Touhou Puppet Dance Performance Shard of Dreams Strategy Guide Version 1.0 PDF

Touhou Puppet Dance Performance: Shard of Dreams
Strategy Guide (Version 1.0)
By: Fuuya
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Legal Notice
III. How to Play
IV. Tips and Tricks
V. Main Walkthrough
1. Reality and Fantasy
2. Trip to the Human Village
3. The Puppet Liberation Front
4. The Second Incident Case
5. A Trip to the Forest of Magic
6. Lost in the Bamboo Forest
7. Side Quest Section 1
8. The Mansion of the Scarlet Devil
9. Intruders in the Kappa Hideout
11. Scaling Youkai Mountain
12. Descent from Youkai Mountain
14. Journey to the Underground
15. Fanning the Flames
16. Battle for Gensokyo’s Future
17. The Garden of the Sun
18. Return to Myouren Temple
19. Journey to Another World
20. Pandemonium
21. Little Sister
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22. Cherry Blossoms in the Netherworld
24. Old Enemies, New Friends
25. Inverted Castle in the Sky
26. Final Chapter: Truth Behind the Incident
VI. New Game Plus Preparation
VII. Spoiler-Free Walkthrough
VIII. Useful Puppets Section
IX. Special Thanks
I. Introduction
Hey hey, everyone! Welcome to my Strategy Guide for Touhou Puppet Dance Per-
formance: Shard of Dreams, which will hereafter be shortened to TPDP: SoD for
short. My name is Fuuya (Fuuya-151 from Reddit), and it’ll be my honor to walk
you through the entirety of TPDP: SoD’s Main and Expansion Storylines.
TPDP and its expansion, SoD, were both built from the ground up by FocasLens,
which wanted to make a true Pokemon-esque game for the Touhou series. Up until
TPDP came out, we had hacks of the earlier Pokemon games that replaced Poke-
mon with Touhou characters; these games were pretty fun, but still seemed to be
missing that special something which screamed you were playing a Touhou game.
FocasLens decided to correct that, and built TPDP from the ground up, modeling
the overworld maps based on the GBA Pokemon games, but completely redesign-
ing the battle system and storyline to have a far more Touhou feel. As a result,
TPDP really feels like you are playing a Touhou game, as you’re visiting various
famous Gensokyo locales, meeting iconic characters, and, of course, catching Pup-
pets based off of the Touhou characters to use in battle.
For those that have played the base game, you know that it was pretty good, if a bit
difficult and unpolished in spots. The Shard of Dreams expansion cleaned it up tre-
mendously, keeping the best parts while altering the worst parts, and added addi-
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tional areas to explore, an expansion storyline that runs concurrent to the base
game’s storyline, additional Puppets to catch, more and tougher Puppeteers to bat-
tle against, new Items to find, an additional type (Warped-type), and even an addi-
tional Style for every base Puppet in the game (Extra Style). Rather than simply an
expansion, you could think of it as a reimagining of TPDP. I personally think the
changes were great and made a fun game into a stellar one; in fact, it’s become my
favorite Pokemon game period, though I admit I’m a little biased.
I wrote this walkthrough in the hopes of helping you get the most out of TPDP:
SoD, regardless of whether you are a veteran to TPDP/ Pokemon games in general
or if this is all new to you but you want to give it a shot. Either way, I promise
you’ll get a lot of use out of this Strategy Guide, and hopefully have a lot of fun
doing it.
My biggest goal is that by the time you reach the end of the game, you’ll look back
at your journey and feel a bit sad that it’s over, but happy that you decided to give
this admittedly obscure game a shot. In short, I hope you fall in love with this
game the way I have.
II. Legal Notice
Every official guide needs to have one, but I’ll keep this short and sweet.
This Strategy Guide is only to be posted to the official TPDP wiki. Absolutely no
part of it should appear elsewhere; I reserve the right to request that it be taken
down should it be posted or hosted without my express permission. Yes, this
means YOU.
Of course, this Strategy Guide is copyright of myself, Fuuya. It has been written
for the express use of the Touhou community, and is entirely free to read and enjoy.
If you paid for this Strategy Guide in any way, you’ve been had.
I will always be happy to provide a downloadable copy of this guide on request, as

I understand the pain of living without Internet. Please contact me via my Reddit
username, Fuuya-151, if you are interested in a copy. Please do not share the copy
with others, and instead refer them to me if they are interested in a copy of their
own. Again, I am always happy to provide a copy upon request.
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III. How to Play
As a Pokemon-esque game, TPDP: SoD is an easy game to learn, but a hard game
to master. Veterans of Pokemon games or TPDP itself will probably find much of
this section review, as it’s tailored towards new players. Feel free to briefly skim
over it to find the few nuggets of information that could be of use to you, such as
the Puppets Submenu and the Edit option.
For all you new players out there, let’s start by looking at the controls.
Directional Keys（↑↓←→） Moves your character in the world or

your cursor in menus.
Z Key Confirm/Talk/Examine
X Key Cancel/Run (when held)
C Key Bicycle/Display
S Key Opens/Closes Menu
A Key Menu Navigation Tab to Left (Tool,
Puppet Box, Gap Map)
D Key Menu Navigation Tab to Right (Bag,
Puppet Box, Gap Map)
Space Key Bicycle/Display
Left Shift Key Sort Button (Bag, Puppet Box)
Double-clicking with the Left Mouse Button enlarges the game window, double-
clicking with the Right Mouse Button reduces it.
As you can see, the controls are simple, leaving you ample time to focus on more
important things, such as your character’s journey throughout Gensokyo. Your ul-
timate goal in this game is to get to the bottom of the Puppet Incident, which
caused a large number of magical Puppets (conveniently based on the various Tou-
hou characters) to appear all over Gensokyo and start causing havoc. In order to
accomplish this, you will need to become accustomed to using Puppets to protect
yourself from the various dangers you’ll encounter during your investigation (in-
cluding hungry Youkai who would love to have you as a snack!).
There are three main skills that you will need to master in order to successfully
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complete your journey: Overworld Travel, Menu Manipulation, and Combat.
Let’s cover them in three brief segments.
A. Overworld Travel
It seems simple enough, but if you can’t navigate through Gensokyo, your journey
won’t last very long...or perhaps it simply won’t end. Moving your character is as
simple as using your Directional Keys to walk around. Naturally, you’ll find peo-
ple to talk to, Items laying on the ground in the form of a red/white ball, and even
Items hidden inside of dressers, cabinets, pots, trees, etc. To talk to people, grab an
item, or search objects, simply press the Z Key.
You’ll be traveling through a variety of locations, including forests, caves, towns,

roads, and other locations, all of which are filled with Puppets to catch and Puppet-
eers to battle. To find Puppets, find patches of tall grass and walk through them; a
Puppet will soon jump out at you (covered later on in the Combat section). Puppet-
eers come in many forms (Fairies, Youkai, Humans, etc.), and usually will chal-
lenge you to a battle if they see you, though sometimes you’ll need to talk to them
in order to initiate a fight. Should you wish to avoid battle, don’t walk directly in
front of them (each Puppeteer has a different range at which they’ll spot you, but
usually it is about half a screen or so).
There will also be cases where your path is blocked, preventing you from advanc-
ing. In the case a cart is blocking the road, it means you’ll need to advance the
story in order to proceed; try talking to people and exploring the area for clues.
Other times, you’ll find small trees or water blocking your path, at which point
you’ll need to find the right tool to let you proceed. These are given through story
events, meaning you’ll need to return there later to explore what lies beyond.
These are often locations filled with new Puppeteers, Puppets, and Items, so don’t
be afraid to backtrack! The Strategy Guide will always detail these optional areas
in the Side Quest Sections.
B. Menu Manipulation
Want to change Puppets around? Perhaps use an item? Learn new Skills? All of
these require you to use the Menu, accessed by pressing the S Key. From there,
use the Directional Keys to highlight your desired Submenu, and then use the Z
Key to enter that Submenu. This will likely become second nature by the time you
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are a few hours into the game.
Let’s briefly go over the most important Submenus: Bag, Puppets, and Save. The
Bag Submenu is where all of your Items are kept, and are organized into Tools (pri-
marily Puppet Repellants and Money Items to sell), Heal (Items that recover your
Puppet’s Health, revive them, or remove a Status Effect), Hold 1/2 (Accessories
that you can put on your Puppets), Skills (Skill Cards, which are used to give Skills
to your Puppets that they may not normally learn), Battle (Items for battle, primar-
ily Threads to catch wild Puppets and Plain Dolls to escape battles), and Key
(Items that are necessary for your adventure or for Side Quests, though normally
you wouldn’t need to access this tab). To automatically sort any of these tabs, sim-
ply use the Left Shift Key to do so.
The Puppets Submenu is where you’ll find everything you need to monitor your
Puppets. At a glance, you can see Health totals, if they’re using an Accessory, and
if they are KO’d or have another Status Effect. By using the Z Key, you can then
choose from a variety of options, such as giving or taking an Accessory, swapping
battle positions, looking at their in-depth information, and editing their Skills or
Stats through use of Power Points (PP) and Skill Cards.
The Edit option is key to boosting your Puppets’ growth, so let’s go over that
quickly. By choosing the Edit option, you’ll enter another menu, allowing you to
use PP earned from battles to boost their Stats by up to 130 total points (64 max
per Stat, and is a gradual boost that takes effect more and more as their level in-
creases), use PP to learn new Skills, use Skill Cards to learn new Skills, use PP to
change between one of two Abilities (some Puppets only have one Ability), and
choose their Style if they are Level 30 or higher. Style Change is kind of like Evo-
lution in the Pokemon games, except each Puppet gets three to choose from and on-
ly will Style Change once. Like Evolution, it’s permanent.
Finally, the Save Submenu allows you to Save the game, which is key for undoing
unfortunate accidents, failed fights, or to simply allow to you end the game and
preserve your progress. There is no Auto Save option in TPDP, so Save early and
often.
As a note, the Option Submenu will allow you to tweak the game to your liking; I
suggest boosting the volumes to max and increasing Text Speed. If you so desire,
you can also change your Key Bindings, though do so at your own risk.
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C. Combat
Combat is simple to learn, but will require a keen tactical mind to garner success.
The latter is something you will develop over the course of your journey, but the
former should be something you understand before starting out.
There are two instances of combat, one with wild Puppets, the other with Puppet-
eers. In a wild Puppet battle, you’ll immediately see the wild Puppet on the right
side of the screen, with a window above it describing their Style (i.e. Normal),
Name (i.e. Reimu), Level, and a Health Bar. In a Puppeteer battle, you’ll first see
the enemy Puppeteer’s portrait along with their Name and Title, and then you’ll see
them send out an enemy Puppet.
In both instances, from this point on the battle works largely the same. You’ll send
out your own Puppet, appearing on the left side of the screen. The Puppet sent out
first is always the one appearing at the top of your list. You will then see a window
above it that describes the same information as the one above the enemy Puppet.
From here, you will see four different Menu options. Starting from the Left:
Fight, Puppets, Bag, and Flee. Manipulate your cursor with the Left or Right Ar-
row Keys and choose the desired option with the Z Button. Let’s cover each of
them briefly.
Choosing Fight will bring up a menu with up to four Skills you can choose from to
attack. Each Skill has a Name, Window Color (i.e. Green for Nature-type Skills),
Battle Power (BP, usually referred to later in the Guide as simply Power, can be
understood by the number provided: the higher the number, generally the more
damage done from the attack), and Skill Point Total (SP, the number stands for how
many uses left of a Skill you have left). In TPDP: SoD, your goal during battle is
to reduce the enemy Puppet’s HP to zero, which causes it to Faint and become un-
usable until healed. Choosing the best Skill for the situation will be key to finding
success during battles.
The Puppets Menu option will bring up a limited version of the Puppets Submenu,
allowing you to check your Puppets’ Information (stats, Skills, etc.) or Shift a new
Puppet into battle. The incoming Puppet will be vulnerable to whatever attack
your enemy decides to use, but oftentimes swapping Puppets in at the right times
will allow you to battle with an advantage. For example, if you just KO’d an ene-
my Puppet and the Puppeteer sends out a Puppet that your current one is likely to
lose against, it can be worth it to be proactive and swap out your current Puppet for
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another that is better suited for the battle. Of course, there will be times that this
could backfire if your timing is poor, but you’ll naturally develop a feel for this as
you go.
The Bag Menu option will bring up a limited version of the Bag Submenu, allow-
ing you to use an item from the Heal or Battle Tabs. This will replace your Pup-
pet’s chance to attack this turn (more on this in the next paragraph), but will allow
you to heal one of your Puppets, use a Thread to try to capture a wild Puppet (this
will not work against Puppeteers’ Puppets), or other related actions. This action
will always occur before the enemy’s turn.
Finally, the Flee Menu option will do just that, allowing you to retreat from battle.
However, this will only work when in battle with a Wild Puppet, at which point
your Puppet’s Speed will determine if the retreat was a success or failure (upon a
failure, the enemy Puppet gets to act). You will not be able to run from an enemy
Puppeteer, so always be prepared before encountering one. When in doubt, Save
the game before a fight!
Now that we’ve described the basics, let’s go over the flow of battle. Each Puppet
gets one action per turn, whether that be a Skill, Item, or a Shift. Items and Shifts
generally happen before the enemy Puppet gets to act, though a few Skills may al-
ter the timing of a Shift.
However, what happens when both Puppets choose to fight? The first thing to look
at is the Priority of the Skill each Puppet chose. Every Skill has a Priority, which
determines how fast or slow the Skill happens; a higher Priority Skill will always
happen before a lower Priority Skill (for example, a Skill with a 1 Priority will al-
ways happen before a 0, and a -3 Priority will always happen before a -4). This
means that no matter how high each Puppet’s Speed stat is, the higher Priority Skill
will always go first. The majority of Skills have a Priority of 0, however, meaning
that we will have to move onto step two.
If both Skills chosen have the same Priority (both are a 1, both are -4, etc.), then
the determining factor is the Speed stats of each Puppet. The higher Speed stat
Puppet will act first; if the result is a tie or an approximate tie, then the game inter-
nally flips a coin to decide the order. Of course, you have no way of knowing the
enemy’s Speed stat, though knowledge of the Puppet and their Style can help you
approximate. Generally, your Puppets early on will likely move first thanks to
higher overall stats, but later on you’ll have to develop a feel for it based on the
Puppets in your party. This Strategy Guide will never have exact numbeers for any
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of their stats, but will occasionally describe their calculated Base Stat Totals from
the Wiki’s Puppetdex. Use these numbers as a guide, crosschecking your own Pup-
pets’ listed base numbers.
Let’s move on to how damage works. Without getting into the calculations too
deeply, the formula relies on a few key factors. The higher your Puppet’s Level,
the more damage is done. The higher your Puppet’s Focus Attack or Spread At-
tack stat (depending on which one the Skill relies on), the more damage is done.
The higher the Skill’s BP, the more damage is done. The higher the enemy Pup-
pet’s Focus Defense or Spread Defense stat (depending on which one the chosen
Skill targets), the less damage is done. Using a Skill that targets a type the enemy
Puppet is weak to is a 2x multiplier (i.e. a Water Skill will do 2x damage to a Fire-
type Puppet), and if the enemy Puppet has two types and both are weak to the
Skill’s type, they will take 4x damage (i.e. a Water Skill will do 4x damage to a
Fire/Earth-type Puppet). Similarly, resisted Skill types are subject to a .5x multi-
plier, meaning they’ll do half damage, and immunity results in 0 damage.
There are more factors, such as Weather, Status Effects, etc., but this should suffice
for a basic overview. At any rate, the damage is calculated as the Skill’s graphic
effect happens, and the enemy Puppet’s Health Bar will drop as damage is de-
ducted. The bar will also change color as it drops. If the enemy Puppet survives,
any additional Skill effects happen, such as Paralysis, Poison, stat boost or drop,
etc. They then get a chance to act, likely doing damage to your Puppet.
This may seem like a lot of information to take in, but you’ll quickly learn most of
it through simple repetition. I strongly, strongly suggest keeping a copy of the Wi-
ki’s Type Chart handy, as you’ll almost certainly want to cross-check type match-
ups during battle. I also suggest keeping the Wiki’s Puppetdex handy for a quick
look at enemy Puppet’s stats (Ctrl + F searching the Puppet’s Name is a great way
to quickly access the relevant information), but this one is simply a personal prefer-
ance.
This concludes the How to Play Section of this Strategy Guide. If you’ve made it
this far, you should be absolutely ready to play. However, the following section is
full of additional useful information that can further enhance your understanding of
the game’s mechanics, and I strongly suggest giving it a read, either now or during
the early parts of your playthrough.
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IV. Tips and Tricks
This section will be highly useful for both veterans of Pokemon games as well as
newbies. While none of these tips are necessary early on, they will become more
and more relevant as you continue, and in many cases will be key to finding suc-
cess in TPDP: SoD’s mid- and late-game sections. Consider referring back here if
things get tough.
These first few tips will be very familiar for Pokemon vets, but go ahead and read
them just to freshen up.
1. Swap Puppets in for double the Experience gain.
Your Puppets will gain double Experience points upon taking part in battle. They
don’t need to attack or be attacked for this bonus to apply, they just need to be
swapped in. In Puppeteer battles with three or more enemy Puppets, you might
want to consider swapping all of your Puppets in before ending the battle, as you
stand to gain a lot of Experience from doing so.
Keep in mind that there is risk involved with this, so be very careful with the tim-
ing of when you choose to swap in a Puppet, lest they swap in just to be KO’d in
one hit. A KO’d Puppet does not benefit from the double Experience boost, mean-
ing you’ll want to be especially careful early on when revival items are a rare com-
modity.
2. A balanced party is a prepared party.
Early on, you can likely get away with using just about any Puppets you have the
fortune of catching. However, as you progress through the game, you’ll eventually
start encountering tougher and tougher Puppeteers that will at first challenge you,
and then crush you if your party is not a balanced one.
Balanced has multiple facets here. The most obvious one relates to Puppet types,
such as Fire, Wind, or Sound. If more than two of your Puppets share the same
type(s), you’ll find that a single enemy Puppet can potentially wipe all of them out,
especially if that Puppet is faster than yours. Later in the game, enemy Puppeteers
have strong Puppets that are capable of striking with at least three different Skill
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types, which can wreak havoc if too many of your Puppets are the same type. Cre-
ate a balanced party and try to have as many diverse types as you can, both for of-
fensive as well as defensive reasons. Aside from the extremely rare Dream-type,
there are 16 types that your Puppets can have; aim to cover at least 9-10 different
types if possible in order to have a balanced party.
However, balance also refers to your Puppet’s capabilities in battle. There are
many kinds of Puppets, but generally they fall into four different roles: glass can-
non, tank, brawler, and all-rounder. Glass cannon Puppets are typically extremely
fast and deal high damage, but often can be KO’d in one hit. Tanks are sturdy, ca-
pable of absorbing a few blows at minimum before going down, often have ways
to boost their Defenses to become even more resilient, and sometimes are capable
of dealing solid damage as well. A brawler is one that has a lower Speed than
glass cannons, but makes up for it by having stronger Defenses that allow them to
hopefully take a hit and then deal massive damage in return. An all-rounder is ex-
actly that, a Puppet that isn’t particularly good at any one thing, but can be capable
of filling in as the situation dictates.
How does this apply to balance? Well, if you have too many Puppets that fill one
role or another, there’s a higher likelihood that you’ll struggle as the game goes on.
Having a lot of glass cannons sounds great, but if the enemy manages to survive
your attacks, your Puppets will crumple one by one. Having a lot of tanks can
seem reassuring, but then you struggle to deal enough damage, and are more likely
to succumb to the enemy’s tactics (such as inflicting nasty Status Effects). You get
the idea. You’ll likely want a tank or two to absorb blows and potentially give you
an opening to use a healing item or two, a few glass cannons to take out problem-
atic Puppets before they can get rolling, and a few of the slower, yet more powerful
brawlers to step in when you need something taken out in one blow. All-rounders
are nice to have as well, though require a bit more skill to use correctly.
Note that there are also Support-focused Puppets who focus on making your team
stronger and/or weakening the enemy through Status Effects and debuffs. They
can be difficult to use properly thanks to their lower stats and seemingly weak
Skills, but can shine in the right teams and circumstances.
3. The three phases of TPDP are early-game, mid-game, and late-game, and differ-
ent Puppets excel at different points.
All Puppets can be used at all points of the game. That much is very important to
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point out. However, not all Puppets are as strong at all points. Adding to the con-
fusion, not all Styles for the same Puppet are equally strong at a specific phase of
the game.
It’s important to realize this fact, as it can mean the difference between thinking a
particular Puppet is ‘bad’ or that it ‘sucks’ at a point in the game and realizing that
it might get much, much stronger later on. For Pokemon experts, you know the
story of Magikarp and Gyarados. Magikarp is worthless until you finally get it to
evolve to the much stronger Gyarados, which then wreaks havoc for a large portion
of the mid-game before fading off a bit later on. That’s the idea here.
Early-game is until the point where your Puppets reach Level 30, at which point
they can Style Change and choose a new Style (think evolution). All Puppets start
off with the Normal Style, and sometimes they may seem pretty bad when you are
building your Puppet for a different Style. For example, consider Normal Renko,
who has terrible stats across the board. She’s slower than dirt, she can’t really do
damage, and goes down pretty easily to a stiff breeze. However, once she can
Style Change, her Extra Style grants her absolutely massive defenses, making her
one of the best tanks in the game for pure tanking. This makes her a monster by
late-game, where she can learn Skills such as Miasma (inflicts Heavy Poison at
90% Accuracy) and Supernatural Border, allowing her to watch as the enemy Pup-
pet gets consumed by Poison while remaining incredibly safe.
Other times, the Normal Style stat distribution may be different than the Style that
you are building towards. For example, Normal Rumia naturally has higher Fo.
Attack than Sp. Attack, meaning she’ll do more damage with Fo. Attack Skills, and
likely will only learn Fo. Attack Skills. However, if you are building towards
Power Rumia, who has massively high Sp. Attack, you’ll likely put your PP into
Sp. Attack and just suck it up until you can Style Change.
Mid-game is from when your Puppets can finally Style Change at Level 30, and
runs until you reach enemies that are Level 50 or so. At this point, you’ll finally be
able to explore the capabilities of your chosen Style and Ability (which can drasti-
cally impact how that Style performs). Some Puppets shine at this point of the
game, as they get massively powerful Abilities that give them a great boost early
on. Puppets such as Speed Futo with her Strategist Ability, which boosts base
Power 60 or lower Skills by 50%, are great here, dealing massive damage until oth-
er Puppets start learning higher Power Skills, at which point they fade a bit in use-
fulness. Power Aya, the Queen of mid-game, just wrecks everything thanks to Sal-
vo, which guarantees those 2-5 hit Skills hit all five times; this is still very effective
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in late-game, but other Puppets steal the spotlight by then.
Late-game naturally runs from about enemy Level 50 onwards. Some Puppets,
such as Extra Renko (mentioned above) start to really shine here thanks to both
naturally learned Skills as well as those learned from Skill Cards. A lot of tanks
come into their own here, though once the more powerful Accessories become
available (such as Black Chokers), glass cannons become far, far more dangerous.
Don’t be surprised if Puppets that seemed mediocre to okay suddenly become
much better, especially if you pair them with the right Accessory to either bolster
their strengths or shore up their weaknesses.
4. Planning ahead with PP usage will drastically affect how your Puppet performs
after their Style Change.
Unlike the Pokemon games, you don’t have to worry about what you’re fighting
when it comes to stat gains. Instead, all Puppets will gain PP points after battle
that can be used to learn new Skills as well as improve stats. You should always
have a plan before assigning PP points to stats, as you won’t be able to unassign
them without the use of a special item that only becomes available after beating the
base game’s storyline. I always advise looking at the wiki’s Puppetdex to see what
potential Styles your Puppets have and what stats are most important in those
Styles. There’s little worse than assigning 64 PP to Fo. Attack just to realize that
the Style you really want relies on Sp. Attack, for example. Those assigned stat
points become more and more important over time, with 32 of them becoming used
by Level 50, and the full 64 used by Level 100.
If you don’t have the Puppetdex handy, you’d be wise to save your PP until after
your Style Change, at which point you’ll know which stats are most important.
This will hamper their effectiveness in early-game when those stat points can really
help, but it’s the safest way to be sure.
V. Main Walkthrough
This is it. We’ve covered all the boring Legal stuff, learned how to play the game,
and hopefully took in some of the awesome tips and tricks to help you find success
in your journey through Gensokyo. It’s time to get to the real meat of the Strategy
Guide.
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You’ll be spending most of your time here, so let’s take a minute before diving in
and go over how this section of the Guide works.
First and foremost, there will be spoilers. This applies both to the story as well as
the locations and characters encountered. I feel that to write a full guide, you need
to go as in-depth as possible, and that includes discussing the story as it happens.
Of course, I won’t be discussing spoilers for the sake of spoilers. I often dissect
the action happening and bring up important details, occasionally poking fun at
some of the more humorous bits. The most important story details are always sepa-
rated between pre-battle dialogue and post-battle dialogue, allowing you to experi-
ence them naturally as you progress in your playthrough.
Of course, it’s also really, really nice to know when a powerful Puppeteer such as
Reimu is about to ruin your day.
For those who simply want the bare minimum, you are more than welcome to use
the (relatively) Spoiler-Free Walkthrough section of this Strategy Guide, which
simply describes where to go and lists optional areas you can explore as they open
up. There won’t be any boss strategies, item locations, Puppet lists, or anything
else, but it’ll allow you to experience the game completely blind while still know-
ing where to go (which at times is hard to figure out towards the middle and end of
the game). I certainly respect that desire, and thus I took the time to set it up for
you. For those of you interested in going in blind, by all means go ahead and
check there.
Speaking of, to skip to different sections of the guide, simply use Ctrl + F to pull
up the handy search bar and then type in the section’s name. If you were to skip to
the Spoiler-Free Walkthrough, that would be the fastest way to do it, and it’ll pass
by all the potential spoilers. Nice!
For those of you who want the deluxe walkthrough, most of the text that you’ll see
describes important information about the story and world around you. This in-
cludes detailed instructions on how to navigate the various Routes, caves, and more
exotic locales of Gensokyo. When traveling through new areas, this Guide always
prioritizes item gathering and fighting enemy Puppeteers over taking a straight shot
to the exit, as many of the best items such as Accessories and Skill Cards are often
located off the beaten path or otherwise hard to find.
To prevent confusion, we’ll use North, East, South, West, and combinations thereof
14
to navigate as opposed to the sometimes clunky up, down, left, and right. North is
always towards the top of the screen, East to the right side, etc., etc.
Sometimes, you’ll come to a fork in the road and be at a loss as to which direction
to go. These will almost always be referred to as ‘splits’ during the Guide, and will
always be included with directions. For example, if you were heading North along
a road and came to an East/West split, this would mean the path ends and splits be-
tween a road heading East and another heading West. I’d tell you to take one path
or another and we’d be on our way, though odds are decent I’d later tell you to re-
turn to the East/West split and take the other road for further item gathering or be-
caus it’s actually the correct way to go.
Another important part of the game, and likely the reason you are here in the first
place, is the Puppet battles. When the time comes to fight, whether it be against a
random nobody or the strongest Touhou characters, you’ll see a handy table like
the one listed below.
Title and Name of Enemy Puppeteer

