If your average destruction rate for the first five levels is below 90, you'll go through a "penalty" stage before continuing with level six. Getting only 47% in 1-1 is actually advisable from a scoring perspective--you can make up the lost points and get about 20,000 extra in the penalty area.
A big part of my score comes from checkpoint milking in the latter halves of 1-7 and 2-8. The game doesn't reward you for finishing without dying, so I sacrifice all of my lives to score as much as possible.
@KaysAnimus In the first level, I ignore several enemies and the boss in order to reach the penalty stage later on. The suicides in 1-7 and 2-8 help boost my score.
saucykobold 1 month ago
Lemme guess.. This playstyle I'm seeing ensures you play the penalty area, eh?
KaysAnimus 1 month ago