Greetings! My name is StrikeX114, and I'm a semi-specialist in endurance categories in the Beat Hazard series. I have been playing the series since at latest late 2011, and have accumulated hundreds of hours in these games. Albeit on my dad's account, I hold the current record for a Shadow Ops DLC ship in Beat Hazard 1 for waves completed (but not score), and on this account hold both the 9th placement in Beat Hazard 2's Boss Rush and at present 3rd for Beat Hazard 3's Boss Rush leaderboards. Though I have admittedly impressive scores and leaderboard positions in other categories, Boss Rush is my primary stomping ground despite still not necessarily being *the best* - and that's okay.

The goal of this guide is to arm you with the knowledge you need to shred through bosses both in and out of Boss Rush, with the aim of making you a boss-melting machine. It will go into detail with the things I have had success with, but not necessarily the things I do not - even though I have developed a preferred playstyle, it is likely not the most optimized. This guide is WIP, and will be continuously worked on as time goes forward. However, at the moment, I find it in a complete enough state to release.

Credits are to be given to the following guides for information present there and built upon here, and I recommend checking them out before this guide:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888818274

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2887339793

Note: Some names listed within are not official names but instead are names I have coined as such for ease of reference in lieu of official names.

This section utilizes and builds upon information previously discussed in matrixDecemberween's guide.

At the moment, there exist three primary debuffs:

Death (Red)
EMP (Green)
Cripple (Blue)

These three debuffs show up throughout the game in various weapon classes, but the underlying effects remain the same, with some exceptions. Red particle weaponry results in instant death, Green particle weaponry temporarily disables your firing capabilities, and Blue particle weaponry greatly reduces movement speed capabilities.

As difficulty increases (or wave number, in the case of BR), EMP and Cripple debuffs become increasingly powerful, with coming into contact of a single particle going from a split-second issue to a five-second DPS-neutralizing effect. On the difficulty slider, this transition occurs roughly between 700% to 1000%. Death effects only increase in frequency and number alongside the other particles with these increases - for obvious reasons, it's the deadliest 'debuff' in the game, and you can't become 'more dead' as a result of difficulty increases.

These three debuffs may manifest in a number of ways, which will be broken down below:

Photons - These straight-shot projectiles are the most basic in the game, fired from your most basic of ships up through bosses. Though primarily Red among lower-tier ships, the other debuffs may also be exhibited through these projectiles.

Cluster Photons - Similar to their singular cousins, these munitions travel a short distance after being fired before scattering radially away from a point of detonation, where they then resume standard Photon properties.

Mega-Photons - Much larger and faster than their standard sibling, these only spawn from mini-boss class ships or higher during standard play, but are quite common in Boss Rush. Can only be fired from Motherships.

Photon Sprinklers - Also present on only the Mothership-class Bosses, these fast-firing weapons spray many small EMP or Cripple particles in a wide swath.

Mines - Similar to the Photon Sprinkler, these slow-moving homing projectiles are paper-thin with standard weaponry but supply a credible threat in numbers. May provide either the EMP or Cripple debuff, with Cripple having a small blue haze around the particles as opposed to EMP having no haze. Of the two, EMP Mines are far more common.

From this point forward, weapons do not exclusively follow the RGB debuff scheme, and should be approached accordingly.

Tractor Beams - While sharing the same RGB spectrum as before, tractor beams largely function vastly differently than their debuff counterparts. Red tractor beams have a repulsion effect, while Blue tractor beams have an attraction effect. Green tractor beams share the same properties as the EMP debuff for the duration in which the player is in contact with the beam. The purpose of tractor beams is area denial, either direct in the case of Repel or implied in the cases of Attract and EMP. The range and strength of these debuffs become stronger as difficulty increases, especially noticeable with Attract tractor beams at around 800%-900%. As will be discussed later, only the Attract and Repel tractor beams are present in Boss Rush, with the EMP tractor beam being largely absent.

Missiles - Coming in five variants, coming into contact with a missile results in instant death. Each missile has a slightly different design, allowing them to be rapidly identified with a careful eye.

Non-homing missiles are usually fast-moving and cluster-fired, relying on numbers to overwhelm the player's DPS. Faster than Photons but comparably able to be tracked thanks to their predictable movement, these pose the 'least' threat of all potential weapon spawns in Boss Rush.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/2312100041547586879/D077CD8B42643DCD8334DFB6740CB5EF3CC98FA9/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Homing missiles are slower than their non-homing counterparts but track the player's movement instead. Relentless in their pursuit, they can ambush a unsuspecting player that has briefly let down their guard, especially along the edges of the map.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/2312100041547585610/37AFB099491FB31D799228FFB4E05BA20B5CFBD0/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
Cluster homing missiles are even slower then their homing cousin, but require more fire
power to take down than the traditional homing missile. Their presence in Boss Rush is low, if at all, and typically spawn from 'Y-wing' ships in standard play.

