Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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In this video I will show all of the checkpoint recoveries for the first Gradius arcade game played on the highest difficulty (which is reached at loop 3). This was played all in one shot with no cuts or edits, so there will be a lot of failed attempts. I've added time codes below if you only want to see the successful recoveries. I'd also like to thank the legendary Gradius Master "t. iso"(youtube.com/@tiso-vl2ix) and his 10+ mil run for some of these strategies: youtube.com/watch?v=49f066DhuAU

1A - 00:07
1B - 00:59
1C - 01:49, 02:20
1D - 05:35, 06:53
2A - 08:31
2B - 09:32, 10:22
2C - 12:14, 17:43, 20:29 (starting with speedup)
3A - 21:42, 22:18
3B - 23:08, 23:38
3C - 24:12
4A - 25:35, 27:19
4B - 29:17, 33:16, 33:45
4C (HELL CHECKPOINT) - 34:36, 37:21, 39:41
4D - 41:50, 45:05
5A - 48:48, 52:51
5B - 53:26
5C - 59:52
6A - 1:02:04, 1:02:36
6B - 1:03:45, 1:04:16 (!?), 1:05:05
6C - 1:05:38
7A - 1:10:22 (!?), 1:12:00
7B - 1:13:35, 1:14:19
7C - 1:16:38, 1:17:29
7D (CHOKEPOINT) - 1:19:13, 1:19:57
7E - 1:20:30 (LOL I forgot the cage actually doesn't come!), 1:20:46
(Bonus) 7B to 7E - 1:21:58

You might be wondering which are the hardest ones? I would say that 4C is the hardest in the game. I have dubbed this the "Hell Checkpoint", not only because it's ridiculous and stupid, but because the game literally turns red with fire and brimstone lol. 4B and 4D are also no joke, especially 4D with no starting powerup.

The infamous 7D is also a total run killer and also what I like to call the "Chokepoint", because this is the last passage before the clear (not counting the last checkpoint because it's a joke) and the point where you can choke your run away. Not to mention it's also a narrow hallway of hell lol.

Most of these checkpoints would be run killers if you didn't know what to do but for 4C and 7D, there is really only one way to do them and they require some pixel perfect moves to even be possible (moreso for 4C than 7D). There are others where I die a lot more than I should and that's mostly because I haven't practiced them much or at all (like all of stage 5) and they are rare to actually see in a live run at zero power.

Another thing to note is that some of these become vastly easier even starting with 1 speed up. This mostly applies to the "A" checkpoints where you farm powerups, as you really need that speed to just stop them from running into you sometimes. In a real run you would likely want to sacrifice a ship just to get a starting powerup ready for your next life.

Easiest checkpoint in the game would be the very last one, 7E, with some others like 1B, 2B, and most of stage 5 and 6 besides the openers.