Style and Puppet, Ability Name Accessory (Held Item)
Level, Type/Type listed here
Normal Reimu, Economist No Accessory
Lvl 13, Void/Illusion
Battle strategy and detailed Puppet analyses here (if necessary).
Tables such as the one above have all the necessary information for you to succeed.
The top line is where you’ll see the enemy Puppeteer’s title and name. The next
line describes the Puppet information you’ll see in the three boxes, and the line
after that is an example of an enemy Puppet you could actually see. The final large
box is where you’ll see the battle strategy and a Puppet-by-Puppet analysis. Types
of things you’ll see here are some of the Skills you’ll see coming at you (do note
that I don’t have access to the game’s files, so I can only list the ones I’ve seen ene-
my Puppets use over my various playthroughs), Puppet base stats, and strategies to
defeat them. I’ll point out particularly dangerous or powerful Abilities, but other-
wise you’ll have to check the tables at the end of the Guide if you want to know
what the rest of them do.
Be aware that if battles are particularly straightforward or easy, such as against
15
some of the random enemy Puppeteers you’ll encounter on your journey, then I
won’t waste your time by providing a strategy. Simply defeat them and move on.
This will be the norm for the majority of the early battles in the game, but when it
comes time for Touhou character fights, mini-boss battles, and especially boss bat-
tles, you’ll see a lot of useful information provided in the analysis area.
I think that covers everything! If there is anything you don’t understand, you’ll
likely get the hang of it as we go along.
The best of luck to you as you begin your journey. May your ability as a Puppeteer
grow ever stronger as you attempt to solve the mystery behind the Puppet Incident!
1. Reality and Fantasy
This will be one of only two brief mentions of New Game Plus in the walkthrough
itself, the other being at the end of the playthrough. If you haven’t done so yet,
make sure all of your Puppets are in Boxes 21-51 so they’ll transfer over at the end
of the game (and any Puppets you want to use in this New Game Plus playthrough
must be in your active party). If you don’t, they’ll be gone forever once you hand
Doremy your Puppet Box!
Your journey begins with a mysterious voice asking you to wake up. The voice
identifies herself as Yukari Yakumo, and asks if you know of Gensokyo. Upon re-
sponding that you don’t know, she’ll explain that Gensokyo is where forgotten
things go, a world in which things that shouldn’t exist can be found.
You’ll then have the opportunity to choose your gender and name. These are both
permanent, so choose wisely.
The conversation is interrupted soon after by an announcement that the bus you are
riding on is in front of the Hakurei Shrine. Before you wake up entirely, the myste-
rious Yukari hints that perhaps you’ll be able to meet once again.
Head East to the exit and step off the bus to find yourself in a fairly deserted area.
You won’t be allowed to step onto the street or proceed down the sidewalk in either
direction, so head North and enter the Hakurei Shrine grounds.
This will be the only time in the game where you are required to speak to everyone
16
in the area. From the Shrine grounds, head Northeast and speak to the man to find
out that this area has a connection with the Gensokyo that Yukari mentioned. From
there, head Southwest and speak to the lady, then head Northwest to speak to a
woman looking for a vending machine (there aren’t any). In fact, the entire Shrine
is pretty desolate; likely it doesn’t get too many visitors.
Talk to the girl in odd clothing that is sleeping on the bench, then head East along
the path until you see a man standing in front of a fence. Here is where you’ll be
faced with an important choice. The man will ask you who your favorite Touhou
character is, at which point a menu will pop up. This is where you will choose
your Starting Puppet, which will almost certainly be the cornerstone of your team.
They’ll start with full S-Rank stats, giving them the best possible stat growth. If
there is someone in particular you love, by all means choose them (though if
they’re one of the weaker Touhou characters, such as Daiyousei, you might have a
bit harder time at first). Use the A and D keys to quickly skip through the menu to
get to your chosen character.
However, if you are new to Touhou or can’t seem to make up your mind, then I
have created a section of the Guide that can help solve this for you. Search (Ctrl +
F) for the Useful Puppets Section and take a look at some of the suggestions.
They’re helpfully organized in terms of difficulty of use, and I personally guaran-
tee that all of them will be very, very powerful additions to your party. Power Aya,
Defense Suika, and Extra Satori in particular are stellar and capable of dominating
large swathes of the game (Power Aya and Extra Satori require their Style Change,
but are nearly broken after that).
If you make a choice and change your mind, simply talk to the man again and
you’ll be able to select from the menu again.
Once you are satisfied with your decision, head East and take the path leading to
the next area, Hakurei Mountain. Continue along the path until you see an odd
sight: some sort of small creature with a hat is lurking in the area, but turns around
and immediately runs away once it sees you. Follow it all the way to the back until
you corner it on the beach.
Just when you think you’ve caught it, the creature grins and lets out a flash of light.
You hear a voice welcoming you to the other side, to Gensokyo...
You’ll appear in what seems to be the same place as before. Ascend the steps and
Save your game before proceeding. Do NOT save again until I say so, as there will
17
be an important series of events that you will want to potentially keep this save for.
Continue onwards to see a patch of grass rustling. Suddenly, another small crea-
ture pops out, this time matching the one you chose! A voice will call out to you
shortly before a person dressed like a witch appears. Meet Marisa, a very ordinary
magician. She’ll ask why you aren’t doing anything when the ‘Puppet’ came out,
but she’ll quickly realize you’re from the outside.
Thankfully, she catches you up to speed quickly. The creature that appeared in
front of you suddenly is called a Puppet, and they appeared one day and started act-
ing as they pleased. They also happen to be miniature copies of Touhou characters,
but there can’t be a reason for that, right?
At any rate, Puppets tend to dash out from grassy places and attack. Since you
don’t have a Puppet, there’s not much you can do to protect yourself. Marisa de-
cides to lend you hers for a test run of sorts. Get ready for your first battle!
Normal Marisa, the Puppet you are using, has two Skills, each of which correspond
to Fo. Attack and Sp. Attack, respectively. Go ahead and choose Skills as you like
until either your health drops to low levels or the enemy Puppet’s does, at which
point the battle ends automatically.
Suddenly, the wild Puppet charges at you and gives you a hug, officially joining
your party. This is your Starting Puppet, and will hopefully be a strong addition to
your party for the entirety of the game! Give it a nickname if you wish.
Marisa is shocked at this turn of events, as usually you need to use special tools
called Threads to catch Puppets. Confused, she sets the issue aside for now and
takes you to the Hakurei Shrine.
You’ll find the Shrine in much, much better condition than earlier. It appears you
really are in a different world than before.
Marisa will take you to a room where a green-haired Shrine Maiden called Sanae
volunteers to explain the situation to you. Apparently, you are stuck behind a bar-
rier of some sort that prevents you from returning home. The reason for this is that
Puppets suddenly appeared a short while back in incredible numbers all around
Genoskyo, and thus the barrier has been reinforced to prevent them from escaping
to the outside world. Until this Puppet Incident is solved, you won’t be able to
leave.
18
Unfortunately, there aren’t any leads as to why this happened in the first place.
Sanae explains that someone called Reimu is working to solve the Puppet Incident
when suddenly Reimu herself appears, wondering what the commotion is.
Apparently, you aren’t the first person to come from the outside world, though Re-
imu gives you a long stare upon hearing that a Puppet took such a liking to you.
She eventually declares that there doesn’t seem to be any relation to the Incident.
Reimu then tells you to not to do anything foolish like trying to solve the Puppet
Incident yourself (we will) before kicking you and the others out.
Sanae explains that Reimu is the one in charge of watching over the barrier, but
since the barrier hasn’t weakened yet, it means she’s no closer to solving the Inci-
dent than before.
Marisa chimes in and tells you not to worry since she’ll take care of it in a flash.
Obviously not satisfied with house sitting, you’ll be doing exactly what Reimu told
you not to do and leaving the area to try to solve the Incident yourself.
However, if you want to leave, you’ll have to prove yourself to Marisa. She’ll give
you a minute to prepare before the battle, which we’ll gladly take.
DO NOT SAVE. You now have control of your character again, but we want to
preserve the previous save for the next task. It is entirely optional, but will greatly
impact how strong your Puppet is later on in the playthrough. Open your menu
with the S key and enter the Puppets submenu (use Z to open it). You’ll want to go
to the Info section, found by clicking Z and then Z again. From there, move over
one screen to see your Puppet’s stats. Look at the number in blue; that is your Pup-
pet’s unique Mark (similar to Natures in Pokemon, though without the negatives),
which boosts that stat by 10% more than normal. If you haven’t figured out what
Style you want your Starting Puppet to be, you might want to take a minute and
check the Puppetdex to see, as you almost certainly want to make sure the Mark is
boosting the best stat for your chosen Style. Oftentimes, this will be a damage stat
(Fo./Sp. Attack) or Speed, but it will depend on how you want your Puppet to be
specialized.
Again, this is entirely optional, but if you are unhappy with the Mark’s location,
you can use the main menu to return to the title and continue from your previous
save that we made just before you met your Starting Puppet. This is called Save
Scumming, and is the only time in the game where you would likely want to do so
19
because your chosen Starting Puppet will be the cornerstone of your team. You
can easily make it back to this very point by simply mashing Z and X through the
dialogue. It’ll take less than two minutes to do, and you’ll likely get what you
want within a few tries (jinxed it!).
Once you are satisfied with your Puppet’s Mark (or simply don’t want to bother
with Save Scumming), go ahead and Save your game to finalize things. From here
on out, we’ll be doing things by the book.
Thankfully, the book includes stacking the odds of victory in our favor before we
fight Marisa. Head West and enter the Shrine. There are two rooms you can enter;
Reimu’s room is the farthest to the East, but she’ll probably get mad, so just enter
the closer room for now. Go to the dresser in the Northwest corner and check the
Eastern side for a Fujiwara Rice Cookie, a healing item which restores 20 HP.
You’ll see what looks like a Puppet sitting next to a bed; you can’t use the Puppet’s
intended function at the moment, but the bed can be used at any time to heal your
Puppets to full.
Exit the Shrine and take the Western path leading behind the building itself. Check
the pot for a Hakurei Shinshu, which is a very, very rare healing item which re-
vives your KO’d Puppet to full health. There are only 13 or so in the game, so con-
sider saving it for a dire moment later in the game.
Marisa is likely getting bored by now, so go ahead and return to her. If you are pre-
pared, speak to her and choose Yes to start the battle!
Ordinary Magician Marisa

Normal Marisa, Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 5, Light/Electric
This is your first real Puppet battle, but your Starting Puppet is so much stronger
that the chance of losing is low.
Why is your Puppet so much stronger? Well, the full S-Rank stats help, but more
important currently is the Dream Shard your Puppet came with, which boosts all
of your stats by a percentage. Interestingly enough, it’s the only item in the game
that can’t be knocked away or stolen (such as by Normal Marisa’s Collectomaniac
Ability).
20
In terms of strategy, just use Yin or Yang Energy over and over to find victory.
There’s literally no need to use anything else, as you’ll do way more damage per
turn than Normal Marisa. If, by some freak chance, Normal Marisa manages to
get multiple Critical Hits off and puts you in danger of losing, you can always
heal up with the Fujiwara Rice Cookie we snagged earlier.
Upon winning, you’ll see that you received a Mushroom Powder. In this game,
you don’t receive money for victories, and instead receive items you can sell at
any shop. These ‘money items’ drop regardless of whether the enemy is a wild
Puppet or an enemy Puppeteer, and the quantity tends to match the number of
Puppets encountered. Mushroom Powders are actually fairly valuable to sell com-
pared to what you’ll find early on, which should put a bit of money in your pocket
for when it comes time to stock up on items.
Marisa seems surprised at her loss to a beginner, but takes it in good cheer. She
leaves the rest to Sanae and departs, hoping to get a lead on Reimu in solving the
Incident.
Sanae is very interested in your abilities as a Puppeteer, but she’ll leave it for now
and instead point you towards someone in the Human Village who has been exam-
ining the Puppets. This is likely your best lead for now, meaning we’ll need to
make the journey through Route 1 to get there.
Your Puppet is already healed up, but before we leave, there’s one item left to find.
Head East to find a North/East split; take the Northern road to find a small shed.
On the inside is the first Accessory of the playthrough, a Blinding Orb. When
held, it allows your Puppet to always be able to escape from battle. I wouldn’t use
it for now, but there may be a time in the future where it could be handy. In fact,
you should almost always keep the Dream Shard on your Starting Puppet to further
boost their power.
You won’t be able to advance to the end of the Northeastern path, so instead head
South from Sanae all the way until you reach the gate. She’ll call out to you and
come running. Since it might be difficult with only one Puppet, she’ll provide you
the means to capture more of them! You’ll receive 10 Seal Threads, which are
used to capture wild Puppets. In battle, use a Seal Thread to put the wild Puppet in
a ‘state of seal’, which will last for a few turns; defeat the Puppet while they’re in a
state of seal to capture them! No need to worry about lowering their life by a cer-
21
tain percentage or whatnot like in Pokemon, so seal and then KO them to add them
to your party!
Of course, don’t try this with other people’s Puppets, as it won’t work and it’ll
waste your Seal Thread. Plus, stealing is wrong, friends.
Sanae will also generously give you a Puppet Box, which can store excess Puppets
that won’t fit in your party of six. If you capture another Puppet when your party
is full, you’ll get the option to replace one of your party Puppets with the captured
Puppet or simply to put it in the Puppet Box. The Puppet Box can be accessed
wherever you find an Akyuu Puppet, such as the one we saw in the Hakurei
Shrine’s guest room.
For someone forced to house-watch for her direct competitor, Sanae really is a nice
person, isn’t she?
Continue heading South and take your first steps on what promises to be an excit-
ing journey!
2. Trip to the Human Village
Route 1 Puppets
Style and Puppet Type/Type Encounter Probability
Normal Daiyousei Nature Normal
Normal Chen Wind Normal
Normal Nazrin Earth/Steel Normal
Normal Lily Void Rare
Normal Sukuna Earth/Steel Rare
Normal Seija Poison Pot near Rest Area
You’ll soon find yourself on Route 1. This is the only path leading to the Human
Village, but thankfully it’s perfect for a new Puppeteer such as yourself. The ene-
my Puppeteers are all weak, and there are many, many useful wild Puppets to find
22
in the grassy patches. For more information, please consult the table above!
As a special note, there is a wide enough variety of Puppets to form a fairly well-
balanced team for the early goings. Granted, you’ll eventually want to expand
your team later on, but just being able to find five unique Puppets is a huge boon to
your party’s overall strength.
If you head South, hopping over the one-way hurdles, you’ll find a large grassy
area to the East in which you can catch all of these wonderful Puppets (minus Sei-
ja). I would take some time and attempt to capture one of each. Remember, first
use the Seal Thread to seal the Puppet, then KO them to complete the capture proc-
ess. You’ll likely have a 100% success rate with Seal Threads this early on, though
as the game goes on it’ll become a bit harder for them to take effect.
Whenever you need healing, return to the Hakurei Shrine’s guest room to heal in
the bed.
Once you are ready to move on, head West and follow the path until you find a Fu-
jiwara Rice Cookie sitting near a statue. This is a Jizo statue, and there are ten of
them in the game. Good things will happen if you leave a food offering by each of
them, so go ahead and leave the Fujiwara Rice Cookie you just found. We’ll be
able to get more very soon.
Continue along until you see a man standing by the road. If you try to pass by him,
he’ll reveal that he’s also a Puppeteer and start a battle!
Novice Puppeteer Yuuichi

