Let's 1CC PCB Lunatic!

[Rook]

Alright. Been away from Touhou for a while. While I played my only accomplishments of note were to beat PCB Hard within like three months. I've stayed away from other games (played through StB and a little of SA, but that's about it).  But now I'm back, and I'm going to kick that ghost's ass, eh? Let's get started!

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee112/espritellipsis/d1.png

Well this is a bad sign.

Anyway, I'll be posting my results in every try, questions about cards, comments, rage, etc. here. There's no way this is going to go well, so don't expect results quickly!

Finished By:
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
2nd noncard (Alice)
"Maiden's Bunraku" (Alice)
"Table Turning" (Letty) (don't ask)
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
Mid noncard(Alice)
"Phoenix Spread Wings" (Chen)
Stage 3 (Alice)
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
Mid noncard (Alice)
Initial noncard (Alice)
Stage 3 (Alice)
"Crusading Cherub's Rampage"
Mid noncard (Alice)
"Hanged Hourai Dolls"
2nd noncard (Chen)
"Human Sword"
Opener (Youmu)
Opener (Youmu)
Opener (Yuyuko)
"Maiden's Bunraku"
The one with all the knives (Yuyuko)
Youmu's stage 6 noncard
Alice's first noncard
"Butterfly Delusion"
"Demon World"
"Resurrection Blossom" (the coward's run)
Stage 4
"Hanged Hourai Dolls"
"Resurrection Blossom" (the slightly less cowardly run)
"Resurrection Blossom"
(clear)

[Arcengal]

PCB L is very doable but you need to practice it a lot. If you haven't already, continue spam through the game in it's entirity so you can access Stage Practice, then go from there.

[Reprosa]

I'd love it if there was a subforum for threads like these. The Accomplishments/Rage/Embarrassment threads are only really relevant for a small number of people and tend to degenerate into spam when too many people post at once. But, if everyone posted a thread on what they're doing and how they're doing/failing it instead of piling on in there, the forums would be filled with them.

Also, if you want more than very general advice or feedback, post replays!

[Trinket]

This thread just inspired me to do the same, a few days ago.

Taking the advice of one of the above posts, I just simply continue spammed my way through everything.
With every character and shot type. So now I've unlocked all stages on lunatic.

I guess all that's left to do is to practice those stages, eh?
Oh and by the way, I had to use my continues at almost the same times as you xD Chen's last spell and one of Alice's non-spells.

So yeah.. Continue spamming works.

[Ghaleon]

Don't bother trying to 1cc lunatic, no human has ever done it, everyone who has is secretly cheating *trollface*

Nah goodluck. May I suggest 1ccing hard or normal first though? Getting game overs on stage 2 (even three) suggests to me that you can still challenge yourself with a much easier goal, and develop your skills for this one with less chance of burnout.

[Rook]

Don't bother trying to 1cc lunatic, no human has ever done it, everyone who has is secretly cheating *trollface*

Nah goodluck. May I suggest 1ccing hard or normal first though? Getting game overs on stage 2 (even three) suggests to me that you can still challenge yourself with a much easier goal, and develop your skills for this one with less chance of burnout.

I 1cced hard then didn't play for four months

Anyway, none of this stuff looks particularly hard--I just don't know the stages or the cards. Chen's noncard triangle things seem much worse, I have to weave through them rather than dodge them "That Chen Card Which Replaces Dounan-Whatever" actually seems easier than Dounan-Whatever (which I still bomb, dammit).

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

I was getting game overs on Stage 2 and 3 also, then I got the VSync patch.

It's not necessarily his skill.

[Arcengal]

I 1cc'd without Vsync. 

[Helion]

Chen's noncard triangle things seem much worse, I have to weave through them rather than dodge them "That Chen Card Which Replaces Dounan-Whatever" actually seems easier than Dounan-Whatever (which I still bomb, dammit).

Chen on Lunatic is 50 times worse than Hard. Unlike the usual trend of "just hard, but slightly faster and with more bullets" Chen goes batshit crazy. Also the douman seiman replacer is annoying as hell.

[SupahVee1234]

...and just finished 1CC'ing PCB Lunatic.  :V

 :toot:

[Rook]

Waaaait. Is Table Turning static?

Not that it's very hard even if it isn't, though.

It would be sweet if "Direction Sign: Not Konjin At the Demon's Gate" were static but I don't think it is

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

Table Turning is static. I always sight read it though.

[Rook]

Alright, I bit the bullet and continued my way through stage 3 to unlock it for practice. Dying once in stages 1-2 then getting wiped out by Alice's noncards got old real fast.

I'm having trouble with Benevolent Orleans Dolls.  I'm considering just timing it out at this point (or bombing it) because it seems too difficult in the center, but much easier in the corners.  Man, I wish I was playing SakuyaB right now.

