Gunstar Heroes/The Empire's Space Craft

This stage is divided into two sections.

Spaceship Section
During the briefing for this stage you will select which person will be the satellite, if you are playing with another person. The satellite is a small turret which can only be right next to the main ship. It cannot recieve damage. When the player in the main ship dies the satellite takes over. If the other player chooses to revive himself he will be the satellite.

The ship controls the same whether you are Free Shot or Fixed Shot. The D-Pad always moves the ship. When holding the Shot button the direction you're firing does not change until you release Shot. Pressing Jump makes the ship "jump" in the direction being held on the D-Pad.

The best weapon for the stage is the Lightning Saber because it can destroy bullets. This becomes more of an advantage on higher difficulties because exploding enemies turn into bullets. The Chaser Fireball is not recommended despite also having this trait. It is impossible to control the ship and fire stream independently.

Guide
Two solidiers with weapon upgrades appear at the start.

Mini-Boss: Timeron
Rapidly firing any weapon at this boss should kill it in less than 10 seconds. If you want, you can try to surive it's onslaught of attacks. You earn a bonus equal to the amount of time you fight him. If you survive for 100 minutes you earn a "Soul Bonus" of 930,410 and see a special message.

After defeating the boss you'll encount a meteor shower, then some big ships, a series of big lasers, a health power up, another meteor shower, and the next miniboss.

Mini-Boss: 1000mm Gun
If you have the Lightning Saber you can fire at point-blank range to nullify all of it's firepower.

Next you'll encounter a wave on small ships, a few more cannons, a health power up, another meteor shower, and the boss of this section.

Boss: Seven Force
Fortunately, this boss only has one lifebar, unlike the previous battle against him. Most of it's projectiles can be nullified by the Lightning Saber.

Platorm Section
There is a a birdie that drops weapon upgrades and another that drops health.

Boss: Core Guard System
This boss has three forms.

Unit of the Hammer
When it is spinning around the core you can see it's height when it is behind the core.

Unit of the Runner
When it's arm spins it fires a bullet up or down.

STAGE CLEAR