Normal Nazrin, Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 3, Earth/Steel
The only strategy you’ll need for this and the next few battles are to simply use
Yin or Yang Energy over and over until you win or need to swap your Puppet out
to finish the fight with another.
Don’t overthink this.
We’ll be encountering more Puppeteers as we advance, but since they all are pretty
easy, just use the same strategy and you’ll be fine.
23
Follow the path West and you’ll come to a West/South split; hike through the
Southern grass patch as it turns Southeast until you find another Fujiwara Rice
Cookie at the end.
Return to the split and go West until you are stopped by another Puppeteer.
Novice Puppeteer Sachie

Normal Lily, Wasteful No Accessory
Lvl 3,
By now, you’ve likely got at least your Starting Puppet to Level 7, which means
they’ve learned a New Skill! In TPDP, you’ll have to use the PP points you get
from battle to learn Skills manually, though you can learn and unlearn them as
many times as you wish. To learn the new Skill, go to your Puppet submenu,
choose any Level 7 or higher Puppet, and go to Edit. Choose the Acquire Skills
option (second from the top) and you’ll see a new Skill waiting to be learned for a
very reasonable PP cost. This first Skill is almost always a damage-dealing Skill
that matches one of your Puppet’s types, so try to use it whenever it makes sense
to!
To the West is a Rest Area, which is a very important building that combines free
Puppet healing with a healing item shop and occasionally a Trader with additonal
items for purchase. Go ahead and enter it. The person directly North of you be-
hind the counter will heal your Puppets, and the lady next to her to the West will
sell you healing items...though you probably don’t need to buy any yet. Don’t for-
get you can sell your ‘money items’ at any shop; they are found under the Tools
submenu.
If you’ve been catching Puppets, you might wish to resupply with the Trader just
Southwest of the counter. This Trader only sells Seal Threads and Bead Necklaces
(which act as a sort of Puppet repellant for 100 steps, though it’s useless unless you
are walking through grass or a cave). Later on, Traders will sell valuable Acces-
sorys and Spell Cards, so always be sure to check out their stock!
Back outside the Rest Area, the barrel to the Northwest has a Seija Puppet hiding
inside that you can capture. If you are interested, check it out, though beware of
getting Poisoned! The pot next to the barrel has a Fujiwara Rice Cookie, so make
24
sure to grab that.
Continue along the path and you’ll soon run into another Puppeteer to the South-
west looking for a battle, though you’ll have to talk to him if you want a fight.
Rascal Osamu
Normal Chen, Free Will No Accessory
Lvl 4, Wind
Lvl 4, Wind
Don’t be afraid to return to the Rest Area at any time if your Puppets need healing.
You’ll spot an item past a line of trees to the South as you continue on; there’s a
break in the trees just up ahead that will allow you to forge through the grass and
grab the Seal Thread. Return to the main path and head North over the bridge to be
stopped by a Farmer looking for a fight!
Farmer Motoyuki
Normal Shizuha, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 5, Nature
Normal Minoriko, Breather No Accessory
Lvl 5, Nature
Congratulations, you’ve beaten the last of the tutorial battles. From here on out,
expect enemies to do more than Yin and Yang Energy, meaning Puppet types will
come into play.
To the North, check the bush just Northeast of the sign to find a Fujiwara Rice
Cookie. Directly to the West is a bush hiding a Bead Necklace. Expect hidden
items like these to be scattered all over Gensokyo, though they will never include
Accessorys or Skill Cards.
Continue along the linear path until you are run into by an odd girl named Medi-
cine. She’ll get mad at you, notice your Puppets, and tell you to hope you never
25
run into her again before dashing off.
Thankfully, you’re just outside the Human Village now. Continue past the gate and
discover the one and only place where normal Humans can live safely in Genso-
kyo.
Human Village Puppets

Normal Keine Steel Normal
Normal Akyuu Void Normal
Normal Kosuzu Void Normal
Normal Sekibanki Dark Normal
Normal Kokoro Void/Fighting Rare
Normal Kisume Dark/Fire Well in the East
Life in the Human Village is a fairly normal affair, albeit rugged. Humans are al-
lowed to live normal lives here, though if anyone is foolish enough to leave the
confines of the village, there’s a good chance they could get eaten by the various
Youkai prowling around. And yes, this does include you.
With that cheery thought in mind, let’s take a minute to explore the town and get
used to its layout. Head West until you spot a pot near a path leading North; check
if for a Bead Necklace. Go ahead and take the path and turn West at the split to
find a Seal Thread hidden in another pot at the end.
Return to the main path. Directly South of here is a giant well that you can check
if you want to catch Kisume, a Dark/Fire Puppet that is a great early-game tank and
will be of immediate help for your party.
From there, head back to the main path and continue West past a large gate to find
another Rest Area. Go ahead and heal up if you need to and then head South.
Once you reach the bridge, head East to find a shop where you can purchase more
Seal Threads as well as special Accessories called Hairpins. These Hairpins are
used to boost a single type’s damage for the Puppet holding it; for example, a Pup-
pet holding the Ruby Hairpin does more damage with Fire-type Skills. They’re
pretty cheap, but you’ll find pretty much one of every type during the course of
26
your journey. If you absolutely have to have one, be prepared to fork over the ma-
jority of your available funds at this point of the game.
Return to the bridge and cross it. The first building to the West is a Bookstore
which also serves as a book-lending shop, but it’s not open at the moment. To the
East is the School, which currently is covering various Puppet-related topics. It
might be a good place to check out if you are a beginner, though this Guide’s How
to Play section covers all that and more.
All the way to the East is another outsider, like yourself. Sumireko is Human, but
she has incredibly strong psychic powers that allow her to come to Gensokyo at
will. Feel free to talk to her if you’d like, though it is entirely optional.
Just below her to the Southwest is a Puppet clothing shop, but the door is currently
locked. Later on, you’ll be able to pay a modest 3,000 and change your Puppet’s
costume (or perhaps their entire form!).
Head all the way West from there to appear just West of the Bookstore. There’s a
Fujiwara Rice Cookie to the North in the field with flowers, and another one just
Southeast in the pot.
From there, go West across the bridge to find yet another exit blocked, this time by
people with a broken cart. Head North and enter the Western field to find a Seal
Thread in the Southwest corner.
To the North is a four-way intersection. The West will be useless to you until after
you beat the entire game, at which point it will be host to an optional tournament of
sorts. To the North is a Bead Necklace in the bucket next to the well. Finally, the
path East brings you full circle back to the Rest Area.
You’ll notice some grass Northeast of the well and behind the Rest Area. There are
more Puppets to find here, a few of whom are potentially great additions to your
party. You’ll find the Steel-type Keine, the Void-type Akyuu (yes, the same one
you use with the Puppet Box, though this one is for battle), the Void-type Kosuzu,
the Void/Fighting Kokoro (rare to find), and the Dark-type Sekibanki.
While I encourage you to catch all of them for collection purposes, Akyuu and Ko-
suzu are mostly terrible and should only be used by experts (and even then they are
generally for fun only). However, Keine is a great Puppet who can serve in several
roles once she Style Changes. Kokoro is amazing in pretty much any of her Styles
27
and would be an excellent addition to your team, though it might take awhile to
find her. Finally, Sekibanki is a solid Dark-type Puppet that starts off fairly tanky
but then can become a damage-dealer or support Puppet depending on her Style.
While this can change depending on your Starting Puppet, a solid party around this
time might be something like Kokoro, Sukuna/Keine, Nazrin (she can be surpris-
ingly strong later on), Chen, Kisume/Sekibanki, and your Starting Puppet. While it
still could use some work, this covers quite a few types and fills a variety of roles.
Whatever your team, I highly advise having six Puppets that are all at least Level 7
in order to get access to a type-boosted damage Skill. You don’t want to only use
Yin or Yang Energy for much longer, though they are excellent Skills to use when
your Puppet’s type-boosted Skills are resisted.
3. The Puppet Liberation Front
Once you are prepared, pass through the gate to the East of the Rest Area and pro-
ceed to the mansion in the back. While the mansion is surprisingly large, there
aren’t any items or things of particular interest to find. Simply head straight ahead
and enter the nearby room.
Meet Akyuu, a special Human that inherits the memories of her past lives through
a special deal with the Yama, judge of the afterlife. There are a lot of special terms
and conditions to this deal, but in your case, expect her to be an excellent source of
information as you continue on your journey.
She immediately recognizes you from the rumors flying around town before catch-
ing herself and making a formal introduction. She explains that she heard about
you from the Tengu’s newspaper extra, which you happened to star in. Apparently,
news travels fast in Gensokyo, or at least when it comes to the Tengu.
Unfortunately, despite all of her wealth of memories, she lacks any substantial
knowledge of Puppets aside from what you already know, though she may have
had a hand in developing or spreading the use of the seal technology. Either way,
she welcomes you to the Human Village and tells you to wait and see how the sit-
uation develops for now.
As you leave the room, she stops you and warns that she heard a rumor about mul-
28
tiple people scheming something in the vicinity of the Village. While she doesn’t
know the details, she wanted to warn you just in case.
Leave Akyuu’s mansion and you’ll almost immediately spot a Youkai named Wrig-
gle, who panics and flees over the Eastern cliff. If you head that way, you’ll spot a
suspicious group along with Wriggle herself. Perhaps this group is the one the ru-
mor warned about?
Since you can’t jump over the cliff, make your way around until you reach them.
You’ll listen in on their conversation in which they panic and try to figure out what
to do now that Wriggle was spotted. A Fairy named Cirno, who claims to be the
strongest, says she’ll beat the Human who spotted Wriggle black and blue; she’ll
then notice you standing behind the group and ask if you’re the one.
The group immediately scatters and leaves Cirno to clean up the mess. Save your
game and prepare for your first encounter with the Puppet Liberation Front!
Puppet Liberation Front Cirno

Normal Rumia, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 7, Dark
Normal Cirno, Active No Accessory
Lvl 8, Water
Cirno is your first real fight, though she still isn’t a huge challenge. Watch out for
actual type-based Skills coming at you, such as Normal Rumia’s Dark Ball (Dark-
type) and Normal Cirno’s Frost Edge (Water-type). If you aren’t sure about type
matchups, you’ll want to check out the official Type Chart (and indeed, you’ll
likely always want it available in case you need to reference it).
Normal Rumia is likely the real threat here since she likes using Dark Ball fairly
often. Normal Cirno for some reason spams the Good Luck Skill to randomly
boost one of her stats by a stage, but in doing so leaves herself wide open to your
Puppets beating on her until she goes down. As expected of the memed (9), I sup-
pose.
Unhappy with her loss, Cirno bravely tells you not to chase everybody else, though
that’s just what we’ll be doing. If you speak to her again, she won’t be able to tell
you what the Puppet Liberation Front is, instead declaring that she won’t teach you
29
anything.
If you need healing, feel free to go to the Rest Area. Otherwise, head to the East-
ern side of the village (South of the Eastern exit) to find the rest of the group hid-
ing in a small side field past a bridge. Once again, the rest will run off, leaving
poor Daiyousei to fend for herself.
Puppet Liberation Front Daiyousei

Lvl 7, Water
Normal Daiyousei, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 8, Nature
Normal Cirno is pretty much the same as before, so wipe her out the same way
and you’ll be fine. Normal Daiyousei can be a bit trickier thanks to her Parasite
Skill (Nature-type), which restores her health by a portion of the damage done.
You might want to send out a Fire, Nature, Wind, or Poison-type Puppet to resist
the damage and prevent her from recovering any significant portion of health.
Daiyousei ends up going down easily enough despite her confidence. If you speak
to her again, she’ll explain that the Puppet Liberation Front’s goal is to liberate all
the Puppets employed by Puppeteers, though she doesn’t explain why.
Next up is just to the Southwest. Head all the way to the Southeast gate and head
West to find the remaining trio. This time, you’ll be left with Wriggle herself, who
threatens to liberate your Puppets unless you resist!
Puppet Liberation Front Wriggle

Normal Daiyousei, Glamorous No Accessory
Lvl 7, Nature
Normal Wriggle, Vanishing Act No Accessory
Lvl 8, Nature/Dark
Normal Wriggle can become a huge annoyance if you let her use Dead of Night
multiple times to build her Evasion up. All of a sudden you’ll be missing with
Skills that normally have a 100% Accuracy chance, which can quickly spiral into
frustration. Watch out for Apple Bomb (Nature-type) to deal solid damage while
30
Normal Wriggle otherwise dodges your Skills. Thankfully, you can likely wipe
her out in one blow if you use a Steel-type Skill thanks to Normal Wriggle’s 4x
weakness.
Check the pot Northeast of Wriggle for a Myouren Tea, then return to the Rest
Area to heal up. From the Rest Area, head West to the four-way intersection and
then North to find the remaining two members. Rumia will flee, leaving Mystia
behind to fight you.
Puppet Liberation Front Mystia

Lvl 7, Nature/Dark
Normal Mystia, Good Management No Accessory
Lvl 8, Sound/Dark
Again, if Normal Wriggle is able to use Dead of Night multiple times, this battle
will become far more frustrating. Aim for a one-shot KO with a Steel-type Skill!
Normal Mystia isn’t too bad, though her Soprano Voice Skill (Sound-type) deals
strong damage. Beware of sending out a Fighting or Illusion-type Puppet against
her and you’ll be fine.
For fun, you can speak to her again after her loss for a humorous exchange.
You should really heal your party up, because the next fight with Rumia is much,
much tougher than any you’ve fought thus far. In fact, if your Puppets aren’t
around Level 10 yet, you might want to fight a few wild Puppets (referred to from
here on as grinding) in order to Level Up enough to unlock the next Skill for each
of your Puppets. While not necessary, it’ll potentially offer you another useful
Skill to use, and if you’re lucky, another damage-based Skill of a different type to
allow you to strike more weaknesses.
Once you are prepared, head South from the Rest Area, cross the bridge, and con-
tinue South until you reach the gate guard. From there, turn West and you’ll spot a
small side area to the South before long.
Rumia has had more than enough of your meddling, and takes further offense when
31
your character points out that she doesn’t look particularly leader-like. Determined
to teach you a lesson, she challenges you to a battle!
Puppet Liberation Front Rumia

Normal Cirno, Curiosity No Accessory
Lvl 8, Water
Lvl 8, Nature
Lvl 8, Nature/Dark
Normal Mystia, Smooth Sailing No Accessory
Lvl 8, Sound/Dark
Normal Rumia, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 10, Dark
If Cirno was your first real fight, Rumia is your first actual boss battle. This will
be a tough battle in which you fight against a Puppet representing each of the five
Puppet Liberation Front members you’ve encountered.
Expect a more difficult battle than before, but since you’ve fought each Puppet
before, you likely know how to handle them. That said, don’t expect them to
come out in the order listed, as Rumia will send out whoever best fits the current
situation.
Normal Cirno is easy enough so long as you attack her while she’s busy bulking
up with Good Luck. If you send out a Puppet weak to Water, however, she’ll
likely do significant damage with Frost Edge. Don’t let that happen.
Normal Daiyousei is easy enough if you don’t let her recover large portions of her
health with Parasite (Nature-type). So long as your Puppet isn’t weak to Nature,
you’ll be fine.
Normal Wriggle will be as annoying as before, though she loves using Apple
Bomb more than Dead of Night this time around. Try to defeat her before she
starts Evasion-boosting again, though be careful of the damage coming your way
from Apple Bomb.
Normal Mystia is dangerous if you let her build up her Sp. Attack with Tuning.
32
She also has the Smooth Sailing Ability, meaning she’ll absorb Wind attacks and
get a Speed boost from doing so. If she uses Tuning twice or more, be very afraid
of the massive damage about to come your way. Take her out before this hap-
pens, preferrably with a Steel, Light, or Fighting-type Skill.
Normal Rumia does large amounts of damage with Dark Ball, but her real threat
is in her Final Form Ability, which will boost her damage significantly if she has
30% or less HP at any time. This can turn an tough situation into a potential
nightmare since Rumia knows Dead of Night (boosting her Evasion) and Barrier
Up (boosting her Sp. Defense). Try to defeat her as soon as possible or this can
become very dangerous.
As a note, this is the first instance where you stand to gain huge amounts of Expe-
rience because of the high number of enemy Puppets. You would be wise to try
and swap in every member of your team at least once in order to get the double
Experience bonus from doing so. However, be aware of timing when doing this,
as you don’t want to give Normal Mystia or Normal Rumia a chance to power up
and become monstrous. Normal Daiyousei would be the best choice for this.
After her loss, Rumia realizes she needs to report to the higher ups and flees,
though not before spouting off a cliche or two.
Leave the area and you’ll be met by Akyuu, who had been desperately searching
for you (and is completely out of breath due to her frail health). She is surprised at
how you dealt with the Puppet Liberation Front and praises your ability as a Pup-
peteer.
However, the real reason she was searching for you was because she remembered a
place where you might be able to find a lead on the Puppet Incident. She takes you
to the previously-closed Bookstore, Suzuran, which has books of all types, includ-
ing books from the Outside World.
While your Puppets are tired, go ahead and enter the Bookstore. You’ll meet Kosu-
zu, a Human girl who runs Suzuran and has the ability to read any book, regardless
of its language. Upon hearing that you’re here about Puppets, her eyes light up.
However, Kosuzu doesn’t have much information about Puppets either, though she
did find a book the other day that talked about the Puppet Incident, and seems re-
cent. Apparently, there are many more volumes of it, though she only has the one,
33
and has no idea who the author is.
Your conversation will be interrupted by a friend of Kosuzu who happened to hear

