SUBTERRANEAN ANIMISM
Character power comparison
Format is seconds for card1/seconds for card2, values are the times it takes to complete the card, starting from when I start shooting. The 2 cards are stage 6 Orin's card, Youkai "Blazing Wheel" and Utsuho's first card, Atomic Fire "Uncontainable Nuclear Reaction". Times were also taken from her third card Blazing Star "Ten Evil Stars", but since it has the same amount of hp as her first card, the times were generally the same and thus not listed (Utsuho is farther up during this card than her first, but there's only one case where it makes any real difference, and that's with Aya F Far. The time for this card is listed in ()). The cards were chosen because the boss does not move in them. The hp values of the cards are 2000 and 3000.
Times are rounded to the nearest .5 second.
All tests were done while invincible and directly under (or above/ontop of) the boss (no horizontal movement from the start of the stage).
UF is unfocused, F is focused. Far means at the bottom of the screen, while Close means being close enough that all of the character's shots are hitting (within reason). Med will vary depending on the shot, see notes for it. If the character does not have a Close value listed, it means their shots are focused enough that the difference between Close and Far is negligible (and half the SA shot types have no spread).
All shots are at max (4 or 8) power unless otherwise specified. Primary shots refer to your character's shot at 0 power, amulets for Reimu and mini christmas trees for Marisa. Patch Fire consists of red forward firing shots, Water has blue wide spread shots, Wood uses green 45 degree angled shots, Metal fires yellow horizontal shots, and Earth shoots brown shots backwards.
12.0/18.0 Yukari F
19.0/28.0 Yukari UF
17.5/25.5 Suika F
17.0/25.0 Suika UF (*1)
17.5/23.0/(26.0) Aya F Far
14.5/22.0 Aya F Close
12.0/18.0 Aya F Ontop (*2)
15.5/23.0 Aya UF Med (*3)
14.5/22.0 Aya UF Close
12.5/18.0 Alice UF Far (*4)
10.5/15.0 Alice UF Close
15.0/23.0 Alice F Far (*5)
17.0/25.0 Patch Fire
18.0/26.0 Patch Water Med (*6)
21.0/32.0 Patch Wood Diag only (*7)
11.0/17.0 Patch Wood Top only (*8)
13.0/19.5 Patch Wood All (*9)
9.0/13.0 Patch Wood 3 Power All (*10)
29.0/46.0 Patch Metal Side (*11)
12.5/19.0 Patch Metal Top (*12)
17.0/26.0 Patch Metal Bottom (*13)
14.0/21.0 Patch Earth (*14)
11.0/17.0 Patch Earth Sweetspot (*15)
10.5/15.5 Patch Earth All (*16)
15.0/22.0 Nitori F
16.0/24.0 Nitori UF (*17)
23.5/34.0 Any char, 0 power (*18)
Ordered by Power (forward shots only, not close)
12.0/18.0 Yukari F
12.5/18.0 Alice UF Far (*4)
15.0/22.0 Nitori F
15.0/23.0 Alice F Far (*5)
16.0/24.0 Nitori UF (*17)
17.0/25.0 Patch Fire
17.0/25.0 Suika UF (*1)
17.5/23.0/(26.0) Aya F Far
17.5/25.5 Suika F
18.0/26.0 Patch Water Med (*6)
19.0/28.0 Yukari UF
21.0/32.0 Patch Wood Diag only (*7)
23.5/34.0 Any char, 0 power (*18)
Ordered by Power (all)
9.0/13.0 Patch Wood 3 Power All (*10)
10.5/15.0 Alice UF Close
10.5/15.5 Patch Earth All (*16)
11.0/17.0 Patch Earth Sweetspot (*15)
11.0/17.0 Patch Wood Top only (*8)
12.0/18.0 Yukari F
12.0/18.0 Aya F Ontop (*2)
12.5/18.0 Alice UF Far (*4)
12.5/19.0 Patch Metal Top (*12)
13.0/19.5 Patch Wood All
14.0/21.0 Patch Earth
14.5/22.0 Aya UF Close
14.5/22.0 Aya F Close
15.0/22.0 Nitori F
15.0/23.0 Alice F Far (*5)
15.5/23.0 Aya UF Med (*3)
16.0/24.0 Nitori UF (*17)
17.0/25.0 Patch Fire
17.0/26.0 Patch Metal Bottom (*13)
17.0/25.0 Suika UF (*1)
17.5/23.0/(26.0) Aya F Far
17.5/25.5 Suika F
18.0/26.0 Patch Water Med (*6)
19.0/28.0 Yukari UF
21.0/32.0 Patch Wood Diag only (*7)
23.5/34.0 Any char, 0 power (*18)
29.0/46.0 Patch Metal Side (*11)
Notes
(*1) Suika UF - Suika UF damage is slightly higher than her F damage when shooting from directly under the boss. I hypothesize that this is because her wisps deal constant damage while they're over a target, and the slightly diagonal path of the outside ones keeps them on for just a litte bit longer.
