Touhou 9: Phantasmagoria of Flower View/Advanced Mechanics

From The Danmaku Gameplay Wiki

Character Info[edit | edit source]

While the game does list stats of a character in the game, certain rankings are not really accurate (for example Sakuya being rated 3★ on normal speed, despite being as slow as Reimu, who is only 1★).

  • Normal/Focused Speed - How many frames it takes character to go from left border to right border.
  • Scope Speed - How many frames it takes the character's scope to fully deploy. Please note that for certain scopes, this is not as relevant as it seems, such as Komachi, who activates every spirit on the screen immediately and then rapidly loses the scope, or Marisa, whose scope is a cone in front of her that reaches top immediately and simply takes time to grow to full size.
  • Charge Speed - How many frames it takes the character to charge one level of a spell. Please note that for first 9 frames of charging, the bar does not move at all, meaning Level 1 technically takes a bit longer than the other three levels.
  • Charge Delay - How many frames does the character's Lv. 1 attack last, as it is impossible to start charging before it ends. This does not include the charging speed start-up.

The values are taken from an old Japanese site.

Character Normal Speed Focused Speed Scope Speed Charge Speed Charge Delay
Reimu 68 (1★) 136 (1★) 20 (3★) 25 (5★) 41
Marisa 55 (5★) 91 (3★) 101 (3★) 31 (2★) 36
Sakuya 68 (3★) 85 (5★) 31 (5★) 28 (4★) 46
Youmu 55 (5★) 130 (3★) 182 (1★) 45.5 (1★) 23
Reisen 61 (3★) 109 (3★) 12 (5★) 28.75 (3★) 51
Cirno 58 (4★) 83 (5★) 4 (5★) 34.5 (2★) 51
Lyrica 65 (2★) 124 (2★) 32 (2★) 35.75 (2★) 51
Merlin 72 (1★) 136 (1★) 48 (2★) 42 (1★) 31
Lunasa 61 (3★) 109 (3★) 16 (3★) 31.25 (5★) 51
Mystia 55 (5★) 80 (5★) 10 (3★) 33.5 (1★) 51
Tewi 61 (3★) 145 (1★) 38 (3★) 25 (5★) 51
Aya 50 (7★) 79 (6★) 50 (3★) 25 (5★) 51
Medicine 55 (4★) 114 (3★) 19 (5★) 35.75 (1★) 51
Yuuka 91 (0.5★) 148 (0.5★) 4 (5★) 25.75 (5★) 51
Komachi 67 (2★) 124 (2★) 20 (7★) 31.25 (2★) 51
Eiki 55 (4★) 114 (4★) 5 (6★) 31 (3★) 51

These attacks speed up with intensity instead of in-game rank. On Easy and Normal, these start at intensity 1 in Round 1, on Hard at 4 and on Lunatic at 8. Each subsequent Round increases the starting value by 1.

