Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Date: 28 October 2018
Didn't upload this run before since I was going for 3.3b, which I ended up never finishing. I might still do so at some point.
This run was streamed live on Twitch: twitch.tv/videos/328577781
Replay: maribelhearn.com/replays/gensokyo/45537/th13_udMn36.rpy
I uploaded this one instead of the 3.244b since this one is cleaner and has a stronger earlygame, it's just in the 3.244b I don't do Stage 5 safer and thus score it better.
TD is a really strict game. The main goal throughout the run is to use as many trances as possible, which requires the gauge in the bottom left to be full. To fill up the gauge, you want to chain enemy kills in order to get the "squeak" sound effect, which means the enemies are dropping grey spirits in addition to blue ones; grey spirits fill the gauge more as well as functioning as point items. When trancing, blue spirits will award +100 point item value (PIV) instead of +10, which means you want to time your trances to be used in certain key sections that contain many blue spirits, as well as resource pieces. Bombs are important to be able to stay close to bosses, as the closer you are to a boss, the more spirits they will award, so you want to use bombs and trances to stay close in many cases. Planned deaths (suicides) are used with over 1/3rd of the gauge full, which triggers a trance, at the ideal time to do so. Bombs are used to kill enemies faster as well on certain occasions, as that causes more blue spirits to spawn. The gradual PIV increase over the course of the game makes the score rapidly increase as you get to the later parts of the game, which shows especially if you look at how much higher each successive stage's score is in my run's splits; Stage 6 is almost half the entire score. The entire game is very important to execute well, since losing PIV in the earlygame makes the raw score you get in the lategame lower, while doing a lategame strategy poorly means you lose a lot of score at once, because the value of items and grey spirits is so high at that point. Almost everything is crucial to the run.
The game is so harsh because if you die outside of the planned deaths, you get thrown totally off route and will have to somehow recover from that, which often costs so many points your run is basically over (assuming you have a particular goal, of course). Bombing outside of the planned bombs is obviously also not possible, and especially not trancing. If you miss a planned trance, for example by not filling the gauge enough, that also costs a lot of points and is also run-ending. Especially in the earlygame certain things are quite strict and tricky to execute, like filling the gauge enough during Yoshika's 1st spell in order to have it full before Yoshika's 2nd spell kills you, or grabbing the blue spirits during the Stage 2 kunai yinyangs section without grabbing the grey ones, which you want to remain there to refill the gauge after the trance, so you can trance midboss Kyouko. This game has reverse difficulty, meaning that the earlygame is (way) harder than the lategame; it especially showed in my grind for this run, as I would often not make it out of s1, sometimes make it to s2, occasionally s3, but if I made it to s4, it was always a 1cc. This game really requires good precision and timing skills, and more thought than you would think. It's far from mindless bombing and trancing.
This was my first 3.2b clear, and the grind for it didn't take very long as my sum of bests by far overshot it thanks to a lot of practice. That's also part of why I wanted to try for 3.3b. New strats over the 3.036b include a better Yoshika route, Stage 4 stage portion, and most importantly a /much/ stronger Stage 6 in its entirety. I improved my PIV gain and raw score from the stage portion by getting better at the bombpiece section trance (although my execution of it in this run was meh), using a better route for the final section which lets me PoC, chain all the enemies and trance many more spirits than before, including all of the lifepieces (which also makes it possible to skip the s4 midboss lifepieces, meaning I can trance earlier and get more blue spirits). My route for Miko's final three spells is much better, as I pointblank her for much longer, netting me way more raw points. After the suicide at the end, you shoot MIko down at around 2.20s left on the trance timer, which makes sure you die at the same time as her, which means the slowdown from Miko dying takes place while your death spirits spawn, which makes twice as many of them spawn due to how ZUN programmed those spawns.
If you have any questions about this game, the strategy used in this run or the score system in general, ask away! :)
Stage 1 0:04 Yuyuko Saigyouji 1:39
Stage 2 2:47 Kyouko Kasodani 5:25
Stage 3 6:18 Yoshika Miyako 8:47
Stage 4 10:45 Seiga Kaku 13:28
Stage 5 16:00 Mononobe no Futo 18:35
Stage 6 19:57 Toyosatomimi no Miko 21:22
Thanks for watching!
