Touhou Blogging Thread

[BT]

I think roughly the same amount of people are around but they just post less or have less reasons to.

[Wriggle]

the life of a dirty casual is good

I second this. I've only been watching replays and clearing Extras over and over by now. :V

[Zengeku]

^

[Mino ☆]

I'm now back to grinding for the infamously tedious goal of LNNN. Except, I don't view it as tedious. Sure, it requires a lot of patience, but in return, you get to play the patterns of that game you love so much over and over again. I had really surprised myself yesterday. After getting quickly inspired by Nindel and various Japanese players that have recently gotten "perfect" runs, it made me want to play too. So I did a stream as usual, and ended up getting that LNMNB1BB run. It finally dawned on me that I was close. That I was in reach of this run. But I wouldn't let myself get fooled. A LNNN run requires no mistakes at all. The unforgiving nature of it is what requires a lot of grinding and restarts. Every run that makes a mistake is immediately devalued and disqualified from perfection. I could easily be satisfied with my LNMNB1BB run. I only broke one border, which didn't cause any penalty outside of 10k cherry max. I didn't die, or bomb. I didn't fail any spellcards. I only broke one border on that infamously difficult barrage in PCB's stage 6 opener. But it's still not perfect. It's still not the run that I'm aiming for. I'm happy with it. But I've still got to reach for the true achievement. I'm this close. I can't back down.

What is LNNN? What does it take out of people to achieve? Is it just some full court shot that may not fall into its basket? Is it simply the flip of a coin that determines the outcome. There is a very low chance of success when attempting the run. Most of my streams and attempts aren't necessarily to even win. Since it's not expected that a victory will take place that day. That's what the surprise is for. The playing and viewing of LNNN is the suspense. It's the hype of getting to stage 5. It's the relaxation of replaying the familiar patterns over and over again. And then sometimes, a surprise happens. A victory happens. That's where the true satisfaction hits. You simply cannot rush a LNNN. Because you cannot predict when you will get the run. The biggest annoyance of LNNN is the lack of predictability. I could get it in my next attempt. Or I may not get it at all for months.

Because of the no mistake rule. It's possible that a LNNN can be prolonged for years just because the player continued making one silly mistake on each run. Is it possible that I could stockpile a bunch of one mistake runs before I've reached my goal? It's quite common for a few people I know. I want to get this run by the end of the year. But will I succeed? I couldn't imagine the satisfying feeling of having a LNNN under my belt. Nindel knows the feeling. And so do many other japanese players. I can only wonder what it's like for a player like Miduki to be able to say that he's perfected almost every game in the series.

I don't plan to give up on scoring and what not. I'm just really in the mood for working on LNNN. It's something that I want to do right now. And so it's what I'm doing right now. It's a simple goal in the end. Just get through the game without taking a hit or bombing. It may take forever to achieve, but the easygoing nature of not having to pull of stressful routes like in a score run makes it a bit easier to grind. It also means that your attempts will likely get farther, since the first few stages are usually not difficult in survival terms.

After I get PCB LNNN done. My next survival goal will be TD LNNN. It's a nice, relaxing game. Though it can be very stressful sometimes.

[Zengeku]

Okay, I have many Touhou related goals yet to accomplish but I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a break from them and play other non-Touhou shmups. This is not because that Touhou is burning me out even though it sort of is the case but rather because that my laptop is giving me some terrifying issues with the controls. Every credit i've been playing recently has had this issue of Reimu just moving straight in one direction until that key is pressed again.

This happens with no warning and is pretty much a guaranteed death every time. This makes my current goal of getting an EoSD LNB, hopefully one that doesn't suck too much ass, pretty much unachievable. On top of that, sometimes my computer just won't accept input at all, again until i release the key and press it again. This isn't a placebo thing i just use as an excuse for not being able to dodge things, no i finally managed to get concrete evidence for it today as i for some reason found myself holding the button. I kept the up-key pressed but it didn't move until i released it and pressed it again.

