So as a vampire survivor autist, I've been making my way through all the hentai parody clones I can find and squeezing them for all of their content (gameplay) while honestly ignoring any sex scenes (Don't ask why I find this fun)
This game has given me... quite a bit of content and frustration on my journey to 100% the gameplay half. I'm almost done, with most gene point upgrades unlocked, and I'm only missing 1 weapon unlock. But I figured if anyone else is stupid enough to want to spend however long to actually play the game, I can give some tips and tricks I've learned:
-To unlock the other characters, you just need to find the first point of interest (PoI) in their related level and kill the boss it spawns. It will auto-extract you afterwards and count as a mission success. This means you can just set the timer to 10 minutes (the PoI will spawn in the 5-6 range), not care about building for a full run, and run them WAY before you're comfortable running whatever difficulty the level is
-For unlocking the other menus, the arsenal is locked behind the black hair girl, and the stat upgrades are behind the pink hair girl
-Each girl has a focus, some better than others. Blonde hair gets more exp + innate hp recov, black hair has more crit + damage (good for initial clears of levels), tan girl/tank is "tankier" and slower (all locked behind stat upgrades and her personal challenge completions, so ignore her early game tbh), and pink hair is made for farming (Innate currency drop bonus + challenge requirements are to the fucking moon)
-In the arsenal, the rows matter for item categorization. Base weapons on the top row and passive skills on the bottom row. Which column they're in also matters, because if you can get the weapon to max level and the passive (at all, it doesn't need to be max) in a mission, you can evolve the weapon to a superweapon using a boss chest (It can then be leveled 5 more times for more damage).
-The only exceptions to the previous point is the last 3 weapons and last 1 passive if you scroll all the way to the right. The passive move speed doesn't combine with anything. Instead Bomber A and Bomber B combine to make the super weapon (this means it takes 16 level ups to get the superweapon instead of 8, but it also combines them into 1 item slot, freeing up the other slot for another weapon. Because this allows for a superweapon without an affiliated passive, it allows for you to run up to 6 superweapons, the 5 passives related to the other superweapons, and then have a flex slot for your final passive. Similarly, the last weapon slot is Funnel E. It doesn't combine with anything and has no associated passive. In terms of balance, Funnel E tends to be a halfway point between a base weapon and superweapon, it's stronger than a base weapon by far, but weaker than a superweapon. This does make it a cheap weapon to pick up for shorter runs, as it requires less investment and gives more payoff, but falls off harder in a longer run.
--Some of the weapon combinations I recommend most are:
1. Gatling Turret/Funnel [Machine Gun (Gun Turret/Funnel) + Growth (EXP boost)] - Easily the strongest superweapon in my opinion, and the starting weapon of the pink hair/farming character, the actual base weapon kinda sucks. It's slow, doesn't do much damage, has no AOE, and feels like shit. However, the passive Growth gives you an increase in EXP gain during your run, and faster exp = more and quicker weapons + passives. On top of that, once you've fully maxed out everything, every extra level is turned into more gene points for increasing your characters' stats. After getting the base weapon to max level and evolving it with a boss chest, the Gatling Funnels OBLITERATE the entire screen, basically until minute 25+ on even hard levels. It's quick, does lots of damage, has enough projectiles to make up for no AOE splash, pierces all targets, auto targets, and the range is large enough that it will constantly break purple crystals and kill enemies that aren't even on my screen yet. Without a doubt, a lock in choice for literally every one of my runs.
2. Light Thorn [Defense Ray + Armor] - On the immediate inverse of the first superweapon, the Light Thorn does basically no damage on its own. It'll outperform most base weapons, but you don't pick it for the damage. You pick it because it heals you for every single enemy you kill. The importance of that effect is made even higher by the overall lack of availably sustain in the game. Your alternatives for healing are breaking a purple crystal and getting a leaf, but that's RNG for what drops out of the crystal, playing a character with innate heal (blonde girl or black hair after challenge), or having the Recovery passive. Unfortunately, the recovery passive at max level only heals 1 hp per second, and is unlocked from one of the ice levels in a 20+ minute run, whereas Defense Ray and Armor are both nearly immediate, and heal 1 hp per kill (much quicker than Recovery). The actual base weapon does alright damage for the first 5 minutes, and falls off rather quickly, but is a good immediate pick up for characters with less constant starting damage, like the pink hair girl (who you'll play a lot when farming). Armor is a deceptively good passive as well, taking a flat 1-5 damage off every attack, and most attacks hit in the 5-10 range, so it's not insignificant.
Lightning round weapon recommendations:
1. Sword + Cooldown = Unsheathe (Circle AOE, good uptime, dominates early run, gets outranged by everything else later)
2. Machine Gun + Strength = Slaughter (Best Single Target Damage, 100% uptime, universal damage buff, but requires aiming and will only be good at helping with bosses tbh)
3. Shock Pulse + Samsara = Annihilation (Rotating lasers, decent uptime, fantastic damage, but Samsara buffs enemy quantity, speed, and hp values, so it makes the run harder, but drop more currency. Only really recommend while farming)
4. Missile Support + Treasure = Poison Mist (Poison puddles, always up, fast ticking damage, mostly carried by the currency increase on the passive though, so only really recommend while farming)
5.Bomber A + Bomber B = Mobius (Missile spamming funnel, good uptime, decent damage, carried by giving you a flex passive slot)
6. Mini Black Hole + Magnet = Black Hole (Slow orbs that damage fast, might have a chance to instant kill?, increases pick up range, only really recommend while farming)
Unfortunately, most of the other weapons have some major flaws that stop them from being recommended, or are just narrowly beat by other weapons doing their job better.
2 of the passives attached to said weapons are VERY good however, and are the perfect choices for a flex slot, like if you run Mobius or Funnel E, those being Revival and Lucky Day.
-Revival, as the name suggests, will give 1-2 revives at 50% hp, and acts as a fantastic safety net for a run. Its attached weapon, Beam Spray and its superweapon, Viper, both suck however. Bad damage, bad aoe, relying on rebounds to hit/do more damage, low uptime.
-Lucky Day gives a 10-50% chance for a 5th option to appear when leveling up, making it potentially easier to find the exact weapons or passives that you're trying to pick up or level up in your run. Similar to Revive, its attached weapons, Lightning Blast and Judgement, are both ass as well. They're orbital lasers with basically no AOE, slow tracking only on the target that they start by targeting (if the enemy dies, it doesn't keep moving, it just slows down and stops), alright damage, and no ability to target the same enemy with multiple lasers (for bosses)
Overall, I'd say the game is a decent time sink, has alright mechanics, poorly balance difficulty because of a lack of healing or being able to target specific upgrades to go for, you kinda just have to shuffle through the trash until you find all the stuff you want, while doing it fast enough to not fall behind enemy scaling, and it's very frustrating to restart a run after 9 minutes multiple times in a row because you haven't a single weapon level up enough to be able to kill basic enemies. Will move on to another hentai vampire survivors clone next and maybe do the same in that thread :3