Mantatail's Mountain of Faith Speedrun Tutorial (For all skill levels)

The objective of Mountain of Faith (hereon abbreviated as MoF) is exceedingly simple, and is an excellent run for beginners that are attempting their first speedrun: shoot the bad guys. In the Touhou series, each stage is a sidescroller, but each boss fight can vary in length depending on your shot type, strategy, and skill level. In MoF, Marisa’s Illusion Laser shot type (hereon referred to as MarisaB) makes things much easier for everyone, including those who have never played Touhou before.

	MarisaB has a glitch where, if Marisa is between 3.00 and 3.95 power inclusive and unfocused, her shot is incredibly powerful and can do away with bosses in seconds. Combine MarisaB’s immense power with a well-timed bomb and bosses become cakewalks. The goal here, however, is to perfect said cakewalks.

[center]**The Controls**[/center]

	In order to make this run more accessible (especially if you haven’t downloaded the game’s English patch) I will include a section on the controls. If you have working knowledge of Touhou, please skip to The Run section.

	In the main menu, the z key is your ‘A’ button, the x key is your ‘B’ button, and the arrow keys select different options.

	In game, Movement is dictated by the arrow keys, which also allows for diagonal movement. (If you find you can’t do all the diagonal movements, your keyboard may have ghosting issues, and you may need to switch to a different keyboard. I use an external one myself.)

	Shooting is done by holding down the z key (This is also used to advance dialogue in interactions, but we won’t be needing it for that, see below).

	Focusing is activated by holding down the shift key. This slows your movement and shows your hitbox for more precise dodging. By holding z and shift, you can group your lasers while shooting. Given that MarisaB’s shot glitch only works when we’re unfocused, we won’t make much use of this outside of avoiding death.

	Bombs are triggered with the x key and use 1.00 power per bomb (More on power in the mechanics section).

	Skipping Dialogue is done by holding down the ctrl key. You’ll lose a lot of time if you mash z instead.

[center]**Mechanics**[/center]

	To start off, if your hitbox comes into contact with a bullet’s hitbox, your will ‘miss’ and lose a life. This is time consuming, but it can come in handy, as every time you die, you spawn at least 3.00 power (below). If you have more than 3.00 power, you’ll drop what you had when you die. In addition, if you bomb right as you die (you should hear the dreaded ‘pewww’ sound) you can perform a more advanced technique known as a deathbomb. This will not only save you, but also validate your feeling that YES, you DID need to use that bomb. This has no other effect than making you feel cool.

	In MoF, there are four types of items, represented by either rounded squares or stars.

	The first item is power, a small to medium size red block with a P on it. Each small block increases your power by 0.05, and each medium one increases it by 1.00. Your maximum power is 5.00.

	The second item is called a point item. These are used to increase your score, with the points dictated by how high up the screen you are when you collect them, with higher being more points. Although we’re not going for score, it’s a good idea to try and collect them, as you receive extra lives at 20, 40, 80, and 150 million points. In order to maximize their value, you can also collect faith (below) and collect the items by going above the collection line (below). Point items with a yellow border will always be collected at maximum value, regardless of your height.

	The third item is called faith. For the most part, it doesn’t play a very vital point in runs. Its only use is to temporarily increase the maximum value of the point items. It comes in small orbs and large stars. You can keep track of your faith by monitoring the bar in the bottom left corner and shooting enemies to refill it. But again, faith really doesn’t do anything for you here.

	The fourth item is a 1-Up, which is a medium pink square. It gives you an extra life. Always good!

	The collection line is a line shown at the start of stage 1, about the height of the player’s life count. By travelling to that line or above it, you can collect all items currently on screen, and this will maximize your point item values.
 
	Lastly, a health bar will be shown at the top of the screen if you are fighting a boss. White bars are referred to as ‘non-spells’, while pink/red bars are referred to as ‘spellcards’. Non-spells are generally easier, and will take up very little time in comparison to spellcards. If you make it through a spellcard without bombing or dying, you will ‘capture’ it and be awarded a point bonus. Regardless of capture, the boss will still drop items (if they drop any at all).

[center]**The Run**[/center]

	Finally!

	You want to pick start game, then normal, then Marisa, then her second shot type, her ‘Illusion Laser’. As soon as you select the shot type, the run begins, so get ready!

	In **stage 1**, there are two main enemies: The midboss Shizuha, and the boss Minoriko. I’ll consolidate their data as follows:

Shizuha
1st Non-Spell: 0.10 power dropped.
2nd Non-Spell: 1.25 power dropped.

