Touhou game preferred beating order

[Kaze_Senshi]

Hello guys, I don't know if this is the right place to post this question, so feel free to edit/move this post if it's wrong.

I already beat in normal mode Touhou games from 6 until 10 and now I am trying to open the extra mode in these ones. For now I only unlocked extra mode in PCB because I can do 1CC run only in the easy level, in the others generally I can only go until the fifth stage with 1CC ;( After a lot of fails I'm thinking to beat the hard mode before open the extra ones.
So my question is, when you start to play a new Touhou game, what is your preferred order of beat the game's modes? For example, you beat easy, normal, hard, open extra mode and lunatic.

[I have no name]

Start with normal, attempt until 1cc (play easy once if this proves too challenging/to understand the gimmick better), hard/extra (in either order, usually extra first), lunatic.

Although now I start with hard mode  :V

[xForeverFanaticx]

Hm... never really gave that much though into it...

I guess that I'd normally go with Normal first, if I can't clear within maybe 5-10 or so attempts, then move to Easy mode once to learn the spell gimmicks as Ihavenoname stated. That is, of course, only if I don't understand how a certain spell works. If I just have trouble executing strategies, I would just continue doing Normal attempts, or use Spell Practice in IN and TD. If I really have trouble with the execution of strategies, I would also go to Easy for simpler versions of the spells I have trouble with first. After all that, I've always moved to Extra, because IMO Extra mode stages in general are between the difficulty of Normal and Hard usually, with some spikes here and there that reach to between Hard/Lunatic. After that I'd go to Hard, begin trying to do simple challenges on Normal, then go to Lunatic.

basically: Normal -> Extra -> Hard -> Normal w/ Special Condition(s) -> Lunatic (not like I've even reached that yet xD)

^But yeah, eventually I'll be starting with Hard mode too :V

[Drake]

Normal mode the whole way until 1cc, if you have troubles on certain parts POST REPLAYS and get people to critique them until you learn how to do troublesome parts. Then Extra. Take advantage of Spell Card Practice if possible. I don't think you should ever have to drop down a difficulty to learn how to clear a certain card properly, that seems pretty absurd to me. You aren't learning what's troubling you, you're learning an easier version that doesn't necessarily work the same way as the one you want. There's no direct practice going on that way. Going up a difficulty will make you better at dodging, but it won't particularly help you with execution of certain stage portions or troublesome patterns.

When I went up the ladder I played the games in order until a 1cc then moved on to the next. Once the last game was 1cc'd I went up a difficulty. That worked until the last 10%.

[Tengukami]

POST REPLAYS and get people to critique them until you learn how to do troublesome parts.

Can't emphasize this enough. Even simply taking replays of your mistakes and watching them later can give you some "A ha!" moments. You might also find gensokyo.org a good resource for watching replays of others who have succeeded a particular stage or spellcard. Even YouTube can be a good resource for that (although a bit more iffy).

[チソウ タイゼン]

For the difficulties, I've usually gone Normal > Normal + Easy challenge runs > Extra > Hard > Lunatic.
The games themselves may vary: PCB > MoF > IN > TD > EoSD > SA > UFO.

For instance, I would probably advise beating SA or UFO's Easy mode first, or maybe MoF Hard before MoF Extra.

[Seppo Hovi]

A good order to clear the games in would be the order you want to play them in. And do what you want to do with them.
To me it was Normal -> Most Extra stages -> EoSD & PCB Lunatic -> Watch some Dodgeball replays and posts on the finnish forums, start looking for a scoring community. -> Find MotK. -> Get the rest of the basic clears. -> Think of yourself as a good player -> Find an IRC channel -> "Oh shit I suck" -> SFN -> I still suck -> IN easy

IN easy is the culmination of my Touhou career. Since I liked it. I guess I should get some more clears off it. And get within that 1.7b.

[Darth_Sirov]

For me, I usually play Normal all the time (occasionally going for Hard or Lunatic when I feel like it i.e. for the lulz). When I do play well, but fall out in the end of a 1cc run, that's when I save a replay. I had one great run with UFO, often die at Murasa's stage and her, but that specific run got me to Byakuren's last phase, but died midway, I was like FUUUU... and haven't been the same since.

