Touhou Juuouen 〜 Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost.

Touhou Juuouen 〜 Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost.

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How Each Character Works
By Tolione
A rough beginners guide on the characters of the game, and how they work
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Guide of the Guide
IMPORTANT NOTE!!
This guide is written based on version 1.1b
Version 1.1c changed a substantial amount of things relating to how characters handle, and some even changing how charges or boss attacks work
I will be doing my best to rewrite sections based on this new update, however it may take a while
Thank you for understanding.

Speed Rankings
Speedy: Moves too fast to properly dodge with
Fast: Moves quickly enough to easily reach either side of the screen in a handful of seconds
Fair: Easy to move and control
Steady: Noticeably slow, but still alright
Slow: Takes a while to go from one side of the screen to the other
Unmoving: Can barely get out of the way of even slow moving bullets

Base Shot Power Rankings
Strong: Tears through enemies and bosses nicely
Good: Can destroy fairies, but struggles with bosses
Weak: Struggles to destroy fairies
Light: Needs power boosting to destroy fairies

Character Rankings
Incredible: You can just spam an attack and be done with it
Great: Fun and easy to use, good kits
Alright: Nice kits, maybe some noteworthy cons
OK: Has problems, but is still fun
Meh: Not many strengths
Reimu Hakurei
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Steady
Damage: Strong
Scope: Small Circle
EX Attack: Small meandering Yin Yang Orb that bounces off the screen
Character Rank: Incredible

Character Cards
Yin Yang Orb: gives you a shot option that shoots homing amulets
Appreciated Talisman: makes your hitbox size smaller

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: 4 Heavy Damaging Bullets that stop before speeding off
Charge Skill: Intense Damaging contained Fantasy Seal that deletes bullets, even after finishing
EX Special Attack: Large spinning Yin Yang Orbs that bounce off the screen walls
Boss: Aimed Non Spell, with screen flooding Spellcard Attack

Gameplan
Reimu's most important ability is her superbly strong Skill attack. Deleting bullets and One Shot-ing Bosses, it easily outranks any other ability in the game. Your MO is to get her gauge fairly full, and then just spam the Skill attack whenever a boss shows up on screen, or to delete bullet waves that look unfavorable.
Her EX Attack, and Boss are also incredibly strong. Her EX attack can easily overwhelm the opponent with wave after wave of large, bullet hiding, weirdly moving Yin Yang Orbs that will most likely force a bomb. Her Spellcard also quickly floods the screen with fast moving bouncing bullets that can blindside someone, or hit them hard after their Scope stops slowing them down.
Overall, she's an incredibly powerful character, and is the easiest to pick up and play. Have fun completely covering the opponent's screen with yin yang orbs, and keeping yours as clean and bullet free as possible.
Marisa Kirisame
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fast
Focused Speed: Fair
Damage: Strong
Scope: Thin Screen Covering Rectangle
Ex skill: Thin laser that comes from the bottom, and shoots at an angle
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Mini-Hakkero: gives you a shot option that shoots a laser straight ahead
Hoarder's Advice: increases item collection range

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: High damaging laser that stays active and in place for about a second
Charge Skill: Spawns 3 Charge Attack lasers, and sends a handful of EX attacks bellow opponents horizontal position
EX Special Attack: Static pattern of lasers that shoot up vertically
Boss: Fanned out Non Spell, with aimed and dangerous Spell Card

Gameplan
With her high speed, and screen covering scope, your main strategy is to zip across the screen and stop as many spirits as possible before using your EX Special. While the EX Special is static, and as such, learnable, because it lasts longer and gets faster every level, it can easily wall the opponent, and make dodging impossible when paired with a dense flood of bullets. Her boss Spell Card is also useful, as it shoots a flurry of bullets from the bottom of the screen, which is difficult for some people to dodge, and also forces the opponent to focus on multiple angles for the bullets to come from, easily making for bad decisions. In terms of shooting down enemies she can be fairly strong, especially if you stack her Charge Attacks on top of each other, and her Skill now spawns 3 lasers, giving you a very nice way to deal with a large group of enemies.
Sanae Kochiya
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Steady
Damage: Strong
Scope: Delayed Large Circle
EX Attack: Falling fairly sized laser that turns at a 90 degree angle at a random height
Character Rank: Alright

