Momoiro Underground guide, written based on the readme file.

Mogura-Guide.md

Thanks to CStarFlare, lots of details can be added and corrected.

Brief Explanation

• This game emphasizes the rank system.
  The rank is shown as a number, in the range of -99 ~ 500.
• There are many stages, sorted in a certain way.
• Your ship's hitbox is not at the center.
• There is a shop you can bring, at where you can upgrade and repair your ship.
• Bonuses require you to not keep firing the whole time.

Routes

There are 5 places in the game: City, Ocean, Forest, Mountain, and Tower.
Each place has 4 stages, addressed as A1, A2, A3, B. Tower stages are addressed as A1, A2, B, C.
For each place included in a route, one stage shown in the route and B stage of the place will be in play (e.g. City 1, or C 1 in the text below means you will Play City A1 and City B).

Every route eventually leads to Tower.
One of 3 bosses will be waiting for you at Tower A2. If your Money score is 100000? or higher at the end of Tower B, the game will continue to Tower C, the last stage.

A - Standard I -        C 1 > O 2 > F 3 > MX1
B - Standard II -       O 1 > F 2 > M 3 > CX1
C - Standard III -      F 1 > M 2 > C 3 > OX1
D - Standard IV -       M 1 > C 2 > O 3 > FX1
E - Flat I -            F 1 > C 1 > M 1 > O 1
F - Flat II -           F 2 > M 2 > O 2 > C 2
G - Flat III -          F 3 > O 3 > C 3 > M 3
H - Extra I -           M 1 > F 2 > OX2 > CX3
I - Extra II -          C 1 > M 2 > FX2 > OX3
J - Extra III -         O 1 > C 2 > MX2 > FX3
K - Extra IV -          F 1 > O 2 > CX2 > MX3
L - Extra Flat I -      OX1 > CX1 > FX1 > MX1
M - Extra Flat II -     OX2 > MX2 > FX2 > CX2
N - Extra Flat III -    OX3 > FX3 > CX3 > MX3
O - City & Ocean -      CAll> OAll
P - Ocean & Forest -    OAll> FAll
Q - Forest & Mountain - FAll> MAll
R - Mountain & City -   MAll> CAll
S - Forest & City -     FAll> CAll
T - Ocean & Mountain -  OAll> MAll
U - Underground -       ? > ? > ? > ? > ? > ? > ? > ?

The Player Ship _{Pinky Salt}

• Hitbox is the core at the back of the ship.
• Weapons
  • Any weapon can be deployed at any time.
  • When not in use they starts charging, making their next first shot much more stronger.
  • The more weapons are deployed at the time, the slower your ship speed becomes.
  • Each weapon also has their own core which can block bullets and fire a temporary shield on hit.
    Weapons will be down for a brief moment after firing a shield.
    Weapon upgrade can make the cores fire a larger shield.
• Life
  • You starts with 3 lifes, the amount of which can be expanded at the shop, up to 8.
  • Colliding with enemies damages the ship.
  • A wall collision doesn't damage the ship. Going into a wall does.
• Bombs
  • When a bomb is deployed, it will destroy the encoder start making big horizontal waves that grow in vertical, damaging any enemies caught by them.
  • Bombs on the HUD will not be immediately cleared off on use. See Score.
  • You are completely invincible while a bomb is in action. Hop over walls or obtain treasures buried inside them.
  • Bomb stack tops at 4.
• Autobomb
  • When all weapons are not in use and bomb gauge is not empty, a bomb will be automatically used upon hit.
• Shot type
  • FIXED - toggle each weapon on or off with a button press. UI turns gold.
  • FREE - shoot when a button is hold. UI turns silver.

Bullets

Although there are tons of bullet kinds in this game, there is a colour variation that can be applied to common ones you will see in the game: these bullets exist in RED, BLUE, WHITE forms. Latter ones are tougher, and more likely appear or replace red ones at a higher rank.

