Okay, scoring...
As some people may know, I got into SA Lunatic scoring thanks to Mino, at first because of his challenge thread, then because I wanted to beat him to the 3bil, but sadly that didn't happen. I believe that actually helped me on my play, when I made a new score file I could barely do a vanilla 1cc to re-unlock everything and had two game overs on Utsuho for scoreruns, but then Mino gets 3bil and I suddenly can take more restarts and from much farther, so maybe I was just feeling pressured.
as for routes and strategies, I've watched UKT's run quite a lot, but also Bon's (2nd place, with 4.5bil )
For stage 1 I really don't have a set strategy, I just graze the most I can on the more obvious spots, I usually get 68-7100 graze, my best being 7500~
Stage 2 is just there, though I still make mistakes, but here's what separates UKT from Bon, Parsee.
I used to do the UKT method, get just 3.xx power from the stage and suicide twice on the opener, bomb the 1st spell and try to suicide before getting the life piece, bomb and then suicide again, Bon's method is: get full power from the stage, suicide once on the opener (start the 1st spell on 1.20 power), bomb the spell and graze the rest of the spell "manually", finishing off the spell by suicide, bomb and then suicide again.
UKT has you on Parsee's 2nd spell with 2.00 power but zero life resources (not even life pieces), Bon has you a piece short of an extra life but no power.
I feel like going with Bon's method, I find it less risky, but I will get the life piece from Parsee's 1st, simply because I see no point in not doing so, a missing life piece can carry out a long way, and I've lost runs to that as well.
Stage 3 is difficult just because of midboss Yuugi, the lasers are hard, but they're static so they can be learned, the bouncing bullets on the other hand are just... no, as for boss Yuugi, I've tried to learn the 1st spell super graze, it's not as hard as it looks, but it's pretty much impossible on anything below 3 power, so that may or may not be a reason for me not doing it.
Stage 4 might as well be called static, since the parts that aren't so are bombed, so that -should- go all right, Satori is really difficult because, ideally, you want a perfect fight, while milking the first and last spells, although it isn't really a necessity, it just makes stage 5 much easier
On stage 5 I think you need at least 3.40 power by midboss Orin, for the worst case scenario that you bomb all three of her attacks, you still have one for the popcorn section, after that try your best to refill on power without missing point items, boss Orin I find difficult because I have keep bombs and lives for the 2nd non, but that usually means I'm on almost zeroes for the rest of the fight.
Now, stage 6, the cash-in, the stage portion is pretty straightforward but I need at least 3 power for Orin, by whatever means, otherwise I miss out on a lot of items from the Kunai crows after her, from there it's just "don't die" for the rest of the game, but considering the pressure of carrying a run this far, it's all easier said than done.
I wonder though, what is the clear bonus made out of? I did a 1cc that finished with 1 life short of max and the clear bonus was nearly 600mil, I remember reading somewhere about lives counting for about 40mil each, but what about the rest?
