Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object/Nue Houjuu

Nue Houjuu

Nue has 10 spellcards and 8 nonspells, the standard for an extra stage boss. She drops 1 life piece during each of her first 4 spellcards and 1 bomb piece during the next 4 spellcards. Her fight generally favors strong shot types with splash or piercing such as MarisaA and SanaeB, while being much more unforgiving to weak shots, mainly the 2 homing shots(SanaeA and ReimuB). Her primary gimmick is her 4 UFO spellcards that spawn destructible enemies, each of them representing the 4 types of UFO summons. Homing bullets or bombs do not actively target the UFOs and will always target Nue instead. While Nue has a bombshield during her spellcards, the UFOs do not.

Spellcard 1: Ominous Clouds "Heian Dark Clouds"

Description: For Nue's 1st spell she spawns a ring of dark clouds that move outwards and around her. After a bit these spawn in lasers that generally follow the same formation that shoot at the player and at a 45° angle away from the player both to the left and right. Alongside these lasers are droplets that spawn on various fixed points and shoot out randomly but all have gravity that pull them down. There is light overlap with the droplets that follow into the next wave of lasers. The spell plays identical across shot types outside of differing kill times.

Strategy: Do not stray far from below Nue. Moving to the side will result in awkward angles from the lasers and a loss in dps. Focus on dodging the droplets until the lasers shoot and then try not to make any uneeded movement. If you don't have to move to dodge the lasers then don't. Try to avoid vertical movement so you get more reaction time with the lasers. Outside of this use your judgement to decide what gaps to take. More open gaps in the lasers will be better as you will have more room to dodge the droplets.

Spellcard 2: Unidentified "Red UFO Invasion of Rage"

Description: Also referred to as just Red UFO, for Nue's 2nd spell she spawns a circle of red UFOs that spiral outwards. The intial spawn location is randomly rotated. The direction always starts clockwise and then for the 2nd cycle is counterclockwise and this repeats. The fire rate increases over time but is limited by the fact that the next wave can only spawn once the previous wave's UFOs have all despawned. Every UFO spawns a fireball bullet as it moves out. When destroyed no more fireballs will spawn in its path until the next wave. When spawned they slowly move towards the player for a moment before accelerating. Each fireball's aiming direction is determined when it is shot.

Strategy: Hang near the right side right after a new wave spawns. Destroy one of the UFOs as it passes by, follow it a bit if needed. Go below Nue in the new gap in the bullets and deal as much damage as you can and then flee to the left side. Repeat the strategy and flip between left/right each wave. This works as every shot types however some shots get more leniency as others. Due to SanaeB's good splash damage she mostly nullifies the spellcard as a whole. For her, It is better to stay center and then take out some of the UFOs that are going to move towards the bottom. As MarisaA you can do essentially the same thing but with more of a focus on destroying the UFOs that plan to move towards the bottom. As the other 4 shot types is is recommended to follow the general strategy. MarisaB and ReimuB need to be close to the UFOs in order to kill them well as MarisaB needs shotgun damage and ReimuB needs to be positioned so that the UFO blocks her homing bullets from reaching Nue.