Character Cards
Kanako Yasaka's Amulet: gives you a shot option that shoots a homing snake
Suwako Moriya's Amulet: gives you a shot option that shoots an exploding frog

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Radial spread of snakes that home horizontally to enemies
Charge Skill: Dense radial spread of exploding frogs
EX Special Attack: Launches a group of EX attacks on the sides of the opponents screen
Boss: Lazy star patterned spiral Non Spell, with dense quick raining bullet Spell Card

Gameplan
Thanks to her upgraded Scope Size, and how her Skill works, Sanae is now one of the best characters to explode a lot of spirits at once, sending a lot of free EX Special Attacks to the opponents, for very little actual effort. Her main shot still suffers against bosses, as the snakes will shift to attack anything in their vertical position, meaning that damage to bosses is not very consistent, but you can shotgun them with your Skill for a good damage if needed. Her Skill also is an amazing way to clear the screen of enemies, though it makes bullet visibility a little cloudy, so still be careful. Her boss attack gets denser and faster the more shes upgraded, so focus on upgrading her EX Special and Boss, and go for cheeky spirit clears with her Skill if you see a large amount of spirits pop up!
Ran Yakumo (and Chen)
General Info
Unfocused Speed:Fair
Focused Speed:Slow
Damage: Strong
Scope: Thin Rectangular Cross
EX Attack: Small shikigami card bullet that spawns from all sides of the screen
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Bakeneko's Shiki Paper (Front-Facing): gives you a shot option turret that shoots talismans striaghtfoward
Bakeneko's Shiki Paper (Side-Facing): gives you a shot option turret that shoots talismans sideways

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Option Turrets shoot faster for a second
Charge Skill: Gain 2 more Options Turrets for about 10 seconds
EX Special Attack: Spawn multiple EX attacks from all sides
Boss: Circle blasts that come in a rhythm Non Spell, with a Spell Card that adds Chen shooting in a fan formation, before falling to the opponent

Gameplan
Rans entire gimmick is her Turret shot. When focused, she places her options where you first started focusing allowing you to move around, and then they snap back to Ran when you unfocus. This allows you to plan where to leave them while you either take care of more enemies, or move to dodge. This gets better with her Skill giving you 4 of them, increasing range and overall power. This makes Ran one of the stronger characters in the game, since using her Charge Attack when her Skill is active, allows for a crazy burst of damage. Planning your Skill and Charge Attack to defeat bosses in less than the 10 seconds is your main form of offence on your screen, as well as making her the best at destroying enemies. Her Boss attack is the main thing you want to focus on growing, as at Level 8 (Max level) you get 2 Chens, making it an annoying attack that forces the opponent to make fast and drastic movements to get out of the way
Aunn Komano
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Weak
Scope: Delayed Instant Large Vertical Oval and forms into thin wide horizontal oval
EX Attack: Aimed medium sized bullet
Character Rank: Meh

Character Cards
Unleash the Guardian Hounds: increase charge speed
Guardian Komainu: increase scope size

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Piercing small circle shots
Charge Skill: Slightly bigger and longer lasting circle shot, as well as 1 second of invincibility
EX Special Attack: Waves of EX attacks in circles
Boss: Spiraling cris-crossing bullet Non Spell, with fairly sparse double twirling laser Spell Card

