Spell Card Help Topic V: Cheeto Lasers Edition

[Chuckolator]

I just read it for my perfect. Unless there's something I missed too, it's mostly just positioning yourself to avoid bullet clusters and dodging the rest.

[Zil]

Are there any tricks for Reisen's Last Spell, or is it just dodging? I'm more consistent at Tewi's first midboss phase, which I thought was supposed to be the hardest part of the stage, so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

I think when people talk about Tewi being the hardest part, they don't consider the Last Spell relevant because it doesn't matter from a survivalist perspective.

I seem to recall moving left and right along with the bullets while dodging the ones coming from the other direction, kind of like how Miko's Overdrive works. You can keep changing directions to stay under Reisen, or if a particularly ugly group of bullets is ahead you. So basically, you're only dealing with bullets from one direction at a time, while just running away from the others.

For what it's worth, I tried this during some fun runs and the fairies coming in from the left came so low they actually ran into me. <_<

I think what works best there is to move back and forth a bit near the edge. The fairies group together at the sides before quickly rushing off the screen, so if you stay a bit closer to the middle while occasionally moving to the edge to prevent a big group from forming, you should protect yourself from both threats at once. Stay unfocused as much as you can, of course.

And that spam is totally the best part of the whole game.

[Ranko Hoshino]

I get the feeling that there isn't much of a trick behind catching Esoterica "Astronomical Entombing", but if there is one... please let me know. I'm trying to catch the Lunatic version for whatever reason.  :ohdear:

[Chuckolator]

My method was to shoot down the front two familiars during Eirin's invincibility, direct her in such a way that she's always in the middle or a little to the right of the middle (her going left made things harder IIRC, though I can't remember why) and otherwise just keep attacking and never stop focusing. If you're quick enough, she dies after only a few of the really thick waves.

[Zil]

Malice Cannon

Or use any other strong human shot to kill as many familiars as you can. Otherwise yeah, keep her a bit to the right of the middle. The waves overlap more when she goes left.

[I have no name]

Or use any other strong human shot

i.e. Youmu.  Sakuya and Reimu are such weaklings  :3

[Chuckolator]

If someone's going to recommend a familiar extermination approach, I'll just say to try both and see which one is more effective for you. I know I found attacking Eirin to be the better approach, but if Zil thinks otherwise you might too.

[Ranko Hoshino]

I guess I'll just have to suffer through some tough dodging if I stick with Yukrai then... :ohdear:

I guess I'll try the other girls, but I still wanna do this with Yukari. :derp:

[Karisa]

As stated, Marisa (with or without MAlice Cannon) and Youmu both trivialize Astronomical Entombing.

You can still try to destroy familiars with Reimu, but it takes longer. I remember having some success at making it easier (with Reimu/Yukari) by destroying the familars on the lower left or right, then focusing and staying near where those familiars used to be, so you only need to deal with small bullets from the top and one side instead of both.

[ふねん1]

"Running to the four corners" sounds simple enough, but it's a bit trickier in practice. There's a specific rhythm that you want to do, and as Reimu and Sanae, you won't completely make it to a corner before you have to start moving to the next one. Ideally Murasa should be teleporting in within 1/4 or so screen length around the corner during the first part of the card. When it gets faster, that's when you should be able to just move in a straight line and go through the bullets. It's hard to explain what the proper "rhythm" is to the portion before the 20 second mark, but practice makes perfect. You'll get it after a few attempts at it. And don't be frustrated if you fail the card on your next run through. I know that I thought I "got it" a few times while I was going for my UFO 1cc, but the rhythm is hard to get down perfectly until you get quite a few attempts at it. It certainly doesn't help that the way you approach the card is different on lower difficulties.

You're not going exactly into the corner, just the general region. What's more important is that you're positioning yourself to dash through the lanes right as Murasa appears in a new spot. It looks like this when done right. And I'm not sure where you got that "20 second mark" figure. On Lunatic you'll be starting the motions by Murasa's fourth or fifth teleport, pretty damn early.

[Oh]

I'm trying to play UFO Extra with a shot type that isn't SanaeB
I have just one question.
How in the name of fuck are you supposed to do the streaming orbs right before Nue?
It looks fucking impossible and I've failed there 10 times already.

e: what about blue UFO? Shotypes I'm using are ReimuA and SanaeA

[Chuckolator]

I'm trying to play UFO Extra with a shot type that isn't SanaeB
I have just one question.
How in the name of fuck are you supposed to do the streaming orbs right before Nue?

Jump between sides until some get past you, then circle.

Can't help you on Blue UFO, unless "use MarisaA" is acceptable advice. <_<

[Tsym]

You're not going exactly into the corner, just the general region. What's more important is that you're positioning yourself to dash through the lanes right as Murasa appears in a new spot. It looks like this when done right. And I'm not sure where you got that "20 second mark" figure. On Lunatic you'll be starting the motions by Murasa's fourth or fifth teleport, pretty damn early.

