- Get a double laser and hold onto it. As I'm sure you've read, you can stack weapons of the same type in this game (except in easy, where all weapons are auto-stacked for you), and the most punishing weapon is actually the double laser. The laser was always a rough weapon to wield in the original because it had a small range. While you could pile hits onto enemies with it, you had to put yourself at risk. The double laser is as fast as a machine gun and deals out insane amounts of damage. The second stage boss is practically unclearable with any other weapon, but the double laser annihilates him.
I'm a fan of the double crash missile, myself. In a straight test of damage, I think it does more than the laser. The laser's advantage is that the crash missile is slow firing, and while each missile packs an insane amount of damage, on bosses that move their weak-point around a lot, like the giant fish in the speeder-bike level, half of your missiles will be missing. The laser not only fires extremely rapidly, but in it's upgraded form, has a fairly wide bullet, occasionally even able to catch things on the ground without ducking.
So, if you can't take a laser, bring a crash missile. They're extremely common, and can drop most stationary or slow bosses in relatively few hits.
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