[BT]

Never play Easy if your aim is to get better at dodging. (I know people are sensitive about this so I was careful with my wording this time~) You'll get better faster if you face more complex patterns.

Play Normal until you feel confident in your ability to clear them without a huge effort. Only then Extra. On Hard you muscle your way through - if you feel a game is out of your league, play it anyway. Same goes for Lunatic once you cleared some games on Hard.

[Cookiejesus]

I start with Easy, just for the sake of completion. When I beat that, Normal follows. If I have problems with beating Normal, I swap to Lunatic for training and when I feel that it's enough I swap back to Normal again. Repeat the same for Hard. I Mix in some Extra when I'm bored, but I normally tackle it seriously when(/if) I beat Hard.

[Zil]

I always started with Easy, then Normal, then Extra, then Hard, then Lunatic. The only exceptions are HRtP and PoDD. HRtP I've never cleared on anything but Lunatic. For PoDD I went in reverse order.

I'm not really seeing how anyone would have much a different "preferred order" than that. The only difference seems to be some people ignore Easy and maybe do Hard before Extra. Anything else would be outright bizarre. Like, say, specifically preferring Hard -> Easy -> Extra -> Lunatic -> Normal or some other random order.

If we're going to talk about what we think is the "best" way to go about it to improve your "skills" or whatever, then I'm going to say I would only resort to asking for advice if you're thoroughly stumped with something. Almost everything in the game has some trick to making it easier, and figuring them out on your own is a vital skill. If you run off to copy someone else whenever you're stuck then you won't really get better at that, especially considering that there are lots of things out there that even the majority of people don't know about, so you'll have to figure them out on your own.

[Chuckolator]

Start with normal, attempt until 1cc (play easy once if this proves too challenging/to understand the gimmick better), hard/extra (in either order, usually extra first), lunatic.

Although now I start with hard mode  :V

This is what I do. Still not good enough to lunatic 1cc everything so quickly, so I prefer hard for an easy-ish win before I challenge myself.

[xForeverFanaticx]

Because this thread has to do with difficulties anyway, and I don't want to start an entire new thread just for it:

In your opinion, do you guys think SA or UFO has the more difficult Hard mode? Because I'd like to do them next, but I don't know which one to tackle first o:

[Chuckolator]

In your opinion, do you guys think SA or UFO has the more difficult Hard mode? Because I'd like to do them next, but I don't know which one to tackle first o:

SA by far. EoSD Hard, TD Hard, and IN Lunatic are all 1ccs I did after SA Hard but before UFO Hard. No contest for me.

[I have no name]

UFO hard is harder.  By far.  You need to chain UFOs and bomb almost all the things from Murasa onwards.
SA hard is tricky, but nothing you can't get through by bombspamming Orin.

[Kaze_Senshi]

Oh a lot of answers

Never play Easy if your aim is to get better at dodging. (I know people are sensitive about this so I was careful with my wording this time~) You'll get better faster if you face more complex patterns.

Play Normal until you feel confident in your ability to clear them without a huge effort. Only then Extra. On Hard you muscle your way through - if you feel a game is out of your league, play it anyway. Same goes for Lunatic once you cleared some games on Hard.

I was thinking exactly this, in my mind is better to go to hard mode than go to the easy mode to get better skills. Normally I can advance more in the hard mode using continues than in the normal mode trying 1CC. Anyway I wanna play the easy mode too to see the spellcards that I didn't see in other modes.

I always started with Easy, then Normal, then Extra, then Hard, then Lunatic. The only exceptions are HRtP and PoDD. HRtP I've never cleared on anything but Lunatic. For PoDD I went in reverse order.

I'm not really seeing how anyone would have much a different "preferred order" than that. The only difference seems to be some people ignore Easy and maybe do Hard before Extra. Anything else would be outright bizarre. Like, say, specifically preferring Hard -> Easy -> Extra -> Lunatic -> Normal or some other random order.

