Karisa's Atypical Touhou Challenges (on hold again)

[chum]

#15 - Lunatic - A2
chum - 0/10 - 70,801,310- C - 0.0% - Replay

Didn't even try to gold anything, I just treated the run as a NMNB attempt with extra emphasis on bombing and freezing stuff. I got so close to capping every card in the game.

[SomeGuy712x]

Alright, I've accomplished a better A2 run than the one that previously had its replay get glitched on me:

#15 - Easy - A2
SomeGuy712x - 9/2 - 24,401,420 - 0.000% - Replay

The two silvers were on Rainbow Light "Prism Flash" in stage 2, and Bright Star "Orion Belt" in stage 3. I might eventually try to see about gold medalling one or both of those spells later.

Also, is route A1 going to be added to this challenge?

[touhoumaniac]

#16 - Easy
S - 30,711,750 - 2 (Mystia, nospell that follows first spellcard) - Reimu & Yukari - 0.308% - Replay

I moved horizontally below the collection line for a brief moment at the beginning of stage 2. No enemies were on screen at that time, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[SomeGuy712x]

#16 - Easy
SomeGuy712x - 217,837,290 - 4 (a little bit after the midboss fight) - Reimu & Yukari - 0.084% - Replay
Specifically, I bit it just as the third "8-familiar" fairy was showing up in the second half of stage 4.

Man, a lot of stuff just seems practically impossible when you're forced to stay above the POC all the time! I'm surprised I got as far as I did in this run, due to getting lucky on some of the patterns. (For instance, this run is the only time I actually managed to capture Wriggle's first spell in all of my attempts at this challenge, and I'm sure I got ultra lucky to do so.)

[SomeGuy712x]

#15 - Easy - C2
SomeGuy712x - 9/2 - 27,261,020 - 0.040% - Replay

The two silvers this time were on the stage 3 midboss's Sunlight "Sunshine Needle" and the final bosses' Violent Light "Sunburst". I might try to gold medal those two spells later.

[touhoumaniac]

#16 - Easy
S - 83,541,660 - 3 (nospell before #44 Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures - Sword") - Reimu & Yukari - 0.098% - Replay

[SomeGuy712x]

#15 - Easy - C2
SomeGuy712x - 10/1 - 26,574,180 - 0.060% - Replay

Alright, I managed to improve on my C2 run. There were some stupid mistakes along the way (as usual), and my score is lower than my last submission, but I got one more gold medal than last time. Now, I wonder if I can gold medal that last remaining spell (the third final boss's spell, Violent Light "Sunbust")...

[Karisa]

Happy new year, everyone!

Sorry about the delay. This particular delay isn't really explainable either, seeing as my semester ended before last round ended... well, hopefully the challenges should be on a better schedule now.

---

Results archive:

#17 - PCB v0.06

- Go for the highest score you can in PCB v0.06 (available here/here)! Thanks to Arcorann for suggesting this older demo of PCB, which has several different patterns and lacks the border system.
- All difficulties and shot types allowed.

Note: A download link to this version is allowed because a later version, v0.11, is freely downloadable from ZUN's site here.

Format:
Challenge number - Difficulty
Player - Score - Stage - Shot type - Slowdown - Replay

Example:
#17 - Normal
Sample - 60,000,000 - C - ReimuB - 0.555% - Replay

Rankings:
Easy
S-TORA - 79,171,550 - C - ReimuB - 0.54% - Screenshot

Normal
Lyv - 80,426,870 - C - ReimuB - 0.964% - Replay

Lunatic
Mino - 110,537,540 - C - MarisaA - 0.575% - Replay
S - 43,801,320 - 3 - MarisaA - 0.333% - Replay


#18 - IN point item avoidance

- Clear IN with the lowest point item count you can!
- Only 1ccs allowed. Either FinalA or FinalB is acceptable.
- All shot types allowed.
- All difficulties allowed, including Extra.

Format:
Challenge number - Difficulty
Player - Point items - Shot type - Stage (Ca/Cb) - Slowdown - Replay

Example:
#18 - Normal
Sample - 167 - Reimu & Yukari - Ca - 0.113% - Replay

Rankings:
Easy
SomeGuy712x - 71 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.000% - Replay
Star King - 74 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.892% - Replay

Normal
SomeGuy712x - 48 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.000% - Replay

Extra
Inadequate - 0 -  Youmu & Yuyuko - C - 0.064% - Replay - (935,487,530 points)
SomeGuy712x - 0 - Yuyuko - C - 0.056% - Replay (544,840,680 points)


#19 - Lowest score in the series

And here's something I included just for fun. There might not be much potential for competition, but I don't think a collection of Touhou atypical challenges would be complete without it.

