How to play Eschatos

Explanation of the game's basics that the manual doesn't entirely cover.

Overview

Eschatos is a vertically scrolling shooter, followup to the WonderSwan titles Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins. The relationship between these games is a lot like going from Raiden and Raiden II, to Raiden III and IV.

Eschatos contains three modes: Original, Advanced, and Time Attack. Original and Advanced are split into four difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Hardest. There's also an Endless mode for both, which has you "loop" into each difficulty, from Easy all the way up to Hardest and beyond (right now, no one knows what lies beyond the Hardest loop in these modes, or at least no one's telling)! Time Attack is a special mode based on Original mode at Normal difficulty.

In all three modes, you use your Forward Shot, Wide Shot, and Shield to defeat enemies and (for the Shield) absorb bullets in your way. Every now and then, a non-hostile enemy will appear and pause for you to shoot it; these drop various items (depending on the mode) to help you. The goal is to complete the five Stages that are divided into 26 Areas without losing all of your lives, and of course to score as many points as you can!

Game Modes and Scoring

In Original and Advanced, you have a multiplier that builds up as you defeat waves of enemies without letting a single one slip by; the point value of every enemy you shoot down is multiplied by this number. The maximum value for the multiplier, as well as how many waves of enemies it takes to raise it (by 1 point), depends on the difficulty; Easy has a maximum of x5 and requires three waves, Normal has a maximum of x10 and requires two waves, Hard has a maximum of x20 and requires just one wave, while Hardest has no maximum and also requires just one wave. Endless is all four difficulties in a row, and the previous multiplier rules apply as you journey through each difficulty. If you do miss a enemy, the multiplier will drop (by 1 point); if you die, the multiplier resets completely... be careful! (During bosses, dying only lowers the multiplier by a point.)

In Original mode, your weapons have a fixed power level. Similar to the Gradius series, blue "F" items will delete all bullets and do light damage to all enemies on-screen, destroying many weaker enemies. There is a point bonus for defeating a wave as fast as possible, which is also multiplied by your multiplier.

Advanced is a much more complicated mode that builds upon Original, and is described below.

Time Attack mode is based on Original Normal specifically, and has no scoring or even lives! Instead, you are timed to complete the entire game, and dying will take five seconds off the timer. Completing waves will stop the timer briefly, and finishing Areas will raise the timer by 25 seconds. It is known that doing well causes the game to get more difficult, going into Hard and Hardest levels!

Advanced Mode

In Advanced mode, your weapons start off weak, but can be upgraded with orange "P" items. Weapon "Power" level is shown by the series of six blocks near your Shield Gauge. The blue F items still appear and work the same, joined by the more powerful yellow F items which work like the blue Fs but will also convert deleted bullets into purple Bonus Items.

Adding to the existing multiplier rules, each Power level also adds a multiplier point, so the maximum multiplier on Easy difficulty would become x11. Note that these special multiplier points are never lost from letting enemies get away, only from losing Power level somehow! You can lose Power level by either collecting an F item (1 block lost), or by losing a life (2 blocks lost).

The bonus for defeating waves quickly is gone; instead, there are the Bonus Items. When you defeat certain larger enemies all on-screen bullets will be converted to these, bullets absorbed by the shield will be converted to these, and yellow F items will also instantly convert all on-screen bullets to these. The base value of a Bonus Item is affected by Power level, which is then multiplied by a number that is linked to (but not) your current multiplier; for example, a current multiplier of x7 will multiply a Bonus Item by x707.

Note that both F items decrease Power level (and thus multiplier) by 1! There's always been talk of potentially using a yellow F item to gain a lot of points, then quickly powering up again, but the best players typically avoid F items if they can help it. F items, then, become a question of whether you want more points, or whether you want to get out of a sticky situation for free. You should definitely try to use the yellow Fs if you do at all, though!

There's also a really weird mechanic involving letting the Bonus Items orbit around you and using them to destroy enemies; I don't really understand it yet, sorry!

Option Levels

Within the menus, you have an "Option Level". Whenever you finish a game, even with a Game Over, your score is added to a Total Score. The Total Score serves as "experience points", and reaching certain values raises your Option Level. Each Option Level unlocks a new game feature, from simply adding credits or ship colors, up to being able to watch replays from the leaderboards and even the mentioned "Hardest" difficulty. There are a total of 50 levels.

Since Time Attack doesn't use score, no play of it will add to your Total Score.

[Dingo]

It may not be hyper in depth but at least you provided a nice outline for those looking for it.

[Ricky the "No Guard"]

Thank you! Though, let me be honest, this guide sucks. I meant to go through and make it a lot more detailed, but I just haven't had the time to either play the game or write anything.

[motokokusanagi1979]

Thanks man, I am the noob of noobs after not touching a gamepad for 25 years since SF2 on the snes, and that was the only game my family could afford. I can't even use analogue sticks yet in games. If only other games had these detailed guides, it wouldn't overwhelm me and make me so disheartened I won't play again. Couldn't handle this game when I first got it, but got advised by Schump Junkie on Youtube to try Natsuki Chronicles on easy mode. It took me 30 hrs but I did complete it and am nearly completing it on normal setting now. Had a go on this again and felt much more in control, but wasn't sure about how the levels work and small details like that you have explained, and now don't feel like I'm going in blind.

[bonkmaykr]

for the first and last guide ever made on this game (on steamcommunity.com , at least) this sure as hell is a detailed one. Thanks man

[Ricky the "No Guard"]

I just checked to be sure, you absolutely lose your multiplier if you die on either mode. However, you lose only 1 multiplier if you die during a boss; I think this is defined as anything after a warning.

[chaoticenigma]

Actually dying is only a -1 to chain on Original. Most of the usual loss are the enemies you probably missed due to the death. It is a complete loss of chain in Advanced.

[kap]

I believe the "Bonus Item orbit" strategy is achieved by holding your Shield out while bonus items are being attracted to you. As long as the Shield is deployed, the items won't be collected, instead orbiting your ship. It would seem that they deal damage similarly to the Shield in this state.