The Tao of Danmaku Expanded Edition

"If you don't know what to do after you read this, there's probably something wrong with you"
- Theresa, Holder of 2 1ccs, "The Summit" and the 2nd Highest Blue Revolver Normal score, for a girl.

The Start

Welcome back padawan, it's part three! We're on location at DFK today! Did you see that sick art Pear made? Nice, very nice Pear!

Warning! This is a long read, you want some tunes?

I think it's fitting. Thank you, Beícoli, you're always an inspiration. Right click to loop.
Shout out to FIsh, you're a great pal.
It took more than just me to write this, I want you to know that.

"I like it, very fun emotionally inspirational structure lol" - Kiwi, Blue Revolver Superplayer, overall cool dude.

Today, by request, I’m going to go over my process for getting a clear. I never thought we’d be writing this, I mean I have a method, I just never thought it was different enough to matter. But when I sat down to really think about it, yes, there is a certain method to getting a clear as fast as possible. Should you be targeting that? Does one need to smell flowers, faster more efficiently? I’ll not here to answer that. I’m here to answer how to beat a game, because it’s necessary.

"Damn that was a great read, inspirational for me as a beginner." - Pear, beat Blue Revolver on Normal, My favourite padawan

Listen, the first thing you need to do and we talk about this a lot around here. Is pick the right game! If you’re new here, I don’t want to see you playing Batrider! You need to work up to this, no wonder you can’t 1cc anything when you’re picking games that would take me a month to clear. I don’t blame a lot of you guys. If you don’t know, you don’t know. But what should you be playing then? I never really wanted to make that call for you, It’s not my intention, but we will be looking at a list of games later I DO think are good in the beginning, and I’m not going to use some other guy’s info, it’s my list of games that I played when I started, and a few new ones I wish were out back then. I'm also going to give you a method you can use to decide if a game is right for you, so you won't even need lists or rankings anymore.

My handle is DKL, and I'm here to talk to you about the one credit clear. I have many of them, and I want you to get a lot of them too! Come along, as I proudly present to you, the now expanded, Tao of Danmaku!

The Fliter

They tell you they want you to shine, just not as bright as them!

There are people out there, that will lie to you, be false to you. The kind of person that will just ghost you, when they are a fifty year old man; all over which games you do and do not like! Stay away from these people! They will infect you, they will infect your play and prevent the path! Mind your company! Those that mind, do not matter; those that matter, do not mind. Hanging around losers will infect you! You’ll never see it coming! It’s a slow rot. They will tell you that ok, ok to never try, ok to never get better, they will mock the 'get gud' idea, telling you you're already good enough.

Good is not enough! Above average even less so! You can rise above! It may be too late for some of you, but for the rest.... remember, good is not enough!

Are you learning these lessons just to look cool? Just to be accepted? To show off? Stop reading my stuff and just get lost.

This is about self improvement! A path of focus that, can, and, will, help you! I’m naming no names, but they are out there, and for each and every one of them, my life to give! Learn from me to hurt me, my art or my students? Karma bro.

Be careful with these tools. Use them the right way, practice honor, always, on screen and off. If you’re the kind of person that thinks this is advanced knowledge, you are wrong. It’s a very basic message, one of Focus!

I'll spell it out for you! Do not read this if you are: cocky, false, lazy, a loser, etc. It might hurt you, and we wouldn't want that.

The lions shouldn’t care what the sheep think anyway...

Be a lion, be a sheep.
Choose, either down or back, make your decision and be on your way.

The Purity

You may have guessed this isn't just some game, it’s more like a sport or meditation. You need to treat it with respect, the developers and the games. Come correct, come clean, no TASs, no splices, don’t be false, don’t lie or cheat. Play with honor, play with intention, play to make a statement, do not just noodle around! You’re in the church of Danmaku, this isn’t a dopamine box. You’re at the hall of the gods, keep your nose clean, it’s a small scene, and we need to take care of it. Is STG dead? Does it really matter? If you only wish to play what is popular, why are you reading this? You are not in the right place, not all games are for all people! There’s plenty of places to go if you don’t want to try. Plenty of games to play that will just hand you your win, decide if that’s important to you.

