a graze counter over 20 or picking up upgrade items with an exclamation mark on them increases the power of your upgrades for a short while. When this happens, your active upgrades start flashing.
Lives
When your Georoid is hit, and does not have enough Psyko-Ki left to deflect the blow, it is destroyed. However, there are reinforcements available: the number of such replacement ships is shown in the lower right corner of the screen.
When the Georoid is destroyed, another one takes its place, and the number of replacement ships decreases. If there are no replacement ships, the game ends.
You start the game with three lives. If your score is high enough, you may receive additional lives during the course of your game.
Weapons and equipement
 Basics
While the standard weaponry of the Georoid is efficient enough to deal with the lowest ranks of the pirate fleet, it soon becomes necessary to increase her firepower and defense abilities. To meet this purpose, the Georoid can collect and use some of the equipment left behind by her fallen enemies.
The Georoid has three upgrade slots, which can each contain a single upgrade. The three slots are Offensive Upgrade (yellow), Weapon (red), and Defensive Upgrade (blue).
Once in a while, a collectable object will emerge from the debris of a fallen vessel and slowly move down the screen. By touching it, the object will replace the current upgrade in the slot that corresponds to its color.
Remember that upgrade items change as they move down the screen: they will cycle through all the available upgrades of their color, so if you need a specific upgrade, you can wait for the collectable item to turn into that upgrade. However, upgrade items do not change colors: a defense upgrade object will only cycle through available defense upgrades, it will not turn into a weapon for instance. Also, if you already have an upgrade of that color, that upgrade will not appear in the cycle for that color (only upgrades you do not currently have are available for picking up, so you do not waste time waiting for an upgrade you already have to cycle).
You can disable the item changing from the Options Gameplay menu, or select another change speed.
Note: enemies killed outside the screen never generate an item, and neither do enemies that are killed too close to the bottom of the screen, so you always get a chance to pick up an item.
 Overloading
There are four collectable objects that do not replace upgrades, but rather increase the power and efficiency of existing equipment: these are the Overload triggers.
An Overload trigger with a single color will only activate an Overload for the upgrade of its color. These triggers are the following:
 
Monochromatic overload triggers
The remaining, multi-coloured Overload trigger, concentrates the power of the three monochromatic triggers, activating an Overload for all the upgrades.
Once an upgrade goes into Overload mode, it turns into an extremely potent version of its former self. Overloads provided by the Overload triggers do not last very long (usually only a couple of seconds), while Overloads reached through grazing remain active for as long as you can keep grazing (but usually, Overloaded upgrades are so powerful that after a few seconds there's nothing left to graze).
 Napalm rockets
One of the four weapons available to the player. When equipped with this upgrade, the Georoid fires from two to eight rockets sideways, and the rockets then accelerate forward using their thursters, exploding when they touch a target.
When Overloaded, the rockets fired actively steer towards enemies and run through them, causing highly damaging trails of fire and heat. Although these missiles usually go after a single enemy, any enemy in their path will also be damaged.
Weapon advantages: high damage, decent range and fire rate, excellent overload mode.
Weapon disadvantages: does not hit enemies directly ahead of player, rockets take some time to reach their targets.
 Energy blades
Another player weapon. When equipped with the energy blades, the Geroid shoots forward deadly discs of energy that slash through enemies and ricochet - making the blades the only weapon that can kill two enemies (or more) in a single unoverloaded shot.
When Overloaded, a special energy blade is fired: not only does it inflict superior damage when it hits, but it also explodes, sending several standard energy blades around, wreaking even more havoc among the enemy lines.
Weapon advantages: shots bounce on enemies, can be used to hit enemies hiding behind other enemies.
Weapon disadvantages: you must choose between a decent fire rate or a decent range, has the weakest overload mode.
 Inferno lasers
An impressive weapon, it allows the Geroid to fire from one to five beams of burning death. These beams burn everything they hit, causing massive and instant damage to the targets. However, these beams can only be aimed in one direction, which makes the range of the weapon quite narrow.
When Overloaded, the beam turns into an extremely efficient sword of fire that destroys almost instantly everything it touches. Moreover, the overloaded beam can be directed sidewards by movements of the Georoid, allowing it to sweep the screen and hit enemies that would have been left unharmed otherwise.
Fire Rate items do not interact with the inferno lasers in the same way they interact with other weapons. Since the laser beams fire continuously, there is no Fire Rate to be increased. Instead, the damage dealt per unit of time is increased.
Weapon advantages: instant hit, highest damage.
Weapon disadvantages: narrow beams, can seldom damage more than one enemy at a time.
Vulcan blaster
Whatever the era or location, spaceship designers never fail to implement vulcan-class cannons or blaster, and this is especially true for the Georoid. The vulcan blaster is the default weapon your ship will be equipped with at the beginning of the game. It fires from one to five blue bullets that inflict mediocre damage to enemy ships.
