Getting a Windows Touhou Lunatic was one of my shmup goals for the year (the other being SDOJ), so happy to get this one done. Lost track of how much time it took, but definitely was a longer grind - maybe 15-20hrs. I had 5 starting lives set but never dropped below 3 lives, so I think this counts as a proper clear. 

00:02 Stage 1
01:42 Stage 1 Boss
03:03 Stage 2
05:15 Stage 2 Boss
06:44 Stage 3
08:43 Stage 3 Boss
11:17 Stage 4
15:30 Stage 4 Boss
18:19 Stage 5
20:48 Stage 5 Boss
23:35 Stage 6
24:53 Stage 6 Boss

This was a so-so run with 3 dumb deaths (stage 3 Alice midboss nonspell, end of stage 4, 1st half of stage 5), made up for by an absolutely insane (for me) no-miss no-bomb of the stage 5 boss. The death before stage 6 midboss was intentional so I could bomb the enemy spam for ~100 points, otherwise I might not have reached the 800pt extend.

PAN's guide <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG6BhG2jx3Y> was super helpful as always. His guide is for Marisa but could still adapt a lot of the strats for Sakuya. Sakuya's bomb is a lot worse so you sometimes need more than 1 to skip patterns, but you get twice as many bombs so it balances out. 

All in all happy to get my first Windows Touhou Lunatic but still a lot to improve on. Could feel my dodging skills improving day after day throughout the grind. Trying to decide whether to grind more Touhou or move on to SDOJ now.

Log

2026-07-27: Lunatic 2cc, 14 miss
2026-07-29
- Lunatic failed run with 5 starting lives, 12 miss.
  - 2 deaths before stage 3, 1-2 dumb final boss death.
  - Pretty good stages 3/4/5.
  - Practice points:
    - early consistency
    - final boss
  - Could potentially reach 8-9 miss before final pattern.
  - Only reached 700pts. Need to find 100pts somewhere.
    - Bomb the Chaos section?
- Lunatic 1cc with 5 starting lives, 11 miss
- Lunatic 1cc, 9 miss
  - Counting this as standard clear, as never dropped below two extends

Lunatic

Total lives: 3 + 8 = 11 (more at 200 pt intervals after)

Todo

[x] S2 boss
[x] S3 routing
[ ] S3 midboss - reduce bomb usage?
[ ] S3 boss
- [ ] First pattern - reliable dodge?
[x] S4 routing
[ ] S4 midboss
[ ] S4 2nd half