  • Reimu: Shoots two rings: red rice and white rice, with pellets in-between. At lowest intensity it is 36 of rice and pellets in each ring, then adds two of each to the rings as intensity goes up. On intensity 7 and 14, this attack gains a second and a third wave, respectively. Lv. 3 replaces rice and pellets with red and grey amulets - the gray amulets redirect themselves twice instead of just once.
  • Marisa: Shoots diagonal lanes of alternating 8 pellets and 8 blue stars from one side. 3 rows each on intensity 1, this becomes 4 on intensity 5, 5 on intensity 9 and 6 on intensity 14. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with green stars from the other side.
  • Sakuya: Stops time and summons 10 knives around the target (with pellets on their end), aimed directly at the target. Higher intensity does not increase amount of knives, but instead makes the knives spawn faster. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with more knives, and makes the knives instead move outwards in a full 360 degree angle.
  • Youmu: Shoots rain of 6 green arrowheads and 6 pellets from top. 3 waves on intensity 1, then 4, 5, 6, and 7 on intensity 3, 7, 11 and 15, respectively. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with green daggers.
  • Reisen: Shoots two rings - one with rice, one with pellets - that then release in a spiral form. Each arm of the spiral has 4 bullets; the two spirals have 16 arms at intensity 1, then 20, 24, 28 and 32 at intensity 3, 7, 11 and 14, respectively. Lv. 3 replaces the pellets with rice; the way bullets release on Lv. 3 causes the amount of arms to decrease in half, but the length of them to quadruple.
  • Cirno - Shoots a ring with 36 of ice shards and pellets each, then freezes bullets on both sides. Frozen bullets have their trajectory randomized and their speed modified. Like Reimu's attack, this grows in strength with each intensity, scaling the same way (36 of each on intensity 1, +2 as intensity goes up, though it does not gain extra waves). Lv. 3 replaces pellets with a second ring of ice shards.
  • Lyrica: Spawns 7 lanes of 8 red arrowheads and 8 pellets from top that then moves in a wavy pattern towards bottom. This pattern does not become more complex with intensity, but does seem to speed up faster. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with blue arrowheads which mirror the red ones, effectively causing a crisscrossing pattern.
  • Merlin: Spawns a wavy snake of rice and pellets that moves in direction of enemy's current position. This Lv. 2 spawns bullets for a long amount of time: about 7 seconds on intensity 1 and 9 on intensity 16. Lv. 3 replaces rice and pellets with arrowheads.
  • Lunasa: Spawns pellets and red arrowheads on bottom that at first move slow, but then speed up. There's 5 each on intensity 1, then 6, 7, 8, and 9 on intensity 4, 9, 13 and 16, respectively. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with yellow arrowheads.
  • Mystia: Spawns a bird from a side that leaves behind pellets and arrowheads across the entire width of the screen, that then spread out in lanes. Note that the bird also counts as a projectile and if it gets erased, the attack effectively gets stopped early. Pellets and arrowheads each form 2 lanes at intensity 1, and then 3, 4, and 5 at intensity 4, 10 and 15, respectively. Lv. 3 removes pellets and instead summons a pair of birds that shoot the same way, but from both sides at once.
  • Tewi: Spawns a ring in middle, made out of interchangeably 2 red rice bullets and 2 pellets, for a total of 64 bullets or 16 pairs of each. After a while, the bullets move outwards, in a somewhat crisscrossing pattern. This attack does not become more complex with intensity and instead the bullets speed up noticeably. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with white rice.
  • Aya: Shoots 8 arrowheads and 8 pellets in fast paired waves, aimed towards the enemy's position, alternating the side of pellets and arrowheads each time. Each subsequent pair spawns slightly closer to center and aims independently of one another. There are 5 waves on intensity 1, then 6, 7, 8, and 9 on intensity 4, 8, 11 and 14. Lv. 3 instead shoots one wave at a time of 5 butterflies, with the spawn points of each wave being laid across the entire width.
  • Medicine: Randomly sprays rice and pellets from middle in outwards direction. The amount of bullets scales with intensity, though it's hard to tell how exactly. Lv. 3 replaces pellets with arrowheads.
  • Yuuka: Releases rice and pellets in a shape of flower with 6 petals, as well as a horizontal lane at the end of each petal. At intensity 1, the walls are made out of 4 rice and 4 pellets, while each petal is 8 rice and 8 pellets. As intensity goes up, the length of the lanes increases, curving around the petals, and eventually forming a ring shape around the petals; the petal layer remains the same. Lv. 3, replaces the pellets and rice by yellow and lime arrowheads.
  • Komachi: Spawns 3 rings of gold coins, pellets, and again gold coins. At intensity 1, each ring has 33 bullets, then adds one more for each intensity. Lv. 3 instead sends rings of copper, silver and gold coins.
  • Eiki: Shoots out pellets in a spiral pattern, with the spawn point moving in a randomly chosen straight line. At intensity 1, the spiral has 50 bullets, and then 2 more for each intensity up, with each 8th pellet replaced with a rice bullet. Lv. 3 instead spawns only rice, which is followed by rods shortly after, in such a way that the spiral alternates between them (though the total amount of bullets remains the same).

