How do I get the good ending?

[76561198043918600]

I just completed it and got the bad ending. How do I get the good one?

[Pave]

You'll have to help Balzac (that little fellow as "option"/drone"/orb" during spaceship-shooter-phases) in each of the stage (aside in (rush)Zone 3).
Usually you don't have to had collected the (S)ecret / (S)hop-token to be able to rescue him/her, except in the Zone 5.
After Zone 5, the Final Zone is unlocked.

[76561198043918600]

Originally posted by Pave:

You'll have to help Balsaz (that little fellow as "option"/drone"/orb" during spaceship-shooter-phases(I might have typoed the name)) in each of the stage (aside in (rush)Zone 3).
Usually you don't have to had collected the (S)ecret / (S)hop-token to be able to rescue him/her, except in the Zone 5.
After Zone 5, the Final Zone is unlocked.

can i do this on easy?

[cannongod]

Originally posted by SmokaJ:

can i do this on easy?

Yup. There's an achievement for it, as well as getting a Good ending on Normal and Hardcore (unlocked after finishing with a Good ending on any difficulty).

[Pave]

If you're achievement hunting, I recommend beating the game on Hardcore with full weapon-upgrade-set, since that mode unlocks achievement for all difficulties.

The game is (fortunately) surprisingly forgiving since there's unlimited amount of continues.

Also if you had completed a stage/zone with an upgrade, you'll keep it regardless how many continues you use afterwards
E.G. I got an upgrade on zone 1, using continue on zone 2 and I still keep the upgrade.
I for example used numerous amounts of continues on Final Zone while still retaining the upgrades (but lives always were reseted back to 1, of course).

Also your score / cash won't be reseted after using a continue. This both works for and against you: You can keep amassing a sum without a worry of losing it for next upgrade. But the spent money is lost and won't be refunded if you are unable to complete the stage after purchasing an upgrade. So make sure to beat the stage once you get an upgrade.

Main differences between difficulties are following:
- Easy: Unlimited Lives, Checkpoints Heal, Lives Heal, almost all enemies die with a single shot
- Normal: Enemies more resilient (+1-hit required), Checkpoints Heal, Lives Heal and give extra life, starting lives 9
- Hardcore: Starting Lives 1, Checkpoints don't heal

If I did remember something incorrectly, feel free to correct me.


((Fixed the typo on previous post, since I found the End-screen-text within the gamefiles alongside with the credits; that's a lot of names credited.))

[kalirion]

Wait, is that what the "S" coins do then? Will replaying levels on level select work for unlocking the ending? I found the "S" coin in the first level, but didn't know what to do with it, so went and killed the plant monster without seeing any sign of the drone dude. What do I do with the coins? I found a locked gate near the top of the first level - is it related?

Edit: Ok, based on other posts those are apparently the shops. So where is the drone dude? And can Level Select be used to rescue him and buy stuff from the shops or do these need to be done in a full playthrough from start to finish without level select?

Edit2: Figured out by testing - if you get an upgrade during a level select, it can only be accessed if you play the next level. So for example if you unlock levels 1-4 and buy an upgrade during level 1, you won't have it if you use level select to play level 3 without playing level 2 with that upgrade first (and hopefully buy an additional upgrade there.) I assume the same holds for rescuing the drones.

[Pave]

Originally posted by kalirion:

Wait, is that what the "S" coins do then? Will replaying levels on level select work for unlocking the ending? I found the "S" coin in the first level, but didn't know what to do with it, so went and killed the plant monster without seeing any sign of the drone dude. What do I do with the coins? I found a locked gate near the top of the first level - is it related?

Edit: Ok, based on other posts those are apparently the shops. So where is the drone dude? And can Level Select be used to rescue him and buy stuff from the shops or do these need to be done in a full playthrough from start to finish without level select?

Edit2: Figured out by testing - if you get an upgrade during a level select, it can only be accessed if you play the next level. So for example if you unlock levels 1-4 and buy an upgrade during level 1, you won't have it if you use level select to play level 3 without playing level 2 with that upgrade first (and hopefully buy an additional upgrade there.) I assume the same holds for rescuing the drones.

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Yeah, the upgrades and the Balsaz rescues are "save"-specific and you only have one which gets overwritten during level-select in which case the game considers it to be a "new game" also.

So in other words in order to get the full-set of either upgrades (weapons or cosmetics/health) alongside getting the good-ending/extra-end-stage, you'll need to play through from that stage 1 to stage 6.
You can still use the "continue" to continue where you left off, so you're allowed to have a pause and close the game whenever needed though.
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[The Faceless Man]

You have to shoot the prince in the ♥♥♥♥.