the important parts from outside the shop. She’ll mention that similar books have
been found throughout Gensokyo, and she even knows the location of one of them!
It turns out that the leader of the Divine Spirit Mausoleum found one the other day.
It seems like it might be in your best interest to find the rest of these books during
your journey throughout Gensokyo, though where the others are is unknown.
Either way, it can’t hurt to check up on this lead, right? Kosuzu’s friend will offer
to guide you part of the way. She’ll wait outside, giving you an opportunity to read
the book Kosuzu found (talk to her and she’ll translate it for you).
It certainly is kind of an odd book, perhaps written by a person like yourself who
also entered Gensokyo only to be trapped by the Puppet Incident? You’ll need to
collect more to find out.
Leave the Bookstore and you’ll see Akyuu standing there. Talk to her and she’ll
reveal herself to be the same woman from inside the shop. The woman introduces
herself as Mamizou, and claims that disguising herself is one of her talents. Based
on her complete transformation, that seems to be an understatement.
She once again dons her Akyuu disguise in order to help you get past the South-
eastern gate guard. After a clever bit of deception, you’ll receive permission to
pass through this gate from now on.
Mamizou will heal your Puppets and tell you to find Toyotomimi Miko, who is the
leader of the Taoism group within the Mausoleum. For reasons she can’t explain,
she can’t go there, and so you’ll need to go it alone from here.
4. The Second Incident Case
Route 3 Puppets
Normal Kyouko Sound Normal
34
Normal Benben Sound Normal
Normal Yatsuhashi Sound Normal
Normal Kotohime Void Normal
Normal Raiko Sound/Electric Rare
Normal Nue Electric/Illusion Very Rare
Normal Wriggle Nature/Dark Barrel to the Southeast
To get to the Divine Spirit Mausoleum, you’ll need to pass through Route 3 and
then through Myouren Temple, specifically the Cemetary. It may sound odd, espe-
cially when you consider that Myouren Temple is Buddhist and the members of the
Divine Spirit Mausoleum are Taoist, but that’s how things sometimes are in Genso-
kyo.
It will be a lengthy journey, so if you think you’ll need any sort of healing items,
this will be your last real chance to stock up until we return to the Human Village.
There’s a trader halfway down the Route, but that’s only a few minutes in at best,
leaving the majority of the journey to go. Important to note is that there is a mas-
sive number of new Puppets to catch along the way, twenty in all (not counting if
one was your Starter Puppet)! If your goal is to catch one of each, you would be
wise to pack at least 25-30 Seal Threads.
Once you are prepared, head straight South through the gap in the fence to find a
Bead Necklace in a pot. Continue on to run into your first Youkai of the game,
who will challenge you to a battle!
Youkai Tsutsuji
Normal Kokoro, Moody No Accessory
Lvl 8, Void/Fighting
By this time, you won’t likely need much help winning this fight. However, be
very careful of Kokoro’s Moody Ability, which, at the end of every turn, will raise
one random stat by two stages and drop one random stat by one stage. This can
quickly spiral out of control if, for example, it gets a two-stage Speed boost or a
two-stage Sp. Attack boost, and the risk of something like this happening in-
creases every turn. Take out Kokoro as soon as possible to prevent this.
35
Continue South through the grass to find a Clarity Charm, which is a one-use Ac-
cessory that will immediately help the Puppet holding it recover from the Confu-
sion Status Ailment, but only once per battle. Unlike similar items in Pokemon,
however, you’ll be able to use the item again once the battle ends, meaning items
such as this can be quite handy. Consider giving it to one of your Puppets for a pla-
ceholder Accessory until you find a better one.
Return to the main path and head East, leaving another offering at the Jizo statue.
Continue along until you find an obvious Hakugyou Dango sitting near a small
roadside shrine. From there, head South and check the barrel near the house to
find a Moriya Shinshu, which will restore your KO’d Puppet to half health. Keep
it for important battles, as they’ll be rare for quite awhile.
There’s a Trader inside the house, but he doesn’t have anything new, and there’s
nothing inside the house to find. Continue South to encounter another type of You-
kai.
Youkai Fuyou
Lvl 7, Wind
Normal Kagerou, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 7, Dark/Wind
If you are interested in trying to catch a Normal Wriggle Puppet (Nature/Dark),

you can check the barrel to the East to battle one. Otherwise, return to the main
path and head East. You’ll eventually come to an East/South split just past a
bridge; take the Southern split to find a lone Puppeteer searching for Puppets.
Tomboy Azumi
Normal Benben, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 7, Sound
Normal Yatsuhashi, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 7, Sound
Normal Raiko, Sixth Sense No Accessory
Lvl 7, Sound/Electric
36
Return to the main path and continue all the way until you reach Myouren Temple.
Myouren Temple Puppets

Normal Kyouko Sound Normal
Normal Ichirin Fighting Normal
Normal Murasa Water Normal
Normal Shou Light/Electric Rare
Normal Hijiri Fighting Rare
As beautiful as Myouren Temple and its surroundings are, your only business here
is to pass through. That said, if you enter the main building to the North, you can
rest by checking the sign; there is also an Akyuu Puppet in the Southwest corner if
you want to change your Puppets out.
There’s nothing more to do in the main building. Leave and head West to find a
smaller shed, much like the one at the Hakurei Shrine. Check inside to find a Cur-
ing Charm. This is one of the best Charms in the game, as it will instantly heal any
Status Effect inflicted upon the Puppet holding it, though as with all Charms, you
only get one use per battle.
Back outside, head West and then follow the path at the end North until you reach a
few graves up the first set of steps. The Northeastern stone grave hides a Chirei
Sweet Bun.
From there, head up the next set of steps and head East at the North/East split.
Check the Northeast pot at the very end for a Bead Necklace and then snag the My-
ouren Tea sitting nearby. From there, head back West and take the multiple sets of
steps leading to the Myouren Temple Cemetary.
The grass to the East of the steps actually has different Puppets than that of the
Cemetary, located at the top of the steps. If you took a look at my Useful Puppets
Section, I gave Defense Hijiri a high rating, as she serves as a very solid tank that
37
is capable of handling even the toughest end-game battles. Shou is also quite
strong in all her Styles. Both of them are difficult to find, but are well-worth the
effort spent. Also of note is the fact that this is the only place in the game to find
Murasa, so grab her if your goal is to catch ‘em all.
Myouren Temple Cemetary Puppets

Normal Youmu Steel/Nether Normal
Normal Kogasa Water/Wind Normal
Normal Yoshika Poison Normal
Normal Yuyuko Nether Rare
Normal Mima Nether Very Rare
Normal Kisume Dark/Fire Northwest Well
In the Cemetary itself, you’ll find another swathe of new Puppets. Yuyuko, You-
mu, and Mima are very solid Puppets, and Yoshika’s various Styles all have a boat-
load of HP (though aren’t necessarily all that strong). If your goal is to catch a
Mima, be prepared to search for a long time, as she’s very difficult to find.
Now that we’re done with describing the flurry of wild Puppets (for a brief mo-
ment, anyway), head East to find some grass in which to catch them. More impor-
tantly, there’s a Ghost to the North that, when you talk to it, claims it’s a good
Ghost, but then starts a battle with you!
Ghost Taeko
Normal Youmu, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 9, Steel/Nether
Up the stairs to the North is a series of three pots. Check the middle one for a
Rainbow Candy, which instantly provides a Level to the Puppet the Candy is used
on. Before using it, however, know that you can only find a little more than 30 in a
playthrough, and they’ll potentially be very useful for experimenting in an end-
game process called Reincarnation; even if you don’t use it for that, Levels come a
bit slower later on and it’d be better to use them in the late-game. The choice is up
38
to you, however.
Moving on, you’ll find a Sugilite Hairpin behind the graves at the end of the small
path to the North. If you remember from the shop in the Human Village, Hairpin
Accessories boost the power of Skills of a specific type. In this case, the Sugilite
Hairpin boosts the damage of Nether-type Skills, which Puppets such as Youmu
and Yuyuko rely on.
You’ll see someone holding an umbrella to the West. Why not go and talk to
them?
Karakasa Kogasa
Normal Kyouko, Last Defense No Accessory
Lvl 11, Sound
Normal Kogasa, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 11, Water/Wind
Meet Kogasa, a fun Youkai who came about from a deserted umbrella. As an of-
ficial Touhou character, expect her Puppets to be a bit higher level on average
than the other enemy Puppeteers in the area.
That said, she’s pretty easy overall, though this might be the first instance where
you’ll encounter an enemy AI that will act to protect its Puppets, swapping them
out when weakened or otherwise at a disadvantage.
Normal Kyouko has the expected Sound-type Soprano Voice for primary damage
as well as the Earth-type Slingshot, which will also lower your Puppet’s Accu-
racy.
Normal Kogasa tends to use Yang Energy more than her type-boosted Skills, mak-
ing her a much easier fight than Normal Kyouko.
If you haven’t gotten a Kisume Puppet yet, you can check the Northwest well to
fight another one.
You’d be wise to heal up if needed, as there are more difficult battles ahead. Also,
if you haven’t done so yet, grab any new Skills that your Puppets may have learned
if they seem useful. Furthermore, if and only if you know what Style you want
39
your Puppets to become and what the best stats for their Style is, you might want to
consider allocating PP to increase the most important stats, as you probably have
somewhere in the 90-100 PP range by now, which is more than enough to do a full
stack of 64 PP for a stat (which currently will boost the stat by around 10, but by
Level 100 will be a full 64 point boost).
If you don’t know what I’m talking about or aren’t sure how you want to Style
Change your Puppets yet, save those PP points, as you don’t want to mess up and
be stuck with poor stat allocations later in the game. Granted, the early power
boost from stat allocation can be nice, but it’s more important to do it right.
At any rate, once you’re prepared, head East from Kogasa and take the path to the
East. There’s a North/South split at the end; the South split leads to nothing but
grass and graves, so take a few steps North only to be stopped by a zombie!
Jiang Shi Yoshika

Normal Yoshika, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 10, Poison
Normal Yoshika, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 10, Poison
Normal Yoshika, Ghost Form No Accessory
Lvl 10, Poison
Yep, Yoshika’s a zombie...or at least, the cute Touhou version of one. Don’t let
your guard down, as her Puppets can take a beating as well as inflict the Poison
Status Effect, making your affected Puppet’s HP drop at the end of every turn.
Steel-type Puppets are immune to Poison, so consider sending one out to deal
with Normal Yoshika. That said, she very rarely uses her Poison-type Skill.
There’s not much else to worry about aside from Normal Yoshika’s off-type Spec-
ter Warning (Nether-type). She does fairly low damage which is offset by a buck-
etload of HP. Target her base 5 Sp. Defense stat to take her down as quick as pos-
sible, preferably with Earth or Wind-type Skills.
This is a good opportunity to swap all of your Puppets in for easy Experience.
It’ll be about enough for another level, and you’ll want to be as strong as possible
for later on...
40
Past Yoshika is a pot with a Contract Thread in it, which is the second-tier of
Threads (similar to the Great Ball from Pokemon). It’ll seal Puppets at a much bet-
ter rate, though you likely will still be fine with normal Seal Threads for now.
Return to the Temple and heal if you need to. Once you’re ready, take the grassy
path Northeast of Yoshika and enter the cave at the bottom of the steps.
Myouren Temple Cemetary Cave Puppets

Normal Seiga Nether Normal
Normal Tojiko Electric Normal
This is the first cave of the game, but is also the shortest one. Myouren Temple
Cemetary Cave has no Puppeteers but has two new wild Puppets, the Nether-type
Seiga and the Electric-type Tojiko. Both of them can also be found in the Divine
Spirit Mausoleum, though there will be a lower chance to find them there due to
the higher number of unique Puppets available.
There aren’t any items either except for the obvious Contract Thread that’s halfway
through, so simply continue on to the next area. Caves have random wild Puppet
encounters, meaning if you wish to avoid wild Puppet battles you’ll have to use
Puppet repellant to do so. In this case, the only type you have access to is the Bead
Necklace, one of which will likely get you all the way through the cave.
The Great Mausoleum has no wild Puppets and no items. It’s a very linear, if pret-
ty, path that leads to your real goal, the Divine Spirit Mausoleum.
However, you’ll be stopped just before you can enter the tall tower at the end.
Meet Seiga, an Evil Spirit of sorts who happens to be Yoshika’s master. Since she
failed to stop you, it falls to Seiga to put a stop to your journey.
Hermit Seiga
Lvl 12, Poison
41
Lvl 12, Poison
Normal Seiga, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 14, Nether
Seiga’s Puppets are all a few levels higher than Yoshika’s were, meaning you’ll
have to be a little more careful.
That said, both of the Normal Yoshika Puppets are pretty much the same as be-
fore. Handle them like you did previously, being cautious of Poison, and you’ll
be fine.
Normal Seiga is far more dangerous. Her Soul Walking Skill (Nether-type) does
surprisingly high damage for this point of the game, plus she has a surprise Toxic
Haze (Poison-type) to catch you off-guard. Don’t be afraid to use two Puppets to
handle her if necessary, swapping out when the first is low.
Again, this is an excellent opportunity for Experience, so try to swap all of your
Puppets in once if possible.
Interestingly enough, that’s the only time in the game you’ll see that battle back-
ground.
You’ll be allowed to pass after your victory. There’ll be a chance for healing, so
continue on to the Divine Spirit Mausoleum.
Divine Spirit Mausoleum Puppets

Normal Tojiko Electric Normal
Normal Futo Wind/Water Normal
Normal Miko Light/Sound Normal
Two new Puppets are available in the grass to the East and West just before the
42
bridge: the Wind/Water Futo and the Light/Sound Miko. Both are excellent Pup-
pets and would make a great addition to your team. This is also the only place in
the entire game to obtain Futo, so don’t miss your chance.
Head North, noting the item outside the Western fence that is out of reach for now;
we’ll come back for it later when we have a way of crossing over the river. For
now, enter through the gate and head immediately East. The lady in the Southeast
will heal your Puppets whenever necessary.
You’ll be forced into a fight as soon as you try to pass through the next gate to the
North.
Ghost Tojiko
Normal Tojiko, Electrification No Accessory
Lvl 13, Electric
Lvl 13, Electric
Tojiko is a fairly easy battle, especially if you have an Earth-type Puppet handy.
Expect the biggest danger to be Electric-type Skills, which, along with Normal
Tojiko’s Electrification Ability, will likely end up inflicting the Paralysis Status
Effect on at least one of your Puppets, cutting their Speed by half. Also be aware
of her Nether-type Ghost Trick, which deals decent damage.
Heal up and then head North to the building’s entrance, though you’ll have to de-
feat Miko’s loyal disciple, Futo, if you want to pass.
Shikaisen Futo
Normal Seiga, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 13, Nether
Normal Futo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 14, Wind/Water
Futo’s biggest threat is Normal Futo, which does a high amount of damage with
Night Wind (Wind-type). However, you’ll be able to wipe her out instantly by
striking at her 4x weakness to Electric-type Skills.
43
The next battle will be far more difficult, meaning you’ll want to heal up and make
sure your Puppets are at least Level 15+. If they aren’t, grind for a bit in the grass
outside until they’re strong enough. You might also want to power up stats with
PP if you haven’t yet, though the same suggestions as before apply.
Once you are prepared, enter the building and head West to find a Hakugyou Dan-
go and an Akyuu Doll to access your Puppet Box with in the Western room.
Return to the main hall, save your game, and speak to Miko in the North. She has
the unique ability of understanding ten different conversations at once, and can also
comprehend a person’s ten desires that define their entire being. More importantly,
she has the Incident Case you’re looking for, and she knows it.
Expecting that you were put up to this by someone (you were), she’ll refuse to sim-
ply hand it over. In Gensokyo, if you want something, you’ll have to prove your-
self in a Puppet battle!
Shotoku Taoist Miko

Lvl 15, Electric
Normal Futo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 15, Wind/Water
Normal Miko, Up Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 17, Light/Sound
Whenever you hear this music, expect to have a rough time of it. Remember
when I said that Rumia was your first real boss battle? Well, I might have lied a
bit.
Miko is very strong and will test your party’s capabilities at this early point in the
game, even if you have six Puppets to her three. She’ll use far better tactics than
previous Puppeteers, which can lead to disaster if you aren’t ready for them.
Normal Tojiko is the weakest of the group. She’ll use Lightning Charge to boost
her Sp. Defense by a stage as well as double the power of the next Electric-type
Skill she uses (she’ll often use it back-to-back, though this doesn’t add more than
the base 2x multiplier to her next Electric-type Skill). If she’s foolish enough to
use it multiple times, destroy her before she can deal serious damage. An Earth-
44
type Puppet will eliminate most of the danger here.
Normal Futo loves to start off by using Terrain [Seiryu], which makes type match-
ups no longer apply for about five turns (aka neither Normal Futo nor your Puppet
will take barrier-piercing damage from weaknesses or be able to rely on resistan-
ces for as long as the effect is up). She’ll then start pummling you with Night
Wind (Wind-type) and Foam Bubbles (Water-type) while no longer having to fear
an instant KO from Electric-type Skills. Since her Speed is so high, don’t expect
to win any races unless your Puppet is very fast.
Normal Miko is a nightmare waiting to happen. She has an extremely high base
70 Fo. Attack for a Normal Puppet to pair with her solid base 50 Speed, meaning
she’ll move fairly quickly and hit like a truck at this point of the game. Worse,
her Up Tempo Ability will boost her Speed by a stage at the end of every turn,
making her faster than your entire party within a turn, perhaps two at the most.
This can lead to a full-party wipe when she starts boosting her Fo. Attack by a
stage with Gathered Stars. After a turn or two, she’ll start laying down heavy
damage with Skills such as Ambient (Sound-type), Yin Energy (Dream-type), and
Light Up (Light-type). This can quickly spiral out of control, as she has the capa-
bility to one-shot weaker Puppets and two-shot stronger ones.
The best way to defeat her is to target her with a Sp. Attack Skill that’s Water,
Earth, Dark, or Illusion-type (her weaknesses), though it’ll still likely take a few
turns to KO her since she has high HP as well. If Terrain [Seiryu] is still up,
you’ll just have to tough it out until it drops.
While you could try swapping Puppets in for Experience, it would be far better to
simply focus on winning this otherwise difficult battle.
Disappointed, Miko will nonetheless hand over the second Incident Case as prom-
ised.
Your objective complete, heal your party up one last time and make the journey
back to the Myouren Temple Cemetary. There, you’ll find a Tanuki waiting for
you, which just so happens to be Mamizou’s true form. She simply wants to con-
gratulate you on your success and apologize for cheating you. While you’ll have
to search for the rest of the Incident Cases yourself, she’ll point you towards
Akyuu, who might have a new lead for you.
45
5. A Trip to the Forest of Magic
Once you’ve successfully made your way back to the Human Village, you’ll want
to proceed to Akyuu’s Mansion. Kosuzu at her Bookstore is too busy to translate
your new Incident Case currently, but once your next trip is done she’ll be happy to
do so.
Akyuu asks how things went with Kosuzu before, and is only midly surprised to
hear you left town to search for leads (though she doesn’t think to ask how you
managed to do so, considering you had to have Mamizou trick the guard to leave).
Regardless, she approves of your initiative, and thinks you should continue your
travels as opposed to simply waiting in the Human Village.
Answer in agreement and she’ll give you a Puppet Book (similar to the Pokedex in
the Pokemon games, but not quite as detailed...you’ll still want the online Puppet-
dex if possible). She’ll then point you towards your next destination: a small shop
called Kourindou that’s located on the edge of the Forest of Magic. There are
likely tools there that will help you out on your journey.
Kourindou is to the West. Thankfully, the cart that was blocking the path ahead is
now gone, allowing you to leave out the Southwest Gate.
Once you leave through the Gate, save your game immediately. If you don’t you
might regret it.
Continue forward to be stopped by a voice from the West. Music cues as none oth-
er than Reimu herself appears.
Sadly, she forgot your name already. Since outside the Human Village is danger-
ous, she’ll wonder why you’re leaving town. She’ll immediately come to the cor-
rect conclusion that you’re doing exactly what she told you not to do and sticking
your neck into her business. After all, Reimu is the Incident Resolution Specialist
of Gensokyo (along with Marisa).
If you really want to continue on with your journey, you’ll have to face her in bat-
tle. Reimu will be more than happy to provide a beat down.
46
Shrine Maiden of Gensokyo Reimu
Normal Aya, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 16, Wind
Normal Suika, Charge! No Accessory
Lvl 16, Fighting/Earth
Normal Reimu, Composed Hematite Hairpin
Thankfully, Reimu’s Puppets aren’t as high a Level as you would expect from her,
but each of them are quite powerful and capable of wiping out a few of your Pup-
pets each. Adding to the difficulty is that each of them are likely new to you (un-
less you picked one as your Starting Puppet), meaning you won’t know quite
what to expect.
Normal Aya is not yet the monster she’ll become later once she can become
Power Aya, but she’s still extremely fast and hits hard. Her Gale Ability will only
come into play if you inflict a Status Effect on her, meaning that unless you want
her Speed boosted by 50% more, you shouldn’t do that. Her Feather Shot Skill
(Wind-type) will do strong damage unless you have a Steel or Electric-type Pup-
pet out that resists it, at which point she’ll fall back on Yang Energy (Dream-type)
or another weaker Skill.
Normal Suika is a Fo. Attack damage-dealing monster thanks to her Charge! Abil-
ity, which boosts her damage by an additional 30% in exchange for not being able
to activate the secondary effects of Skills (such as a chance to inflict Poison, or a
chance to reduce the enemy’s Speed). You’ll almost certainly want a Puppet capa-
ble of taking a beating as well as striking at her myriad of weaknesses (Water, Na-
ture, Wind, Fighting, and Sound). If you play it smart, you might be able to de-
feat her while forcing her to spam Yin Energy instead of her more dangerous
Fighting or Earth-type Skills.
Normal Reimu has very well-rounded stats. At this point of the game, her Void/Il-
lusion typing is maddening, as she’s only weak to Sound-type and Warped-type
Skills (the latter of which you almost certainly don’t have). She has a Hematite
Hairpin which boosts her Steel-type Metal Needle Skill, causing it to do signifi-
cant damage even though it isn’t an on-type Skill for Normal Reimu. This, along
with her type-boosted Void and Illusion-type Skills, will make her able to strike a
wide variety of Puppets for either neutral or barrier-piercing damage. Ouch.
47
Beware of her Metal Needle Skill’s chance to raise her Sp. Attack, making her
even more dangerous.
Reimu will warn you after her loss about the dangers of Gensokyo, telling you that
nobody will come to your rescue if you get into trouble. She’ll reluctantly say that
you can do whatever you want so long as you don’t get in her way.
You’ll likely want to return for healing once Reimu leaves.
Route 5 Puppets
Normal Rika Fire/Steel Normal
Normal Rumia Dark Normal
Normal Tokiko Wind Normal
Normal Wriggle Nature/Dark Normal
Normal Mystia Sound/Dark Normal
Normal Sumireko Warped/Void Rare
Normal Rinnosuke Void Pot near Kourindou
Once you’ve prepared, head West past the Southern split, as the road will be
blocked by members of the Puppet Liberation Front, preventing you from advanc-
ing to Route 6. After the road turns North, you’ll want to head West into the field.
The Farmer will start a fight if he sees you.
Farmer Yuuto
Lvl 14, Nature
Continue West until you pass through the other fence. Check the stump just North
of you for a hidden Hakugyou Dango. If you follow the Northwest grassy path to
its end, you’ll find a Moriya Shinshu.
48
Return to the main path and head North until you reach a North/West split. The
way North is blocked farther on by small trees that you’ll need a special tool to cut,
so instead continue West on the main path. You’ll soon be stopped by a Maid look-
ing to try her hand at Puppeteering.
Novice Maid Yuzu

