Rakshasa Guide

A handy set of maps of all the Rakshasa stages, including ALL hidden secrets, to help plan out your High Score attempts for the Cherry Cart!

Introduction

1P, Platformer
"Even death won't stop Jangi from avenging the destruction of his village by demons!"

Heya! I had fun playing this short little Ghouls 'N Ghosts a-like, and I didn't see many guides or references online, so I thought I'd throw together my stitched together maps and notes real quick to help y'all out!

This is very likely to just be stage maps with all hidden secrets for now, with a little assistance in the form of Tips & Tricks (WIP) here and there. I hope it helps!

Weapons

Regular Shot:

Decent in a pinch, but otherwise you'll be clamoring for one of the other 3 upgrades as fast as you can! The charged shot travels slightly farther.

Homing Shot:

Tracks enemies fairly aggressively, if you let it! As long as there's only 1 or 2 homing shots out at a time, it'll go and track enemies the entire length of the screen. Otherwise, you can turbo press it for a bunch of short range homing shots. The charged shot deals a bit more damage, and also splits when it hits something.

Spread Shot:

Very short range, but has very high coverage in a short area. Each pellet does the equivalent of a Regular Shot, so the damage adds up quickly for bosses and high health enemies. The charged shot lingers for a while, allowing you to set traps.

Flame Shot:

Significantly greater range than the Regular Shot, plus much more damage! The charged shot has a bit more range and good coverage with two intertwining shots. Easily kills many smaller enemies in a single hit, and can eliminate bosses quickly with some turbo button mashing.

I *highly* recommend sticking with this upgrade if you can help it, as the damage, range, and speed in general tend to outweigh the benefits the others provide.

Map Markers

A Torch that looks like this on the map:

indicates that it contains valuable guaranteed weapon powerups!

A Torch that looks like this on the map:

indicates that it will provide you with a Familiar that will follow you around, reveal nearby secrets, and take a single hit for you!

A Familiar that looks like this on the map:

indicates a secret that provides a bonus if the player touches that area! (Familiars reveal those spots if you have one by your side)

Stage 1

Full Stage Map with all Secrets marked:

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Secret Rewards (in order encountered on map):

1. 3 Gold Coins (300 points)
   
2. Familiar Egg
   
3. 1 Gold Jar (500 points)
   
4. 1 Gold Jar (500 points)
   
5. 1 Bell (summons an Extra Life pickup)
   
6. 5 Gold Coins (500 points)
   
7. 1 Gold Hand (1000 points)

Additional Tips & Tricks:

Every 5000 points you score, the next enemy will randomly roll an item drop that may (or may not) be extremely useful: they can drop Bells (Extra Life), Familiar Eggs, Golden Frogs (1000 points each), a Stopwatch (+30 seconds to Timer), and more!

Handling the Stage 1 Mini-Boss (Bridge Troll):
Extra little early bonus for this area, if you fight this guy with at least 4 deaths already, they'll be colored blue instead of red, have significantly more health, and will occasionally drop bombs when they jump.

If you defeat them like this, they'll explode into tons of Golden Frogs that are worth 1000 points each! This'll give you a major leg up for that 50000 score requirement for the Cherry Cart.



It probably goes without saying, but in general, more deaths on your death counter do indeed make the game significantly more difficult, and not just in the soul mini-game! More enemies will spawn, including higher tier ones AND enemies that don't normally spawn at all. At 6+ deaths, the timer decrease at double speed!

If you're looking for an easier time; try your best not to die! However, if you're seeking a High Score run, then it may be in your best interest to die on purpose a few times to up the difficulty AND the rewards.

Handling the Stage 1 Boss:
One of the simplest ways to deal with his jumping shenanigans (while still doing damage) is to keep him above you most of the time and angle your shots diagonally:



The Flame Shot is particularly good at this, due to it's range and damage, but the Homing Shot can also do it (albeit slower). If you have the Regular Shot or the Spread Shot, then you'll need to get real close and personal, which can be very risky given their speed.

In a pinch, you can also just attack and destroy their bombs directly, especially if you want to play it safe!

