Okay, I spent a little time delving into Vulgus and there are certainly a lot of strange things going on in this game. I'll share what I know and ask about what I don't at the end.

Extra lives - Despite the settings, there are more than two available here. I believe there are a small number based on points, and then there are the ones that involve you getting a 1-up from enemies. My understanding of this so far is that if you see an enemy or group of enemies doing something out of the ordinary (traveling across the top of the screen when its type usually swoops all the way down to the bottom, for example), shoot them all up and you may get a pleasant surprise.

The infamous letters - They do something! Namely, they control the 10K stars that appear during the game. Letters and powerups appear on the ground in the pattern POW, POW, letter, but if you have all the missiles you can already carry then they will all be letters. Between each area with a space background, if you pick up a certain number of letters without dying and before you get to the space background again, a 10K star will replace the next letter. Here are the areas, how many letters you must pick up, and what their sequence is (it's always the same sequence, which leads me to believe they have some other importance as well):

Round 1: 4 - ESDE Round 2: 6 - EESDEE Round 3: 6 - ESSDES Round 4: 5 - ESDEE Round 5: 8 - ESSSDDED Round 6: 8 - EDSDDSEE Round 7: 8 - ESSSDDES Round 8: 8 - EESSDDES Round 9: 8 - SEESSDSE

Once you get past round nine (~if~ you get past round nine!) the game loops to round one and becomes easy once more. It's okay if you fail to pick up one of the letters in the sequence; the same letter will keep appearing until you pick it up, and then the sequence will continue.

At the end of every three rounds (while in the space background), you fight a large enemy in the shape of a sphere, with several smaller spheres surrounding it. Destroying this enemy is usually worth 10K. I have, however, gotten 50K from killing it. So far, each time I've done that I've rammed it, but playing kamikaze doesn't always give you the 50K! So I think there may be a way to get the bonus without necessarily sacrificing a ship. Does anybody have any ideas?

I think that about covers it for now. I know the stars are not easy to get even if you know about them, but between the 5K bonuses for destroying bonus groups of enemies and the 10K for each star you collect, scores can rise at a pretty brisk pace in this game. Good luck and happy shooting!

Cheers, Brian McLean

-- Brian McLean (bmclean84@hotmail.com), October 08, 2000