These circumstances are not sufficient for playing Touhou. I know people say that laptops aren't really good for Touhou and that's definitely something I believe in too. I don't have the money to purchase myself a desktop though so I won't be able to do that. And this laptop doesn't come equipped with PS/2 slot either so that option is out of the question as well. I'll still keep in touch with the part of the Touhou community that i commonly associate with and I will probably still make some less restrictive runs and keep practicing but i think from now on, I'll have to concentrate my efforts on 360 shmups. I have plenty of ideas i want to toy with in that regard. Possibly DFK ura clear, Futari Spiritual Larsa clear, getting that EspGaluda 2 1cc and kicking Hibachi's cute butt in SDOJ.

As for Touhou, I had hopes of improving my LNBs of PCB, IN, MoF, SA and UFO and of course, get an LNB in EoSD. My ambitions for these games are pretty restrictive so as previously mentioned, I can't really afford to die to hardware failure. I have 6 miss on all those except EoSD and UFO. I would like to achieve 3 miss or better in PCB, IN, MoF and SA. Something that I seriously think I can do in terms of skill, given how i've had runs in all of them that just had some regrettable failures. For UFO and EoSD I had hoped for LNBNV and 4MNB respectively but let's just bloody clear EoSD first shall we :V

See, it actually quite bugs me that I am faced with so many issues. I am by nature a person who tends to perform pretty poorly under stress so I have to put in a lot of effort before things start to turn out good. It feels bad to be punished for putting in by that effort by your computer pulling nasty tricks on you. Yet, it also feels bad to give up on these or even just postpone them. It will inevitably feel like it was things i simply wasn't strong enough to accomplish even though you should think that hardware issues would be a perfectly good reason to let them wait for a while.

Getting accomplishments like these are important to me too. I am kinda impatient to get them actually. You could say almost desperate to reach improvement since those sorts of victories are about the only ones a poor lost soul like myself gets. I know that I am good enough to achieve better things than what I have and therefore I want to do it. Not doing them will make me feel bad about myself. Like i'm leaving behind unfinished business. Shmups are the final remaining thing of value that the world hasn't denied me yet so I feel bad for not doing them even though I have a perfectly good excuse... Eheh, fuck I think I'm going in circles here. I'll just hit post before this post gets long enough to endanger wild lolis.

[Mero]

It's been quite a while since I got my very first Lunatic 1cc in IN, and since then I've gotten it on other games, currently only missing EoSD, UFO and (for some reason) TD. I initially intended to have a L1cc on every game, which I can most definitely get on EoSD and TD (in fact my last try on both games gameovered on the last spell), I just don't feel motivated to try, but UFO... well, UFO is a special case.

If you had asked me just a few days ago if I liked UFO, I would have told you that I fucking hate it, but you see, I had a similar case with another game before, SA. I used to hate SA because I felt that it was unfair, the patterns were just plain cheap, Orin was a bitch and Yamame was just stupid, but then I started watching some people play the game and, well, enjoying it, and decided to give SA a chance, and now it's one of my favorite games, and one I can expect to have a clear of most of the time.

Now, where am I going with this? well, put simply, I decided to give UFO another chance and realized two things:1. I actually like UFO and 2. I was only led to believe otherwise because I suck at the game.

UFO is a very difficult game to me, not because of the patterns (they're still a big part of it, but not the main reason), but because of the UFO system, I know, it's a relatively simple system and, if used effectively, it can give as many resources as you may possibly need and more, but that's precisely the problem, I don't know how to use it effectively, hell, I don't even know how to add it to my playstyle, and that is what screws me over when playing UFO, I get hasty and try to get the tokens before they change color, only to have a bullet hit me in the face, not making it in time and/or grabbing a stray token along the way and end up grabbing the wrong color, ruining the current chain, which leads me to the biggest mistake, I restart, which leads to me getting frustrated and burned out really fast.

As I said before, the patterns also play a big part in this, particularly the bosses', because the penalty for getting hit is too high for me, losing 1 full power from 4 to 3 is not that bad, but from 3 to 2 I feel like I'm barely scratching the boss, which makes me want to bomb, essentially just wasting resources, not to mention it really throws off my game and I start dying stupidly, a lot.

For this two reasons, I started playing on Hard rather than Lunatic (because Normal is too forgiving with my recklessness), so I can get the hang of this game and (hopefully) soon try for a Lunatic 1cc.



heh, this wasn't as long as I thought it would be...