- Save a replay with the lowest score you can! Anything goes (as long as it's an official Touhou game, and you don't cheat)!

Spoiler:

I think SA stage 3 practice is the only known way to score below 0, though...

Example:
#19
Sample -  -700,000 - 0.0% - Replay

Rankings:
SomeGuy712x - -832,100 - 0.000% - Replay
Mero -  -831,520 - 0.58% - Replay
Chirpy13 -  -794,270 - 0.0% - Replay

Deadline: Sunday, January 19

[SomeGuy712x]

#19
SomeGuy712x - -827,110 - 0.000% - Replay

Well, of course I'm entering this one!
Note: Oddly, when I play this replay back, the game acts as if I used a bomb just as the replay ends, but I don't think I hit the bomb button there... Not that it really matters though.

[Mero]

Anything goes eh?  well...

#19
Mero -  -832,090 - 0.75% - Replay

done in the boss rush to get rid of that pesky stage :V

Oddly, when I play this replay back, the game acts as if I used a bomb just as the replay ends, but I don't think I hit the bomb button there... Not that it really matters though.

that happens when you quit the save replay screen with the bomb command as opposed to hitting Esc, but yeah it doesn't really affect the replay

[SomeGuy712x]

@GMeroK:
Boss rush? Getting rid of that pesky stage? Is this like a mod to the game? And are mods allowed?

[Mero]

@GMeroK:
Boss rush? Getting rid of that pesky stage? Is this like a mod to the game? And are mods allowed?

Yes, it's a patch made by Drake that reduces stages to just the boss fight (found here)

I actually don't know if it is allowed though...

[SomeGuy712x]

@GMeroK:
Yeah, I'm thinking that you have to play through the whole stage the regular way.

EDIT:

#18 - Easy
SomeGuy712x - 179 - Reimu & Yukari - Ca - 0.000% - Replay

Decided to give this a whirl. I wonder if there's a way to avoid some of those autocollected point items in certain places. I may try investigating this further.

[Mero]

aaand there

#19
Mero -  -831,520 - 0.58% - Replay

it's still very possible to start Yuugi's fight on 0 score

and I almost forgot to suicide at the end of her opener :V

[Karisa]

Anything goes eh?  well...

#19
Mero -  -832,090 - 0.75% - Replay

done in the boss rush to get rid of that pesky stage :V

Sorry, I should have said that the replay still has to sync an official Touhou game, or something like that, since I guess "anything goes" can be interpreted as removing that implication.

I don't care if people are using the English patch or vpatch, but if patches that don't sync replays are allowed, that would also open the possibility of a theoretical patch that sets base PIV to -1,000,000,000 or something to that effect...

[Shimatora]

17 - Easy
S-TORA - 79,171,550 - C - ReimuB - 0.54% - Screenshot

Will post a replay later - I'm eager to see how other people run this before I give my route away.

[SomeGuy712x]

#19
SomeGuy712x - -832,100 - 0.000% - Replay

Huh. I pressed Esc instead of the bomb button to exit the replay saving screen this time, but upon watching the replay back, the game still acts like I bombed the instant the replay ends. Could something else be causing that erroneous bomb at the end of the replay? Well, whatever.

[touhoumaniac]

#17 - Lunatic
S - 43,801,320 - 3 - MarisaA - 0.333% - Replay

I wasn't able to download PCB v0.06 from the link provided in first post. I found another download link for it:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/03b2p807u7pg587/youmu_tr006a.lzh

[Mino ☆]

#17 - Lunatic
Mino - 110,537,540 - C - MarisaA - 0.575% - Replay (See attachment)

[Reiko]

#17 - Normal
Lyv - 80,426,870 - C - ReimuB - 0.964% - (replay attached)

Died twice because no Vsync patch (yes, excuses).
Anyway, this was quite interesting. 

[chirpy13]

#19
Chirpy13 -  -794,270 - 0.0% - Replay

Ended the spell about 5 frames too early.  Oh well, not gonna redo it.

