A Crash Course in Surviving Underground

[MTSranger]

Echoing others here:
1. Try ReimuA and ReimuC and see which one you like.
2. There is nothing wrong about circling Parsee's first - if it guarantees capture.
3. Drop bomb on top of boss is very important for Marisa B and Reimu C

[Mero]

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=31031

I don't want to just tell you ReimuA is the best shottype, I'd rather have you figure that out by yourself :V, so I did a run with MarisaB, stages 1 through 3 show MarisaB's versatility (specially on stage 2) and stages 4 through 6 show the power of her bomb (most notably on Orin, who had almost all of her attacks destroyed before they did anything), but in order to use these effectively you need to plan ahead (and really, planned bombs are not as bad a practice as some people may make it out to be)

again focus on not dying, and the game gives more lives than the maximum you can have, so there's room for some mistakes

[Raekuul]

Here's my contribution, though I seem to be having the same troubles as yourself.

If you're going to insist on MarisaB, just remember that each color has different strengths:

Red: Good for when the enemy is right in front of you.
Blue: Good for when you need to hit lots of targets at once.
Green: Good for when you're sitting at just the right angle for it, also good for shotgunning.
Yellow: Good for when you're parking at the top of the screen and stuff's coming in from the sides, also good for shotgunning.
Brown: Good for when stuff is below you. (Trust me, you don't want to be in a position where brown is the best choice)

The main obstacle to planned bombs right now is that it requires familiarity with the stages, so to echo what someone else said before - for now, just focus on unlocking the stages for practice mode, then practice your trouble spots.

[Karisa]

...At first I thought this thread was for yet another Touhou fangame. I guess I was mistaken.

Anyway, most of what I might say has already been said, but to reiterate-- bomb if you think you're about to die, learn methods to trivialize spells, make use of stage practice, watch others' 1cc replays, give ReimuA at least a few tries, etc.

I'd offer some scoring tips, but they'd probably be more harmful than helpful at your current level. For now, just remember that clearing is most important, and minimizing deaths is second-most important.

I would like to link this video of mine, though, since it'll show you a lot of the tricks that help with dodging patterns. (It also shows things like the suicide at the start, bombing Parsee nonspells, and other things that you definitely should not do if you're having trouble with surviving Parsee. Hopefully you can tell what's for survival and what's for score.)

[Cheez8]

Something that might be worth mentioning: You probably know this, but the Stage 4 boss uses different patterns depending on your shot type. ReimuA is a very good shot type, but using her gives you some of the most difficult patterns you can get in that battle. MarisaB is pretty good too, but she also gets some tricky attacks to deal with. Not quite at the same level as ReimuA, but they're not exactly a walk in the park.

ReimuC and MarisaA, which have both been suggested as potentially useful, have some of the easiest Stage 4 fights. It depends on your playstyle, of course (I can't aim ReimuC for the life of me) but at the very least you won't run into as many problems if you play as one of them.

Also, yes, use bombs. Dying at full power without using a bomb usually means you just lost the equivalent of about five bombs. That's worse than losing one bomb.

[SIRookie]

This is something that comes with experience, but even as a beginner (I feel odd calling you a beginner when you started early this year), unfocused something to help you dodge is something you should learn early.

By all means, call me a beginner. I haven't put much time in with serious intent, so I still consider myself relatively inexperienced.
 

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=31031

I don't want to just tell you ReimuA is the best shottype, I'd rather have you figure that out by yourself :V, so I did a run with MarisaB, stages 1 through 3 show MarisaB's versatility (specially on stage 2) and stages 4 through 6 show the power of her bomb (most notably on Orin, who had almost all of her attacks destroyed before they did anything), but in order to use these effectively you need to plan ahead (and really, planned bombs are not as bad a practice as some people may make it out to be)

again focus on not dying, and the game gives more lives than the maximum you can have, so there's room for some mistakes

Thanks, GMeroK. That's a really helpful run. I never expected bombing to be so effective when directly on top of them, I just thought of it as a way to clear some room to move around in

If you're going to insist on MarisaB, just remember that each color has different strengths

I wouldn't call it "insisting" on using MarisaB, but at the same time I think that's what I'm going to go with since I've put in the most time with this set. (So I guess I am insisting... ReimuA will be my next attempt, I swear)

...At first I thought this thread was for yet another Touhou fangame. I guess I was mistaken.

Anyway, most of what I might say has already been said, but to reiterate-- bomb if you think you're about to die, learn methods to trivialize spells, make use of stage practice, watch others' 1cc replays, give ReimuA at least a few tries, etc.

I'd offer some scoring tips, but they'd probably be more harmful than helpful at your current level. For now, just remember that clearing is most important, and minimizing deaths is second-most important.

I would like to link this video of mine, though, since it'll show you a lot of the tricks that help with dodging patterns. (It also shows things like the suicide at the start, bombing Parsee nonspells, and other things that you definitely should not do if you're having trouble with surviving Parsee. Hopefully you can tell what's for survival and what's for score.)

I was just trying to come up with a clever title. Also I tried suicides at the start (just for the hell of it), but it felt unusual and incredibly risky, so I think I'm going to avoid that for now. Bombing Parsee's nonspells, however, was incredibly usefull and completely unexpected for me -- I'm definitely going to keep that in mind

Something that might be worth mentioning: You probably know this, but the Stage 4 boss uses different patterns depending on your shot type. ReimuA is a very good shot type, but using her gives you some of the most difficult patterns you can get in that battle. MarisaB is pretty good too, but she also gets some tricky attacks to deal with. Not quite at the same level as ReimuA, but they're not exactly a walk in the park.

