Wild Guns Reloaded: Annie, No-Miss, Hard
Watch my full run here. This run was done on the Steam version of the game with a PS4 controller.
I spent a lot longer grinding out this run than I thought I would. Not only did I want the ‘No-Miss’ (which means no hits taken), but getting a score over four million. A score of 4,051,960 was enough to land me at spot 22 on the ‘Annie-Hard’ Steam leader board, at least at the time of recording this run. I’ll spend the rest of this blog dumping notes and strategies that helped me. I also picked up a lot of great info and strategies from iconoclast and ArcTheLadder runs.
Before I get into stage specific notes/strategies, I want to touch on some general game play mechanics that I think are worth noting.
Chaining
This game has a chaining system that varies slightly with each character. For Annie, the chain multiplier starts after three enemies are killed while remaining stationary and holding down fire. The multiplier maxes out at X5 and will drop if you stop firing, move, jump, bomb, melee, or get hit. This is essentially the main crux of scoring: holding your position while managing enemies and oncoming attacks. Another important note, the Vulcan gun does not contribute to chaining and will break your chain if activated.
Extends (Lives)
This game is fairly generous with extends and awards one every 100,000 points. The counter at the bottom will display a max number of ‘9’ but you can accumulate past that. So even though you don’t see the number increasing past 9, just note that it is in the background. Racking up extends contributes a large chunk when tallying up the final score at the end. Each extra extend in the bank is an additional 100k.
Bullet Cancelling
You can lasso or shoot bullets to cancel them. This also helps build you’re Vulcan gun meter. Using this mechanic to build meter is important at a few key spots in the run, so it’s good to practice it. Also, Annie does have a few invincibility frames when firing off a lasso. This saved me multiple times.
Money Bags
Money bags can appear while killing enemies or hidden in certain destructible objects in a stage. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what makes a money bag appear after killing an enemy, but I do think it has to do with a certain number of enemies killed while chaining…maybe? If you watch the run you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, when destroying a money bag bills will fly everywhere at random. Shooting bills nets you 1000 points each. A great strategy you’ll see me do is bounce a money bag then bomb it as it re-enters the screen. This is a clean way to wipe the screen to give you time to scoop up bills for points. It is also possible to lasso a money bag to freeze it midair, although I found the timing pretty difficult.
Rank
Otherwise known as “dynamic difficulty”, Rank is a game’s way of adapting to how good or bad you’re playing. This game has it’s own version of Rank and will start to become apparent the better you get. Enemy bullet speeds will increase and additional enemy spawns will appear in certain sections. There are probably other factors affected by Rank increase but I’m not exactly sure. Racking up score and not dying will raise your Rank while taking a hit will drop it down some. Maintaining a high Rank is beneficial for score, as it is tallied at the end with your total score.
Stage 1: Carson City
I immediately focus on building my chain when the stage opens, as it sets up a money bag bomb at a time when a bunch of enemies are on screen. There is a consistent bomb in the small water container to the top left, and a “money bag” in the big water container to the top right. I like to wait till the mid boss is on screen to hit these, it’s easier to focus on shooting the money with less enemies to deal with. A safe spot for the mid boss is the edge of the screen with the exception of his aimed attack that he does after jumping. I also like to wait for a weapon drop before killing the mid boss, it helps to take a weapon into the next area if you can. Pray for no laser. I hate the laser :(.
Stage 1: Area 2
I don’t prioritize chaining too much in this section, however I do make an effort to hit each money bag located in the planters. This mid boss can be a pain in the ass if you aren’t too good with the lasso. I usually shoot him a bit first to put him in the crawl state, then when he stands up to shoot I wait till just after he fires to throw the lasso. That way when he comes out of lasso stun you aren’t hit by a cheap shot. His aimed shots are quick.
Stage 1: Boss
I try to lasso this boss when I can to squeeze in some extra shots, but you have to be careful lassoing mid attack animation. Lassoing when he is firing shoulder rockets or his machine guns can lead into some tricky dodging.
Stage 2: Gold Mine
Again, the edges of the screen are safe zones here (mostly). I prioritize the background enemies running down on to the bridge, as they will hit you with aimed shots even at the edge of the screen. Playing the edges is more of a survival strategy rather than scoring, although I do attempt to get some chains going to hit a X5 on the airships. This section is also great practice in understanding how big your hit-box is relative to enemy attacks. If you check the screenshot above, you’ll see how close the TNT blast is to Annie. The more you play the more you’ll understand how risky you can be with some attacks. It’s like driving a new car and getting used to the size when trying to park, after a while you hardly think about it.
