Technically, the maximum you can get on an enemy is 11 shots plus a close-range kill. The 12th shot will drop them no matter what, so the close-range kill has to be done on the 11th. I think. I haven't done extensive testing/counting analyzing this, but that's what it seemed like to me.(posted 8762 days ago)Another factor to consider is that unfortunately, luck plays a part in the score... because you are not guaranteed a 30,000 point gem for every close-range kill. They do appear approximately... I wanna say 3 out of 4 times but that seems too high. Maybe 2 out of 3 instead. I've often wondered what kind of score would be possible if EVERY enemy dropped a 30,000 point gem, but I was unable to find a cheat that will guarantee a free 30,000 points every time. It'd be interesting to play through just to see what the score would be (although the game would be tougher without any life-ups being dropped). It's also tough to get an exact figure on the amount of enemies in the game, since stalling in certain areas can cause different amounts of enemies to come out... sometimes I try different things (especially on Stage 3), causing different amounts of enemies to come out. Although a ballpark figure shouldn't be hard to come up with. But since they're all worth varying amounts of points, it's tough to find an average too...
[Notes to self on things to check: whether or not an enemy can be stabbed after the 12th shot, the approximate percentage of 30k gems dropped from an average game, and the amount of enemies in the game]
That's a good point though Tenchi, if I pass up multiple shots on 1000-point enemies, it's 10k I'm missing out on. And that can really add up. The problem is, a lot of them come out in groups of two, and you can't get two multiple-shot kills when the sprites are overlapping like that. If you do fire at them, chances are you'll end up shooting one, and then they'll drop because your shots will end up hitting the other one. And then you miss out on your chance at a 30k gem if you just went for the close-range kill. But from now on, if there's just one (or if they're spaced out), I'm trying to go for those extra points.
-BBH