Stage 8 - Formidable Guardians
'Black hole vanished, drive system switch to normal mode...'
Here we go again, the stage where you face all the BIG-BOSSes!! But before that, thank goodness there are always those good old floating pods that appear from the background and gives you capsules, so power-up and 'Crush all of them!!'

BOSS
This four-armed cannon shoots long-big laser beams from the sides of the tip of their arms, rotating itself in circles clockwise or counterwise depending on which direction it shoots. It'll fire out little heat seeking flame-balls at you later on. Just hide between its arms and lasers and 'Destroy the core' as usual.
The core comes out and hooks on to the two 'familiar' Gradius enemy ships. The core shoots out heat seeking electric-whirling balls at you, destroy it, then you'll have to take care of the other two. They at first launch out HUGH laser beams, then after you crush their face, they'll release missles at you(missles follows you in 2nd quest!). 'Crush all of them!'
These three flying rangers are pretty tough. All three of them will shoot bullets and balls at you, then they'll connect each other with electric-beams, stay within the triangle and dodge the green balls they release. If there are two left, they will connect and glide from all four sides to sides while releasing MANY bullets. If there is only one left, it'll just try to annihilate you with a HUGH laser beam that swings across 3/4 of the screen, careful!
This guy looks like he's in the wrong game, doesn't it look like the ship in Thunder Force? Oh well, it has three different patterns. At first it will RAIN out tons of little bombs, don't worry, just keep shooting(the blue ones in 2nd quest cannot be destroyed). Secondly, it will launch towards you 1 or 2 'SALAMANDERS'(also in the wrong game!:) and shoots green thin lasers at you, you can kill the salamander(but becareful in 2nd quest, it releases a MASS of bullets after its destruction, and the Styx shoots more green beams also). Lastly, it tries to annihilate you with an insanely HUGH beam at you. Watch out!!
Aarrhh!!!!! This sucker is HARD! It's carzy! OkOk, it first shoots out shots from the front, along with lasers from its two rotating balls, and along with guiding missles from behind. Then it throws out its two wheels and RANDOMLY shoots lasers at you in different directions! Just try to destroy its face and go for the core...'sign!'
Finally, the stage boss. This coward will shoot spread-out pattern green box-bullets at you. Then it tries to wipe you out by scanning the triangular red-beam at you. It will later shoot out hugh-explosion bombs at you(don't be fooled by its size), while hiding its core. In second quest, it also launches platforms from its sides and shoots beams at you.
SURPRISE!! Just when you thought the game is over, it goes 2nd quest, and there are many extra stuff, INCLUDING this boss. If your tough enough, this guardian will appear during 2nd quest. Two strategies, try to stay alive in between its 200 million beams and shoot the core. Now this is what I call rediculous in a shooter. :) j/k...I think it's AWESOME!! J

STAGE SELECT

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