Stage 2

Full Stage Map with all Secrets marked:

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Secret Rewards (in order encountered on map):

1. 5 Gold Coins (500 points)
   
2. Familiar Egg
   
3. 1 Gold Jar (500 points)
   
4. 2 Gold Pots (400 points)
   
5. 3 Gold Pots (600 points)
   
6. 2 Gold Pots (400 points)
   
7. 1 Bell (summons an Extra Life pickup)
   
8. 1 Gold Hand (1000 points)

Additional Tips & Tricks:

The biggest pain points in Stage 2 are definitely the Big Enemy Frogs, the Spear Traps, and the bosses.

Handling the Frogs:

• The Spread Shot is pretty dangerous to use up close, but it should kill them quickly and the spray should help tackle their erratic jumping movement.
  
• The Homing Shot can hit them from across the screen, and keep you safe from harm.
  
• The Flame Shot can kill them in one hit. Charge it up to hit them from afar.

It's also highly recommended to take them out as they're peeking their heads out of their holes, as they can very quickly overwhelm you with numbers if you're not eliminating them as they arrive. For this reason the Flame Shot is particularly great for surviving this area unscathed:



Handling the Spear Traps:
Keep a close eye on the buttons on the floor to see which ones trigger which spears. Try only to cross over them if no enemies are moving towards a button which could trigger the trap and kill you.

You can also just jump over the buttons if you don't want to intentionally trigger one!

Handling the Stage 2 Mini-Boss (3-headed Serpent):
Eliminate the heads quickly, or the enemies spawning in from the sides and the projectile flames from the boss proper will definitely take you out first. You can game the projectiles a bit, if you move constantly back and forth. The Flame Shot can kill them very, very fast:



Handling the Stage 2 Boss:
When the fight starts, you'll be immediately surrounded on both sides! Focus on killing the winged bird demon boss first, as you'll get significantly more room to maneuver and deal with the halberd demon afterwards (you can even kite him with the default weapon pretty easily)

Keep an eye out for the bird demon's swoop attack, then duck underneath to avoid taking any damage whatsoever. If they both end up on the same side of you, make sure to keep them at arm's length so they're forced to close the gap.

Stage 3

Full Stage Map with all Secrets marked:

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Secret Rewards (in order encountered on map):

1. 5 Gold Coins (500 points)
   
2. 1 Bell (summons an Extra Life pickup)
   
3. 5 Gold Coins (500 points)
   
4. Familiar Egg
   
5. 2 Gold Hands (2000 points)
   
6. Familiar Egg
   
7. 8 Gold Coins (800 points)

Additional Tips & Tricks:

You should pretty much always visit the second secret room in the pit in the upper part of the Stage, as it has no enemies whatsoever, a guaranteed extra life, +30 seconds to the timer, and 1400 points!

The Blue Enemy Crabs will regenerate a short time after being killed. Don't be standing on them when they wake up!

The most dangerous enemy here by far is the Large Enemy Birds. They have significant health, a ranged attack, and are pushed back to safety by your regular shots, preventing you from destroying them before they get out of hand.

The Flame Shot and the Homing Shot are your best bets for getting rid of them quickly and/or safely. With the Flame Shot, 2 charged attacks (if all the bullets connect) should be enough to take them out quickly (and without pushing them back too far), and the Homing Shot will help you keep them at arm's length without getting too close.

Handling the Stage 3 Mini-Boss:
Dealing enough damage will cause them to be pushed back, preventing you from playing the "dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge" dance with them:



Most of the enemies in the final stretch after the Mini-boss aren't too bad, but be wary of the demon ninjas as they're quite fast, can jump upwards instead of just falling off of platforms, AND they can hop down straight through platforms too.

Right in the middle of the map you'll be ambushed by 2 Large Enemy Bird enemies, so be extra cautious not to get caught in between a rock and a hard place.

Handling the Stage 3 Final Boss:
If you want to have an easier time, stand right about here, and just duck underneath the shots from the eyes:



This will allow you to easily dispose of the enemies coming from the mouth, as well as the skull dropping fire on you. This can be done even with the default Regular Shot, as long as you're patient! (and have enough time left)

Complete Game Map

ALL Stages - Complete Game Map with Secrets marked:

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Full Video Walkthrough

Still having trouble? Check out this full walkthrough of Rakshasa with enough points for a Cherry Cart!

Hopefully there is a technique or two not explicitly covered in the guide above that will help you accomplish your goals.