AI Behaviour[edit | edit source]

Similarly to the previous versus shmup, AI in this game is coded to take intentional hits, being longer on later stages and shorter for that stage after a death (for example dying on stage 7 will not affect stage 8). This value is not character dependent; however, certain characters have much easier time overwhelming AI and having it take unintentional hits, which can lead to its early death. Aya and Medicine have the easiest time doing so, but Reimu, Sakuya, Youmu, Cirno and Eiki are also capable of doing this. It also seems like AI can get genuinely walled when using Yuuka, due to her low speed.

It is to be noted that the values are merely approximations, it is possible for the AI die later or earlier even against characters who do not have ability to overwhelm AI easily (especially Tewi, whose autobomb ability effectively lets her take extra hits), such as Stage 9 Round 2 dying around 3:00 mark instead of 3:20.

Additionally, unlike the previous game, the game will detect if the player is trying to stall by not shooting and stop the timer from advancing.

AI Values[edit | edit source]

The values are taken from a Japanese wiki, conveniently also translated into the expected time it takes AI to die.

Easy

Stage Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 1, no extra lives
1 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 5 (1:05) 4 (1:04)
2 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 5 (1:05) 4 (1:04)
3 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 8 (1:08) 4 (1:04)
4 8 (1:08) 4 (1:04) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 10 (1:10) 8 (1:08)
5 10 (1:10) 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 1 (1:01) 22 (2:16) 10 (1:10)
6 22 (2:16) 6 (1:06) 3 (1:03) 1 (1:01) 26 (2:28) 12 (1:22)
7 26 (2:28) 7 (1:07) 4 (1:04) 1 (1:01) 40 (3:10) 14 (1:34)
8 40 (3:10) 8 (1:08) 4 (1:04) 1 (1:01) 55 (4:10) 16 (1:46)
9 55 (4:10) 9 (1:09) 5 (1:05) 1 (1:01) 5 (1:05) 30 (2:40)


Normal

Stage Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 1, no extra lives
1 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 5 (1:05) 4 (1:04)
2 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 5 (1:05) 4 (1:04)
3 5 (1:05) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 10 (1:10) 4 (1:04)
4 10 (1:10) 12 (1:22) 9 (1:09) 7 (1:07) 12 (1:22) 10 (1:10)
5 12 (1:22) 15 (1:40) 11 (1:16) 9 (1:09) 38 (3:04) 18 (1:58)
6 38 (3:04) 18 (1:58) 15 (1:40) 10 (1:10) 45 (3:20) 20 (2:10)
7 45 (3:20) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 50 (3:30) 32 (2:46)
8 50 (3:30) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 60 (N/A) 32 (2:46)
9 60 (N/A) 45 (3:20) 40 (3:10) 30 (2:40) 8 (1:08) 59 (4:50)

Hard

Stage Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 1, no extra lives
1 8 (1:08) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 8 (1:08) 5 (1:05)
2 8 (1:08) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 8 (1:08) 5 (1:05)
3 8 (1:08) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 10 (1:10) 5 (1:05)
4 10 (1:10) 12 (1:22) 9 (1:09) 7 (1:07) 12 (1:22) 10 (1:10)
5 12 (1:22) 15 (1:40) 11 (1:16) 9 (1:09) 45 (3:20) 18 (1:58)
6 45 (3:20) 18 (1:58) 15 (1:40) 10 (1:10) 50 (3:30) 20 (2:10)
7 50 (3:30) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 50 (3:30) 32 (2:46)
8 50 (3:30) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 60 (N/A) 32 (2:46)
9 60 (N/A) 45 (3:20) 40 (3:10) 30 (2:40) 12 (1:22) 59 (4:50)

