This portrays itself as an epic bullet hell... in hell. But really is a 15 to 30 minute time waster. It is not to grinding if you focus on upgrades that get you more souls. My soul totals were doubling each round doing this (right into the millions)
If you lose your forts, as long as your army survives, you can conquer another territory with a fort, its the same for the computer armies. But if you lose a battle with your army and you have no forts, then its game over. - I wonder if anyone has actually done this!
Auto Neg. Effect requires that you have the energy to cast Neg. Effect and that it is currently assigned to your skill bar. This is the same fore Auto Heal. Semi-Barrier, thankfully, does not require this.
The weapon lock is whatever button you assign the skill to. (Assuming you mean bonus weapon lock)
There should be a 5 point badge for completing this on hardcore since you have to actually be able to aim and purchase correct repairs. Too bad it's a GOTW
I'm working on Being One 6 now and it'll hint at this series to help tie it in from that angle too ;-)