Official Rate the Shot Types Thread (Week: HSiFS)

[Failure McFailFace]

ReimuA: 5/10
Good power, but VERY small range and weak-ish bomb. In a game all about bullets being shot in random directions and having to literally chase your powerups, this shot isn't that good.

ReimuB: 6/10
Your traditional homing Reimu. Low power and a decent bomb. But the homing's good.

MarisaA: 5/10
The power is nice, but the range is absolutely awful, and Master Spark forces you to slow down and not collect items. The piercing doesn't help.

MarisaB: 1/10
It's super-weak and super-spread. Neither of those are any good in the mind-numbingly difficult bosses. The bomb is absolutely useless.

SanaeA: 9/10
Sanae? More like SanBAE. Her shots in this game are amazing. This shot is really powerful for a homing shot, and also functions as a forward-focus shot. The bomb is a little lacking, though.

SanaeB: 10/10
This shot has the most damage potential I have ever seen. It's capable of having a bomb being placed on top of the boss, then go around collecting items, or just plant your face on the boss when unfocused for super easy boss killing. The spread also helps it hit tons of stage enemies and helps with hitting the boss when dodging.

[Das]

ReimuA : 8/10 - Your average, run of the mill needle Reimu. Small range, but also very good power. The small hitbox mixed with the very powerful forward focus bomb this shot has makes for a devastating combination, Even the fact that the bomb lasts for a while makes me love this shot more.

ReimuB : 6.5/10 : The homing amulets make mince meat out of stages, however she lacks in power for the shot and the bomb as well, but the bomb's lack of power will help with UFO collection since the bomb doesnt decrease her speed. The small hitbox continues to work wonders against some of the harder patterns, allowing you to dodge and deal decent damage with the homing shots.

MarisaA 6/10 : Penetration. Does very good damage against both bosses and UFO's at 4.00 power, but the bomb; Master Spark, completely ruses you by slowing you down & dealing an insane amount of damage to the UFO's, causing them to prematurely pop. However, the bomb is pretty damn good against bosses, like always.

MarisaB : 2/10 lol what the fug man zun what were you thinking. I mean, i guess the bomb is good for UFO shenanigans but.. rly fam?

SanaeA : 6/10 Think ReimuB, but worse against stages and better against bosses. The only downside to using SanaeA to ReimuB is the bigger hitbox, but I guess on lower difficulties this doesnt make too much of a difference. The bomb is alright doe

SanaeB : 8.5/10 : My favorite shot, but I choose ReimuA over this ingame, while I rate this one higher. The options at 4.00 power melt bosses, however once you drop to 3.00 the damage takes a huge hit. The bomb is also very powerful, dealing massive damage, no speed decrease, letting you graze bullets AND it lasts for a long while as well. The only detriment to this shot is once again, the bigger hitbox, this makes cards like Good Omen hell, however you can just bomb skip it <:

[Mino ☆]

ReimuA 10/10: ReimuA is amazing. Her power against bosses is unmatched and her small hitbox makes dealing with bosses a lot easier. She's a pretty good shot. Though she sucks at scoring.

ReimuB 8/10: She gets a high rating because I'm biased. I like this shot. This is the shot I used to get my first LNBNV. Her hitbox is amazing, and she's very good at handling stages in terms of her homing. However...

One thing about ReimuB is that she's pretty bad at killing UFOs and she's pretty bad at scoring.

MarisaA 8/10: This is the pure definition of risk reward. Her piercing is amazing at handling stages and filling up UFOs, her graze box is amazing and lets her get tons of graze so she's very good at scoring. Shin plays her like a badass.

MarisaB 5/10: Shit survival. But she's okay at scoring I guess.

SanaeA 6/10: She's okay I guess? she's not very strong, and SanaeB gives you anything this shot can't. I guess her bomb is useful for getting UFOs and not killing them?

SanaeB 10/10: another excellent shot. Her spread makes her very good at handling stages and filling up UFOs. I can even fill of UFOs without bombing like in stage 4. It's very convenient.

The only problem is that it's annoying to do bosses with her. But you just can't deny her awesomeness. She's a master at this game's scoring system.

[Nolegs the Cat]

ReimuA: 8/10
She's very, very powerful, and has a good bomb. But she's bad at scoring and makes the stages harder than they need to be.

ReimuB: 7/10
Her homing is good and her bomb does decent damage. But once again she's bad at stages, and she makes the bosses harder.

MarisaB: 8/10

High risk, high reward. Her piercing is great for stages and UFOs, and she has a large grazebox for 420grazing, so she's very good at scoring. But she's Marisa, with all the downsides. Even so, Shin plays her like a badass, like Mino said.

INFINITE PENETRATION ~

MarisaB: 4/10
All around shit. Dem backshots.

SanaeA: 6.5/10
Snakes and Ladders anyone?
Okay damage, decent bomb. But SanaeB does everything she can but better.

SanaeB: 10/10
Very good at stages, very good at scoring, good boss damage at 4.00, and one of the best bombs in the series.
Probably one of the best shot-types the series has ever seen, though she isn't the rofl stomp get 240359 lives some shots are.
But she's still awesome.

[ZM]

And that concludes the week of the best game. Time for TD.

Reimu: 8.5/10
First of Reimu's pseudo-homing/needle shots, and by far the best of them. Homing works wonders on stages, boss performance is great due to good forward focus damage and the small hitbox. Her ability to have the spirits automatically collected works wonders. Her trance isn't as strong as Marisa's or Youmu's, though.

Marisa: 8/10
Her stages are the worst...which isn't saying much since TD stages aren't particularly problematic. Her boss performance is solid (despite the big hitbox), and her trance is very powerful.