Murasa doesn't reach max speed until quite a ways through the card. You'll be doing the straight line dash early on, but there's also the possibility of dragging Murasa too far into the corner and screwing yourself over by making you need to dash too far into the corner to align yourself properly. I know I've done that quite a few times.

I'm trying to play UFO Extra with a shot type that isn't SanaeB
I have just one question.
How in the name of fuck are you supposed to do the streaming orbs right before Nue?
It looks fucking impossible and I've failed there 10 times already.

e: what about blue UFO? Shotypes I'm using are ReimuA and SanaeA

Basically you want to start on the right side of Nue, and destroy the first few UFOs that spawn. Then after that you want to kill any UFO that spawns moving downwards. It's kind of tricky as SanaeA and ReimuB because their shots are weak enough/can't aim properly to the point that you can't kill the UFOs fast enough without being somewhat overwhelmed. There will be a few UFOs that spawn that will move to the bottom of the screen. I believe those are the ones that spawn moving horizontally, but I'm not sure. However, you shouldn't need to worry too much about them because they'll only get to fire off a few shots before moving off the screen.

[ふねん1]

Murasa doesn't reach max speed until quite a ways through the card. You'll be doing the straight line dash early on, but there's also the possibility of dragging Murasa too far into the corner and screwing yourself over by making you need to dash too far into the corner to align yourself properly. I know I've done that quite a few times.

The 6th or 7th teleport is when she reaches top speed, or if there is any increase after that, it's small enough to be considered negligible. I suppose if you consider the 6th teleport out of 20 (or 14 seconds into a 44 second long attack) as being "quite a ways into the card", then sure. :V And I mentioned that you're only supposed to be in the general vicinity of the corner, so your account of bringing Murasa too far into the corner is only backing that up.

[RNG]

Thanks for the replay dude. I wasted my somewhat limited time today gaping at Shin's playthrough, but I'll watch yours tomorrow so I can get some idea of what the fuck to do.

You made a lot of things on the stage much easier for me. Here's my current progress:

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=24400

This replay also includes the best Sinkable Vortex capture maybe ever, proving that it's still doable even when Murasa's movement RNG goes wacky, so watch it anyways.

I still don't know what to do on Dipper. I'm trying to follow you best as possible but something is going horribly wrong and I'm not sure what it is. Am I just terribly :derp: or what?

[Goldom]

As stated, Marisa (with or without MAlice Cannon) and Youmu both trivialize Astronomical Entombing.

Jeez, you weren't kidding. I had something like a 1/40 record on Normal and 0/40 on Hard with Border Team. Got both on my first try with Marisa solo.

[RNG]

- Aura of Justice. Should be easy. Isn't. How do I prevent the seemingly inevitable walling.
- Are the small straight lasers in Radiant Treasure Gun aimed?
- This might be asking a bit much but would one of you guys kindly watch my run and tell me what exactly I'm doing wrong on Dipper? Funen's run gave me an idea of what to do for the first 5 seconds but it's butterfly effect from there.

Really Shou is messing me up in ways I can't quite describe or address in a play. I haven't capped a single one of her cards. Ever.

[Cor]

- Prevent the walling in Aura of Justice by moving around. You have to be pretty quick.
- No, I don't think they're aimed. I think most of the card is static.
- During Dipper you're way too hasty. You should be moving as far into the corners as possible. During the early parts of the card you have more than enough time for that. You gotta focus on making her spawn in the corners, get the rhythm down, y'know? Later on you can start moving in a smaller rectangle as she speeds up, since you won't have time to get to the corners any more, but you should still try to keep your movement symmetric. And obviously, when she spawns, you move to the next corner as fast as you can. You kinda hung around a few times, which made it even worse.

I'm sure others can help you better with this, but here's a half-assed replay I made of it. It's my first gaming session in 10 days, so excuse my tardiness and death on the spellcard preceding it, but it goes to show that Dipper really isn't a hard card once you get it down once. http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=24417

[Zil]

- Aura of Justice. Should be easy. Isn't. How do I prevent the seemingly inevitable walling.

When Shou creates one of the walls, it will be (nearly) seamless in the area in front of her, and the gaps appear further away, so you want to rush to the side, then move up as far as you can. If you just run away from her the whole time, you'll probably never get walled, though you will of course have to run the timer down (which kinda happens anyway). As a last resort, it is technically possible to fit between the bullets that make up the walls, especially for Reimu.

- Are the small straight lasers in Radiant Treasure Gun aimed?

As Coreven said, they're static, though the bullets aren't. That's another card that might be easier to time out than to capture. You may choose to just hide in the bottom right corner, where the lasers will never reach you and the bullets spread out considerably.

I think you'll have to rely on Funen to explain the Dipper technique. I never learned it myself.