Enable subtitles/closed captions for the full contextual play-by-play!

Gift, Gold, & Cherry Requirements

For the Garden gift:
CHEAT DEATH 3 TIMES

For the Gold cart:
BEAT THE GAME

For the Cherry cart:
BEAT THE GAME WITH A SCORE OF AT LEAST 50000

Terminal Codes

• RAKS - The shortcode for Rakshasa. Combine with commands like HELP to make and enter HELP-RAKS (lists a bunch of additional possible commands)
  
• SOUL-LOOP - The soul minigame after death never gets any harder. Great for practice if you want to see later stages with pure attrition!

Easter Eggs

If you have 5 or more deaths and visit the first pit (hidden room) on Stage 3, you'll see the phrase "Semper Renasci" (which loosely translates to "Always Be Reborn") written on the background wall:



This is *potentially* a hint to the Terminal Code SOUL-LOOP that prevents the Soul mini-game on death from getting any harder.

Soundtrack

1. Rakshasa - Intro[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
2. Rakshasa - Stage 1A[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
3. Rakshasa - Encounter[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
4. Rakshasa - Stage 1B[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
5. Rakshasa - Boss[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
6. Rakshasa - Stage Clear[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
7. Rakshasa - Stage 2A[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
8. Rakshasa - Stage 2B[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
9. Rakshasa - Special Room[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
   
10. Rakshasa - Stage 3A[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]
    
11. Rakshasa - Stage 3B[phlogiston.bandcamp.com]

Outro

Spot anything I missed or found something you would like to add? Add a comment and I'll look into it when I get the chance!

Want more? Then please check out my other:

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• Games[llamakazi.itch.io]
  
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Also if you can, please help out with this guide's overall visibility by clicking the real versions of these buttons up top - many thanks y'all!

[SkyWolve]

I've since found out more about the bonus drop generation. It seems to be based on enemy killed, point threshold, and lives you have. So for example at 5000 score with 1 death (the one you start with) Monkey will drop timer and lil bug will drop 3 golden frogs. I discovered this because I used to not grab the secret extra life in level 1 below the second bug nest. This made plant at 10000 drop an egg, and frogs at 15000 and 20000 drop an extra life and an egg. After working the extra life in the 10k plant dropped an extra life instead, and the frogs dropped a timer then an extra life.

[SkyWolve]

Something worth noting is that what spawns from a 5000 drops seems consistent depending on the enemy killed. Like if I get my first 5000 and then kill one of the bugs spawned from the nest on the far right of level 1, 3 golden frogs spawn, and that's a really convenient location for them. That adds a lot to potential routing but honestly this is the only one I know of worth going for, since saving the drop for this saves some time and the point profit is insane.

[Llamakazi]

@Grim
Aye no such luck; I've run through with 5+ deaths from start to finish a couple times (mainly to test the hidden secrets and differences)

I imagine there's a way to find it beyond datamining or random guessing, but as of now there doesn't appear to be one (as far as I'm aware!)

[Grim]

Very strange. My only other guess would be that maybe having a lot of deaths when falling into an earlier pit might activate similar text? But I imagine that's already been tested.

[Llamakazi]

@Grim
Just tried it a few moments ago; unfortunately nothing but gibberish in the Terminal while the Easter Egg is up! Killing all enemies, dying, and reviving in that room doesn't seem to trigger anything special either

[Grim]

@Llamakazi
I had missed the easter egg on my first pass, so it's interesting that that's there, but I don't think that, on its own, it is strong enough to reveal the cheat code. If the two words translated more directly then yes, but...

I have a suspicion: If you enter that room while the text is on the wall, and then go into the terminal, is the cheat code displayed there? I would test it myself but I just beat the game before reading this guide and I don't think I have the patience to get that far again right now.

[Llamakazi]

@Grim
Heya! I got that one from a friend; and I'm not 100% sure where they got it from either. Some may have come from experimentation (or datamining)

It's possible that the major Easter Egg (see section) in the game alludes to it, but I can't be completely certain without any kind of official confirmation

[Grim]

Where is the terminal cheat code found in the game? A few other games have theirs in the credits but I can't find where people discovered this one.

[Llamakazi]

@Guy
Cheers!

[Guy]

Another must-have guide, tysm!