(*2) Aya F Ontop - All options are hitting in addition to the primary shots. This can be achieved by inching into the boss from the side, though it's not very feasible normally. However during a bomb, this should generally be position used. The time is primarily to show a comparison of its strength to other positions.
(*3) Aya UF Med - At the range where the two main streams from the options are hitting the boss, but the outer random shots are not. This position is usually about 1/3 of the way to the boss. This position probably isn't very feasible due to moving options.
(*4) Alice UF Far - 6/8 shot streams are hitting, only the 2 really angled shots are not.
(*5) Alice F Far - Only the primary shots and the 2 innermost sets of streams (4 total) are hitting.
(*6) Patch Water Med - The primary shots and the innermost set of streams (2 total) are hitting. This is about 1/2 of the way toward the boss.
(*7) Patch Wood Diag only - Only the 45 degree angled shots are hitting.
(*8) Patch Wood Top only - The primary shots and the diagonal shots from only the top 2 option are hitting (the ones in the center). Requires getting close to the boss from the front.
(*9) Patch Wood All - Primary shots and all the shots from the 4 options are hitting. Requires getting close to the boss from the front.
(*10) Patch Wood 3 Power All - At 3.0 - 3.95 Power, Primary shots and all the shots from the 3 options are hitting. Requires getting extremely close to the boss from the front.
(*11) Patch Metal Side - Only shots from the one side of 2 options (top or bottom set doesn't matter)
(*12) Patch Metal Top - Primary shots and shots from both sides of the top 2 options (the 2 top options are on the boss sprite, and character is below her)
(*13) Patch Metal Bottom - Shots from both sides of the bottom 2 options (the 2 bottom options are on the boss sprite, and character is above her)
(*14) Patch Earth - Only shots from the 4 options are hitting (shooting from above boss, not in sweetspot)
(*15) Patch Earth Sweetspot - Only shots from the 4 options are hitting while in sweetspot (the sweetspot distance is having about 1 Marisa height from the bottom of Marisa's sprite to the boss)
(*16) Patch Earth All - Primary shots and shots from all 4 options are hitting. Requires getting close to the boss from above.
(*17) Nitori UF - At this range while UF, the outer shots sometimes miss, sometimes hit.
(*18) Any char, 0 power - All characters have the same shot damage at 0 power. However, the damage from the primary shots will actually decrease as more options are gained. For characters with no spread, this doesn't matter. For the others, it matters when the option shots aren't hitting. This applies mainly to Aya, Patch Water and Patch Metal. Patch Wood and Patch Earth do not have primary shot damage weakened with increased power.
When relative damage is mentioned, it will be the damage the shot deals relative to the base damage (damage at 0 power). These do not include any special cases, just the primary shots + options hitting unless otherwise specified. These values are rounded to the nearest .05 and by nature are slightly inaccurate due to the method used to gather the data. This data should primarily be used to compare damage increases due to power. Sometimes 2 levels next to each other have the same value, this generally means the increase in damage in too small and got rounded off.