If we're going to talk about what we think is the "best" way to go about it to improve your "skills" or whatever, then I'm going to say I would only resort to asking for advice if you're thoroughly stumped with something. Almost everything in the game has some trick to making it easier, and figuring them out on your own is a vital skill. If you run off to copy someone else whenever you're stuck then you won't really get better at that, especially considering that there are lots of things out there that even the majority of people don't know about, so you'll have to figure them out on your own.

Well, this idea is good too, after I'll try to find my weak points and look for some advice here.

PS: I didn't played the hard modes from SA and UFO, but for me SA is soo hard that I can't go until Utsuho yet, yesterday I went until Byakuren in UFO

[Nindella]

Oh a lot of answers

I was thinking exactly this, in my mind is better to go to hard mode than go to the easy mode to get better skills. Normally I can advance more in the hard mode using continues than in the normal mode trying 1CC. Anyway I wanna play the easy mode too to see the spellcards that I didn't see in other modes.

Well, this idea is good too, after I'll try to find my weak points and look for some advice here.

PS: I didn't played the hard modes from SA and UFO, but for me SA is soo hard that I can't go until Utsuho yet, yesterday I went until Byakuren in UFO

I've made a replay for you which is almost a bomb-everything-hard run.  It has alot of silly deaths on stage 4 which should give you space to work with.  There're also suicides when I ran out of power (see stage 5 and 6).
If there's something specific which you can't overcome, then just ask and I can try to help. 
Imo, SA is alot easier than UFO when you know you can bomb spam quite a bit (not as much as MoF, but there're still plenty of bombs in SA).


As for the main thread topic;
Personally, I usually go from PCB/SA -> IN/MoF -> EoSD/PoFV -> TD -> UFO
I found (and am still finding) UFO vastly harder than SA.  I had managed to clear SA Lunatic with all shottypes yet have alot of difficulty 1ccing UFO hard.  I'm currently finding UFO Lunatic a far greater challenge than any other game on Lunatic.

[Oh]

I started with EoSD Normal 6 months ago. I remember grinding it for days trying to 1cc.
After that I 1cc'd PCB, IN, MoF, TD, SA, in that order.
Then I beat the Extras of IN, EoSD, PCB
Then I 1cc'd EoSD, PCB, IN, TD, MoF on hard
Then I beat the Extras of PCB Phantasm, MoF, TD
Then I 1cc'd IN, EoSD MoF, TD on lunatic and UFO on normal
Then I beat UFO Extra and SA Extra

My path will be Normal > Easy Extras > Hard > Other Extras > Lunatic > Stage Perfects / Lunatic no bomb (i hope ^_^)

[Kaze_Senshi]

I've made a replay for you which is almost a bomb-everything-hard run.  It has alot of silly deaths on stage 4 which should give you space to work with.  There're also suicides when I ran out of power (see stage 5 and 6).
If there's something specific which you can't overcome, then just ask and I can try to help. 
Imo, SA is alot easier than UFO when you know you can bomb spam quite a bit (not as much as MoF, but there're still plenty of bombs in SA).


As for the main thread topic;
Personally, I usually go from PCB/SA -> IN/MoF -> EoSD/PoFV -> TD -> UFO
I found (and am still finding) UFO vastly harder than SA.  I had managed to clear SA Lunatic with all shottypes yet have alot of difficulty 1ccing UFO hard.  I'm currently finding UFO Lunatic a far greater challenge than any other game on Lunatic.

Hey Nindel!! I watched the replay until Orin because I don't like spellcard spoilers Nice replay, I'll try to use that grazing tricks (Satori grazing pwnage), after watch this video I tried to do a 1CC normal at MoF and went until Kanako's last spellcard, nice inspiration

[Byaaakuren]

A good order to clear the games in would be the order you want to play them in. And do what you want to do with them.
To me it was Normal -> Most Extra stages -> EoSD & PCB Lunatic -> Watch some Dodgeball replays and posts on the finnish forums, start looking for a scoring community. -> Find MotK. -> Get the rest of the basic clears. -> Think of yourself as a good player -> Find an IRC channel -> "Oh shit I suck" -> SFN -> I still suck -> IN easy

IN easy is the culmination of my Touhou career. Since I liked it. I guess I should get some more clears off it. And get within that 1.7b.

