UFO Summoning for Survival

[GuyonFire]

So, Touhou Wiki happens to have a list of when UFO Tokens appear on each stage.

Given that I'd like to actually get to stage 5 on normal, I've been looking at this list to see what order I should get UFOs in for the most lives/bombs.  (this is disregarding the fact I run into bullets while chasing after the damn tokens...)

It seems like Stage 1 could give me two Red UFOs, or Red, Red, Green (assuming there's enough time to kill the green one before the boss, much less fill up its meter).  If not that, I could have 2 green tokens for a Green really early on stage 2.  Or maybe I'm incredibly stupid.

So help me out, Touhou people.  When going for survival, what's the order I should be going to to get the most reds/greens out of each stage?

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

It's all up to preference.

When I did my Normal 1cc I went with going for lives. When I did it again with SanaeB, I went for bombs as lives weren't as important to me then.

You can actually have 6 bombs going into Nazrin's boss battle if you go Rainbow UFO, Green, Green, Green. Which is a pretty good start actually regardless of if you plan to go for lives later on or not.

[Sen]

I have a pretty solid UFO chain in this replay that lasts for the first three stages and slowly builds you up to 6.75 lives and 8 bombs by the time you reach Ichirin. It's pretty easy to learn and really helpful. After Stage 3 though, I haven't really worked out any sort of chain, I just kind of go for whatever I can amidst all the bullets onscreen

[Krimmydoodle]

Two suggestions I have for your UFO route:

As you get around the end of Stage 5, start chaining green UFOs for survival (if you aren't already).  The reason for this is that Stage 6 begins with three green UFOs, and you want to exit Stage 5 with green UFOs in stock so as to not let UFOs go to waste.

In Stage 6, if you have two or or three life fragments (in other words, enough that one more red UFO is enough for an extra life), try chaining a red UFO, otherwise, chain greens for the rest of the game.  In my first 1cc, I made a futile attempt trying to chain red UFOs during Stage 6.  I entered the stage with 0 life fragments, and failed to score another life in this manner.  I cleared the game hanging by a thread with a stock of .75 lives and .66 bombs, where if I'd spent the stage chaining green, I would have theoretically ended with 0.00 lives and 2.33 bombs.  2 bombs can easily be the difference between success and failure.  Had I been playing any worse that day, I would probably have failed the 1cc, looked back at the replay, and slapped myself for trying to chain red UFOs there.

[GuyonFire]

You can actually have 6 bombs going into Nazrin's boss battle if you go Rainbow UFO, Green, Green, Green. Which is a pretty good start actually regardless of if you plan to go for lives later on or not.

Thanks for this, it didn't occur to me to use the rainbow ones.  I only got 5 bombs, no fractions out of it, though.  Maybe I failed to fill one up fully or something.

this replay

I'm putting this file in the replay folder and it's not showing up on the replay list.  halp.

Stage 5

ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Sen]

I'm putting this file in the replay folder and it's not showing up on the replay list.  halp.

Change the filename to th12_**.rpy, where the ** are a number from 01 to 25.

[CK Crash]

Even if you're going for survival, don't ignore opportunities to summon blue/rainbow UFOs, since they still clear the screen, help you autocollect during the more difficult portions, and can drop 1/2 rainbow tokens. It's better than letting the blue tokens roam around and ruin your red/green chains :V

Another tip, though semi-obvious, is that you can permanently delay a rainbow token's changes by staying close without collecting it.

[Krimmydoodle]

Change the filename to th12_**.rpy, where the ** are a number from 01 to 25.

While this works, it shouldn't be necessary.  There's another set of replays that you can access by pressing right at the replay selection screen.  Their naming structure is th12_ud**** (ud stands for "user-defined", and **** is any four-character string).  This works with most games, and replays.gensokyo.org automatically renames your replays to fit this naming scheme so you don't have to rename it to watch it after downloading (though with Mountain of Faith, you do indeed have to do what SenSageUn said, to rename it to a standard numbered replay).

ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Have more confidence in yourself.  You want to eventually beat this game, right?  You're not going to get very far if you just laugh off the idea of performing well and dismiss it as impossibility.  You just need to work for it.

[LHCling]

I'm putting this file in the replay folder and it's not showing up on the replay list.  halp.

Press left/right. Cutdammit.

Another tip, though semi-obvious, is that you can permanently delay a rainbow token's changes by staying close without collecting it.

Actually, most people don't know this / forget about it. To add, staying close to a UFO that changes colours will have the overall effect of making the UFO stay on-screen for longer. This is why I rarely, if ever have the need to charge straight up into the dense patterns, because I stall out the colour swapping to a point such that they the zone that they stay in the one colour is much, much lower on the screen.
That said, I follow this UFO summoning regime when going for survival (if I ever do those anymore):

• Red, (Rainbow), Red, Red, Green, 2 Red Tokens here
• Red, Red, Red, Red, Red / Green (Seriously does not matter here, I use a bomb here to make my life easier so it's usually Red), 1 Red / Green Token here
• Red, Green, Red, Red, Red, 1 Red Token here
• Red, Rainbow, Green, Green, BLUE, Green, Rainbow, Green, Green, 1/2 Green Token(s) here (usually doesn't matter whether it's one or two). Or red.
• Red / Green, Green, Green, Green, Green, Red, (Blue), 1 Green Token here (usually)
• Green, green, green, green, etc.

Any UFOs in parentheses are optional. Tokens carrying through apply.

Spoiler:

Totally not a cultist summoning demons

.

[Alice★f]

The way I do it:
Chain only reds, milk the UFOs and kill them. If you follow this method well, you can have max lives by the end of Stage 3.

In Stage 4, stop going for reds, and immediately switch to chaining greens. Midboss Nue sometimes drops a full life, so you can use that. In UFO, you're allowed to go one life over the limit.

Also, most important simple tips:
USE YOUR BOMBS
IF IT LOOKS TOO DANGEROUS, DON'T BOTHER CHASING THE UFO

[Treasurance]

I'd go with lives. They increase your confidence...
Bombs don't, instead you'll get paranoid and bomb anything that's even slightly threatening because you are afraid of losing them all...
Well, this goes for me..

[GuyonFire]

Thanks again for the protips everyone.  I think I finally "got" the UFO system given that when I posted this I was at "Dying on Stage 4".  Now I'm actually making it to the final boss!

p.s. curving lasers are bullshit

[Alice★f]

p.s. curving lasers are bullshit

Welcome to the club~