Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Hard Stage 4

Obligatory stage 4 difficulty spike time. Since we're taking a detour through the library for no adequately explained reason, we get to face this tough level. Honestly, there's no real advice for this stage beyond "practice the hell out of it." And once you're good enough to where you no longer become incoherent with rage, this is actually a pretty fun, atmospheric level, which is more than can be said for other Touhou stage 4s.

Assistant librarian midboss is pretty forgettable, but Patchouli Knowledge, the resident librarian and 100+ year old witch, is something else. Knowledge is power, so they say, but in this case, it's more like a brick wall--she is an absurdly huge jump over that stage 3 boss. The fact that Reimu B gets saddled with some of her hardest spellcards really doesn't help either. I guess in the world of Touhou, librarian trumps miko. With any luck, she'll get burned by a mob of angry villagers.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• EoSD
• Embodiment
• of
• Scarlet
• Devil
• Touhou
• Koumakyou
• 1cc
• Hard
• Clear
• stage
• Patchouli
• danmaku
• shmup

[wisefelipe]

This stage is what is fucking me up in normal mode now... I almost always reach it without bombing/dying, and then get owned during the stage and against Patchy (specially during the stage, weirdly enough)

And then, in the few times I get to Stage 5 with a sizable amount of lives remaining, Sakuya kicks my ass.. as MIDSTAGE BOSS.

I think only once or twice I even reached Sakuya at the end of the stage at all.... I will never see Remilia.

[JAGpnzr111]

@wisefelipe Stage 4 you just have to play a lot but once you've got it down Patchy should be the only real threat.

As seen here you can stay above midboss Sakuya on her opener and she should never touch you (you might have problems doing enough damage if you're using Marisa). Against the spellcard, just pick a side and stick to it, moving no more then necessary.

[regalstar]

Bury in Lake (especially on Hard) is really easy...

[JAGpnzr111]

@regalstar On average I would say it tends to screw you less than Princess Ondine, but in my experience both cards tend to be highly dependent on how Patchy decides to move.

[RealParadoxBlues]

Oh, so THAT'S what that TV Tropes "Difficulty Spike" picture is talking about...

Heh, and that pic had MARISA...

[wisefelipe]

@JAGpnzr111

I managed to beat the game in normal now, although i still can't do it in 1cc.

I almost never die during stage 4 anymore, except when I'm screwing around in the end against those rows after rows of crystals (sometimes I die trying to get all the scores, fixing that though).

Patchy is still a pain, I can sometimes capture all of her spells, and then the next time I die in every single one of them.

I actually have an easier time with Sakuya where i hardly die.

[TARDISES]

I guess Patchouli's illness weakened the non-directinoal laser. (I'm serious, BTW. Marisa gets 5 in IN, and she only copied it. 3 in bomb form, but they move far quicker and clear the screen of dakka.)

[Pooky1991]

Bullet hell!

[Algamyst]

"I kinda screwed it up"

*proceeds to dodge the entire pattern*