Sanae: 5.5/10
As much as I favor this shot compared to the others for obvious reasons, there's nothing Sanae has that makes her more appealing to use compared to the other shots. Her shot is weak (it even misses the target) and her trance isn't very strong (tied with Reimu). Her spread works nicely on stages, but it's not like anyone else really struggles with them. Her bomb and unfocused shotgun complement each other nicely, but it's pretty difficult to master that strategy and even then her scoring potential pales in comparison to the other three, even with her enhanced trance gain.

Youmu: 8.5/10
Fun and unique shot. She tears stages apart and when you master her focused slashes, she also tears bosses apart (gg Seiga). Her bomb is very strong and her trance is even stronger. When used correctly, she pretty much wrecks the entire game. Getting to that point takes some learning, though it's worth it.

[TresserT]

I'll say this first. Excluding Youmu, all the shots in this game are very similar. Unfocus is a low power spread type, focus is a high power forward focus type. I'm pointing out the differences just for the sake of it, but really you could choose who to play based on who's dress you like best and it won't make a huge difference.

Reimu: 8/10
tl;dr She's an awesome shot but she sucks if you like to bomb/trance through everything.

Between the 3 "normal" shot types, Reimu has the best range. Her homing destroys stages better than Sanae's spread. Her needles are not quite as strong as Marisa's missiles but she's still able to take out bosses pretty quickly. Plus she's got a smaller hitbox. If we ignore bombs and trance, Reimu is hands down the best shot type of the three.

However, we can't ignore those. With most characters, you can trance, kill a ton of enemies, then gather the spirits to quickly refill your trance meter. While I'm sure her auto-collect ability is great for scoring, it prevents you from using this trick which means less trances. And since you get double life/bomb fragments while in trance, it means less resources all around. Combine that with the shortest, weakest bomb, and what would be a game-breaking shot type is now only as good as anyone else.


Marisa: 8/10
tl;dr Danmaku is all about power. Stages aren't that hard anyway.

Marisa's focus shot is the strongest of the three. While she functions fine as a forward focus type, she generates a ton of spirits when near the boss so she turns into something of a shotgun type. Her spread is the strongest of the three but it's also the most narrow. It's still weaker than the focus shots so it's high power is kind of pointless.

Her bomb is the longest and the most powerful, completely destroying most boss patterns. However, it slows you down. So unless you plan to bomb in advance, you'll be unable to shotgun the boss for spirits. Her trance is the best in the game, having the same ridiculous power as Youmu without having to be right next to the enemies (letting you do the method I described earlier to refill your trance meter). She has a fat hitbox, and it is quite noticeable.


Sanae 8/10 and a gold star
tl;dr She's a crappy version of Reimu who gets a crapton of trances.

Sanae has a better spread than Marisa, but still not as good as Reimu. Her focus shot is not only the weakest in the game, but the way the shots curve, sometimes you can be sitting right under the boss and they'll fly around the boss. In other words, she doesn't always deal full damage even if you are sitting under the boss. Plus she's got a fairly large hitbox. If we ignore bombs and trances, there is absolutely no reason to choose Sanae over Reimu.

However, in every area that Reimu fails, Sanae is amazing. Her bomb, while just as weak as Reimu's, is longer. It allows you to sit on top of the boss collecting spirits. Since Sanae doesn't have Reimu's auto-collect ability, it means she can do the trance refill trick I mentioned. The bomb, plus the trick, plus Sanae's ability which fills her trance meter faster, and Sanae gets far more trances than any other character. And more trances = more resources.

Plus, she's got the cutest dress.


Youmu: 8.5/10
tl;dr She's hard to use but she's better than everyone else.

The "weird and difficult to play but really good if you learn it" shot. Because of the way the slashes work, she pretty much deals full damage at 1 or 2 power, and higher power instead increases her range. Since stage 1 is balanced for Reimu/Marisa/Sanae's damage at 2 power, and Youmu is dealing more damage than they would at 4, she destroys stage 1 :V However, it also means the lower your power the higher on the screen you have to be to do any damage. This can become quite noticeable on Miko. Plus you have to get used to quickly switching between focus and unfocus, and that can be a big problem on Miko, Nue, and a few other patterns. Still, she destorys everything else with much less effort than Reimu, Marisa, or Sanae.

Her bomb is long and strong. Her trance is incredibly powerful, though you have to be near the enemy for it to be useful (thus the refill trick doesn't work). However, the way her shot works, you can't shotgun or else not as many slashes will hit the enemy. But you get more spirits the closer you are to the enemy. In other words, she can't get a ton of shotgun spirits the way Reimu, Marisa, or Sanae can. With these two flaws, she gets less trances than Marisa or Sanae. Still, her regular shot is almost bomb level in power so it doesn't really matter.

[Uruwi]

Reimu: 8/10. Not much range when focused, but lots of power to compensate. Small hitbox and attracting spirits during trance, too.
Marisa: 6/10. Marisa as usual. Impossible to use bombs to get spirits, and having ultra-fast speed during trance is mostly pointless.
Sanae: 7/10. Quite a high range, though at the cost of power, and fills up the trance gauge more quickly.
Youmu: 2/10. Extremely awkward to use (either shoot unfocused or continually release the Z key in front of the boss), making even relatively easy cards an ordeal. Heck, it's difficult to capture Futo's last spell card.

[☆ Hinalyte]

Reimu: 8/10
- Average shot. Good for anyone who's just starting the game. There really isn't anything I can say to a balanced and average shot type.

Marisa: 9/10
- Powerful shot. Shame that the infinite penetration no longer exists, but the lasers now spread at 3+ power, so it got kinda better at stages. Missiles are a major improvement from last time (SA, MarisaC). Powerful trance shot too.

