The New Spellcard Help Thread

[jc_foster]

How is one supposed to capture Buddhist Art "Most Valuble Vajra" Easy?

From the point of view of someone who's never captured it ....

.... basically, make the circle around the screen as quickly as possible (you can cover at least 1/4-1/3 of the screen between each wave of bullets, I think) so you can get decent time under Shou on each pass. I believe the laser's movements after it goes off center are static (but don't quote me on that), so you can memorize and adjust appropriately.

Of course, it's generally accepted in any 1cc attempt to bomb this card six ways to Sunday (on Normal and higher, you get to deal with *two* lasers -.-) and move on.

Edit: Replay. I (accidentally) time the card out, but at least it's a demonstration of the circling and laser movements. And ignore the rest of the stage. -.-

[8lue Wizard]

I believe the laser's movements after it goes off center are static (but don't quote me on that), so you can memorize and adjust appropriately.

It most certainly is not. Observe. (stupideath halfway through, 'cuz I'm out of practice, but you get the idea.)

[?q]

The center of the Vajra lasers moves to your current position.  This is why on Normal and up staying too close to the corners will cause the lasers to "swing" more quickly than you can get out of the way and/or box you in.

[jc_foster]

OK, thanks, both of you. I'm usually too busy panicing /bombing that card to play close attention to it.

[R-9A2 Delta]

Anything on DS stage 10.

[yoshicookiezeus]

Does that include 10-1? Because that's the only one I have beaten from that level, and it's pretty easy once you know how to do it.

Basically, you want to sit right next to Tenshi at all times, and take your pictures right when she spawns the bullets all around you. If done correctly, you'll only have a few small red bullets to worry about. Well, that and Tenshi moving into you; so don't be too close when she's not about to spawn bullets.

And I think I might have some advice for 10-2, even though I haven't beaten it yet: the laser clusters are aimed at the location you were at when they were first spawned. And 10-4 is just alternating between the left and right sides of the screen so that the giant stars won't rotate towards you.

[ebarrett]

Anything on DS stage 10.

These "everything" requests are strange. I get the impression that people aren't even trying before coming here. Anyway:

10-1: sit under Tenshi, just don't get stepped on when she moves, and watch for random small bullets moving upwards.
10-2: lasers are aimed at your position when the "nice shot" sound goes off. just listen and move away before they're near.
10-3: read and dodge. if you need more advice than this, you have no business in stage 10.
10-4: left, right, left, right, etc.; always moving to the center when dodging the small yellow stars helps a lot.
10-5: if you're not going for score, streaming in the bottom does the trick.
10-6: read and dodge, but it's harder than it looks. don't be afraid of moving horizontally yourself.
10-7: read and dodge, but it's easier than it looks if you're not going for score; one picture during the laser, one inbetween, repeat. of course, if you're uncomfortable with Aya's focused speed, it won't be easier than it looks.
10-8: stay close to Iku, a bit to the right; this way instead of dodging both "waves" at weird angles at once, you get the first almost vertically and the second almost horizontally with little to no overlapping.

[R-9A2 Delta]

These "everything" requests are strange. I get the impression that people aren't even trying before coming here. Anyway:

10-1: sit under Tenshi, just don't get stepped on when she moves, and watch for random small bullets moving upwards.
10-2: lasers are aimed at your position when the "nice shot" sound goes off. just listen and move away before they're near.
10-3: read and dodge. if you need more advice than this, you have no business in stage 10.
10-4: left, right, left, right, etc.; always moving to the center when dodging the small yellow stars helps a lot.
10-5: if you're not going for score, streaming in the bottom does the trick.
10-6: read and dodge, but it's harder than it looks. don't be afraid of moving horizontally yourself.
10-7: read and dodge, but it's easier than it looks if you're not going for score; one picture during the laser, one inbetween, repeat. of course, if you're uncomfortable with Aya's focused speed, it won't be easier than it looks.
10-8: stay close to Iku, a bit to the right; this way instead of dodging both "waves" at weird angles at once, you get the first almost vertically and the second almost horizontally with little to no overlapping.

I try, I'm just terrible.
Anyway, thanks! This really helped.

[Zengeku]

DS Level EX-2. Is there a strategy for this?

[Formless God]

Wow ... talk about good timing  (and you must've been the first to see it, yes ? :V)

Anyway, the trick to that spell is to include as many "familiars" in your photos as possible, then follow the gap you've just made in that ring of familiars while micrododging/charging.

