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Hey there!

This game is awesome, and its been in development for a while so I'm here to give some knowledge i've obtained from DAYS of my life playing this game!

If you're just a Touhou fan let me run over a few things!

This is a roguelike, you'll be starting from a "square one" and getting stronger as the run continues till you perish or triumph over your foes!

You'll take part in Hack n Slash style combat defeating your foes with style and grace! Weave through enemy attacks and barrages(Sometimes the dodge is weird) and face off against multiple fearsome Youkai, are you ready?

Well if not then here we go!

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Basic mechanics: Mostly some of the less explained skills/mechanics

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Special attack: This is able to be performed after filling a meter you'll see on the bottom RIGHT on your screen, this is filled by attacking with anything. once filled you'll get a button prompt to do a pretty hefty attack, it changes per character but no matter what it'll do great stagger, and normal damage.

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Energy: Green bar used for the Ultimate ability

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Stamina: Used for dodging, which is kinda inconsistent but feels great when it does work. appears only when Stamina consuming actions occur. (the curved Tom Clancey's style bar to the right on your main cursor)

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Perfect evade: This one I have a few gripes with, SUPPOSEDLY when you time your dodges perfectly you'll get a perfect evade. Slowing down time for a little while and giving you the smallest damage window of all time. The problem is that it doesn't always work on projectiles and you can still get hit after performing one without certain upgrades and in a bullet hell game thats not too fun.

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Charge: This is your main attack button which can be held, this changes what the attack is and usually it's damage, mostly affected by upgrades

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Grapple: This one is new! but its a special attack that gives you a bunch of energy instead of breaking shields/guard/stagger. different button but same style prompt that is ABOVE AN ENEMY'S HEAD

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There are many facilities, people, and talents to help you along your way! (In no Particular order)

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Followers!



In my opinion these probably have the most impact on your runs, as they are a whole other variable of damage and skills for you to take and choose from, they can be swapped by using the TV behind them.



You will need to upgrade them to get their full effects, which will take plenty of crystals but they are well worth it! especially Meiling as she gives you plenty of stamina related buffs which almost feel required if you're going to play Mokou or Youmu, but feel free to experiment with who you like the most!

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Keiki



Feels weird listing her as an upgrade but she is! She's your main source of them! She also unlocks other characters for you. She's the driving force behind your progression and difficulty and maxing her out as soon as possible is highly recommended. You'll unlock more stuff from her as you give her Haniwas(Mostly obtaining from defeating bosses in your runs!)

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Exchange and Mirror



Not too important if you ask me, the exchange should be self explainitory via the screenshot, The Mirror changes how your characters look in game, the models stay roughly the same, just the clothes differ and some of them are quite nice!(I'm sure Mokou is very comfy)

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Aunn and Fortune Tickets



Once you Unlock them Aunn and Fortune tickets will be available to you. Aunn will start you off every run with some gold and random items, and the fortune tickets will be buffs to help you out on your journey, or buffs TO YOUR ENEMY for EXTRA CURRENCY GAIN. It's pretty neat and a well worth challenge if you seek to toppe some incrediblly high-horsed Youkai!

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Talents!



Talents are the main roguelike upgrades here, either picking from a list of character specific talents, or talents from a wide pool of generic upgrades. Some are only obtainable with pre-requisite talents. For example, you cannot get Hellfire(Deals damage when burn stacks reach 10) without first obtaining regular burn!(Attacks burn enemies for a DOT)

These influence you depending on the severity of the talent obtained, you will always start with 1 super powerful character specific talent so feel free to experiment with what works for you. Just remember everything is RNG so if you have a bad run you'd best hope your skills are enough to power through the challenges ahead!

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If you want a much more In-depth look at characters go here!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3589612474

If you want a SERIOUS TLDR the here!

Youmu: Starter character, Very Weak, pretty run dependant
Flan: Most Balanced, Best Build variety
Marisa: Easy Peezy to learn, hard to master big Damage
Mokou: Your health is a resource for beating and burning everything!

And for those who want something slightly more in depth:

Youmu



Pros: Fast and Agile, Can Parry somewhat easily

Cons: Low damage, squishy, survivability sucks, basically everything

Youmu! The starter character and Key's favorite... maybe. She gets you ready for the rest of the game... by being bad, she is not very consistent and relies heavily on upgrades to even get to the same level as the other characters. Her barrage attack is terrible for clearing projectile spam and she can't really dodge too many times in a row at base. She will teach you the importance of combining upgrades, dodge timing, and openings to attack bosses. Because of this, Youmu can feel terrible to play compared to everyone else but don't let that fool you if you get a good run with Youmu, you can feel INVINCIBLE.