Gameplan
Aunn is a pretty middle of the road character, not super strong, but her kit provides her some alright options if used properly. Her main anchor point is her Skill, giving her a pretty strong attack, while also making her invulnerable for about a whole second. Using this Skill to dodge, or do good damage before backing off while still invincible is her go to strategy. Her scope, while awkward, is also fairly usefull, gathering a lot of spirits and still slowing bullets down close enough to be reactable. For her Boss, her Non spell is actually what you want to look out for, the criss-crossing bullets do so in weird angles and high speeds, making them quite dangerous high on the screen, forcing the opponent to bottom hug. Abusing this, and spamming her Skill charge is they key to probable victory
Nazrin
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Unmoving
Damage: Weak
Scope: Small spirit chasing circle
EX Attack: Large Pendulum Charm that blocks shots
Character Rank: OK

Character Cards
Pendulum: gain 2 bombs at the start of every round
Nazrin Rods: increase bomb time

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Good duration aimed bullet barrage
Charge Skill: Expanding wave that destroys any tamed Spirits
EX Special Attack: Zigzag falling pendulums that can be shot through
Boss: Slow dense fan pattern Non Spell, with lazily falling bullet Spell Card

Gameplan
With the new update, Nazrin now has a lot more strengths than before! She still has the slowest focus movement, which can prove to be a problem, and her shot power is still pitiable, but now her main gimmick works amazingly. Her Scope now moves incredibly fast, being able to catch even high speed eagle spirits that are far away from her, meaning that its easier to abuse her Skill, which destroys any spirits that are tamed. This makes it insanely easy to send wave after wave of EX Specials, and EX Attacks to your opponents screen, making it impossible for them to damage your boss, or even move from bellow the bottom line. Her upgraded offense is still her only strong suit, and it may take a while to get there, especially if your opponent knows not to send you spirits to keep you down, so make sure to keep your dodging high, and prepare for the worst
Seiran
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Fast
Damage: Strong
Scope: Small Circle that is ahead of Seiran
EX Attack: Long lasting portal that shoots a lazy spiral of bullets
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
The Moon Rabbit that Landed: missile shots appear from the bottom, concentrated on the players position
The City Rabbit that Landed: missile shots appear from the bottom, at any place on the screen

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Small burst of regular shot
Charge Skill: Large missiles that shoot up from the bottom of the screen at random positions
EX Special Attack: Circle of EX Attacks that appear on the top half
Boss: Large triangle shot Non Spell, with accompanying criss-cross bullet Spell Card

Gameplan
A character who shines in their EX and Boss attacks, Seirans strength makes her an easy character to pick up and play, and just blast the opponent with a bunch of small bullets. Leveling up her EX attack is where her focus should be, as her Boss attack remains mostly similar, with just speed and density changing. Her boss attack is special in a way, as it both provides the opponent with free Gauge Points, but also gets wider when scoped, making it a risk vs reward scenario, however if they werent looking for that reward, scoping while the triangle is being shot out might be an easy blindsided loss. Her EX Special attack essentially keeps the screen flooded with bullets that make it hard for the enemy to focus, and dodge, pairing this with her Boss attack is key to easily disposing of the opponents bombs and lives. On your end, her Charge Attack is what youll be using the most, and often, as it quickly deals with bosses. Her Skill however, does no damage, and prevents you from using your scope until the attack is over, so avoid using it if you can.
Rin "Orin" Kaenbyou
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Fair
Damage: Light
Scope: Periodic large rectangle that speeds upwards at an angle
EX Attack: Red Spirit that acts as a slow moving Eagle Spirit, and can be destroyed
Character Rank: Ok

Character Cards
Phantom Transport Cart: gives you a shot option that shoots a piercing phantom
Make Peace With Cats: removes Tamed Spirit Hitboxes

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Speedy small cart shooting upwards at an angle
Charge Skill: Wave that tames all spirits on screen
EX Special Attack: Spawns a group of EX Attacks
Boss: Fast x laned Non spell, with dense zombie fairy Spell Card

