Touhou Gameplay Help Thread #7 - Not just for spell card help after all

[Inadequate]

For Woo, the spin-around strategy is the most efficient one. You can also misdirect the streams to the sides, but it's a bit redundant as the pattern gets more difficult and you can do just as much damage by hanging on top of her. Yuyuko should be strong enough to finish it in one spin. There's some misdirection and prolonging if you want to maximize the on-screen familiars and the cancel bonus, but I wouldn't worry about that for now.

For Volcano, I think most people just do the U-turn method, so perhaps it's easier. I only ever learned to spin myself, it's not that bad. (but loses some graze) Going around the boss is easier if she is on the middle of the screen when you start going on top of her, so learn to make the correct movements (the boss will follow you). The attack will also not drop point-items unless you cancel it at a point where there are 20 or less active familiars on the screen.

[chirpy13]

What approaches are there for Hollow Giant "Woo"? I find circling around Mokou works best for me, but it means less time actually shooting her, so I'm afraid characters that aren't as big monsters up close as Yuyuko might have a harder time. I have quite some trouble surviving enough laps even with her, despite the fact that there are less bullets flying around if you do it right.

Speaking of which, same about Fujiyama Volcano. I prefer going around Mokou, but actually shooting her might prove troublesome with other characters. I just hope I'm not missing something easy or obvious for these two attacks.

pls strm

[pokemon123]

not sure if wrong thread but i played tohou IN on easy and it stopped on stage 4. this normal?

[Shimatora]

not sure if wrong thread but i played tohou IN on easy and it stopped on stage 4. this normal?

If it crashed, you want to make a thread here.

[SirSlarty]

Any general tips on how to utilize MarisaA in Mountain of Faith (normal) better?

I've 1cc'd MoF on Normal with all the other shot types but for the life of me, I can't consistently play MarisaA.

I find the trailing options that shoot the stars very distracting so I position then under Marisa's sprite to hide them (also to make a more forward shot). Unfocusing causes my eyes to lose track of Maria's hitbox when the options start trailing her. I get hit in a lot of really dumb places like a stray bullet I didn't see because of the options covering the bullet.

Usual place I get hit:
Begining of stage 2 where Hina flies back and forth.
Nitori's Cucumber spell card.
All of stage 4, especially Aya's spell cards.
Whenever Kanako uses dagger danmaku.

Maybe I've answered my own question (don't get distracted by the options, dummy!) but I was wondering if anyone has some advice beyond that.

[Yookie]

You can avoid much actual dodging outside of boss-fights by arranging the options on one side of you.
Since this covers a little bit more than a third of the screen like this you can take out most of what's coming if you know where it is going to come from.
Other than that it really is just either getting used to the options following you around or ignoring them. You could "practice" this by playing TD as Youmu as well, if that helps.

[Mr Jovial]

Just to make sure, there are no fancy tricks for Byakuren's Good Omen (1st spellcard) on lunatic right? It's just very difficult dodging and luck, right? Please tell me I'm wrong this attack is soul crushing :<

[Noobzor]

This trick will help you killing it faster with SanaeB but won't save you from a bit of dodging.

[pokemon123]

If it crashed, you want to make a thread here.

no i found out  it's because i got the clock to 5:00 am. thanks for the help though.

[CyberAngel]

Thanks for the answers. I think I'll stick to my current strats.

[SirSlarty]

You can avoid much actual dodging outside of boss-fights by arranging the options on one side of you.
Since this covers a little bit more than a third of the screen like this you can take out most of what's coming if you know where it is going to come from.
Other than that it really is just either getting used to the options following you around or ignoring them. You could "practice" this by playing TD as Youmu as well, if that helps.

TD Youmu gives me the same issues as MoF MarisaA but it's not as bad seeing how they don't lock during focus.
I'll try to string the options to the side or just plain ignore them and see if that improves my gameplay.

One would think I'd be used to trailing options after having playing Gradius for years.

[Mr.Magic]

Can you help me for UFO, like what UFO's to get each stage to get maximum resources, Stage 3 Ichirin and  The stage portions?

[Cream Soda]

There are enough tokens that you can plan your own UFO routes, and if you mess up your route, there is usually room to improvise, especially on the lower difficulties. If you're a beginner, you'll probably want to always summon red UFOs for the life pieces. Technically you'll get about 33% more bombs with green ones, but it's less efficient if you die with bombs in stock. There are places where (especially on higher difficulties) you'll want to break a UFO just to clear the screen, like the two yin yang ball spams in stage 3. If you're struggling, you can learn a lot of things by watching other people's replays.

[KingofBaka]

Only 1 question this time and it is about MoF
Heaven's Stream "Miracle of Otensui" - How would I dodge this? I am thinking that you have to stream the bullets and then when you get close to the edge of the screen,misdirect the bullets and go into the gap that appears but I want to know for sure.

