Death Bombing in Touhou 6, and why I need to stop sucking at it.

[AnonymousJustified]

So, I recently introduced myself to the Touhou games, and Bullet Curtain games in general, but I am having difficulty with a key aspect that could even make me able to 1cc Hard after just a couple of tries, but since I cannot do this, I suck. Horribly. I can't even 1cc Easy. ^:(

I was just wondering if anybody might have specific tips on how I can get better at death bombing alone. Thanks for reading this, and help is much appreciated!

[I have no name]

Bomb pre-emptively, or intentionally ram into a bullet then bomb immediately after.

Trying to reactively deathbomb in EoSD is a bad plan.

[ふねん1]

Trying to reactively deathbomb anywhere outside of IN Border Team and PCB Reimu is a bad idea. Unlike how you describe it, deathbombing is actually not one of those "key aspects" that helps you get a 1cc. Things like familiarity with enemy placements, general dodging skills, and bombing before a threatening-looking pattern reaches you will get you a lot farther than trying to rely on deathbombs.

[theshirn]

So, I recently introduced myself to the Touhou games, and Bullet Curtain games in general, but I am having difficulty with a key aspect that could even make me able to 1cc Hard after just a couple of tries, but since I cannot do this, I suck. Horribly. I can't even 1cc Easy. ^:(

If you can't 1cc Easy, believe me, deathbombing alone won't get you to 1cc Hard.

Deathbombing is a bad habit.  Touhou above all else is resource management.  If you know there's a part coming up that you have trouble with, use a bomb.  If you don't think you're going to make a dodge, use a bomb.  And if you need to save bombs, practice more.  Do stage practice runs of whatever is giving you trouble, watch replays, go through it a couple dozen times until you get the hang of it.

[Vanhaomena]

I sure as damn have never successfully deathbombed in a situation where I don't expect to be hit, for example when screwing up pacing while streaming, when I misread hitboxes, or in early stages while trying to grab items.
I think the deathbombing interval is 6 frames which equals 100 milliseconds. Reacting faster than that gets you disqualified in sports events, so chances are it's impossible to do without (subconsciously) anticipating the miss. The Internet says the average reaction time between a visual sensation and pressing a button is 215ms according to Google, and <150ms is extraordinary. You can give up dreams of being able to deathbomb on reflex to avoid dying with bombs, nobody else can do that either.
I guess in EoSD if you're playing for survival you might purposefully ram into a bullet whenever you need to bomb to decrease rank (affects bullet density and speed), but that would be a pretty fancy tactic. Just press X whenever you're not in control of the situation anymore.

"If you can't 1cc Easy, believe me, deathbombing alone won't get you to 1cc Hard." seconded. It's easier to no-miss no-bomb the whole game on Easy (esp. since it's only 5 stages) than to clear Hard using all resources. Compared to Easy it has some brutal attacks in the later stages.

[Drake]

so chances are it's impossible to do without (subconsciously) anticipating the miss. The Internet says the average reaction time between a visual sensation and pressing a button is 215ms according to Google, and <150ms is extraordinary.

There is a large difference between this and that for several reasons.

• Even if you don't anticipate a death, bullet trajectories and your movement give you a map of when something will hit you. You are not reacting to static stimuli nor something popping out of nowhere; everything is moving and you use a more "fluid", time-based perception and short term memory to calculate the game rather than raw reaction.
• Deathbombing reflex is largely muscle memory.
• If the cause is something you screwed up then you're going to acknowledge the mistake before or almost immediately at your hit. A hit doesn't even have to take place as long as you perceive the danger of making the mistake.
• Obviously, your reaction time decreases with anticipation and increases with laxness.
• Game learning. The mere fact that you've likely played the game for a long time is enough to sharpen your reaction time for specific events such as deathbombing.
• The deathbomb period minus the perception of the audio blip is still long enough to physically react to even if you're completely blindsided.

So many factors are bound to change deathbomb reaction and reflex depending on the person, the general situation and the immediate situation. Averaging things out is pretty useless.

[Zil]

I have personally reacted to getting hit out of nowhere in games outside PCB and IN, so it is possible, but not by any stretch of the imagination reliable.
Deathbombing is not a key aspect. You may as well think of it as useless. It just saves if you bombed later than you should have. (There was a whole thing about this in rage thread earlier.)
In short, plan your bombs. Deathbombs are just should-be failures. Even in IN it's stupid because it takes two bombs.
About the rank thing, after playing it a bit I'm pretty sure deathbombing has the same effect on rank as a normal bomb. At least, it's nowhere near the effect of dying. (Thinking on it now, that actually would make a big difference if you're doing it to reduce rank.)

[Drake]

Even in IN it's stupid because it takes two bombs.

and it seems to take some frame priority over the vanilla deathbombing period

EDIT: You have one frame with Border team to vanilla deathbomb. In contrast, you have 27 frames to shitbomb.

[K.B.]

If someone were to make a set of patches that removed deathbombing in Touhou, I'd apply them without a second thought.  I've had too many deaths and too much frustration in other shmups by dying when "I know I bombed(!)" after getting used to this awful mechanic.

Seriously, someone make these patches and I'll even consider cuddling after making sweet sweet love to you.


(op:) Regardless, you'll end up getting used to the window (for the first db, that is, since it gets shorter with each consecutive db) if you invest enough time in the game.  No need to actively pursue the skill: it's a curse that you'll passively acquire.

And yeah it's not going to help you much.  It's kind of neat when you first start pulling it off more regularly, but that's about it.

[Zil]

My first impression of it was that it was meant to account for some input lag that existed in the earlier games. It does get annoying when playing other things though, so yeah, really don't get dependent on it.