[Drake]

UFO is a very difficult game to me, not because of the patterns (they're still a big part of it, but not the main reason), but because of the UFO system, I know, it's a relatively simple system and, if used effectively, it can give as many resources as you may possibly need and more, but that's precisely the problem, I don't know how to use it effectively, hell, I don't even know how to add it to my playstyle, and that is what screws me over when playing UFO, I get hasty and try to get the tokens before they change color, only to have a bullet hit me in the face, not making it in time and/or grabbing a stray token along the way and end up grabbing the wrong color, ruining the current chain, which leads me to the biggest mistake, I restart, which leads to me getting frustrated and burned out really fast.

Acknowledging you aren't doing it well and what you aren't doing well is a big step towards being able to do it well. Two tips if you haven't heard them before,
- Getting near a UFO without grabbing will halt its timer, so it won't change color and will last on the screen longer. You can use this to make sure of a color or to manipulate a color switching in at a good time.
- One of the great parts about the UFO system is that if you grab a mismatching color, you can easily grab the last color, generate a UFO and get two new rainbow tokens. Considering you probably weren't going to want that last color, you lose nothing besides your mistaken token and some time.

Also, using a bomb to blow up a UFO and collect two life items or a full bomb item, is always worth it, if you think it's too dangerous to attempt grabbing a token or the items without cover. Letting UFOs go sucks but you can make up for it. Can't make up for dying.

losing 1 full power from 4 to 3 is not that bad, but from 3 to 2 I feel like I'm barely scratching the boss, which makes me want to bomb, essentially just wasting resources, not to mention it really throws off my game and I start dying stupidly, a lot.

This is a common complaint that doesn't actually have any basis, besides in perception. It's mostly in your mind; the decrease in power from 4.00 to 1.00 with ReimuA is roughly five seconds on one 20-second card, given all shots are hitting. The real impact is that you have less spread and less bullets onscreen to take out enemies in the stages.

[Star King]

These circumstances are not sufficient for playing Touhou. I know people say that laptops aren't really good for Touhou and that's definitely something I believe in too. I don't have the money to purchase myself a desktop though so I won't be able to do that. And this laptop doesn't come equipped with PS/2 slot either so that option is out of the question as well.

Have you tried simply a USB keyboard? I think the issue with laptops may be the built-in keyboard. Could be wrong though.

If not you could buy a PS2 (or whatever you want) -> USB adapter online.

[Alcoraiden]

Am I the only one who actually likes Sukuna and her fight?  :ohdear:

Sukuna is an awesome boss fight....er, because most of her stuff is quite bearable for poor sods like me who can't handle, say, Yuyuko or Kanako. ^^; Or Utsuho.

Speaking of which, I had someone tell me once that Utsuho was a "mid-tier final boss" and that Yuyuko and Kanako and so on were so much harder. I call BS, because I have 3cc-ed PCB and consistently can get to Kanako's final spell. Utsuho murders me in the first two spells no matter what. I don't even.

I really wish ZUN would return to "points give you extra lives." UFOs and "autocollect bonuses" and so forth just make you greedy and die because of it. I want to go back to 6 and 8 and all that, where I just had to get massive numbers of points. ^^; Also, 10 encouraged people to never continue, because who can beat Kanako with 2 lives on a continue that couldn't 1cc the game? I know I stockpile lives and can't beat her even going in there with 3 or 4. That's a little lame. Now I can't practice her fight because I can't 1cc the game...and I wouldn't need to practice if I could.

[I have no name]

Sukuna is an awesome boss fight....er, because most of her stuff is quite bearable for poor sods like me who can't handle, say, Yuyuko or Kanako. ^^; Or Utsuho.

Sukuna is the 2nd or 3rd hardest final boss, behind Byakuren and maybe Remilia.

