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[Ultimortal]

LLCoolDave, you should be aware that various forms of rocketjumping and specific weapon usage are part of my route. Nothing you're not supposed to discover yourself, but as an example the second jump upgrade can be obtained from behind.

And that "absurd trick" to get a lower Sector 1 time won't work in the next version. :p

The highlight had to be fighting Asha on ultimortal, now that is what the galaxy's best teleporting assassin should feel like when being fought

Thank you, and I thought the same - he's quite a wimp on anything but Ultimortal, but many testers said Asha was too difficult so I toned both his versions down on Normal and Hard several times during development. He has always stayed the same on Extreme and Ulti, though.

pnx, have you tried the Sudden Death Sectors and beaten Hero 3D yet?

When beating Charged Tor on Ultimortal, which is bordering on unfair since certain combos have extremely narrow windows of survival, he simply says something different just after being defeated to reflect your skill and make you feel proud. He won't do it on any lower difficulties.

And yes, there's an unmissable Reflector lying around outside the boss room if you don't have it yet, it won't even disappear if you Reboot.

[Dragonmaw]

One of the best indie releases I've played in a long time.  Kudos for making such a full-featured, polished game!

(distracting from the strategy topics, sorry  )

[LLCoolDave]

Oh, I would have never thought you'd rebound that high. That's a significant shortcut.

Is there any way to avoid going a circle on Sector 9 when accessing the Tasen base? as in, any way to avoid having to raise both lifts and then going through one of two upper levels and reaccessing the bottom area? That'd be a prretty nice time safer as well.

I wonder if there are any more useful rocket jumps that don't just cut some time by being sent flying accross the room.

I love the teleporter at the end of Sector 7, it's a very nice touch to add something like that.

Oh, did you figure out what I did to get to Sector 2 with those stats and that time?

[Valter]

I beat Hero 3D once, but I haven't beaten on hard mode. I'm hoping that if I do beat it twice, I'll leave the game only to realize I've been captured while I was distracted.

Also, only one more ribbon to find! So close!

[shockedfrog]

Finally beat Ultimortal - actually ran out of time on the lift up to Tor, but it let me through. I'll save charged for when I'm feeling particularly insane.

Guide updated to v0.4.

[Melly]

Yay, beat the game on Ultimortal and found Sector Z (with help from a secrets faq, that is. ). Sector Z is CREEPY.

[Valter]

I liked sector Z, even though it wasn't what I expected. I've yet to finish the game on extreme, but I'm working on it! Honest!

[Ultimortal]

Oh, did you figure out what I did to get to Sector 2 with those stats and that time?

You fell outside the intended route in Sector Z, right? Entering Sector Z also zeroes your kill and damage count by the way, but it was designed to be slower to speedrun than Sector 1 when done properly. As for Sector 9, no, the main route is unfortunately the only one.

Speaking of Sector Z, it consists of actual levels and enemy AI from my previous games Hero, Retrobattle and Castle of Elite, plus some original areas designed to be weird and creepy. I made the "music", known as ½fabrikat in the Sound test, by writing a simple hardcoded "tracker" which picks sound frequencies and timings from a few arrays and use these to produce the song. This lets the song morph itself fairly seamlessly.

shockedfrog, in the next version of the game you'll get a failed crack for every weapon combination you own when rebooting, to prevent you from amassing Cracks. It was an oversight I had forgotten about, thanks for reminding me in the FAQ.

I beat Hero 3D once, but I haven't beaten on hard mode. I'm hoping that if I do beat it twice, I'll leave the game only to realize I've been captured while I was distracted.

Actually, if you play it from the terminal in Sector 6, Iji gives a comment depending on how far you got - title screen, first level, second level, beat the game, beat the game on hard mode. That last one also changes if you have the scrambler in your possession (doesn't have to be activated).

Feature creep?

[pnx]

Hehe, this game is very detailed, there's a lot to explore and that makes people want to see more of it.

Anyway, I completed hero 3d on my first playthrough, didn't complete it on hard though, that might have taken me an extra hour.

I did a couple of sudden death levels before, sometimes they seem easier then the regular ones, but maybe that's just because I've been playing ultimortal before now. I've gotten to sector 7 now, I wound up getting explosive shotgun just after disabling the hammer. Then I blew myself up... Fun stuff.