Normal Ruukoto, Recoil Offset No Accessory
Lvl 14, Steel
To the West just past the large bridge is a Youkai milling around. This is Sekiban-
ki, and she’s able to detach her head and control it separately. She’s also happy to
fight you, though only if you speak to her.
Rokurokubi Sekibanki
Normal Kogasa, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 14, Water/Wind
Normal Sekibanki, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 16, Dark
This should be a very simple fight.
Watch out for Kogasa’s Warning Shot Ability, which will lower your Puppet’s Sp.
Attack by one stage at the start of the battle. Simply start off with a Fo. Attack-re-
liant Puppet and it won’t be an issue.
Normal Sekibanki will go down easily, but beware of her off-type Specter Warn-
ing (Nether-type) meant to catch you off-guard.
If your Puppets can handle more fighting, continue on to the West. There’s a
bridge leading South, but there’s a hurdle blocking your path in that direction.
We’ll have to hit it from the West instead.
Further West, there’s a Youkai munching on mochi that will stop you and ask for a
battle!
Youkai Aoba
49
Lvl 13, Dark
Lvl 13, Dark
Continue on until you reach the end of the path and a North/South split. There’s a
method of healing to the North that’s much, much faster than returning to the Hu-
man Village, so let’s go that way first. Head North, continuing past the Western
split, and follow the path all the way until you reach Kourindou. Don’t enter it yet,
however, as we should finish clearing Route 5. Talk to the Youkai just Southwest
of the building to receive free healing whenever you need.
Now that you’re ready to roll, head back South until the path splits off to the West
near a Youkai with wings. Talk to her for a battle!
Book-Reading Youkai Tokiko

Lvl 14, Sound/Dark
Normal Tokiko, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 16, Wind
Don’t overthink this one, as it should be one of the easiest Touhou character fights
in the game.
Normal Mystia is the only potential threat here. She’ll use Encourage to force
you to repeat the same Skill for 2-3 turns in a row, which gives you plenty of time
to simply aim for a one-shot KO by hitting her with Wind, Electric, Steel, Light,
or Fighting-type Skills. If she does attack, expect type-boosted Sound or Dark-
type Skills.
Normal Tokiko likes using Tiger Rush, a Void-type Skill that has boosted Priority
(meaning it’ll act before most other Skills, regardless of your Puppet’s Speed), but
also has low damage because of it. Expect it to tickle and nothing more. If she
uses Feather Shot (Wind-type), you’ll take a bit more damage, but it likely won’t
be particularly devestating.
50
Check the Western tree at the end of the small path near Tokiko for a Plain Doll,
which can be used in a wild Puppet battle to guarantee an escape.
Resume your trip back South until you reach the Western split from before that has
a Youkai guarding the path ahead. This will eventually lead to an item, so go
ahead and prepare for a fight!
Youkai Karen
Lvl 13, Dark
Lvl 13, Dark
Continue West and cut through the patch of grass. Ignore the grass behind the
Southern hurdle and instead go East to find a rare Rainbow Candy. From there,
hop over the hurdle to the East and speak to the Old Man for a battle!
Old Man Yuichiro

Normal Sukuna, Sore Loser No Accessory
Lvl 14, Steel/Earth
There’s two more fairly easy fights left to go; if you need healing, however, return
to the Youkai near Kourindou and come back.
Continue South and follow the path as it crosses over a bridge. Talk to the Youkai
with a bucket on her head to the South for another battle!
Youkai Honoka
Lvl 14, Water/Wind
Head to the East and hop over the hurdle to find one more Puppeteer.
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Novice Puppeteer Kazushi
Normal Nazrin, Active No Accessory
Lvl 13, Earth/Steel
Normal Wriggle, Jamming No Accessory
Lvl 13, Nature/Dark
Sadly, the item to the Northwest can’t be collected until you get something that
will allow you to cross bodies of water. Remember it for later (though it’ll be cov-
ered in Side Quest Section 2).
Return to Kourindou and heal up. If you didn’t grab it earlier, there’s a Diamond
Hairpin just West of the entrance (boosts Void-type Skills). If you’re interested in
collecting a new (but bad) Puppet, check the pot to the Northeast to find the Void-
type Rinnosuke. It also happens to be the only male Puppet in the entire game (and
the character himself pretty much the only semi-important male character in the en-
tire Touhou universe).
Enter Kourindou to find Rinnosuke himself behind the counter. He’s a half-human,
half-Youkai who has the ability to understand the name of anything just by being
near the item in question. This comes in handy for him since he runs a shop full of
random stuff, including goods from the Outside World that found their way into
Gensokyo, though it doesn’t help him in determining how some of the more exotic
items are used (such as computers, which obviously are useless without electric-
ity).
At any rate, talk to the man to find out that even he has heard of you. Obviously,
the Tengu are pretty quick at distributing the news.
Upon learning that you’re investigating the Puppet Incident, he’ll offer to give you
a Bicycle that will greatly speed up your journey...if you’re willing to do a small er-
rand for him. Since he has to make repairs on the Bicycle, he’s sending you into
the Forest of Magic to deliver a package to a Magician named Alice.
What he doesn’t tell you is that the Forest of Magic is pretty dangerous for a nor-
mal human, and that it’s easy to get lost in there. Still, you have Puppets, so it’ll be
fine...right?
52
It also just so happens that Alice is known to be a skilled Puppet-user herself, and
actually created and manipulated various dolls before the Puppet Incident began. It
seems like your journey into the dangerous Forest of Magic might be worthwhile
after all (though the Bicycle is almost reward enough since it’ll make you much,
much faster).
Rinnosuke recently got various Accessories for Puppets that you can purchase if
you wish. While many of these are very situational, the Red Ring and Blue Ear-
rings are excellent, as they boost your Puppet’s Fo. Attack or Sp. Attack, respec-
tively. While not as big a boost as the Hairpin items, they have the advantage of
applying to all attacks, not just those of a single type. You’ll find one of each dur-
ing your journey, but if you absolutely have to have a few, they’re a great bargain
at 1,000 each. Just make sure you’re stocked up on Seal Threads first, as the For-
est of Magic has plenty of new Puppets to find.
Once you’re prepared, go ahead and enter the Forest of Magic, located just to the
West of Kourindou. You’ll find a lot of Fairies here, who love playing tricks on
humans and getting into similar mischief.
Forest of Magic Part 1 Puppets

Normal Sunny Light Normal
Normal Luna Light/Wind Normal
Normal Star Light/Water Normal
Normal Alice Steel/Light Rare
Navigating Part 1 of the Forest of Magic (yes, there’s a second optional, larger part
later) is like traveling clockwise in a giant circle. The side paths can make it seem
confusing, but remember that you can always backtrack and return for healing
whenever you need. Everything will be laid out as simply and efficiently as possi-
ble, so do your best to follow along to avoid getting lost.
From the entrance, head South until you are stopped by a Fairy.
Fairy Miria
53
Lvl 14, Nature
Lvl 14, Water
You’ll find that Fairy-type Puppeteers love to use Fairy Puppets such as Daiyousei,
Cirno, Sunny, Luna, and Star. All of these Puppets are fairly weak, making many
Fairy Puppeteers easy enough to defeat.
Head South until you reach a Southeast/Southwest split. They lead to the same
place, but the Southeast split allows you to avoid traveling through grass. Either
way you take, you’ll encounter another Fairy where they meet up.
Fairy Norma
Normal Sunny, Active No Accessory
Lvl 15, Light
Watch out for a surprise Fire-type Skill from Sunny.
Continue South and check the short muddy path to the East at the split to find a
Bead Necklace. Take the Western split this time and follow it until you reach a
large path heading West (the correct way to go) and another path heading South-
east. Let’s head Southeast first to snag a few items and Puppeteers, such as the one
immediately blocking the path forward.
Fairy Liz
Normal Luna, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Lvl 14, Light/Wind
Lvl 14, Light/Wind
Continue Southeast until you come to a four-way intersection. The path East is a
dead end; we’ll be taking both North and South eventually, but let’s head South
first to a new side area.
54
In the next area, take the Western split (to the East is another dead end) to find a
Puppet Liberation Front member just past a bridge.
Puppet Liberation Front Aniese

Lvl 14, Water
In the grassy patch to the West is an Opal Hairpin, which boosts Light-type Skills.
Return to the four-way intersection in the previous area and head North to find an-
other Fairy blocking the path.
Fairy Sharo
Normal Star, Aurora Grace No Accessory
Lvl 13, Light/Water
Lvl 13, Light/Wind
Normal Sunny, Flash No Accessory
Lvl 13, Light
Just past the Fairy is an East/West split. Take the West split into the grass to find a
Seal Thread. From there, head East until you reach a hurdle. Hop over it and then
head West to return to the West/Southeast split from before.
Your Puppets might be getting a bit tired by now, but don’t worry about healing, as
you’ll receive some soon.
We’ll be heading West this time. Cross the bridge and follow the path until it
opens up into a wide area. Head North until you see a very nice house; before you
head inside, check the mushroom to the Northwest of it to snag a Plain Doll.
Alice will greet you upon entering her house. She’s surprised to hear you have a
package for her, but immediately gets excited upon seeing it.
55
Surprisingly enough (or perhaps not), she’s also heard about you from the newspa-
per. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know a lot about the Puppets scattered around Gen-
sokyo, as they’re different than the ones she creates and manipulates. After you
rest up, however, she will remember that the Puppets scattered around Gensokyo
are powered by magic, which makes a certain Magician residing in the Scarlet
Devil Mansion’s Great Library a prime suspect.
Of course, there also happens to be vampires living there, but there’s no reason
they would be interested in a fresh, blood-filled Human waltzing in their door, is
there?
If you speak to her again, she’ll further explain that the Scarlet Devil Mansion is
found near the Misty Lake, which is to the North of Route 5.
There’s nothing of interest in her house, but Alice will let you use her bed to heal
up whenever you need it.
While you could simply retrace your steps and return to Kourindou from here, it’d
be well worth your time to finish exploring this section of the Forest of Magic.
Head Southwest from Alice’s House and take the path leading West until you reach
a four-way intersection. Take the South path first to be ambushed by a Fairy lying
in wait.
Fairy Chiyori
Lvl 15, Light/Wind
Grab the Hakugyou Dango at the end of the path and return to the intersection.
This time, head West through the grass to reach a new area with an Obsidian Hair-
pin (boosts Dark-type Skills).
Back in the previous area, head North this time and pass by the Eastern split for
now. Towards the end is another Fairy to fight.
Fairy Koko
Lvl 15, Light/Water
56
Up the steps to the North is an Antidote Charm, which will remove Poison as soon
as it is inflicted (once per battle).
Return to the Eastern split and follow it until you reach a North/Southeast split.
Head North since the other leads to an immediate dead end. You’ll be stopped by
yet another Fairy further down the path.
Fairy Pino
Normal Lily, Antibody No Accessory
Lvl 14, Void
Lvl 14, Void
The linear path crosses a bridge until it eventually comes to a North/South split.
There’s nothing of interest South, meaning we will be heading North. You’ll al-
most immediately find an Emerald Hairpin, which boosts Nature-type Skills.
After passing by a friendly pair of Fairies, you’ll eventually come to an East/South

split. There’s a Puppeteer to the South, so forge through the grass until you are
stopped by a Fairy blocking the path ahead.
Fairy Tail
Normal Luna, Flash No Accessory
Lvl 14, Light/Wind
Normal Star, Light Curtain No Accessory
Lvl 14, Light/Water
Despite what her positioning would imply, there isn’t actually an item past the pun-
named Fairy. Return to the split and jump over the Eastern hurdles to find yourself
back near the beginning of the Forest of Magic. From there, simply head North
and then Northeast to reach the exit.
Back in Kourindou, Rinnosuke will be happy to hear that you completed his er-
57
rand. He’ll hand over the Bicycle, the first of five key items you’ll find during
your playthrough that will enhance your journey throughout Gensokyo.
In this case, you can hop on your Bicycle by pressing the Shift or C key, which will
greatly impact your traveling Speed. Of course, you won’t be able to use this item
inside buildings and a few other very rare areas, but for the most part this will be
the fastest way for you to zoom around Gensokyo.
Upon hearing that Alice suggested going to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Kourindou
will mention that there are some trees blocking the path. You’ll need his Woodcut-
ter Doll to get through; however, he sold it not too long ago to the Youkai in Eien-
tei, which is located in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. You’ll need to speak to
Keine, the teacher in the Human Village’s School, to find out how to get there.
6. Lost in the Bamboo Forest
Once you’ve returned to the Human Village, you’ll actually need to stop by
Akyuu’s Mansion to find Keine. However, why not check with Kosuzu in her
Bookstore and have her translate the Incident Case 2? Apart from the fact you’ll
need to read them all eventually, you might be surprised at what the books con-
tain...
You’ll find Keine and Akyuu having a conversation upon entering Akyuu’s room.
Keine looks disgruntled by something, and Akyuu immediately offers your help
once she notices your entry. How kind of her.
Keine explains that there’s a recurring problem at Eientei that once again has be-
come an issue. While they asked for her help with settling it, she’s getting tired of
taking the time to go there again and again to resolve the situation.
For veterans of the Touhou series, you might be able to imagine what this is refer-
ring to, but it’ll be fun, right? Besides, they have your Woodcutter Doll, so there’s
a decent chance you’ll somehow be able to claim it after solving the incident.
Accept the request and you’ll be given permission to leave town via the Southern
Gate (the one straight South of the Rest Area).
If you were to speak to Akyuu again, she would also mention that the Puppet
58
Clothing Shop officially opened, located in the Southeast of town near the South-
east Gate. For a measly 3,000, you can change your Puppet’s outfit or in some
cases their entire form to one of three potential extra options. The first option is a
simple recolor. The second option is anything from a new outfit to a new form,
and often gives your Puppets a completely new feel. The third option is only avail-
able to your Starting Puppet or a Puppet that reached Level 100 and then Reincar-
nated (to be explained later!), but gives them a very...distinctive look. If any of
that sounds exciting, head on over there and give it a try (though make sure you
have the money on hand before you go there)!
Please note that none of these outfit/form changes will affect your Puppets’ battle
capabilities in any way, and are purely cosmetic. However, they may affect more
than just their battle sprite...
Once you’re ready to depart, make your way to the Southern Gate (not the South-
east Gate). The guard will stop you, but upon hearing you’ve received official per-
mission, you’ll be allowed to pass through whenever you wish.
Route 4 Puppets
Normal Elly Steel/Wind Normal
Normal Kurumi Dark Normal
Normal Seija Poison Rare
Normal Mamizou Illusion/Nature Very Rare
Normal Nitori Water/Steel Pot near SW lake
Welcome to Route 4. There are a lot of enemy Puppeteers milling around the
mostly linear Route, meaning you’ll likely need to return for healing at least once.
There are also a few hidden secrets that you’ll need to come back for once you can
cross the water, but that’ll be covered later in Side Quest Section 2.
In terms of new wild Puppets, you’ll be able to find the Steel/Wind Elly, the Dark-
type Kurumi, and the very rare Illusion/Nature Mamizou. Returning Puppets are
Mystia and Seija. If you’re looking for Mamizou, prepare to search for quite a
while.
59
Follow the path until you are stopped by a Wolf-type Youkai who wants a fight!
Youkai Riko
Normal Kurumi, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 17, Dark
Normal Kurumi, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 17, Dark
At least Riko is surprisingly polite about impeding your journey.
Continue on until you see a woman to the East and a Farmer to the South. She
won’t fight you unless you speak to her, but the Farmer will engage you on sight.
Novice Puppeteer Hinako

