R-Type/Stage 4

Frontline Base
This stage is considerably harder than the previous stages, due in part to the way that enemies appear from various directions without warning. If any of the stages require good memorization of enemy formations, this is certainly one of them. You start out by flying through a gap between the top and bottom of the screen. Orange ships will fly across the screen, leaving a liter of green particles behind them. The particles are deadly to touch, but easy to remove. The first power-up transport appears on the bottom, and provides Reflection Lasers. The transport is immediately followed by a walking missile launcher.

Many small red ships and other basic enemies from the first stage will fly or walk across the screen here, along with a few orange ships that leave green particle trails. Stay back to the left to destroy most of them keep your Force attached to your front. A power-up transport will appear when the ceiling stops, providing a Speed-up. Don’t collect too much speed, or the R-9a will become hard to control. Another one will provide an Anti-Air laser. These transports will stop on the particle trails if they hit them, so it’s important to keep a path open between you and them. Likewise, walking mechs will walk along the particles and fall down to the floor if given a chance.

The stage will open up, and a series of brown ships will descend from the top of the screen. Immediately after, four orange ships will streak across the screen in every direction, leaving particles behind. You are safest in the lower left, or lower right corners of the screen. Around this time, a new enemy will appear, a larger red ship that is capable of flying right through, and absorbing, the green particles left behind by the orange ships. More walking mechs will also appear from the top and use the particles as platforms. Another transport will appear and provide you with a Bit, the second one that has appeared since the beginning of the game. Another transport will appear along the bottom to provide you with Missiles.

A majority of the remainder of the stage is spent trying to dodge the orange ships as they appear from the edges of the screen and fly across in all different directions. Don’t be afraid if you get pushed to the right of the screen. If this happens, detach your Force from the front, reattach it to the back, and blast a path back to the left. As the orange ships fly about, another transport will appear offering Counter Ground Lasers. Another one appears shortly after containing speed. The ground laser is not a good choice in this stage since they follow the layout of the particles instead of blasting through them. If the action gets too heavy, the lower right corner of the screen tends to be a fairly safe place to wait.

Eventually, you will reach a giant wall of green particles that you must blast your way through. Enemies freely fly through this area, while you are restricted to pathways that you open for your use. A fast way to create space is to send your Force forward, destroying all of the particles in its path. Several power-up transports are found in this section, the first of which contains the Anti-air laser. Three of them appear shortly after, practically in a column. The highest one is the most difficult to get and contains a bit. The transport in the middle them has speed, while the transport buried beneath particles near the bottom has Reflection Lasers. Once you’re clear of the particle field, two more orange ships fly from the right before the boss appears from the left.

Boss: Compiler
The boss initially appears to be one large craft, but it actually has the ability to split up into three separate components, each with their own weak point. It flies in from the left, so you must wait for it along the right side of the screen or you will be destroyed. While combined into one large object, the ship is practically invulnerable to attack. You must wait for it to break apart into pieces to gain access to the weak points. However, you can send the Force into the middle of the ship and use it to destroy pieces of the ship early on before it splits apart. When it breaks into three parts, it is the glowing green segments that indicate the weak points which you must hit. Each part then flies around to a different portion of the screen. Keep a safe distance from each of them. A good rule of thumb is to try to use the Force to remove one or two of the pieces while it is appearing from the left. When you are down to just one component, use your regular firepower to blow it up.

Alternate tactic
Using air lasers. Segment naming: From left, clockwise, segment 1, 2 then 3. Segments 1 and 2 are joined together and segment 3 joins below.

Before the boss appears, swap the force to the rear of the ship. Position yourself about 2/3 of the way down the screen and wait for it to appear. As soon as it appears on screen, move your ship to the left, positioned on a line where the bottom segment joins the the other two. There is spike coming out of the ship, put your ship on a line just below that. Hammer the fire button and track to the right as the ship moves onto the screen. If you are aligned correctly you can destroy the bottom segment before the ship starts moving round the screen. Once the bottom segment is destroyed, segment 1's weak spot is exposed and you can destroy that, before finally moving to the left of segment 2 and destroying it with a couple of beams.

Loop 2
Enemy move faster and are more difficult to destroy. The orange ships that lay the green dots will fire twice at you - look out for the second shot!