Recommended Upgrades: Anything to improve survivability.

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Flandre



Pros: Great shot, Great damage, Great Survivability. The most balanced character by far

Cons: Kinda slow to attack,

Flandre! Not my favorite Scarlet sister but man does this game make me like her more! She's the perfect character in this game to me. She easily has the highest skill ceiling due to her slow attacks and requirements to find opening everywhere otherwise you'll be taking ages to kill anything. Flandre also has the benefit of never having a bland run, she has the most viable options for upgrades as everything, character specific or general upgrades, are all fantastic for her. If we ever get more characters I want them to be like Flan.

Recommended Upgrades: Everything! Go nuts! Flandre is great.

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Marisa



Pros: Incredible Damage, Fantastic combo potential, Easy to use

Cons: Hard to master, dodging can feel clunky as sometimes, if you were charging you're locked in place

Marisa! Really good for people who want to see everything the game has to offer, without stressing too much about learning everything all at once. Her shot is amazing, being able to auto-lock to a certain degree, deal constant damage, and clear projectiles CONSTANTLY. For people wanting a more robust experience however, learning to balance her charge attacks with her incredible barrage can be rewarding as you can melt bosses in SECONDS with proper timing. Highly recommend using Marisa to get your "beat X boss without taking a hit" Achievements

Recommended Upgrades: Character specific first is great, then all damage!

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Mokou



Pros: THOSE ANIMATIONS, Good damage, basically immortal!

Cons: Learning when you use your Ult so you don't accidently give yourself LESS hp is tough

Mokou! and if you read that con and played her you'll know what I mean, I had a run where I used it against multiple bosses only to have them spellcard as soon as I did leaving me with 1 hp as I couldn't deal any damage back to get my health back! But otherwise Mokou is GREAT high skill ceiling especially with timed attacks of your own, her shot isn't the best either so get good at dodging! Luckily you have the power of infinite health on your side, On top of having some fantastic damage to easily cut through bosses when an opening shows itself.

Recommended Upgrades: Utility Upgrades,Health/Character specific,

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Should We ever get more characters I wanna throw this here: Many of the followers could easily be turned into playables, HOWEVER, much like other games why not let us attack Takane to get a shopkeeper bossfight? then if we beat her we get to play as her, besides she needs lots of love!

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For this I'll give you some easy/cheesey combos to easily kill bosses(Descriptions rather than names)

Youmu: (Multiple Slashes on final attack) x (Dodge makes next attack 3rd strike in basic sequence)
Flan: (Ultimate causes 3 more follow ups) x (Charge lvl 1 shoots out fire wave)
Marisa: (Shot upgrades after beaming for a few seconds) x (Burn[and all burn sub-upgrades!])
Mokou: (Grabs/special attacks extend Ult duration) / (Jump Attack) x (Double jump)

Mokou gets 2 because the single duration upgrade alone is insane, and the other lets you deal safe damage without really being touched.

IN GENERAL: You can back off from bosses and pepper them with shots for damage as distance usually keeps you safe but this is last resort/you have 1 hp left. Shots are best used to get rid of boss projectiles you create openings for your harder hitting combos/attacks. If Playing Youmu you can instead cry about everyone else having a better shot and hoping you have stamina left

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Ranked from the TOP BEING THE EASIEST TO LOWEST BEING THE HARDEST

General tips to help out for each boss

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Patchouli: Yeah Patchy is a joke for the most part, all her attacks are well telegraphed and color coded, plus she gives you generous attack windows and if you ever need to just shut her out by backing away and shooting her to death.

Cirno: I'm just as surprised as you that she's not last but thats mostly because she has 2 attacks that can be deceiving. Her charge attack(Where she flies at you in a straight line multiple times) Lasts longer than it feels like it should and can catch you off guard if you're close to her turning point. You can dash once to the left or right and sprint in that direction till the attack ends. Her jumping slam is also quite the pain to deal with, sending ice in 4 directions upon landing. If you don't have the talent to give you Iframes after a perfect evade this can hit you even if you dodge one part of the attack.

Aya: Fast and furious! Except she's not that fast outside of her spellcard. Can be disabled by keeping your shot button held down, and then you only need to dodge to the side of her own dashes. Pretty easy all things considered but can give you some hiccups due to a LOT of her attacks having the same startup animations.

