eosd kills me because i die and have bombs remaining. this is the reason why i lose almost every nonautobomb run but in eosd it happens more than otherwise
the bullet patterns are not the most complex but they kinda come outta nowhere sometimes like with remilia's big blasts and classic cirno nonspell 1. sakuya, whose ability is coming out of nowhere, is actually pretty easy to see coming
spongelevatorum is the easiest to lunatic 1cc because of many reasons but it is probably one of the hardest to do if you haven't unlocked all the starting card slots. how it works: once you pick up a card, you can forever choose it for your starting slot(s). you start with only one slot, but get a second one upon beating the game, and a third upon beating extra. in extra itself, you always have 3 card slots
the biggest buff is picking up eirin's autobomb for the first time, because then you can carry it with you forever unless you are turbospeedrunning. literally no reason to not always have that on you and it makes the game simply so much more bearable
a reasonable thing to do is beat the game on a lower difficulty so you unlock the second card slot before trying your main difficulty (i did not do this however)
i now see the line where i am encouraged to write an essay
okay
so
heres the details about how to have a successful run in touhou eighteen
STEP ONE:
do not play marisa
i am sorry she is still bad
STEP TWO:
acquire aforementioned eirin's autobomb and permanently equip it. if you would otherwise lose a life, expend two bombs to not die.
STEP THREE:
look for high power offensive items. stuff like the orbitals that block shots are inconsistent at best and realistically useless. here's my tier list on what offensive non-active cards are the best:
SS: momoyo
S: suwako
A: marisa unfoc, marisa foc
B: sakuya foc, sakuya unfoc, wolf
C: reimu foc, sanae foc, shanghai, reimu unfoc
D: myon, cirno
E: sanae unfoc
you can unlock the focused versions of each characters cards by clearing the game with them
basically anything below c tier does entirely negligible damage and if its your best option you should just buy a life instead (incredibly viable option always, do not ignore the life item that is always in stock)
offensive items and your family: what is safe for my human to go out with?
i'll tell you straight up: ms. toyosatomimi no miko-san has the best general use active ability in the game. it clears a majority of the bullets over the span of like two seconds, deals a decent amount of damage to enemies, and recharges often enough to be used every third boss attack. okuu may seem like the best choice (makes you invincible and deals massive damage for a massive period of time) but you can only use it once every other stage at best while miko could go off over ten times per stage
raiko's is also pretty good, you just have a maiden pit whenever you feel like it
unless you are speedrunning i wouldn't recommend remilia's, it puts you in a lotta danger (but is really powerful)
you wanna start with or really early get items that give you lives or bombs over time, really nice to be able to walk past mike with a whole ass four life pieces from narumi's card
so thats how to win but what are you gonna be facing well let me tell you
stage one: you are gonna have to remember where things spawn if you dont wanna be burning bombs right at the start but not too tough. as hard as hsifs stage 1
mike: second spellcard could whiff ya but he goes down fast and nonspells are free. easier than wriggle
stage two: streaming and thats it. thats all i got
heres where damage is gonna start to matter, her spellcards are not ones you wanna linger on and the nonspells you really gotta get in the flow for. probably kagerou-level
stage 3: streaming and some not streaming. very early wbawc-like
komakusa: her nonspells are basically criminal but if you have any defensive items, especially raiko, you can make it through without too many bombs. her spellcards aren't super tough and she isn't hard to hit. around as hard as futo but shorter
stage 4: this one gets a lot easier if you know whats coming although the miniboss really puts pressure on ya. more streaming. probably like imperishable night stage 4.
maru: reverse of komakusa, her nonspells are not so bad but spellcards can be dangerous. there's one in the middle that just charges up a big fart and then farts it. they are also, however, easily resolved with a defensive weapon and none of them start up particularly quickly. i dunno, like keine difficulty
stage 5: this is lolk stage 4 and 5 part two. that is just all there is to it aside from the foxgirl
The Venerable Megumu Iizunamaru: she is pretty dangerous i will be real with ya. when she pulls out the lasers its not so bad, but she has weird wiggly bullets on lock. you can't even really power through her as much so defensive actives are good here. kinda sagume difficulty
stage 6: shit is tanky as hell! dont even try to kill all the fairies unless your momoyo meter is capped. unlike most stage 6s this one actually seems like its trying to kill you instead of being cinematic and stuff. mof stage 4-like
CHIMATA TENKYUU: more like chimata thankyou for all these easy ass spellcards bruv. 3 and 4 are basically free and the final spellcard falls apart in the face of defensive items and bombs. the others are not the easiest, the first one requires getting a good rhythm and knowing whats going to happen, the second one is very pressuring, and penultimate is just like a stronger version of her nonspells. futo-like, again.
EXTRA STAGE: I HATE THE EXTRA STAGE. you have to memorize it. makes you move around a lot and is very pressuring in the second half. i don't even know what to compare it to. rms stage 5-like if it was EVIL and did not have the cool instruments.
MO YO MO MUSHIHIME-SAMA: hmm yes this is a very fine extra stage boss it is tastefully flavored with a main blend of okina and koishi with nonspells as blunt as flandre followed by a hint of lumen celeritas. most refreshing
the hardest touhou game is lolk on ultramarine mode and the easiest is lolk on not legacy mode (with reisen) thank you for attending my seminar