They are primitive but have an incredibly strong life-force and will pursue relentlessly any life form that invades their living space. Cell - Huge amoeba-like organisms from the unknown reaches of space.
Tentacle - Giant living tentacle-like antennae floating through space! If they sense the presence of another living being, they shoot out deadly poison cap- sules. Inverted Volcano - Like Stage 1, this is an enemy planetoid advance base, but this time up and down have become reversed. The Xaerous forces have utilized these as bases for their deadly ion guns. They were created by an unknown race eons ago in the image of the patron spirits of the galaxy. Moai - The Moai Are great strange heads that resemble the old stone statues of Easter Islan on Earth. Stonehenge - This is an artificially constructed asteroid belt created as a galactic fighter base. It has been transformed into an inferno-like advance base for the alien Xaerous. But now, under the attack of the Xaerous space fortress.
You will lose your shield after the 5th hit so if you are at full power, get enough powerups to be eligible for a shield and when you lose it, you have it ready to pick again. _ \SHIELD/ ¿¿¿¿¿¿ Protects you for up to 5 hits. They are your ship's sidekicks with the same exact weapons as your ship. _ \LASER/ ¿¿¿¿¿ A really powerful laser that causes more damage than the normal weapon _ \OPTION/ ¿¿¿¿¿¿ You can have up to 4 of these. One bullet will shoot upwards and the other will shoot forward. _ \DOUBLE/ ¿¿¿¿¿¿ Shoots 2 bullets in different directions. You are the last hope for the gentle people of Gradius! You will need all your courage and concentration to win. To reach this, you must steal the enemy power capsules along your route and boost the Warp Rattler's hyper powers.
Your objective is the Bacterion superfortress, Xaercus.
The entire galaxy awaits your duel to the death with the evil Bacterions. To save them, you have just launched the prototype hyper-space fighter, the Warp Rattler. The people of Gradius are in danger of being completely destoyed by the amoe- boid Bacterions. It's a little tougher at higher difficulties. Note: this walkthrough assumes you are at the easiest difficulty. Keep in mind that these are the arcade versions but it will help a little bit in the console versions of respected games. The games that are included are: Gradius 1-4 and Gradius Gaiden which was never released out of Japan before.