Gameplan
Poor Rin has been nerfed by a significant change in her kit from the update, making her Skill no longer turn enemies into White Tamed Spirits, but now just taming all spirits on screen, making her work less like a weaker Zanmu, and more like Nazrins inverse. However she was buffed in a silly way, with her Skill no longer randomly killing you if you used it high on screen. Her character plan now works solely on spamming her EX Attack on the opponents screen, made a little easier now that her Skill tames all spirits and shoots out three Charge Attacks side by side, covering a good portion of the screen, and dealing a good amount of damage, meaning youll be sending a lot of EX Attacks to your opponent just from that. Leveling up her EX Special is your top priority, as it also levels up the basic EX Attacks, allowing them to start shooting more and more, letting you slowly start to wall your opponent in Vengeful Spirits they have very little ways to deal with besides bombing or dying.
Tsukasa Kudamaki
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fast
Focused Speed: Fair
Damage: Light
Scope: Horizontal wide rectangle that wiggles with movement
EX Attack: Rectangular container that moves in an arch horizontally, and shoots small purple bullets, as well as increasing bullet sizes when passing over them
Character Rank: Meh

Character Cards
Fox-Filled Tube (Vertical): gives you a shot option that shoots tubes straightforward
Fox-Filled Tube (Horizontal): gives you a shot option that shoots tubes horizontally at an obtuse angle

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Cross angle burst shot
Charge Skill: Screen covering wave that sends all small bullets as bigger bullets to the opponent
EX Special Attack: Spawns a point that shoots out purple fan waves, with EX Attacks crossing, making the bullets they touch larger, and larger, including normal ones
Boss: 2 enclosed fan spread Non Spell, with bouncing laser Spell Card

Gameplan
With a general buff to her Skill, and her Spell Card being fixed, Tsukasa still kinda stays a little under the radar in terms of character use. Her shot power is very low, and her scope makes getting spirits and destroying them a little more annoying, as such shes a character where your focus should be on defending yourself with her Skill, and sending as many boss attacks over as you can. Her EX Specials summon themselves more and more as the fight goes on, so killing spirits isnt too important, as theyll make themselves a nuisance as you activate your higher level boss attacks, where now the lasers can come at odd angles, and forces the opponent to look at all sides of the screen, or hug one of the sides to dodge them easier, forcing them to bomb or take a hit if unfortunate walls or lasers or gigantic bullets come at them
Mamizou Futatsuiwa
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Steady
Damage: Good
Scope: Three Small circles in front of her, wiggle with player movement
EX Attack: Blue Quickly Falling Bird, Slow Green Canine, Red Falling Wolf
Character Rank: OK

Character Cards
Mobile Leaf: gives you a shot option that shoots leaf bullets at an obtuse angle
Smoke Break: deletes bullets around you when your Shield breaks

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Large spread shot burst
Charge Skill: Gain 1/3rd of a bomb
EX Special Attack: Spawn all 3 animal EX Attacks
Boss: quick spiraling Non Spell, with half circle wolf and zigzagging green dog Spell Card

Gameplan
A pseudo tank character, your main drive with her is getting lots of bombs. Shes actually a fairly annoying opponent, as her Blue Birds blend with the eagles, but are much faster and dont slow down much at all with the Scope. With her, you mostly just want to stock up on bombs with her Skill, and then using them whenever needed. She has a fairly nice scope, and her spread lets her damage a lot of enemies at once, even if weak, so catch as many spirits as you can, and then use your Charge Attack to send as many EX attacks to your enemy. Her Spell Card upgrades the green dogs to start shooting under them, akin to the Otter spirits, and after leveling up her EX Special, they will as well, though I suggest leveling that up with free ones sent via destroying a good chunk of spirits, as its easier to just send a boss attack given her wonky charge gauge phases
Yachie Kicchou
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Steady
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Good
Scope: Large Hexagon
EX Attack: Upgraded Otter Spirit
Character Rank: OK

Character Cards
Otterly Excited: otter spirits on the opponents side are stronger
Otterly Nervous: otter spirits on your side are weaker