Kanako isn't harder than Utsuho, she's one of the easiest final bosses, having only 3 challenging attacks (1st non, 4t spell and VoWG).  Utsuho however is one of the easier as well, having only a couple tough attacks (namely, 1st spell, 2nd non and 2nd spell).  Her 4th and 5th can be tough until you get them down, but honestly, Okuu's difficulty is all at the start.  Yuyuko is an odd case in that she shouldn't be that hard, but I have so much trouble consistently getting anything she has, it's annoying.
Kaguya is pretty rough too, but I can get about half her stuff reliably, likewise with Eirin.  Remilia falls in the same boat.
Byakuren is just outright brutal, though I can at least do everything she has some of the time.
But Sukuna...idk, she's just not fun.  Her first non is fine, if you get a bad wave you can just bomb it but it's not that bad.  It's just bland.  First spell?  Annoying RNG micrododging.  It's easy when the gaps align, but more often than not you have to pull stupid micrododging to get through the smaller gaps.  It's not a fun type of dodging, and I fail the card on normal fairly often, while capturing it in my lunatic 1cc.  Seriously, this difficulty is so random.  2nd nonspell I have no problems with other than it takes forever to die and is again, very bland.  2nd spell...the growing bullets is a really cool idea, but the fact that it boils down to have a path learned or get walled on higher difficulties just makes it annoying again, another obstacle that must be surpassed, not another fun attack to face.  3rd nonspell pointblanks you with first bullets, unless I'm missing something.  3rd spell is fine honestly, I'm just really bad at the restreaming of it.  4th nonspell, like the 3rd spell, last a bit long and the lasers end up going nearly horizontal, making easy blindsides.  This is more a personal complaint, but I really don't like fast lasers, especially not coming from the side.  4th spell is cool but AGAIN boils down to memorize a path/strat or die.  AND it's very very clippy due to the nature of it-you can be hit even when nothing touches your hitbox with Sakuya/Marisa, because the player hitbox is suddenly bigger than the hitbox sprite.  5th spell is really really fun, but if you don't kill it quick you can't really deal with it and have to die/bomb.  Nothing against the card itself though.  and the final spell is just awful, taking very varying amounts of time by shot type (38 seconds-56 seconds, or more, haven't done it with SakuyaB), not being bomb immune (ReimuA smashes through it) and being full of very clip-happy glowy bullets.  If you know to move between 3 points most of the card isn't an issue but if even one green orb comes your way, you have to improvise something to go through either a small kunai gap or deal with the overlarge hitboxes.  It's just not a fun fight.

[Zengeku]

Have you tried simply a USB keyboard? I think the issue with laptops may be the built-in keyboard. Could be wrong though.

If not you could buy a PS2 (or whatever you want) -> USB adapter online.

Yeah, i've considered both options though I'm told that USB keyboards have the same issues too and I'm afraid that there might be some delay with using adapters but it is still probably something that would be worthwhile looking into

[Seppo Hovi]

Remilia > Kaguya > Byakuren > Kanako/Yuyuko/Sukuna > Utsuho/Miko > Eirin.

Obviously, listing hardest bosses and arguing about them is extremely silly, since a lot of bias goes into each list, depending on amounts of practice given to each boss.

Everyone can have their opinions, but you must remember that they are subjective, including your views. You may point out that your view on the matter is different, but respect the opinions of others nevertheless; they probably are honest about their observations, no matter how unreal it might seem to you.

[chirpy13]

Played some LLS today, found some new strats on midboss Kurumi and stage 5 Yuka.  I think a B score on normal should be more than possible now.  This also makes 999 graze possible on all stages except 1 and 2... We'll see about 2 later.  I should start doing full runs again someday.

EDIT: Pacifism is kinda cool.  Reached almost 700 graze on stage 1 and 950ish on stage 2 so far on Hard.  999 is definitely possible on Hard but probably won't pay off (I'll see if there's a way around this), but it's doubtful on Normal.  Maybe.  I had an idea for another Kurumi graze on the boss, but I haven't bothered to check if it's static yet.

[Suika]

Trying to get back into 2hu by clearing normals, the only problem is that I suck at using bombs.

[Mesarthim]

So I fight another round of Lunatic AI in Hopeless Masquerade...

THIS was the result.

Many facepalms to be had.

Edit: So I reproduced this a few more times and even on Mamizou Lunatic AI I was doing just right to where I kept countering and earning popularity. I even finished with a last word...

[I have no name]

Double Spoiler practice has been going better than expected-I decided to see if going for 9-7 in a marathon setting would be reliable enough...and cleared it after 21 shots.  Then again 11 shots later.  And again 38 later.  It shows I'm reliable ENOUGH at the card to go for, with full understanding that it's not a guarantee.  Even still, I'm going for it.  The hype will be reward enough if I get it.

