Resources[edit | edit source]

The freeze execution in Stage 3 is important like Stage 2, not just for getting the necessary 30%s but also since this stage has the biggest freezes in the run and unintentional deaths will be the most costly here.

This stage portion only sees one suicide. If you are one life behind entering this stage, the stage portion suicide isn't skipped. When you're more than one life behind, it may be worth considering skipping this suicide. Ultimately the majority of suicides take place on the final boss where survival mistakes have the greatest potential to mess up your run and this is also the part of the game where the majority of lost lives can be used to skip suicides there.

The preferred minimum resources to enter the Stage 3 Midboss with are 820% Motivation and 70% PF. The preferred minimum resources to enter the Sunny Milk final boss fight with are 950% Motivation and 140% PF.

First Half #1[edit | edit source]

Line yourself up with the right side of the dark part of the HUD below (horizontally) and just below the Ice Area percentage (vertically) while charging and move right for a small second just as the first enemy starts firing, move back left and release your ice. With proper timing the ice is released at a time where bullets aren't immediately frozen.

This is followed by going slightly higher on the screen, streaming left and doing the second freeze (about 50% Ice Power). Dash left during the ice in order to misdirect and restream new bullets. Then you can safely stream right and do another freeze (about 60% Ice Power) followed by another dash to restream and another freeze while streaming to the right (60% Ice Power). When done correctly there will be a few enemies left you can use to graze their bullets as you will need extra Ice Power for the next section. The duration of each individual freeze isn't important but you want to have a sum total of around 170% Ice Power across these three freezes.

First Half #2[edit | edit source]

Position yourself in the top-right corner in order to misdirect the first fairy. You then dash left just before the first fairy becomes visible on the screen. This can be done by using the BGM as an audio cue. When dashing left, go down-left once you're on the first or second right-most digit of your high score, shoot the second spawning fairy from the left side once, then again on the right side while moving down-right, then shoot once more to hit the first spawned fairy. This shooting pattern is done to maximize the amount of Ice Power you gain which you might need to reach 100% Ice Power without killing any of the fairies. The movement pattern also serves as a setup for misdirecting the rings to get a good freeze.

Release your freeze right before the rings hit you and then dash left. Also make sure to not be at the bottom of the screen when doing the freeze. While it may be tempting to increase the size of the freeze this way, this also risks you accidentally killing either of the last two fairies that you need to set up your next freeze.

When the first freeze explodes, you should be on the left side of the screen and the last two fairies should appear. Dash left to start sideshooting the left fairy from the right for a second, then move slightly right to sideshoot the right fairy for a second. Shooting them for longer risks you accidentally killing them. Then charge your ice and release it when the rings get close. Then dash right in order to increase the size of the freeze. Once you're almost hitting the right edge of the screen, dash back left to start setting up for the next freeze in the next section.

First Half #3 + #4[edit | edit source]

This is where the two important bombs are used that were mentioned in the Luna boss fight. Quickly line up just above the center point of the flower in the HUD and dash left when the big fairy has fired the second wave of jellybeans (effectively as soon as it starts firing), dash right unfocused for half a second and use the bomb. The initial lineup makes it so that the first two waves of bullets will have a line of bullets going into the bottom-right corner, to maximize the freeze size (can reach up to 86% / 776,000 points).

After this bomb the first big fairy dies and a second fairy replaces it. Sideshoot the second fairy from the left until it's fired 2-3 waves of jellybeans (doing it for too long kills it too early), then dash left and up either in a square-like formation or by moving up-left. Move back down near the bottom-left corner. Then charge your ice and wait for the jellybeans reaching the bottom-left corner and freeze them before they go offscreen. This movement pattern greatly optimizes the freeze size as more lanes of bullets get caught by the ice and makes getting a 30% easy.

As the current freeze expands, move right in focused speed to keep enough distance from the jellybeans on the right. Once they've gone out of your way, dash to the right side of the screen and use the same kind of vertical lineup as when setting up the first bomb. This is where the second bomb is used but mirrored, meaning you will also be dashing in the opposite direction as you're using the bomb. This bomb will also include rice bullets from the next wave of fairies that appear on the right (this bomb can reach up to 88% / 808,000 points).

When the next rice fairies appear, make sure you're already near or at the middle of the screen, but not at the very bottom. This optimizes the freeze slightly by freezing bullets behind you and get the freeze to expand more slightly upwards. Time the freeze as rice bullets are about to go offscreen, dash right to restream the leftover fireballs to start streaming left for the next set of fairies.

This next rice fairy wave is important as it can give you a 30% and is necessary for setting up the next ring fairies in the next section. When the rice bullets approach you, move left in focus speed (while having the ice charged) and then move back towards the wall of bullets. Then release your ice, dash right briefly and move back left while going up, grazing some of the fireballs. The first focused movement to the left is done to optimize the freeze and the dash to the right is done to get some of the fireballs to misdirect further right to get them out of your way more as you're dashing up. This makes the setup for the next section more reliable.

