PCB cherry point question

[Ghaleon]

So I'm hoping to beat the phantasm stage in pcb next. But before that I have some questions regarding the cherry system.

I understand how the supernatural power/border/whatever works, however sometimes I SWEAR I do not currently have a border up, and when I hit bomb, instead of bombing, it just clears the screen of bullets, doesn't use a bomb, and doesn't interrupt the game at all. What causes this?

In addition, I've seen a few more videos of some pcb pros playing, and I notice that just about all of them ALWAYS stop shooting when their border is up. why do they do this? I didn't read any penalties for shooting while the border is up.

Last, how hard is the phantasm stage. Is it harder than every extra stage in any touhou game? Should I expect to clear every lunatic mode of touhou before I touch that one? or is it just pretty much another extra stage (albeit harder than pcb's..which already seemed pretty darn easy compared to esod imo, no death fairy, no patchy, final boss' spellcards are pretty meh on average.. though his non spellcards are prob worse).

[herbert]

Why don't you upload a replay of such situation?

[Zetzumarshen]

I guess you were hitting exact 50000 cherry when you were bombing. I experienced it at least a few times.

[Drake]

When your border's up, you get much more points for grazing. You also get more points for grazing unfocused.

[Arcengal]

The reason that most people stop shooting during borders in boss fights is because you only get a border for every 50,000 cherry you accumulate, and most boss attacks give a massive amount of cherry when you clear them since you get points for any remaining bullets.

A good example of this is Ran. Even if you go into the fight with 0/50,000 cherry, the end of her first non-card will likely throw you straight into the 50,000 threshold and activate a border. Clearing Wizard Fox Thoughts (her first card) will give you about 39,000 cherry, so you'll be almost towards a second border. A third border is then given outright by her second non-card because there are that many bullets, then much more cherry is given at the end of her second card.

By the end of Charming Siege From All Sides (Ran's fourth card), you could potentially have seen no less than seven Borders, each worth anything from four to five million points if they don't get burst, 28-35 million in total.

But this can go wrong. Say you get the border during Fox Laser and stay under Ran, grazing the laser all the while for massive Maxcherry bonuses. If you forget to stop shooting Ran while you're doing this and you end the card, you'll get the bonus cherry whilst a border is still up, meaning the bonus is wasted.

As for Phantasm: the stage is frantic but doable and once you've passed Yukari's first two cards, it's almost like a rematch with Ran until her eighth card. I beat her on my fifth attempt.

[Ghaleon]

Yeah I've tried the phantasm stage, it's clearly more difficult imo but I still think I can do it. the blue/red laser phase in particular is much much more difficult than ran's.

Ran himself as a midboss seems easier than chen, go figure (red oni blue owi is so much worse than ran's version). But the parts with the aimed shot fairies immediately after midboss ran, and the stupid pentagram turrets just before the boss always get me. I see other people survive by going halfway from left to right across the screen per barrage instead of all the way, but it just doesn't seem to work for me yet, you really have to get a feel for it unconsciously I guess.

I watched a video of dougnut beating ran on extra, and when he's casting illusion god: something izuna or whatever its called, he moved to the right once, stayed there the whole time, and doughnut didn't have to move at all the whole damn time just about. Was that manipulated, coincidence? For me he bounces all over while casting that like flandre, am I unlucky? is dougnut ridiculously lucky? is there some way to manipulate his movement?

[Ghaleon]

oh yeah, final boss on phantasm, I've learned do not bomb on xandu. For some reason it's as hard to tell wtf to do after bombing that as bombing maze of love.

[Arcengal]

I watched a video of dougnut beating ran on extra, and when he's casting illusion god: something izuna or whatever its called, he moved to the right once, stayed there the whole time, and doughnut didn't have to move at all the whole damn time just about. Was that manipulated, coincidence? For me he bounces all over while casting that like flandre, am I unlucky? is dougnut ridiculously lucky? is there some way to manipulate his movement?

Ran is a she.

Both Ran and Yukari's version of that card can create random safespots where the caster hardly moves, but other times you'll just get slapped by a version where they don't sit still. I fought Ran there just for fun and I swear she relocated about 14 times. Yukari once did it so bad, the timer got to 30 and the spell went full-power-PLUS instantly, causing me to lose a life instantly (wasn't expecting large bullets), followed by three bombs afterwards trying to end the damned card without dying again.

[Ghaleon]

I hate xandu.. the light greenish blue bullets and the big red bullets don't bother me.. it's the effing lasers she shoots randomly occasionally. she *ALWAYS* shoots them riiiight where I need to be. SOO annoying.