When you sit down to play, you must always aim to get better, not just to giggle and look at the nice colors. I thought that was a universal, that all players did this, man, I was so wrong.

Are you getting further than yesterday? Is your score going up? Finally beat that boss? Why not? You must care about your art! You must play with intention! Can that intention be just to noodle? Yes! But it will not make clears. You are owed nothing. The game sets the terms of your battleground on which you will die and maybe triumph upon, you have no say in this, other than to pick a different game. You can fight this forever, but I rather you fight the TLB. Don’t be that guy that just does this for clout, the kind of guy that wants everything to be a bullethell just so they can say they beat one. Don’t post cheated super easy Garegga clears on Youtube, good players know, and you look like a moron. It’s getting of the 1cc that matters, not having the 1cc. The struggle is only reason to do anything at all.

This is not fun giggle time, this is real playing time.

The Quickness

The first step to not wasting a bunch of time is to play the tutorial. Yes, the vast majority of Danmaku is similar, no, you don’t know how to play it, start the tutorial. Game doesn’t have a tutorial? Don’t know why you’re doing that to yourself, check Youtube. It only takes us to miss one gameplay mechanic, then the task might be impossible. If you’re reading this and you have a few clears and the game you’re playing seems impossible, you’re missing something. If you don’t have any clears, you can’t make this judgment call. Ask around, ask me, but I think if you feel that way, play an easier game. Earn your pride, there are no hand outs.

Next, and this also takes practice. Pick the right ship type. Normally, if you’re going in blind pick something with homing or a really wide shot. When you get a bit better you can start taking more laser focused ships with higher speed. Most of the time wide and homing are really weak, and you don’t want to be weak. Every second it takes you to kill a boss is another second that boss has to shoot you! You want maximum firepower and the fastest ship you can get your hands on, but if those hands aren’t honed what’s the point? Pick slow powerful ships when you’re starting out, work your way to concentrated power and speed later. If bosses are the problem, increase power, if the stages are, increase screen coverage.

The Fluff

Don’t think too much, don’t think at all while playing. That’s the true meditation aspect of Danmaku. Don’t be thinking “where's the boss?” “what’s going on?” “what should I do?” No, no, none of that. You just shoot and dodge, shoot and dodge, sometimes you need more than that, but most of the time, shoot and dodge. It’s just you, the bullets and the tunes. Backgrounds? Fluff. Storytelling? Fluff. Hyper intense scoring mechanics? Fluff, all fluff. Just you and the bullets. Just you and the ever encroaching end of the game. Forward progress, never backwards or sideways. The best advice I ever got was a Japanese bro telling me, “Head Empty, Play Strong.” Try this, really try this. Focus in a world that has none! If you have 90 hours in RagingBlasters and no clear? Focus my friend. Why are you not clearing? What is wrong? Ask these questions!!

Focus

Intention

Determination

Just because you bought a game. Doesn’t mean you must finish it, that’s called the sunk cost fallacy. If you’re buying more games than you finish, focus! Too many buy something and think they must, that’s wrong, you bought a bad game. Refunding a lot? Relax, slow down. Take your breaks, clean your plate, eat your vegetables. Take your time, but make your time worth it! We only have so much...

The Break

Take breaks. Every hour, every day, every week, and so on. It takes a lot out of you to play at this level! Your hands will thank you. Drink lots of water, don’t stay up too late, happens to all of us. Are you playing to be seen? To get your subscriber count up? That will always infect your play. It’s okay, but when we divide our attention, our focus, we lose a bit of ourselves. You must play to play the game, not for any other reason. Just you and the bullets. You and the soundtrack. Not what your friends want, not what they tell you should want, what you want! Don’t want to play? Don’t! Feel nothing? Don’t. You will know when the time is right to play! Frustrations are a ‘you’ problem, you let it get like this. Now what will you do?