[SomeGuy712x]

#18 - Extra
SomeGuy712x - 30 - Reimu & Yukari - C - 0.060% - Replay

Decided to try Extra for this. This run was perfect all the way through midboss Keine, and then right after the midboss fight, I let enemies ram a couple of point items into me from behind. D'oh. Still, the run was going pretty well, despite failing Mokou's first spell, until I had some sort of brain fart at the beginning of "Phoenix's Tail", lost a ton of resources on "Fujiyama Volcano", and had another brain fart during "Possessed by Phoenix". Fortunately, I managed to capture "Hourai Doll", and since I qualified for "Imperishable Shooting", I didn't have to autocollect the items from "Hourai Doll". And then I go and fail "Imperishable Shooting" right out the door, LOL (not that I expected to capture it anyway). Also, jelly donuts.

EDIT: Corrected a typo in this post.

[Inadequate]

#18 - Extra
Inadequate - 1 - Yuyuko - 0.279% - C - Replay

Ended up accidentally running into an item during the easy streaming portion on the latter stage. I won't lose my sleep on it. Getting zero items requires nearly zero effort, but will end up being really tedious.

[SomeGuy712x]

@Inadequate:
Ah, so getting a perfect zero on Extra is actually possible, eh? Let me give this another try...

Numerous attempts later:

#18 - Extra
SomeGuy712x - 0 - Yuyuko - C - 0.056% - Replay

Alright, got it! I wouldn't say it takes nearly zero effort, as it's still quite challenging, and you have fewer resources to use against Mokou, and it's still easy to be screwed over by point item walls in certain parts of the stage if you're unlucky. However, it's definitely not the most difficult thing in the world.

On this run, the stage portion and midboss Keine went totally perfectly, then I failed Mokou's first spell again, and I was so taken by surprise by how I got hit on it that I failed to deathbomb. I also failed the second spell ("Flying Phoenix") due to moving too far in one direction. Then later on, I came sooo close to perfecting Mokou's dreaded 8th nonspell! That nonspell is one I almost always bomb, except I had no bombs on me at the time, so I may as well have tried to perfect it. Then I ended up having to bomb on "Fujiyama Volcano" as usual, and I had no reserve lives and just one bomb going into the final two spells that mattered. Fortunately, I captured them both with no problem. (Then I failed "Imperishable Shooting" early on again, but whatever.)

[Inadequate]

The term perfect still evokes nasty emotions inside me. I'll just forget I ever did this.

#18 - Extra
Inadequate - 0 - Yuyuko - C - 0.167% - Replay

First credit after I got home, really tired. Shouldn't have played at all. Failed a bunch of stuff I usually don't do.



#18 - Extra
Inadequate - 0 -  Youmu & Yuyuko - C - 0.064% - Replay - (935,487,530)

Attempted to remain in the comfort zone as much as possible, so a lot of the scoring that would've been doable wasn't there. I've apparently forgot how to deal with Mokou's second spell, but I lucked out this time. I'd have to look up the strategy for following attempts (if I was to make any), as I don't want to have another coin-toss in there, in addition to the final nonspell. Expended two deathbombs on the aforementioned attack during this run, both being mistakes I could've avoided rather easily, as the goddess of random numbers seemed to be smiling upon me as I was facing the attack.

Sloppy, and so on. I'm too boring and tired to check if one billion points would be achievable with this condition (it probably is - especially if you can manage the stage route on a better shot, I just picked Yuyuko for extra comfortability), but if nothing else, then you can at least get close to it.

[SomeGuy712x]

@Inadequate:
Wow, nice run!
I wonder if you should mention your dodges towards the end of Mokou's second spell ("Flying Phoenix") in the "Lucky Touhou dodges" thread? Also, why didn't you label your replay as "No Deaths"?

[Star King]

#18 - Easy
Star King - 74 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.892% - Replay

Quite a bit of experimentation on my part went into this.

I accidentally picked up an unnecessary point item from stage 4. As well as 1 from the bomb at the end of stage 5. Also, I picked up 6 point items at the Stage 6 stage portion when I have gotten as low as 2.