Everything else seems doable with practice. And what's with the Foggy London Dolls cameo, anyway? That card was difficult... back when I was playing normal :V

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

If you want to play SakuyaB then don't let the fact that she's the best shottype ruin it for you. She's also the one that scores highest. and gets the most lives

I suck at Benevolent Orleans Dolls either way.

Spring Kyoto Dolls isn't as bad once you realize that it's mostly circles of bullets. example. I think I captured it on my 1cc, but it sometimes will throw some BS at you.

[Azinth]

Benevolent Orleans Dolls is one of the harder attacks in the game.  If you're going for survival then just use a bomb.

Spring Kyoto Dolls aims at you right as it begins.  Just make sure you're in the same starting position when it begins and it will open up the same way every time.

[Rook]

I was making fun of Spring Kyoto Dolls. I think it's really easy (easier than Reincarnated Tibetan Dolls, even, from what I remember of that card).

It's good to hear that Benevolent Orleans Dolls is hard, as that makes me feel less bad about performing badly against it--I'll be sure to bomb it each time it shows up.

It turns out that bombing is a skill, and that it deteriorates very quickly--after 6 or 8 no-bomb practice runs through Stage 3 to get a feel for difficulty, I became absolutely terrible at panic-bombing in survival play.  Deathbombed Table Turning after getting shot in the face by a laser, bombed right before Chen's midboss noncard because I thought I was going to run into the fairies, bombed Crusading Cherub's Rampage for absolutely no reason, bombed pretty much everything Alice through at me, even bombed Spring Kyoto Dolls... Oh well. I should be more generous with bombs, anyway (though I would prefer to have as few autobombs in Stages 1-3 as possible, just as a general rule).

And I'm good with Reimu's stupidly long deathbomb timer for now :p Maybe I'll try to run SakuyaB through Hard as a side project. Tried that once, did alright before getting absolutely slaughtered by Merlin.

[Azinth]

It turns out that bombing is a skill, and that it deteriorates very quickly--after 6 or 8 no-bomb practice runs through Stage 3 to get a feel for difficulty, I became absolutely terrible at panic-bombing in survival play.  Deathbombed Table Turning after getting shot in the face by a laser, bombed right before Chen's midboss noncard because I thought I was going to run into the fairies, bombed Crusading Cherub's Rampage for absolutely no reason, bombed pretty much everything Alice through at me, even bombed Spring Kyoto Dolls... Oh well. I should be more generous with bombs, anyway (though I would prefer to have as few autobombs in Stages 1-3 as possible, just as a general rule).

You might already be doing this, but just in case you aren't:  It's always a good idea to plan ahead which attacks you're going to bomb even before you begin your run.  Generally, if you tend to fail an attack about 40-50% of the time or more you should bomb it preemptively(not panic-bombing) to ensure survival.

And please, don't be afraid to bomb past Chen and Alice for now, they're pretty tough for stage 2/3 bosses.  Especially since stage 4 gives you craptons of extends.

[Rook]

you seriously weren't kidding about the crapton of extends



Replay!

thoughts while it's still fresh in my mind

Wow, Merlin post-first card is a joke! I always stayed away from her because of bad experiences with pre-first card Merlin, but apparently I was missing out.

Stygian Riverside is still easy, whee.

I can't tell the difference between stages 4/5 hard and stages 4/5 lunatic =/  I had to bomb the death fairy (or did I die? I can't remember), but I would have had to do that playing Hard for the first time after a while, too.

Oh hey, Human Sword is back! I can't believe that's the spell that did me in, since it's the only one of Youmu's I could have feasibly captured on my first try.  (I guess I need to finally get off my ass and learn Asura Sword, too.)

I still don't understand how to do the interlude on stage 3 between Alice's first and second boss fights

[GenericTouhouFailure]

*Cries at lack of touhou skill...* Stage 4 normal eats my lives.... And Chen Lunatic is FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.... *cries again*

[Rook]

*Cries at lack of touhou skill...* Stage 4 normal eats my lives.... And Chen Lunatic is FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.... *cries again*

man

if you're learned one thing from this topic

it should be that chen lunatic is still fuckfuckfuck even when to those who can 1cc hard

Stage 4 was a pain back in normal.  The reason it's "easy" on Lunatic is because its tricks haven't changed.  Yes, it was painful on Normal, but eventually I learned it (and you will, too).  And even though I'm playing Lunatic, it's throwing the same exact tricks at me--and I still know how to deal with them.

Got to Yuyuko for the first time today!  Man, "Components of Konpaku" is just absurd.  That's never happening.

Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?

[LHCling]

Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?

Yes. However, the bullets are fired a tiny bit differently IIRC.

[Azinth]

Got to Yuyuko for the first time today!  Man, "Components of Konpaku" is just absurd.  That's never happening.

It's not as bad as it looks. You need to be aggressive in getting through as many gaps as possible during the slowdown, then quickly parse what's left and dodge appropriately.

Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?