Normal Kotohime, Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 17, Void
Normal Kotohime, Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 17, Void
Farmer Kengo
Normal Yuuka, Peaceful No Accessory
Lvl 19, Nature/Electric
Beware of Normal Yuuka’s extremely high Fo. Attack damage and a high HP and
Fo. Defense to go with it. Aim at her lower Sp. Defense instead.
Further down the path to the South is a Fairy that will stop you if she sees you in
an unfortunate (for her) case of mistaken identity.
Fairy Hibari
Lvl 17, Dark
60
Lvl 17, Dark
There’s a Quartz Hairpin that boosts Earth-type Skills to the Southwest next to a
large lake. If you’re interested in catching the Water/Steel Nitori, check the pot
just to the North of the Hairpin.
If you’re interested in another fight, there’s a kid on the nearby dock that will hap-
pily battle you.
Rascal Shouta
Normal Seija, Unjustness No Accessory
Lvl 17, Poison
Normal Seija, Usurpation No Accessory
Lvl 17, Poison
Beware getting caught off-guard by Normal Seija’s Light Up Skill (Light-type).
If your Puppets are getting tired, consider making the trek back for healing, as
there are a few more Puppeteers to defeat before we’ll reach another Rest Area.
Head East and follow the path until you see an item to the South blocked by a sec-
tion of fencing. Continue East to find the grassy path that leads to the Contract
Thread.
Cross the bridge and check the Northern stump just after to find a Rainbow Candy.
Continue on until you find a North/South split; hop the South split into the grass
and follow the path East until you find the Ointment Charm at the end (similar to
the other Charms, except for Burn).
Hop the hurdle and head West briefly to find Kagerou, a Werewolf Youkai that is
only strong on full moons. Regardless, she’ll accept your challenge if you speak to
her!
Werewolf Kagerou
Normal Wakasagi, Grace of Water No Accessory
Lvl 19, Water
61
Lvl 19, Dark
Normal Kagerou, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 21, Dark/Wind
Kagerou isn’t anything to worry about if you’re prepared for the off-type Skills
that could hit you. Normal Wakasagi has a Sound-type Skill that could poten-
tially catch you off-guard. Normal Sekibanki has the off-type Specter Warning
(Nether-type), and also starts her first turn with the one-use Raid (Void-type,
boosted Priority and causes flinching). Normal Kagerou has the Mud Dango Skill
(Earth-type) that can catch your Steel-type Puppets when they aim at her 4x weak-
ness to Steel.
This would also be a good chance to swap in each of your Puppets for Experience
since there are three enemies.
Return to the East and follow the path North. You’ll be stopped by a cunning Maid
who wants to take advantage of your weakened party just before you can reach the
Rest Area.
Maid Kazuha
Lvl 17, Steel/Nether
Normal Youmu, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
After defeating Kazuha, head straight North and make an offering at the Jizo stat-
ue. From there, go East around the hurdle, cut through the gap, and snag the Haku-
gyou Dango to the East of the Rest Area before finally heading inside the Rest
Area.
The Peddler in the West has some excellent goods available. In addition to the tier-
two Puppet Repellent (Talisman) and the tier-two Thread (Contract Thread) that
you can now purchase, he has a bevy of Skill Cards available for a massive 15,000
each. Skill Cards are similar to TMs in the Pokemon games in that you can use
them to teach Puppets a variety of Skills; however, you can use Skill Cards as
62
many times as you like, so long as your Puppets can learn the Skill being taught in
the first place (for Normal Style Puppets, the pickings are slim, but once they Style
Change they’ll be able to learn more than before). You can learn the Skills from
Skill Cards by either using the appropriate option under your Puppet’s Edit menu
or by selecting the Skill Card itself in the Item menu.
Note that Skill Cards are always either found while exploring areas or purchased
from Peddlers in the various Rest Areas scattered around Gensokyo. Some of the
Skills are very, very useful, so it’s always worth it to follow the Guide and snag
them when out exploring; when it comes to purchasing them, money can be tight
early on, so use your best judgement when buying these highly expensive items.
To aid in this, you’ll always get a helpful explanation and brief usefulness discus-
sion that should allow you to better come to a decision as to whether a particular
Skill from a Skill Card is worth using/purchasing.
All of the Skill Cards for sale at this Peddler are support-based ones. Skill Card
64, Magic Barrier (called Barrier Option on the Peddler’s menu for whatever rea-
son), is a Void-type Skill that puts up a protective barrier for the cost of 1/4 of your
Puppet’s health. Until the enemy Puppet breaks through the barrier, your Puppet
will remain safe from attacks, allowing you to use stronger Skills with impunity.
This is the same as the Substitute move from Pokemon. You’ll likely want to give
this one a pass unless you are a vet of games such as these, as poor usage can sim-
ply result in you wasting a turn setting up a barrier just for your opponent to break
it down immediately. In the right hands, however, it can lead to devestating re-
sults, especially if the Puppet using it is paired with the Food Rations Accessory,
allowing them to heal the damage caused by the Skill within four turns or so (hope-
fully, they used the opening to bulk up in some manner).
Skill Card 65, Unconscious Mind, is meant to be used in combination with Skill
Card 78, Continue, which heals your Puppet to full and gets rid of all Status Effects
in exchange for having the Stop Status Effect inflicted on itself for two turns (pre-
venting your Puppet from acting, pretty much like the Rest move from Pokemon).
What Unconscious Mind does is allow your Puppet to use another of its Skills ran-
domly while Stopped, which can potentially allow them to still be useful instead of
a sitting duck. While Continue can be used on its own to great effect (such as with
a tanky Puppet wielding the Curing Charm, and especially with one that has the
Economist Ability), Unconscious Mind is useless on its own. Continue might be
worth snagging later on depending on your eventual party, but Unconscious Mind
is likely a hard pass.
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Skill Cards 70 and 71 are very similar. Skill Card 70, Field Barrier, puts up a pro-
tective barrier for five turns that reduces the damage taken from Sp. Attack Skills
by half; Skill Card 71, Field Protect, does the same thing except for Fo. Attack
Skills. These can be nearly game-breaking with the right Puppets, as this can allow
glass cannon Puppets to potentially live for another turn, or for tanky Puppets to
become completely unkillable until the effects wear off. The biggest issues come
from being forced to use two out of four of your Puppet’s Skill slots for them, tak-
ing two turns to use them (making the first one used only last for three more), po-
tentially sacrificing another turn to then swap out for another Puppet, and the exis-
tence of a few Skills that can destroy Field Barrier/Protect. In the early game, this
will completely break the game; later on, it’ll still make you really overpowered in
most fights, though a few Puppets will have the Break Skills necessary to cancel
Field Barrier/Protect out. Honestly, I’d pass on them for now unless you want to
be way overpowered, though they are definitely great to use later on when the
game gets far more difficult.
Finally, Skill Card 72, Lucky Rainbow, protects all of your Puppets from Status Ef-
fects for five turns. Unless you know a Status Effect-heavy fight is coming, it’s
pointless, and even then, you’re likely better off saving your money for other
things rather than the one or two situations where it could shine.
Now that we’re done with shopping, we have a decision to make. The Bamboo
Forest of the Lost is to the East; however, there are five Puppeteers to the West that
would be worth battling now as opposed to later for the Experience. We’ll need
the boost for the tough fights incoming, so go ahead and head to the West for now.
You’ll soon come to two Youkai standing East of a bridge. Each of them will yield
an easy battle if you speak to them.
Youkai Asami
Normal Mamizou, Slow Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 19, Illusion/Nature
Youkai Natsume
Normal Nue, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 19, Illus./Electric
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Cross the bridge and take the Southern off-shoot path to run into a Cat Youkai.
Youkai Sayaka
Normal Chen, Flexible No Accessory
Lvl 17, Wind
Normal Nazrin, Active No Accessory
Lvl 17, Earth/Steel
Though she claims to be a Wolf, she’s definitely a Cat Youkai.
Continue on to find two Puppet Liberation Front members attempting to set up a

new base camp. Stop them before they can do so!
Puppet Liberation Front Fleur

Lvl 18, Earth/Steel
Normal Kyouko, Last Defense No Accessory
Lvl 17, Sound
While not at all important, this Puppet Liberation Front Fairy portrait type is the
best in the game in my humble opinion.
Regardless, there’s nothing else special about her, so crush her like the rest.
Watch out for Normal Kyouko’s surprise Energy Bolt (Electric-type).
Puppet Liberation Front Wenny

Lvl 17, Light/Wind
Lvl 17, Nature
Continue on to find Skill Card 20, Clearing Mist. This Steel-type Fo. Attack Skill
is sadly one of the more complex ones. It does more damage the higher the Cost
difference between your Puppet and the opponent. Cost is related primarily to how
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high or low a Puppet’s base stat total is, with lower Cost Puppets having a much
lower combined base stat total, and higher Cost Puppets having massively higher
overall stats. You’ll likely want to skip it until later in the game where you’ll see a
lot more higher-Cost Puppets, though even then it can be tricky to use.
That’s everything in the West, so return to the Rest Area and heal up. Once you’re
prepared (stock up on Contract Threads if you are interested in getting new Pup-
pets), head East towards the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.
Just before reaching the next area, a Rabbit Youkai will crash out of the bamboo
and stumble into you. Upon hearing that you’re here on behalf of Keine, she’ll tell
you that things are growing serious before scampering off to tell Eirin of your com-
ing.
Of course, she won’t think to guide you, which means you’ll need to struggle
through this maze on your own.
Bamboo Forest of the Lost Puppets

Normal Tewi Void Normal
Normal Udonge Illusion Normal
Normal Kagerou Dark/Wind Normal
Normal Mokou Fire Rare
Here’s how things will work. The Bamboo Forest of the Lost is a navigation puz-
zle made up of a series of similar square-ish areas. There will always be four exits,
one to the North, East, South, and West. Pick the right direction in each area to ad-
vance to the next one; pick the wrong one and you’ll end back at the starting
square. To add a bit of confusion, there are actually a few areas that have two cor-
rect exits, with the second exit leading to a secret area. Neither of the two secret
areas are worth exploring until after our business here is done and we’ve success-
fully returned to the nearby Rest Area. We’ll be covering these secret areas, one of
which leads to a big surprise, in Side Quest Section 1, which will occur just after
we finish up here.
It’s pretty easy to avoid battles if you want to, as the grass is always off the path
66
and the Rabbit Youkai Puppeteers are all passive, meaning you’ll have to talk to
them if you want to battle. That said, I highly advise fighting each of them, as
you’ll want the Experience. Your Puppets won’t likely be ready to Style Change
quite yet unless you’ve spent a lot of time searching for new Puppets. However,
you might end up reaching Level 30 fairly soon, so be ready to figure out what you
want from each of your Puppets before too long. Briefly researching their potential
Style choices via the Puppetdex is a great way to go, and likely just seeing the stat
spread, type combination, and potential Abilities is enough to figure things out
without going any further in-depth.
Since there’s one Puppeteer per area, I’ll provide the Puppeteer data for the area,
then the direction to the next area, then the next area’s Puppeteer, etc.
Youkai Nagi
Normal Tewi, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 19, Void
Lvl 19, Void
Head East to the second area.
Youkai Hiiragi
Normal Seiran, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 19, Void/Electric
Normal Ringo, Overcompensate No Accessory
Lvl 18, Nature
Go South to the third area.
Youkai Ibuki
Normal Udonge, Precise Aim No Accessory
Lvl 21, Illusion
Beware of Normal Udonge’s surprise Dark-type Bad Moon Skill.
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Go North to the fourth area.
Youkai Kaya
Normal Tewi, Quick Eye No Accessory
Lvl 21, Void
Head West to the fifth area.
Youkai Mao
Normal Rei’sen, Worrywart No Accessory
Lvl 19, Void
Normal Rei’sen, Common Senseless No Accessory
Lvl 19, Void
Her damage is fairly low, but watch out for Normal Rei’sen’s off-type Spark Shot
Skill (Electric-type) and Mysterious Flare Skill (Illusion-type)
Continue to the West to get to the final maze area (sixth area).
Youkai Mugi
Normal Udonge, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 21, Illusion
The correct path is to the North, but you would be very wise to return for healing
first by taking any of the other exits to return to the entrance, and then heading
West to leave the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.
From the beginning, the correct way to reach the end is East, South, North, West,
West, North.
Shortly into the area outside of Eientei, you’ll be stopped by a mischevious Rabbit
Youkai named Tewi and a more serious one named Udonge (also called Reisen).
Udonge will tell Tewi to guide you before going to let Eirin know that you’ve ar-
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rived, but Tewi takes the opportunity to challenge you to a Puppet battle!
Lucky Rabbit Tewi

Lvl 20, Void
Lvl 20, Illusion
Lvl 22, Void
Tewi’s Puppets are the same as what you’ve encountered from the other Rabbit
Youkai. However, she’s a bit stronger than the others, so don’t let your guard
down.
Both Normal Tewi Puppets have a new Lost Crisis Skill (Dark-type) to surprise
you, but it shouldn’t do too much damage. Both of these Puppets are fairly weak
and should go down easily, especially to a Dark-type Skill of your own.
Instead, be ready for Normal Udonge, who’s the only real threat here. She still
has the off-type Bad Moon (Dark-type) to catch you off-guard, though her main
damage comes from her Illusion Bullets Skill. She also has the Chaos Induction
Ability, which can potentially cause your Puppets to be inflicted with the Confu-
sion Status Effect once you hit her. This will cause your affected Puppet to have a
50% chance of not attacking, though the condition only lasts until you swap them
out or until it fades away after a few turns or so. Attack her with Illusion, Sound,
or Warped-type Skills for 2x effectiveness.
This is another great opportunity to swap in your Puppets for Experience since the
incoming damage is still fairly low.
You’ll be forced to guide yourself after your victory, as Tewi is far too lazy to do
so.
Eientei Area Puppets

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Normal Reisen Illusion Normal
Normal Eirin Poison/Water Rare
Normal Kaguya Light Rare
Before entering, you might want to check the grass to the Northeast or Northwest
for additional new Puppets. In addition to Tewi and Reisen from the main Bamboo
Forest, you’ll also find the Poison/Water Eirin and the Light-type Kaguya. Both
are fairly rare to find, though it likely won’t take you too long. Kaguya can only
be found here, so you might want to snag her now if you’re interested.
If your Puppets are at all injured, you might want to take the long trek back for
healing, as there’s one more mid-boss battle to go before you can get healing inside
Eientei.
Once you’re prepared, head inside to find yourself in a Japanese-style mansion.

Head East to the end and then North to find a room where you can snag a Fluorite,
which boosts the length of protection moves when used by the Puppet holding the
Fluorite (very useful when paired with Field Barrier/Protect).
Leave the room and keep heading North along the Eastern path to find Myouren
Tea and a Chirei Sweet Bun at the end.
Sadly, that’s all the items for now. Return to the entrance and head West to find a
room at the end of the small Western hallway. Save your game before entering.
You’ll see Udonge/Reisen and a new character called Eirin waiting for you. Eirin
is a very talented doctor who created incredible potions such as the immortality-
granting Hourai Elixer. She’s also a very loyal servant to her master, Princess Ka-
guya; all of them come from the Moon, which sounds odd, but there’s actually a
Lunarian Kingdom filled with Moon Rabbits and other superior beings.
At any rate, Eirin apparently doubts your skills as much as Tewi did, though Tewi
simply wanted to have fun. Eirin will have Udonge test your abilities as a Puppet-
eer; don’t expect this to be as easy a fight as Tewi was!
Moon Rabbit Reisen
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Normal Seiran, Recalibration No Accessory
Lvl 20, Void/Electric
Normal Ringo, Overcompensate No Accessory
Lvl 20, Nature
Lvl 24, Illusion
All three Puppets you’ve seen before, but they’re a bit stronger this time around.
Normal Seiran is mainly a threat for her Electric-type Spark Shot Skill. Send an
Earth-type Puppet out and she’s barely a danger at all, though you could get by
with just slugging it out with just about anything that isn’t weak to Electric.
Normal Ringo has a new Skill called Hornet’s Flit (Nature-type). This is a 2-5 hit
Skill that can vary widely in damage; each hit is a mere base 25 Power, but if she
gets four or five hits (with each hit getting its own chance to land a Critical Hit), it
can do a ton of damage. That said, she doesn’t do a lot of damage to begin with,
but it can still hurt.
The big threat of this fight is Normal Udonge. She’s equipped with the poten-
tially devestating St. Elmo’s Fire Skill (Illusion-type), which is one of a few
unique Skills that does double damage if your Puppet has an Accessory equipped,
and also destroys said Accessory for the rest of the battle (except for the Dream
Shard, but a Puppet wearing it could be hit every turn for double damage from the
Skill). This normally base 60 Power Skill becomes a whopping base 120 Power,
meaning you’ll potentially take a ton of damage that’s further type-boosted since
she’s Illusion-type.
That said, she becomes far more straightforward once your held item is gone.
Don’t panic and simply handle her as best you can and you’ll be fine.
This could be a potential chance to swap in Puppets for Experience, though it de-
pends on when Normal Reisen comes out. If she’s the last Puppet remaining, it
would be potential suicide to try, especially since most if not all of your Puppets
likely have Accessories by now.
Satisfied with your abilities, Eirin explains that the Princess is fighting with anoth-
er person. If it was just Kaguya, it’d be fine, but since both are Puppeteers, she
71
needed someone skilled in order to help stop them. She’ll head on ahead, leaving
you to meet her once you are ready.
Talk to Udonge/Reisen to heal up before leaving the room. Head East and then
North past the other hallways all the way to the East/West split. Head East first
and check the tree at the end for a hidden Myouren Tea (why in a tree...?). Inside
the nearby room, snag a Chirei Sweet Bun from the right side of the Northeastern
dresser.
Return to the hallway and head West to the end. Save your game before entering,
as this fight will potentially be brutal.
While cheap, you could avoid potentially devestating Fire-type damage by remov-
ing your Accessories ahead of time (the Skill acts the same as St. Elmo’s Fire). It’s
more than possible to win normally, but if you are really worried, you could do so.
Once you’re ready, go ahead and enter the room to find Eirin watching Princess
Kaguya in the East facing off against her eternal rival, Mokou, in the West.
There’s a lot of bad blood between the two, fueled further by the fact both of them
are immortal.
Lucky you, huh? Your job will be to battle Mokou and put a stop to her rampage
while Eirin handles Kaguya.
As you would expect, Mokou isn’t too pleased with your interruption. In order to
return to fighting Kaguya, she’ll turn the full force of her fury to you!
Person of Hourai Mokou

Normal Keine, Overwhelm No Accessory
Lvl 26, Steel
Normal Sumireko, Sixth Sense No Accessory
Lvl 26, Warped/Void
Normal Mokou, Hate Incarnate Ruby Hairpin
Lvl 28, Fire
Expect a tough fight ahead. All three of Mokou’s Puppets are strong, and both
Normal Sumireko and Normal Mokou deal a lot of damage. If things get rough,
don’t be afraid to use healing items.
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To make matters worse, this is the first fight you’ll encounter where the enemy
Puppeteer’s AI will be strong enough to present a tactical challenge. She’ll read
your mind and swap out Puppets to prevent barrier-piercing attacks (for example,
she’ll swap out Normal Keine for Normal Mokou if you were to use a Fire-type
Skill, turning a 2x effective attack into a .5x resisted one), and sometimes even
target your incoming Puppets with barrier-piecing Skills. Don’t expect a smooth
fight where you can simply KO each Puppet as it comes out, as Mokou might
change things up on you.
Normal Keine’s Overwhelm Skill prevents your Accessory from taking effect for
as long as she’s out, which likely isn’t a particularly big deal, but could affect
your strategy a bit. She’s a pure Steel-type Puppet that also has Light Javelin
(Light-type) to catch you off-guard.
Normal Sumireko is surprisingly diverse on top of having an unusual

Warped/Void typing. She uses Water Sign to deal off-type Water damage, but has
the powerful Tri-Effect Skill (Void-type) to deal straight, type-boosted damage
that’s effective against everything but Light, Dark, and Illusion (immune). She al-
so uses the Warped-type Trickster Skill to deal weaker damage, but at a higher
Priority. Strike at her weaknesses to Dark, Poison, Fighting, and Sound to wipe
her out quickly.
Normal Mokou has the Fire Wall Skill (Fire-type), which acts just like St. Elmo’s
Fire did in the last fight, doubling its base 60 Power when used against a Puppet
holding an Accessory. Making matters worse, she has a massive base 70 Sp. At-
tack as well as a Ruby Hairpin (boosts Fire-type Skills), meaning it’ll hit like a
train if your Puppet is holding an Accessory. She also has the off-type Skull
Breaker Skill (Fighting-type), though this won’t be nearly as dangerous as Fire
Wall. If you’re to defeat her, you’ll need to try outspeeding her and hitting her
with a type-boosted Water or Earth-type Skill in order to overcome her also mas-
sive HP pool.
Don’t bother trying to be cute and swap Puppets in and out for experience, as it’ll
likely lead to unfortunate KO’s and a potential party wipe.
Upon winning, Mokou’s fire will fizzle out. She obediently apologizes and decides
to return to her hut deep within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She’ll invite you
over for a rematch, should you be willing.
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After Mokou departs, Eirin will thank you for your help and offer a reward. She’ll
gladly part with the Woodcutter Doll, another key item that will cut down any pes-
ky small trees blocking the road ahead (such as on Route 5). You won’t find a lot
of use for it aside from that and one other place, but it’ll allow you to continue with
your journey to get to the bottom of the Puppet Incident.
Furthermore, Eirin will put a Rabbit Youkai at both the entrance of the Bamboo
Forest of the Lost as well as at the exit to Eientei, which acts as a fast-travel system
of sorts, skipping you through the forest maze. This will undoubtedly be useful,
though we’ll want to enter the forest a few more times in Side Quest Section 1.
Eirin has nothing new to say, and Kaguya is in sulk mode, so go ahead and return
to Udonge/Reisen in the infirmary. You can learn a bit of their history by talking to
her, and you’ll be able to heal by using the bed (do so or you’ll regret it).
Save your game and leave Eientei. Go ahead and speak to the Rabbit Youkai in the
South to teleport back to the entrance.
Guess who’s waiting for you? Marisa is still busy trying to get to the bottom of the
Puppet Incident, but she’s been hearing of your various exploits and couldn’t help
but stop by to see how much stronger you are. Prepare yourself for a Puppet Battle
against the Ordinary Magician!
Ordinary Magician Marisa (2)