	I will be abbreviating these as Non-Spell (NS), Spell Card (SC) and power (P).

	(Here, you might think ‘I don’t have enough power to kill her yet!’ or ‘hey, if I die, I can get the power I need!’ Unfortunately, neither of these matter. Midbosses don’t affect the length of the stages. If you kill Shizuha quickly, there is a backup script which will summon annoying fairies that shoot small bullets until a musical cue sounds and two larger fairies show up. If you kill her slowly, she’ll time out and you’ll see the same two large fairies appear. The only thing that matters is the power and the 1-ups they drop.)

Minoriko
NS 1: 0.00 P & (4.70-4.95 P)
SC 1: 0.30 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P &
SC 2: 0.00 P I(s)

As you can see, Minoriko doesn’t leave much room for error. Because she only drops a total of 0.30 P, you end up really needing to budget your bombs here—not that you use many. You can use a maximum of 2 bombs—one coming into NS 1, and one coming into NS 2. Sections where you should use a bomb are marked with an ampersand, and the first bomb will be denoted with what power level you should have before entering the fight. In this case, since Minoriko drops 0.30 P, you should come in with 4.70-4.95 P. That way, when you use your first bomb, you’ll drop to 3.70-3.95 P, triggering the glitch and obliterating NS 1 and SC 1. Then, when she drops the 0.30 P, you don’t even need to collect it. Simply bomb her (2.70-2.95 P), and the power items will fly to you (3.00-3.25 P) which triggers the glitch again.

One thing that needs to be noted is that bosses aren’t always vulnerable. In Minoriko’s SC 2, she takes no damage until she stops moving, so time your bomb well. If you’re confused, watch Chromatrope’s run, and look at her health bar as she moves into SC 2. I’ll denote fights where this occurs using a capital I, followed by a qualifier of how long this invincibility lasts: (s)hort, (m)edium, (l)ong, or (o)ther. You’ll get a feel for this kind of thing with enough practice.

This sounds complicated, but I promise you’ll get it in time! Rome wasn’t spedrun in a day. Spedrun? Speedrunned? Eh.
A good time for stage 1 is 1:40 or below. (these times are based off of personal experience and Chromatrope’s run times)

[center]**Stage 2**[/center]

Midboss (???)
SC 1: 1.30 P

Hina Kagiyama (Oh, that’s who that was)
NS 1: 0.00 P & (4.70-4.95 P)
SC 1: 0.30 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P
SC 2: 0.00 P & I(s)
SC 3: 0.00 P I(s)

	Hina, like Minoriko, is pretty stingy in her boss fight. Dropping only 0.30 P, that means you need to stock up before entering. In order to pull off the bomb in SC 2 without losing time, let the items from SC 1 fall to you as opposed to moving to pick them up. By the time they reach you, Hina will have moved from NS 2 to SC 2, and you can bomb at the end of the small invincibility period.

	A good time for stage 2 is about 4:40-ish total.

[center]**Stage 3**[/center]

Cameo (???)
GAH! A Human?!: I(o) 0.00 P

Midboss (???)
SC 1: 0.30 P, 1-Up I(s) & (4.00-4.95 P)

Nitori Kawashiro (No camo now, huh?)
NS 1: 0.00 P & (4.85-4.95 P)
SC 1: 0.85 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P
SC 2: 0.30 P I(s) &
NS 3: 0.00 P &
SC 3: 0.00 P I(s)

	I(o): Cameo Nitori can’t be damaged, it’s just a fun cutscene. Don’t waste a bomb here.

	Be careful with midboss Nitori, as her figure will swoop in on the left side, and then become active and vulnerable in the usual dead-center location. She is not vulnerable during this, so don’t careen off to the left.

	Bomb budgeting is awful tight here. You need to be in that upper range sweet spot—and you need to make sure you don’t cap out at 5.00 P. If you do that, your bomb/shot combo will be less effective on your first bomb, since you won’t be triggering the glitch. Otherwise, Nitori is fairly easy and should go down with no issue.

	A good time for stage 3 is about 6:10ish total.
	
	Now the real hell begins.