[Cream Soda]

That is the idea (see here). The hard part is keeping up with the red and purple fish bullets.

[BB]

On Kaguya's final spell (I'm talking specifically Hard mode here but it probably applies to all difficulties) I notice it takes a long time for her HP to start falling. Is this because she has protection for a long time or does her HP just extend past the bar?

Or to put it another way, when streaming side to side I try to stall in the middle for as long as possible to maximise damage to her, but is there any point doing this early on if her HP isn't dropping?

[ふねん1]

Kaguya has armor until about 48 seconds left, so whatever you do before then doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't get you killed. :V

[Karisa]

Actually, I think you can damage the familiars before that?

It probably isn't practical on Hard/Lunatic when the mesh rainbows are there from the start, though.

[Yookie]

You can take out the familiars from the start and it is possible on Hard to get rid of one or even two, depending on the Shottype.
But the practicability of that is definitely questionable. It also doesn't really damage Kaguya.

[BB]

You can damage the familiars, it's pretty much necessary when playing Marisa Solo for that one Last Word, but as border team in Hard mode I don't want to stay unfocused for long enough to manage it x_x Good to know I can just focus on dodging for the first minute though, thanks for that. I can 1CC all the way up to that spell, so it's the final hurdle!

[microfolk]

First post here and I'm asking for help how shameless of me.
But I'm having a really really hard time dealing with the first non-spell card of Merlin in PCB Hard (I'm using Sakuya B). If I'm understanding correctly the curvy lasers are aimed just around your hitbox and the arrows shot are easily avoided by just tapping in one direction but then she starts spamming bullets and I don't really know how to manage all this? Should I flail around the screen trying to stay as far as possible from her targeted shots? Is there a trick or a safe spot? Should I spam bombs like there is no tomorrow?
But then when I bomb with Sakuya B my damage output seems to sinks pretty horribly I think it's intended to balance the huge invincibility period but still...

Also I'm still trying to figure how to move around during Subtle Melody "Repository of Hirokawa -Phantom Spirit-" (Yuyuko's second to last spellcard), I can't understand if there is a simple way to switch direction after a blue-bullet outburst, I find they are always too dense to pass amongst them safely.

[KingofBaka]

How would I capture Rans first spell card in PCB extra? I don't even know where to start with it  :V.
My guess is that I have to misdirect the bubbles but like I said before, I dont know

[Yookie]

With all of Marisa's Shottypes, ReimuB & SakuyaB you can start streaming it from one side to another. To do so just go by hearing. Wheneveryou hear the sound of a bubble going off move a little. It takes some practice but then it's basically failsafe.

I don't know if the remaining shot-types have enough damage for that. Ran stays in your range most of the time and I never had to care for hitting her, even with Marisa's narrow shots.

[Failure McFailFace]

With all of Marisa's Shottypes, ReimuB & SakuyaB you can start streaming it from one side to another. To do so just go by hearing. Wheneveryou hear the sound of a bubble going off move a little. It takes some practice but then it's basically failsafe.

I don't know if the remaining shot-types have enough damage for that. Ran stays in your range most of the time and I never had to care for hitting her, even with Marisa's narrow shots.

I've done this with both ReimuA and SakuyaA, and it always works. Probably because they're homing.

[microfolk]

How would I capture Rans first spell card in PCB extra? I don't even know where to start with it  :V.
My guess is that I have to misdirect the bubbles but like I said before, I dont know

Stay still and tap left or right when the bubble explodes into the diamond-shaped cloud of bullets and see how they all pass besides you grazing your hitbox. It looks far more impressive than it actually is, you just have to don't lose your composure when the bullets count start escalating it's always horizontal micrododging.
If you want to end it quickly with non-homing shot types it could prove more difficult but when even with Reimu B I've never had many problems ignoring Ran and focusing on dodging.

Returning to my silly attempt at 1CCing PCB on Hard I'm having tons of trouble with Youmu, specifically with her first non-spellcard.  I'm learning how to misdirect the cloud of bullets but sometimes she spawns a huge pattern with a ridicolous ammount of bullets and they are really really dense and I'd like to know why she do that even before learning how to cope with it? I've never seen the "hard versione" in the replays I've got. :\

[MrL1193]

How would I capture Rans first spell card in PCB extra? I don't even know where to start with it  :V.
My guess is that I have to misdirect the bubbles but like I said before, I dont know

I prefer to start just slightly off center (but still close enough to be hitting Ran before she starts moving) and then slowly stream toward the far corner. I've done this with every shot type, and it's never given me any trouble. Just make sure you watch the incoming waves to see if you actually need to move; once Ran starts speeding up, you'll be able to hold your position for 2 or sometimes 3 waves in a row before the targeting of the incoming waves adjusts to your position. As long as you don't move more than necessary, the attack should end well before you're in danger of running out of room.