Normal Alice, Composed No Accessory
Lvl 24, Steel/Light
Normal Patchouli, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 24, Void
Well, guess it makes sense that Marisa has been working just as hard as you to
bulk up a bit. She’s pretty strong, but not quite on the level that Mokou was.
Normal Alice has a lot of health and does solid Sp. Attack damage, but other than
that isn’t a huge threat. She loves using Metal Needle (Steel-type) to do solid
damage, though for some reason she’ll keep using it even when it’s resisted. She
also has Destruction (Void-type) that she’ll pull out once in awhile as well. Target
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her with Fire, Steel, or Fighting for the easiest time; Dark also works, but beware
of getting targeted with either of her type-boosted Skills that both do 2x damage
to Dark.
Normal Patchouli is a Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense monster with otherwise abys-
mal stats. If you can take a hit from her high damage off-type Skills such as Veil
of Water (Water-type), Flare (Fire-type), and Energy Bolt (Electric-type), you’ll
likely be able to KO her in one or two blows by striking at her Fo. Defense. Dark
works best here, though be wary of getting inflicted with Status Effects from her
various Skills.
Normal Marisa is a pure glass cannon even as a Normal Puppet, with abysmal HP
and Defenses but high Fo. Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed. Assume that whatever
Accessory you have will be stolen thanks to her Collectomaniac Ability (except
for the Dream Shard). She has the off-type Fake Jewel (Illusion-type) to steal
your held item and do a bit of damage as well, but Collectomaniac will accom-
plish the same thing so it’s a bit redundant. Watch out for type-boosted Light of
Origin and Star Flare Light-type Skills as well as Bad Moon (Dark-type). For
some reason, her Bad Moon seems to be extremely lucky in also causing the Dark
Status Effect (lowering Fo. Attack and Accuracy), though this could simply be re-
peated bad luck.
Upon losing, Marisa will say she relaxed her guard a bit too much (despite her ear-
lier loss). She’ll then ask where you are heading next, and, upon heaing that you’re
heading to the Scarlet Devil Mansion thanks to Alice’s tip, take off at a dead run,
obviously hoping to beat you to the punch (though not before telling you to
strengthen even more for next time).
Marisa will suddenly return to suggest you talk to Keine, as you’ll likely get some-
thing nice in return for your hard work at Eientei. She’ll then once again take off,
this time for real.
With this, you’ve successfully finished what’s required of you in the Bamboo For-
est of the Lost. However, with Marisa’s defeat, there are two very difficult boss
battles and a completely new area to explore (filled with a ton of new Puppets that
are only available there). All of these activities are optional, however.
While the choice is up to you, the Guide will be returning to the Bamboo Forest of
75
the Lost to document all the additional battles, Puppets, and other goodies to be
had in the aptly named Side Quest Section 1. Should you wish to skip all that, sim-
ply Ctrl + F the next story section, The Mansion of the Scarlet Devil.
This Side Quest Section will by far be the shortest one, as we’ll only be dealing
with what’s inside the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Consider it a taste of what fu-
ture Side Quest Sections will be like.
As with all such sections, these are completely optional and are only for those that
wish to explore TPDP to the fullest. In this case, while the extra area has a lot of
new and exclusive Puppets to get and a few new items to find, the two optional
bosses are simply there as a challenge for those who wish it. There won’t be any
special reward for beating them (aside from Experience and money items dropped),
but it’s fun to see how your team stacks up, especially now that you’re likely get-
ting some Styled Puppets or are close to it.
This section will be separated into two subsections. Future Side Quest Sections
will have at minimum five or more subsections, so familiarize yourself with this
format for later.
A. Hut of Insanity and Beyond
Once your party is ready to go (stock up on Contract Threads and healing items!),
head back to the first square maze area of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. From
there, we’ll be heading to a new area that requires a slight change of direction to
find.
Head East, South, North, West, and then South to find a few trees blocking the way
into the new area. Use your shiny new Woodcutter Doll to cut your way through
and continue onwards.
Hut of Insanity Area (Bamboo Forest of the Lost) Puppets

76
Normal Ringo Nature Normal
Normal Seiran Void/Electric Normal
The grass here yields a different selection of Puppets than in the rest of the Bam-
boo Forest. You’ll see Tewi and Udonge again, but also see the Nature-type Ringo
and the Void/Electric Seiran, both for the first time. While neither of them are par-
ticularly amazing, they’re still worth snagging for collection purposes. That said,
you’ll likely end up finding them again before too long, and that area will have ex-
clusive, rare Puppets to find (meaning you’ll encounter both Ringo and Seiran at
least once while searching for them).
Descend the stairs and head East to find Skill Card 69, Squall, in the grass just past
the hut. The Wind-type Squall is the first of a few forced swap-out Skills that
you’ll find throughout your playthrough. Almost all of them suffer from a -6 Prior-
ity, meaning pretty much every other Skill in the game will go before them regard-
less of Puppet Speed. It’s biggest use is to force Puppets that love bulking up (for
example, boosting their Speed and Fo./Sp. Attack to high levels before striking) to
swap out before they can cause havoc, which also eliminates their stat gains. In
practice, however, all Skills of this type are almost completely worthless aside
from the few that are normal Priority, and even those are highly situational. I’d
skip Squall unless you see a very important use for it.
Go ahead and enter the hut to find yourself in the Hut of Insanity. You’ll see a bed
and a nearby item. If your Puppets need healing for some reason, use the bed be-
fore touching the item. Once you’re prepared, grab the B. Dream Pill.
How this works is that you’ll need to use the semi-expensive B. Dream Pill once
you get in bed, which will cause...interesting things to happen. These Pills cost
1,000 each and will be available for further purchase by speaking to Udonge/Reis-
en back in Eientei, though if you plan ahead you should be able to finish by using
just one.
There’s only one mid-boss battle ahead, but there are absolutely massive amounts
of new and exclusive Puppets to be had, meaning you’ll want to pack a solid num-
ber of Contract Threads and healing items to keep your Puppets ready to go. There
77
are eight new Puppets available, not counting the return of Ringo and Seiran
(who’ll you’ll see fairly often), meaning you’ll want to be ready.
Enter the bed and use the B. Dream Pill when prompted to enter a deep, deep
sleep...and find yourself in the Dream World! More specifically, you’ll be in the
corridor between the world of Gensokyo and the Lunar Capital. Whatever you do,
don’t step in the white small cross or you’ll be returned back to the Hut of Insanity.
There aren’t any items to be had in this massive place, though there are plenty of
wild Puppets. Apparently they’ve spread beyond just Gensokyo.
Dream World Puppets

Normal Doremy Dream Normal
Normal Clownpiece Fire Normal
Normal Junko Light/Warped Rare
Normal Hecatia Void Very Rare
Specifically, you’ll find four unique Puppets here: the Dream-type Doremy, the
Fire-type Clownpiece, the Light/Warped Junko, and the Void Hecatia. Junko is
rare to find, and Hecatia is nearly impossible, but both of them are only available
here, meaning you’ll have to suck it up if you want them. All four Puppets are stel-
lar, with Normal and Extra Doremy having the rare honor of being purely Dream-
type (shared only by Extra Shinki). Junko and Hecatia have massive base stat to-
tals of 590 when Style Changed, only beaten by Puppets with unique and often
negative Abilities to compensate for their high base stats and Shinki, who is the
strongest fully-functioning Puppet in the game based purely on base stat total at
600. Also worth noting is that Extra Hecatia has one of the most unique gimmick
Abilities in the entire game that swaps her stats and typing based on whether a BU,
EN, or Support Skill is used; if that sounds interesting to you, it might be worth try-
ing.
They’re all well-worth taking the time to find, though Hecatia can be potentially
maddening. At least you can enjoy the unique battle background and background
music while you search.
Once you’re ready, head straight North until you see a gate of light. Step into the
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gate only to be stopped by a being called Doremy, who, true to what her name im-
plies, processess dreams and nightmares. In order to protect you from going mad,
she’ll challenge you to a Puppet battle!
Ruler of Dreams Doremy

Normal Sagume, Ascertainment No Accessory
Lvl 26, Poison
Normal Doremy, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 26, Dream
Doremy is a fairly simply battle, though her Puppets are equal in strength to Mo-
kou’s. Thankfully, they won’t pose quite as much of a threat because of the weak-
er AI.
Normal Sagume will do surprisingly high amounts of damage for a Puppet with
such high Defenses. Her Sp. Defense in particular is massive at this point of the
game, so try to strike at her slightly lower Fo. Defense. As a Poison-type, expect
to be at high risk of being Poisoned unless you send out a Poison-type or Steel-
type. Earth and Wind-type Skills work well against her, though you’ll likely still
need two turns to take her out.
Normal Doremy has no weaknesses thanks to her Dream typing. This is thank-
fully not as big an issue thanks to her lower HP and Defenses, but she does have
high Fo. Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed. She’ll use the Void-type Destruction, the
Nether-type Soul Hound, and of course the now type-boosted Yin Energy. Be-
ware of her damage and aim for a one-shot if possible with your strongest Puppet.
Answer Yes when she asks if you still want to continue on to the Lunar Capital.
Doremy will then allow you to continue, though there are rules for doing so. First,
she’ll be monitoring your progress, and if you take 300 steps, you’ll be returned to
her automatically in order to prevent you from going mad (though you can enter
again immediately afterwards). Second, you can’t be caught by anybody; if you
are, you’ll be booted out and have to start from the beginning. Third, you can’t
battle anyone, so don’t even bother unless you like starting over from the begin-
ning.
Think of this section as Pokemon meets Metal Gear Solid and you’ll be fine. Ex-
pect that if any of the Moon Rabbits you meet can see you in a direct line, you’ll be
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caught. The only option is to sneak through as best you can, timing your passes
when they turn to a different direction.
Once you’re prepared, enter the Lunar Capital.
Lunar Capital Puppets

Normal Seiran Electric Normal
Normal Rei’sen Void Normal
Normal Sagume Poison Normal
Normal Yorihime Steel/Light Rare
Normal Toyohime Water/Earth Rare
The Poison-type Sagume, the Void-type Rei’sen, the Steel/Light Yorihime, and the
Water/Earth Toyohime are all new Puppets that can be found, though the latter two
are rare and likely will require some searching. If you have poor luck, you’ll likely
need to make multiple forays into the Lunar Capital to find both of them, as the
300 step limit will boot you out. Thankfully, all of them can be found near the en-
trance, which makes it only a minor annoyance. Yorihime and Toyohime are very
strong, so consider picking them up if possible.
There are two items that we can snag in addition to the Puppets, but you’ll have to
follow the Guide’s directions quickly in order to do so while avoiding additional
complications. Be prepared for a few failures until you get the hang of things, and
don’t be surprised if somehow you have to improvise a small bit along the way.
The first item is easy. Head West and be very wary of a Moon Rabbit in the South
wandering around in a mostly North/South line. If you’re fast, you can likely
sneak past her by sticking to the Eastern side before she finishes her route. At the
end, you’ll find an Iron Will Ribbon, which reduces incoming damage for the Pup-
pet holding it if they only know three Skills. This Accessory is pretty useful early
on, though whether or not you are willing to sacrifice a Skill slot for it to work is
something you’ll need to think hard about.
The next stealth-based section is much harder; while the route provided should
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work, if you encounter difficulty, you might need to rely on safety saves and grind
it out. I suggest a few spots to save at just in case.
Return to the entrance and leave briefly to reset your step count. Save your game
and then enter the gate. Immediately sprint South past the Rabbit (you should be
able to make it past her if you start right away) and then head Southeast to an area
filled with peach trees and a lake. Ignore the lady standing by the lake and keep
sprinting through the area until you reach the Northeastern gate. Save your game
just in case.
If you are still doing well timing-wise, you’ll be able to sprint all the way through
the Northern narrow path, make it to the end, and turn immediately West. Contin-
ue West at a dead sprint until you see another gate. Step inside briefly, save, and
then head back West to grab the Ancient Lunar Sake from the shrine. The Ancient
Lunar Sake is an Accessory that references one of the Touhou manga series in
which Reimu and some others attempted to reach the Lunar Capital; in this case,
it’ll decrease the odds of encountering wild Puppets when held by the lead Puppet
in your party. If you’re too cheap to use Repellants, this can be a great item for
cave exploration (though seriously, just use Repellants if you want to avoid wild
encounters).
With this, you’ve officially cleared the entirety of the Lunar Capital. There aren’t
any opportunities to actually defeat the Lunarians in Puppet battles, nor are there
any later events held here later in the game. To leave, either let yourself by caught
by one of the wandering Moon Rabbits, head North and talk to Yorihime to be sent
back, or wander around until your step counter reaches the magic amount of 300
and Doremy forces you to return.
Of course, if you are missing any Puppets, whether from the Dream World or the
Lunar Capital, you’ll want to snag them now if you don’t want to shell out 1,000
later on for another B. Dream Pill.
Once you’ve finished your business here, return to the Dream World and head di-
rectly South until you reach the white cross of light that will allow you to return.
Simply step on it to find yourself back in the Hut of Insanity.
B. Optional Boss Fights
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Now that you’ve explored the Lunar Capital, hopefully at least a few of your Pup-
pets are Level 30 and have been given a Style. If not, you might want to grind a bit
to get there if you want to have a chance at defeating these tough optional bosses.
The only rewards are XP and low-end money items to sell, but they also act as a
good test for your team and tactics before you encounter stronger enemies later on.
The first encounter is a rematch with Mokou, this time at her hut hidden within the
Bamboo Forest. To get there, start from the entrance and head East, South, and
then West. You’ll find yourself approaching her hut. As there is nothing outside
but grass, enter and head straight up to the dresser and snag a Fujiwara Rice Cook-
ie. Prepare yourself accordingly and get ready for a powered-up rematch with Mo-
kou!
Person of Hourai Mokou (2)

Normal Keine, Sermon No Accessory
Lvl 28, Steel
Normal Sumireko, Sixth Sense No Accessory
Lvl 28, Warped/Void
Power Mokou, Fox’s Wedding No Accessory
Lvl 30, Fire/Fighting
This fight is a bit more difficult than last time. Her AI is fairly strong, but worse
than that, this is the first time you’ll be encountering a Style Changed Puppet.
You’ll immediately notice the power increase.
Thankfully, Mokou’s first two Puppets are a bit higher level, but they function the
same. The same strategy as before generally applies for each. Note that Normal
Keine now has the Sermon Ability, which can potentially inflict the Weak Status
Effect (preventing your Puppet from healing).
Power Mokou hits far harder than before with a whopping 120 base Fo. Attack,
and will likely one-shot any of your Puppets that are still Normal Style. Power
Mokou’s weaknesses are her abysmal Speed and low Defenses; if you can manip-
ulate her out against one of her three type weaknesses (Wind, Water, and Sound),
you have a decent chance of taking her down in two blows while limiting her
damage in return. However, be very careful of swapping even your Styled Pup-
pets in, as they’ll almost certainly drop to mid health or lower with one shot. Al-
so be careful yet again of Fire Wall; consider removing held items for this fight
since the move is so dangerous at this point of the game when boosted against an
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Accessory-holding Puppet, even against resisted types.
With Mokou down, return to Eientei. You can heal by using the beds in the infir-
mary, and can also buy more Bad Dream Pills from Udonge/Reisen.
If you’re ready, proceed to the central room of Eientei, located just north of the en-
trance. Your next battle is against Kaguya herself, who still holds a bit of resent-
ment towards you for interrupting her battle with Mokou...
Moon Princess Kaguya

Lvl 28, Void
Normal Udonge, Precise Aim No Accessory
Lvl 28, Illusion
Power Eirin, Emergency Cure No Accessory
Lvl 30, Poison/Steel
Power Kaguya, Pride No Accessory
Lvl 30, Light/Void
This will be a considerable test of your Puppet mastery. Tewi and Udonge are
fairly easy, going down with little substantial effort. You might see Power Eirin
or Power Kaguya come out after Tewi dies, so be prepared for an immediate
change of pace.
Power Eirin has a massive Sp. Attack (base 130!), high HP (base 125), and sur-
prising Defenses at base 80 each. Her biggest weakness is her Speed (base 60),
but you likely won’t one-shot her, meaning you’ll need to be prepared to take a
painful blow. She favors Toxic Haze, a Poison-type attack which also can occa-
sionally inflict the Poison status for double the fun. Even worse, she has a multi-
tude of resistances and only one weakness in Earth, albeit for 4x damage. If you
don’t have an Earth-type Skill, you’ll have to tough it out. Thankfully, this is lit-
erally the only time you’ll see Power Eirin in the entire main quest (surprisingly
enough).
If Power Eirin wasn’t enough, Power Kaguya is fairly powerful as well. Her stats
are almost the exact same as Power Eirin, favoring Spread Attack, high HP, and
base 80 Defenses. However, her biggest issue is the Void typing, meaning she can
hit many of your Puppets with boosted Void damage for reliable damage. Also
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like Power Eirin, she has only one weakness, this time being Dark with 4x effec-
tiveness. Thankfully, she has less type resistances than Power Eirin, though be
careful about Light’s bevy of odd resistances to Void, Electricity, and Sound (as
well as Light itself). Also an issue is her Pride ability, which raises her damage
by 50% if you inflict her with a status ailment such as Poison or Weakness; avoid
this at all costs if you don’t want to be swept.
If you managed to defeat Eirin, congratulations! Your party is certainly ready for
the next stages of your journey.
8. The Mansion of the Scarlet Devil
Once your business in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost is completed, return to the
Human Village. Head to the Bookstore and go straight East to the first available
house, which happens to be Keine’s school. As a reward for helping break up the
fight, you’ll receive Skill Card 85, Field Break, once you talk to her. This Warped-
type Sp. Attack will break an opponent’s Field Barrier/Protect before doing dam-
age, making it the premier Skill for thwarting that strategy. The issue currently is
that you won’t be seeing this tactic for a large portion of the game, making this
Skill much less valuable. However, the base Power of 75 and its Warped typing
means that it’s still a fairly useful Skill for type coverage and damage. Use it if
you have a Puppet that could use an additional Spread Attack Skill for type cover-
age, but know that it probably won’t be useful later in the game except against the
few Puppeteers that use Field Barrier/Protect.
There is nothing else of importance to do in the Human Village, although if you

feel the need, stock up on Seal Threads and/or healing items before you go. There
won’t be any shops for quite a while, and you’ll be encountering many, many new
Puppets to capture along the way. Some of these Puppets could be quite useful to
fleshing out a more balanced team, so don’t be afraid to swap out for a few new
ones if necessary.
Route 5 North Puppets

Normal Rika Fire/Steel Normal
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Normal Tokiko Wind Normal
Normal Sumireko Warped Normal
Normal Rinnosuke Void Normal
Normal Orange Void Normal
Once you are prepared, leave the village to the West and head North. When the
path splits to the West (towards the Forest of Magic), instead keep heading North
until you reach an East/West split. Head West and cut through the trees, making an
offering to the Jizo statue along the way. Follow the path as it goes, ignoring the
sleeping Fairy. Make note of the rock blocking the path to the item; you’ll receive
an item that can make short work of that rock in the distant future.
When you get the option to choose between heading East or West, head West and
prepare for two straightforward battles.
Rascal Tomoyasu
Normal Tokiko, Healing Power No Accessory
Lvl 24, Wind
Old Man Tomozou