[Zengeku]

Wow ... talk about good timing  (and you must've been the first to see it, yes ? :V)

Anyway, the trick to that spell is to include as many "familiars" in your photos as possible, then follow the gap you've just made in that ring of familiars while micrododging/charging.

Cool bro. Thanks for the assistance.

[Lybydose]

Not really a help request but uhhhh

Ghost Clifford.  Is this spell SUPPOSED to end in like 3 seconds?

On Easy/Normal I captured it before any bullets even reached me.  wtf?

[Heartbeam]

I don't know the exact cause behind it, but it's some form of a damage bug that steadily lowers the health of the boss whether or not you're shooting.  I've never experienced anything as extreme as your case...did you happen to save any of the runs?

It appeared to be exclusive to the Prismriver Sisters and in both practice and full game runs, but I thought I've seen it happen twice with Hanged Hourai Dolls (didn't record).  Further narrowing it down I've only seen it in action when you're facing a solo sister after the first trio spell.  Several times for Ghost Clifford and once with Merlin's noncard (following spell wasn't affected), once with Hino Phantasm Normal, three times for Lyrica's noncard (Normal only), and most recently once with both of Lunasa's attacks.

Before my guess was it had something to do with the activation of the border around when the boss loses her spell armor, but where does that leave all the other instances?  Tried it a few times for Ghost Clifford but something else may have been in play that caused the bug.  It did work, however.  That's all I've figured so far.



For the recent run there was no border during the noncard when the bug started, but one was activated later (didn't notice the bug at the time).  Why it continued to the next spell instead of stopping when it happened with Lyrica's noncard...who knows.  Because the attack timed out?


Edit: wrong replay.

[Lybydose]

I did not save the replay.  I was only going practice mode to capture a bunch of spellcards I've missed/failed.  I had never even seen Merlin's card on any of the four difficulties before now. 

Easy, Normal, and Hard all ended about 3 seconds after the initial spellcard immunity wore off.  Lunatic took slightly longer, like maybe 6-7 seconds.  These were (obviously) all on separate runs, and they were not back to back runs: I did a few stage 2, 3, 4 (Lunasa), and 5 (on various difficulties) runs in between those.  I did not close the game between any of them.  The runs fighting Lunasa didn't have any strange behavior with her spellcard.

I tried it again just now and it seems to behaving properly now.

EDIT:  forgot to mention I was using ReimuB and shooting focused from the bottom of the screen the entire time, while following Merlin's enemy marker.

[Zengeku]

I read these posts about Jaimers and Baity claiming Vajra of Perfect Buddhism Lunatic to be "not that bad".

How do you guys go about it then? I don't see how you are supposed to avoid that green laser crushing you. I have beaten it only two times over the course of 40 runs against it. Mostly because of the laser.

Also - about Shou's 2nd non-spell. I remember Baity giving the advice to move to the left or something to make the hardest wave easier. What do you mean? Go to the extreme left and dodge there? Or is it in fact just read and dodge with no tricks at all?

[Arcengal]

If you go to the extreme left (or right, which is much more difficult) during Shou's second non-spell, one of the diagonal sets of lasers becomes near vertical and much easier to dodge. Unfortunately you need to duck in and out to make this work and if Shou moves too far to the left it's moot anyway.

[Jaimers]

I read these posts about Jaimers and Baity claiming Vajra of Perfect Buddhism Lunatic to be "not that bad".

How do you guys go about it then? I don't see how you are supposed to avoid that green laser crushing you. I have beaten it only two times over the course of 40 runs against it. Mostly because of the laser.

If your dying because of the laser then your doing something wrong. The laser should be mostly a non-issue until the last 5 seconds of a timeout if you do it right.
If I die, it's always because I clipped a bullet.

How to do it right is hard to explain. It will just "click" after having done it for some time.
Try to avoid hugging the walls for too long and keep moving, only to stop when you have to wait for a laser to move or to shoot Shou for a bit.
If you have to move fast, you can "skip" a bullet by going in a straight line if it's in the way.

Spoiler:

this probably makes no sense

.

[LHCling]

Also - about Shou's 2nd non-spell. I remember Baity giving the advice to move to the left or something to make the hardest wave easier. What do you mean? Go to the extreme left and dodge there? Or is it in fact just read and dodge with no tricks at all?

