Two techniques are presented for control of cascade-type amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) pathways in the NO Rydberg states. The first method, referred to as switching, is based on destruction of the population inversion required for amplification. When one of the two competing ASE decay paths is prohibited by prepopulating the corresponding lower level, a part of the population in the upper level flows down through the other ASE decay path, resulting in the enhancement of this ASE transition. The second method, called seeding, utilizes the injection of external field. The weak ASE radiation generated in a seeder cell travels collinearly with pump beams, acting as seeder light for the inverted medium in a main cell. By extracting desired seeder wavelengths with optical filtering, amplification of the selected electronic transition is realized. In addition, selective enhancement between the rotational transitions belonging to the same inter-Rydberg system is achieved by taking advantage of their different polarization properties. Finally, the combined use of switching and seeding, also providing rotational selectivity, is described.