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Tiny hexagon shield that deletes bullets
Charge Skill: Large hexagon shield that deletes bullets and lightly damages enemies
EX Special Attack: Cavalcade of Upgraded Otter Spirits
Boss: Dense spiraling Non Spell, with multiforming hexagon Spell Card

Gameplan
Yachie was surprisingly nerfed pretty badly with the new update. Her Charge Attack no longer deletes lasers in any laser based attack, and her Skill now does less damage, making it a less defensively useful option. Shes still strong in other aspects though, her Charge Attack deletes bullets for longer now, meaning you can shield yourself in a pinch, and she still has the beefed up otters that can flood the screen easily, and her Spell Card is still one of the more formidable ones in the game, forcing the opponent to stay in a small space, and dodge in likely unfavorable positions. Couple this with aimed bullets later on, and insane otter walls, and you still have a strong character
Saki Kurokoma
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Fair
Damage: Weak
Scope: Small Tall Oval centered above her
EX Attack: Upgraded Wolf Spirit
Character Rank: Alright

Character Cards
Keiga Family's Pressure: wolf spirits on the opponents side are stronger
Keiga Family's Harsh Hierarchy: wolf spirits on your side are weaker

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Piercing laser blast
Charge Skill: Larger Piercing laser blast
EX Special Attack: Ambush of Upgraded Wolf Spirits
Boss: Double spiral Non Spell, with large double laser arc Spell Card

Gameplan
Like Yachie, the main draw to Saki is her rabid wolf spirits. They fall down the screen, shooting radially as they go, they stop, and then aim at the player, continuing till they go off screen. Because they are very large, and always shoot periodically, they are the most intrusive of the amped animal spirits. Saki herself has a piercing shot, however its severely weak and is only useful in some cases, this goes for her Charge and Skill, as they angle outward, making them good for enemy control, and not so much damaging bosses. Her Spell Card is one of the most intrusive in the roster, being overly flashy, hiding bullets, and then forcing the player into very tiny lanes, where they must stay for a considerable amount of time before moving again. Saki moves into 3 positions, so while its static, her movements are wide enough to never really take much damage from a sedentary opponent.
Yuuma Toutetsu
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Steady
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Strong
Scope: Ever expanding circle
EX Attack: Upgraded Eagle Spirits
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Full-bellied Beast Spirits: eagle spirits on the opponents screen are stronger
Prey Animal's Terror: eagle spirits on your screen are weaker

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Quick slash right in front of her
Charge Skill: Strong
EX Special Attack: Circle bombardment of Upgraded Eagle Spirits
Boss: Random fan out of fire Non Spell, with rising and release of a big spread of fire Spell Card

Gameplan
Unlike the other Matriarchs, Yuuma actually relies solely on her rampaging Eagle spirits. that vaguely aim at the opponent, and curve randomly, making them harder to dodge, as well as their aimed bullets they shoot periodically as they dive. While her Boss attacks are dense and hard to dodge, they arent anything special nor do they pose as much as a threat as Yachie or Saki. Her scope is a little quirky. It expands large enough to fully encompass the screen, making it so every fairy, and bullet slows down, and giving you the Gauge point of every bullet on screen. If you want to abuse this, you can play normally until the battle gives a consistent amount of bullets on screen, start your scope, and easily farm your Boss and EX Special attacks. With everything moving in slow motion, and the opponent not really getting any spirits or bullets to bounce back at you, they can only rely on their scope and power to attempt at stopping you. This strategy stalls the entire battle, so use it wisely
Suika Ibuki
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fair
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Strong
Scope: Small circles that form over her, and her main options
EX Attack: Mini Fire shooting Suikas who meander down screen
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Accompanying Gourd: gives you a shot option that lags behind your movement and shoots straight forwards
24/7 Drunken Firsts: increases your damage when close to enemies