Sanae: 6/10
- Weak shot. Only good for stages. Had a hard time clearing the game using this.  I didn't like anything in this shot.. maybe the trance shot looks nice.

Youmu 8/10
- This one's unique. Her charged shot deals a good amount of damage to bosses, and clears a large amount of enemies on stages. idk if the bomb can miss at some points.

[Mero]

>tfw missed UFO
Oh well

Reimu: 8/10
Homing amulets when unfocused and needles when focused, so she has both range and power when either is needed. Her bomb and trance often leave much to be desired, though; Fantasy Seal is fairly weak and you don't get much spirits out of it, and Reimu's trance is barely any stronger than her shot at full power, so it's mostly just to keep you alive longer than to actually deal heavy damage, and the autocollect spirits thing limits her ability to chain trances like the other girls can. She's the best for survival, but that's not what this game is about.

Marisa: 9/10

INFINITE PENETRATION.

InfinitePenetration.png Yes, infinite penetration.

Penetration.

InfinitePenetration_(2).png
INFINITE PENETRATION ~

This is why we can't have nice things :V
Seriously though, I did miss her piercing in some sections, and it would have made Futo much easier for her (not like she's hard, but still), but she's still a very good shot in this game. Her missiles are powerful and have splash, she can shotgun bosses for lots and lots of spirits and the ability to tilt Master Spark makes it much better for stages now, and her trance is very, very powerful.

Sanae: 6/10
She's not very good. She has spread for stages, but she's very weak in general, and her focused shot can miss the boss because of its wavy movement. Her bomb is okay, but when you can't shotgun properly you don't get as many spirits as you should, which makes her faster gauge charge ability something she needs to keep up with the rest, instead of an advantage over them.

Youmu: 8/10
She literally rips this game to shreds. Very strong trance, bomb and (focused) shot, but she really needs to get used to, her unfocused shot is not very strong and, while the MoFMarisaA options make sense for her to have, it's still as awkward to use as it was in MoF. She also loses the most power from dying, since it greatly reduces her range and has to take even more risks than before dying because of it. She's the best shot once you get past her high skill floor

[ZM]

>tfw missed UFO
Oh well

I'm curious to what you would rate UFO shots, however!

[iVAwalys]

TD, along with EoSD, has the most balanced shot types in the series.

Reimu 8/10
A very versatile shot. It's one of the most balanced in the series in terms of power and range. The homing is exceptionally good in this game, so you actually WANT to stay in unfocused mode in stages. Trance mode is so-so, at best. Nothing really stands out about it.

Marisa 8.5/10
My favorite! The unfocused lasers actually spread out, so she gets a little bit of extra range this time. The focus shot is Magic Missile, and apart from being really, REALLY loud, it's one of the strongest shots in the game. However, the best thing about TD's Marisa is her Trance Mode. It's stupidly powerful! In fact, you can actually clear 2 entire spell cards if you activate it at the right moment.

Sanae 8/10
Actually not as bad as she seems. Ten Desires, unlike UFO, actually gives you a lot of chances to shotgun your enemies, and it's something Sanae is really good at. At full power, this shot spreads approx. how Yuyuko's butterflies did in IN. (Really far!) Plus, she has the ability to rapid fire Trance Modes, as she gets them so quickly, and during them, she can shotgun her enemy with no problem whatsoever. Her only con is, because of her gigantic spread, she also loses a lot of power.

Youmu 8.5/10
A Touhou game is not a Touhou game without a gimmick shot! (Seriously, why does Youmu always get the most gimmicky shot type?)
She's surprisingly easy to get used to, and she completely wrecks all the stages with no problem once you do. The slashes cover up the, like, whole half of the screen after release, so you don't even need to bother about releasing the button close to the enemy. Plus, she deals a surprisingly high amount of damage. Her Trance Mode's also pretty strong, not as strong as Marisa's though.
Also, she trivializes Seiga. Fuck you Seiga.

[Mino ☆]

Reimu 10/10 - This is a nice shot type. Her homing is nice. Her needles are great for bosses, and her hitbox helps with dodging. Her scoring potential isn't as high because her DPS is lower and she auto collects all the spirits, but it makes her routes a little interesting in scoring. Watching Keito and Mithril rock Reimu for scoring really made me appreciate her.

Marisa 8/10 - Not a bad shot at all. Her trance is very powerful and she becomes very fast during it, making it easy for her to manipulate the spirits on screen. She's not that great for survival purposes because of the Marisa fatbox and the fact that she's not really any better than Reimu in terms of power (if she's even stronger).

Sanae 6/10 - Meh. She's meh. Her power is terrible, her trance is very weak, even if it takes less spirits to fill up. She's really not that useful overall.

Youmu 10/10 - This is a great shottype for the game. Although I prefer Reimu, this shot is good at handling stages, and basically trivializes Seiga. She's also easily the best at scoring. My only complaint is that she's horrible for Miko survival.

[Failure McFailFace]

Reimu: 7/10
The new standard homing-needles Reimu. Needle range is very low, though.

Marisa: 5/10
>tfw no infinite penetration
Marisa's shot would be so much better if she had her penetration. Missiles are alright, though.

Sanae: 9/10
I don't get why people are hating on Sanae. The fact that there's no focused homing is aleviated by Sanae's massive spread, incredibly useful for this game. Not a full 10/10 because of the focused shot missing sometimes, though.

Youmu: 2/10
why a melee shot in a bullet hell it doesn't even make any sense and it's so hard to use
Good power, though.

[Mero]

I'm curious to what you would rate UFO shots, however!

