Highscores

[Matirion Maeronta]

I've been noticing that it's surprisingly easy to get the #1 score for levels if you manage to get a perfect run of a level, especially with lesser played levels such as the bonus boss ones (which are a lot harder than other levels, so it's undertandable less people play them for the score). Am I really the only one who is actively trying to get the highest possible score by enabling all handicaps and stalling in order to get more points from grazing?

Currently all it takes for a #1 score is getting a perfect run of the level (getting all 13 diamonds), you don't even need to graze for the full duration of each wave... If you've played bullet hells for a long time and are used to the advanced strategies for getting higher scores (basically if you're capable of competing with others for world records), that's not too hard anymore... I have played a lot of bullet hells and got highscores on a many of them, but it was never this easy to create such a massive gap in points between the first and second place...

Also, this is a bit too easy to graze bullets on. Just bring the boss to near death and wait it out without moving, just need to kill it on the last second. Waiting this one out and then getting all diamonds was all I needed to do to get more than double the previous highscore. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=584355500

[Kupo Games]

I struggle to perfect any levels after the first 5 with all handicaps on. Maybe you're just very good. You should make some videos if you can, I'd be interested to see you play!

[Matirion Maeronta]

Originally posted by Kupo Games:

I struggle to perfect any levels after the first 5 with all handicaps on. Maybe you're just very good. You should make some videos if you can, I'd be interested to see you play!

I tried recording stuff a while ago, but my computer doesn't seem to like it. Causes games to lag as soon as I turn the recording on (not the best graphics card, which is probably to blame). As you can imagine, lag doesn't help for a bullet hell... Maybe in the future though, when I get a better graphics card.

I've been playing bullet hells for a long time, started playing them when the third Touhou game got released (I was 7 at the time). So yea, I am probably far above average, but usually there are people with similar levels of skill on the leaderboards too. It's just surprising there aren't any. Even though it isn't a standard bullet hell, it's not a bad one.

Sometimes I do coop streams or LPs with some other people (they record it), usually with platformers or ARPGs, but my own recording attempts haven't been very succesful thus far. Only had 1 succesful recording using an ingame recording feature while playing Runescape (to show that a certain challenge was still possible, despite everyone saying it wasn't). Here is a link if you want to see that, it's from well over a year ago though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55pyL6NwGFw

As for some context for this video, the enemies in the fight caves got buffed a lot back then, so that even people with endgame gear had trouble even getting to the final boss there. At the time, people claimed it was impossible without being extremely well geared and they ignored me when I told people it was still possible. Eventually I got annoyed and decided to try and record it with the new streaming feature to show them I could manage even without any armor at all. This actually has some connection to how I play bullet hells, as both require good reflexes to keep it up (in both cases, making a mistake in the timing of any action will kill you).

Ps. I noticed Starwind3437 has some scores over 100 million. From what I've seen thus far, it doesn't seem possible to get close to that even in a run where you get the theoretical maximum graze points on every wave. At least not outside of survival levels... Could be wrong though, as I haven't played those levels yet.

[Yuko Orca]

I think since these EBF games are more geared towards Casual players and the fact that this game is pretty niche, despite being incredibly good, it isn't too surprising that the leaderboards are the way they are. Just a lack of players. Personally, I enjoy Bullet Hell games, and I'm just good enough to get all achievements in the game, but there's no way I could perfect most stages in the game with all score modifiers active without losing my mind.

There are probably skilled players when it comes to motor skills and reflexes and they will most certainly top the leaderboards given enough time but I assume (as a Casual player myself) the majority of people who own the game just play to "beat" the game. Take a look at the achievement spread.

Until these players in question become to surface, be proud that you're capable of something at a level far above the rest of us; the leaderboards show it!

Also in regards to Starwind's scores, I'm pretty certain 100m+ scores on standard stages are impossible, but Survival stages supposedly have unlimited score cap, but I'm not actually good enough to consistently dodge the (seemingly random-ish? patterns) so I can't confirm.

[Kupo Games]

Yeah, BH2 doesn't have a lot of players so far, that will probably change once it's been majorly discounted a few times. And that Starwind guy is almost certainly a cheater. I clean the leaderboards every once in awhile, but there doesn't seem to be a way for me to ban people outright. ):

[SunsetAmethyst]

*Sniffles* I feel so inadequate, im horrible at this game but i do love it. I managed to get 3rd place once on the hard wood level, but yeah, im actually horrible at grazing bullets, let alone dodging them. Awesome work Matirion :)

[RegalStar]

The lack of great players is actually kind of nice considering that right now, someone who sucks so much at bullet hell games like me can actually make it *somewhere* on the leaderboard on several levels :P

[jqh47]

How often do you clean leaderboards? Just out of curiosity.