[Tsym]

- This might be asking a bit much but would one of you guys kindly watch my run and tell me what exactly I'm doing wrong on Dipper? Funen's run gave me an idea of what to do for the first 5 seconds but it's butterfly effect from there.

Really Shou is messing me up in ways I can't quite describe or address in a play. I haven't capped a single one of her cards. Ever.

So I watched your run then replayed stage 4 to remind myself of how I did the card. I do it by listening to the audio cue of the second "bzzzt" sound you hear when she teleports. When you hear it go off the second time, you want to start moving. So basically when Murasa teleports right on top of you, dash to another corner. In your replay, you lost your rhythm very quickly, and it quickly became a crap shoot. If you do it right, like Funen did in his replay, you'll notice that he moves in a very regular, box-like shape after the initial phase of the card. In your run, you panicked and dragged Murasa to basically the middle of the right side, thus ruining the alignment of the bullets.

And as for Shou, I really recommend bombing most of her stuff. The only things that you probably don't need to bomb is her first and third non-card. Her final card also isn't that hard once you get it down. The problem is that most of Shou's attacks have a habit of catching you off guard. It's very easy to get too nervous, run into a bullet, get frustrated by that, and then ruin the rest of your run. Just bomb it all. You can perfect things after you get your 1cc.

[RNG]

The initial phase really fucks me up because that's what sets the rhythm. I can do the circling towards the end but for some reason, even if I start at one corner and move at the second buzz I tend to fuck things up from the very start. I'm confident I could do the card fine if I got down the first 3 rings but due to Murasa's random position at the start I have no idea what to do :derp:

I also managed captures of Vajra, Aura of Justice and Complete Clarification today so bye-bye to my goose-egg record on Shou. In fact, I think that run was a NM2B of the entire Shou fight!

[Cor]

You start Dipper on the opposite side of where Murasa spawns the first time, then you make her spawn into a corner on that side, then you go from corner to corner to corner to corner etc.

[Zengeku]

Sylphae Horn High Level is wrecking me. Is there any strategy to this or do I just get lucky?

Also, does anyone have a score.dat file with Lunatic Stage 4 unlocked for MarisaB?

[I have no name]

I actually have one!  (2nd clear was with MarisaB)

That card is just dodging bullets, nothing more to it.

[Goldom]

I need help with Earth/Galaxy in a Pot. It's the only card in the game that still gives me trouble even on Easy, where I have about a 50% success rate - and about 10% on Normal, 0% Hard/Lunatic. There's just something about the way the shots come that I never notice I'm in the path of one. Is there anything to it?

[nintendonut888]

I need help with Earth/Galaxy in a Pot. It's the only card in the game that still gives me trouble even on Easy, where I have about a 50% success rate - and about 10% on Normal, 0% Hard/Lunatic. There's just something about the way the shots come that I never notice I'm in the path of one. Is there anything to it?

For both Earth in a Pot and Galaxy in a Pot, you want to take out as many familiars as you can before hand. Try shooting out the top four or five while it's forming around you. This creates a blind spot in the formation that keeps you from getting totally surrounded. Other than that, the only thing to keep in mind is that, from my knowledge, the familiars fire in a counter-clockwise order. I'm pretty sure there's an order to how they fire, so you can somewhat predict their attack from that.

[Goldom]

Heh, well switching to Marisa, just like with Entombing, wipes out half the familiars in no time and makes it a lot easier (though I still keep getting blindsided). Unfortunately with my preferred Border team, Reimu can only take down 1-2 of them before they fire.

[Zil]

Those two spells are actually very different. IIRC, Earth in a Pot shoots random bullets while Galaxy in Pot aims them at you, making it notably easier. In both cases, starting out very low on the screen will make some familiars go off the bottom and vanish. Further, in Galaxy in Pot, if you destroy some familiars and them stream towards/away from the gap in the circle. no bullets will be aimed at you from that spot (which is to say, along the same line as your movement), making the streaming much easier. Against Earth in a Pot, if you destroy a few familiars near the top, take their place in the ring, and then follow it along as it expands, you'll have to deal with far fewer bullets, and they will all be coming from (basically) one direction rather than all around you.

That's what I remember doing anyway. Reimu and Yukari can't really take the familiar destroying approach as well as the Magic and Ghost teams.

[Zengeku]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whn_KJV9r6s&t=0m50s

This is how I handle Earth in a Pot. I capture it consistently like this. Move in a circle like I do and dodge the things that remain. It's a bit tricky to get it down but thanks to spell practice you should be able to get the hang of it quickly.

[Goldom]

I somehow didn't realize the two were actually different patterns, I thought Galaxy was just denser. Realizing that and streaming instead, I'm doing a ton better with Galaxy. Earth is still a challenge, but I did get it on Hard once now, which is better than before. Thanks.