I can't beat MoF on normal

[Helix ⑨]

Yep that's right, which was said to be the easiest of all touhous, I cant even beat it on normal. Let me just give you an example of my runs, in stage 1 through 5 I get like 1 or 2 deaths max. So I reach the last stage with like 4-5 lives, I flawlessly clear the stage and then I reach the boss. And then it all turns into shit, pretty much all her cards are way too hard compared to the rest of the game, even the easy ones with those tiny balls, their hitbox is like twice their visual so I get hit and lose a life. 1 or 2 of these silly mistakes means I can't 1cc it, well no problem I just continue.

And then? I have to do the same freaking stage with 2 lives... so I flawlessly do the stage again and then I reach the boss, and it doesn't matter wich card it is there will be at least one which I fuck up. fucking up means losing a life, losing a life means I only have 1 left, so eventually I cant bomb spam anymore and im left with 0 lives on the last card. Which is the most insane crap I've ever seen on normal, it lasts like 7 minutes and the boss barely takes any damage, using a bomb causes me to lose 1 power which reduces the damage even more! So I try to dodge those things but they are way too fast, so eventually I do hit one by accident, and there's no way I can still bomb once I'm hit.

So, how the fuck do I do this stage? I watched a replay of some1 and he was like the biggest noob ever, he bomb spammed every single card without hesitation and then for some miraculous reason he perfects the last card. I really need tips, espescially on the last card, even if I reach it I am sure to die anyway.

[Heartbeam]

I may be wrong about this, but do you continue to receive extends after a score reset from continuing?  You could follow a scoring route for the last stage (very simple) and have enough resources to live through her last spell after bomb spamming everything else.  Bomb, bomb it all then you're free to fuck up with zero power.

I watched a replay of some1 and he was like the biggest noob ever, he bomb spammed every single card without hesitation and then for some miraculous reason he perfects the last card.

Ah...was this with Marisa C and was it a timeout of the last spell?

Oh yes, what type are you using?

[Helix ⑨]

Gah! I just beat it but how I did it was just insane, I reached the last boss with 2 lives and some power (pretty much all my recources) and I beat her with 0,10 power left and 0 lives. I was using ReimuB (I also tried ReimuA). The last spell is just too insane for me.
Scoring route sounds interesting, when I continue the score resets back to 0 (well 9 actually) and I get like 3/4 of the points needed for 20k points (which I think is another life).

Also what are those green item pick ups? That point item meter at the bottom left of the screen? And any other tips on how to get more points? (because the guy in the replay I watched had over twice as many points as I did. (I reached stage 6 with 1,2 billion))

[Heartbeam]

http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Mountain_of_Faith:_Gameplay does a far better job than anything I can type up in the next 20 minutes.  Just to quickly cover though, green (faith) items affect your point item meter, among other things.  For more points, know when to bomb in such heavy areas where it would be otherwise near-impossible to hog the POC.

[?q]

Surviving in Mountain of Faith is a matter of bombing before dying.  The more times you die needlessly before Stage 6, the fewer lives you'll have to lose to Kanako's last card.  Fortunately it seems like you have this well in hand for the first five stages.
What that means is that it's okay to bomb Kanako's second and third spells to perdition and back if you can pick up maybe all but one of the other attacks.  If you can do that you should be able to keep enough power to reach Kanako's rain card (which will probably cost two bombs) without dying, and then go for broke on the last spell card.

@Heartbeam:  Yes, after continues you will receive extends at all the appropriate point values.

Scoring in MoF made easy:
*Grab green Faith items
*Bomb areas where there are a lot of bullets
*Bomb if you can't grab all the falling items

[Bananamatic]

I'd say that MoF is the third hardest after UFO and SA.....hard mode anyways.

[Helix ⑨]

So let me get this straight, this game actually encourages bombing? I was dodging most of the hard crap and feeling proud while it really would've been better to just bomb it?

[Esoterica]

I'd say that MoF is the third hardest after UFO and SA.....hard mode anyways.

Really?  It was my last normal 1cc (barring SA and UFO which I swear are impossible) and my first hard 1cc.

It really becomes a lot easier once you learn just how much of the game is streaming and when to bomb.

[Drake]

I watched a replay of some1 and he was like the biggest noob ever, he bomb spammed every single card without hesitation and then for some miraculous reason he perfects the last card.

