With a few more players discovering this game in recent months, it's time to provide details about Another Mode.
Another Mode is Hard Mode in Heli-Cats.
It is unlocked by beating mission X in Arcade Mode without continuing and with the good ending. This very challenging mode features more aggressive enemies (enemy health remains the same), denser bullet patterns, suicide bullets from popcorn drones... textbook hard mode tweaks.
But the main goal of Another Mode is to reveal and beat the True Last Boss, which requires the same 100% beacon destruction unlock criteria as Arcade Mode's Hidden Last Boss. Defeating the TLB will get you secret Ending E. I can currently 1CC Another Mode by using assists such as Armor Mods. Check the linked posts to learn more about all these tips.
So for an above average player like myself, the most efficient way to achieve the ultimate objective of Top Cat (1CC Another Mode) would probably follow this sequence:
- Learn the elevation system and various shot systems by playing Novice and Arcade Mode while building up credits. You get 1 user credit for every mission clear, with more for a full run, and 1 permanent system credit for every hour of playtime.
- Reach and beat Mission 8 in Arcade Mode either by getting past Mission 8 without continuing OR getting above a cumulative 80% destroy rate with continues.
- Reach and beat Arcade Mode's Mission X to unlock Armor Mods for the Cat that cleared it. You can also unlock Another Mode if you managed to 1CC Arcade Mode here and can skip to 5. Otherwise proceed to the next step.
- Start a proper Arcade Mode run by using Armor Mod user credits to boost your armor mod enabled Cat's armor to a safe amount matching your skill confidence level. For example, using 10 user credits adds +10 armor to the stock 3 for a total of 13 armor. Ensure you have enough for the whole run and you might as well turn on Auto Bomb assist since scores won't count for the leaderboards. You don't need to get all beacons since beating the normal Mission X boss is enough. Unlock Another Mode with the Arcade Mode assisted 1CC.
- Practice some Another Mode rounds to get a feel for it and build up more user and system credits.
- Start a proper Another Mode run by using Armor Mod user credits. I use 30 user credits for +30 armor to ensure entry into Mission 9 and X. You may need more or possibly less.
- Make sure you blow up ALL 18 beacons using the location guide.
- Pray that you have enough Armor Mods left to defeat the True Last Boss for the 1CC. It's scary towards the end because there is no visual indicator of armor above 3 except the green armor bar so you have to mentally count how many hits you've taken from the start. When the armor bars turn back to a normal yellow, you know you only have 3 armor left and the assisted 1CC can possibly fail!