Double Action BREAK Guide

How to get every break in the game in two styles, full play-throughs, quick kill boss strategies, videos and more. A supplemental piece to the great game of Blue Revolver.

Stage Zero

The breaks of Blue Revolver are a third of the game’s identity and a quarter of your score, if you wish to reach the summit you would do well to learn as many as you can. BR features it’s own break guide and I recommend it, this guide started as a little piece to that guide. Danbo's guide is here[danboland.net]. This one is better though. o7

Here, on good ol' Steam, I will cover every break in the game, along with a method for getting a ‘perfect’, note this is not possible on all breaks. There's also video clips for some of the more requested breaks.

For full runs if you'd like them, here is a video of me getting the Breaker achievement on normal using less complex methods for most breaks.
If you’d like more advanced methods and more perfects you can watch these instead: Dee/Val/Mae

Quick note on the ‘perfect’ bonus. You gain double the points of a named boss phase if you do not do the following three actions:
1. Using the bomb, auto or otherwise
2. Using the sub weapon
3. Losing a life
If you do only one of those things once you will get a ‘great’ bonus worth half of a perfect, the second time no bonus will be given. If no method is given for a given break, it’s not possible to get a perfect.

The guide is complete and correct as far as I know, If I've made an error, please let me know below. It's geared towards the Normal player that's put in a few hours, and that knows something about STG, so I will not be going over basic mechanics like flourishing, or what a sub weapon is.

If you guys want that stuff, I need comments telling me that! Same deal to the hyper players. Not going to waste my time writing what isn't read.

One last thing, whether or not you should go for a 'perfect' depends, as most of the time you would want to beat a mid-boos or section as fast as you can. A 'perfect' might also not be worth the extra stress, so use your discretion.

Stage One

BREAK 1 worth 500k “Pulpit”
Shoot off both sides of the mid-boss in quick succession.
Perfect worth 100k: Don’t use your sub or bombs.

Stage One Boss Quick Kill with both breaks on HYPER.

BREAK 2 worth 2M “Bluster”
The boss must be destroyed while all four of the boss’ options are also destroyed. These options are replaced rather rapidly, timing is key. Shoot only the boss until around 1460HP is left, use sub to quickly destroy the four side enemies. Destroying the options damages the boss, and if you're killing the boss too early you'll need to damage it less. Adjust your attack depending on who you are playing and what sub weapon you are using. You have longer than you think.
Perfect worth 300k: Weaken the options until they are colored red, then attack the boss to a little less than half (1460HP) before destroying them along with any extra damage the main body may need. Be quick, it's one of the harder breaks. PERFECT Bluster Break

BREAK 3 worth 1M “Guttersnipe”
Destroy both sides of the boss. At ranks above two the more bullets will come from the center of the boss when you shoot off the sides, you may want to soften the main body first.
Perfect worth 300k: Do it without sub/bomb, easy.

Stage Two

BREAK 1 worth 1M
Destroy left side turrets of the ship before finishing it off on the right. A bomb makes this easy and can be used with an eight hit flourish for a good amount of points.

BREAK 2 worth 1M “Focus”
Shoot down Val after the screen stops scrolling as quickly. The longer this takes, the harder it gets. Make sure she does not time out.
Perfect worth 400k: No sub/bomb, try to weaken her before the screen stops scrolling to make this easier.

BREAK 3 worth 500K
Destroy turrets in color pairs, if playing as Dee use focus shot for the last row. The turrets can be used to gain a full flourish before sub weaponing the main body.

Stage Two Boss Quick Kill with all breaks on HYPER.

BREAK 4 worth 500K “Mirage”
Destroy indicated round turret before any other.
Perfect worth 250k: Be mindful of hitting other turrets, you may have to wait for the target to make a second pass around the boss.

BREAK 5 worth 500K “Heuristic”
Destroy all round turrets before the boss, this is a given. What did Danbo say that one time? It’s more impressive if you don’t get it.
Perfect worth 250k: Don’t get shot while doing one of the easiest breaks in the game.

BREAK 6 worth 500K “Nudge”
Destroy the boss without destroying all four circling turrets. Immediately fly near the boss and bomb then use the sub weapon. Easy Nudge Break
Perfect worth 250k: This is much harder. Take out two or three turrets then time your fire so you are only hitting the boss. Watch out, as the turrets have little life, but will fire on you if left alive.

Stage Three

BREAK 1 worth 1M
Destroy the four side turrets before you kill the mid-boss. The center of the boss has low health, watch that. Also, it times out, so don't take all day. You can set this up for a full flourish, and it's one of the hardest in the game.

BREAK 2 worth 2M
Shoot down ‘80%’ of the enemies before the section ends.

Stage Three Boss Quick Kill with all breaks on HYPER.

BREAK 3 worth 1M “Signature”
Shoot off both sides of the boss. Softening the main body will help at ranks over two. Watch out, it doesn't have that much life.
Perfect worth 500k: Easy, just don’t get shot.

BREAK 4 worth 1M “Wizard”
Wait for boss to shoot a blue shotgun like pattern, the break beep will happen the the first time this occurs. You’ll need to do good damage quickly to do this in one cycle, use the sub weapon with a bomb. Stay alive if you need it with a cancel when it becomes too much. Demo
Perfect worth 500k: Good luck dodging this, especially on higher ranks. DA made this much easier, but it's still easy to kill the boss at the wrong time with everything going on. I believe this to be the second hardest perfect in the game and not worth it when you're starting out. PERFECT Wizard Break

BREAK 5 worth 1M “Rapid eye Movement”
Do not destroy the failing pink options.
Perfect worth 500k: Try to stay in the center about half way up the screen. As Dee your rapid fire will only hit the boss and at all times if you do this. If not playing as Dee, maybe a lower on the screen dodge will be better. At higher ranks watch it, as the pink options will shot at you when leaving the play area.