Lunatic

Stage Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 1, no extra lives
1 12 (1:22) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 12 (1:22) 8 (1:08)
2 12 (1:22) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 12 (1:22) 8 (1:08)
3 12 (1:22) 3 (1:03) 2 (1:02) 1 (1:01) 15 (1:40) 8 (1:08)
4 15 (1:40) 12 (1:22) 9 (1:09) 7 (1:07) 18 (1:58) 10 (1:10)
5 18 (1:58) 15 (1:40) 11 (1:16) 9 (1:09) 45 (3:20) 18 (1:58)
6 45 (3:20) 18 (1:58) 15 (1:40) 10 (1:10) 50 (3:30) 20 (2:10)
7 50 (3:30) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 50 (3:30) 32 (2:46)
8 50 (3:30) 25 (2:25) 20 (2:10) 15 (1:40) 60 (N/A) 32 (2:46)
9 60 (N/A) 45 (3:20) 40 (3:10) 30 (2:40) 30 (2:40) 59 (4:50)

At value 60, the AI will never take hits on purpose, making killing it with most characters incredibly hard; if a player is good enough, it is possible for the Round to go well into 10+ minutes length.

Notably, Round 5 value AI is set to Round 1 of next Stage; "looping" around to Stage 1 of next difficulty on Stage 9 (except on Lunatic where it stays at the same value as Round 4). Also, Round 2 values for Stage 4 and 5 on Normal and Hard and Round 5 value for no extra lives are mistakenly higher than Round 1 values, as they are set relative to the value on Lunatic.

Extra

Stage Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Round 1, no extra lives
1 0:20 0:20
2 0:22 0:20 0:20 0:22
3 0:24 0:20 0:20 0:20 0:24
4 0:26 0:20 0:20 0:20 0:28 0:26
5 0:28 0:20 0:20 0:20 0:40 0:28 0:28
6 0:40 0:20 0:20 0:20 0:45 0:28 0:26 0:20 0:20 0:28
7 0:45 0:26 0:20 0:20 0:50 0:40 0:26 0:20 0:20 0:28
8 0:50 0:26 0:20 0:20 2:00 0:55 0:50 0:45 0:28 0:40
9 2:00 0:50 0:45 0:28 0:10 0:30 1:00 End 0:55

The timer works slightly differently in Extra, due to its sudden death-esque nature. It is instead directly visible above the player character and it ticks down till the opponent loses their invincibility frames, after which they usually (but not always) quickly die. Notably, these values also cycle onto next Stage after Round 4, in order of Round 1, Round 1 with 0 lives, Round 2, etc; except for Stage 9 which follows its own sequence before abruptly kicking the player out after Round 7.

Damage[edit | edit source]

The way damage in this game works is as follows:

  • Global value starts at 1 and then goes up by 0.5 every 12 seconds, but no more than 3.
  • When a player gets hit, reduce the value by 1, but no less than 1.
  • A character cannot die if they're not on their last hit point (that is 0.5); any excess damage will be negated.
  • If the character is AI, add handicap for their AI value. According to the Japanese wiki list, these are +0.5 at 20-29, +1.0 at 10-19 (this corresponds to Easy difficulty in Match Mode) and +1.5 at 1-9.

Rank[edit | edit source]

Rank in this game is responsible for two things: bullet speed and the value of the blue item.

The blue item adds 70000 + 7000*rank Spell points when collected, which is 224000 at rank 22.

The rank values are taken from the Japanese wiki.

