Looking for some advice

[Dreamleaf]

Hello! I started Touhou 4 months ago and it's been a crazy journey. I've went from barely being able to make it to stage 3 in easy mode of PCB to not long ago getting my first hard 1CC in IN. Certainly nothing I'd brag about since I know that's not terribly impressive to the pros out there but I admit it's been incredibly satisfying to see the growth over time, and I still feel I have a lot of room for improvement too. I absolutely LOVE this series. I'm nothing short of addicted at this point and I want to experience this series as much as I can and see just how far I'm capable of pushing myself. I'm certainly no expert but I do have a fairly high degree of patience 

As it stands to date I've gotten at least one of the normal 1CCs in every post-PC-98 main title game except for SA and UFO. I have yet to play any of the spinoffs and have only played HRtP from the PC-98 era, I've managed to beat it in lunatic mode with continues, but have yet to get a normal 1CC since I needed a break from endlessly getting killed from my own weapon  This is my current 1cc chart https://imgur.com/RiBPJ7s

I do want to eventually push to be doing lunatic 1CCs but I've also enjoying gradually working through the various games as I build up my skills and wanted some advice on what people here would recommend in going about my progression. I know it can largely come down to preference but it wouldn't hurt to hear what others think. I've kind of been debating between 5 things.
1. Finishing up doing my normal 1ccs in all the post PC-98 main games
2. Working on hard 1ccs more and if so which ones
3. Working more on the PC-98 games
4. Trying out some of the official spinoff titles more
5, Start working on some of the extra stages and if so which ones

[Mikuru]

Nice chart! With so many Normal clears under your belt, you should definitely be ready for Extras. HSIFS first, it's more like an extension of Normal mode, while other Extras tend to be between Normal and Hard. PCB, IN and MoF are other good choices to do early. I would suggest that alongside this, you try out Hard mode in a few games and see how far you get and which games you are more comfortable with. Go back to fill out the roster of Normal 1ccs as something to do in winding-down time when you aren't in the mood for pushing yourself.

I'm not very familiar with the PC-98 and spinoff games, so I can't say much about those.

[CyberAngel]

Oi, welcome aboard!

I'd say keep poking at different options little by little until you figure out what exactly you'd want to focus on more. That means all games AND modes. Sure helps to put your skills to a test and help them grow even more. But at the same time, don't feel pressured to pay attention to everything with "TOUHOU" written on it at once. HRtP and fighters won't help you to get better with bullet hells, photo/scene games are pretty unique deals that are best experienced when your skill is already high, even mainline games can vary drastically in their playstyle. It's normal to start out wide and then narrow to a few favourites.

That said, did you look into scoring systems? Do any feel particularly interesting to you? Most of the longevity of these games comes from those, y'know.

Also, zero to Hard 1cc in 4 months? That's impressive, took me two years.

[Dreamleaf]

Thank you both for the responses! Right now I'm leaning towards doing the extra stages a bit, HSiFS does seem like a good option seeing as how it seems like a direct continuation of the Okina fight and I've also heard it's considered one of if not the most easiest of all the extra stages. After that I'm thinking I'll work on my PCB or MoF hard 1cc. I've actually come really close to it in PCB but stage 4 still manages to leave me with not enough resources to push right through until the ending.

When I started I didn't care about scoring at all. I have grown a bit more of an interest in it over time but it still comes as a secondary concern, mostly because I just feel working on high scores makes more sense once I have a higher mastery of the games and higher difficulties. I have looked into some of the various challenges people will do like pacifist runs, no bomb runs and/or no deaths, no using the vertical axis and whatnot, but I haven't actually managed to do any of them (outside easy mode at least) and I've mainly just done them as creative ways to practice. I do suspect eventually I will take a lot more interest in the scores though since I honestly can't see myself growing sick of this series anytime soon.

Regarding the camera spinoffs is there a particular skill point you'd recommend doing it at? Like should I get a few more hard 1ccs under my belt first or is it best experienced after I'm capable of doing lunatic sort of thing? I do want to eventually go through everything canon included the printed works since I do enjoy the story and characters a fair bit but I'm not in a massive rush.

[CyberAngel]

Patterns in photo games span all characters and difficulties, so I'd say it's best to try them when you're already working on Lunatic stuff and have some experience with most Extra stages. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from trying them now, but you're unlikely to reach more than halfway through. That said, different scene games have varying difficulty, but overall the older ones are harder.

[Dreamleaf]

Alright I'll definitely keep that in mind. I might work a bit on the fighting games for fun and so I can see the stories when I feel like a change of pace from working on the main series and just try and save the camera ones until I'm a bit more experienced so I don't need to worry about hitting a brick wall of progress.

If I want to slam my head against a wall I'll just stick to attempting LoLK at the higher difficulties. Speaking of which when it comes to hard and higher in that game is it generally considered easier to do PD mode or do people find legacy mode easier? I figured point device mode would be best going into the game but the much more limited amount of bombs certainly can be felt too.

[CyberAngel]

For a plain 1cc, people find Legacy much easier due to how many extends you're getting. You also kinda have way more bombs to use that way, so that helps too.

[Dreamleaf]

That makes sense, plus I find point device mode can be psychologically exhausting since LoLK has had me get stuck on some brutal spell cards that just repeatedly kills me dozens of times on a few occasions