All right
Done in a pastebin so as to not clutter the thread with overdue ratings :V

Despite being a game I don't enjoy all that much, I actually like UFO's selection of shottypes. It's probably between these and DDC's shots why I don't really like those of TD very much

[ZM]

All right
Done in a pastebin so as to not clutter the thread with overdue ratings :V

Despite being a game I don't enjoy all that much, I actually like UFO's selection of shottypes. It's probably between these and DDC's shots why I don't really like those of TD very much

Well said, my friend.

[ZM]

TD round was pretty boring...
Votes tallied and put in the OP. For this round, I'd like no votes with the reasoning being 'I can't use this shot, so it must be bad'. That would make me pretty happy, so please and thank you.

Anyway, DDC is a go! I don't play this game very often, but here goes. I like how this is the game in which homing shots > forward focus shots.

ReimuA: 9.5/10
Best rendition of Reimu's homing shots by far. Mastering and using the gohei to its full potential takes a bit of time, but after that, you have yourself a very powerful tool. Wrecks stages and deals great damage on bosses. Bomb is not only entertaining to observe in action, but decently powerful, too (grazing with it looks cool, as well).

ReimuB: 6.5/10
The first time in which the needles are outclassed by the homing. ReimuB isn't a bad shot by any means (she's basically TD!Reimu), but she doesn't provide any benefits to anything, really. Her needles still do nice damage and Fantasy Seal is still a good bomb, though. Even so, if you want to use Reimu, ReimuA might be more appealing.

MarisaA: 3/10
FLAMETHROWER. Okay, this shot looks hella cool. It's a shame it's also hella terrible. If Marisa's flamethrower had powerful DPS at the bottom of the screen as well as it does when shotgunning, then she'd fare way better. But nope, the damage is pretty mediocre from the bottom and it can even mask bullets. Dark Spark looks really cool and does great damage, but that's still not worth using this shot for.

MarisaB: 9.5/10
EXTEND! EXTEND! EXTEND! Behold, the power and glory of the wondrous Magic Absorber! Gain bomb and life pieces in amazing amounts! As well as having an insanely good bomb for resource gain (not so much for bombskipping), her forward focus is quite powerful. She's worse than ReimuA and SakuyaA when it comes to bosses, but she still holds her own. Her Extra stage shenanigans are also hilarious.

SakuyaA: 9.5/10
DEMON KNIVES. Waaaaay cooler than PCB!SakuyaA, that's for sure. SakuyaA provides a lot of neat benefits: homing demon knives do quite a lot of damage (especially if you manage to figure out how to speedkill spells with them), the knives slow down bullets and make them less of a threat, and the shield bomb this shot wields is a huge improvement from SA!MarisaC's (sadly the spell counts as failed if used during one). The bomb grants you three bomb pieces when you don't get hit, which is a nice gain. Very good shot. ALSO SHE HAS THE BEST SCORES BECAUSE COUNTERSTOP FUCK YEEEEAAAH

SakuyaB: 6.5/10
Utter trash for survival goals. As for scoring, she's the best in the game when used in the right hands. Her bomb turns all bullets on the screen into PiV, which enables her to rake up a lot of points over time. A very tough shot to master, but the payoff in the end when mastered is amazing.

[Uruwi]

ReimuA: 7/10. Reimu stuff, plus a homing purification rod on focusing. The only disadvantage is that the bomb slows you down, so collecting lots of items for 2.0 bonuses is more difficult.
ReimuB: 7.5/10. Focused shot is the usual low range / high power type. Bomb isn't too bad either.
MarisaA: 3/10. Focused shot doesn't even reach the whole screen: you can be directly below a boss and still not deal damage. (Plus the flamethrower effects tend to lag?)
MarisaB: 7.5/10. Trivializes the Extra stage, but she's a lot less helpful in the main game (at least on lower difficulties). Her bomb also lasts longer than the invincibility window that comes with it, for some reason, so I'm reluctant to rate this type higher.
SakuyaA: 9/10. Gets TWO PoCs per bomb, and if you let it last until it ends, you at least get 3/8 of a bomb back. Her homing / slowing knives also help a lot.
SakuyaB: 7/10. Great for scoring, not so great for survival.

[TresserT]

Reimu A: 9.5/10
Everything you like about the border team, but stronger and now the familiar can hit multiple enemies at once. The smaller hitbox is really helpful.
The focus shot's power is offset a bit against bosses because of the weird anti-homing thing, but without it this shot would just be ridiculously OP. The anti-homing thing turns what should be a homing type into a shotgunning type which is really weird. She winds up playing very similar to TD Youmu.
The unfocus shot is weak but it can go everywhere on the screen at once, so it complements the focus shot well.
The bomb is not the best. It deals a lot of damage, but it's a shotgun bomb and it moves strangely so you can rarely do the max damage unless you plan ahead. It slows you down too, so you can't PoC hop. And that's the main reason I use bombs in this game >_<
One of my favorite shot types in the series.

Reimu B: 7.5/10
Standard Reimu. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Smaller hitbox is still really helpful.
The focus shot deals good damage, but it's not as strong as Marisa B's and lacks the range of Reimu A/Sakuya A.
I don't know if homing is weaker in this game or if enemies are just more durable, but the homing takes quite a while to kill enemies. And since her focus shot has so little range, she has to rely a lot on this for stages. Not too huge a deal though.
Fantasy Seal is decent enough in this game. Nothing special, though.

Marisa A: 6.5/10
Her lowered PoC is not incredibly useful.
She deals about as much damage as Marisa B, which is quite a lot, but she has to be fairly high on the screen to do any damage with the flames and point blank to do the most damage.
The lasers deal the most damage of the 3 unfocus shots, but at the cost of range. Really not worth it.
Her bomb deals a lot of damage and is easy to use, but it slows you down. Still better than Reimu A's bomb, but combined with her other weaknesses overall not worth using.