Focus! Don’t move on and buy another game, focus on your plate. True love, true dedication, that’s what the developers want from us! Why would you make a game you wanted no one to play? Got to say, it happens everyday. Every mintue, there’s more and more garbage on Steam, sent to us by misguided love! Awful Shmups and shooters, made by people that have no idea what a 1cc even is! Riding on the coattails of a lifetime of name dropping and ‘Inclusivity’. Every release, 100%, no wrong can be done! And if someone would step out of line, The Jester award for you, good sir! This is wrong and will not help you find the games you need to play to better yourself.

Know when to quit. Playing trash? Quit.

Quit acting like every game is great in this shmuptopia! Just because something comes out in an era where this happens faster and faster, doesn’t mean you have to play it. It’s not about money, it’s about time! You can not buy me with bad graphics and lack of arcade modes! Find out what a good game is, I’m not going to tell you, you figure it out! You set the limit for what is and isn’t worth your time. Stop listening to everyone, listen to your own heart! Don’t like it? Don’t play it! You need no reason.

The Control

Another note on those hands of yours, let’s talk about controllers. No, an arcade stick will not make you a better player. If you like stick, great, I have no problems with that, if you like pad, great. You like keyboard? Also, great. If you have played games your whole life and are now just learning about the path. Should you really change from what you were using? Are there differences between controllers? Oh yes, but that’s for another time, don’t get hung up on this. Just use what you’ve been using. There’s no input method on earth that’ll fix a scrub mindset. Play the game, and unless your control option is an analog stick, you should be fine. I’m not saying there are not bad STG controllers, there are, but way too many people think equipment will cover skill.

You’re a big boy, and I don’t need to tell you A shoots or B bombs. You should’ve looked that up already, I’m serious. If you want to make gains really fast, find a player or youtuber that’s close to your skill level. Do what he does, use their replays. If you don’t understand something try the STG Wiki[shmups.wiki] Read the old posts on System 11.[shmups.system11.org]. Getting to the meat of the game, understanding the mechanics right away, that’ll save you a lot of time. There are so many great people out there, writing guides, making videos, often it can be really hard to find, but that information will be of great use to you. I’m not going to give you a list of creators and players, you find them. I want you to to find the right people, not whom I think are correct.

The Dodge

Don’t move so much while dodging, try not to dodge while a bullet is passing your left or right. Don’t waste your movement, be in the right place at the right time! If you don’t know where that is, go to the neutral position, about a quarter up on the screen, center. If you’re a little better, let’s try half way up, center. Don’t run circles around the screen, it’s a waste of energy. While we’re at it, don’t go through bullets, go around. You need to be at a spot that kills to the enemies as fast as possible. Dead enemies can not and will not shoot you! This goes a long way for your survival. Have you tried bullet sealing? Get really close to the enemy, they shouldn’t shoot you, if they do, might want to pick a better game. Figure out if you do more damage up close, if you do, get close. As I said before, don’t graze bullets if you don’t have to.

Grazing is the art of having a bullet in your sprite but not in your hit box, it's very dangerous and lots of Danmaku games have graze mechanics, you’ll have no choice then, otherwise you stay away from bullets. Herd them, stream them, get them to fire backwards, whatever it takes, try not to micro dodge, get away from bullets. Are the bullets aimed at you? Are they a static pattern that’s always the same? Pay attention to what is going on around you, if it’s too fast or too intense, use replays, your own or someone else’s.

Herding is the the art of having the enemies shoot somewhere you were, then changing position so you are now safe where the bullets are not. Gunvein has a nice tutorial that covers the subject if you'd like something a little more hands on.

Streaming is just taking this one step further. A bunch of little dodges are preformed, generally on the bottom of the screen, that keeps changing your position so that aimed bullets can never hit you. If you get to the other side of the screen, you'll run of room and you'll have to make a cut back to the other direction, this very dangerous. From the corner of the screen, go up a little bit, go back down, then back the direction you came from. You're not going to get this overnight, and we'll cover it more in the future, maybe with some nice gifs.