Yep.  In fact, if you wanna be cheap, you can stand right between the 'n' and second 'e' of 'Enemy' and just safespot the whole thing.  At least, I think that's where the safespot was. :derp:

[Rook]

Oh sweet, thanks!  I actually remembered to continue through Stage 6 this time, so I can practice it until I get Obsession down.

Now, time for an exhaustive list of those spell cards in Lunatic on which I have at least a 50% capture rate:

"Frost Columns" (20/33)
"Lingering Cold" (20/30)
Noisy Funeral "Stygian Riverside" (4/5)

Yeah.

In fairness a few of those are just because I don't take chances with borders; I'm sure I'm at least 50% on Large Pentagram Crest when I don't blow a border at the beginning to trivialize the whole card.  But still... there's a mixture of "" and "man, you really can bombspam through PCB, can't you" in there

[Rook]

what is it with cards with "Demon" in their names and being total walling bullshit

(this is unfair, Yuyuko's demon card only walls you if you had it coming)

[Rook]

I'd like some advice on Stage 5.

A fairly representative practice is here.

On a 1cc run I plan to bomb once at the beginning of the stage's arrow spam, once at the end of the stage's arrow spam, and once on each of her cards except "Human God Sword."  I think I'm getting the hang of Components of Konpaku, though-- thanks, Azinth, it is indeed much less impossible if I think about the situation while getting through it.  I'd especially like any advice on the stage, "Gaki Sword", or "Asura Sword"-- I suspect at least one of my planned bombs on the stage is removable with some practice.

[Heartbeam]

It's a replay!

Here's a partially edited copy/paste:

Asura Sword "Obsession with the Present World"

Be on the lookout for nice open areas at all times, make your bolder moves during the slowdown and move over as soon as it ends.  The bullets are aimed at you at the end of the slowdown, but Youmu won't follow until shortly after.  If you wait until the aimed bullets are about to swarm you to move out of the way then you'll be stuck shooting nothing while she remains above the aimed bullet stream.  I don't know how prevalent this is, but don't lock yourself to the bottom portion of the screen just because the bullets on the higher level twirl with Youmu.  It's only one column and there's a great expanse of dodging area to take advantage of.

Stage Stuff

Pretty sure the beginning stage arrow spam is static so start on the left, slowly stream the blue bullets over (shouldn't cover more than a few taps), then move over and stream back to the left so you don't have red arrowheads storming you so badly.

Memorize the fairies.

"Gaki Sword"

Locate the spot that gives you the most wiggle room among the slowly descending bullets, be ready to handle the faster ones.  That's all I can say.

Endstage Second Noncard

I'm sure you're aware of the 'tap over once the knives spawn' method.  Just throwing it out there.

[Rook]

That helps a lot, thank you!  I knew of the "tap over and the knives won't hit you" method, but I never had the nerves for it--I'm practicing it now, but still can't do it reliably (sometimes don't move over far enough).  More practice and looking at that picture should fix that, though.

Man, the name of "Gaki Sword" is nothing like "Gaki Sword", is it? :V

[Rook]

To "Resurrection Blossom."

Fuck this game.

I'm not saying "Fuck this game" because I died on Resurrection Blossom.  Given the pattern, it was pretty obvious I was going to die here a few times.  But I don't blame the game--it's a pattern beyond my skill, and I'm going to need to take much more resources in order to best it.  Big deal.

I'm saying "Fuck this game" because the above is a coward's run.  I captured, I believe, six spellcards:
"Lingering Cold"
"Maiden's Bunraku"
"Stygian Riverside"
"Human Sword"
"Lost Soul's Village"
"Repository of Hirokawa"

There were a few other cool things in there (one bomb on "Perfect Cherry Blossom" is definitely under par for me right now), and at least one cool noncard (beat the knives!), but on the whole, I bombed, bordered or died on everything remotely worthy of being included in Lunatic.  On the stages, too, I hit that bomb button as soon as any bullet passed within an inch of me.

And this is supposed to be an accomplishment?  I'm not getting better.  I'm not capturing anything in the "seems doable but not quite consistent" range--you won't see Components of Konpaku, the Foggy London Dolls lookalike, or Chalk-White Russian Dolls in here.  Or Table Turning, for fuck's sake!  Table Turning!  This is like the dark mirror of that thread I saw awhile ago about how easy PCB is.

I made it to Resurrection Blossom.  I'm almost to the 1cc.  I'm just afraid it won't mean anything.

[Drake]

bomb more

[Arcengal]

I made it to Resurrection Blossom.  I'm almost to the 1cc.  I'm just afraid it won't mean anything.

I capped 10 cards on my PCB lunatic run and one of them was Resurrection Butterfly itself, which was more of an absolute, undying determination to capture my favourite spell in the series at the end of the Lunatic 1cc. Oh, that and I was 0/1 going into it.

But if you struggle with table turning then that's a slight problem. Remember, every capture makes your cherry items worth more cherry, so more captures = more borders = more protection/free bombs. Try and capture everything up to Chen's last card (since it can be nonsense at times) so you are getting at least 50% more value from your items.