Imperishable Night (Touhou 08; ZUN, 2004)

[moozooh]

All updated. Nice to see traffic in this thread. :)

[VgameT]

I'll jump in on this one I guess.

Normal:
VgameT - 2,570,245,470 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.000%
http://replays.gensokyo.org/download.php?id=8807

Extra:
VgameT - 1,994,856,060
http://replays.gensokyo.org/download.php?id=2073

I've been trying forever since this score to get a run that breaks 2 billion, but no dice. Heartbeam where's your extra score!!! You probably have 2.8 billion or something!!!

I don't have a good hard mode score (my normal mode score is higher :X) so I'm gonna see if I can work on that next.

[moozooh]

Very good! I'll have to ask, though, why are you using Reimu and Yukari for Extra if you're aiming for a high score? They're absolutely the worst team to tackle that stage because all of their disadvantages come forward. And how did you manage to get 1.29% slowdown there while having 0.00% on Normal is beyond me.

Anyway, updated. I'd rather you post your Hard mode score, too!

[hail good sir]

me

[VgameT]

Very good! I'll have to ask, though, why are you using Reimu and Yukari for Extra if you're aiming for a high score? They're absolutely the worst team to tackle that stage because all of their disadvantages come forward. And how did you manage to get 1.29% slowdown there while having 0.00% on Normal is beyond me.

Anyway, updated. I'd rather you post your Hard mode score, too!

It's the only team I know how to use (゜～゜) Too lazy to learn stages with any other team. I like homing!
I think the extra run was on another machine. I did a practice hard run and got an OK score, but I failed a bunch of spells in the early part of the game so I want to do better before I post anything.

[moozooh]

What is the advantage of Youmu solo over the regular team? I watched most of Heartbeams normal replay and I still didn't see it, why limit yourself? Stage 6 for instance if you get an unlucky spread... seems like it's nice to always have the spread shot option.

Youmu solo has the highest scoring potential on every mode except Lunatic (where it's tied with the Scarlet Team). There are several reasons behind that.

First, the most obvious, is that she only needs to "jump" over 60% on the gauge (from –30% to 30%) to change between human/youkai polarity, unlike 160% (from –80% to 80%) for other teams and 110% for the Netherworld Team. It enables her to switch to the wanted mode pretty much instantly in every situation, which means more time orbs on bosses.

Second, she is the strongest character in the game at nearly any range (tied with Marisa at point-blank). In particular, that means her orb gain rate in human mode is also higher: Marisa can only counterbalance spellcard bonus drop rate at point-blank, Reimu and Sakuya can't at all, yet Youmu can do it from the bottom of the screen. Thus she receives both higher bonuses for fast kills and more orbs for higher remaining time.

Third, she is the fastest and most versatile character to kill regular enemies. Switching to a youkai character during a stage means you won't be getting time orbs for your kills, and Youmu is the only one who can kill every enemy on screen without resorting to that and without killing all the familiars first if you position her option correctly. That's double profit because surplus time orbs boost point items' value, and surplus point items boost time orbs' point value. Oh, and her penalty for killing familiars is miniscule: three consecutive kills put her at about 30%, which is still within her active human range.

Really, her only disadvantage is that it's much harder to use her effectively compared to any team, period.

[hail good sir]

got

[moozooh]

No, it's completely reasonable to give atention to that part. You should always try to kill the masters before killing the familiars. Moreover, unless you are killing several masters in a row or fighting a boss, you should always receive the orbs as a human.

It also seems that there are different amounts of time orbs released upon a familiar death depending on the circumstances, but I've yet to pinpoint the exact difference. For instance, if the master is killed while familiars are in contact with each other, more time orbs are released compared to when they are flying around at maximum distance from each other (?). Killing them directly is least profitable and bullet canceling radius is then the smallest.

[atsumu]

Extra - Youmu
atsumu - 2,035,090,180 - C - 0.248% - Replay

this sux. screw those who said mokou is easy :<

[moozooh]

I think she's about average. I find Ran and Suwako a lot easier, for instance. Milking her properly is a nightmare, though, definitely the hardest in the series.

[Dodgeballpvp]

I decided to try IN Hard today, but it didn't go too well...

Hard
Dodgeball - 1,670,974,410 - Cb - Rm & Yk - 0.037% Replay

[atsumu]

Hard
atsumu - 3,183,677,000 - Cb - Rm & Yk - 0.039% - Replay

a not-so-good run.

[moozooh]

Yeah, 70% of a WR on a hard game to optimize, beating Heartbeam and mopping the floor with the rest of the scoreboard? Sucks donkey balls for sure. :P

[Dodgeballpvp]

Oh man.. So many mistakes at stage 4 and 1 death at stage 5... If I had no made those mistakes my score would have been 2,270,000,000 or more. Tempted to try again, because zdk's score is so close.

Easy
Dodgeball - 2,150,260,540 - Cb - Youmu - 0.038% - Replay

[VgameT]

Extra
VgameT - 2,088,007,750 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.081%
Replay

Yessss broke 2b
If I want to push this any further I basically have to consistently get that nonspell and learn Imperishable Shooting :< Or do some kind of silly graze maneuvers, I guess. Not interested in either of those things so this is as far as I'll go for a while.

[moozooh]

Excellent! Took 1st place as well!

May I suggest trying Youmu (solo or as a part of the team) for your next attempts? Her reduced human/youkai gauge will net a lot more time orbs on spell/non-spell transitions, and superior killing power will give both larger spell bonuses and more spell residue orbs.

[VgameT]

I'd have to relearn the stage to play as another character, which I just don't have the willpower to do. I've come to terms with the fact that the characters I choose to use usually can't compete with the others scorewise, so I'm happy just doing the best I can under the circumstances.