[Alcoraiden]

My boss difficulty would be Utsuho > Yuyuko > Kanako/Byakuren > Remilia > Sukuna > Eirin. I haven't played TD enough to place Miko. Utsuho is just freaking impossible to me. >< I can't even get past her first couple of spell cards. Granted, this is coming from someone who has only 1CC-ed two of the games on Normal, and one of them was 4. ^^; (4 and 8.) So I'm not exactly great at Touhou.

My goals now are really just to 1CC more things. I'm getting annoyed at the "can't practice a level until you beat it" thing, because really now, I need to practice *so* I can beat it. Pretty sure this is why I haven't beaten Kanako yet. I may get my friend to beat the game so I can practice it. But yeah, I'm not exactly good at these games. I know way more about the universe than I do about how to play the games.

[chirpy13]

LLS not treatin' me right today.  Or yesterday.  Or the day before.  But today too.  I'll talk about today I think.  Normal was a dick.  Got past stage 1 once after a few dozen tries, messed up Kurumi, and couldn't get past stage 1 again in another 50 or so tries.  Feeling upset I gave Lunatic a go, got to Orange first try, 2 missed her like a moron, and spent another few dozen tries taking potshots from passing ghosts and fairies.  This is the number one reason I hate Lunatic in this game.  Enemies only shoot out one bullet (3-way sometimes, but nevermind that), but you have no clue when or where it will happen.  One second you're getting in something's face to pop it off and grab its point item, and instead it pops you in the face first.  Hard and below are so much more reliable... Ah well.  Getting past that, I tried Extra.  Extra went better, but not great.  I'm a lot more consistent at Ex than I am at stage 1, which is nice.  What wasn't nice was Gengetsu.  Her first and second phases are such assholes sometimes.  Half the time her first will just make some really dense layer of bullets that all lines up in a way that's bound to kill you most of the time.  I'm getting a little better at these but shit, they're still stupid.  ZUN needs to build a time machine, go back 15 years, and tell his former self to playtest his shit more.  Second phase?  Yeah that's a jerk too.  It's not as jerkish, but it still sucks when she teleports to the middle or the complete opposite side of the screen.  RNG gods, why are you never nice to me?  Anyway I don't know where I'm going with this.  I think I meant to lead this back to me having really shitty runs all day and not getting any Ex clears or clears or anything remotely exciting today.  It's a shame.  Pretty much all my high scores are obsolete, but I can't get back the execution I used to have with this game... Someday.  Soon.  Maybe.  I hope.

[cactu]

Not really sure if I should go for NMNB or keep scoring right now, guess I'll do both at the same time for now.

[BT]

Not really sure if I should go for NMNB or keep scoring right now, guess I'll do both at the same time for now.

Seppo does no-resource scoring, right? Maybe try that.

[Kaze_Senshi]

Dear diary, these days I was playing a lot of LLS and I made my way until Gengetsu, then she annihilated my existence. After getting used with the visual from that PC-98 game and going back to Windows touhou I think that my ability to see through bullet busy patterns improved a lot. After some weeks without playing DDC extra I tried to play one time just for the fun and I beat my old hi-score. 

[Zengeku]

Logged a few hours into DDC LNB practice just because I was bored as sin from being left home almost-alone with only a flippant dog and a friend who lacks the ability to take my condition seriously so yeah, disatisfactory. But yeah, i digress. I found myself suddenly jumping into DDC stage practice with SakuyaA trying to learn some more routes and practice.

My Benben is still outrageously bad and I really don't like playing her but at least i'm getting rather good at the stage even though you could say it's not really that demanding. It's got okay bits though. Namely the part with the big fairies dumping bullets all over the place. I need to follow a memorized path and it's actually quite fun. I'm sure this is only fun because my mid-life crisis is messing with my head, idk. Kagebutts is not very hard with SakuyaA so at least I've got so much down.

No, there's no shame in using SakuyaA for this, I don't really abuse her shotgunning thing for speedkills. I hate using ReimuA and MarisaA and the B-types are too hard to use for LNB purposes. I don't care about characters being broken or not, you could say that LNB'ing with the harder characters is something for the people out there who has low enough standards to actually think this game is good and not just a bland run-of-the-mill shmup plagued by terrible design decisions in some of the later stages.

I don't know why I want to LNB this game. If it's to get some closure on it, if it's because i'm bored out of my skull, if it's because I secretly might think its okay'ish (yeah right) or because I feel the need to play a Touhou game in which i can do something I haven't managed yet, though without the feeling like dealing with EoSD's beyond awful stage design again and again waiting for that run where Remi doesn't run my fucking life by forcing me to play Stage 1-3 again.