I understand the difference between them as having different energy. Their energy will decrease over time, and contacting with indestructible objects (like walls and shop's border) or your weapon cores will also deduct their energy and make them travel slower. When the energy is depleted the bullets will vanish.

• RED bullets are blocked by indestructible objects. Weapon cores can block them.
• BLUE bullets can penetrate indestructible objects that are not too thick. Weapon cores can deduct most of their energy.
• WHITE bullets will penetrate most of indestructible objects. Your weapon cores deals very little change to them.

Shop _Okini

• The border of the shop blocks some bullets and damage enemies on contact.
• Shop will disappear when any of the conditions are met:
  • Shop has appeared for 8 seconds.
  • 2 items are bought (the amount can change due to different rank or items you purchase).
  • Player goes outside of the shop.

Items you can buy

• Purple
  • Life+ (￥2500)
  • Life Max (￥10000)
  • Life Max Up (￥30000)
• Yellow
  • Bomb (￥5000)
  • Bomb Level Up (￥30000)
• Orange - Upper Grenade Upgrade (￥30000)
• Red - Front Flame Upgrade (￥30000)
• Blue - Down Sprinkle Upgrade (￥30000)
• Green - Back Tale Upgrade (￥30000)

Weapon Upgrades will always appear in the corresponding slot.
(e.g. If Upper Granade Upgrade appears, it will in the UP slot)

Item purchased that would make no change (e.g. buying a Life+ while already having full life) will instead return back as score for the price, supposedly...

UI

Left Half

Shows current status of your ship and the run.

① Ｖ／ ② -------- ⑤ [FIXED][FREE] ⑨ ROUTE _
＞️Ｏ＜ ③ -------- ⑥ ╭╮ ⑦ Ｏ _____ ⑩ RANK ___
／⋀＼ ④ ♥♥♥♥♥      ╰╯ ⑧ SPEED >>>>>>>>>>

① Weapon charge gauge. Also indicates when the autobomb is ready.
② Health gauge. You have to retry the whole stage when it reaches 0.
③ Bomb gauge.
④ Retries left. Game over when it reaches 0.
⑤ Shot type.
⑥ Animal soul gauge. 1,500 animal souls will fill up. Brings the shop when it's full.
⑦ Money you have.
⑧ Stage progress speed.
⑨ Route this run will follow.
⑩ Current rank. The game will be more difficult in various ways as the rank goes higher.

Right Half

Shows scores and score factors.

① SCORE  ______  ④ RANK  MAX___AVE___
 ② MONEY  ______  ⑤ TIME  __:__:__
  ③ ANIMAL ______  ⑥ SMART _______

① Score. Damage and destroy things. Destroy bosses quick.
② Total exceeded Money and treasure gain. Gather crystals and find hidden treasures.
③ Total Animal gain. Gather animal souls and chips.
④ Rank, maximum and average. Maximum updates in real time, while average updates at the end of a stage.
⑤ Time.
⑥ ScoreMoneyAnimalRankTime. Everything added, time is subtracted.
Score + Money + Animal + RankMax * RankAve - Time * 60 Points / Second

Score Details

Score

• Due to a bug that won't be fixed, if you purchase a bomb while you already have the full stack, the score will be set to 5000. Also the bomb doesn't immediately goes off from the HUD at the moment it starts taking into action.
• Every Front Flame hit on objects (enemies and plants) will increase the score. It's approximately 140 points for a full second hit.
• Back Tale won't increase score for almost any hits or destructions it makes. Apparently Antique Boxes and Plants are one of the exceptions, which makes points for tick damages dealt by Back Tale.
• Destroying a boss will give you score, unless you hit the par time for 5 times.

Boss Time Penalty/Par Time

There is a certain time limit for each boss, in each phase if they have multiple phases. Every time you exceed it, the screen will flash in purple with a jingle playing, and after the flash is gone the score will start decreasing fast, 1 point per tick. The decrease speed stacks as you exceed it again.

You can hit a par time for up to 5 times, and with each hit the boss will be more aggressive and starts losing health over time. These effects also stack. At 5th hit, the boss health degeneration speeds up, and you will get no boss destruction bonus when the boss is beaten.

