The first step to winning in Gradius is to get a full complement of options as soon as possible. (&quot;Options&quot; being the phantom ships that automatically follow your ship around and fire when you do.)<p>A friend of mine had the worst ex-girlfriend in the world, and she would use sockpuppet accounts on social media to humiliate him, as well as make it look like she was surrounded by loving and supportive friends. I nicknamed them &quot;options&quot;, after the Gradius phantom ships, and left a link on each of their pages to the Gradius&#x27;s Option card from Yu-Gi-Oh to show I was wise to her game, after which she dropped the ruse.<p>It turns out that each of the &quot;options&quot; was based on someone -- a friend or boyfriend -- she had offended to the point of no return, and she was also using them to create a fantasy world in which those people still loved her.<p>And she only got more messed up from there.<p>I find it interesting that the strategy outlined here is pretty standard fare for a psycho ex-girlfriend from hell (and a stupid one at that).