1 Four kinds of item, four different jobs
The store lists hundreds of unique items in four families: guns, melee weapons, bombs and accessories. Treating them as one pile of upgrades is the fastest way to end up carrying a set that does not work together.
| Family | What it is really for |
|---|---|
| Guns | Your default answer. Pick for range and rate, not peak damage |
| Melee | Close quarters and ammunition independence |
| Bombs | Area damage, and breaking things the guns cannot |
| Accessories | The passive layer. Usually the most underrated slot |
Bombs deserve particular attention in a game with destructible environments and breakable walls. Something categorised as a weapon may in practice be an exploration tool, which is a common pattern in this genre and easy to miss.
2 Searching a destructible world efficiently
If secrets hide behind breakable walls, then in principle every surface is a candidate. Testing all of them would take longer than the game itself, so the useful skill is knowing where to bother.
Three places reward a check far more often than average: dead ends that were long enough to feel like corridors, ledges that exist with nothing on them, and rooms whose shape is not symmetrical for no visible reason. Level designers build those deliberately, and hand crafted pixel art means every room was placed by a person.
Ignore open combat arenas. Secrets tend not to sit where you are busy.
3 What the mechs are actually for
A variety of mechs can be taken control of, each with its own array of attacks and abilities. In a Metroidvania, a vehicle with a different move set is rarely just a power fantasy.
Ask what a mech can reach that you cannot. Different attacks usually mean different destruction, and different destruction means different routes. A section that felt like a set piece may also be the only place a particular wall can be broken.
If a mech is available in a region you can revisit, that region is worth re examining while you are in it.
4 When to go back rather than forward
Backtracking in this structure is not lost time, but it can be badly timed. The trigger worth watching for is acquiring an ability, not running out of ideas.
This also keeps money flowing, since old regions reopened with new tools usually contain items you could not previously collect.
5 Alternate endings change how you play
Alternate endings are a listed feature. The store does not say what determines them, so this section is about how to hold that uncertainty rather than about a route to a specific ending.
The practical consequence is modest but real: a first run that explores thoroughly is more likely to meet whatever the conditions are than one that drives straight at the objective. In games of this shape the requirements are usually tied to completeness or to choices, and both reward the same behaviour.
With 27 achievements and a 300 MB install, a second run is a small commitment. Play the first one the way you want to play it, and treat the ending you reach as information about what the game was measuring.
Read the four item families as four jobs rather than one upgrade pile, and remember that bombs may function as exploration tools in a destructible world. Search dead ends, empty ledges and asymmetrical rooms rather than every surface. Ask what each mech can reach that you cannot, and go back to noted obstacles immediately after gaining an ability, while you still remember why they mattered.
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