Stage 2: Area 2
The mine cart enemies that roll in drop gems worth 5k each, so they are good to prioritize for score. It’s also good to take them out before their TNT throws start to limit your spacing options.
As for the mid boss, chaining is actually possible here. Standing in the middle is relatively safe, as moving too far to one side can result in one of the turrets using a fast aimed shot which can break your chain (forcing the dodge). I managed to kill the mid boss with a X4 chain by taking out the turrets as they spawn in.
Stage 2: Boss
There is a safe spot in this fight I take advantage of to avoid his lasso attack. Zoom in on the screenshot and you can see Annie is just to the left of a particular piece of gold on the ground. It takes a little practice to get the positioning right, but allows you to avoid having to dodge the lassos and can maintain fire. Rest of the fight isn’t too bad.
Stage 3: Armored Train
This stage was the first big hurdle for me getting the no-miss. I try to balance chaining where I can but playing it safe to not get hit. There isn’t a whole lot to say about the main portion of this stage outside of pure practice, but I do have a few notes. If you check the screenshot above you’ll see me shooting the center point on these cannons. I prioritize them first in this section, as the lasso enemies tend to stand there idle for long enough to take out the cannons. Maintaining fire on the center point blocks their incoming shots. A few points on the train section have you fighting a train car with multiple types of mounted guns (like a missile launcher thing, different from the machine gun cannons above). You can save some time by positioning the crosshair between two of the launcher guns on the train car to damage both at the same time. If you watch my run you’ll see what I mean.
Stage 3: Boss
This boss killed multiple no-miss attempts for me and can be tough to manage when first starting out. I usually try to play it safe by taking out the horseback enemies in the background when they are on screen. If the boss is in between attacks I’ll go for a lasso to slow him down. Big pro tip, you can melee him when he jumps to the foreground (after dropping TNT on the ground) if you happen the be on the side where he lands. Patience is the name of the game here.
Stage 4: Underground
This stage can be a lot to manage if you haven’t memorized the enemy appearance order. First off, look at the screenshot above. Melee enemies will spawn in the foreground a few times in this section (one spawn might be dependent on Rank it seems like). Make sure to memorize and keep an eye out for when they walk into view out of shadow. For the mid-boss at the end of this section I like to lasso each zombie one by one and finish them off. With Annie’s normal gun, you can just barely finish them off in time before they get back up if you hold fire when they get knocked down. Eventually, more than one will stagger on screen. Memorizing what side of the screen each one will enter on makes this section much easier. I got unlucky here with a pea shooter weapon drop :(.
Stage 4: Area 2
This next section will give you a good idea for how high your Rank is if you start to see extra enemy spawns (lava thrower guys). Hugging the edges of the screen can also be a safe spot here as in most areas. At this point in the run I’m prioritizing survival more at the expense of scoring. The lava throwing enemies tend to catch me off guard while I’m trying to deal with the snake enemies that pop out from the sides. The mid boss is another repeat of the blue suit guy from Stage 1, except more challenging to hit because he is partially out of sight. There will be times when you lose sight of him behind the shadow, however if you look close enough his feet are still exposed. This is a good visual cue for aiming a lasso shot.
Stage 4: Boss
Fighting this boss if fun and fairly straight forward. There is a safe spot for his opening lightning attack if you position yourself under his head, then side step with it as he moves. After taking out the helmet, I go for the chest piece first then head. The rest of the fight will be dodging side to side as he throws punches/lasers. His punch will naturally guide you out of the way of the laser and is consistent each time. I have noticed one variation of this attack that throws two punches at the same time, but I think this is also dependent on a high Rank. I didn’t get that attack in this run though.
Stage 5: Airship
I personally think this is the hardest stage in the game for a no-miss run. It ended many of my attempts and thus spawned some specific strategies that can be difficult to setup. Essentially, the goal is to build up Vulcan gun meter off the mini airships slowly as the section progresses. I don’t worry about chaining much at all here and I try prioritize the bicycle enemies that throw TNT. The TNT can throw off your spacing when trying to farm bullets for meter. Towards the end of the section before the mid-boss, multiple mini-airships start to fly in at once and stack up. This is when I farm the last few bullets to trigger the Vulcan gun to help safely manage everything on screen. This usually takes me to the end of the section or close to it.