Marisa B: 8.5/10
Her lowered PoC is still not incredibly useful. However, enemies (and bosses) will drop power items even if you're focused/at full power, which is surprisingly really useful for gathering resources in the early stages.
Her focus shot is strong. Standard.
Her unfocus shot is lasers. Still not worth it.
Her bomb is very long and reasonably powerful, but you aren't invincible for the entire duration and you can't bomb again until the magic absorber deletes itself. As a result, it can really screw you up on the extra stage or for patterns where bullets are spell resistant.
This is where things get complicated. Marisa B is a good shot, and deserves at least an 8/10. However, because her bomb turns bullets into power items, she can bomb spam her way through the game and get a crap ton of resources. If we're judging by "easiest to L1CC" she gets a 10/10. Her bomb is ridiculously overpowered. However, this is only possible through cheap bomb spamming. If you don't like to bomb span this shot loses most of it's potential.

Sakuya A: 9/10
Her lower item falling speed is a good trade off for the bigger hitbox. She gets resources easier than everyone else because of this.
The focus shot is... complicated. Because of the way the homing works ("fire some swords, wait, fire more swords", as opposed to a steady stream) it can very easily target an enemy you didn't want it to. It can deal quite a bit of damage, but to play her like that means you don't get the benefit of her time hacks. Time hacks makes everything all around a bit easier to dodge, but you have to deal with an annoying and difficult shot to use it. I'd rather take the straight power and range of Reimu A personally.
I personally prefer this unfocus shot to the others. The spread can hit most of the screen, and deals high enough damage when shotgunning. Range isn't as good as Reimu's but power is noticeably higher.
The bomb is really good, though. You can either get 2 auto-collects, or one auto-collect and 3 bomb pieces. It also acts as a safety net in case you get hit. Only problem is it deals no damage.

Sakuya B: 3.5/10
Still has lower item falling speed.
The focus shot is complete trash. Apparently it creates special point items which is good for scoring. But it deals abysmal damage and is incredibly narrow. Like, I'd rather use IN Alice than deal with this awful focus shot. At least Alice has piercing.
I still like the unfocus shot best, though. Good range and power.
Terrible, terrible bomb for survival. Short, deals no damage, just awful. On top of that, bullets with spell resistance still spawn and freeze but don't get deleted. If you don't know what that means, try bombing at the start of Seija's 3rd spell. At least this game doesn't have many bullets like that.
But even though I don't play for score, even I can tell this is great for scoring. Bullets freeze so you can graze them, which means you can get a ton of graze from lasers. Then they all turn into green point items, I'm sure this shot is really good for score.

[Failure McFailFace]

For this round, I'd like no votes with the reasoning being 'I can't use this shot, so it must be bad'. That would make me pretty happy, so please and thank you.

Hey look, a game where I can reasonably quickly use all of the shots!

ReimuA: 8/10
Homing-Homing Reimu. Pretty much Border Team in IN, but the damage rate is more bursty than in IN. The large range of the Axe of Death gohei does make up for it, though. Damage could be better.

ReimuB: 7.5/10
Standard Homing-Needle Reimu. Nothing special. Decent power, decent range. What bugs me though is that you miss a ton of shots from 3.xx to 4.00, leading to less damage potential. Considering I play purely survival and need the damage, it's a lower rating in my book.

MarisaA: 7/10
It's okay. I guess. The fact that the flames don't reach all the way across the screen really makes it hard to do damage when you're stuck at the bottom of the screen. Also, it's really hard to tell if you hit an enemy or not without shooting flames right in their faces. Dark Spark slowness does not help in a game all about auto-collecting items.

MarisaB: 9/10
marisab 2 op pls nerf
Seriously. This is THE shot to play as in general. Though the bomb is super weak and the shot is narrow, in Extra the bomb just keeps making free lives for a bomb. Combine that with high focused power (with splash!), it makes gathering resources easy and kills bosses quick.

SakuyaA: 9.5/10
The focused shot is super strange, but super fun to use. The slow is super nice, makes holes in the bullets that make dodging easier, and the damage is super high. The bomb is super good for survival, being able to collect items twice without going to the POC. The 0.5 missing from a 10/10 is the fact that the knives take a while to explode. BUT IT'S SO SATISFYING WHEN THEY EXPLODE AT ONCE THOUGH

SkauyaB: 4/10
Super low power, super low range. Bomb is pretty useless, except for supergrazing. If you're a scoring player, go ahead. But for a survivalist like me, it's a no sell.

In general, for me, DDC has the most shot types that are actually good.

[☆ Hinalyte]

ReimuA: 8/10
- A different type of homing shot. It can be hard to control due it moving slowly but its hitbox is huge. Good for stages because you can focus in two directions. I heard you need to constantly focus-refocus so that the shot doesn't go off-center of the boss. Bomb makes me dizzy lol but it's strong.

ReimuB: 7/10
- It's like Reimu of TD except some of the shots at full power misses(?). She kinda plays the same like in TD.

MarisaA: 7/10
- #BURN. The first shot that I used when I started DDC because I thought the flamethrowers are cool, but they're kinda weak. Bomb is cool now that it auto-collects items when you activate it.

MarisaB: 10/10
- Oh god this shot is just the best. I think the missiles here are far more stronger compared to TD's. Even if the bomb is small and short in duration (and MoF bomb ripoff lol), it's still very good since you can gain lots of fragments using it.

SakuyaA: 9/10
- This shot is pretty strong too. It has a cool gimmick that slows the boss the more knives are stuck on them (which is very helpful on Raiko's survival spell). Her bomb reminds me of SA's MarisaC, which is good for survival.

SakuyaB: 6/10
- This is the least impressive shot. Weak in power, and somewhat of an unreliable bomb if you use it on spellcards with bullets that can't be erased (like Shinmyoumaru's 5th spellcard).

