When you got all the patterns down, it became easy to load up on armors. I used a couple armors mainly as shields, such as Homing Armor. It's attack wasn't that useful, but it could take quite a few hits. I'd usually get through the first 2 levels with nothing but it, and save up the best armors for later stages. Phoenix and Black Hole were the best for the final stage to clear all those flipping octagons.