Touhou Danmaku Hell - Success and Failure Stories

[Yonowaaru]

And that's all for the Kasa Osobi festival! (I hope I remembered that right...)

In other words, I beat Suwako. And I gotta say, ReimuA litteraly trivialises every single bit of that extra stage. I actually lost a life at Kanako's second spell, but I still managed to get to Misagushi-sama with 1 (or 2? I don't know if you'd count no stars left as a life?) lives left. Maybe it's because her first survival card actually went well for a change... If I hadn't bombed it, I would've captured it...

And it was even my first try of the extra stage (first try with ReimuA, that is, but still)

[LUE Andy Richter]

I'm coming for you, UFO normal. I've felled your brothers PCB Normal, IN Normal both paths, EoSD Normal and MoF normal. It's time for you to go.

Before the year ends.

Shou is my biggest and only obstacle, obviously

[cheez8]

I haven't played any Touhou games for a couple weeks now, so I decided to try to get through Phantasm mode earlier today once I got back from my grandparents... This is the result. Some noteworthy parts:

-Me running out of lives and bombs
-Me running out of lives and bombs
-Me running out of lives and bombs (again)
-Random ghost swastika

...I will be the first to admit that I survived as long as I did due to nothing but pure luck. Still, I really wish I hadn't been so incredibly stupid against midboss Ran. Yukari seems so beatable, but as usual, I just had to ruin a good run early on.

[Yonowaaru]

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Seriously. The stage is just horrible, and Patchouli is stupid.
I can get to Flandre with sometimes 3 lives, but...

This time, I got there with 3 lives. I captured everything up to maze of love, bombing once on a nonspell. I just bomb Maze of Love twice, then I have to bomb Starbow Break, I die at the last moment on Catadioptric, then I have 1 life and 2 bombs left. I have no clue what to do on Counter clock, and lose both my life and my bombs ^^. Seriously, how does that one work?

[gamercal]

Oh awesome, something I can help with given that I've just posted a much better clear of Flan on my channel ^_^

What shot type are you using? The main difficulty I find with Patchy is with Silent Selene because I use MarisaA, and it's difficult to stay under her with that one. Royal Flare is a bitch to anyone outside of MariA though, and Philosopher's Stone is just micro-dodging. I find it easiest to just move around a small square at the bottom, weaving around the water bullets since they are about the only ones that are aimed.

Remember that a lot of the stage is streaming, and it's not too bad. The faeries before Patchy are a pain though.

Out of interest, how hight do you play Starbow Break? Chance are you're playing it too low if you're hanging near the bottom right from the word go, as the waves tend to overlap a lot more then and it becomes impossible. Being about 30-40% up the screen is a better idea, at least at the beginning.

As for Counter Clock, it's really not too hard (although I fail at it a lot too). Start in the middle and shift to the far left when the clock turns - the laser doesn't have a hitbox when it's disappearing. You need to dart over to the right once the first clock disappears, and then into the middle for the third set. Remember that the red bullets are always aimed, regardless of the speed they come down at you. The hardest part therefore is avoiding them in the second wave, as it's then that they're fastest. AND you're stuck in the corner.

Also for the third wave, you're completely safe from the lasers if you are rooted to the bottom centre when they pass down, as they start disappearing at that point. Be sure to leave yourself enough of a gap in the red bullets to stay there when the clocks come down.

[Yonowaaru]

Whoa... I just got to Yukari's final attack... and died a horrible death.
I actually got there, though!
I can now completely do the first half of the stage semi-perfectly, I can easily do Ran's first and second attacks, third is still horrible but I can get out of it with one bomb.
The second half is harder, I really need to bomb once or twice at the PC-98 bullets, and once at the quick random bullets. Then I can get to Yukari with about 3 lives and 1 or 2 bombs.
This time I screwed up on some of the non-spells though. I'm not getting anywhere close to the 800 point life, how are you actually supposed to get that?

[gamercal]

That life comes kinda naturally for me... then again I'm a Marisa freak and I kinda have an advantage as a result with the lower POC and higher firepower and stuff. Shorter border kinda hurts though <_<

You need to be really proactive during the stage and collect most of the possible items that come up, and then not have to regain full power too many times during the fight itself. It's tough, but definitely doable... when I get a run I am satisfied with perhaps I will be able to show it.

The target minimum item count I generally go for before fighting Yukari is no less than 460. It's possible to have over 500 at that point, so it's not a completely unreasonable target, but it requires some good border use and a planned bomb during the scattershot faeries just before the PC98 bullets (in between the aimed fire peeps).