[Das]

ReimuA : 9.5/10 This shot is very very solid, high power, small hitbox, the homing shot when unfocused, it all mixes amazingly well in my opinion, the only downside IMO is the bomb, it makes getting 2.0's quite difficult and makes you move left and right, which I dislike quite a bit. However even with the issues I have with the bomb, I still think this is the best shot type in the game.

ReimuB : 8/10 Needle Reimu. Solid shot, very good forward focus but not the greatest range. However the homing when unfocused comes back and is a comfy addition. The bomb; Fantasy Seal is just how it always has been and I welcome it's existence, however sadly this shot does pale in comparison to ReimuA, it still is a very good shot to use.

MarisaA : 7.5/10 rip piercing, and the lasers are a little awkward to use when unfocused. BUT since Marisa has a fucking flamethrower strapped to her chest, the shot is very fun to use. Also master spark is still good as always so thats why the shot gets almost as high as ReimuB for me, just because it's FUN.

MarisaB : 9/10 need I say more? So many fucking lives, easy full power and good forward focus. However the bomb isnt very good for bomb spamming :<

SakuyaA : 9/10 So good, the homing shot when focused does SO MUCH DAMAGE (and gives me 9,999,999,990 score) and when unfocused there's also some pretty good spread to help deal with stages effectively. The bomb is also very good, allowing for 2 "2.0"'s in a quick succession if used correctly in the right place. The only reason this isnt higher, is because of Reimu's hitbox being op

SakuyaB : 6/10 For survival, The shot isnt very good, however the bomb is quite similar to SakuyaB's unfocused bomb in PCB (even tho theres no borders lol rip me) so I guess it has some survival qualities, however what this shot lacks in survival, she makes up for in scoring since she can gain much more PIV than other shots.

[Jimmy]

ReimuA: 9.5/10
A very convenient shottype for players (me included) who want to focus on dodging and not check for the bosses' movement every now and then, even more so with the smallest hitbox out of all player characters. The spinning rod in the focused mode that constantly aims for the enemies is very handy and also does solid damage even without the main shot. The homing amulets of the unfocused mode are a classic ever since EoSD, very good for stage portions. Bomb is pretty effective IMO, auto-collects all on-screen items while active, but doesn't have a very large range. Overall, aside from the bomb, I still rate this as the most convenient shottype in the game.

ReimuB: 8/10
Classical Reimu shottype with persuasion needles as the focused shot. They do a really nice amount of damage to enemies, but have a low range since they only move straightforward. The unfocused homing amulets shot do a overall good job, as mentioned above. Fantasy Seal as the bomb here is a very effective one, it can cover up most of the screen and do good damage in both stage portions and to bosses. A bit duller than ReimuA here, but overall pretty solid.

MarisaA: 7/10
Pretty straightforward shot type with unfocused laser shots. The lasers do a fair amount of damage themselves and also have a fairly good range on 3.00 and higher, but only cover the area above her.  The focused flamethrower shot is visually pretty-looking and does good damage and spreads out a bit when hitting an enemy. The Master Dark Spark is a solid bomb, lasts quite long compared to others and does nice damage, but it also only covers the area above her. A 'high-risk-high-reward'-shottype because of the damage, but very straightforward and overall low range.

MarisaB: 6/10
No too different from MarisaA, lasers as the unfocused shot, however the focused shot does a somewhat more ranged damage than the flamethrower since the blasts of the missiles spread out a bit more (my impression at least) and always spawns power items when hitting an enemy. The bomb here is rather weak in regard of damage and range, as it only moves upward once activated, but does a good job on scoring as it transforms every bullet hitting it into the green point value items and also power items above the autocollection line. Very similar to MarisaA, but with a more powerful focused shot and a weaker bomb.

SakuyaA: 9/10
OP knives shottype. After ReimuA the second best focused shot in the game, the knives automatically aim for enemies and slows down their overall movement and shooting pace, including bosses, and explode after a short time (even if still focused) to deal a really good amount of damage. This focused shot drains the bosses' health really fast, even faster than ReimuA. The unfocused shot are pretty straightforward shooting knives, but do have a nice spread if on 3.00 and higher and cover most of the screen above her. The bomb is a defensive type, giving one free hit within a limited timespan, and returning 3 bomb fragments if not getting hit by a bullet. Overall very convenient and powerful, right after ReimuA.

SakuyaB: 5.5/10
Same unfocused shot, but the focused shot here has a lower range as the knives only fire straightforward, much like ReimuB's needles. Nonetheless, they still do nice damage, and are really good for scoring because they generate a huge amount of the green point items which are automatically collected, no matter where on the screen the player is. The bomb here doesn't directly do damage either, but it stops the movement of all bullets onscreen and makes the player invincible for a limited time,  giving the opportunity to drain the enemies' health as much as possible without worrying for getting hit, and is also convenient for scoring since all bullets onscreen (not in all spellcards though) are turned into the green point items after the time is over. Overall pretty straightforward like ReimuB and both Marisas, but it does have its own benefits.

[TableCloth]

ReimuA: 9/10
Homing was supposed to "very easy to use, but rather weak". This shottype, on the other hand, is strong as f*ck, but also very weird. The unfocused shot trivialize most of the stages, but the focused attack got really weird if you focus for too long. The bomb also have strange hitbox, and it makes Reimu move left and right lol (although it doesn't matter much).

Homing no longer beginner-friendly ;w;

ReimuB: 8/10
Literally TD!Reimu. The needle is pretty strong, but still lacked the range. Fantasy Seal also do some nice damage and wipe out most, if not all, bullets on the screen.

With TD and LoLK, this shot become less interesting...