[Mino ☆]

I could understand your incomplete feeling with DDC. I also feel the same. My goal for that game is to get a Low miss (5-miss or less) LNB of that game. It doesn't feel like it should be as hard as it is. But in reality, with Kagerou's luckshit, Yatsuhashi's fair but difficult fight, and Seija's surprise deaths, it really is a menace. Maybe this is because of my ReimuB usage, but I refuse to use anyone else because in my opinion, Needle Reimu should always be the standard shot in Touhou. However in this game she is lower tier.

[Mesarthim]

I could understand your incomplete feeling with DDC. I also feel the same. My goal for that game is to get a Low miss (5-miss or less) LNB of that game. It doesn't feel like it should be as hard as it is. But in reality, with Kagerou's luckshit, Yatsuhashi's fair but difficult fight, and Seija's surprise deaths, it really is a menace. Maybe this is because of my ReimuB usage, but I refuse to use anyone else because in my opinion, Needle Reimu should always be the standard shot in Touhou. However in this game she is lower tier.

Reimu B drives me up the wall in this game when it comes to Cirno, Wakasagihime's second card, and Sekibanki. More often than I'd like to admit they always move in a direction where I cannot really follow them and they keep moving further away from me. Presently the only way I've been able to compensate is with homing of some sort, be it Reimu A or Sakuya A.

[I have no name]

LNB, LNB, LNB.  Why can't I do something this simple.  Oh right: I'm way too unreliable at everything, and the moment a run starts going well I get jittery and screw up on easy things.  The moment it starts going wrong, however, I start pulling crazy dodges out of nowhere because suddenly the pressure is on.  I KNOW every life counts and that it's something I should be able to do, but I just can't string together a good enough START even...
Stage 1: NDNB, 80% of the time.  Stupid Minoriko with that slightly luck-based final.
Stage 2: NDNB/1DNB, depending on if I let a double KO on Pain Flow through.  I get tired of the early stages pretty quickly.
Stage 3: NDNB (it's happened in a run)-3DNB, depending on how terrible I feel like playing.  Usual culprits are Hydro Camouflage, Kappa's Illusory Waterfall and Spin the Cephalic Plate, though I can usually get waterfall and plate, I've been failing the latter lately.  I get Hydra Camouflage roughly 30-40% of the time anyway, but when I do I die to the stage.  Without fail.  Lucky me!
Stage 4: 1DNB-GAME OVER% I can do everything in this stage somewhat reliably, though Storm Day and PWG can trip me up and I've been failing Momiji lately.  Still, I should be able to get through this stage with 4 lives left often enough...but in practice, the best I've done is 3, on several occasions: most notably a run where I died 4 times on Stage 3 and kept going just to see to what lengths the game would spite me-with really good RNG on Stage 4 (spoilers: I messed up the 2nd waterfall but successfully perfected Aya and stalling Momiji)  I have NDNB'd this stage 3 or 4 times, though, so it's not like I can't do it.  Just not something I can rely on.
Stage 5: NDNB-RUNDEAD% This should be NDNB, maybe 2DNB at worst if I make stupid mistakes on midboss Sanae and botch Moses Miracle.  The simple fact remains that when I get to this stage with lives, they're always gone before the end of the stage.  I've gotten out of Stage 5 in an LNB attempt 4 times.  All had 0 lives left.  2 reached Kanako.  Neither got her opener.
Stage 6: 2DNB-4DNB-lolyouthoughtyoucouldLNB.  I did a few runs of this stage to focus on practicing it a bit today, and, well...every single one was 4DNB.  Death to stage?  Capture opener?  2 death Source of Rains&1 death VoWG.  Perfect stage?  Better kill you on the opener and then double KO!  We'll give you a nice Source of Rains though, except that one wave where you die, and then we'll double KO you on VoWG!  What fun!  I used to capture VoWG most of the time, but I can't even capture it once any more.  I have gotten better at the stage portion and her opener (and everything from spell 1 to nonspell 4 is trivial), but to make up for it I've gotten worse at Source of Rains.
Still, From what I should be able to do I should be able to string together a 0-0-1-3-0-4 death run of each stage in a row, maybe 0-0-1-2-1-4 or 0-0-0-3-1-4 or 0-1-1-2-1-3 (or better)...but in actual runs I just can't hold it together.  I've practiced Stages 3-6 in a row, no resets, and got a 2DNB run of each stage.  Just like that, in a row.  I can NDNB the first 2 stages reliably enough.  Why can't I just have a run like that?  Why do I have to keep failing in the most retarded manners, while people I know just sit down and 4DNB without a single restart?  Why do my runs always end somewhere in the vicinity of late Stage 5/early Stage 6, regardless of where I die throughout the run?  I just don't understand it.

