Orion
Orion's Grand Stage, if you have the guts, come and join.
Author: 美竹兰
Proofreading: Flyingfish812
Introduction
Orion can be considered a rather special presence among the total of 100 ships, because its only offense means is its main weapon, and the two Apexes do not provide any new forms of attack. Additionally, its main weapon is perfect homing, and because of the fact that it’s an AP ship, it doesn't require critical hits or core hits (yes, this is why I don't grind Heechi). These characteristics close the time gaps in Orion solos. Therefore, this is the most hopeful sBoB for newcomers. Although there are still some techniques involved, in my opinion, when it comes to soloing with Orion, grinding is more important than skill, so you may want to be mentally prepared to sacrifice 5-8 hours of your time.
I will explain it in several aspects.
Main Weapon
When fully upgraded, Orion’s main weapon fires once every 2 seconds, releasing 16 shots each time, with each shot dealing approximately 3.125 damage (tested by myself), totaling 50. Therefore, one round of the main weapon is only able to take down 8 Sparrows instead of 12. Another fact is that each shot is fired from the center of the ship at a random angle, with a certain sequence. Initially, each shot flies for a period without homing but with damaging capabilities. After a while, it turns towards a target and strikes (it’s said to target the invader with the smallest aiming turn angle, but personally, I don't feel it's entirely accurate; however, this is not important). If the target is destroyed during flight, it will redirect towards another target. In theory, when attacking, if the invaders' total health is just about right, there shouldn’t be any leftover low-HP invaders. However, in practice, this often occurs, especially in the first two acts. For example, situations like 8 Sparrows / 4 Sparrows + 1 Raven / 2 Ravens should theoretically unfold as follows:
But such incidents often occur, and once they happen, you have to restart. In fact, managing it three times in a row is not easy. In 1-4, despite a shot flew back, it's still to no avail.
My observation is that the overlap of two invaders causes one of them to receive excessive damage. This makes a theoretically sufficient amount of damage unable to finish off a wave.
There are several ways to reduce the chance of it happening. According to my experiments, for 4 Sparrows + 1 Raven, the clear rate at 60 FPS is approximately 70%, while at 120 FPS, it's around 90%. This is probably because the higher the FPS, the more accurate the shots are at identifying subtle differences in hitboxes. This leads to another method to circumvent this problem, which is to activate TP shortly after firing the main weapon to slow down the game by about 10 times. This almost always works. I say "almost" because I have never experienced a failure with this method, even at 60 fps.
However, this method has two drawbacks: first, it prolongs the actual time of a game session; second, it requires unlocking the TP.
Teleport
TP is an issue worth discussing. Originally, it's a survival skill, yet it's not conducive to solo speed-running. Because Orion's main weapon is non-intelligent fire control, it fires whenever the screen is touched, regardless of the presence of invaders. This leads to a round of main shots being wasted during act transitions because releasing the touch charges TP automatically, affecting rhythm control. Therefore, generally speaking, Orion with TP still locked has an advantage in speed-running. Obviously, without TP, you will have to dodge better.
Speed Up
It is somewhat true that if you want to speedrun Orion, you should consider removing its TP. This can be achieved by starting a new account and upgrading Orion from scratch, but only the main weapon and the Aura, without unlocking the Zen. In fact, if you wish, you don't even have to upgrade the Aura because ultimately, PD only helps with survivability. If you're adept at dodging in bullet hells like some other players, then PD is redundant for you.
Let's briefly discuss how to speedrun after removing TP. Due to the perfectly homing nature of the main weapon, missing is almost impossible, so the timing of the release of the main weapon is crucial. Generally, during act transitions (such as just before wave X-1 starts), you can tap the screen to release main shots when the subtitle "Act X" is about to fly off the screen. These shots should return just in time to hit the invaders, saving about half a second.
You may have noticed that without considering the TP slowdown, the timing of the release of the main weapon is entirely up to you. The biggest advantage is that you no longer have to worry about wasting time due to the main shots flying off and not returning. However, the limiting factor is obvious: basically, no player will ever realize that one might want to speedrun with Orion one day, so no one will keep the TP locked.
Therefore, in order to speed up further in Orion solos, the three aspects that I’m about to mention are also very important.
Main Pre-firing
As mentioned earlier, even with TP unlocked, you are still able to control the main weapon, as TP can be charged at the beginning of each act or before waves with frontline Vultures. Simply put, you should fire the first round of main shots as early as possible, so the homing mechanic can be triggered as soon as the invaders arrive, saving some time. However, the issue with TP is that it can interfere when setting up pre-fires in waves other than 1-1. In contrast, without TP, you only have to time the arrival of different invaders. For example, if the next wave features only Sparrows, since they will be in position relatively quickly, you can set up the pre-fire earlier. However, for waves with frontline Vultures, since they will take longer to get into position, you may want to pre-fire later. Rocs are a bit troublesome because they move into position very slowly, making it difficult to time the pre-fire accurately.
Melee the Last Invader
Meleeing is a sensible idea because doing so allows you to advance to the next wave earlier, or even finish the run sooner. Although it may only save 0.2 seconds at a time, sometimes that 0.2 seconds makes all the difference.
Main Reserving
This technique is useful in the first three acts if the invader configurations are rather straightforward, and is crucial to speed-running. The principle is that by annihilating an invader at the exact moment the main shots are released, although other main shots have already been fired, they are still able to return in time at the beginning of the next wave. This effectively spreads one round of main shots into two waves for use, maximizing the efficiency of damage output.
The key is to melee the last invader in a wave. This will kill it immediately, allowing the next wave of invaders to arrive quickly. Consequently, when they are in position, the main shots from the previous wave are still able to home in on them. This may potentially save a round of main shots (2 seconds) for the next wave, a gap that cannot be compensated for by any routing improvements. For example, in this scenario, where three rounds of main shots are required to kill the Eagle in the next wave, one round is saved.
First, you need to determine whether it is possible to save a round of main shots between two waves. For example, if the total health of two waves combined is 80, then four rounds of main shots are required inevitably, hence it's impossible to save a round. If the total health of each wave is approximately 60, then, saving a round of main shots is very likely. However, there's an exception: if you managed to save some main shots in the first wave, although not enough to kill the second wave of invaders, it can increase the number of saved main shots for the second wave, potentially allowing you to save a round for the subsequent wave. Therefore, it's advisable to devise a strategy before grinding to ensure that no opportunities are missed.
This technique is useless if the next wave features a frontline Vulture. Since Vultures arrive slowly, even if you managed to save a couple of main shots in the previous wave, they will have disappeared once the Vulture is in position.
So, the next question is how to leave only one invader alive when the wave is about to end. Here’s a simple example, if there are two Herons in a wave, firing main shots from the lower half of the screen will most likely result in them being killed simultaneously. However, if you go up close and melee one of the Herons with the second round of main shots, and the other one with the third round, a few main shots can then be carried over to the next wave. In general, meleeing is always advantageous. Here are some examples:
Start by meleeing and killing two Ravens,
In the upper half of the screen, horizontally spread out the main shots, and pray that it kills all four Sparrows in one round (low success rate, much grinding needed).
Shout "EL bless me" out loud and pray that it kills two Ravens just (almost zero success rate, not recommended unless absolutely necessary).
In conclusion, Orion solo sBoB is the one that depends least on techniques. The strategy is the "1" and determination is the string of "0"s that follow. The size of the number depends on how long you can grind.
Videos
Finally, we present a video for you to learn from, it illustrates the above strategies and details.