TOUHOU ~ Official Touhou Chat Thread~

[Kriemhild]

I can't bomb spam in MoF because the Prismrivers taught me not to do so too early...

You can bomb-skip the Prismrivers' spells though, which should be sufficient for MoF

[Komeiji Koishi]

I know, I just meant that I shouldn't bomb-spam before Stage 4...

[Scarlet]

Oh. Well, imo the last step is always the most dangerous step to sit on in Normal. You can't escape dodging the diamond bullets, but at least sitting in the second step and backing out to the last step lets you skip the bullets of the last step.

I don't have to dodge the bullets of the last step even when I'm sitting right amongst them (obviously, I'm sitting near the top of the third step, not right in the middle of it), and sitting there gives me more time to deal with the diamond bullets.

Then again, maybe I'm just strange. xD

[Scarlet]

I know, I just meant that I shouldn't bomb-spam before Stage 4...

In MoF that's not an issue, though, because you can recover bombs by merely recovering Power, and stages drop a lot of Power.

[Komeiji Koishi]

In MoF that's not an issue, though, because you can recover bombs by merely recovering Power, and stages drop a lot of Power.

Yeah well I suck at MoF

[Kriemhild]

I know, I just meant that I shouldn't bomb-spam before Stage 4...

Actually, even for PCB, spending bombs before Stage 4 should be fine, since you get a lot of resources in PCB.

I don't have to dodge the bullets of the last step even when I'm sitting right amongst them (obviously, I'm sitting near the top of the third step, not right in the middle of it), and sitting there gives me more time to deal with the diamond bullets.

Then again, maybe I'm just strange. xD

Oh, I see. And no, it's not strange, because I remember that I used to do that myself until I became comfortable with sitting in the second step. Though, if Lunatic Mode spawns bullets on your hitbox in the third step, you should consider starting at the second step instead.

Then again, according to my friend, Lunatic Knockout is impossible regardless >_>

In MoF that's not an issue, though, because you can recover bombs by merely recovering Power, and stages drop a lot of Power.

The issue is that he has a psychological barrier built up from previous Touhou games that prevents him from bombing before Stage 4. Unlike ZM, who hasn't played much before MoF, and has no reservations about bombing to Minoriko's criss-crossing bullets (which was perfectly fine, since I'm pretty sure it did not result in any medium-term power loss).

[Komeiji Koishi]

Stop contradicting what a say and giving me a reason to try to beat PCB :<

[Scarlet]

Yeah well I suck at MoF

But MoF Lunatic is such a good opportunity to practice advanced streaming!

Though, if Lunatic Mode spawns bullets on your hitbox in the third step, you should consider starting at the second step instead.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing on Lunatic now. xD

Then again, according to my friend, Lunatic Knockout is impossible regardless >_>

I've captured it once, actually, but it's definitely luck-based. The bullet spawns don't follow much of a pattern on Lunatic, and considering that they can and will spawn right on top of you if you happened to pick a bad position... Yeah.

The issue is that he has a psychological barrier built up from previous Touhou games that prevents him from bombing before Stage 4.

Oh, that. Yeah, we all used to have that at some point, didn't we?

[ZemZem]

No I didn't see any of the tips about Parsee in the draft thread because I can hardly fit in anywhere since I'm no veteran at Touhou. :<

[Komeiji Koishi]

Well I'm no veteran either. But I still try to improve, so...

[ZemZem]

I do my best.

[Kriemhild]

Stop contradicting what a say and giving me a reason to try to beat PCB :<

Uh... PCB has the best transition to the final spell from all Touhou games imo. Only HRtP's one is comparable. So, making it that far and clearing the final spell of PCB feels really amazing.

But MoF Lunatic is such a good opportunity to practice advanced streaming!

I'm actually wondering if there's a good place for Kalas-chan to practice basic streaming. Most of them involve going through other unrelated stuff during stages.