Suwako: FROG! I Love this frog, maybe this is a bias pick since I played the demo so much but Suwako is just when I start timing my attacks. She's not melee heavy like aya, and she doesn't spam projectiles but she is HEAVY with her area denial and spawns snakes mid fight which can cause lock-on problems. For the most part, Her spellcard is just find the gaps, same with most of her PURPLE attacks. When she teleports always dash backwards, as she will always swipe at you with her rings, sometimes its only one other times its a full combo, both are punishable. If she sprays water just run away.

Hina: Yes the first boss is middle of the pack, Why? Because she has a single attack that still goes even when she's stunned otherwise use your shots to block out hers... unless you're playing Youmu then cry about not being to do much about projectile spam lol. Literally the only reason she's here is because it's early enough for upgrades to not be friendly to you and the chance of her being a damage sponge due to her short openings.

Sakuya: The Ultimate skill check and In my opinion the best boss, fast, doesn't spam projectiles, hard to dodge attacks but enough time that if you get hit you feel like its your fault and not the game pulling a cheap trick. Dodging to the RIGHT not the left is usually safe for 90% of attacks, when her spellcard hits try to move out of the way of the first 3, then time your dodges for right after the knives leave the area this should give you a perfect evade. Should she ever teleport you can dodge backwards and spam shots if she decides to throw endless knives.

Alice: The start of the Cheap 3 fights. Alice is fine except for 2 attacks that are just kinda BS, Her spinning/ Saw balde Doll comes out at light speed and gives you almost no time to react. Keeping your distance to give yourself some breathing room till she does a LONG ATTACK ANIMATION like the 3 sets of dolls aiming at you to run in, get some hits, and GTFO. Her other fairly BS attack is a full map AOE with a ring of balls that home in on you, depending on your positioning and dodging the lasers she also shoots out, it could be a case of picking whether you want to get hit by the lasers, balls, or both. Not fun

Remilia: Yea the final boss isn't the hardest, Remilia is mostly great, she's like Sakuya but with some added Suwako levels of AOE... and a single attack thats just kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Remilia likes teleporting... A LOT she has an entire spellcard dedicated to it. for this sprint till you see her locking onto you then wait about half a second, dodge, and instantly dodge again. This should keep you safe. She also has a double ring attack and you want to wait till you see one circle stop on the ground, thats your cue to dodge as by then the 2nd one should stop, you'kll have evaded the first, and are out of the range of the 2nd. Her last problematic attack is a blood vortex she can do at light speed after teleporting. There is no real tell for this so just dodge to the side everytime she teleports.

Yuyuko: Holy Mother of projectile SPAM, Unless you have a dedicated shot/barrage build going this fight is a NIGHTMARE. She hardly gives you room to dodge as is and put that on top of HUNDREDS of projectiles, some of which home in on you. You cna kinda be safe by running back and forth but this doesn't give you any damage windows. Ideally you cann perfect dodge one or 2 attacks and have a few sets of the "Immune after evading" talent. Whats worse is she has a near instant 3 way beam to catch you that pre-dodging feels like a gamble on.
Worst of all. Yuyuko has the most infuriating attack in the Game
I'm sure you've seen me give Youmu some flak for not being able to deal with projectile spam like the others, which is even worse in this fight, but thats because shooting boss projectiles is the best way to get rid of them. DODGING projectiles doesn't work half the time and Yuyuko has a 3 way SWEEPING BEAM, this means it CANNOT BE SHOT TO GET RID OF IT, So you have 2 options, Dodge into it, hoping you get lucky. Or if you're far enough, start running WITh the beam's direction and hope it doesn't reach you.
Easily the worst part of this game right there as survival and getting a no hit run feels like RNG, but this is the best I can do for Yuyuko advice, she truly is a monster and if you beat you congrats my friend.

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Wow, I love this game. Truly I do, I know some people are turned off by roguelikes but I enjoy exploring almost every build possibility in a game and I gave this games DAYS of my life even in the demo.

If you think I should elaborate or touch on anything further or just have something to add please comment on this!

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Wishlist:

I would adore more Playables, Specifically Takane as I can't think of an official or fangame that has her playable plus there's not cool ideas you could do with her

Buff Youmu's shot.

Endless Mode

More alt oufits!

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And for those who didn't know this game is made by one guy, so its ok if it isn't perfect. the game runs well and plays beautifully so give Key some love!

Cheers all, Cyalide out

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