First Half #5[edit | edit source]

After doing the dash up as shown in the previous clip, stop yourself around the area Cirno stops in this clip. Wait for the first fairy to show up and then dash right. As you're about to fully pass this first fairy, tap Z once. This will damage the first and second fairy that's incoming at the same time. Dash down-right about half a second before you reach the right edge, then move down-left + tap Z once right after hitting the right wall. This will slightly damage a newly spawning fairy. Then move down half a second later and do one last Z-tap. If done correctly when you move left focused while charging, you should be (close to) 100% Ice Power when you release this freeze. After releasing this freeze, dash all the way to the left but be mindful of where the fireballs are positioned as you start your dash.

Unlike the similar freeze in First Half #2, this freeze should be released at the bottom of the screen (so also slightly late). This ensures that the fourth-last fairy in this section gets killed by the ice. If this fairy doesn't die, it can cause problems but it doesn't technically lose score if you're able to adapt with this extra fairy firing at you during the next freeze.

Before the current freeze explodes, dash back right just as you hit the left edge of the screen to prepare for the last three fairies. Be on the right side of the screen by the time the first fairy appears, then dash left and tap Z once for each of the three fairies. Then charge your ice and release it near the bottom of the screen, preferably releasing it just before the front-most ring hits you to get some extra Ice Power. If there's a leftover ring from the previous freeze, try grazing that one too (as shown in the below clip). If you accidentally kill any of the three fairies, there's a big chance you'll lose a potentially vital 30%.

Midboss Non 1[edit | edit source]

When the Sunny midboss dialogue starts, skip it immediately. Due to a bug, the timer of the first nonspell advances during the dialogue on all Sunny-versions of the Stage 3 Midboss. This nonspell will have 1 suicide, 2 bombs and 5 full DMG freezes. For memorization sake, a set order is assumed but there are factors that need to be considered that change the order of actions.

All full DMG freezes are done by sideshooting Sunny, start charging when you're at/near 100% charge, then release your freeze after passing one or two yellow rice waves and being about half a screen's distance away from Sunny when the ice is released. Being too close or too far away can risk you losing precious 30%s.

Start with two full DMG freezes. If going by ideal minimum resources, you'll have 70% PF entering the midboss, in which case you need at least two freezes until you can have enough for a bomb. If after two full DMG freezes Sunny is close to the middle of the screen, release your bomb at the same time as when Sunny stars firing the yellow rice. This bomb can get up to 82% / 712,000 points. Before activating the bomb you can do a small optimization freeze that has no more than 50% ice charge to freeze the front layer of bullets that aren't included in the bomb.

Follow the bomb with a suicide. You can do this by ramming into the front-side of the laser Sunny fires downward. You want to hit the front side as hitting the middle or back part of the laser causes the laser to split into two and spawn a second buzzsaw that can break additional frozen bullets which is a small scoreloss.

Then do 3 full DMG freezes and repeat the same bomb execution from before. Activate this bomb regardless of whether Sunny is positioned favorably or not, as the timer is about to run out after this bomb. After this bomb Sunny should have some leftover HP left which can be used to either sideshoot her to gain Motivation and Ice Power or do a small freeze to gain some PF. The former is safer.

If while setting up the first bomb Sunny is close to the sides of the screen, you can delay this bomb but you can only delay by two waves due to the timer, so pick your opportunities carefully.

Sunlight "Sunshine Needle"[edit | edit source]

The hardest pattern in the run! This pattern can cause the most amount of deaths, lost freezes and lost 30%s. The 30%s during this pattern are very important to get.

Start at the bottom near the middle and freeze (with close to or at 100% charge) the bullets going straight down right before they go offscreen. Let the first few jellybeans pass. Since this is a long-lasting freeze, skip the next wave and macro around the bullets.

From here your goal is get in a loop of sideshooting and doing freezes with around 50-55% Ice Power right as jellybeans are about to close in on you. Charge your ice and then move slightly up to optimize the freeze you're about to trigger. The relatively low Ice Power% is necessary to do as little ice damage to Sunny as possible while increasing the chance of getting 30%s. There's however many factors at play that can wildly change results in a bad way that's determined by Sunny's movement RNG.

If you are sideshooting at certain heights, you may gain Ice Power much quicker than normal. When this happens you'll go over 55% Ice Power. In this situation release your freeze early.

Try to stay on the opposite side from Sunny horizontally. If you get pinned at the same side as her, freezes are more awkward to execute and you end up doing more damage with your shot. In this situation switch sides when releasing a freeze. Otherwise stick to whatever side you're on.

In regards to movement RNG, you want Sunny to stay high on the screen and stay away from the very sides of the screen. This makes the pattern relatively easy to dodge and getting 30%s is easier as well. When she moves to the side, it makes getting 30%s much harder. The situation however gets much worse if Sunny is positioned low on the screen. When she moves low, getting 30%s becomes harder, you are far more likely to do too much ice damage to Sunny and the dodging becomes extremely difficult. Whenever this happens, be extra mindful of where Sunny is positioned horizontally and make extra sure you're gaining Ice Power from her from sideshooting. When you don't do this it can quickly result in a death - low% freezes can cause you to die afterwards and you also lose your strict freeze rhythm. When she's low you will also be more incentivized to switch sides in order to maneuver around the tightly packed bullets. If you do end up dying on this spell, start using a freeze in the manner that the first freeze is done and resume the usual loop from there.