I've captured it once, actually, but it's definitely luck-based. The bullet spawns don't follow much of a pattern on Lunatic, and considering that they can and will spawn right on top of you if you happened to pick a bad position... Yeah.

iirc in Normal Mode, the difference between 0 and 4 Power for Knockout is just a single red wave, so uh, yeah. Not being able to panic-bomb would make it easier to capture. If you captured that while trying to sit on the third step though, it's quite impressive.

Oh, that. Yeah, we all used to have that at some point, didn't we?

Indeed. Even as recently as during the EoSD/PCB/IN rounds for the draft, I've suffered enough silly deaths because of that. But MoF made me more comfortable with bombing.

[Scarlet]

No I didn't see any of the tips about Parsee in the draft thread because I can hardly fit in anywhere since I'm no veteran at Touhou. :<

Some of the posts in there can be pretty insightful, though.

[ZemZem]

Some of the posts in there can be pretty insightful, though.

I'm aware. I followed the thread to keep up, though I mainly just go there now to look at deadlines.

[Scarlet]

I'm actually wondering if there's a good place for Kalas-chan to practice basic streaming. Most of them involve going through other unrelated stuff during stages.

I remember PCB Stage 4 involving a lot of rather basic streaming off-hand. Most of the other places I can think of would be Extra Stages.

If you captured that while trying to sit on the third step though, it's quite impressive.

Nah, the capture was when I started doing it "correctly". xD

Indeed. Even as recently as during the EoSD/PCB/IN rounds for the draft, I've suffered enough silly deaths because of that. But MoF made me more comfortable with bombing.

Yeah, I remember that.

You've indeed improved. Props for that!

@ZM: Awww. ;/

[ZemZem]

I need advice for UFO, though, so I'll definitely be looking for posts.

My goal is to beat Kogasa.

[Scarlet]

I need advice for UFO, though, so I'll definitely be looking for posts.

Go for the red UFO tokens. If you pick up a wrong token by accident, summon a rainbow UFO instead.

Don't try anything overly dangerous to collect UFO tokens. If in doubt, try letting them come close enough towards you to grab them or just let them go off-screen.

Try not to destroy UFOs before they're completely full of items (you get a very clear indication when this is this case), but don't let them escape, either. It's better to destroy an UFO early than to let it escape. It helps to shoot them until they're almost ready to burst, and then finish them off once they hit item saturation.

[ZemZem]

So just the red UFOs, got it.

You said you 1cced UFO, right? What difficulty?

[Scarlet]

You said you 1cced UFO, right? What difficulty?

Normal. I probably could 1cc it on Hard, but I can't be bothered to try. xD

[Kriemhild]

I remember PCB Stage 4 involving a lot of rather basic streaming off-hand. Most of the other places I can think of would be Extra Stages.

Hmm, yeah, I can probably check PCB Stage 4 out for that.

Nah, the capture was when I started doing it "correctly". xD

I'm actually surprised you've been doing it the hard way in Normal and Hard all this time >_>

Yeah, I remember that.

You've indeed improved. Props for that!

Then again, my comfort bombing seems to have remained with the power-bomb system, because my UFO run had a lot of silly deaths. At least UFO is more forgiving about silly deaths though (max two bombs lost), and I was going all red anyway.

[ZemZem]

Normal. I probably could 1cc it on Hard, but I can't be bothered to try. xD

Aww, you totally should. It'd be quite an achievement. :<

The the way I'm hearing about how UFO seems to be kinda bullshit means that it'd be really hard.

[Scarlet]

Aww, you totally should. It'd be quite an achievement. :<

Awww, now I can't not do it. D:

Alright, you win. I'll give it a go after I post the draft results for SA tomorrow. xD

The the way I'm hearing about how UFO seems to be kinda bullshit means that it'd be really hard.

The UFO system makes it very easy to die to greed and is just kinda annoying in general, but if you exploit it to its fullest, it also gives you an ungodly amount of resources to work with. You can, in theory, max out your lives as early as mid-Stage 3 - and red UFOs keep appearing all the way until the end of Stage 5!

