IN hard Reimu solo; any tips?

[Milkyway64]

This is driving me crazy. I can make it to Final B consistently, but my resources are usually drained to no lives and a few bombs. Here's a general outline of my usual run;

Stage 1:

9 times out of ten I get through without dying or bombing. I'm good here.

Stage 2:

6 times out of ten I beat this without bombing/dying as well. However, for some reason the horned owl spellcard has been killing me more often when before, I've had no problems.

Stage 3: It all goes to hell here, starting at First Pyramid. By the end of the stage I use about 8 bombs total, losing two lives. The noncards and Legend of Gensokyo get me more than the others, though.

Stage 4: I hate Marisa so much, and the stage before her. I use 2 bombs on average on the non boss parts, and then from there I either have an easy time (Event Horizon/Starlight Typhoon'Double spark = cake, even though my strat for that last one uses one bomb) and then others, like Asteroid Belt, Shoot the moon, and some of her noncards, make me use two bombs at a time, and that doesn't even count deathbombs, in which case it'd be 3.

Stage 5:

The actual stage part of it is pretty tame, but Tewi wrecks me. At least, her first noncard does. The second I can get 3/4ths of the time. Reisen seems to be a mixed bag to me, she used to be very difficult, but now if I'm lucky I can get away with only using 2 bombs. Otherwise, it's like Keine and I get destroyed.

Stage 6:

If I'm lucky, I have about 3 lives, 2 bombs to last me with another one coming from the points the enemies drop. Most of the time, though, I have nothing. I die before even reaching Kaguya. Since you actually have to beat a stage to practice it, I can't do much here, just hope for the best. The farthest I have made it so far is Hourai Jewel, which I managed by lucking out/bomb spamming the Divine Treasures. If I can make it that far, I know I'm capable of finishing this, but I need a little help. I'm pretty frustrated, I've been at this for a week or two and stopped showing consistent progress a long while back. Any good survival tips? Any good strats for some of the more difficult cards, like Legend of Gensokyo?

[DarkslimeZ]

If you're having that much trouble with Keine, then I suggest practicing stage 3 a lot. Most of her spell/non-cards are nothing to worry about, so make sure you have that down.

And Marisa is tough. All the advice I can offer you there is to practice practice her spell cards. Try not to death-bomb; see if you can tell where you're going to die/usually die and bomb there before a bullet hits you. Also, start at the very left on Shoot The Moon and work your way over to the right; since Reimu has homing, you should be able to get her that way.

Bomb Tewi is all the advice I received. Unfortunately, for team characters her second attack is easier than her first, but with Reimu solo, there's no way of making her familiars transparent.

Anyway, once you have Stage 3 down pat, you'll be a lot better off for the rest of the game. Hope this helped

[Milkyway64]

Reimu doesn't need to worry about familiar damage, so I'm good there.

I'll work on Keine, and thanks for the shoot the moon advice. My current strategy ivloved rushing back and forth to make the stars scatter, letting me slip through to repeat the process. The lasers coming from below made that difficult, though...

[Milkyway64]

'K. I am now making it to Kaguya very consistently, but I keep dying. This challenge is officially harder than Extra.

I'm just going to keep going, but damn, this is stopping being fun real fast.

[Milkyway64]

I won! Yes!

As it turns out, I lacked 2 important things. DO NOT DEATHBOMB, more bombs > less but more powerful bombs. That was VERY important.

Second, I should have sang moar. I freestyled the BGM for Kaguya and rocked through the entire thing. YES.

[Zengeku]

Start with 7 lives. Then you can't lose!

[Helepolis]

Good you beaten the Reimu solo hard. And yea, trick is to bomb more instead of death bombing =.= Have fun with Spellcard 216.

[Alice Fact]

Start with 7 lives. Then you can't lose!

Actually you can, and that's not fair.

Also milkyway, I think you're crazy for using Reimu Solo. I hate playing IN with a solo human, hate it.

[Milkyway64]

Start with 7 lives. Then you can't lose!

Actually you can, and that's not fair.

Also milkyway, I think you're crazy for using Reimu Solo. I hate playing IN with a solo human, hate it.

She has her perks. I only did it because a last word demanded I did it anyway.

In any case, as of now, I have all Last Words unlocked. I feel accomplished.

[Alice Fact]

Cool. If you got any scores or whatnot just post them. And I'll take your "Last Words captured/Last Words available" numbers too.

Yes but the familiars, the familiars man! Think of the children! That's just harsh, especially with the Reimu fight (but then that wouldn't be solo Reimu so you might be good).

[Milkyway64]

Only problems familiars can cause to solo Reimu are blocking shots, which makes Hourai Jewel almost impossible to capture, I've only been able to time it out both attempts. Reimu's special ability lets her pass through familiars unharmed.

I don't play much for score, I go for survival/completion. At the moment, I have all last words unlocked and a little over a quarter of them captured.

[Alice Fact]

Oh damn, I forgot about that ability. I thought it was the "longer border of l/d" like in PCB. Carry on.

Being a jerk, going for the cards is about halfway down the road of scoring.