The vulcan blaster has no overload mode.
It is almost imperative to find another weapon as soon as possible, as the vulcan blaster is extremely inefficient, and cannot help you survive through any but the weakest assault.
Weapon advantages: none.
Weapon disadvantages: no overload mode, narrow area of effect, low damage.
 Shield generator
This upgrade equips the georoid with a protection field that destroys any enemy vessel that would try to ram it. Naturally, you can decide to start ramming the enemies yourself.
In overload mode, you become totally invulnerable, as neither enemies nor shots can hurt you. Actually, the shield vaporizes all shots on the screen - this makes it hard to graze any more bullets.
Upgrade advantages: destroys enemies on contact, invulnerabiliy in overload mode.
Upgrade disadvantages: no enemy bullets to graze in overload mode.
 Fury mode activator
The activator enhances the Psyko-Ki increase you normally get from destroying an enemy ship. Psyko-Ki can increase as fast as three times the normal rate when this uprade is overloaded.
However, although it has no disadvantages, this upgrade is not the best of them all, since in some cases you might need another upgrade.
Upgrade advantages: increases Psyko-Ki.
Upgrade disadvantages: provides no actual defense.
 Blue multiplier
The blue multiplier increases the score received for killing an enemy. In the normal version of this upgrade, you receive twice the score. In the overloaded version, you receive five more times as much.
However, it also has a downside: as long as it is equipped, you cannot gain any lives. This does not mean that those lives you should have won are put aside until you use another upgrade, but rather are lost forever, never to be gained again.
Note: you need to activate the "multipliers" option in the advanced gameplay menu to be able to pick up this upgrade.
Upgrade advantages: increases score by ludicrous amounts.
Upgrade disadvantages: prevents life gain.
 Peacemaker
This upgrade uses the enemy warp-technology to artificially create copies of the Georoid weapon bays, so the Georoid is able to fire multiple bullets/blades/missiles/beams at the same time. With such an upgrade, you get, for each shot, 3 bullets, blades or laser beams, or 4 missiles.
When overloaded, each shot will give you 5 bullets or laser beams, 7 blades or 8 missiles.
Upgrade advantages: wider spray.
Upgrade disadvantages: less accuracy, does not increase fire rate.
 Fire rate enhancer
Using this upgrade, you will be able to increase the fire rate of the Georoid. Naturally, the increase depends on the associated weapon.
Upgrade advantages: increased fire rate.
Upgrade disadvantages: narrow spray.
 Yellow multiplier
Like its blue counterpart, the yellow multiplier increases the amount of score received for killing an enemy by two, by five if it is overloaded (therefore, if you were using both multipliers in overload mode, you would gain 2*5*2*5 = 100 times as much score).
The yellow multiplier does not have any life-gain disadvantages like the blue one. However, since you cannot pick up another yellow upgrade without losing this one, you will have to settle for an unupgraded weapon if you decide to use it.
Note: you need to activate the "multipliers" option in the advanced gameplay menu to be able to pick up this upgrade.
Upgrade advantages: increases score by ludicrous amounts.
Upgrade disadvantages: you must settle for an otherwise unupgraded weapon
Survival
Basics
The Georoid, unlike most ships, has only one vulnerable area: the cockpit. Enemy bullets and vessels that do not touch the cockpit do not cause any damage, but those that manage to hit it will usually destroy your ship in a single blow.
Whenever you receive a lethal blow, the screen turns white, and a new ship appears from the bottom of the screen. You also lose a life in the process - the remaining lives are shown in the lower right corner of the screen. If you don't have any lives left, no ship appears and the game ends.
Shot vaporizer
When hit, the Georoid activates a last resort counter-attack. All enemy bullets on the screen suddenly disappear, and all enemies close to the ship receive mild damage.
This will happen regardless of the lethality of the blow.
Additional lives
You start any game with three lives. However, during the game, you can gain additional lives based on your current score. A life is awarded every time you reach one of these scores:
10.000 |
1.250.000 |
7.290.000 |
80.000 |
2.160.000 |
10.000.000 |
270.000 |
3.430.000 |
13.310.000 |
640.000 |
5.120.000 |
17.280.000 |
Also, if you do not have any lives left at the beginning of a level, you gain an additional life.
However, if you have a Score Multiplier defense upgrade equipped at the moment when a life is awarded, you will not receive it, as it will be discarded instead.
Psycho-ki barrier
Not all direct hits to the Georoid will cause you to lose a life: the ship can use the Psyko-Ki it has accumulated by defeating enemies to defend itself from incoming harm. The current amount of Psyko-Ki your ship contains is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen:
To the right of this bar are three little blue lights, which are called the Blinks. These represent how many direct hits the Psyko-Ki will help deflecting. One appears for each third of the bar that the Psyko-Ki fills. When you are hit, you lose one third of your current Psyko-Ki (which corresponds to one Blink).
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