The Practice

Use stage select, if you’re emulating, use save states, use both. You are busy, you have a job! You are not a kid anymore, you might have a family, but should you just give up on your dreams because of that? No! You don’t have time to play whole credits each and every time. I think you should put in a full credit everyday, but unless there’s a hope in hell you clear, what’s really the point? Make sure you’ve practiced the trouble spots, every time you die somewhere, go to stage select and grind that part until you stop dying. If you can’t beat the stage five boss, most of the time you would have to play twenty minutes or more to take another crack at him. This adds up to a huge amount of play time if you aren’t able to beat him in a timely manner. If you want to play full credits, go for it, it’ll take a lot longer and you’ll get fewer clears.

There was a show with more bullets, he commented "other than practice, what other advice can you give me?" None, there is none. There is no magic bullet, no easy way out! If you are trying to get out of practice, you're really missing the point here. It's not the clear that's good for you, it's the getting of that clear! All the things you need to do to get the 1cc, that's what is important! No wonder he unsubbed, lol, rub a dub dub, don't be a scrub, bub.

The Bomb

There are two kinds of people, one that dies with all their bombs, and one that know the waste of this. There are two kinds of bombs, the planned offensive bomb is good, the other, the defensive panic bomb, not so much. Try to hold one bomb in reserve, for when you're really scared.

"Plan for offensive bombs, but if you make a mistake and are about to die don't hesitate to act. The point of bombing is to save your life, so if you die by holding onto your bombs to strictly adhere to a bomb route then you have defeated the point."- Kiwi

If you’re the kind of player that’s trying to hit counter bomb windows, why? Would not it be better to never even need to make that gamble? Do you know how small a 50ms window is? It’s 2.9994 frames at 60 fps. Have fun hitting that on the regular. If you’re bombing after you get shot, that’s too slow. Learn where you need to bomb, don’t like a certain part of the game? Bomb it! Can’t figure out a certain boss phase? Bomb it! We’re aren’t going for the world record here, we going for the clear. Dying because you think you’re better than you are, and losing valuable supplies in the process, will not help your survival.

The Feeder

There is a time and place for credit feeding. When you’re first checking out a game, if you get around a 10cc or less, try to clear. If you get more, a 20 or +30cc, aim lower, you’re not ready for whatever game you’re playing. Remember that not all games are for all people, this lesson is lost today. If you’re putting in full credits after you’ve done your stage practice but can’t quite beat the last boss? feed it. If your goal is to beat the stage four boss and you didn’t quite get there, feed it. Feeding doesn’t have to be a dirty word, but make sure you never confuse clearing a game and feeding it; or as I see a lot on Youtube, the “full playthough” and the “1cc”.

Likewise easy mode isn’t always, but is very often a dirty word. Easy modes by and large teach bad habits and are not a true representation of the game. What’s really the point of easy mode? To make you feel better? So you can say you “beat the game”? It’s a diet flavoured victory, It’s not for training purposes, how could it be? It’s not the developer’s intention, why would ZUN code bullet patterns he doesn’t want you to see? You want to see a good easy mode? Watch this It’s like normal mode, but the routing for survival and scoring maintain, you still fight the TLB. If you don’t beat the True Last Boss, you didn’t clear. The default difficulty, the one that the cursor starts on, that’s the developer’s intention, that’s the difficulty you play to claim the 1cc, regardless of it’s name.

The true clear of a game is the default settings, those are the rules, keeps everything nice and even.

The Clear

Been asked a lot so here it is, the method I use to clear,

Keep in mind the method I’m going to outline, is not what I would recommend to you, or something that I really sat down and came up with, It just sort of happened. I never thought we’d be speed-running clears, and I didn’t think until too not too long ago that this was so abnormal, I thought lots of high level players were getting clears every three days or less when they were trying. You do you, and take as long as you like.

1. If you want to clear fast, you have to pick the right games. No Ketsui 2-ALL over the weekend. Often I’m surprised at how easy some of today’s STG are, and disappointing too. The first game I accidentally beat was Drainus, since then it’s happened a total of nine times. “I should just check out this game, oops 1cc” there is no method needed in that case.