Currently the exact times and the way to predict them are not found. More than one time length is observed for a same boss in different runs. The table below is some of the times found in few runs, and the time you meet can be different. So far rank is seemingly not the factor that affects this, or not the only factor.

Multiple times observed from the same phase are separated by >,
multiple times observed from the same phase in different runs are separated by ,,
and times for each phase are separated by -.
The timing of counting the time is the moment boss health is fully filled, and the first frame the score decrease is shown, roughly rounded up above decimal points. When boss health bar is not an option, I tried counting from the frame the track starts playing.

Stage	Par Times	Stage	Par Times
City A1	38, 33, 50 then 30	Forest A1
City A2	36	Forest A2	44, 41
City A3	44, 36 then 30	Forest A3	34
City B		Forest B	48, 53
Ocean A1		Mountain A1	45
Ocean A2	45	Mountain A2
Ocean A3	40, 35	Mountain A3
Ocean B	60, 50	Mountain B
Tower A2 (Princess)		Tower B	48, 47 then 40, 45 - 45 then 42
Tower A2 (Paladin)	40, 26, 43>38>38>37>39	Tower C	? - 48 - ?
Tower A2 (Butler)

Money

You should be doing something else than shooting enemies to get them.

• Crystal
  • Appears from enemy explosions.
  • Increases Money you have. Exceeded money gains will increase Money score by half of its value instead.
  • Becomes retrievable when you are not firing any weapons.
  • The value of a crystal is indicated by its color, but a color covers a range of the value instead of one exact value.
  • Values
    • Orange: 300 ~ 360
    • Green: 420 ~ 480
    • Blue: 520 ~ 540
    • Purple: 840
    • Pink: 900
• Natural Stone (and treasure)
  • Appears from various places in stages.
  • Increases Money you have and Money score.
  • Shoot or move around them to make them retrievable.
  • The more you have taken on a stage, the higher value next one will be, starting from 1000 and up to 10000, increased by 1000.

Animal

These appear around enemies only for a brief amount.

• Animal Soul
  • Appears from enemy explosions, and fully grown plants.
  • Use Down Sprinkle to grow plants. A plant gives you 300 animal souls.
  • Increases Animal soul gauge and Animal score.
  • Disappear shortly after the explosion.
  • Values
    • Rabbit: 10
    • Duck:
    • Pig:
    • Deer:
    • Bear:
• Animal Chip
  • Appears from cancelled bullets.
  • Increases Animal score.
  • Disappear shortly after the appearance.
  • Referred as 'Chromosome' in the guide book, X is blue and Y is red.

Rank

Changes Rank Impacts

• Enemy spawn amount, position, and kind
• Turrets some enemy carries (e.g. Zabus _{long ships in City B}, Mogurin _{trains in City A2}, and Usako _{popcorn enemies swinging their weapons and charging towards you})
• Bullet density, speed, and strength
• Money and Animal drops (presumably because of the change in enemy spawn)

So far, it seems like the only factors for increasing the rank are all related to shop.

Increases

• Successfully bringing the shop (5)
• Buying an item (5)

Decreases

• Missing certain amount of crystal (1)
• Getting hit while firing (5)
• Dying (50)

Time

Stage Progress Speed / Scroll Speed

Upon higher stage progress speed the game will progress faster, and total play time for a full run can be shorten by around 15 minutes, which is around 54,000 SMART.

But the higher speed doesn't mean the game will simply play faster on the higher speed. Some enemy spawns can disappear, and enemies won't move faster following the speed.

Also taking plants and treasures will be harder on the higher speed because you have less time to interact with them on the screen.

Mogura-Lore.md

Story

Momoko is a genius high school student, who is not getting along with others in her life.

One day, Momoko happened to find a weird looking animal and saved him, who turned out to be from the underground world, and named Grave. As appreciation, He told her about the existence of the underground world, a paradise for animals where human government doesn't reach.