Stage 5: Mid-Boss
This mid-boss deserves it’s own section due to the specific strategy involved to setup up the main boss fight that follows. The goal with this boss is similar to the section before. Stay on the left edge of the screen and use the lasso to farm bullets to build Vulcan meter. This process takes time and has a particular rhythm to it. The ship sways left, turrets fire, three enemies spawn, ship sways right, turrets fire, repeat. Initially I spend time shooting the engine when the ship sways right and weaken down to flashing red. After that I repeat the farming process until my meter is just barely under full. Then I finish off the ship to end the fight. Another big pro tip, avoid weapon drops during this farming process as getting a pea shooter here can throw everything off. It’s not worth it and I’ve lost runs from it.
Stage 5: Boss
This boss can be trivial or a huge pain in the ass depending on how you go about it. The trick to the first part of the boss is to get him to drift to each side and expose weak spots on each wing. The problem is, as you jump to one side you’ll need to get your crosshair over to hit the wing. This can often result in hitting the red spinning orbs in the center which automatically fire back at you erratically. To avoid this, buffer a lasso throw to move the crosshair over while remaining stationary. I like to focus the left wing immediately until the side-wing turrets start to fire. At this point I make a decision to hit a few bullets to trigger the Vulcan gun I built up on the previous mid-boss. Use the Vulcan to take out each wing safely (remember, Annie is invulnerable during this state). After each wing is destroyed the center becomes the weak spot. I use any remaining Vulcan here and the rest of the fight becomes about dodging the center spray attack in between firing. I don’t worry about the little black orbs as the boss will usually die before they start firing. I recommend watching the video for this fight and practicing this stage repeatedly. Trying to freestyle this fight is hard.
Stage 6: Final Fight
Compared to Stage 5, the final stage isn’t too bad honestly. The boss is the trickiest part. For this opening section I focus one of the robots first to take him out, then let the second one linger long enough for a weapon drop to appear. Then I pray it’s not a pea shooter or laser. I got laser :/. Either way, I like taking a weapon into the next section.
Stage 6: Area 2
Don’t get greedy here. I got ballsy and played the center but I would say hug the edges if you want to be safe. I managed to get a few chains going despite being thrown off my position a couple times. I also got lucky with weapon drops thankfully. Another blue suit guy for the mid-boss but he’s not too tough at this point.
Stage 6: Area 3
This section does have a bit of strategy. I want to have at least one bomb going into this section (preferably more going into the boss fight). At one point multiple lines of tank enemies will roll in and start to shut down your spacing with continuous fire. I found firing off a bomb right when the lines start to overlap to be an effective way to clear them out. I ended up getting a bomb drop and a money bag off this. The mid-boss at the end of this section can be used to farm Vulcan meter, which can make the final boss easier. I mess it up in this run by accidentally triggering too early. The trick is to stay still when the gun fires its circle around Annie, then maintain fire on the gun itself. After filling the gauge enough, only fire when it stops shooting to avoid triggering Vulcan too early like I did. I don’t worry about the adds too much as they sort of avoid you for the first few attacks.
Stage 6: Final Boss
I lost a few runs to this guy because of wonky hit-boxes. He has this attack where he fires a blast into the air that comes down on you a second later. The hit-box on this attack is weird and times I thought I was clear I got hit. Now I either over compensate to the side to avoid or fire off a bomb. The hit-box doesn’t seem to behave like a TNT blast and is maybe a little wider? Anyway, again don’t get greedy here. It’s easy to get caught during a double jump dodge by his rapid aimed attacks. I unload bombs if I have them to try and finish the fight fast, at this point I’m only concerned about survival. This will take practice. There were a few times here I probably should have taken damage but got saved by invincibility frames from melee or lasso. I managed to get the clear though!
Final Result: No-Miss | 4,051,960 pts.
I finished this run with 19 extra lives in the bank which contributed a ton to my score. Not only did I want the no-miss, but to also break four million points. This game is a ton of fun and I can see myself coming back to it in the future to improve my score. For now though, I’m happy with this run. This took me about a week to get with playing an hour or two a night.
