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[Stahlkaiser]

I would like to know your ideas for original shmup enemies.
> Movement behaviour
> Bulletpatterns or shottype
> Special abilities
> what ever you like else

I mean something more funny then a fighterplane moving down the screen and fire a bullet at you...

[iffi]

An enemy that speeds up the bullets around it and redirects them towards the player.
An enemy that teleports to the other side of the screen when you hit it.
An enemy that steals the powerups on the screen and converts them into bullets. (inspired by Touhou 12)
An enemy that constantly tries to ram itself into you from behind, kamikaze-style (you have to find a way to get behind it and shoot it).
An enemy that reduces your vision (perhaps you can only see your immediate surroundings and the area around the enemy) until you kill it. (inspired by Touhou 8 )

[SplinterOfChaos]

One that hugs the player and slows it down until the player inputs up up down down left right B A.

[tergem]

One that makes bullets that just pass it go into an orbit around it, and when it's destroyed all of the bullets go flying!

[antymattar]

an enemy that pretends to be an ally and then backfires.

[SplinterOfChaos]

A pacifistic enemy that tries to convince you that you should just give up and go home. Or who gives you bad advice on how to defeat different bosses, but the advice ends up killing you.

[Nix]

an enemy that pretends to be an ally and then backfires.

The enemy should pretend to be ally when really all of their bullets heal the enemies when they hit.

[Sir Raptor]

An enemy that flies in tandem with and looks identical to your ship, not damaging it, but instead confusing the player as to which one they're piloting.

[letsap]

An enemy that shoots sponges that get progressively bigger the more you shoot them.

[Inanimate]

These enemies, when shot, only get stunned; however, stun three at once, and they form a triangle, destroying all enemies within the area of that triangle. (They are still unkillable, though.)

An enemy that hunts down your bullets, absorbing them, and keeping them from hitting its allies. It thus serves to make it very hard to kill the actual enemies that are hurting you.

An enemy that slows down everything in a huge area around it, except for its allies. Makes timing your shots and such very difficult.

This pair of enemies act as living portals; if one gets hit by a bullet, it damages it, but the other enemy also fires a bullet of equal strength at you.

An enemy that forms a large kaleidoscopic illusion around it; the kaleidoscope effect obscures where enemies and items exactly are, and makes it difficult to hit anything.

The foe slowly wanders around, and creates a energy field that absorbs your bullets (but still damages it); when killed, it rockets around the screen, dealing massive destruction, for a duration proportional to the amount of damage taken.

Every time it gets hit, it inches closer to you. Don't hit it, and it slowly goes backwards.

Living, evil power-ups, that instead power-up your FOES.

[Destral]

Lots of interesting ideas here, bookmarking for reference for when I'm making more enemies and levels.

[letsap]

An collision enemy that can only be killed by one kind of shot. Fires powerups rather than bullets, of weapons that do not harm it but might harm its ilk. Probably color coded. 

[I_smell]

An enemy that has smaller enemies orbiting it for protection.

An enemy that shoots sponges that get progressively bigger the more you shoot them.

An enemy that gets bigger the more you shoot it.

[Sock Puppet]

- An enemy that splits into smaller enemies when shot.
- Enemies that combine together into more powerful enemies when near to each other.
- An enemy that moves away from you and explodes the whole screen if you don't hit it in time.
- An enemy that disables your weapons when you are too close to it.

[Mipe]

A masochistic enemy that actively tries to be hit by player's bullets, growing more powerful with each hit.

The only way to defeat him? Not hitting him for some time. Which is hard on a level full of enemies.

[SplinterOfChaos]

An enemy that sings really annoying music and, while not being offensively powerful and with a non-existent defense, is really fast and hard to hit.

[st33d]

For a shmup I did I had a scripting engine that allowed enemies within enemies within enemies and so on.

They would spawn enemies as well as bullets.

The result?

A single enemy would spawn into a great carpet that the player needed to blast a path through or destroy the replicating edge of said carpet.

[st33d]

Here's a nice idea for bullet patterns:

[Fat Pug Studio]

Hey guys, sorry for necroing the thread, i was googling around for some ideas and the first link was my favourite forum 

I got all sorts of regular stuff, bullets in forward shooting patterns, spread patterns, bullets shooting at players last position, dumb and homing missiles, lasers, mines, bombers, homing enemies with huge circular saws, enemies that turn their back on you and start spitting flames out of engine, huge cannons on asteroids, you name it.

Got any wacky ideas you'd like to see perhaps? :D

Here's some art for ships that don't have their attack stuff yet:

[Squire Grooktook]

I made a spinning "Simon Says" blade wheel.

Follows you and reverses spin direction after random intervals of time. Probably gonna nerf.