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Small shot burst where all options shoot forwards
Charge Skill: Longer Charge Attack
EX Special Attack: Summons a parade of EX Attacks
Boss: dense cluster spiral Non Spell, with hard to damage misty Spell Card

Gameplan
Suika excels in her strength. Her Skill can easily destroy Bosses in 2 uses at most if theyre all concentrated, and she deals easily with any enemy on the field. Your main goal is to use your tracing options to catch spirits and destroy them in a flash, though this does make her not much of a defensive character. Her boss is also very interesting, as while having a low health Spell Card, she disappears and follows the opponent in this mist state, making it so the enemy has to move or at least outmaneuver her while dealing with everything else on screen. Matching a Boss with an EX Special is an easy way to make the opponent have to suddenly deal with having to both move around a lot, and not at all, making for easy hits. Shes fairly technical, but very casual in her movement and play, overall, very fun
Son Biten
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Steady
Damage: Good
Scope: Thin lined hexagon that is hollow inside
EX Attack: Aimed baton
Character Rank: Alright

Character Cards
Poles Are For Throwing; gives you a shot option that shoots vaguely homing poles
Kiketsu Family Title: removes Otter Spirit hitboxes

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Burst of fan pole waves
Charge Skill: Screen clearing Pole waves
EX Special Attack: Summons EX Attacks to circle the opponent from the top
Boss: Sparse arrow Non Spell, with thin lane arrow Spell Card

Gameplan
Off the bat, her Boss is a little lackluster. Like all Bosses, it gets better as you level it up, but her Spell Card is very easy to dodge, and her Non Spell is only super good if it catches the opponent off guard with kinda fast arrows. However, where Biten shines in her defensive kit. Shey may not be able to delete bullets, but her Skill does high damage and will easily get rid of anything on screen, even Bosses can be taken down with about 3 or them. Her scope is also very good, covering almost the entire width of the screen, and about half of it in height, making catching spirits exceedingly easy, and her Charge and Skill make it almost laughably easy to spam free EX Specials. Bitens EX Special is also a little lackluster, but its more useful for forcing the opponent to move away from any comfortable spot they wish to stay in, making it an alright pair with a Boss attack, or a really dense bullet rain
Enoko Mitsugashira
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Fair
Damage: Strong
Scope: Three large circles in front of her
EX Attack: Slowly spawning circle that sits still
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Useful & Dangerous Bear Trap: gives you a shot option that shoots at an obtuse angle
Keiga Family Member: removes wolf spirit hitboxes

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Intense damaging bear trap
Charge Skill: Barrage of Intense damaging bear traps that reach higher, and delete bullets
EX Special Attack: Line of EX Attacks
Boss: Curved bullet Non Spell, with criss-crossing fire Spell Card

Gameplan
Enoko is essentially a less broken Reimu. Her high speed makes dodging a little harder, and you have to use 2 of her Skill at the very most on some Bosses. Those are her cons. Her scope is huge and easily picks up spirits, her Charge Attack basically deletes any enemy on screen it hits, her Skill does insane damage and deletes bullets, and her Boss is annoying and a little hard to deal with with weaker shot characters. Run rampant and easily take down bosses by activating your Skill and moving down as the bear traps reach higher, ensuring all of them hit, and delete both the Bosses bullets and health. Her EX Attack is also quite good, it expands to be large enough to force the opponent to move around it by a bit, and remains on screen for a good while, making it an active obstacle they have to think about, and given her ease at destroying a large amount of spirits, they might even get completely walled, or get hit out of nowhere
Chiyari Tenkajin
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Steady
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Strong
Scope: Circle
EX Attack: Small stalking purple spirit
Character Rank: Incredible

Character Cards
Curse-Soaked Blood: gives you a shot option that shoots missile like syringes straightforward
Chupacabra Popularity: remove Eagle Spirit hitboxes