Momoko decide to connect the surface and the underground. And therefore so-called 'Pinky Project' has been launched.

Aoba and Akane are classmates of Momoko, looking for a part-time job that is happened to be offered by a company named 'IOQ', in which Momoko is a boss.

Their job was transporting resources from mountains, needed to reinforce the gigantic Leonard Tower so it can be connected to Shibuya IOQ in the surface, using a small fighter plane named 'Pinky Salt'.

At the last day of their job, Aoba and Akane discovered the purpose of the job. Monsters from the underground will going to appear on the surface, Momoko should be onto something.

To escape from the underground, and to stop Momoko, Aoba and Akane pilot Pinky Salt.

Then, Momoko's voice is being broadcast loudly through PA systems all over the underground.
"Two humans! They have ran away to somewhere in the underground~!
If you catch them I will grea~tly reward you!
It's to~tally okay whether you catch them alive, or in some cases, dead!!"
Akane and Aoba looked at each other.
"Aww, we are gonna be murdered... aren't we?"

"No, we are escaping the underground alive!
And, we are stopping Momoko's madness!"

-- Excerpt from the official guidebook

Stage & Boss Names

City

• A1: Lisbon Underground, ホームレス鬼軍曹　ゴードン
  Town, Homeless Tiger Sergeant Gordon
• A2: Mikulov Underground, 歌舞伎系鼠小僧　チューブラー
  Railroad, Kabuki-style Mouse Boy Chubura
• A3: Kotor Underground, 貧血用心棒　ムミョウイ
  Spheres, Anaemic Bodyguard Mumyoi
• B: Las Vegas Underground, イノメちゃん
  Flying above a city, Inome

Ocean

• A1: Rota Underground, 吸血魔導師　ピエルカッロ
  Sea cave flooding, Bloodsucking Mage Piercarro
• A2: Maldives Underground, 甲殻ホステス　カルデラーラ
  Shore backward, Crustacean Hostess Kaldelala
• A3: Galapagos Underground, 装甲海坊主　ベルナルド
  Going down in rocky hole, Armed Sea Bonze Bernardo
• B: Palau Underground, 海内無双　ディアマンテ
  Above and under an ocean, Diamante The Unrivaled in Ocean

Forest

• A1: Sherwood Underground, 音速シスター　ジバンシー
  Bushes, Sonic Sister Givenchy
• A2: Inland Underground, 幸福の根　シャルネル
  Teal structures, Root of Happiness Charnel
• A3: Black Forest Underground, エリンギ魔人　ガリアノ
  Pistons, Eryngii Demon? Galiano
• B: Amazon Underground, 機略縦横　トレフル
  Industrial area, Trefle The Resourceful

Mountain

• A1: Fuji Underground, 双生クリスタル　ハラ＆ディ
  Cliffs, Geminous Crystals Hala & Die
• A2: Matterhorn Underground, クレイジーハンター　ククリ
  Slope, Crazy Hunter Khukuri
• A3: Mauna Loa Underground, サイコニート　レイピア
  Narrow tunnel, Psycho NEET? Psychonite? Rapier
• B: Kilimanjaro Underground, 狷介孤高　サーベル
  Spinning structure, Sabel The Lofty

Tower

• A1: Leonard Tower
  Going upward in a residential area
• A2: Leonard Tower Center
  Horizontally long corridor
  • 酸性プリンセス　レネオモーレ・ビアンカ・フーラー
    Acidic Princess Leneomore Bianca Fuller
  • 断食パラディン　キラウエア・グレイブヤード
    Fasting Paladin Kilauea Graveyard
  • 豪腕バトラー　ミタビ・サンヨウ
    Outstanding Butler Mitabi Sanyo
• B: Leonard Royal Household, ”ロードオブアンダーグラウンド”　レオナルド・グレネイド
  Horizontal corridor backward, "Lord of Underground" Leonard Grenade
• C: Shibuya Ground, 女子高生　モモコ
  City and outer space, High School Girl Momoko

This guide now can be found at Shmups Forum too.