ReimuC and MarisaA, which have both been suggested as potentially useful, have some of the easiest Stage 4 fights. It depends on your playstyle, of course (I can't aim ReimuC for the life of me) but at the very least you won't run into as many problems if you play as one of them.

Also, yes, use bombs. Dying at full power without using a bomb usually means you just lost the equivalent of about five bombs. That's worse than losing one bomb.

I did a run on easy just to see what I had to look forward to, so I know about Satori's (multiple) spell cards. I can't aim ReimuC either. It just always feels awkward trying to control her. Still haven't really given MarisaA a shot yet, but I'll add that to the list.

[Cheez8]

Still haven't really given MarisaA a shot yet, but I'll add that to the list.

I'd like to mention something for if you do try MarisaA out. That shot type is a little bit backwards, with the unfocused shot acting like most focused shots and vice-versa. Obviously, being unfocused beneath the boss does the most damage, but don't feel obligated to be unfocused all the time. Whenever you have a chance to safely sit in line with the boss without moving for a while, you should take that chance and unfocus to pile on the damage, but otherwise just dodge as you normally would. The focused shot isn't that weak, and unfocused dodging during a pattern that requires precision is absolutely not something that you should resort to.

MarisaA also gets bombs more easily than other shot types and can hold more at once, so that's good too. Her and ReimuA were the first two (and so far, only two) shot types I've cleared Normal Mode with, even though I like MarisaB the most, so I can vouch for them.

[I have no name]

Do note that though MarisaA gets more bombs, she still only starts with 2 after any death and they are not effective at clearing the screen, and the duration is the shortest.  Every other shot type gets a lot more out of their bombs, whether it be survival time or damage.

[Karisa]

Do note that though MarisaA gets more bombs, she still only starts with 2 after any death and they are not effective at clearing the screen, and the duration is the shortest.  Every other shot type gets a lot more out of their bombs, whether it be survival time or damage.

MarisaA still starts with 3+ bombs if you die with 3+ power, and gets a full power item when you're on your last life, same as with any other character. (Except that dying with 8 power with MarisaA will give you only 7 power back.)

It is true that she doesn't get as much benefit from the bombs as it may seem, though. Notably, MarisaA needs 12 power items per bomb, while other characters need 20, so if you use 2 MarisaA bombs where you'd use 1 with a different shot type, you'd be 4 power items behind.

Edit:

I was just trying to come up with a clever title. Also I tried suicides at the start (just for the hell of it), but it felt unusual and incredibly risky, so I think I'm going to avoid that for now. Bombing Parsee's nonspells, however, was incredibly usefull and completely unexpected for me -- I'm definitely going to keep that in mind

I'm not sure if you said you were seriously trying a suicide at the start, but that really isn't something you should be doing, unless you're already reasonably confident you'll finish with 9 lives anyway. Otherwise you'd lose 25 million at the clear bonus, for a relatively small gain of post-Kisume star items.

[I have no name]

MarisaA still starts with 3+ bombs if you die with 3+ power, and gets a full power item when you're on your last life, same as with any other character. (Except that dying with 8 power with MarisaA will give you only 7 power back.)

This is true, but I'm operating under the assumption every bomb is being used which would still only give 2 bombs-resulting in likely, a vicious cycle of deaths on bosses, since her bombs are not very effective^(tm)

[SIRookie]

Edit:I'm not sure if you said you were seriously trying a suicide at the start, but that really isn't something you should be doing, unless you're already reasonably confident you'll finish with 9 lives anyway. Otherwise you'd lose 25 million at the clear bonus, for a relatively small gain of post-Kisume star items.

I did it once or twice as an "I wonder..." type thing, but saw more loss than reward. I'm not even considering suiciding as an option at this point.

[Tengukami]

That's the spirit. Suicide should not be an option.

[Drake]

Suicide is only worth it at the beginning if you're planning to have max lives by the end bonus, pretty much. It isn't worth considering until high level play.

[Waahst]

Adding onto point-blank bombing stuff.

ReimuC is probably way easier to use for stuff like this, but her shot is not so good for inexperienced players. MarisaB is quite alright, despite the intimidating number of option arrangements she has. Blue tears stages apart and can shotgun, Red is straightforward. Basically, I know jack squat about the game or the shottype but that's something you're likely going to sympathize with. No need to get complicated with all the different option types. The others have their uses here and there, but they're not even close to necessary for a clear.

When using MarisaB however, you should autobomb any spellcard or nonspell you have abysmal capture rate on, no exceptions. If you really want to clear and do it quickly, that's the right thing to do. Try to get as close to the enemy hitbox as possible before bombing, because the center of the bomb (where the 5 colored rings overlap) does the most damage--enough to oneshot spellcards early on. Getting about 3/5 is ok too if you want to play it safe, though it's obviously most effective to ram into the enemy and deathbomb. Even after running out of bombs, it's not too difficult to finish off whatever spellcard you were working on to get some power back most of the time. This lets you bomb the next difficult spellcard so that you won't lose any lives in the process. The only thing to be aware of is how low you will be on power most of the time in the later stages. Just learn how to handle that and recover power when you can, and it's a winning formula.

Here's some Stage 6 replay with MarisaB for "autobombing" in a nutshell. Unless you absolutely suck at the last spellcard, this kind of route should be capable of clearing even if you enter stage 6 with no additional lives. You'll gain a life during the fight, probably die on the penultimate, get full power, bomb it a third or fourth time, then go into the last spellcard with max power for less trouble than what is shown on the replay. To summarize the replay, her nons are more or less static, and most things die in two bombs, except the penultimate (Hell's Tokamak or whatever it's called on Normal). Stage is a joke when entering at full power. It should be easy to copy if necessary.