[Helepolis]

Somebody explain me how to do Return life spring infinity. That card is just TOO much to even try.

[Milkyway64]

Oh damn, I forgot about that ability. I thought it was the "longer border of l/d" like in PCB. Carry on.

I think she still has that ability, but that might be Yukari this time around.

Being a jerk, going for the cards is about halfway down the road of scoring.

Point taken, but I still care more about the marker showing the particular card was completed/satisfaction of winning on X difficulty over a numerical value.

That said, I have once or twice gotten excited for breaking... 1 billion? on easy. >___>

Somebody explain me how to do Return life spring infinity. That card is just TOO much to even try.

Stay in the middle of the screen, hope like hell the stars don't get you. Going higher gives you more room, but it also gives Kaguya a good chance to nail you with the balls she spreads in all directions but down, or her body.

[Helepolis]

Somebody explain me how to do Return life spring infinity. That card is just TOO much to even try.

Stay in the middle of the screen, hope like hell the stars don't get you. Going higher gives you more room, but it also gives Kaguya a good chance to nail you with the balls she spreads in all directions but down, or her body.

Hoping is not valid.

I mean doing it without dying or bombing. As I cannot remember many people who posted replays/movies of someone capturing that card on hard/lunatic. I bumped into some japanese movie where he showed all annoying lunatic cards such as Keine's 1st spell, Reimu's Hakurei border and Fantasy seal blink etc. But those are nothing compared to Return life infinity.

[Alice Fact]

Youkai do not have abilities, only humans, unless team skills are considered coming from the youkai (what). The Border team skills do not include a longer counter time.

[Zetzumarshen]

I think reading BaitySM's hints about Life Spring Infinity helps. It's on the 2nd or 3rd page of Spellcard Help Topic thread.

May be a timeout replay helps?

[LHCling]

Might as well throw a recent (i.e. just then) replay in.
http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=3847
Or two.
http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=3850 (Remember, we're talking about IN Hard)
Somebody's uploading a load of StB scenes.

This sums it up.

The tip? Stay under Kaguya. Don't worry about the lasers spawning, but worry about the lasers disappearing. They take an exceedingly large amount of time to start up, and have (not as much, but still there) a rather mild delay time (in which they "disappear"). The stars I trust you know how to do. It's a matter of reading for gaps.

And from the second post:

Also, I forgot to add that every time Kaguya fires the familiar (+2 broken rings), she will always move towards you in terms of the horizontal direction. Never directly vertically. She can and will move diagonally and horizontally though. So it is safe standing directly underneath (center of sprite as well, for directing purposes).

The stars unfortunately, is all about reading them coming from below you. Which is the reason why most people seem to clip them. Preventing Kaguya from moving in the same horizontal direction twice (hint: she "follows" you) might help you to keep a rhythm going.

[Zengeku]

Start with 7 lives. Then you can't lose!

Actually you can, and that's not fair.

No, but it does unlock the spellcard which is the only reason you would ever think of playing Reimu Solo on Hard difficulty. The familiars makes dealing damage almost impossible when compared to using a youkai partner. In the end the game isn't very fun playing as Reimu Solo. You'd want to go through it once for the last word and never do it again. That's why there is no reason not to use 7 lives. Its not something you'd want to try several times to do.

[Heartbeam]

Such a setup also exists for the extra challenge just like no focus and no bomb self-imposed handicaps.  I can't argue against starting with seven lives if the intent is completion through any means.

[Helepolis]

No, but it does unlock the spellcard which is the only reason you would ever think of playing Reimu Solo on Hard difficulty. The familiars makes dealing damage almost impossible when compared to using a youkai partner. In the end the game isn't very fun playing as Reimu Solo. You'd want to go through it once for the last word and never do it again. That's why there is no reason not to use 7 lives. Its not something you'd want to try several times to do.

Actually, I am currently slowly trying to 1CC with Reimu solo Hard with default lives. It is quite the challange. And fun is for everybody different, as I personally hate to challange the games for scoring. Scoring is not my way of fun.

[ghost333]

i hate reimu her speed is very weird for me.
anyway i tried default lifes too but i went for a score run...
i was disapointed and discouraged from my messy stage 3-4 so i just comleted for i dont know whose sake.
http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=3926
a lot of simple tricks against some tough spells i hope it can help people
(damn that stage 4!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRAAAAAAAUHHHH :E RAGE~)

[Helepolis]

You really lost your motivation indeed at Marisa. Noticeable when you bombed on Stardust reverie  :V

Still I am quite amazed how Scoring people play compared to people who take challanges. Scoring looks way more hyperactive because of trying to graze many bullets.

Let me watch the videos of Return Life spring infinity.

EDIT: Oh my god . . . No wonder I have trouble with this card. I am doing it at the bottom of the screen instead of near Kaguya. 

* Helepolis bashes head against table a few times.

[Arcengal]

I remember doing this challenge. I would get to stage 6 with about 4 lives and finish 0/x because either Reimu or myself would be complete unable to deal with anything Kaguya did. Mandatory time-out of Hourai Doll is pretty bad.