Shielded missiles, while rare, possess the same properties as a standard homing missile while also possessing a frontal, three (?)-segment shield.

Cobra-class missiles are the most dangerous missile class, requiring the most firepower to subdue, homing in on the player, and by virtue of their snake-like movement pattern. As will be discussed later, Cobra-class missiles are among the most important weapons to be potentially fired in Boss Rush.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/2312100041547587751/AE387C3167FF9006ED425CBF9F476C6B8E61DB9A/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Note that all homing projectiles (i.e. missiles and mines) will continue to chase the player *even when off-screen,* so paying attention to what is being fired and adjusting accordingly is critical.

Launch Rails - Exclusive to a few mini-boss class ships and Motherships, these scarcely-found weapons summon smaller ships - 'adds,' if you will - to the battlefield. While not typically dangerous, adds may threaten to overwhelm the player with sheer bullet count but are also destroying with relatively little effort. Spawns are typically limited to the standard 'tiny' ship and standard missile ship, though this may not be true.

Last but certainly not least, we come to the most dangerous adversary the player will face in Boss Rush - the Railgun.

Railguns come in two variants - the standard red beam and the more dangerous purple Rapier beam. Red railguns may come in straight-fire, homing-fire, angle-fire, or oscillating-targeting variants, with the last present in BH1. Rapier beams only exist in straight-fire and homing-fire iterations, with faster lock-on, shorter pre-fire duration, and faster-moving particles. Railguns are often fired in pairs.

The purpose of each Railgun variant is different. Straight-fire beams are designed to force the player to move out of the way into potential projectiles thanks to their more predictable movement patterns. Homing-fire beams are the only Railgun variant with the direct intent of killing the player outright, forcing the player to weave and strafe out of the way of harm's way. Angle-fire Railguns are fired with the intent of locking down the player either inside or outside of their area of influence.

The game features three main types of bosses, which I will 'name' for the sake of clarity here: The Snake, The Lotus, and The Mothership. Each of these ships behave differently, have different weapon combination possibilities, and have different properties, which I will break down below:

The Snake: Easily identifiable in their spawn by the splash text "Incoming Segmented Mass" and their relatively smaller spawn-broadcast, Snakes spawn on the stage fully condensed at one position before moving outwards towards the player. Snakes are also the only Boss class to spawn without shielding. Snakes either aim to chase down the player or to constrict the player's movement. Coming into contact with ANY portion of the Snake will result in death. Snakes are the only Boss class to have a dedicated death animation. Killing a Snake requires the destruction of all segments along the body of the snake, which will trigger the 'fuse' animation before it implodes. The Snake's 'head' portion is the only portion of the Snake that is indestructable, but can be interacted with via primary fire and Dark Beam bursts, which will be covered in the Strategies section. Killing Snake portions renders the Snake's 'spine' visible and partially translucent to standard weapon fire, allowing for bullets to pass through the spine to other vulnerable sections.

The Snake fires weapons from the segments nearest its head first, continuing along each segment towards the Snake's tail. Weapons are discharged from the broadsides of the Snake, often sending stray bullets into the ether outside the screen. Segments that fire seem to all fire from the same relative position on screen as they pass through them.

Snakes spawn in two primary variants - the many-segmented fast-moving 'Adder' variant and the slower, wider 'Anaconda' variant. Each possess the same weapon pool. The Adder Snake poses a greater direct threat by relentlessly pursuing the player, while the Anaconda poses a greater indirect threat by more effectively locking down portions of the map. Take heed when playing with screen shake for certain visual cues, as Anaconda variants are the single greatest producer of screen shake of any enemy in the game, crippling projectile tracking while its segments are being destroyed.

Snakes have the most limited weapon pool of all bosses, making up for it in their ability to lock down either the player or the player's access to vast portions of the screen. The weapons the Snake may have are listed below:

Standard Photons - All variants
Mines - All variants
Non-homing and Homing missiles.

The Lotus: Also known as the Squid or Octopus, these spiraling horrors rapidly spin to the intensity of your music. Coming into contact with a Lotus, if you can manage to do so, will result in your death. The Lotus will spawn with an overshield. Lotuses are the only boss variant that can spawn with the Repel tractor beam, with the intent of keeping you at bay from destroying its segments and effectively locking down a portion of the screen once its segments, but not its core, are destroyed. The Lotus is the only boss variant with which it is unclear on spawn what weapons the boss may possess. Weapon firing patterns will be discussed in the Strategies section. The Lotus has a slightly more expanded pool of weapons to choose from to fire, as listed below:

Standard Photons - All variants
Mines - All variants
All Missile variants excluding Cluster Homing and Shielded

The Mothership: Your bread-and-butter boss variant, the Mothership is a boss archetype that covers a broad swath of different ships that may potentially spawn, which can be clued into based upon total boss tonnage. These variants will be broken down below:

The Porcupines ( < 3,000 Tonnage) - A pair of identical ships, these ships display relatively low tonnage, but are not to be underestimated. Firing the most frequently of any Mothership classes as to lay down a monsoon of bullets, they must be dealt with expediency to ensure survival. The more shielding they possess, the greater threat they pose.