[shockedfrog]

Useful while it lasted Shouldn't be too hard to do it properly by spreading the amount over all the levels, anyway.

[Valter]

The main problem I'm having now is that I reboot for every frickin' occasion possible.

"Oh look, a door I can't get through! REBOOT!"

"It would be cool if I had X weapon now! REBOOT!"

I usually reboot once or twice every level just to grab supercharges or posters.

[pnx]

Asha is my new all time favorite boss.
Managed to make it to sector 9 on sudden death, soon I will be done...

[shockedfrog]

Someone in the game's topic on Something Awful says there's a further secret in Sector Z available by not killing any of the enemies. Didn't work for me, anyone else?

[Melly]

Not killing any enemies on Sector Z seems even harder than playing on Ultimortal, especially the first and last (the one with actual enemies) parts of it, and with having just one health point and no upgrades.

I've been thinking about a bit of constructive feedback. I doubt he'll put any of this in Iji now, but it might inspire him in his future games.

• There's some imbalance with the maxed stat perks. The Health one makes the game awfully easy as it's really hard to damage you and you grab a lot more health from nanofields. You'll ALWAYS want to play the game with max health as soon as possible. And Crack perk is only really useful for people bad at cracking.
• An extra stat for Stealth (or another more fitting name) could have been a good addition, especially for pacifists. It could give (or let you use) abilities like running, cloaking, and the teleportation that the Komato use so much. Would also make combat more dynamic, and allow for skilled players to do cool stuff like cracking a lot of enemies at once and watch them blow themselves up.
• In fact it feels odd that Iji can't run at all, considering she can jump higher than any other living creature, and would make backtracking and simply going around the levels less frustrating, though you could maybe give some kind of penalty to it, like having Iji be damaged more if she's running and being unable to fire.

That's about it for now. I'll think of more.

[William Broom]

Just beat the game (for the first time  ). Absolutely awesome. My only gripe is there's no way to replay the credits? I forgot to look out for who did the ending credits song. Anybody know? (You who have already beaten the game ten times in turbo HD remix mode).

[Ultimortal]

Someone in the game's topic on Something Awful says there's a further secret in Sector Z available by not killing any of the enemies. Didn't work for me, anyone else?

They're probably trolling, nothing happens if you do. There are two little secrets in the Hero (black/white) part of the level, but nothing related to the enemies.

There's some imbalance with the maxed stat perks. The Health one makes the game awfully easy as it's really hard to damage you and you grab a lot more health from nanofields. You'll ALWAYS want to play the game with max health as soon as possible. And Crack perk is only really useful for people bad at cracking.

You're confusing the Health and Assimilate traits a bit though. Yes, the Health trait (take less damage) was supposed to make the game easier, and the Assimilate trait (gain more health from pickups) is the second most powerful since the stat itself is largely useless above level 4. Since Strength and Crack are among the most useful stats, their traits are nothing special. I know there's a huge jump in the power of the Health stat between level 9 and 10 though.

In fact it feels odd that Iji can't run at all

This was meant to make it difficult to simply run from the faster enemies or jump right through them. In retrospect it takes longer to traverse the Sectors though.

I forgot to look out for who did the ending credits song.

Check music.txt in the music folder for a full list of music credits, although I spelled Machinae Supremacy wrong somewhere in there. The ending song (the only one not made for the game) is Further, written by VNV Nation, covered by LifeForce and edited for length by me.

[Hideous]

Solution to running = Stamina bar!

[Valter]

Ah. I have an idea. Add what Hideous suggested, but make it so that the bar automatically empties when you hit an enemy. That way you couldn't just run straight through the hard bits.

Also, add more endings!

[Melly]

Yeah I mistook Health and Assimilate a bit.

[Ultimortal]

I don't wanna sound, I dunno, but... you realize that running+stamina+extra endings* is another month of work and bugtesting, right? It's an incredibly complex game already, and I don't wanna get stuck polishing the same thing for years. It's a slippery slope to me; if I implement what you ask for, why not shooting while jumping and a complete story rewrite, which other people want? A game is different to everyone, so please enjoy Iji for what it is, not what kind of game you personally want it to be. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but after finishing such a monster it's kind of a downer when people suggest even more features. :p Sorry, but please understand where I'm coming from.

*I don't see any possibilities for any other way the story could end, myself, unless you count a Komato Alpha Strike to be an ending you'd like to obtain