Something similar for me, but I started by clearing PCB Extra first, then Normal for most games

Failing at Normal -> Kept playing PCB Extra (I think it was Dodgeball who linked me a video of yoslime doing this) -> Clear PCB Extra -> Clear most of Normal -> Find MotK -> Clear some Hard -> can't clear Lunatics -> still can't clear Lunatics -> suck some more :V

Somewhere early on since I started playing I found WR replays and it got me very interested in playing for score as opposed to pure survival.

[Tsym]

Honestly I wasn't able to tackle the Extras until I could more or less 1cc Hard, but that may have just been because I was too intimidated by EoSD extra (which I started with) and didn't bother trying any of the others.

And I did Normal > Hard > Extras > Lunatic if you couldn't tell. Honestly the jump from Normal to Hard is probably the toughest, as I made the jump from Hard to Lunatic rather quickly and more or less painlessly once I tried a few rounds.

And as for SA Hard vs UFO Hard, I'd say that UFO Hard is definitely harder. At least in terms of the danmaku you have to dodge, you can get accustomed to Stages 1-3 of SA Hard rather easily. Satori is a bit more challenging, and Orin is really tough, but Okuu is a cakewalk as a final boss since she drops so much power and what not that you can get through her with only one or two deaths once you get used to her stuff.

UFO challenges your dodging abilities as you have to dart for UFOs, dying a lot in the process and raging a lot as well. Not to mention that Kogasa and especially Ichirin get a huge difficulty bump. Ichirin's attacks are incredibly fast, and while Murasa is more or less the same, Shou and Byakuren will wreck you. Extra waves of lasers for Shou, and Byakuren is up there as one of the toughest final bosses of the series, given the fact that she has a lot of attacks that can trip you up. Even though UFO gives you a lot of resources, the game is hard enough that you'll need them all.

[LadyScarlet]

1cc Normal -> Extra -> Hard -> Lunatic

My order of clearing a game. Except I haven't even passed the first step on any game yet. ;_;

[MTSranger]

I went Normal -> Extra -> Lunatic and skipped hard completely.
For lunatic, it was EoSD -> MoF -> PCB -> IN -> 10D -> SA -> UFO
UFO is very hard if you have trouble chaining UFOs effectively. The danmaku is also way up there in difficulty. Also, LFS.

[Darth_Sirov]

Does anybody else find SA much harder than UFO?

I usually get to Stage 4-5 with UFO, but barely breaks through SA's 3-4.

[MTSranger]

Does anybody else find SA much harder than UFO?

I usually get to Stage 4-5 with UFO, but barely breaks through SA's 3-4.

What difficulty? On normal mode it can be the reverse depending on person.
On hard and lunatic though, UFO >> SA.

[Darth_Sirov]

What difficulty? On normal mode it can be the reverse depending on person.
On hard and lunatic though, UFO >> SA.

Normal... and you kind of answered it before I replied.

[SirChaotick]

Does anybody else find SA much harder than UFO?

I usually get to Stage 4-5 with UFO, but barely breaks through SA's 3-4.

For me, Normal UFO falls behind Normal SA. I'm having a lot of trouble with the UFO 1cc, but I do reach Shou about half of the time (the other half were ragequits) while on SA (which I've 1cc'd) only one fifth of plays ever took me to Orin.

[chirpy13]

When I started, I usually played normal for serious 1cc attempts and hard/lunatic for practicing.  Nowadays normal isn't really a challenge for me unless I'm going for scores, but I still start there when new games come out just to get a feel for the stage layouts and game mechanics.

[ふねん1]

During my early days, I didn't mind using Easy Mode to learn enemy placements and the like. I never stayed there for long, of course, but when I was a newbie it was certainly helpful in its own way. There have only been three new games released since I first joined the Touhou community, and only two have actual difficulty settings. I also started with Easy for GFW since I needed to get used to the freezing mechanic. TD is, to date, the only game that has broken this mold - I literally never touched anything below Lunatic (even in the trial version) except when I wanted to unlock the Overdrive cards. I imagine I'll do the same for future games. I don't really have any preference for when I try to beat Extra though. I take stabs at them when I feel like it, and I clear it when I clear it.