But hey, at least I'm improving at Double Spoiler!  :toot: _{small consolation prize because it's been over a year I've been going for this and I've never reached Stage 6 with a life left}

edit: did another 3-4-5-6 practice run, died 1-2-1-4 times.  Oh look, another 8 death total.  Deaths were Hydro Camouflage, Momiji, 3 popcorn fairies, Moses Miracle, Stage 6 popcorn fairy, Kanako's opener, Source of Rains, VoWG.  In short, all places I have a non-trivial chance to die to (though, both popcorn deaths were to very nasty waves and the Moses Miracle death was similarly nasty, I can usually get through those spots but also usually die to something else, and I'd like resources to spare on Kanako)...at least I figured out what I was doing wrong on Storm Day when I die to it, and timed it out in one try.  Rather than read the pattern as 1 wave from 2 sides, I now go through the green bullets on the left with 1 motion and dodge the blue bullets from there.  A very nasty wave coupled with me messing up still results in a death, but it's 1 less place I'm liable to die to (said list is now something like 10 patterns-I'd like to drop at least 4 of those from the list to allow for derps, but hey, it's progress)

[CyberAngel]

Well, I'm at that point now. The time for me to finally say this have come, unbelievably.

Easy mode is no longer my level.

No, I didn't start to look down on it all of a sudden. It's just that now a plain Easy 1cc has zero challenge for me. I no longer need to worry about whether I can do it or not, and in some games I manage to get max lives and even get another extend over it. This may not seem like much to those way past this point, but some Easy clears were still quite a challenge for me back when I returned from my hiatus some months ago (when I joined this forum).

But this doesn't mean that I'm ignoring Easy mode from now on. Quite the contrary, it still can help me with my advancement. How? Challenges. I'm finally at the point when I can pick them up for regular play, and I can already imagine that they'll hold a whole new world of things to learn for me. Things that will help me on Normal and higher, no doubt. I'll start with NB runs, but I hope I'll do pacifist eventually.

Well, while I still remember good old days when I had to put work in plain Easy clears, I should leave my opinion on Easy modes in different games. So, my ranking of Easy 1cc difficulty, from easiest to hardest, is as follows:

• IN - I don't think I ever had trouble with this game, not even on my first time, though this wasn't my first game. But really, the patterns are extremely easy and the game is very generous with resources (I can get max lives AND bombs no problem), so this is certainly the easiest one.
• EoSD - No stage 6 makes it much easier to get an Easy 1cc than usual, but I can understand why people would feel dissatisfied with it. Oh well, more reason to try Normal. I started with this game, so I have no problem with its bullets or no visible hitbox.
• MoF - A rather easy game, even though the final boss is unusually brutal. The bomb system is scary for a newbie too, but it's one of the games I had almost no trouble with from the start.
• 10D - With this game, I had noticeable trouble at first, even though I got it last, so it actually required a bit of effort to 1cc. Even though it's still generally easy, having less resources than usual matters a lot when you still need all of them.
• UFO - This game's pretty challenging, but if you can learn how to use UFO system, which isn't too hard while you're still on Easy, you can have enough resources to see you through, more or less. But I still shudder remembering that one time when Byakuren burned through my full lives. You can't allow to let your guard down anymore.
• SA - Hell, from bullet patterns to getting lives and bomb system. This game's awesome when you're used to it, but until then it's danger everywhere.
• PCB - You are already dead. You may not know it from the first three stages, but after that the difficulty ramps up steeply. But on the other hand, the gap between Easy and Normal feels unusually thin here, so if you can do this, you're ready to move on.
• GFW - The bullet patterns feel like they belong on a difficulty one step higher, but freezing mechanic helps. ...supposedly, but it's not that effective thanks to low enough bullet density. Nothing impossible, but you'd better be good enough to play this.

