>>11819152“Although collecting Cyborgs does not affect the game's difficulty, missing them does.
The total number of lost Cyborgs is stored at the word address 0x105110. The counter persists for the whole game through continues and is only reset upon a game over.
Cyborg rank doesn't affect everything that basic rank does, increasing the speed of many aimed/semi-aimed bullets incrementally as more Cyborgs are lost, up to 512. “