Date: 28 October 2018
Didn't upload this run before since I was going for 3.3b, which I ended up never finishing. I might still do so at some point.
This run was streamed live on Twitch: twitch.tv/videos/328577781
Replay: maribelhearn.com/replays/gensokyo/45537/th13_udMn36.rpy
I uploaded this one instead of the 3.244b since this one is cleaner and has a stronger earlygame, it's just in the 3.244b I don't do Stage 5 safer and thus score it better.
TD is a really strict game. The main goal throughout the run is to use as many trances as possible, which requires the gauge in the bottom left to be full. To fill up the gauge, you want to chain enemy kills in order to get the "squeak" sound effect, which means the enemies are dropping grey spirits in addition to blue ones; grey spirits fill the gauge more as well as functioning as point items. When trancing, blue spirits will award +100 point item value (PIV) instead of +10, which means you want to time your trances to be used in certain key sections that contain many blue spirits, as well as resource pieces. Bombs are important to be able to stay close to bosses, as the closer you are to a boss, the more spirits they will award, so you want to use bombs and trances to stay close in many cases. Planned deaths (suicides) are used with over 1/3rd of the gauge full, which triggers a trance, at the ideal time to do so. Bombs are used to kill enemies faster as well on certain occasions, as that causes more blue spirits to spawn. The gradual PIV increase over the course of the game makes the score rapidly increase as you get to the later parts of the game, which shows especially if you look at how much higher each successive stage's score is in my run's splits; Stage 6 is almost half the entire score. The entire game is very important to execute well, since losing PIV in the earlygame makes the raw score you get in the lategame lower, while doing a lategame strategy poorly means you lose a lot of score at once, because the value of items and grey spirits is so high at that point. Almost everything is crucial to the run.
The game is so harsh because if you die outside of the planned deaths, you get thrown totally off route and will have to somehow recover from that, which often costs so many points your run is basically over (assuming you have a particular goal, of course). Bombing outside of the planned bombs is obviously also not possible, and especially not trancing. If you miss a planned trance, for example by not filling the gauge enough, that also costs a lot of points and is also run-ending. Especially in the earlygame certain things are quite strict and tricky to execute, like filling the gauge enough during Yoshika's 1st spell in order to have it full before Yoshika's 2nd spell kills you, or grabbing the blue spirits during the Stage 2 kunai yinyangs section without grabbing the grey ones, which you want to remain there to refill the gauge after the trance, so you can trance midboss Kyouko. This game has reverse difficulty, meaning that the earlygame is (way) harder than the lategame; it especially showed in my grind for this run, as I would often not make it out of s1, sometimes make it to s2, occasionally s3, but if I made it to s4, it was always a 1cc. This game really requires good precision and timing skills, and more thought than you would think. It's far from mindless bombing and trancing.
This was my first 3.2b clear, and the grind for it didn't take very long as my sum of bests by far overshot it thanks to a lot of practice. That's also part of why I wanted to try for 3.3b. New strats over the 3.036b include a better Yoshika route, Stage 4 stage portion, and most importantly a /much/ stronger Stage 6 in its entirety. I improved my PIV gain and raw score from the stage portion by getting better at the bombpiece section trance (although my execution of it in this run was meh), using a better route for the final section which lets me PoC, chain all the enemies and trance many more spirits than before, including all of the lifepieces (which also makes it possible to skip the s4 midboss lifepieces, meaning I can trance earlier and get more blue spirits). My route for Miko's final three spells is much better, as I pointblank her for much longer, netting me way more raw points. After the suicide at the end, you shoot MIko down at around 2.20s left on the trance timer, which makes sure you die at the same time as her, which means the slowdown from Miko dying takes place while your death spirits spawn, which makes twice as many of them spawn due to how ZUN programmed those spawns.
If you have any questions about this game, the strategy used in this run or the score system in general, ask away! :)
Stage 1 0:04 Yuyuko Saigyouji 1:39
Stage 2 2:47 Kyouko Kasodani 5:25
Stage 3 6:18 Yoshika Miyako 8:47
Stage 4 10:45 Seiga Kaku 13:28
Stage 5 16:00 Mononobe no Futo 18:35
Stage 6 19:57 Toyosatomimi no Miko 21:22
Thanks for watching!
