Super Hydorah guide - How to straighten up and fly right
Super Hydorah is an old-school shooter in almost every way imaginable. This means that it can be quite tough and unforgiving at times. If you find yourself struggling in the game, feel free to try out some of these tips to help you have a better time with it.
Don't be afraid of Easy Mode
Upon learning that Super Hydorah has an Easy Mode, you might reflexively avoid it and go with the game's Normal Mode, but this is most likely a mistake. Unless you are a seasoned shooter player or you've already been through Super Hydorah once, Easy Mode is the way to go.
Easy Mode grants you a rechargable shield, which can allow you to get further into levels more easily. You may not rack up quite as much score, but going through Super Hydorah on an easier difficulty can definitely help prepare you for subsequent runs on Normal Mode.
High tail it to Dunarys
Many of Super Hydorah's levels end by granting you some kind of new weapon to equip to your ship, and there's no weapon that's quite as useful as the Scorts. Scorts are like little escort ships that fly alongside you and shoot whenever your ship does.
The quickest way to get Scorts is by going to Dunarys, a kind of desert planet, which is located on the bottom of the game's level select, just before the first branching paths reunite. If you get these before taking on any other of Super Hydorah's other levels, you should have a much easier time through the game. If you try this strategy and decide you really like the Scorts, there's even better news for you. There's another level later in Super Hydorah called Charybdis, which can grants you double Scorts if you clear it.
Scort shield
Scorts are so powerful in Super Hydorah, but not just because they can add some extra firepower to your arsenal. If used carefully, they can also act as shields and even as a melee weapon of sorts in the game.
When flying with Scorts, the little ships surrounding yours move and shift as you do, and if you take advantage of this to position your ships in front of projectiles or objects, they will take the hit for you and cause you no harm. On top of this, you can also fly in close to enemies with your Scorts, and as long as your ships are in contact with an enemy, it will deal a constant stream of damage to it. This can be extremely useful for taking out enemies in odd positions or trying to blast down a boss's life bar quickly.
Know when not to fire
By default, your ship in Super Hydorah fires whenever you are touching the screen to move your ship around. Although there are many cases where you want to be continuously firing, there are specific places where you definitely want to put a second finger on the screen to stop firing a stream of bullets.
The second level of Super Hydorah, for example, is a liberation mission for the Cyclades system and as such there are civilian structures that–if hit–will actually subtract from your high score. Additionally, the aforementioned Dunarys mission has a section full of enemies that cannot be killed, though they do become agitated if you shoot them, so you'll want to hold your fire there as well.