(Random note - the maximum number of items you can have before Ran is 264)

For Ran's third attack, it's really pretty simple. At least for Marisa, but I'm sure the same applies to everyone not named ReimuA... follow her round the first circle, shift through a gap in the blue bullets at the bottom and dart up to avoid her spinning back round. Follow her round till she gets to the middle again, and assuming the spell isn't dead by then (which if you're not MariA then I guess it probably won't be) dodge from the top instead of the bottom and repeat the cycle till it's down. Sorry if that doesn't help much, but that spell goes down so fast for me that I barely need to think about it beyond 1 dodge lol

Oh, and, PC98 strat stuff cause I had a hard time with it too. The first part up till the X is easy streaming so I won't bore you with that. I find that with the sets after that that it's easiest to follow a strict pattern - middle left for the corner waves (dodging right then up), then slightly west-southwest of the top set for the second wave (dodging again to the right, moving down slightly if I need to), then into the middle for the 8-direction stuff (moving up and to the left, grazing the middle-left cluster). That puts me in an ideal spot to wait for the bottom-right set to move out of the way before going up and around the line waves.

For the last sets, stick to one side (the left just works for me) and move STRICTLY HORIZONTALLY as soon as the bullets move. As soon as the next wave starts move in the other direction. You don't have to stay moving until the next wave comes, but it generally helps free up enough space to move through, especially if you're using a slower character. All of this is unfocused, there's no need to be focused in this section and it only impedes your movement.

... this is all hellishly complicated to converse, so if you like I'll add you to the list of private viewers I have for a replay of Yukari. The run itself is pretty old but still has 10/13 cards captured, and would show off this trick a lot better than my words do. I can't remember if I get 800 point items though, probably not cause the run is soooo old :S

[RobinLSL]

A perfect Suwako run just got ruined by me dying at the LAST SECOND of Suwa War. I feel like such an idiot... AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

[gamercal]

Which spell exactly is that? Is that the last one? I don't know many of the names in her fight lol

I've only played the last spell once but I managed to capture it... the only other Extra finals I've captured are the PCB ones, so that's really kinda saying something for it! It kills your eyes but it's nowhere near as hard as it initially looked...

The Suwako card I don't get is the one with the lasers that stick in the ground whilst you dodge all the rainbow oval thingies. Yeah, IDK how to describe it, but for some reason I never beat that one. I think I just need more practice :S

[RobinLSL]

No, i was talking about the next-to-last spell. The second survival card. The last one is fine (you haven't watched my LP? XD)

The spell you're talking about is probably "Seven Stones and Seven Trees". Basically you need to learn how to verticall dodge stuff, and decide when to "go in" a wave.

[gamercal]

Oh, that thing. Ugh, lol.

Though I only bombed it once when I got to it, and I've only had one try, so idk.

And no, I admittedly haven't watched that many of your Touhou plays apart from Fairy Wars and the recent PC98 stuff... sorry man, I just haven't really looked at that stuff!

That last one is unbelievably tame for an extra stage final spell though... random note but just putting it out there. And yeah, with the spell I really suck at I just need to learn it tbh. I just lack the will to go through the thing right now when I'm trying to do other games, and beat freaking SA Extra. God I hate it so much >_<

[Yonowaaru]

Seven stones and Trees is basically, go into a wave, then out.
If you don't go in, you'll get hit either way.

[gamercal]

... is it bad that I thought of that as something that Marisa's Grimoire would have in it?

[Yonowaaru]

It did kinda sound like Marisa, didn't it?

Also... GODDAMNIT UTSUHO.

Honestly, her first spellcard is plain impossible.
There are just too many blue bullets to even start to try dodging them, even on normal mode!
I just had a perfect run (well, almost perfect, getting to Satori with 5 lives). Then I managed to die twice on Satori w/o bombing. Then, I get to Rin with 4 lives. I only die twice, once on the scythehell card and one (very stupidly) on her last card because I tried to rush it...
Then, I get to stage 6 with 2 lives. I survive, but I die stupidly again without bombing on Youkai Wheel.
Then I get to Utsuho's first spell card with two lives. When I beat it, I only have 1 life and 2 bombs left.

And I just die..

[Cup]

Wait, on what difficulty? That's really her only difficult spell though, if you're just trying to clear, autobomb it to dust. (Actually it may be better just to take a life and save your power, depending on how easily you can handle her second spell. I know it gives some people problems) It may just be because I like that fight, so I've played it a lot, but in my experience, you're in the clear if you get past stage five.

Dying to Orin there is brutal though. If that didn't have you'd of done it easily, I'm sure.