Well, it's time to finish my reminiscences. I sure made a huge way I didn't think I would ever be able to when I started. There were times when I died to Meiling's Gorgeous Sweet Flower and Rainbow Wind Chime without seeing a way through. And here I am now, not batting an eyelid while doing full runs. Will I still be advancing even further? I don't think I know that, but I can surely hope and do my best, enjoying every moment I play. So, to newbies out there, I hope Easy mode can aid you as much as it did with me. Keep on dodging.

[Zengeku]

Sounds like it would be a better idea for you to venture into Normal mode territory tbh but if you'd rather go the other way then you are free to do that of course.
If you want to get better though, I think exposing yourself to harder patterns is the better way to go about it.

As for myself, had another session of DDC tonight. Got NMNB of Stage 3 though SakuyaA really makes that a lot easier. I didn't even have to try.
Having messed a bit with Sakuya tonight, I've come to the conclusion that in stage 3, she makes the midboss card easier and the final card easier though the rest of the patterns doesn't really get that much easier. At least that's how it seems so far.

I managed to get 2 miss Stage 4, both on boss portions so I'm getting a better path for the stage down. Also I trained the art of shotgunning Seija. If you leave your butt exposed for this long time, you are bound to have somebody come around and rape you for massive damage and Seija leaves herself open for very long time. You can kill the midboss attack before it even gets started for example. Cheap? Sure it is, had this been a better game i might've cared :V

Also trained Stage 6 a bit. Got better on Sukuna's cards though never got to actually do any runs of the stage. 14/100 on her streaming card from hell now. Got to that from 8/88-something so i'm getting more consistent. It's still butts though.

I want better consistency before i begin playing real credits though. I'd rather avoid playing stage 1 more than absolutely necessary.

Also, if you're wondering why i'm playing this game if i don't like it like i say that i don't then it's because i'm Zengy the Edgehog and this is my version of cutting myself.

[Mero]

So, I've been playing UFO these past weeks, getting the hang of it, practicing the patterns and, more importantly, learning the UFO system.

Thanks to Drake's boss rush patch and the replays and tips from some people, I got better at the patterns and learned to plan UFO routes better, and right now I have a few Hard clears already, with both Reimus and SanaeB.

I decided to try Lunatic just because, and well, I don't see a Lunatic 1cc that far away anymore, there doesn't seem to be much difference from Hard (or at least I don't feel it as big as from Normal to Hard), in fact, I found some stuff to be easier on Lunatic.

Of course, I still think this game is very hard, but at least I feel like I can do it now.

As for the shottypes I've used...
SanaeB: this is hands down the strongest shottype, if only because Wily Toad completely destroys everything, but I feel like I would be depending too much on that
ReimuA: she's very powerful, and I can see why some people make her their standard shot (though I've seen it mostly on LNBs), but it's also the shot I find myself making the most mistakes with, so I don't play her as much
ReimuB: it's weird, while being the weaker of three, she's apparently the shot I play best with, so I think I'm gonna stick with it for now

I'm gonna practice Hard for a while still, but my best run got to LFS with five extra lives, so maybe I'll move on to Lunatic soon

[CyberAngel]

Sounds like it would be a better idea for you to venture into Normal mode territory tbh but if you'd rather go the other way then you are free to do that of course.
If you want to get better though, I think exposing yourself to harder patterns is the better way to go about it.

Oh, I'll be doing all that simultaneously. Actually, I've been playing all difficulty levels equally lately. I've bragged about some Lunatic spellcard captures, you know, not to mention a few Last Words. But even though I'm nowhere near being good at Hard or Lunatic runs yet, I think those are what I have to thank for my sudden growth. To think there ever was a point (way before I joined here) when I gave in to despair, thinking I cannot get any better.

To add to my previous post, I think I'll go NB on EoSD and MoF Normal as well. The latter is easy enough for me already. The former I can clear consistently, but those are still narrow clears, and most bombs are wasted on when I just don't want to take a risk (and there are many places like that), so I need to push myself to actually keep getting better.

[Seppo Hovi]

If you want to increase the difficulty of things and enter the more competitive world of Touhou play, you could consider learning some scoring strategies.