How to get good at Touhou

6 lessons to help improve your game at Touhou.

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Song List:
(Kuroneko Lounge) Ayakashi set 01 〜 無何有の郷
(RyusaWorks) 夜雀の歌声～Night Bird～
(Aquastyle) The Gensokyo the Gods Loved
(Kuroneko Lounge) ハートフェルトファンシー（平茸 remix）
(MagnumOpus) 魔界地方都市エソテリア
(Kuroneko Lounge) Lunatic set 11 〜 故郷の星が映る海

[GoldenBattler]

Did you notice the thing I did with the music?

[Hynet]

Lesson 7: use the shift button

Please... use the shift button.

[PatienceKiss]

A tip that def helped me was upping the difficulty when stuck.
Once you've learned the game you're playing enough that you remember the stages and can reliably make it to level 5 or 6 but still can't seem to make it over the hump; play on hard difficulty for about 5 times in a row, using all continues, and just try to make it past stage 4 or 5 and then switch it back to normal and you'll feel like a demigod.
It's legit exactly like training in high gravity like he says in the video.

[derpyfailz]

Some personal advice, don’t try to be a hero, it’s ok to use your bombs. Even if it feels like a waste, dying with extra bombs in stock is by far a worse alternative.

[ladybirdg]

This kind of ties in with your "stop moving" tip, but what really got me past the "competent but not confident" phase was getting more comfortable with bullets getting close to me. Even with the "stop moving" tip, I was only taking the WIDEST gaps I could find, which isn't sustainable in the long run. Letting bullets graze and get in my "personal bubble" really helped fine-tune my spacial awareness. Positioning your character without looking is already a skill that needs to be honed, but positioning your tiny hitbox is the real goal.

[sorinash]

"You'd be surprised to what you can get used to. given enough exposure" this shit is so deep man... it kinda applies to everything in our lives...

[remixtheidiot]

A tip from me! A tip about bombs:
Instead of spamming them or not using them at all as he said in this video, bomb when you are about to get hit.
Or if you can learn it, do a death bomb. This is what will help you win and save precious lives.
Yeah.... Thats it.

[topnep]

Most important thing about bullet hell games is to memorize enemy spawns and bullet patterns and then figuring out how to move to lessen the threat as much as possible. Flawless execution is the next step. I see so many people skipping the first step and wondering why the game is so difficult. Mostly, it's not, they're just approaching it in a way that makes it unnecessary hard.

[pachicore]

How to not move when a subterreanean sun is pulling me in?

[lakikakku]

The amazing feeling of barely purposely dodging a whole bunch of bullets but still staying alive.

[Flowery]

5:11 qs a rule of thumb, if an attack pushes you in the direction of where the bullets fly more than you recover and it isn't ending in 5 seconds, then you're doing something wrong

[HeroTripleT]

ahh, but you forgot hidden technique of ZUN...Drink some beer ;)

[Ravist-P]

Tip: only use the bombs when you're in a boss fight or when you cant dodge a bullet

[Minogame]

This video is so good omg!!!

These are like, really great tips and I can really tell that you have lots of experience in these kinds of games.

And I so agree with the tip to be aggressive. Giving yourself an escape path to recover is so useful. And then the "don't move when you don't have to" tip.That's saved me many a time during a tense situation. You'd be surprised how much you can die by making a faulty movement.

[wynot]

One trick I had to use was to put on my glasses to help me see the bullet's better because I refused to play in Fullscreen mode

[ethirium]

Bomb often...
Or not at all

Nah. Just deathbomb

[kimcringson]

This is very basic guide to Touhou. Next step is how you perform Deathbombing, Shotgun, Timeout, Grazing, Bottomhugging or Wallhugging, Capturing Spell Cards, Collecting Items, 1cc, and using game special features such as release system or spirit world mode
Just a suggestion for the next time if you or someone willing to make another guide

[FinhBezahl]

Lesson 3 is such a big deal, i'm glad you covered it. Lots of people never realize you shouldnt be looking at your hitbox the whole time

[cosmefulanito]

The good part is that "practice" pretty much involves all the other lessons. The first time I played (Touhou 7, to be precise) I thouht it was impossible. I legit, thought it was one of those games meant to troll people and make fun of them for losing like I Wanna be the Guy and stuff like that. Then I got used to it, and after losing like a hundred times to win on easy, normal wasn't that different, and then neither was hard or lunatic.
After that, I tried to complete every Touhou game (on normal) and by the time I completed 3 of them, I was already using ALL of these lessons. You just kinda realize them on your own.

I'd like to add a few advices of my own.
-Only use your bombs whenever you're sure you're going to die, even if you could have survived. If you use them just to clear the screen, the boss is kicking your ass, so only use them when you're about to get hit or have no idea how to dodge something (though you'll have to learn to dodge that particular pattern eventually if you ever want to play the game again)
-Anything that clears the screen clean, like getting to max power after you die or that border thing from Touhou 7 (no idea if it's on another Touhou after 8), leave those stuff for the very last second. Like, if you died, wait until there's a lot of bullets on screen so picking the full power will clear them out immediately. Same with the border thing, wait until it's almost gone to clear any bullet that could have hit you after the border is gone

[TKSSLCHN]

Some more rules of thumb that helped me:
1. Targeted attacks are so easy to dodge that you can generally put your attention elsewhere. Youmu's red rays in Touhou 7 for example can be dodged just by the audio cue while you can focus on the ice coming from below.
2. When an attack pincers you from left and right but with low horizontal speed, moving to one of those sides means that the other can't hit you while you're in motion.
3. Many projectiles have far smaller hitboxes than models. You can use the graze sound cue to get experience with how big they actually are.
4. Many pincer attacks that move in diagonal patterns have temporary blind spots where you can stay save for seconds at a time.