[Yonowaaru]

Oh Yukari....
Yukari is by far the most amazing and fun to play extra boss ever.
I majorly suck at the second part of the stage though. I still have no clue how to survive the random bullet spam without bombing, but the PC-98 bullets should be possible now.
Yukari herself... I can just do all her non-spells, and most of her spells up to Double Death Butterfly.
I can do that one if I have a border. Ran is pretty annoying, but I was pretty stupid in just not realising you can just stay next to where she just landed. Humans and Youkai is hard, but I think it's possible.
Border of life and Death is possible too, buuuut if you chicken out like me and accidentily find a semi-safespot (which was actually not a safespot) which didn't actually hit Yukari herself which in turn made me have to time it out and therefor having no lives left for her last attack. For her Arcanum, I pretty much figured out wave 1 and 2, but I haven't gotten any further yet...

[gamercal]

Yukari is fantastic, and I'm really trying hard to get a good (> 10 spells captured) run of the stage for my channel. I can just never find a safe spot in border of death, and I get REALLY unlucky with Mesh of Light and Darkness.

I don't usually try to dodge the spam before the PC98 bullets, because with a tactical use of a bomb I can destroy most of the faeries and get ~ 40-50 point items from that section. I *can* avoid them (I start on the left and move in towards the centre), but not consistently, and most of the faeries would get away.

Ran is super easy once you know what she's doing. Every third movement she makes is aimed directly for you. If you stay rooted to the bottom the butterflies she spawns when moving away from that position can never hit you (using Marisa so the hitbox is larger than at least Reimu), so simply move in between the other two waves and it's super simple. But you knew that, right?

I think in terms of concept my favourite card of the fight is Balance of Motion and Silence (random note: why is it Silence and not Stillness? I mean it kinda makes sense, but Silence doesn't describe no motion as well as Stillness!). Curse of Dreams and Reality is also really fun to play against mind. I am really bad at Double Death Butterfly though, it just gets me almost every time <_<. MOSTLY the knives actually, either when they first come out or when the second butterfly wave comes in. I never have to dodge more than that though because of Marisa's firepower, so if I can somehow survive the two overlapping parts I capture the card.

Alsooooo this might seem really bad but I almost never look at the bullets in that mass swarm 2 waves before Ran. The part with the green bullets that spiral round. I almost always get a border pretty much when that part starts, so I'm focused pretty much entirely on the faeries to make sure none of them get away, and I almost never look at the bullets until the very end of the assault. Doesn't ALWAYS work, but 95% of the time it does... I could be pulling off the most amazing dodges ever and I wouldn't know unless I watched a replay!

[cheez8]

Something I want to say before I forget, it actually IS Balance of Motion and Stillness, there was just a translation error and it ended up as Silence. I agree though, Motion and Stillness is easily my favorite card in the stage.

...Oh, by the way, I beat Yukari. Hooray!

I think the main thing that was keeping me from winning was Ran (as in, the spellcard.) I would always get really unlucky and constantly get rammed... until I realized that that was how the card worked. Once I realized that, I was able to clear that card in a few runs. Other than that, I basically was able to spam borders the entire fight to make it through nearly everything else.

Speaking of which, I think that the borders might be the reasoning behind Yukari's extra-easy nonspell about halfway through. Going through that one without focusing turned out to usually be enough to give me a border sometime during the following spellcard - which had never happened before - in case I got sloppy (which has happened a lot.)

As for Humans and Youkai, one or two planned bombs should be all you need to get through that safely. It looks easy-ish because the blue bullets only move in straight horizontal and vertical lines for most of it, but then the lasers start to move, so I panic and die. If this happens to you too, my advice is to bomb immediately in that attack if you think you're in trouble. Better to lose a bomb than a life.

Generally, don't be shy about spamming borders all over the place if you have to. That's the main piece of advice I have for this stage.

[gamercal]

I'm at the point now where I can clear it with no borders or bombs if I really try, aside from the planned bomb in the stage for item collection. My best record by the end of the stage when done in this way is 5 deaths and 1 bomb - 2 deaths on Life and Death, 1 on Straight and Curve (lol I know right? Turns out the bubbles don't always have the same hitbox size, so I got a little careless), and once on the arcanum. Only on the 4th wave! I just never quite get EXACTLY where the safe spot is - and because I use Marisa is has to be pretty much spot on or I will get hit.

My best overall is something 3 deaths and 4 bombs (that's 3 bombs on Yukari obv) - iirc two of those bombs were on Life and Death and one was on the arcanum (wave 4 <_<). That was my best scoring round, which currently sits at about 844 million points. Looking to improve that with a no death run though!