2. The sub-genre matters a lot. I clear Danmaku games way faster than most anything Konami ever made. Five stages versus ten of course takes less time to learn. Plus I’m just better at Danmaku than the old DADD (Destroy All Don’t Die) Shmups, I play them way more. I stay away from certain companies for certain reasons, I don’t play 3D Shmups seriously, I can never get the hit-boxes right. I have good game sense after years of playing, this helps you understand where enemies will come from, even if you’ve never played it before. It’s always the same, there’s only so many patterns.

3. I play a credit for each ship. Finding a ship that matches my play style can cut hours of time off a clear. If I can’t get that, then I need the best ship for the game, not the best for scoring, the easiest to use for my skill set. Some games have ships that are crazy overpowered, finding them will go a long way to quick clear.

4. If there’s a mechanic that I can’t figure out, I look it up asap. Understanding how a game works is half the battle. If I’m really in a rush, I use replays.

5. I make heavy use of stage select, and save states if I can. Not wasting time playing to the spots I have problems with works wonders, highly recommend. If I don’t think I can can beat the last boss, I don’t play, I only train.

6. Very important! You need to have a reason to win, drive, determination. If I had nothing to prove, I wouldn’t push nearly as hard. This is my evidence, my reason, my proof that I’m better than I think I am. My goal is too get so many, and playing at a high level doing it, that even Jaimers can’t say I suck. But I have years of catching up to do. I need this speed, I have no choice. Winning isn’t an option, I must.

Playing a lot and having a high skill level clears games, there is nothing more. I can not just turn this on and off, when you're on fire clear games, when I'm not, I write guides. Don't follow this pace, go at your own speed, if you to want to grind, this is how, but make sure you GRIND. You are in, or you are out, you can not sit on the fence forever.

The Score

You can go way beyond the 1cc. It’s called playing for score. Found a game you love and never want to leave? Play it for score. In the very end, I think we all play for score. I fought against it for many years, I’ll admit. The 1cc is mighty nice, but being on the top ten is nicer. It’s beyond the scope of this guide, we’ll talk more about it in a future edition.

"When you try, when you put in effort, when you are earnest in [your] endeavours, you challenge those around you to do so too, to step up their game; their internal resistance manifests as outward insult, as criticism."- Spiders Andro Dunos II WR Holder

It doesn't matter what they think, have they grown? It's too hard to them, isn't it? You had to try a bit, didn’t you? Do you think it is worth it? Do you see how the ideas of trial and strife might be empowering? If you’re getting enough of that at work, good for you! But if you’re stuck in a dead end job, or your family doesn’t call you, or you’re all alone, TRY it. It’s much better than sitting around being lame all the time. I would rather try and fail, than stagger, wonder and question, what if?

Will you be a lifeless shadow, or the beacon that casts them?

The Sloth

Good is not enough. Finally scored your trophy and beat that game? Drink it in! Know that you are not done now, it never ends. You are not God’s gift to gaming because you cleared a STG. Complacency sets in quick, and is hard to recover from. There are higher heights and larger foes to take down! Bigger scores, badder games, how big do you want to grow that head of yours? Downstairs, not upstairs, but don’t become cocky, it’s as easy as complacency and just as much of a pain to remove.

How should you know how far to go? You’ll know, play games with leaderboards and then it’ll just straight out tell you. 40th place? Pretty good, 340th place? Might want to polish up that clear of yours; or don’t and move on to the next one, but always keep moving! Don’t sit on one or two accomplishments for your whole life, I see this quite a bit.

Watch out for has-beens that forgot about glory a long time ago.

It can be very hard to walk this path, to make this journey to nowhere but betterment. Take your breaks, we all do it, but never quit! Find a rival if you can, this can be hard today, and I don’t really have an answer to make it easier to do. I will warn you about discords, it’s easy to get trapped in the walled garden and it’s always tempting to chat rather than to play.

You don’t need to be playing Danmaku to be on the path, you just need to act with honor, play with intention, focus and study hard games. You can play easy games too, but you must never stop pushing the limit, breaking past whatever you think you can not do today! Do not hide your playtime on Steam, be proud of your art! Show them!