MarisaA: 6/10
Dammit Marisa, flamethrower supposed to be a strong weapon! Anyway, the laser have decent damage, but the lack of piercing make it kinda shit. Dark Spark is also a good bomb since it deal big damage and you can tilt it depending on your direction. Her only downside is the flamethrower... I would've given 8/10 if it were stronger.

By the way, Dark Spark is kinda cool.

MarisaB: 8/10
EXTEND INTENSIFIES. This is THE shottype for both survival and scoring at the same time. While her laser doesn't pierce, her missile do some nasty splash damage to opponent. And while her bomb is quite weak, it is very good for scoring.

SakuyaA: 9/10
I want to say "OP KNIVES", but then I realized one thing: I can't use it well. Her unfocused is good, but the knives suddenly become weirder than PCB!SakuyaA. They're good for bosses, but the otherwise powerful knives become very weak in stages. Slowing down bullets (or at least, the opponent's shoot rate) is a pretty nice addition, if only they works against bosses (Get Bigger spellcards FTW). The bomb is simply SA!MarisaC, I wasn't sure if there's any differences between them other than this bomb is less rewarding when survived.

A much weirder shottype than ReimuA

SakuyaB: 6/10
Another shottype that I can't really use well. Her shot is simpler AND weaker. It is also straightforward, which is kinda unexpected from Sakuya. Her bomb do jack shit to opponent's HP, but it is good for scoring.

Sakuya, why?

[Sen]

Skipped rating TD, since I really don't know the game very well, but I do love me some DDC.

ReimuA - 9/10
I adore this shot type! It's great for bosses and stages, since you can dodge and not worry (too much) about being under the boss, but unlike most homing Reimu types, it actually does great damage, and the homing amulets are strong enough to kill most enemies fairly quickly. It took me a while to get used to the awkward purification rod, but it's really very useful to have. Really strong, and the range increase from 3.xx to 4.00 always surprises me. Her bomb is also really strong, but you have to shotgun to make it effective, and the forced side-to-side motion can take time to get used to. Overall amazing shot for survival.

ReimuB - 8/10
You really can't go wrong with needle Reimu in any game, and homing is just an added bonus. It's not as strong as ReimuA, but it's an easy, comfortable shot to use. The increased focused range is very appreciated, and Fantasy Seal is as solid as ever. I like ReimuA a little more for the purification rod's homing, but ReimuB is a great survival shot type.

MarisaA - 5/10
I loved this shot type until I started getting further in the game and realized just how quickly it loses strength. It's really strong at shotgun range, but it loses power at a distance really quickly. Nega Dark Spark is really powerful, and the aiming is fun, but it suffers from the same problem UFO!MarisaA has-- the slowdown is so dramatic that it prevents you from collecting resources.

MarisaB - 9/10
Oh my goodness, I underestimated MarisaB at first. I didn't realize how many lives you can snap up using her bomb until you guys started talking about it, so thank you very much! Her bomb's lack of power does show in more difficult patterns (e.g. Kagerou's midboss spellcard), so it's not an automatic skip like most bombs are, but thankfully Magic Missile is plenty strong on its own.

SakuyaA - 9/10
SakuyaA tears this game apart, from her unfocused spread to her homing knives. Her knives slow enemies down and deal insane damage to bosses without having to aim, while her unfocused spread is wide enough that most stages are bypassed pretty easily. I really can't stand defensive bombs though-- I appreciate getting back 3/8ths of a bomb if it turned out to be unnecessary, but the fact that it deals no damage is annoying. Getting two auto-collects out of a single bomb is pretty sweet, though.

SakuyaB - 4/10
SakuyaB, more than any other scoring shot in the series imo, represents the divide between survival and score. She's really not very easy to use under any circumstance, but her ability to rack up green points and supergraze via her bomb makes her the best for scoring overall. Most record-holding shot types are also really strong and effective in survival as well, but...well, not her. Unless you're playing for score, there really isn't much of a reason to use SakuyaB over A, since her focused shot has significantly less range and power. Her bomb doesn't do any damage either, but it's really cool to watch in action.

[Mino ☆]

Alright. I guess it's time to post my ratings.

ReimuA 10/10 - This is my favorite shot type in all of the Touhou series. She has everything you could ever want. Her gohei is versatile and can handle stages really well. She can rack up a bunch of 2.0s effortlessly. She also does crazy damage against the bosses and can speedkill basically every attack in the game. People complain about her bomb making her slow and hard to get PoCs with, but the thing is, you're supposed to bomb when there are lots of items on screen already so that you autocollect them. Also, it really doesn't take her that long to move up to the screen to damage the boss.

ReimuB 5/10 - Dumb shot. Her needles have been completely ruined since the Pre-DDC era. While pretty much every needle shottype from EoSD - TD was very powerful and useful, these needles got nerfed in power and don't really help in finishing off a lot of the hard attacks. Her bomb is also pretty bad at racking up PiV especially because she damages bosses. Her only saving grace is her amazing unfocused homing that she shares with ReimuA, and her amazing hitbox.

MarisaA 4/10 - The worst shot in the game in my opinion. She has a shotgun, but unlike ReimuA, it's very hard to make use of it. Her fire doesn't even reach the top of the screen either. She's not very powerful at all when she's low on the screen. Plus, she has to fight Benben, who's fight is catered towards the homing shots, with its misdirection patterns and such. This is just a trainwreck shot if you ask me.

MarisaB 9/10 - Utterly broken. She can pretty much trivialize the game by allowing mass 2.0 farming essentially giving you unlimited lives if you know how to use her. Her magic missiles are VERY strong and much more useful than Reimu's awful failed attempt at a "top class needle". Her scoring is silly lol.

