eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate Black Package: Grazing, Mana and Mini-Tiamat Lock-On

Slow Movement, Stronger Shots and Mini-Tiamat Lock-On

Standard Attack sends a continuous stream of bullets straight ahead of the player character, with its power governed by both movement mode and distance from the enemy. Entering Slow Movement strengthens those bullets; getting closer to the enemy also increases their power. These are separate conditions attached to the same forward-firing attack, rather than different weapons to collect. The Auto Slow option connects the movement change to firing: when that setting is selected, holding down the shot button automatically slows the character. Sustained shooting can therefore activate the movement mode that strengthens Standard Attack.

Slow Movement also changes the behavior of Mini-Tiamats, the dragon familiars that follow the character and supply supporting fire. In that mode, they automatically acquire a target and focus their attacks on it, alongside the character’s forward-firing Standard Attack. Collecting a Dragon Orb adds another Mini-Tiamat, with the formation capped at five units. Dragon Orbs thus increase the number of supporting familiars, while Slow Movement determines their concentrated targeting behavior. With Auto Slow selected, holding the shot button brings together slower movement, stronger Standard Attack bullets and the familiars’ automatic lock-on.

Grazing for Mana and Unleashing Burn Air Raid

Grazing means bringing the player’s hitbox close to enemy bullets, and it serves two purposes here: contributing to the score and increasing the Mana Gauge. Bullet proximity is only one of three documented ways to build mana. Landing a Standard Attack on an enemy also raises the gauge, as does collecting a Power Orb. That ties the same resource to shooting, item collection and close passes beside enemy fire. A graze therefore contributes both to scoring and to the resource required for Burn Air Raid, rather than functioning solely as a scoring action.

Burn Air Raid becomes available when the Mana Gauge reaches MAX; pressing the Special Attack button then launches eight magical homing lasers at the enemy. The activation condition is the full gauge, while the button press is the action that unleashes the attack. Its connection to grazing runs through mana: close passes beside bullets help build the same gauge that Standard Attack hits and Power Orbs increase. Those three charging methods converge on one special attack, so grazing is part of the charging process without being the only way to reach the required MAX state.

Boss Rewards, Score Multipliers and Survival Resources

Boss attack phases release Power Orbs when defeated, with larger rewards tied to faster defeats. The boss display supplies the current phase name, life gauge and remaining time, letting you track its health against the clock. Clearing a phase without taking a hit or without using bombs also produces more Power Orbs. Collect those drops for score and progress toward an Extend: an extra life awarded after gathering a set number of orbs. Fast phase clears therefore connect boss rewards to both scoring and survival, while avoiding hits or holding back bombs can increase the orb payout.

Outside those phase rewards, earn multipliers by destroying enemies quickly as they appear. Close-range Standard Attack fire and the high-damage Burn Air Raid offer further score increases. Bombs serve a different resource role: pressing the Bomb button spends one stocked bomb on Dragon Detonation, temporarily making the character invincible and damaging enemies within a set range. Collecting Bomb Orbs replenishes that stock. During a boss phase, this creates a concrete tension between spending a bomb for protection and preserving the no-bomb condition for additional Power Orbs; the bomb’s damage and invincibility are separate benefits from the orb reward.

The Tournament Route and Single-Stage Practice

Rayne Lindwurm, a descendant of the Dragon Clan, enters a tournament to become one of the seven Cardinal Lords who rule Pandemonium. Arcade Mode provides the successive-stage format: you battle through each stage in turn. Before starting, you can switch dialogue on or off, select a difficulty Rank and set Auto Bomb. The tournament supplies Rayne’s objective, while Arcade supplies the progression through stages; its setup lets you choose the dialogue and those gameplay settings before beginning the sequence.

Practice narrows that format to one selected stage rather than the Arcade sequence. To begin, choose a difficulty Rank, the stage, a difficulty level and whether Auto Bomb is on or off. Rank and difficulty level appear as separate selections in this setup. There is also a specific way to isolate the boss: start the game by pressing the Pause button to fight the boss battle only. Stage selection determines which encounter set you enter, while that alternate start skips directly to its boss, allowing a single-stage session or a boss-only session within Practice.

First published Nov 10, 2026.