The Standard ( ~3,000 - ~10,000 Tonnage) - A singular ship, these are the most common Mothership spawn to appear.

The Raid Boss ( > 10,000 Tonnage) - Like the Standard, only much, much bigger. Expect these to cover a full third of the screen and have exceptionally large spawn zones.

Motherships spawn with an initial overshield and enter condensed, expanding shortly after entering the playing field. Weapons usually begin firing after this period, but may begin firing before this transition phase ends, especially at higher difficulties/waves. Motherships exist in segmented components, each with telltale pieces that can be used to rapidly identify what they may fire. (May be added at a later point.) Motherships may possess any weapon class and variant, with the possible exception of Cluster Homing missiles and EMP tractor beams.

***The mothership section will be updated and expanded in the future.

Dark Beam: In addition to your primary fire, you have access to the Dark Beam mechanic as of BH3. This weapon shrinks your ship's size and has the ability to melt through overshields and shields, slow and destroy projectiles, and stop Railgun weaponry. Overusing the Dark Beam overheats your ship, sending it into temporary cooldown, disabling all weapons and leaving you vulnerable. The strength and duration of Dark Beam is tied to each individual ship. On mouse and keyboard, your ship can be condensed but not actively firing if M2 is held but not M1. This can be useful for temporarily minimizing your ship to avoid projectiles.

Bullet Ricochet: A chance-based addition to BH3, this ship-dependent statistic offers the ability to increase your DPS considerably and provide a small amount of area of effect damage where none may otherwise exist. Though this requires further testing, Dark Beam projectiles do not seem to check Richochet chance and ignore this feature.

Overshield: A feature exclusive to some bosses, Overshield is exclusively present as certain boss classes spawn. Overshield covers the entire spawn zone of the boss, and is non-lethal to be in contact with. It features a minor respulsion effect away from the center of the Overshield when directly interacted with, and can only be broken by a Dark Beam burst. Once broken, Overshield will shrink into the boss before fading away. Once broken, Overshield cannot be regained.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/2312100041546761894/34C4C700FB00075BC41D4FE0040F1A33E8B5CCCA/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
Example of Overshield interactions with the player

Screen-wipes: Something you may have noticed during casual play is that asteroids are shattered whenever a boss enters the screen. What you may have not directly realized is that *all* projectiles are wiped from the screen, photons, missiles, and Rapier beams alike. Additionally, projectiles are temporarily, if briefly, prohibited from further spawning for a short time after a boss spawns. Use this window wisely.

Perk Weapon and Multiplier Drops Timer: As is discussed in Ryles' guide, there exists a hidden Drop Queue within which score multipliers and Perk Weapon drops are stored. In short, the longer one does not fire, the more bonuses are stored in the next projectiles to be destroyed. However, there *also* seems to exist a hidden timer that controls not only when Perk Weapons spawn, but also Multiplier Drops. The exact times remain unclear, but in essence, for BH3, *all bonus drops are timer-based, not RNG.* This timer determines the minimum amount of time between when bonuses can drop, and once this timer is exhausted, the drop class is able to spawn one more. Think of this system as storing each instance of a bonus in coming projectiles, with additional bonuses being stored as the timer resets. For example, the +5 and +10 projectiles seem to always spawn at the same time when projectiles are being continuously destroyed, and so too will maximum cooldown Reflect Shield and Cluster Bomb always spawn synchronously. More research will need to be performed to determine the specifics of this mechanic, which may change as the game moves out of Early Access.

PW&MDT Addendum - Blast Zone: Attempting to store bonuses fails when unguided projectiles with the capability of dropping bonuses (read also 'Unguided Missiles') are destroyed by entering the 'blast zone,' or the point in which certain projectiles not able to screen-wrap are destroyed for exiting the map. Bonuses will appear in the opposite position on the map from which the projectiles were destroyed.

Perk Weapon Limits: Though this will not impact many of the more casual Boss Rush players, those in pursuit of the record must keep in mind that Perk Weapons are a finite resource. Though I need to commit further testing to this to find the exact time after which they no longer spawn, don't expect Perk Weapons to drop beyond a period of approximately 15-20 minutes.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading this! I plan to add more in the future to make this more comprehensive, but as of the moment I am content with releasing this.

v0.1 - Release

• Weapons 101 Content ~95% Complete
  
• Bosses 101 Content Partially Complete, WIP on Motherships
  
• Mechanics Section Content Complete for now
  
• To add: Syntax, Photos, Videos, Strategies and Preparation sections

v.01a

• Testing a GIF File
  v.01b
  
• Added some missile images