Giga Wing / ギガウイング - NO REFLECT 1CC - Stuck/Widerstand

I'd recommend skipping to 13:00 (the section before the big tank in Stage 4) which is where the game first actually gets difficult. I play with autofire when I can in shmups, but otherwise no tool-assistance is used in any of my clears. Video of practice sessions:    • Видео   After a couple years of attempting this off an on, I made some serious advancement in a weekend of practicing and discovered some additional strategies to beat this without using reflect at all. Normally for the last phase of the True Final Boss (the super dense one) I need to get there with 1 life and 2 bombs remaining. The margin of error needed to do that is incredibly slim, but I discovered how to actually dodge the Stranger's second attack, and it turns out if you time it out, it explodes, completely skipping its final phase. It's possible to clear the game by actually killing the Stranger directly, but you have to have had a near perfect run up to in in order to have the resources needed. With the timeout as a possibility, any run that gets to that TLB phase has a shot at a clear. I practiced for hours doing the timeout until I had the dodging down almost perfectly. This was actually a really terrible run with two deaths on Stage 5, and was the first time I made it to the TLB in a full run prepared to attempt a timeout of the Stranger's second phase. The bomb on the Stranger's first phase is mandatory to clear I think - even if you dodge the dangerous early attack, it has so much health that you won't kill it before it flies offscreen, filling the screen with a crazy pattern that requires a bomb. Bombing the first phase lets you shift it to the second phase without any real risk. Various notes: • The big tank in Stage 4 is totally dodgeable, I just screwed it up and had to bomb. • Stage 4 boss has no collision hitbox and its first few attacks are predictable. Get on top of that sucker and just watch the turrets. • I completely fell apart on Stage 5 right at the very end. Otherwise it was an absolutely solid Stage 5 where I would have easily started Stage 6 with 2 or potentially 3 bombs. Oops. Normally even one death on Stage 5 meant a restart, but I after hours of practicing I had worked out a new TLB strategy that meant even "failed" runs could potentially now be a 1CC. • The Stage 5 boss is difficult to deal with if you have no reflect, because it's a very small target when it gets to its second much more dangerous pattern. Since Stuck can't deal with it in a timely fashion short of throwing a bunch of bombs, I time the boss out (and screw up badly in the process). The trick is to destroy one wing completely, then carefully take off one or two turrets on the other side. That keeps it in its first phase for the whole fight, but firing far fewer shots. That bomb I used on the Stage 5 boss was very unfortunate. I avoided another death with it, but it damaged the central portion enough to make it start attacking when normally just the wings attack you, so I actually made the battle harder. Ideally, when timing it out you want to avoid using any bombs at all on this boss as you risk making it get harder. If both wings end up destroyed, it uses its most dangerous attacks. • Stage 6 went pretty much perfectly. The pattern where I throw a bomb can be done without bombing, but Stuck doesn't do much damage to small targets. If you use a bomb here it shortens how long you have to deal with it when it tries to use its nasty pattern again. If you happen to throw two bombs on it, it won't be able to use that pattern again. • The medallion is trivial, but Stuck doesn't deal enough damage to the Stranger (the black ship) to quickly kill its first phase before it uses the fly offscreen attack which is absurdly hard for me to dodge for some reason. That first attack is also rather hard to dodge when it fires the bullet rings in pairs, so I plan to use a bomb there. • The third phase of the Stranger fight (the ultra dense one) normally requires 1 lives, 2 bombs left for me to clear it with Stuck. Ruby and Isha can kill it quicker, but small targets are harder for Stuck. However, if I reach this point in a run without the requisite resources, the strategy I use on the second phase here was my clutch tactic. I'd practiced it a ton for hours on a weekend trying to get through this phase without bombing, learning it by just credit feeding it. As it turns out it has a timeout of about two and a half minutes, and when it times out, the boss simply dies without going to the final phase. It's very scary to execute though, it was really nerve-wracking to pull off.