Once Sunny is low on HP but the timer isn't yet low, you will have to rely less on sideshooting and likely accept one or two smaller freezes or let Sunny's spell die early. If the timer is low, you can either try to do the same type of freeze as before but do it higher up than normal. This can however be unreliable depending on the RNG of the bullets and Sunny's position (the ice doesn't kill her). The other option is to skip one wave, macro around the bullets and then freeze the next wave which can be released much higher on the screen. Doing this correctly can get you the Frozen Items that way (worth 80,000 points). If your final freeze doesn't kill Sunny, shoot her down normally instead in order to not lose the items and the potential Spell Card Bonus.

Second Half #1[edit | edit source]

When Sunny's midspell is cleared, skip the dialogue immediately, as this lets you pointblank shoot Sunny as she runs away, giving you valuable Ice Power.

Start shooting the bottom-left grid fairy slightly, then the top-left grid fairy and then 2 of the red fireball fairies to maximize the Ice Power gain. Then line up and release your freeze in the below image (left side). Ideally you have at least 80% Ice Power for this freeze. Then for the next freeze start killing red fireballs from the left side to get them out of the way and to charge to 100% Ice Power. Then line up and release your freeze in the below image (right side).

These next two freezes should be 30%s. After the previous freeze explodes, stay slightly to the right side of the screen to shoot the red fireball fairies, move down and stream the fireballs so they don't hit you. Then line up and release your freeze in the below image (left side). While this freeze expands, move right to restream the fireballs. When the freeze explodes stream back to the left, shoot for a second and charge for the next freeze. Then line up and release your freeze in the below image (right side). For both of these two freezes, focus your attention on the highlighted rice bullet to time your freezes.

The grid fairies in this section do have a slight RNG factor with where they will spawn vertically, but this won't change the approach of the strategies.

Second Half #2[edit | edit source]

As the previous freeze explodes you will be streaming right and likely shoot the incoming big fairy slightly. You can go for a small optimization freeze here, but this freeze should not be released at 100% Ice Power and it has to be released shortly after the big fairy starts firing jellybeans. Otherwise you will kill the big fairy but it must be kept alive.

Regardless of the optimization freeze being released or not, start streaming the jellybeans from the right side towards the left. Do the streaming slowly enough to where the second big fairy shows up before you pass the middle of the screen horizontally. This fairy's spawn location is determined by which half of the screen you're on horizontally. When the big fairy appears, start moving up-left unfocused (according to the below screenshot's path) and immediately after use a bomb. This bomb should be activated shortly before the second fairy starts firing. Release it later and you will accidentally kill the third fairy and lose a valuable bomb opportunity. If the movement during the bomb is done correctly, there will be a jellybean on the right of the right fairy where normally there will be empty space - this is a small optimization. This bomb can reach up to 93% / 888,000 points.

Wait until the frozen bullets from the bomb has exploded and stream the remaining fireballs downwards. Then line yourself up with the top part of the flower in the HUD and dash right half a second after the big fairy started firing, then use another bomb about 1/6th of a second after. This bomb can reach up to 85% / 760,000 points.

Second Half #3[edit | edit source]

Start near the bottom of the screen and slightly off-center to the left while having the next freeze charged. Move right about half a second after the next wave of fairies starts firing and move in this direction for a second, turn around back to where the first rice bullets are going and freeze these bullets. Then dash back right and back left again. This is an optimization to be able to get a 30% that you otherwise can't get.

For the next freeze you can do the same back and forth movement to optimize the freeze, but this freeze can't reach a 30%. The same holds true for the 4th and 5th freeze. After releasing the second freeze, move through the middle layer of fireballs for being lined up closer to the middle when the next wave comes and also for the slight amount of graze to gain Ice Power.

The 3rd freeze can be a 30% since the fairies move higher on the screen, even if you don't do the back and forth movement optimization before the freeze. When releasing this freeze you can once again move unfocused towards the nearest wall to optimize the freeze, but from here when doing this optimization, be careful of the fireballs that may be in your way. This can cause a needless death.

Right as this freeze explodes, stream the rice bullets while going through the middle layer of fireballs and freeze as soon as your Ice Power is near/at 100%. This freeze needs to be done early to not kill fairies that spawn after to keep yourself on rhythm.

The 5th freeze is identical to the 2nd freeze.

The 6th freeze is identical to the 3rd freeze, but once you release your ice you can do a zigzag movement instead of a quick back and forth to increase the spacing between bullets that way. Then once this freeze explodes, you have a fraction of a second to release one last small freeze to catch the leftover rice bullets. This freeze is recommended to go for as having low Ice Power starting the final boss is more favorable when setting up the opener freeze. This small freeze is easy to miss however as you have very little time to release it.