Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil/Sakuya Izayoi

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Non-Spell #1[edit | edit source]

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Spell Card #1 | Illusion Phantom「Jack the Ludo Bile」[edit | edit source]

Sakuya moving to the far side of the screen during her first spell.

Description[edit | edit source]

At the beginning of each wave Sakuya will shoot a random cluster of bubbles directed towards the bottom of the screen, and will then stop time. While time is stopped she will begin moving, spawning knives aimed both at and around the player until she stops moving. Time will then unfreeze, and after a short delay Sakuya will start the next wave.

The intended strategy is to move through the randomly scattered bubbles and move either to the left or right to avoid the knives directly aimed at the player.

Corner safespot performed on the top-right corner. Note the knives aiming towards the side of the screen where the player is.

Top Corner Safespot Strategy[edit | edit source]

You can place yourself near the top corner of the screen right before time stops to avoid the cluster of bubbles. To dodge her knives, tap slightly upwards and then move slightly away from the edge of the screen to avoid clipping the knives.

It is important to not go above Sakuya's height as it will prevent you from being able to dodge her knives. If Sakuya is close to the top of the screen, this safespot will not work. Also take note it is preferable to perform the safespot at most once every 2 waves if you want to deal enough damage to kill Sakuya before the spell times out.

Stalling Strategy[edit | edit source]

This strategy involves stalling out Sakuya's first spell until she's close to either far side of the screen in order to make her second non-spell easier.

Start lowering Sakuya's health until she has low HP and then wait for her to go to one of the far side of the screen before finishing her off. Sakuya's last chance to move to the side happens when the timer reaches 04 seconds, which will mark this spell's last wave.

This strategy essentially becomes a gamble of either waiting for Sakuya's next movement to potentially get an optimal corner position for the second non-spell or committing to her current position and shooting her down. However, this strat also risks Sakuya moving towards the middle of the screen if she isn't shot down before the final wave, resulting in the second nonspell's difficulty being substantially increased. (This strat is called the "Cash-in Strat" by some people for this reason).

This strategy can also become dangerous when stalled for too long as the bubbles can often be hard to read and sometimes throw dense walls at the player if not careful.

Non-Spell #2[edit | edit source]

Sakuya's second non-spell.

Description[edit | edit source]

After the end of the previous spell, Sakuya will summon 4 moving summoning circles, 2 of them shooting walls of blue kunai counterclockwise and 2 of them shooting walls of red kunai clockwise. Both set of kunai will bounce off the side and top edges of the screen twice before leaving the screen. Sakuya also shoots rings of knives aiming at the player throughout the non-spell.

Like the first non-spell, good reading and quick decision-making abilities are essential to surviving this pattern. Move aggressively, and stay aware of surrounding bullets at all times to ensure a path through each wave.

Note : If Sakuya finishes her previous spell on the far side of the screen, the first wave of this attack will be less dense, as the summoning circles spawning the kunai will drift outside the play era and bullets will not be able to spawn, leaving you with half the normal density.


Spell Card #2 | Illusion World「The World」[edit | edit source]

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Non-Spell #3[edit | edit source]

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Spell Card #3 | Maid Secret Skill「Killing Doll」[edit | edit source]

Description[edit | edit source]

The most difficult spellcard she can provide. It is advisable to use bomb to not complicate your life.

Bad situation where not all the blue knifes turned into green, same as red knifes.

Sakuya throws knives around her, the first ones in blue color and the last ones in red color. When the time stops, she starts to move and may or may not change the knives to green. Note that the blue daggers are static, the red ones are aimed at the player's hitbox and the green ones are random. The difficulty in this spellcard lies in how the RNG can be in your favor or it can be the opposite. Apart from the fact that daggers once they turn green can be faster than others, to capture this spellcard requires good reading in random patterns, playing aggressively and recognizing situations that have happened before during practice.

General strategy[edit | edit source]

Once Sakuya stops the time, the priority you should see first is:

Closest daggers in front or around the player > blue daggers that changed color > red daggers that changed color.

The closest daggers in front of the player define where you will dodge first. Also, not ironically, you want Sakuya to change the color of the blue daggers, because being static, they still form a huge wall, forcing you to escape from your dodge zone. Therefore, when Sakuya stops the time, you want to see the areas where the blue daggers have turned green. Keep in mind that Sakuya throws 3 lines of blue daggers, in other words, look for the place where these 3 blue lines have turned green.If you don't find a place where the 3 blue lines have turned green, look for a place where 2 blue lines have turned green. In the worst case scenario where you see that there is a large wall of unconverted blue lines, stay away from it or dodge as much as you can in a "safe" area.

Last but not as important as the others, the red daggers being aimed makes the player want to stream them. However, there are cases where red daggers can turn green and become a safe zone to dodge. There are other cases where they do not turn green and continue to form another wall that the player must avoid approaching. Cases like these must be taken into account when facing this spellcard, as anything can happen.

Sakuya's first attack:[edit | edit source]

Probably the most difficult to dodge, because she is very close to the player and the reaction time is very short. So, the best option is to dodge near the corners of the screen and guide yourself according to the priority to see daggers (although here, concentrate more on seeing the closest daggers in front of the player).

After Sakuya's first attack:[edit | edit source]

Apart from here, you can do the strategy normally because Sakuya will start to move. There may be a situation where there are knives that are off-screen and return to the main screen. As well as the situation where the green daggers may or may not change direction again. In other words, the knives that the player has dodged may or may not come back to attack him from behind or from an angle that he does not take into account.

So, the strategy to avoid these knives is not to bottomhug. As long as you play aggressively or if you move up a little bit, it is enough to be able to read these daggers in time. When this kind of situation happens, the priority to keep in mind is:

the daggers coming from behind the player >> the closest daggers in front or around the player > blue daggers that changed color > red daggers that changed color.

Note:[edit | edit source]

Another recommendation is to check how much space you have to dodge, in other words, take a good look at the situation you are in. Doing damage is important to capture the spellcard, but if you feel that the daggers don't let you get close to her, then opt for a timeout or be patient before making a risky move. For example, if Sakuya stays too long in the upper right corner, you can keep dodging in the lower left corner.

Finally, remember the real hitbox of the daggers, it might help a bit to have more space to dodge.