Hard Corps: Uprising

Because Rising Mode allows you to powerup the characters and lets you start on any stage, getting the highest possible rating (S-Rank) on all the stages really isn’t that bad. It seems that the rating is entirely based on score, so you’re mostly interested in getting as many points as you can.

The most important thing you’ll want to do is familiarize yourself with the levels. You’ll want to have some idea of where enemies are going to appear and how best to deal with them, in addition to learning the bosses’ major attacks. It’s a pretty short game, so there’s really not that much to remember (plus, you can just keep trying the same stage over and over).

The second most important thing when going after these S-Ranks is to forget about getting lots of points. Instead, you’ll want to blaze through the stages as quickly as humanly possible. The reason is simple – an extra 500,000 points over the course of a stage is nothing compared to the 4+ million you can get from the time bonus at the end of a level. For the most part, your biggest concern is killing bosses quickly; I’ll give a few tips for doing that later.

The one exception to the speed demon approach is stage 2. In that level, all the destructible foliage adds to your combo multiplier, making it pretty easy to get over 10 million points, even without the end-of-stage bonuses. In that level, I’d suggest focusing on destroying everything while trying to maintain your combo throughout the level. This strategy doesn’t work very well on the other stages because it’s generally very hard (if not impossible) to keep a combo going long enough for it to reach the multiplier of 30 or 40 that you can get in stage 2.

Basically, practice the levels a bunch and, if there are any levels that keep giving you an A-Rank or lower, the solution is almost always to do it faster.

For the most part, the best way to charge through a stage is to dash while continuously firing a fully-upgraded Spread Shot or Chain Laser. Fortunately, each of the pre-packaged characters has an upgrade that lets them begin a stage with one of those weapons. Combine with Automatic Fire and the “Unit Lv3” upgrade for the appropriate weapon and you’re in business.

Bosses are generally a bit more difficult to take down. I would typically try to keep a fully-upgraded Heated Plasma (that thing is nasty when combined with Automatic Fire), Chain Laser, or Machine Gun in reserve for use against bosses. Spread Shot isn’t nearly as effective, and I would only use the other two weapons if I was desperate.

The bosses are generally what’ll slow you down, so you have to be ready for that. One way to mitigate the cost of losing a special weapon is to grab the Rapid Fire upgrade, making the basic gun quite a bit more potent. Combine that with some health (Protector) and lives (Uprising) upgrades, and even the bosses shouldn’t be too bad.

Naturally, you should also try to get any skills that’ll increase mobility. Things like Speed Boost, Speed Run, Speed King, Air Boost +1, and Air Jump +1 can help you get through stages more quickly.

Aside from that, I don’t really have any specific tips, like boss strategies or anything. Everything basically comes down to learning the patterns and getting comfortable with the game.

Alternatively, you can try to find some infinitely spawning enemies. If you can rack up several million points by slaying the same dudes over and over, you'll be able to get an S-Rank at the end. I know that this works in stages 2 and 6, where there are several places with respawning enemies, but I can't say for any of the other stages, as I didn't find such easily-exploitable areas anywhere else.

Also, as a side note, I originally completed this achievement with Krystal spamming Spread Shot most of the time, so most of this guide was written based on those experiences. I've also S-Ranked all the stages with Bahamut, and the same strategy works well with Chain Laser. The one notable difference is that I generally have to be a bit more careful with Bahamut - Chain Laser doesn't lock onto projectiles like missiles, making the field a bit more dangerous than when using the Spread Shot, which destroys most things that could hurt you. On the other hand, Chain Laser is devastating against bosses, so it's nice to be able to have instant access to one of the more uncommon weapons.

Quick Summary
-Familiarize yourself with the levels (beat all of them at least once) before attempting S-Ranks
-Focus on completing stages quickly by dashing and spamming a Spread Shot or Chain Laser
-Use more powerful weapons, like Heated Plasma or Chain Laser, against bosses to bring them down quickly
-Get the upgrade that lets you start with one of the more potent wide-area weapons (Spread Shot or Chain Laser)
-Get upgrades that increase your movement abilities (speed, triple jump, etc.)
-Get upgrades that increase the power of your preferred weapons, Automatic Fire, and Rapid Fire
-Get upgrades that increase your health or number of lives for some insurance against bosses

Some of the stages can be tough, but using this general outline, I was able to get an S-Rank on every stage relatively easily.