General[edit | edit source]

The Japanese wiki lists these speed formulas only under match mode data, but they are listed here under assumption they also apply to story mode (if this is wrong, please correct):

  • Easy: The speed is 0.9+0.04*rank pixels per frame; this is slower than all focus speeds even at max rank in Match Mode (at which it becomes 1.54; or around 173 frames to cross the screen horizontally).
  • Normal: The speed is 1.1+0.05*rank; at rank 14 this is as fast as Yuuka's focus speed, at rank 18 this is as fast as Reimu and Merlin's focus speed, while at rank 20 this is as fast as Youmu's focus speed.
  • Hard: The speed is 1.3+0.08*rank; this means at just rank 7, they are faster than Yuuka's speed and over time outspeed more characters, at rank 19 being significantly faster than Reisen and Lunasa's focus speeds, breaking Marisa's focus speed at rank 22 (which also means they always outspeed Yuuka).
  • Lunatic: The speed is 1.3+0.11*rank; this means they start faster than Youmu's focus speed and at rank 20 match even Aya's focus speed.

The bullet speed isn't static, as it has variance range of 0.4 (that is, game will add or subtract up to 0.4); the reference points above are for the average speed (for example, at rank 16 in Easy, it can occasionally move faster than Yuuka's focus speed, while at rank 22 in Lunatic it has chance to be faster than Komachi's normal speed). The game will also make sure the speed is at least 0.8 and no more than 3.0+0.1*rank. Aya's special ability multiplies the speed by 0.93.

Note that speed of bullets spawned by a character's Lv. 2/3 is not affected by rank, but rather the intensity of the attack, as seen in this video, where rank is set far beyond what it naturally can reach - while Eiki's boss attacks spawn incredibly fast bullets, her Lv. 2/3 does not.

Match Mode[edit | edit source]

For Round 1, the values are:

  • Easy: Rank starts at 1 and increases every 30 seconds, capping at 16 after 7:30.
  • Normal: Rank starts at 1 and increases every 15 seconds, capping at 20 after 4:45.
  • Hard: Rank starts at 6 and increases every 12 seconds, capping at 22 after 3:12.
  • Lunatic: Rank starts at 8 and increases every 15 seconds, capping at 22 after 3:30.

When a round ends, decrease rank by 8.

Story Mode[edit | edit source]

The following are values for Round 1. Each time player dies, the initial rank for that stage is decreased by 2 and the increases are delayed by 10 seconds (except after dying on Lunatic Round 1, which delays them by 13 seconds).

Easy

Timer/Stage Rank
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9
0:00-0:29 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
0:30-0:59 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4
1:00-1:29 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5
1:30-1:59 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6
2:00-2:29 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7
2:30-2:59 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8
3:00-3:29 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 9
3:30+ 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10

Normal

Timer/Stage Rank
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9
0:00-0:19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0:20-0:39 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0:40-0:59 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1:00-1:19 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1:20-1:39 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1:40-1:59 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
2:00-2:19 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
2:20-2:39 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
2:40-2:59 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
3:00+ 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Hard

Timer/Stage Rank
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9
0:00-0:14 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
0:15-0:29 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0:30-0:44 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
0:45-0:59 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1:00-1:14 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1:15-1:29 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
1:30-1:44 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
1:45-1:59 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
2:00-2:14 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
2:15-2:29 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 18 19
2:30-2:44 13 14 15 16 17 17 18 18 19
2:45-2:59 14 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19
3:00+ 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19

Lunatic

Timer/Stage Rank
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9
0:00-0:11 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
0:12-0:23 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
0:24-0:35 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
0:36-0:47 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0:48-0:59 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1:00-1:11 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1:12-1:23 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1:24-1:35 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
1:36-1:47 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 21
1:48-1:59 15 16 17 18 19 19 20 20 21
2:00-2:11 16 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21
2:12+ 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21

Extra

Timer Rank
0:00-0:09 18
0:10-0:19 19
0:20-0:29 20
0:30-0:39 21
0:40+ 22

The rank in Extra seems to be the same for each Stage, starting and increasing even faster than on Lunatic. It is unknown how it affects bullet speed and if it's decreased the same way as on the other difficulties.