Returning to my silly attempt at 1CCing PCB on Hard I'm having tons of trouble with Youmu, specifically with her first non-spellcard.  I'm learning how to misdirect the cloud of bullets but sometimes she spawns a huge pattern with a ridicolous ammount of bullets and they are really really dense and I'd like to know why she do that even before learning how to cope with it? I've never seen the "hard versione" in the replays I've got. :\

Youmu's boss opener is always considerably more elaborate than her midboss versions of the same attack. Try to misdirect the first wave so you don't have to deal with the two waves overlapping. (On Lunatic, the higher bullet speed allows you to misdirect both of them, but I don't think that's possible on Hard.)

[Nolegs the Cat]

Not sure where else to put this...
But how does Fantastic Danmaku Festival compare to the main games on hard mode?

[KingofBaka]

Thanks for all the help everyone! But now I have another  2 questions to ask.
1. Rans second spell  has too many bullets for me :V. Theres bullets comng from the sides , from ran,and from diagonal angles. So how would I capture/ survive this card.
2. Rans 4th. I know you can pass through the lines of green(?) bullets if your lucky. But is that what your supposed to do for the whole card and to capture it?

[t_prinny]

Thanks for all the help everyone! But now I have another  2 questions to ask.
1. Rans second spell  has too many bullets for me :V. Theres bullets comng from the sides , from ran,and from diagonal angles. So how would I capture/ survive this card.
2. Rans 4th. I know you can pass through the lines of green(?) bullets if your lucky. But is that what your supposed to do for the whole card and to capture it?

For Ran's second spellcard, its generally safe to dodge it from the bottom right corner. I've had some success pulling the dodges off after seeing some runs pull off their dodges in that corner. I have no comments for Charming Siege since I tend to panic bomb this one. I think the idea is that you are supposed to follow the pocket you are in while dodging all the bubble bullets.

Not sure where else to put this...
But how does Fantastic Danmaku Festival compare to the main games on hard mode?

I can't really comment too much, but Fantastic Danmaku Festival does give me as much trouble learning hard mode as PCB and IN did for me (only things I can compare to). However, I find myself spamming bombs more compared to those two. I'm still learning hard myself. I think someone compared the patterns to fireworks in the Fantastic Danmaku Festival thread, and that feels like an accurate description to describe some of the patterns.

[microfolk]

I'm playing DDC on Normal, using Marisa B (and avoiding bomb spamming to gather a ludicrous amount of resources, I find this shoot types really funny regardless of how broken its bomb is)

The sixth stage is giving me headaches, starting with Seija's second non-spell. Is there a pattern or a trick or something or is just raw dodging? And if it's the latter is the attack doable and I'm just too scared of the crossing bullets or is it really a little bit too difficult for its difficulty level?

And then there is Sukuna. God I hate Sukuna.
The first non-spell is trivial, then there is Inchling Path which I admit I haven't really tried to understand too well, but I should misdirect the green bullets in order to clean the path between the circles right? Is it possible to do it so without ever passing between two white pellets or sometimes it's just inevitable?
The second non-spell is also trivial though I have to stay focused during the pellets shower but it's ok.
Grow Even Bigger! is not really that difficult but I'd like to know where the hitboxes of the bullets are: for the bubbles I gues they the entire circle? What about the heart-shaped ones?
I'm still trying to figure how to deal with the third non-spell, I usually die when Sukuna moves from the bottom right side of the screen to the bottom left one but it shouldn't be too hard once I learn how to do it. Shining Needle Sword is stupid and I hate it but I understood how it works, now it's just a matter of not to panick and don't loose my cool, so unless there is a super cool trick that completely trivializes it I should be good.
The fourth non-spell is cool and fun and destroys me but it's just dodging I guess. Then there is You Grow Bigger which is one of the worst spellcard of the entire series in my opinion. I'm coming from 30 minutes grinding it on spell practice and I think I've got it down, though sometimes I still die when there are like ~5 seconds left. I tried using Reimoo and the smaller hitbox really helps a lot, but it's just a stupid and unfun card all around. Or maybe I'm just frustrated, I don't know.
Attack on Dwarf is super fun and really easy, though I've seen a couple of replays where the player managed to freeze the homing bullets near Sukuna, I'll try to study how they do that.
Hop-o'-My-Thumb Seven... I guess it's just dodging? I tried swaying left and right, passing trough a ring of kunais and then moving to the center, avoid some group of bullets and then going to the other sides and repeating all of this, it seems like it allows me to spread the glowing bullets but I don't really know if it really works or if it's just a matter of dodging??
So basically I'd like to know how to tackle the entire fight ahahaha.


Oh, and what about the penultimate Spellcard of Stage 4B, Heian's Reverberation.
I just don't know? WHAT SHOULD I DO