BREAK 6 worth 1M “Overtime”
The boss must be about to punch you when you kill her. This is the only attack in the game with a diamond that shrinks around the boss before the attack, use this as a visual tell if you need it. Watch out for the bullets that fire from the bottom of the last attack on higher ranks.
Perfect worth 500k: Soften the boss to just about death then wait to fire just before she kills you with a punch. You are able to get a nice 8hit off of the back pink options.

Stage Four

BREAK 1 worth 1M
Wait for the large enemy with four options to fully appear, bomb and wait for the break beep and use sub weapon once.

BREAK 2 worth 2M “Muddle”
Destroy the four side turrets, wait for the shield to drop, go behind and kill the mid boss.
One bomb Muddle Break
Perfect worth 500k: Soften the boss for a few seconds while changing from one side to the other. After the shield drops make sure you kill it before it times out. You may want to use the music for timing, that's what I do.

BREAK 3 worth 1M
Just like before, wait for mid-boss to fully appear, bomb and wait for the beep use sub weapon once. This method provides it’s own flourish. Demo

Stage Four Boss Quick Kill with all breaks on HYPER.

BREAK 4 worth 2M “Sunder”
This should just happen. You used to have to kill the boss while the arms were open, this is no longer true.
Perfect worth 700k: Tap dodge the boss’ purple shots, do this and the blue shots should just miss you. Looks worse than it is, unless you're on rank five, then it is as bad as it looks.

BREAK 5 worth 2M “Monte Carlo”
Beat this phase without destroying less than one of the large side turrets. A combo of bomb/sub works well and is quick, just do not bomb two turrets at once.
Perfect worth 700k: Dangerous, be careful to not auto bomb a lower turret.

BREAK 6 worth 3M “VDM-86”
Dodge bullets and time out the boss. The boss will fire on you at ranks higher than two.
Perfect worth 700k: Don’t get shot and do not fire your sub weapon, that would be dumb. As Val you can shoot your focus fire off the side of the screen for more control. At ranks four and five I wouldn't and don't bother with this.

Stage Five

BREAK 1 worth 2M “Keyhole”
Destroy turrets in the order of left to right.
Perfect worth 500k: Soften from left to right and try to be back on the left when the tighter pattern is fired at you; this gives you the most time to dodge it. There is nice 8hit if you wait for the zako to show up.

BREAK 2 worth 3M
Destroy 80% of the "junk data" umm, rocks coming from behind before the section ends. You must be quick and aggressive, don't go overboard either, notice when you're over 80% and try to flourish before the mid-boss.

BREAK 3 worth 2M “Pound”
Shoot off both sides of the mid-boss in very quick succession. You can time this out with the zako that fly in for a nice flourish.

Stage Five Boss "Quick" Kill with all breaks on NORMAL.
This only works on Normal, because of the counter-bomb on Hyper plus.

BREAK 4 worth 2M “Fusillade”
Destroy the four round orbs before beating the phase.
Perfect worth 500k: Start on the left and tap to right. Try to kill the phase with bullets on screen for a easy cancel.

BREAK 5 worth 2M “Fianchetto”
I wonder if Danbo plays chess. Anyway, have one of the large bullets hit the boss and kill to end the phase. Try to lead the bullets and not aim them to where to boss is, but to where the boss will be.
Perfect worth 500k: Soften the boss and make sure you stay low and don’t kill her with an auto bomb. Randomness can make this trying.

BREAK 6 worth 3M “Revolver”
Wait for the full bullet pattern intensity to be fired at you, and kill the boss with either a bomb or sub weapon.
Perfect worth 500k: This one is a special case. You can shoot the sub once and still get the 'perfect', bombing or otherwise will still penalise you. On Normal it doesn't matter since milking the pattern is worth so much more.

The last five are all in the TLB, which is beyond the scope of this guide.

Game Over

Ta da, a written guide to go with visuals you can get elsewhere. We strive for accuracy in our information and if I’ve made a mistake and lord knows that never happens, help a brother out in the comments. If you have any questions I’m happy to answer those too.
Never forget changing your announcer to Val will make you better and the final points total for all breaks is 38.5 million if you were wondering.

Good luck to you and remember there is never enough practice!
If you'd like to see the hit-boxes, add -drawhitboxes to your launch options.

Leave a thumbs up if you liked it. Let me know what you think!
Finally, thanks again Danbo for such a great game!

If you'd like to learn more about STG and what it takes to win, check this out!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3431844646

[gokce]

Oh couldn't stop myself to comment on Bluster break, 20h in and just realized if I count b.patterns & go after drones at certain point (differs based on ship&load) I get the break most of the time (need much more time to figure some of the 5th level insanities out) Thanks for the guide, helped me to get some obscure parts of this artwork.

[dlupal]

Bluster is easily on my top three hardest breaks.
Sounds to me to should shoot the main body a bit less before you go after the options.
You're right about the stage two breaks, much easier.
Keep practising, and good luck.

[nawj]

Been losing my mind trying to get the Bluster break so I turned on Less Bullet/Slowmo Bullets and recorded myself in OBS. Turns out I'm not killing the second pair of wing drones simultaneously, so the phase health bar is depleted when there is a single drone left. It's funny, I find the breaks on the Stage 2 boss so much easier than this break.