[center]**Stage 4 (SHAMEIMARUUU)**[/center]

Momiji Inubashiri
NS 1: 0.00 P I(l)

Aya Shameimaru
NS 1: 0.00 P & (4.00-4.65)
SC 1: 1.30 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P
SC 2: 0.80 P I(l) &
NS 3: 0.00 P I(s)
SC 3: 0.00 P I(o)
SC 4: 0.00 P I(m) &

	This is the worst. The stage, the midboss, the BOSS for that matter, all conspire against you. Stage 4 will suck the lives out of you like a vacuum cleaner sucks up elastic objects: painfully and leaving you with a lot of regret.

	Momiji can be bombed if needed, it depends whether you feel more comfortable fighting her swirling bullets or the vertical torrent from the fairies.

	Aya is the big problem. Her many invincibility periods throw a wrench in the established flow. In the second card, she won’t become vulnerable until just before her second cycle. To bomb this card, let the items from SC 1 fall down to you, then unleash it as her first cycle of SC 2 is finishing.

	Take out NS 3 immediately, and only pick up the items once you’ve gotten to SC 3. Otherwise, you’ll have too much power to take her down efficiently.

	In SC 3, Aya uses ‘Illusory Dominance’, which is a survival card. You cannot damage her at all, and must outwait the timer. Do not bomb during this. It’s better to die than bomb in this card. Try to die near the end of the timer, as it will clear the screen of bullets.

	For SC 4, bomb slightly before the invincibility period is over to get rid of those pesky bullets and start the damage torrent off right. With this, Aya is finished. Hell is over.

	Now comes Heaven.

	(A good time for stage 4 is around 9:25 total).

[center]**Stage 5**[/center]

Sanae Kochiya (Midboss)
NS 1: 0.00 P I(l) & (4.00-4.95 P)
SC 1: 1.00 P, 1-Up I(l) 

Sanae Kochiya (Boss)
NS 1: 0.00 P I(l) & (4.60-4.95 P)
SC 1: 0.80 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P
SC 2: 0.60 P &
NS 3: 0.00 P &
SC 3: 0.00 P
SC 4: 0.00 P I(m)

	In stark contrast to stage 4’s seemingly random bulletspam, stage 5 takes on a much more geometric approach, allowing you to more easily memorize the patterns. Most of the stage is a streaming attack aimed at your position, followed by a consistent geometric pattern of bullets. With enough practice, you should be able to do this no sweat.

	Sanae’s spells are easy as well, and don’t require any fancy dodging like Aya’s. It’s important to note, however, that for her midboss NS 1, she won’t take damage until the star is finished.

	With Sanae’s boss fight, this also applies—up until the stars split, she’s invincible. Given her otherwise uninterrupted flow, this can really ruin a run if you bomb too early, and end up not hurting her at all with it.

	Like earlier, after Sanae ends SC 1, wait for the items to fall to you while taking out NS 2 so you can bomb SC 2. The only random part of this fight is SC 2, where she can move in any direction. However, since you’re bombing it, it doesn’t matter much.

	With that, we move on to the last stage.
	A good time for stage 5 is around 12:00 total.

[center]**Stage 6 (you made it!)**[/center]

Kanako Yasaka (See addendum)
NS 1: 0.00 P I(m) & %% (4.35-4.95 P)
SC 1: 0.85 P I(s)
NS 2: 0.00 P I(l) &
SC 2: 0.80 P I(s)
NS 3: 0.00 P
SC 3: 1.00 P I(s) & %
NS 4: 0.00 P & %
SC 4: TOO MANY P I(s)
SC 5: 0.00 P I(s)

	Stage 6 should be a breeze. The enemies basically only use streaming attacks, even the circles—there’s one bullet centered on your position, and all others are based off of it, so you can sidestep everything… or bomb it. There’s so many powerups here, it’s okay to have a little fun, especially with the relatively enormous power range we have going into the boss battle.

	(Note: there’s no midboss, but the fairy at the end will drop upwards of 2.00 P)

	Kanako starts out with, unfortunately, some RNG. After NS 1, Kanako will begin SC 1, ‘expanded onbashira’, and shortly move left or move up. You want to pray for up, because if she dodges off to the left, you will need at least 2 cycles to kill her, as the ‘onbashira’ will push you out of her range. **Addendum:** the RNG can be avoided by instead going into Kanako with 5.00 power, picking up the powerups that the final fairy drops. The alternate run is listed using % symbols. I'm not sure how extensively this affects your overall time, but it should at the very least provide more consistent runs.

	NS 2 is a breeze with the bomb, but SC 2 is less kind—and more RNG! ‘God’s Rice Porridge’ is deceptively simple—Kanako will fire two circles of large bullets which will suddenly become small and slow. You need to survive about 2.5 cycles of this, but it can be hard since you’re unfocused and susceptible to dying.

