Lunatic mode notes
Since I'm playing through it now, I thought these might be helpful for other players. I used Marisa + Patchouli, so your strategies might change.
General changes:
- All enemies are a lot more aggressive, expect to be comboed for a major part of your health, even by normal enemies.
- General damage boost.
- If an enemy lands on the ground (exception being downward smashes, the initial crash does not count) they will recover and become invulnerable for a short while. Bosses return to their shielded state. This makes juggling absolutely crucial. Infact, bosses can recover even during their fall if you do not combo them immediately.
- You get one continue.
- Enemy attack changes. For example, the keyboard spirit now has three ghosts, the thunderfluffs from 5-x shoot 3 bolts, the orange fluff's fire travels on the ground etc. Be vary of this.
Notes:
- Do not be afraid to use your spellcards left and right. Many normal enemies can get incredibly annoying. Do note that for example, the red maids from 4-x are truly invulnerable while cleaning.
- Ambush mode restores health, Down+S resurrects. Remember this. It's perfectly viable later on to have on character on constant ambush and just switch to refill health.
- Switching in general is very useful for dodging attacks.
- Learn your combos. Marisa's attack chain combos into Patchu's which can be continued with the light rain (236+A) for example.
- For all stages, you should play this for survival, not for style.
- Punching all enemies to the lowest floor and then abusing specials to slowly pick them off is also very reasonable.
Team Notes:
Marisa/Patchouli
- Excellent for playing keep-away.
- Quite powerful, decently chainable.
- Marisa's dash is wonderful.
- Ending the first combo with an upwards smash, then the sideways smash and then Patchu's light rain works nicely for example.
Stage/Boss specific
Stages 1-X
Nothing really dangerous, just keep in mind that the blue fairies are more aggressive than on other difficulties and WILL be a bother.
Stage 1-4
The flower fairy can block attacks from the front. That includes all attacks save for spellcards. Alternatively, lure her into attacking and then get into her back. Try to get the blue fairies elsewhere first though or they might get in the way.
Stage 1-5 Boss
- Shiki's first attack is mostly easily beaten by having a character on ambush on the other side or by timing Marisa's broom dash. Just don't forget about the middle attack.
- Shiki's second basically means that you stay on the middle platform after dodging the first bullets, then dash through the lasers for a smacking.
- Shiki's third is easy too. Stay under the platform and dash into the coin rings or jump over Komachi's strikes. You have to knock Komachi out (one normal combo is enough) to get Shiki vulnerable. Do mind that you should wait until the rain has subsided entirely before attacking her. Patchouli can attack Komachi out of the rings and shorten this quite nicely.
Stages 2-X
The red rabbits will try to sneak up on you and smash you hard. Always be prepared to interrupt your combos to dodge them. The blue ones' projectiles go over the entire screen. In addition, they can follow you. This should make rabbits the priority target. You will also see fire fluffs here. They can attack faster than you think and the fire can travel, be very wary of them too.
Stage 1-4 The mid-boss is a red fluff that can zoom over an entire window's length. Just stay one floor below or above them and rain down specials.
Stage 1-5 Boss
- Mokou/Kaguya first: Go behind Kaguya, close to the wall. Then dash into the circle. Now you only need to keep dashing until you get an opening. Easy. You can also just smack Kaguya over and hit both with Patchu's 236+A.
- Mokou/Kaguya second: Stay behind Kaguya, hit when applicable.
- Mokou/Kaguya third: You can hit Kaguya and make Mokou hit her, but that's not really safe. Just jump up since Mokou hits the entire floor, then smack them around.
- Mokou/Kaguya fourth: You can try to hit them during the circular motion, but Mokou's firebird seems to hit before it really arrives. The lower left corner is save for a good part of the time. Patchu's spellcard is pretty good here.
Stages 3-x