(If you do manage to actually max out your lives at any point, go for green UFOs until you lose one. Those give you bombs.)

So, if you can deal with the UFO gimmick well, this game might actually be just right for you. ^^

[ZemZem]

Keep me updated!

Wow, that's a very valuable tip. I'm gonna download UFO straight away and practice for days.

[Kriemhild]

I need advice for UFO, though, so I'll definitely be looking for posts.

My goal is to beat Kogasa.

Alright, I'm gonna assume you don't know anything about UFO system at all:

[spoiler=UFO system]

• some enemies have some small green UFOs circling on their head. Killing them will release a UFO token. UFOs are the key to survival/scoring, so try to prioritize killing the UFO-possessed enemies over plain enemies.
• UFOs come in three colors: red, blue, and green. Red is for building up extra lives, Green is for building up bombs, blue is for scoring. Obviously, for survival, you should go for green or red. I would advise going for red, but green is still fine. Some UFO tokens would be flashing, which means they will change color every few seconds (blue -> green -> red -> blue iirc).
• Three UFO tokens of the same color will summon the UFO of that color. Three UFO tokens of different colors will summon a rainbow UFO. If you have two UFO tokens, then all UFO tokens of the color that will complete the summoning will be enclosed in a pentagon, so you know that taking that token will summon a UFO.
• Every UFO has two meters, a red horizontal meter in the middle for health, and a circular meter around the UFO for item fulfillment. The UFO will automatically suck up all items on the screen and fill up its item fulfillment meter. This is a good thing. When the item fulfillment meter is full, the UFO will drop a reward. Red UFOs will drop a life piece, Green UFOs will drop a complete bomb, and Rainbow UFOs will drop a flashing UFO token.
• When the health meter is depleted (by you damaging the UFO), the UFO will be destroyed, and you will automatically get all of the items that were sucked up. The UFO will also drop a reward. Red UFOs will drop a life piece, Green UFOs will drop a bomb piece (not a complete bomb), and Rainbow UFOs will drop a flashing UFO token. This is completely independent of the item fulfillment meter.
• So the general strategy for dealing with UFOs is to try killing a lot of enemies so that UFOs can suck up a lot of items. Once they drop the item fulfillment reward, you should then destroy the UFO to get the destruction reward. It is advised that you still damage the UFO before it's fulfilled, but avoid destroying it entirely until the fulfillment reward is dropped.
• UFO tokens collected while a UFO is present in the screen will be negated. So don't collect UFO tokens of the color you want while a UFO is present, but save them for after the UFO is destroyed. You can collect UFO tokens of other colors so they don't interfere later, but I'm usually too busy feeding the UFO and killing it to worry about that.
• UFO destruction will also clear the screen of bullets, and this usually (but not always!) makes it safe for you to just rush ahead, collect the life piece/bomb piece and the red/green UFO before returning.
• If you screw up on collecting UFO tokens and now have two UFO tokens of a different color, then it might not be a good idea to just try building a new chain from scratch. Just reset the game instead Instead, go for the third color and summon a rainbow UFO, since it drops two flashing UFOs (from fulfillment+destruction), making it easier for you to later summon a UFO of the color you want.
• A UFO is still considered an enemy, so you'll get killed if you collide into it. Yes, this has happened to me... multiple times >_<
• If you're running out of time, and you have to choose between either destroying a UFO or fulfilling it, then your decision should depend on the color. If it's green, go for item fulfillment, since complete bomb > bomb piece and you don't care about scoring. If it's red, go for destruction because screenclear+free red UFO+items.
• If there's a boss or midboss approaching, don't summon a UFO even if the required token is in the screen. This is because bosses will force the UFO to fly away. In-game dialogue will also auto-destroy the UFO.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Railgun

[ZemZem]

So many UFOs...O_o

UFO and I will get along. Oh yes.