	Once SC 2 finishes, take out NS 3 before proceeding to SC 3, then collect the items as we have done before. Then you can bomb it efficiently.

	This is very important: bomb NS 4 as soon as possible. Kanako usually becomes invincible, fires a barrage of bullets, and then becomes vulnerable before cycling through the same process with two other shot types. If you let this happen at all, you lose a lot of time, so kill her as fast as possible.

	SC 4 is fun and easy—just step slightly to the left as you finish up. Do not grab the items at all. There are way too many, and it will put you above 3.95 P, and we don’t want that for SC 5. 

	SC 5 is my favorite card, but also one of the most difficult. You can’t bomb your way through this one, as it will make her invincible (all stage 6 final spells do this), so you want to stay in the 3.00-3.95 P range coming in. Staying unfocused and under her can be hard, as the amulet bullets will conspire to block you. I recommend running this stage a LOT beforehand. ‘Mountain of Faith’ (the spellcard, not the game) is meant to be extraordinarily difficult, and you not focusing means there’s a lot less room for error as you zip around the screen.

	When you succeed, you will hear an explosion—this is the time to get your stopwatch or other timing device ready. When you hear a second explosion, the run is over. Kanako will be beaten, and you’ll be home free.

	The current rules at the time of writing dictate that the time lasts from shot select to Kanako’s explosion, but for times very close to that of 1st place, times will be measured from the last frame of the loading graphic disappearing in stage 1 to the first frame of the spellcard bonus text appearing after Kanako’s battle.

	That brings us to the end of the run! Good job! If you’re still getting times longer than you would like, just keep at it!
	A good overall time is anywhere less than 14:20. (At the time of writing, that’s my own fastest run.)

[center]**Tips and Tricks**[/center]

	Basically every switch to an attack has a small invincibility period, but non-spells usually don’t take as long to set up—keep that in mind.

	You can avoid a lot of bullets in the first few stages by killing every enemy before they have the chance to fire anything. This makes everything a little smoother to get through.

	Dying doesn’t matter much, except if you start running out of lives or if you die during a boss fight. For instance, dying in the middle of stage 5 doesn’t affect much, as the stages are mostly sidescrollers. The part where it does matter is situations like Aya’s boss fight, where the risk is much higher and the consequences a bit more drastic.

	By moving upwards while shooting, you can increase your damage dealt. However, if you move back down, you cancel out this effect. A good strategy would be to move upwards as a boss is vulnerable, then use the small invincibility period during a NS/SC switch to move back down, and repeat.

	If you’re having trouble with stage 5 and 6, streaming attacks can be avoided by repeatedly making small movements to the right or left. If you are about to hit a wall, move quickly to the side, then reverse direction with small taps.

	If you’re having trouble with stage 4 (as I do, every day of my life) there’s a practice mode that will allow you to retry only that stage as many times as you like. The hardest parts are probably the crows and Illusory Dominance, by the nature of their scattered bullets.

	If you find yourself under 3 power and you’re about to come up on a boss, you can kill yourself to spawn 3.00 P, so long as you have an extra life. This will at the very least ensure you have the glitch active, although you may not be able to follow the proposed bomb schedule.

	If you find yourself at 5 power, get rid of it sooner rather than later. Bombing with 5 power drops you down to 4 power, and while it does a lot of damage, bombing into the MarisaB glitch range is much more effective.

	Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment! 

[center]**Special Thanks**[/center]

	A big shout out (or shootout?) to Chromatrope, whose run this is based off of, along with my own personal experience. Amazing run, and following this technique, I cut my time down a lot!

	Shootout to Hexadeathimal, who is the reason I ended up writing this guide—after all, if we want more Touhou speedrunners, what better way than to make it more accessible?

	Lastly, a 1-Up and a shootout to ZUN for making my favorite game series in the world. May all your runs be 1cc!

	**Good luck, runners!**

mantatail

Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith

Nylilsa

R_ayu

spicalaz

SK_th

JPN / NTSC

Reimu A

Reimu B

Reimu C

Marisa A

Marisa B

Marisa C

Non-Marisa B

Shot type

Touhou

touhou speedrun discord server

Autosplitter

Would you approve of a split between Marisa B and other shot type runs?

New Lunatic Record

rocketpineapple's normal run.

New time start proposal

CrystalChaos

5paceToast

Local

FlanFlam

Waveracer

a_normal_pigeon