Sorry, but I lol'ed really hard.

Yeah, MoF pretty much encourages bombing. It gives you enough power items to spam, so take advantage of it.

[Sapz]

If you are unsure, BOMB.

bomb whenever you feel like you're going to get hit.

bombs: Use them.

The above is important.  We've all had so many runs ruined by losing 3 bombs (or, god forbid, 4+ bombs) by dying with them in stock.  Don't use them in a wasteful manner, but they're better used rather than left behind on your rotting corpse because you were overconfident in tackling a pattern.

Yeah, MoF pretty much encourages bombing. It gives you enough power items to spam, so take advantage of it.

This advice is even more crucial to MoF than any other Touhou game. MoF's danmaku in general is, I think, quite underrated in difficulty, but there's a good reason for it. That reason being that in an actual run you'll almost never actually need to attempt the difficult patterns, since you can bomb damn near everything. :V

You could feasibly get a 1cc on any difficulty of it capturing only around five spell cards. Hell, I'd be willing to bet it's doable with no captures at all. If you feel even mildly in danger in MoF, you may as well bomb, especially at 5.00 power. It's not like that extra 1.00 is going to do anything else, and you can regain it easily enough.

As for Kanako... the first card looks a lot more difficult than it actually is. Don't make things difficult by through to go between individual amulets, just treat it as a really slow streaming card and it'll become far easier. The second card is just bullet reading, but really clipdeath-y, so you may as well bomb that. The third card is total BS and should be bombed every time unless you're going for a capture. Fourth card is very irritating and while you can do it consistently it is, again, very clip-y so you might as well bomb that too. The final card requires practice, but after that it's very simple. Which waves she fires are random but there's set waves that she will send at you, and there will always be a gap somewhere. Don't be tempted to go through individual amulets. Other than that, just practice that card and learn how it works, and it'll become easy. The waves move pretty slowly so once you know what's going on it's pretty simple to dodge.

[nintendonut888]

Mountain of Faith, or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

[?q]

So let me get this straight, this game actually encourages bombing? I was dodging most of the hard crap and feeling proud while it really would've been better to just bomb it?

Well, in one sense it doesn't.
If you bomb EVERY attack, you'll run out of power pretty quickly - especially since some of Sanae and Kanako's cards will require more than one bomb if you go the ijji way.  And there have to be some attacks you can do safely, right?  (Right?)

Two other things worth noting.
1) Aya drops an unusually high amount of Power - which is a good thing, because her first four attacks are made of hate and stalking people.
2) Just so you don't lose ALL of your faith in the game (get it?), maximum spell card bonuses are determined by the amount of Faith you have.  So bombing spell cards that you could otherwise do is definitely bad for score (except for Hina's midboss spell, but again, hate and stalking people).

[Helix ⑨]

thanks for the tips everyone, I just 1 CCed it (normal). had 3 lives and 5 power for the last spell, and I fucked up and lost 2 lives without being able to bomb, still made it tough

now for extra stage

[Zengar Zombolt]

You could feasibly get a 1cc on any difficulty of it capturing only around five spell cards. Hell, I'd be willing to bet it's doable with no captures at all.

Two captures here. I could have easily bombed those as well.

[Drake]

Hang on. I got this. This is so great.

[Zengar Zombolt]

Hang on. I got this. This is so great.

Oh, Oh
OH~
YES
DO I SMELL GODRAKE

[Nine West]

Hang on. I got this. This is so great.

Oh, Oh
OH~
YES
DO I SMELL GODRAKE

I expect results?

Oh, and strangely enough, I feel that MoF Normal is harder than SA and UFO Normal based on my playthroughs of them.

[ghost333]

waiting for one more regodplay...

[Drake]

waiting for one more regodplay...

http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=2368.0

[ghost333]

waiting for one more regodplay...

http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=2368.0

yea i just viewed it ...
lol
very nice stuff
does it work on lunatic? (i guess not )

[Drake]

It does, but the stage sections and the portions of the bosses that you don't bomb at are obviously tougher. There were only four, possibly five bombs that were left unused, and just because you don't bomb patterns early on doesn't mean you'll have those bombs later, as you'll get faith at max power instead of bombjuice.