eXceed 2nd - Everything You Need To Know

Controls, Mechanics, and whatever else I may come across.
I did find an online guide that cleared some things up, and I have updated the guide to reflect those things I found.

Controls

Most basic part of any games are the controls, here are eXceed's

↑ - Move Up
↓ - Move Down
→ - Move Left
← - Move Right

Z - Shoot
X - Bomb
C - Change Affinity (Polarity as the game calls it)
V - Pause (Bring up pause menu)

Alt - Quick Pause (No menu)
Esc - Exit Game (Back to desktop)

Mechanics

eXceed is a danmaku game, so the main objective is to dodge the thousands of incoming bullets.

The Play Screen:


1) Difficulties
There are 4 difficulties (Ranks as the game calls them) and from easiest to hardest they are:

1. Easy
2. Normal
3. Hard
4. Exceed

Whatever rank you choose before starting the game is set as your 'Initial Rank'.
In the game screen, your rank is shown in the upper right corner, right above your lives (As shown above)
As you progress through the game, killing enemies and surviving the onslaught of bullets, your rank levels up, making out at the Exceed difficulty. When you die though, your rank is set back to the Initial Rank, and then can start slowly leveling up again.

2) Lives
No matter the Rank you choose to be your Initial Rank, you always start with 5 lives.
The Extend meter decreases as the score meter increases, and when the Extend meter is depleted, you gain an extra life.
A maximum of 10 lives can be attained, and when you use up all your lives, you have 3 continues to continue playing exactly where you died.

3) Bombs and Bombing
Like any danmaku game, there is a bomb system that makes you invincible and clears the screen of enemy bullets.
You start with no bombs, and bombs can be aquired 1 at a time through absorbing bullets, which I will go into detail later.
After your Bomb Charge is full, shown in the bottom left corner, you press the X key (default) to activate your bomb.

4) FPS (Frames Per Second)
The FPS of the game is shown in the top left side of the screen.
The lower the FPS (below 60) the slower the bullets and everything on the screen moves.
This game seems to run at 60 FPS normally.

5) The Combo/Chain Meter
The combo/chain meter is located right above the Extend Meter.
This meter increases when you absorb enemy bullets or shoot an enemy of opposite polarity, and after you have not done either of those two for a little while, the meter resets and you are awarded points. Higher combo = more points. (Thanks to Female Psychic Attack for explaining this mechanic!)

Bullet Absorption and Bombing

eXceed 2nd has an interesting mechanic that lets you 'absorb' bullets.
When you absorb bullets, you do not die or take any sort of damage from them, and they slowly fill your Bomb Charge Meter.

There are two main types of bullets you can absorb, dark and light bullets. (Holy and Evil polarity as the game calls them.)

Dark bullets are red or a dark purple/red-ish color, and you can absorb those when you are in the dark affinity, which is when RIa File has the red circle below her and is in her black dress.



Light bullets are blue or a white-ish color, and you can absorb those when you are in the light affinity, which is when Ria File has the blue circle below her and is in her white dress.



Absorbing either kinds of bullets will slowly fill your Bomb Charge meter. When it is filled, Ria File will say something and then you can activate a bomb with the X key.

The opposite polarity of an enemy will do more damage then the matching polarity. Although some enemies do not have any polarity, so they will not take extra damage depending on your polarity. Also, the closer you are to enemies, the more damage your bullets do.

Other Stuff

This is one of my first guides, so it may be incomplete.

If you think of anything i should add to the guide or clarify a bit more, just leave a comment and I'm sure I'll eventually get to it.

[Reisen942]

I like how this was updated my birthday

[Uncreative Name]

There is also another attack that is very risky to perform, all you really need to do is get very close to the target and have the circle touch them. It has a unique sound effect and pushes you back a bit, though you can keep on moving into the enemy for a decent amount of damage.
I know this guide is old, but I figure to post this comment regardless, if anyone still plays this game.

[🐎 Ajazjakija 🐎]

Any info on whether 1 cc'ing this gives a true ending/extra stage?

[Skl3ros]

very helpful thx

[jcjm55]

thanks,
replay option to work? with which key?

[Djsama]

I'm not sure you can listen to the music in game, but im sure you can find it on youtube or something if you take a look around.

[jcjm55]

hello :D when option music gallery in menu option :D ? soundtrack is very good in stage 6 and 7 :D thanks for you work :D

[jcjm55]

yes spanish text in game :D more languague more people :D. konichiwa :D

[Djsama]

Spanish text in game? or this guide? I'm not good in any other language q.q

[jcjm55]

Hello :D when spanish text :D ? good game :D