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Burst shot in 5 even angles in front
Charge Skill: Increases the size of EX Attacks
EX Special Attack: Surrounds the opponent in EX Attacks in a certain radius
Boss: Wild line wall Non Spell, with all encompassing fire circle Spell Card

Gameplan
Get a full gauge. Use your EX Special. Use your Skill. Use your Skill again. Rinse and repeat.
You have now stun locked the AI, and broken the spirit of anyone that fights you. This cycle is so broken you can tear through her story mode in seconds and not even deal with any of the Boss attacks because the AI freezes and stops doing anything once they are inside the spirit orbs, its comical
Hisami Yomotsu
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Fast
Focused Speed: Steady
Damage: Light
Scope: Large wide oval that is centered way below her
EX Attack: Randomly spawning vine that curves as it moves downward
Character Rank: Meh

Character Cards
Amur Grapes of Despair: gives you a shot option that seeks out enemies
Loathsome Road to Yomi: slows down some bullets

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Quick shot burst
Charge Skill: Longer shot burst
EX Special Attack: Spawns EX Attacks on a point radially
Boss: sparse vaguely homing bullet Non Spell, with encasing curving vine Spell Card

Gameplan
Youre going to rely on her curvy "lasers" for basically any plan of attack. While dodging as her is quite easy, dealing any damage to Bosses will be impossible, and youll have to time out most if not all cards. Given that her options work similar to Nazrins scope, they are of course, exceedingly bad and not very useful, forcing you to stay low on screen to ever be able to control where you actually damage things, if even. Her Boss is actually quite interesting and pretty imposing, forcing the opponent to do some weird dodging, or getting really lucky with dodging in tight spaces. Her EX Special is also fairly attention grabbing, and forces the enemy to respect the area near the vines, as their snaking path makes them a blindside kill if not careful. That is to say ofcourse, if the opponent doesnt defeat her Boss in a matter of seconds, and also if she even survives that long before being tackled by a spirit she failed to kill
Zanmu Nippaku
General Info
Unfocused Speed: Speedy
Focused Speed: Slow
Damage: Strong
Scope: Medium Sized Star
EX Attack: Skull Lasers that linger for a bit when they reach the bottom
Character Rank: Great

Character Cards
Heartless Land: gives you a shot option that shoots straightforwards
Aggression Is The Spice of Hell: gain 1/3rd of a Bomb by using a EX Special or sending a Boss

Charge Gauge Phases
Charge Attack: Large range burst shot
Charge Skill: Expanding circle that transforms all enemies into Yellow Spirits
EX Special Attack: Barrage of EX Attacks
Boss: Dense arc shot Non Spell, with alternating lane Spell Card

Gameplan
For a final boss character, she kinda feels like it. Zanmu revolves around her Skill, and how well she can spam it. It is very similar to Rins, infact it can be used the same way, to remove bullets and enemies from the screen, as well as do a lot of damage if the spirits are transformed at the right position over Bosses. However, because they are yellow, they can activate Beast Spirits, and EX Attacks, meaning that its just a slightly upgraded version of Rins Skill. Regardless, using this to overwhelm the opponent still works wonders, and her Boss attacks are nothing to sneeze at. While pretty simple in concept, they take up a lot of space, and as they increase in level, they get denser and more wild, commanding the entire screen in ways not many other Boss attacks do, forcing the enemy to move so much and yet move as little as possible to not get hit by a stray bullet. They do also drop an immense amount of Gauge Points, so its a wonderful way to bait the opponent into using their scope, and then hitting them with an EX Special so theyre trapped in place and are forced to suffer
11 Comments
Crown 8 Jan @ 6:19am 
are you gonna update the guide to include the 1.10c patch?
Ponyeater 28 Sep, 2023 @ 1:33pm 
Did you really call Marisa a bit on the weak side in terms of shot type?
You can spam her Charge Attack to melt any boss in seconds. Just stack laser on top of laser. Since the game is balanced around fairies blocking the way and weaker characters also needing a chance to shoot bosses down, this makes Marisa's strong focussed laser an unaccounted for factor. She is the second strongest in Boss killing strength.
Tolione  [author] 7 Sep, 2023 @ 10:40am 
Thanks for all the kinks and feedback!! Ill be adding the things that I missed, and anything new that I find while testing. This game has a lot of really small bugs, and hidden mechanics, that its hard to properly document everything, but I am grateful that you guys are helping this guide be as full of info as possible :D
Whim Widget 4 Sep, 2023 @ 2:53pm 
Is it worth mentioning that Yachie's Charges ("skill" and "attack") glitch straight lasers out of existence?