Yukari at full power does almost double the damage she does at no power. There is a larger increase in damage from 2 to 3 power than there is from 0 to 1, 1 to 2, with the increase from 3 to 4 following closely behind.
1.00/1.30/1.40/1.75/1.95 - Relative damage F at 0/1/2/3/4 power
Poor Suika, oni shouldn't be this weak! It doesn't help that on some cards, familiars (zombie fairies, ghosts) will lure the wisps away from the boss, making her damage even lower than it already is. Her wisps account for about half of her total damage at 4.0 power, with the amount they contribute decreasing as power decreases.
1.00/1.20/1.25/1.35/1.40 - Relative damage F at 0/1/2/3/4 power
When Aya has 3 power, firing from the side with 2 options is the same as 4 power, whereas firing from the side with 1 option is the same as firing at 2 or 1 power. The damage difference between firing with 1 option and firing with 2 options is surprisingly small however. Note that when firing with 2 options, the shots from the options make up about 2/3s of the total damage, whereas when firing with 1 option, they only make up about 1/2 of total. F damage will always be the same as UF damage or higher (if farther away), and there's no difference in damage at shotgun range. Since it's rather hard to control UF's aim while dodging (unless you stick to the bottom), F is generally superior if you can maintain it.
1.00/1.25/1.35 - Relative damage at 0/1 option hitting/2 options hitting
You have to be rather close to get the outer 2 streams of Alice UF to hit, but they do increase damage considerably if you manage to do so.
1.00/1.20/1.50/1.50/1.85/2.35 - Relative damage UF at 0/2/4/6 - 4 streams hitting/8 - 6 streams hitting/8 - 8 streams hitting
Patch Fire is surprisingly weak despite what it looks like. However, it still is Patch's strongest shot at long range.
1.00/1.25/1.30/1.30/1.40 - Relative damage at 0/1/2/3/4 power
Patch Water is rather weak, even if all the option shots are hitting (have options ontop of boss while above) and if in that position, the much stronger Earth shot should be used. Its primary purpose is for stage enemies, and it does that very well.
Patch Wood should be the shot of choice if you can stay close to the boss from the front. Wood L4 strangely does more damage (when at point blank) when only the top 2 options are hitting, rather than all 4. Wood L3 is the strongest shot in the game if all shots hit, possibly from damage increase compensation due to having a single option fire both ways. MarisaB at 3 power is again supreme in power.
1.00/1.60/1.75/2.70/1.85/2.15 - Relative damage at 0/1/2/3/4 - all hitting/4 - top 2 options only
Patch Metal is rather weak, and if you can get in position for Top or Bottom consistently, you should use Wood for below and Earth for above, as they're both notably stronger.
Patch Earth is quite strong, likely to compensate for the lower number of situations it's usable in. The sweetspot is strange, but makes shots stronger than simply shotgunning from above or shooting from far above, unless you can get the primary shots to hit as well. For a guaranteed estimate of sweetspot distance, go to the top of the screen above Utsuho during her third card (rotating suns). You're going to die momentarily, but that is the distance for the sweetspot.
0.00/0.95/1.20/1.40/1.70 - Relative damage at 0/1/2/3/4 power (primary shots not hitting)
1.00/1.50/1.85/2.00/2.35 - Relative damage at 0/1/2/3/4 power (primary shots hitting)
If all shots hit, Earth is stronger than Wood at L4 and L2, while Wood is stronger at L3 and L1. The difference at L4 is significant, while the difference at L2 is rather small. Thus it's usually fine to use Wood on bosses during bombs.
Nitori has a fair jump from 2 to 3 power, and a very small one from 3 to 4.
1.00/1.25/1.35/1.55/1.55 - Relative damage F at 0/1/2/3/4 power