Going to the extreme left (or right, YMMV) is somewhat counter-intuitive in the sense that you won't be doing any damage. However, it does certainly make each wave a fair bit easier. If you're using ReimuA / MarisaA / SanaeB, then your best bet is to actually try to stay underneath Syou as long as possible and POWER through the attack (provided you're at 4.00 Power though).

These days, I figured it would be much better to use a compromise and start a bit from the right when the first laser "cage" comes down, and then move diagonally upwards to the left if necessary. Unless it makes sense to move diagonally downwards to the right (this requires you to be able to quickly read the first "cage" while simultaneously looking at the third "cage" and the bullets fired as well; the third "cage" being a governing factor as to where the bullets are fired). This way, you have a much lower chance of clipping the second "cage". Of course, this also means get off the bottom.

Unfortunately you need to duck in and out to make this work and if Shou moves too far to the left it's moot anyway.

Fun fact: If she moves to the far left (and I'm talking nearing the edge of the screen here) then the second laser "cage" disappears entirely.

How to do it right is hard to explain.

It is indeed hard to explain. Because it's quite preferential as to how you approach this Spell Card. For instance, I never look at where my hitbox really is. I just use the sprite as an indicator; my eyes are actually focused on the bullets. Parse bullets, calculate movement, weave through and keep on circling. Well, I stop at certain points to redirect the lasers to those given points and to do maximum damage too of course.

When you smash your head against the wall said Spell Card enough times, you'll see the magic behind it.

[Arcengal]

Can someone please explain, in baby terms and without assuming I have any micrododging skills at all, how the hell you do Flying Fantastica / LFO consistantly? I captured Fantastica Normal blind and on my first try but I'm now 6/21 on Normal, a similar score on Hard and 0/16 on Lunatic. Even Easy isn't perfect.

[LHCling]

YMMV (you'll start to note that I use this a lot for UFO because a lot of Spell Cards are actually more dodge-based rather than memory-based; most tend to have key elements in them which I abuse use to my advantage though). I (tend to) use the left, up, right, down circling approach. Others use the misdirect up, down, up, down, etc., or even No Vert. Shotgunning also works, but beware the implications.

It's much easier to dodge amulets to the side. Fact. The downside is not dealing damage (or dealing a little bit less).

etc. etc. etc.

That said, a Forward Type seriously trivializes this Spell Card.

[Lopsidation]

If you're going for a 1cc, pacifist it. The blue waves are cake and you can bombspam the last 30 seconds.

If you're going for a capture, though, follow Baity's advice.

[Arcengal]

Also, the last picture in DS's Ex-3, where the difficulty quadruples or something stupid.

[Chronojet ⚙ Dragon]

Yuugi's spell card where the seemingly only thing you have to do is spin around her.

[CK Crash]

Yuugi's spell card where the seemingly only thing you have to do is spin around her.

Take the picture when the spell circle flashes, because that indicates when the spiral is going to go faster than normal. Go in tight squares around Yuugi instead of a "circle" (actually an octagon, making you smack into the spiral). Right after you take the picture, judge where the spiral is going to start again, and stay on the safe side of that spot.

[Ragnarok]

Wood & Fire Sign "Forest Blaze"  on hard

i always get cornerd in the left until i use a bomb or die -.- anyone got a tip?

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

If you must move, pick right over left.

[hyorinryu]

Utsuho Double Spoiler card where she drops suns on you two at a time.
My replay is here.

Momiji's 4-2 and Ichirin's 5-1 would be nice too.

[Krimmydoodle]

You didn't link an Utsuho replay, but I'll refer you to my post where I explain most of her cards (I'm not sure which card you're asking about, but I hope it's not 8-2, which is pretty much read/dodge).

4-2, I don't have much advice for you other than read and dodge, use a vertical camera (press x in case you don't know about that), and use long distance shots if necessary.

5-1 got a lot easier for me when I decided to graze all pink lasers to the left.  If you sit yourself to the left of an incoming pink laser, everything else will tend to go around you (this also goes for when she starts doing rapid waves).

[Chronojet ⚙ Dragon]

雷符「ライトニングフィッシュ」 (10-2)
要石「カナメファンネル」 (10-5)
They're the only ones I need to get 99/99 for Hatate.

[ふねん1]

Not so much help with the card itself, but how to unlock it. Remilia's Last Word. Supposedly I have to capture 30 Last Spells in Spell Practice to unlock it, but I've way exceeded that amount and it's still not open. Is there something I'm missing here?