Going pro?

[omgrandomnumbers]

I've talked before with some of the ubers on this board about how to become good at Touhou. In a few days, I'm going to start uploading some of my accomplishments onto YouTube. I'm considering going for perfect Youmu normal and perfect Kanako normal. I'm wondering, should I really be putting energy into mastering normal before I move on to Hard and Lunatic 1cc's? :wikipedia:

And is Perfect Kaguya feasible on Normal?

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

As soon as I got the Normal 1ccs, I started Hard. As soon as I got the Hard 1ccs I started Lunatic.

Outside of unlocking Extras for other shots or going for spellcard captures, I wouldn't bother with Normal again.

If I tried to master Normal before moving up, I would still be on Normal. I've 1cc'd 5 Lunatics and I still haven't even gotten a No Death clear of any Normals cause I always mess up.

[Krimmydoodle]

If you want to get good as quickly as possible, there's no point in wasting time trying to perfect lower difficulties.  Move up to Hard when you can, and don't be afraid to at least mess around with Lunatic before you've even done Hard 1ccs.  Of course, if you can't dodge anything on Lunatic, it's pointless, but if you can at least dodge the occasional spellcard, continuespamming a Lunatic (probably one of the earlier ones: EoSD/PCB/IN, rather than the ragefest-waiting-to-happen of continuespamming MoF/SA/UFO) is a great way to warm up your eyes for a Hard run (everything on Hard looks a lot easier when you've been staring at Lunatic danmaku), and over time will train your eyes and your reflexes quickly.  Lunatic is a beast of its own, and while mastery of lower difficulties gives you knowledge and a bit of initial skill training, nothing really prepares you for Lunatic better than actually playing Lunatic.

Of course, this is all in the name of "going pro."  If higher difficulties aren't fun, then don't play them.  For some (like me), powerrushing to the highest level is their concept of fun.  For others, that won't be the case.  Do what's fun for you.

[Alice★f]

My way:

Skip Easy, 1cc everything on Normal.

Once you do that, you can decide to use Extra as a stepping stone for Hard (Since average difficulty is between Normal and Hard anyway, exempt UFO Extra imo)

But this is all for the purpose of getting used to the speed of Hard/Lunatic without getting too comfortable with your current difficulty level. If you get good at Normal and get too attached to it, it can be difficult to move up later on. This *almost* happened to me.

You might as well get used to Lunatic before trying to perfect anything.

And do take occasional breaks. If you run too fast, you will eventually trip over something.

========================

As for me, I'm trying to skip Hard, but not much luck :V but I'm a stubborn idiot so Lunatic is pretty feasible for me.

[Garlyle]

Yeah, Extra tends to be somewhere between Normal and Hard difficulty to 1cc.

Also, I'd argue that playing on ANY difficulty should help you get a little better, except maybe Easy.  I play UFO on Normal to scorerun it now, Hard to aim for 1ccs, and Lunatic to try to see if I can surpass the Insurmountable Wall that is stage 3 for me, for instance.

Anyway, it's no reason not to start uploading things anyway.  I've got a video of a Story Of Eastern Wind "Hard" (Which is = Lunatic) 1cc up, but I've also got just a random run of SA Stage 2 Normal in which I utterly obliterate the stage and Parsee using MarisaB (Including a ridiculous method of tackling the final card).  There's nothing wrong with aiming for perfection on Normal, but don't forget to balance it out with attempts on Hard and even Lunatic, even if you don't think you can play that well yet.  You might be surprised.

[Erppo]

Also, I'd argue that playing on ANY difficulty should help you get a little better, except maybe Easy.

I agree with this. As long as it's challenging somehow, it will improve your gereral shmupping skills. Of course you have to learn the quirks of any particular new game/difficulty to really get good at it but generic playing skill makes this much easier. I stayed at Normal for quite long time getting pretty good at it and when I finally got around to seriously trying Hard I was surprised how easy it actually felt. I have now 1cc'd everything except UFO on hard and no game took me any more than 4 or 5 tries to clear. (I still haven't tried UFO but because it has by far the hardest normal I fear hard won't be so easy either.)