[Dodgeballpvp]

Oh man, I cant even remember when I tried IN Extra last time.. almost 2 years ago or something.

To my surprise I was able to beat my old score with first try.

Extra
Dodgeball - 1,462,624,980 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.000% - Replay

[tinotormed]

Finally, I am entering the tables.

tinotormed - 1,671,941,080 - Cb - Youmu - 0.00% - Replay

No Miss No Bomb with only 1 counterbomb. Captured 26 spellcards, passed 2 out of 5 in 5 impossible requests with only 2 hours remaining in night bonus. YouTube replay still to be uploaded if there is no other improvements.

[moozooh]

Nice, updating.

[Dodgeballpvp]

Mini update

Extra
Dodgeball - 1,535,537,900 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.095% - Replay

Normal
Dodgeball - 1,987,570,480 - Cb - Ms & Al - 0.155% - Replay

Once again I had a great chance to break 2 billion, but stage 4 was a mess. I failed 2 spellcards, but I did capture -Blink- for the first time.

And I did terrible job with Rainbow Danmaku and Kaguya's lass spells...

[tinotormed]

tinotormed - 1,674,941,080 - Cb - Reimu - 0.00% - Replay

A small improvement, this time with Reimu and No Focus done in this one.

[moozooh]

Please do provide your difficulty setting the next time.

[Sik-07]

Extra
Sik-07 - 1,564,191,350 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.053% - Replay

[moozooh]

Nice, welcome. :)

[Heartbeam]

Easy
Heartbeam - 2,745,806,080 - CB - Youmu - 0.283%
Replay

"Oh, I suppose I'll shoot at these familiars again and presto, instant high score." Spur-of-the-moment, sort of. No new tricks I'm aware of, and I have to wonder what I was doing for the old personal score. Looking back, it's no surprise that the aptly named 'Bored' run probably wasn't taken seriously. Not then, not now. I think the only Easy run I'm proud of is the lower score by the Netherworld Team, if only because it supergrazed Kaguya's fourth Last Spell and lived through it. I considered doing it for this run, ran it in practice and escaped safely five times in a row before quitting. In the end, I didn't have that certainty of knowing when to leave, and in a full run it won't be so fresh in memory. This submission was pretty much a waste of your attention then, sorry. I have no plans to return to IN.

I may as well use the excuse of being here to post an update on current plans. Still putting off PCB Normal, and after updating the Extra scores I already want to return to it. Namely, both of Reimu's shots and Sakuya-B. Marisa-B was horror so I'm not going back to her. Marisa-A made the process a lot smoother, but I'd rather leave the updated score as-is. Sakuya-A is sitting as nicely as she can at 1.145B. It could easily go further, yes, but a clean Ran battle is enough for me. Purposely missed out on an extra border from Ultimate Buddhist.

Okay, redo project is focused on Reimu-B right now. As it stands I can barely touch 1.3B with what I'm willing to pull off. It'll be close without milking Princess Tenko or Shikigami Chen, and picking up a third border for the final spell wasn't really a part of the plan. A squandered run with 691K CherryMax before Ran (compared to 710K from HS) showed the potential to hit 1.3B if that border was summoned. It's all iffy if I should take some extra risks. Really, I'd be fine if the run made 1.29B without any obvious border breaks or bombing. That's how it'll be, then. If I get that then in the future I'll try for 1.3B in earnest.

I remember when I used to watch in awe as HS grazed those hundreds of pellets for the first border, unfocused. I thought only a stick user could pull off such tiny movements, but now I'm restarting because I can't even clear the space of that bullet with an unfocused tap. It's good, though. Personal best is finishing at 495K (I know HS has something higher in an older run), and most of the missing CherryMax in the stage comes from the purposely broken border before Chen (I don't bother to get it up early enough) and her final spell. And that first border when I used to average 488K.

One more thing, I really need to see if Ran's hitbox exists for Ultimate Buddhist. I'm pretty sure there's a point where you're grazing all four lasers during the red phase, and I haven't had much trouble but I've also never suffered a collision. I can do without that surprise. Also, some fun with failure. Capped plenty of run-breaking mistakes, like dying to the noncard before Charming Siege and I don't care what any timeout video says about the spell. It's a crusher. I'll make a nice collage (perhaps even a video) out of it in the future, but too bad most of them show the menu.

But who cares. What was I doing again? That's right, it was a dumb blog that's supposed to be on the other side (but I only swore off stuff related to real life). Except there's a new person in charge now, and it'll probably be deleted anyway. I'll see what happens when the submission comes in a few months.

[moozooh]

One more thing, I really need to see if Ran's hitbox exists for Ultimate Buddhist. I'm pretty sure there's a point where you're grazing all four lasers during the red phase, and I haven't had much trouble but I've also never suffered a collision.

It would be hilarious if she doesn't only lack a hitbox for this phase, but it's also possible to find a pixel-perfect safespot inside where you can just sit in continually.

[Naut]

But who cares. What was I doing again? That's right, it was a dumb blog that's supposed to be on the other side (but I only swore off stuff related to real life). Except there's a new person in charge now, and it'll probably be deleted anyway. I'll see what happens when the submission comes in a few months.

Sapz and I are the only ones who update the scores over there (he's definitely faster than me though), and neither of us will be deleting your posts. Show us whatcha got!

[Sapz]

Indeed. I've got no problem with them, go for it!

[Dodgeballpvp]

Easy
Dodgeball - 2,173,545,870 - Cb - Marisa - 0.10% - Replay

Extra
Dodgeball - 1,560,776,280 - C - Rm & Yk - 0.02% - Replay


More easy mode scoring. 4 deaths, 3 bombs and 3 failed spellcards... Gotta practise more, I want that 2nd place!