Life Force/Stage 3

Prominence Stage

 * Once again, the stage starts off with the appearance of groups of Phoenix, providing you with power-ups before you reach the start of the stage. They travel in tight sine waves across the screen.  If you perished in the last stage, do your best to power up as much as possible before you reach the flames.  Even when the flames do start, two more flocks of Phoenix will appear.


 * [[Image:Life_Force_stage3_screen2.gif|right]] There is a lot more activity in this stage than there was in the arcade. The Phoenix here do not vary in size, but when you destroy a single Phoenix which flies across the screen, it will often transform into a fireball that blast forward at surprising speed.  Phoenix that rise up from the flames often provide power-ups.  In addition to the Flame Planets, there are blasts of flame which erupt straight into the air and fall back down.  Both will appear from the flames on either side with regular timing, so you should be able to predict their appearance.  Last but certainly not least, a toned down version of the arcade boss appears a couple of times.  You will encounter a red long snake-like dragon who breaths fire at you.  It will loop around and try to enclose you, but you will find that it takes very few hits to actually defeat.  Don't put off attacking this enemy until it's too late.


 * Once the prominence eruptions begin, there is one important strategy to employ: Hold still. Unlike most stages, you should find a safe place to occupy and remain there as much as possible.  The safest places are approximately one inch above the center of the bottom or one inch below the center of the top.  In these locations, you should be able to safely avoid the flame eruptions that occur throughout the stage while still attacking most of the other threats which are present.


 * [[Image:Life_Force_stage3_screen4.gif|right]] The only time you should absolutely move is when you encounter a prominence that erupts continuously. When you see it, climb up (or down) to the opposite side during a lull in the eruption, fly forward to get around it, and return to your original position as it scrolls off.  Be especially careful of the bottom continuous eruption, as there is an upper eruption that follows it quite quickly.  Toward the end of the stage, you will encounter the reverse; an upper continuous eruption followed by a lower continuous eruption.  This is tailed off with one final appearance of a red dragon as the screen stops scrolling, before you encounter the boss.

Boss: Intruder
Compared to the arcade version of Intruder, the NES version is much larger, but substantially easier. Gone is the long serpentine boss who can surround you and attempt to kill you inside of its coil. Instead, you will merely encounter a gigantic dragon head who will only stretch out so far, and breath huge bolts of flame at you. They are fairly easy to dodge, and all that you must do is return fire, concentrated on its mouth. If you have Lasers and some Options, you should be able to make rather short work of this boss. Even if your firepower is low, you can patiently chip away at the boss, while avoiding the fire breath for as long as necessary to win.