Congrats for clearing it though ^_^

My advice for Humans and Youkai, at least until the butterflies:

Coax the lasers to move to the top right from the start (I always dodge up in that direction at the beginning, so I don't really know the pattern any other way). The biggest thing you have to remember is that you need to move in steps to avoid the grids. In the bottom corner you should move in between the two vertical lines so as to make it easier on the next move. dodge one set (either horizontal or vertical) of waves at a time (I usually start with the vertical ones, so moving to the left), and then scoot over to the left-hand side, going three waves into the vertical waves on the left. You never need to go into the horizontal waves from that point on, so save yourself the hassle. From there it's just horizontal stepwise movement, so it's not any different to what you've just done.

The butterfly bit usually catches me in the last 3 seconds, but do note that you have more room than you think. You CAN go into the glowing balls that encircle you at the base of the lasers, so stay focused and you should be able to keep track of yourself. It looks to me like the butterflies are aimed, so if you stay still for as long as possible I think it makes it easier.

[gamercal]

Double post time cause this is cool enough to do so. And frustrating in its own right, but god there's no way this isn't going up on my channel.

I totally DESTROYED Yukari ^_^. Thanks to you guys giving me the inspiration to go back and really give this a go. Final results came out as 1 death 2 bombs (one was on the stage so only one bomb in the fight) and no borders broken, with 12 spell captures. My one bomb was a deathbomb on the fifth non-spell (I really dislike that one - it and the 6th one are the only difficult ones, but the fifth one almost always catches me out), and my one death was because Yukari moved during Border of Life and Death and screwed up my safe spot <_<. The irony was that as soon as I respawned the green circles came down, and I instantly found the safe spot then -_-'. My final score was around 956 million, which I'm extremely happy with. I didn't milk Zen Temple for cherry either, which I probably could've done but I'm so used to my methodology that it was just not worth it to change.

So now I'm super happy, despite screwing up just on a no deaths run, and I'm gonna be uploading this as soon as I record and narrate the thing. I've been on-and-off trying to do this for about 6 weeks now, soooooo yeah I'm happy :D

As a random aside I love how so many people always slate Marisa for being so much worse than the other characters in most of the games, yet she's always the one I can use best. Well, except for SA, since Reimu stole her effective shot type <_<

(Also I got to the 500 item mark before Yukari, go me ^_^)

EDIT: Link is here, if anyone is remotely interested. Narrative was done way into the night when other people were sleeping, so the tone is all hushed and stuff, but whatever

[Helixidron]

When I first started touhou, it was EoSD, and played on normal. Once I got to hong meiling and she uses that swirling rainbow bullet wave (i forgot what it was called >.>), it screwed over my eyes, and tried to dodge without even knowing whats happening. I actually made it without any deaths and without any bombs. I was proud of myself.

But then Patchouli came.

This all happened when I was a beginner. Now that I'm a veteran, I can beat China without any problems, and Patchouli with minor problems.

[gamercal]

Rainbow Wind Chime probably. Man that attack is fun. I don't ever look at Marisa whilst I do that one lol.

Patchy is lots of fun tbh. Except if you're using Reimu B, then she's pure evil. Screw Princess Undine :(

[Helixidron]

Was Reimu B that Needle attack? If it was, then it just so happens I was using that at the time.
Also happens to be my favourite type but whatever.

[gamercal]

It is. There's nothing against it, it's just that Patchy really throws the book (almost literally) at that particular shot type, using pretty much all of her most annoying spells (Princess Undine, Sylphae Horn High Level and Water Elf) against her. I know it's not just me when I say that she has the hardest Patchy fight when using that shot type.

Besides, I can't get at you for using that shot type all the time, I pretty much exclusively use Marisa A now, so yeah

[gamercal]

Man I double post here an awful lot, but nobody seems to care so it's all good.

Yeahhhhh I just 1cc'd IN Hard for the first time ^_^. Pretty much my first time of playing the game on Hard too. And with solo Marisa no less! Route A - picked mostly because I didn't think I was going to survive, so I wanted to be able to use a continue lol.

It was a real backs to wall job, with no spare lives and 1 bomb or so going into stage 5, and going into Eirin with 1 life and 4 bombs, but it was done! I actually captured 3 of her spell cards - the first one and the last two. I'm amazed I captured Curse of Apollo 13 - I've never captured that one on NORMAL, so to get it first time on Hard was amazing. The last one is so simple when Marisa is forced to kill the familiars... I ended up with no lives and two bombs left. I failed Hourai though, the green bullets did me in :(

Still, I made it! Starting with the default 3 lives too, just to make it proper :D