Also, at the two bomb-dropping fairies at the end of stage 3, I have also gotten as much as 2 point items to drop (more might be possible, but it's RNG, so...). That was at 80+ power, though, and I was at less than that (because I thought I had to be) at that part, and it might be impossible to make any items drop at that power level. BUT with the extra life (to use for an extra suicide at Stage 6 to lower my power) I managed to get from Midboss Keine, I was actually at 104 power at the end of Stage 6's stage portion, while I was at 69 power at the aforementioned Stage 3 section, so I could've picked up an extra 11 power there to get to 80 power and still have avoided max power at the end of the game. So at least 2 less from stage 3 is possible, as well.

So at least 66 point items overall is possible.

Funny how whatever shottype has Master Spark ends up being the best shottype for most of the special challenges I've done (including some I've done on my own). Heh.

[Karisa]

Hmm, interesting. I was hoping someone would try avoiding max power, but I wasn't expecting Easy to go that low. I wonder how low Normal can go, considering how the forced items at the end of stage 1/2/3/5 can be avoided by unlocking last spells...

[SomeGuy712x]

I've actually been working/experimenting on this challenge with the same "avoid max power" strategy as well, and I was going to wait until I managed to get a run with below 75 point items before posting again, but I guess I'll post my best run as of right now:

#18 - Easy
SomeGuy712x - 77 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.000% - Replay

On this run, I somehow accidentally picked up a point item early in stage 3, and looking back at my replay, it looks like it was an item that had gone below the bottom of the screen, but I guess it hadn't quite despawned yet, and I barely touched it with my item-collection hitbox. I was unable to avoid any of the items from the last two regular enemies in stage 3, though one time I think I got two of their items to disappear before the forced autocollection occurred in Stage Practice (I most likely was above 80 power for that too). And in stage 6, I ended up getting 10 items from the enemies just before Eirin. Darned RNG... (One time in Stage Practice, I managed to get zero items from the pre-Eirin enemies in stage 6, but I only accomplished that once out of dozens of tries, and I really wish I had saved the replay of that occurrence...)

I also figured 66 to be the absolute minimum, or 64 if two items from the last two stage 3 enemies are somehow avoided and everything else goes perfectly. I know I can at least do better than 77, so I will keep trying this.

UPDATE:

#18 - Easy
SomeGuy712x - 71 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.000% - Replay

Just tried it again and did quite a bit better. I did forget to build up to 80 power before the final fairies of stage 3, so I didn't destroy them fast enough to avoid collecting any of their items. In stage 5, I accidentally collected a point item from Tewi, because that "wascally wabbit" quite fittingly tricked me! This happens rarely, but if I'm lucky, Tewi's 1-up will be retrievable without collecting any point items, and this looked like one of those times. However, I guess there was a point item completely overlapping and obscured by the 1-up, and I collected it at the same time as the 1-up. Silly rabbit... Trix are for kids! However, in stage 6, I was fairly lucky and only got 4 items from the pre-Eirin enemies, allowing me to beat my previous best by 6 point items.

[SomeGuy712x]

#18 - Normal
SomeGuy712x - 48 - Marisa & Alice - Cb - 0.000% - Replay

Oy. Now, I theorize the minimum forced point items on Normal difficulty to be 32 (5 from midboss Mystia + 7 from midboss Keine + 10 from the last two stage 3 fairies + 10 from Kaguya), minus whatever point items you can manage to avoid from the fairies just before the stage 3 boss (I can sometimes avoid 1 or 2 by killing one of them fast enough with 80+ power), so maybe 31 or 30 would be the absolute minimum. However, I had a ton of trouble simply even completing the game on Normal while attempting this challenge, due to deaths while trying to avoid point items, or just plain stupid mistakes elsewhere. Even on this run, there were a lot of dumb mistakes, and I so lacked confidence in myself by this point (due to numerous failed attempts beforehand) that I decided to collect Tewi's 1-up, despite the fact that it meant getting a couple point items that were in the way of it, and it turned out I needed it. (And I repeatedly practiced the stages that I kept having the biggest screw ups on until I got them right, but I kept having many screw ups during real runs anyway. So annoying. But, at least I can hit the time orb quotas on stages 1, 2, 3, and 5 consistently, and the MAlice Cannon is wonderful against certain things.)

If anyone thinks they can finish Normal with under 48 point items (and there are probably people out there that can), then go ahead. I'm probably not going to attempt this challenge on the Normal difficulty again.