SakuyaA 9/10 - Another extremely broken shot. Probably more OP than ReimuA, because not only does she have an extremely powerful shotgun trick, she also SLOWS DOWN TIME, making bosses fire less bullets and less frequently, essentially making almost every pattern in the game EASIER to dodge than normal. Fun fact: Her time stopping ability is so broken that she can break the game's score by underflowing and turning into a counterstop....

SakuyaB 7/10 - This shot is completely and utterly terrible for survival purposes. And to be honest I really dislike it myself. Why does it get a 7/10 rating? Because she has the one thing that other characters just can't seem to compare to in terms of scoring. Mass PIV gain. Her bomb is legitimately broken for PIV farming. Thus, she gets so much more score than any other shot can dream of in the main game. This is the only reason she gets as high as a 7/10 in my eyes.

but truth be told, I think it's stupid that ReimuA doesn't get the most PiV gain. Why should the terrible shot be given the best scoring potential? That just means that no one is going to want to optimize her on the higher difficulties.

[Nolegs the Cat]

ReimuA: 9.5/10
Powerful, homing, what more could you want?
The only reason it isn't 10/10 is that the bomb slows you down.

ReimuB: 5/10
Good unfocused homing but her bomb doesn't do that much damage and her needles are so weak.
Overall, a bad shot.

MarisaA: 4/10
Weak, low range. The fire doesn't even reach the top of the screen... moreover, she has by far the worst Benben fight.

MarisaB: 10/10 with Bomb Abuse, 5.5/10 without.
If you abuse her bomb she trivialises the entire game. But it's not that good otherwise. But she has very high damage, too.

SakuyaA: 9,999,999,999/10 Counterstop OP 9/10
Another extremely good shot. Slows the game down, high power from anywhere, good spread, the bomb can generate a huge amount of lives (though nowhere near MarisaB's teir) if you use it properly. Also facemelting.

SakuyaB: 7/10 - 10/10 for scoring, 4/10 for survival. Average 7/10.
I like scoring shots. Garbage for survival, but does it's actual purpose very well: mass PIV generation. You get PIV via shooting enemies focused, you get a ginormous amount of PIV from it's bomb.
It represents the divide between scoring and survival so well, honestly. It's probably personal bias on my part that made me rate this so high.

[ZM]

MarisaB: 10/10 with Bomb Abuse, 5.5/10 without.

Do you want me to average these out (it'd be 7.75), or is the 5.5 your actual rating?

[Nolegs the Cat]

Do you want me to average these out (it'd be 7.75), or is the 5.5 your actual rating?

I'd say average it out and round it down to 7.5 so it fits the 'only X/X.5' rule.

[ZM]

I'd say average it out and round it down to 7.5 so it fits the 'only X/X.5' rule.

Alright, 7.5 it is. Thank you!

[ZM]

And the moment we've been dreading...LoLK shots. Let's go.

Reimu: 8.5/10
Underrated. TD!Reimu comes back for the third time, though unfortunately her yin-yang orbs are spread even farther apart, which makes her a bit weaker since they hit even less (she's still pretty strong, but ffs ZUN, what prompted you to make such a stupid decision). She grazes the worst due to having the smallest hitbox, which can be pretty obnoxious due to the way this game's resource system works. Fantasy Seal also clears bullets upon use, so using it to bombgraze is quite challenging. Although her grazing is the worst, she's still quite handy. Having the smallest hitbox grants her the best overall boss performance, especially against Junko. Her unfocused homing works nicely on stages; not as significant as Sanae's homing snakes, but still practical in its own right. Reimu gets a lot of flak in this game due to not being Sanae or Reisen, but she really isn't a bad shot since she provides her own advantages to the table that make her viable for use.

Marisa: 4.5/10
All I can say is...ouch. Yeah, she grazes well. Yeah, her missiles are very powerful. But compared to the other shots, her stage portions are pretty disastrous.  And by virtue of being Marisa, she also has the worst boss performance (though remember, she's very strong, so it helps). Her scoring potential isn't even that great since Sanae and Reisen have superior bombs for that.  At least Master Spark is a great bomb damage-wise, but that isn't enough to save this poor witch.

Sanae: 9.5/10
Sanae~ Solid idea of combining her A/B shots from UFO, ZUN. Her unfocused frogs aren't as strong as they were in UFO, but they still come in handy in a variety of situations, such as against Sagume. On the other hand, her forward-focus/homing snakes are a fair bit stronger than they were in UFO, and they come in handy for stages and bosses alike. Due to the snakes, her stages are the absolute best since they destroy everything quickly so things don't get dangerous. What really cements the fact that Sanae's the best shot in the game is Wily Toad. It's the strongest bomb in the game once more, taking chunks of HP away from bosses every time it's used. It's also amazing for bombgrazing, and because of that, Sanae can easily reach the 200 graze requirement at the end of every chapter simply by using her bomb. Her scoring potential is the best due to that, as well, since she can graze tons because of Wily Toad. This shot's only problem is that she's a bit worse at boss performance compared to Reimu due to her hitbox. Even so, she's the best in the game due to having the most useful advantages.

Reisen: 9/10
The bunny's playable debut (shh, who cares about PoFV), and a quite solid one at that. Evil Undulation is much better than DDC!SakuyaA's shield bomb since it means Reisen can take three hits with it active. And if you don't get hit, the shield lasts for the entire stage potentially. Due to the bomb, though, her hitbox increases in size. But that's also a blessing, since her grazebox also increases in size. Due to that, she's the best at manual grazing. Her unfocused shot has decent spread while her focused shot is a piercing one that has good DPS (utterly melts Sagume and deals plenty of damage against Junko). Overall, she's a very good shot to use and her scoring potential is quite high, even being better than Sanae on some difficulties.