The List

So here we go, the list. Not some popular opinion, not some top ten, my list of what I think you should try as a beginner. There's no order here, just my honest thoughts. Not all are Danmaku, they don't need to be. A larger list is being worked on, but it's beyond the scope of this guide.

Danmaku Unlimited 2, This was my first 1cc. I don't even remember where I got this game from. It's a phone port and I fell in love with it back then. If you want to start where I did, this is the place. Sunny Tam made this game, I really respect him for starting me down the STG path. I'm out here, paying forward that love Sunny!

VARYZNEX, My notes say: "Good, easy, fun, slick, what I want in a STG." Ya I guess that sums it up, sounds good, plays good, give it a shot!

ASSAULT SHELL, A good game if you're looking to beat Crimzon Clover World EXplosion, or just play it to get better, I really like it.

DEVIL BLADE REBOOT, Looks sweet and easy to play! Many bombs and shields to help you out.

Demonizer, Good game, with homing options that take shots for you and fun mechanics overall. A recharging bomb, score extends and a really broken ship, make this pretty easy to beat.

Red Blue Cell, There used to be this game you could buy, Exceed 2nd (it was my 2nd), but they took it took down from all stores I could find, you can find it on doujinstyle.com Thankfully Red Blue is here to save the day! Ikaruga brings in many players, but this game they can actually beat.

Spacewing War, Are you really bad? Or you have a young one you want to start on the path? Play this, it's not great, but it's cute and super easy.

BLUE REVOLVER, Danbo made a wonderful game for you here, get a few clears before you buy, it was my third 1cc and it's the best on Steam. Just don't go into first, show it some love, come correct.

I really hope that's good enough. There's a lot of games out today, I miss so many.

The End

Before we close this out, I would like you to look at these beautiful lyrics from Beícoli,

We've been hearing stories 'bout a land you promised
A land you promised
We've been hearing stories 'bout the wonders we could find
If we look for them, hard enough
Hard enough are the dreams we have chosen
Hard enough are the things we've done
To cover for a lifetime
To cover for our sins
For the good we have done
At the end of the road
At the end of the road
Many words are written 'bout the ones who made it
The ones who made it
While you are asphyxiated
Like a rope around your neck
Saying you're not good enough
But we've done enough
To cover for a lifetime
To cover for our sins
For the good we have done
At the end of the road
At the end of the road
We've done enough and nothing else matters
At the end of the road
We've done enough and nothing else matters

This, this is the essence of the 1cc. Learn it, live it, it’s out there, my dear reader.

I'm not here to pretend I'm not a sinner,
Cause I am,
And that mirror regrets,
Every step that I take it reminds me, I’m not a hero.

Never forget! When blood and sweat is the real cost, thinking ceases, the truth is lost!

So how was it? Did this make you mad? I’m glad. I commend you for making it this far. Go home, shoo!

If it didn’t, you are every bit the man I hoped you were. Thank you so much for reading! Please, favorite and share this to someone that might need it. The next edition will come out faster if you show some love. Ask below if you need more help, add me if you want, for you have my respect. Don't be shy in your search of answers, remember to come back, you may have read it all but was it absorbed? Return whenever you falter, you are always welcome here. Know fear isn't the answer to your questions or quest!

Never give up! You'll always have me as your backup if you don't! I'll see you soon, as we walk the path --together.

-DKL

[myboiii]

goated long read

[dlupal]

Wow, very nice. Thank you.

[Medievalmaestro]

Amazing read. Truly the Tao of Danmaku.

[dlupal]

Welcome aboard.

[終]

Did I think this was pretentious? Maybe... Did I read it anyway? Surely. Did I get mad? Oh yes, I did. Did I realize I've proven your points and question myself? Heck yeah I did.

I'm just starting out with STG's / Shmups / Danmakus, even tho I always loved them. Recently I've been going for the route and this post gave me a great boost of motivation and made me rethink my perspective about these games, as well as others. Now it's time to get it down with just the right amount of pushing and discipline, like I always wanted to.

Thanks for the great post and keep up the great mindset!