Neptunia Shooter Guide – How To Play

neptunia shooter guide

Neptunia Shooter has released, and finally we got that Pixel Art style Neptunia game every single Neptunia ending has left us wanting! It’s currently only on Steam for $5 ($4 on sale), and it’s an adorable easy-to-get-into shmup! As always, feel free to ask questions or submit any missing information in the Comments below, or just let everyone know what you think of the game!

I made this quick little guide since, well, I make all sorts of Hyperdimension Neptunia guides, and this one’s slightly confusing to start into due to how simple it is…and the main menu being Japanese for some reason. The game just came out so expect me to tidy this up and add info as I play.

Neptunia Shooter Game Info

Title: Neptunia Shooter / ネプシューター
Platform: PC Steam
Language: Japanese/English
Release date: 2019-05-22
Developer: Idea Factory International
Price: $5
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up / STG

Updates

2019-05-23: Guide released. Added video of boss KO’s.

2019-05-22: Game released

Quickstart Guide

Is the main menu seriously Japanese?

This is a bug as of the latest update, should be fixed soon. The items are Start, High Scores, and Edit Controls respectively.

What is it?

Neptunia Shooter is a tiny (it’s 24MB in size!) little Shoot ‘Em Up style side game in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. It’s a pretty straight-forward game as a low-price side game, and thus doesn’t presently have any alternate modes or unlocks; just one main game mode almost entirely based on skill.

How do I choose characters?

Use L/R (controller) or Z/C (PC) to swap characters. You only unlock characters after beating them in a playthrough, they aren’t permanently unlocked, or selectable from the start.

Where’s the close button?

There isn’t one, gotta use the red X or Alt F4. CH has never been the best at PC UX.

Where’s my Hitbox?

The eyes of the character are roughly the hitbox. The body and hair are safe to graze with.

Tap Tap I’ve literally never played a shmup before, I am going to die

That’s okay! Shmups are a much-derided and misunderstood but very classic and rewarding genre. You’ll learn primarily by doing and developing muscle-memory, and your skills will transfer well to other games in the genre!

Don’t worry about losing, it’s expected and as long as you get a little better each time that’s what’s supposed to happen. Give enemies a wide berth, get familiar with your hitbox (that’s the spot where you take damage from—it’s much smaller than your character’s graphics!). Shmups are actually a very calming game and when you really get into them you’ll find them very relaxing and you won’t worry nearly as much about messing up. Just relax, have fun, and realize you’ll get better in time rather than finding a magical button that fixes everything!

How do I get the best score?

There are no grazing  so mostly it’s simply about defeating as many enemies as possible. You can boss-milk on certain bosses that spawn enemies (Noire).

Are there replays?

Yes! Press Confirm on any high score to watch a full replay!

Can I go Fullscreen?

Yes, double click the window and it’s kinda fullscreen.

Any Cheat Codes?

Couldn’t find any. Leave a comment if you find one!

Controls

  • L/R
    • Swap characters
  • B
    • Shoot/Confirm
  • A
    • Cancel
  • Start
    • Pause
  • Double-click the title bar
    • Starts/ends fullscreen*

Characters

Note: Press L/R (Controller) to switch characters after unlocking one. After purifying a boss, you unlock that character for use during the playthrough.

Neptune
Neptune in Neptunia Shooter

Plain ol’ straightshot with your classic D-clips. Easy to use and simple.

Compa
Compa in Neptunia Shooter

Drop Dr. Mario nonspecific pills on your enemies. Does more damage than Neptune’s shots to compensate for the difficult firing pattern.

Boss

Video

Stay calm and fly even with her, and aim for wide gaps in the Dr. Mario avalanche. She shouldn’t be too hard.

IF

Cool Chuunibyou never look at explosions…or oncoming enemies. Like Neptune, but shoots backwards. Useful since you can’t turn around.

Boss

Video

To defeat Iffy, try to shoot at her while matching her speed as Neptune when she’s going up and down, and Compa when she’s going left/right at the bottom of the screen. If you do it right, you can hit her almost constantly and end the battle faster and safer.

Noire

Noire throws Balloons upward at random angles. Only a few balloons can be on screen at once, so you can drastically increase the damage she does by staying (dangerously) close under a target. Again her shots deal more damage than Neptune/IF.

Boss

Video (Includes boss milking)

Beat the dogoos she fires to reduce the amount of bullets on screen and gain points (Probably crucial for “boss milking” to get more points than otherwise possible).

Her movement pattern is a bit like Iffy’s, and it’s critical to use Iffy to hit her when she’s behind you. Pop her balloons to keep her at the lowest level and easy to hit.

Vert

Fittingly for the hardcore gamer, Vert has the most skill required for her use. Vert uses Kinestra Slash more or less, dashing forward and remaining invincible during the dash to deal extremely high damage. The downsides are the charge time (worth it, but takes skill to get used to) and you need to remember you’re not totally invincible; don’t warp back into a hit!

Boss

Video (Includes boss milking)

Blanc

Blanc fires Mahjong pieces in a circular shield pattern around herself. The opposite of Vert as you’d might expect, she excels when surrounded. The shields block bullets, making her ideal to hold off some of the final boss’s patterns.

Boss

Video (Includes boss milking)

Blanc is mostly here to make sure you’ve learned to switch directional attacks. Dodge the flappy bird platforms and just keep firing in her direction. Haven’t found a super quick way to take her down yet.

Arfoire

Boss only.

Boss

Video (includes boss milking)

Neptunia Shooter Achievements

All the achievements are self-explanatory and purely skill based. You’ll just have to practice and watch replays if you like to see how people play.

  • Clear Stage 1
  • Clear stage 2
  • Clear stage 3
  • Clear Stage 4
  • Clear Stage 5
  • Clear All Stages
  • Clear with 5 Damage
  • Clear with 3 Damage
  • Clear with 1 Damage
  • Clear with no damage
    • For your sanity, only the brave and good at shmups should really brave this, or most of the low-damage achievements. The rest are mostly possible.
  • Get 100,000 Points
  • Get 200,00 Points
  • Get 300,000 Points
    • This will probably require at least some boss-milking

Videos

Let’s Play Stream

You can see me play the game at a moderate skill level here. Not quite to the final boss yet though.

Neptunia Shooter | My favorite series & genre finally together!
Day 1 High Score Replay
Neptunia Shooter | Day 1 High Score Run: 397,640 By Mehk
Support SirTapTap and these guides and articles on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Avatar for SerTapTap

Author: SerTapTap

Gaming guide writer, content creator, streamer, UX designer, web developer, and a bunch of other stuff.

Whatcha Think?