This only applies vs Marisa or Saki (in any mode), but if Yachie uses her change, and a laser (or separately counted telegraph) are anywhere on Yachie's screen (doesn't even have to be in line with the shield), it will just vanish. This trivialises Saki's Spell Cards, and can make any of Marisa's attacks substantially easier to manage...if the removal of telegraphs don't counteract that.

This doesn't apply to curvy lasers though (Aunn and Hisami's who are just curvy lasers in disguise). They do cut off pieces of them on contact though.

-

Oh, and auras slow timed attacks, but not their timer.
They're helpful for managing Suika's Spell Card, and Chiyari's shots if you can keep them in them. Chiyari's base shots even time out before reaching you. This depends on the aura though, and Chiyari's shots have their dozen of other problems.
ajsalgom 26 Aug, 2023 @ 3:36pm 
Rin has a problem: while using her skill she sometimes die. It looks random, but I feel like it happens more when she is closer to the top screen.

Also, in story mode summon a lot of bosses before sending a lot of spirits, since Zanmu can make them explode and ruin your life. That is how I got her killed before the her final spellcard. You can also do something similar with Chiyari (speaking of which, I think to survive against her you have to stay in the upper half of the screen if possible).

And for some reason Yachie's shield (even the simple one) will destroy Saki's lasers (at least in story mode). She can also get rid of Zanmu's spears if you hit them right.
Chen 24 Aug, 2023 @ 9:02pm 
Rin and Zanmu you can basically just play GFW by turning the enemies into spirits right next to the boss and the explosion takes them out almost instantly

rin's skill turns nazurin's pendulums into spirits
zanmu's skill turns the special spirits from yacchie/yuuma,saki into spirits

So they're really good counters for those
normnav1 24 Aug, 2023 @ 6:00pm 
Great Guide i do not know if it's worth mentioning but Sanae's Delayed circle will pacify spirits on use if they collide w/ her hit-box for safety.
Tolione  [author] 21 Aug, 2023 @ 5:15pm 
Ill add the comment on Rins skill, I mentioned it briefly in Zanmus section, but I really shouldve added it on hers. I also didnt know about the gauge point additions, so ill add that in too!
Really wish there were a way to reply to comments, but alas,,,
K'eeg 21 Aug, 2023 @ 3:14pm 
Orin actually doesn't have that much trouble killing bosses; just activate her skill as enemies overlap the boss and pop them all for big damage. Also, her skill has the secondary effect of causing all bullets it passes over to drop their Gauge Points, making it very easy to keep her meter full. Notably, Zanmu's skill does *not* do this, so Orin does a better job of keeping her meter full enough to use her skill over and over.
xColdxFusionx 21 Aug, 2023 @ 7:38am 
Great guide! I was working on something like this in the background, but it seems you beat me to the punch.

I feel like a lot of people oversell Nazrin's focus speed penalty. Sure, she's not going to be able to dodge everything without good use of jumping in and out of Focus, but she's still capable of basic micrododging, streaming, and other danmaku tactics; it doesn’t hold you back too much unless your opponent’s really laying into you, and if that's happening then you have far worse problems in your kit to contend with than movement wonks.

I definitely wish Nazrin's kit was a bit better overall, though. It's a neat concept, but unfortunately the "dowsing" gimmick is more unwieldy than helpful most of the time.