Normal Wakasagi, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 28, Water
After the battles, proceed North to Misty Lake, ignoring the split to the East as
nothing is there but grass. That said, this is your first chance at a Normal Orange
Puppet, but know that you could be searching for a decent length time for a decid-
edly mediocre Puppet. There is a better place later in the game to snag one, if
that’s your goal.
Misty Lake Puppets

85
Normal Cirno Water Normal
Normal Meiling Fighting Normal
Normal Nue Illusion/Electric Normal
Normal Wakasagi Water Normal
Note that Normal Nue is once again available here, except at a much higher rate. If
you didn’t get her earlier, this would be your chance.
Misty Lake is basically a giant circle with various offshoots. The path from the en-
trance splits to the East or West, so for the sake of the guide I’ll describe an East-
ward path around the lake (counter-clockwise).
Head East while ignoring the wandering Fairy and skirting the grass to find a Con-
tract Thread. Head North from there and you’ll run into two kids who want to bat-
tle!
Rascal Ryou
Normal Kurumi, Surprise Tactics No Accessory
Lvl 24, Dark
Tomboy Fumina
Lvl 22, Dark
Lvl 22, Nature
Lvl 22, Water
Once the two are defeated, continue North. Ignore the path to the East, as it leads
to a rock blockade; remember that for later on. Instead, keep going until you see a
Ghost that needs exorcism by your hands.
Ghost Tooru
86
Normal Merlin, Optimist No Accessory
Lvl 24, Sound/Nether
Continue heading North at the split. You’ll soon find a Youkai guarding a stump.
Check the stump for Gold Dust, and then beat up the Youkai.
Youkai Mahoro
Normal Nitori, Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 24, Water/Steel
Head East to the end of the path past the North/East split to find Skill Card 39, Tri-
Effect. This is a pretty useful Sp. Attack ability to use at 80 Power, especially at
this point in the game. As a Void-type Skill, it also means that most Sp. Attack-re-
liant Puppets will likely be able to use it. The dependable damage thanks to its typ-
ing just makes it even better. It will become outclassed before too long, however,
so make use out of it before you get to that point.
Return to the split and head North to the end to get a Light Charm and then return
all the way back to the Ghost. From there, head West until you reach a bridge. Be-
fore crossing, follow the narrow path north along the river to the end for a Misty
Jelly. Talk to the man on the bridge and get ready for a fight against Nature.
Farmer Masaru
Lvl 22, Nature
Lvl 22, Nature
After crossing the bridge, head North and talk to the second fairy for another battle
featuring the Strongest!
Fairy Kokoa
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Lvl 22, Water
Lvl 22, Water
While there are more people to talk to in the North, there aren’t any more items or
battles to be head, so head South and then West. You’ll soon come across your
next challenger in the form of an old man.
Old Man Shigenobu

Lvl 22, Water
Normal Daiyousei, Grace of Water No Accessory
Lvl 22, Nature
Head West from the old man until you reach a North/West split in the path. The
path North leads to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but there are a lot more battles to be
had and items to be gained, so ignore that path for now and head West. You’ll al-
most imediately run into a Youkai to battle.
Youkai Kotonoha
Normal Louise, Peaceful No Accessory
Lvl 22, Wind
Normal Louise, Optimist No Accessory
Lvl 22, Wind
Follow the path South for a ways and cross the bridge. An invisible force blocks
the path West, so continue East, ignoring the Southern path for now. Instead, ap-
proach Wakasagihime and prepare for battle!
Mermaid Wakasagihime
Normal Kagerou, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 22, Dark/Wind
88
Lvl 22, Dark
Lvl 24, Water
There is little to be scared of in this fight, but watch out for Wakasagi’s surprise
Sound-type attack. Apart from that, this fight is straightforward.
After defeating Wakasagi, head East until you find a Sapphire Hairpin. From
there, ignore the path East filled with grass and head North until you are stopped
by a battle-hungry Youkai.
Youkai Haruka
Normal Chen, Flexible No Accessory
Lvl 22, Wind
Lvl 22, Wind
Following the path, you’ll soon run into another energetic Fairy wishing to battle.
Fairy Tessa
Lvl 24, Nature/Dark
After the battle, you’ll have completed a lap around Misty Lake if you head East
just a bit. If your party is in bad shape, head South and return to town for healing,
as you won’t have any opportunities for a solid length of time yet.
If they can handle four more fights, head West again until you reach the path head-
ing South, which leads to a different part of Route 5 North. A Fairy wanting to bat-
tle blocks the path not far to the South.
Fairy Lefall
89
Normal Orange, Wasteful No Accessory
Lvl 22, Void
Normal Orange, Wasteful No Accessory
Lvl 22, Wind
After punishing the Fairy for playing around, you’ll come across a Youkai farther
down the path that is looking for a meal...
Youkai Konomi
Lvl 22, Dark
Lvl 22, Sound/Dark
Hop down the hurdle farther down the path and you’ll see another Hungry Youkai
to the East guarding a path.
Youkai Mei
Lvl 22, Wind
Normal Kagerou, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 22, Dark/Wind
After beating the Youkai, follow the offshoot path to the East and head through the
grass. Check the southernmost stump to find a Dessert of the Sun and then return
to the main path. Head South, jump across the hurdle, and get ready for your final
fight of the gauntlet.
Fairy Jenny
Lvl 24, Water
90
After defeating Jenny, proceed West and grab the Courage Charm. At this point,
you’ll jump one last hurdle and end up back in the previously explored section of
Route 5. From here, you can head West and then North to Kourindou and heal up
or head East to the Human Village to heal. This is also your last chance to stock up
on supplies until after the Mansion.
When you’re prepared, head back to the Northwest part of Misty Lake. There,
you’ll find the path we skipped earlier that leads to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Go
figure, you’ll see Meiling sleeping and Marisa sneaking into the Mansion. Ignore
Meiling for now and head West and then North to find Skill Card 45, Lazy Mist.
This is a solid Water-type Sp. Attack for this point of the game, but odds are good
that most of your Puppets can’t use it unless they’re Water-type (who might al-
ready have access to it from their Style change).
Returning to Meiling’s area, you are now presented with a choice. You can com-
pletely ignore the sleeping gatekeeper and proceed into the Mansion if you wish.
However, if you speak to her twice, you can choose to fight her for the fun of it.
Gatekeeper Meiling
Lvl 22, Water
Normal Meiling, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 26, Fighting
Cirno is Cirno, so hit her with Electricity, Nature, or Poison and be done with her.
Meiling is pure Fighting and thus weak to Wind or Sound. This fight should be
over quickly regardless.
After defeating or ignoring Meiling, proceed into the Mansion. You’ll immediately
be greeted by Remilia, the master of the Mansion (and the titular Scarlet Devil).
While your business is with Patchouli, she welcomes you to the Mansion and bids
you to come find her when you’re done. Of course, she locks the doors behind her
when she leaves, forcing you to go the long way.
For now, ignore the Western path and head East. Head down the stairs and enter
the room to find a lot of different barrels and boxes. If you’re interested in a solid
Puppet, check the box to the West of the door to enter into battle with a Marisa
Puppet. Apart from being a “Main Character” Puppet (and thus pretty strong), she
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can put out a ton of damage if you build her right. See the Useful Puppets Section
of the Guide for more details.
Check behind the glass cabinet for Skill Card 66, Confine. This is pretty poor un-
less you need to slow an enemy Puppet down (taking a turn to do so), but it does
have some use. Check the trash bin in the Northeast corner of the room for an
Oath Thread, which is a tier-three Thread (similar to a Hyper Ball). At this point
of the game, it’ll seal just about anything guaranteed; use it if you really want to
snag a Puppet.
Ignore the wandering Fairy and leave the room. Head back upstairs and go West
until you find another set of stairs down; the Fairies to the East and West block you
from going upstairs, similar to the locked double doors. Enter the door at the bot-
tom of the stairs to find yourself in the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s fabled Great Li-
brary, home to Patchouli, Koakuma, and the occasional thief/book borrower Mari-
sa.
The path East leads to Marisa, who is conveniently blocking you from going fur-
ther. Instead, head North and follow the winding path up the stairs and around to
the other set of stairs down, ignoring all side paths. You’ll soon enter the bottom
floor of the Great Library, only to be stopped by Koakuma!
Koakuma
Lvl 24, Wind
Lvl 24, Nature
Normal Koakuma, Healing Power No Accessory
Lvl 24, Dark
Poor Koakuma doesn’t even get a title. Despite having a semi-balanced team,
she’ll go down easy. Watch out for Koakuma’s surprise Illusion-type attack.
After defeating Koakuma, she’ll reveal that she’s in the possession of another Inci-
dent Case Book, but won’t give it to you until you meet Remilia. Remember to
come back here later for it. For now, prepare yourself for a bit stiffer challenge and
continue along the path. You’ll soon find Patchouli, who denies involvement in the
Incident before attacking!
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One-Week Magician Patchouli
Normal Alice, Composed No Accessory
Lvl 26, Steel/Light
Normal Patchouli, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 28, Void
Don’t be caught off-guard by Patchouli only having two Puppets. Alice is a solid
Puppet with a lot of resistances and likely can hold her own for at least a turn.
Patchouli is the bigger danger here, as her Void typing is deceptive (and only
makes her weak to Dark); what makes her dangerous it that she’s packing Skills
such as Flare (Fire-type), Energy Bolt (Electric-type), Tri-Effect (Void-type), and
Veil of Water (Water-type) that cover multiple Puppet types. However, she re-
mains a Normal Style Puppet, which limits her damage output, and those off-type
Skills lack the type-boost damage effect. If your Puppets have low Defenses, they
can still be taken out in one hit, but otherwise you’ll be fine.
After defeating Patchouli, she once again affirms that she has nothing to do with
the Incident. Instead, she’ll point you to Remilia, who has the power to see Fate,
and also who has been eagerly awaiting your arrival since reading about your ex-
ploits in the newspaper. Patchouli also takes a jab at Marisa, who apparently
wasn’t as sneaky as she thought.
Thankfully, until you reach Remilia, you can now talk to Patchouli whenever you
wish to receive healing, with a conveniently located Akyuu Doll just to the North
for swapping out Puppets. This will be your main base during the Scarlet Devil
Mansion exploration, so return to it whenever needed.
Follow the path North past the Akyuu Doll, up the stairs, and back to the South.
You’ll find a new exit from the Great Library, though you can speak to Marisa to
the West first if you wish. Once you are prepared, leave the Library from the new
exit and you’ll find yourself in the Mansion proper once again.
Scarlet Devil Mansion Puppets

Normal Koakuma Dark Normal
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Normal Patchouli Void Normal
Normal Sakuya Steel/Illusion Normal
Normal Remilia Dark/Wind Rare
Normal Flandre Dark/Light Very Rare
From here on out, you’ll get into random encounters with Scarlet Devil Mansion
Puppets as you walk around; this is exactly the same as walking around in a cave,
meaning Puppet Repellants are your friends if you wish to avoid wild encounters.
That said, every Puppet aside from Koakuma is quite strong and worth using.
Don’t be afraid to swap out Puppets if one catches your eye.
This whole area is basically a giant maze that mostly takes place all on one map,
with each exit teleporting you to a different spot in the maze. There is one loop
that leads from the Southeast to the Northwest, which we’ll be focusing on at first
for Puppeteer encounters. Once we return to the Great Library’s door (conven-
iently allowing you to heal by speaking to Patchouli), we’ll focus on completing
the rest of the maze.
From the Great Library’s exit, you’ll see two paths, one to the North and one to the
South. We’ll be heading South first, so take the Southern path until it splits, at
which point head East to find the first of many Maid Fairies that wish to battle.
Fairy Maid Yayoi

Lvl 25, Water
Yayoi goes down quickly, as expected. After defeating her, backtrack to the split in
the path. This time, head South until it splits again, and then head West. You’ll
soon come to another Fairy.
Fairy Maid Julie

Lvl 25, Light/Water
94
Head South and then East, ignoring the split to the North. You’ll see another Fairy
to battle.
Fairy Maid Ayaha

Normal Ruukoto, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 25, Steel
Be wary of Ruukoto. Her Indomitable Ability means you can’t one-shot her un-
less you use a multi-hit ability, which means she’ll get the chance to potentially
Paralyze you. While not debilitating, it can be annoying.
Continue past Ayaha, ignoring the small offshoot path to the North. Step between
the two trees at the end of the Eastern path to teleport to the Northwestern part of
the maze. Follow the path until you come to yet another Fairy Maid to trounce.
Fairy Maid Kisaragi

Lvl 24, Nature
Lvl 24, Water
After another easy fight, proceed along until you come to a split in the path. Ignore
the Southern path and head East to fight the next Fairy.
Fairy Maid Satsuki

Lvl 24, Water
Lvl 24, Light
Continue down the Eastern path and you’ll see a Fairy near the end.
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Fairy Maid Mutsuki
Lvl 24, Light
Lvl 24, Light/Water
Once you reach the four-way split, head South just a bit to reach the Great Library
once again and complete your circlular journey of the Mansion. Take a second to
heal up and then return North to the four-way split. This time, head East for a
ways until you see a cutscene of Flandre, Remilia’s perfectly normal little sister,
leaving her room...
Put that out of your mind for now and continue onwards. At the end of the hall
there’ll be a North/South split. While North is the way to the exit, let’s head South
first and pick up some items and battles. Follow the hallway until you see another
Fairy Maid in a split to the South.
Fairy Maid Minazuki

Lvl 24, Light/Wind
Lvl 24, Water
After defeating Minazuki, continue South and check the trash can for a Contract
Thread. Return to the split and head East until you reach a narrow path leading
South. Take the path for another Flandre cutscene and a Hematite Hairpin. Return
to the hallway and continue East until you reach a North/East split. Head North
and fight the next Fairy Maid.
Fairy Maid Avril

Lvl 25, Steel
Just like the previous encounter with Indomitable Ruukoto, beware of being Para-
lyzed, especially since you can’t one-shot her.
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Once Avril goes down, continue North and head West at the split. Check the tree
at the end of the hall for a Misty Jelly, and then head East past the split and follow
the turn South all the way to the next Puppeteer.
Fairy Maid Gust

Normal Sakuya, Nimble No Accessory
Lvl 25, Steel/Illusion
Continue following the path to the next area, which is really a teleport to a unique
middle section of the maze. Head West at the split for another Fairy ready to bat-
tle!
Fairy Maid Febry

Lvl 25, Water
Head North until you reach the split. If you wish, head North for another optional
Flandre cutscene. The door is unfortunately locked, however, so head back to the
split and take the East hallway for the next Fairy Maid.
Fairy Maid Sue

Lvl 24, Void
Lvl 24, Nature
With this last fight, it’s time to head back to the Great Library for one final heal be-
fore pushing forward to the end. As a bonus, if you’ve seen all the Flandre scenes
thus far, you’ll see one last cutscene of her returning to her room and locking the
door behind her as you make your way back. Despite the near misses, it appears
you’ll be spared her playful wrath for now. Perhaps another time...
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After healing at the Library, head North and then East to the North/South hallway
split. Last time, we headed South to Flandre’s room, so this time we’ll head North.
Ignore the first split to the East and continue North to yet another Fairy Maid.
Fairy Maid Uzuki

Lvl 25, Nature
Just North of Uzuki is another hallway East; take it to the end of the hall and head
North.
Fairy Maid Jun

Lvl 24, Light/Wind
Lvl 24, Void
Past Jun you’ll find a Chirei Sweet Bun. Head West from there and continue West
past the next split to your next encounter.
Fairy Maid Matcha

Lvl 24, Light/Water
Lvl 24, Nature
From there, you should see Skill Card 34, Break Shot, at the end of the side hall-
way. It functions exactly the same as Field Break, except as a Fighting-type Focus
Attack. Also the same is the lack of enemies using Field Barrier or Field Protect,
so keep in mind that you have it for far later on in the game and only use it now for
its 75 base Power and 100% Accuracy.
Take the North split from the four-way hallway and continue on to the next area.
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Grab the Blitz Charm as you pass through to another new area. Follow the hallway
to a North/East split; ignore the Eastern section, which only comes into play if you
fail the next puzzle, and instead head North.
This puzzle is fairly simple. There are three sections, each with three doors at the
end of three divergant paths. Pick the right path to proceed, but if you pick the
wrong path you appear at the beginning. There’s no benefit to failing, so just fol-
low the directions and move on.
Take the center path first, then the right path in the second area, and finally take the
left path in the third area.
Easy enough, right? You’ll appear in a different room with, once again, three
paths. Ignore the right path, as it leads to an empty dead end, and instead take the
center path first. You’ll find a Fairy Maid guarding the end of the hallway!
Fairy Maid Felt

Normal Sakuya, Nimble No Accessory
Congratulations on defeating the final Fairy Maid Puppeteer! As a reward, contin-

ue to the end and grab an Oath Thread. Nice!
Head back to the split and take the left path to get to the next area. You’ll see Skill
Card 27, Changeling, which is a Dark-type Focus Attack which swaps out your
current Puppet upon doing damage. It’s a fairly solid situational Skill that can add
some additional damage when you need to switch Puppets, but beware of being
outsped and wiped out (as opposed to switching out manually, which mostly guar-
antees their safety).
Head to the end to find a set of double doors which mark the end of the “dungeon”
section of the Mansion. From here on, no more random encounters.
Inside the room, check the dresser to the North for a Bhava-Agra Set, and then take
a rest in the bed to heal your Puppets. Leave the room to the Southeast and you’ll
find yourself on the second floor of the Mansion proper. Remilia waits behind the
double doors just to the East, but lets save her for last. Instead, we’ll start collect-
ing items by heading West to the end and heading South through the door.
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Halfway down the hall you’ll find a door to the West; take it and pass on through
the small room to get to a second room. Check the left part of the right dresser in
the North to get a Chirei Sweet Bun and then head back to the hallway. Keep head-
ing South past a second Western door and leave the area. Turn East and follow the
hallway almost to the end past two sets of Northern doors. Take the third Northern
door to find yourself in another hallway, complete with two sets of Eastern doors
mirroring the Western hallway. Ignore the first Eastern door and enter the second.
Pass through to the next room and check the left side of the Eastern dresser to the
North to find a Misty Jelly. Furthermore, head to the Western side of the room for
a Relief Charm hidden behind the beds.
Return to the hallway and continue North to find yourself back in the second floor
main hall. Head West until you find a door; enter it and grab the Amber Hairpin
within. Back in the hall, head West until you reach the double doors (don’t go in
yet!) and then head South down the stairs. Take either the Eastern or Western
stairs to get down to the first floor, and then enter the double doors on the Northern
side to find yourself in the dining room. Head straight North and check the left side
of the glass cabinet to find a Moriya Shinshu. Head East and enter the kitchen;
check the pot next to the northern sink for a Rainbow Candy.
With this, you’ve now found all the available items in Scarlet Devil Mansion. Re-
turn to the main hall and head back up to the second floor. Approach the double
set of doors and prepare yourself for an ambush!
Elegant Maid Sakuya

Normal Meiling, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 28, Fighting
Lvl 28, Nature
Speed Sakuya, Sand Force No Accessory
Sakuya is a tougher challenge than the rest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion rabble,
and yet again a bit tougher than Patchouli. However, her only real threat is Speed
Sakuya, who mostly relies on Mirror’s Reflection to return all damage as a Steel-
type Fo. Attack with a 50% boost added on. It should be noted that she has 4x
weakness to Warped. If you can one-shot her, the danger passes completely; oth-
erwise, she’ll likely take out one of your Puppets before she goes down.
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After you defeat Sakuya, she’ll be surprised at hearing you have an appointment
with Remilia before teleporting away. Save the game and head through the doors.
Don’t bother returning to the bed to heal before meeting Remilia; she’ll kindly heal
your Puppets before challenging you to a fight, threatening to turn you into dinner
if you lose!
Lord of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Remilia

Power Sakuya, Strategist Red Ring
Lvl 30, Steel/Fighting
Speed Flandre Unbound Red Ring
Lvl 30, Dark/Light
Scarlet Avatar (Power Re- Charge! Red Ring
milia),
Lvl 33, Dark/Wind
This is likely the toughest fight you’ve had to date, including the optional fights
against Mokou and Eirin. Don’t let your guard down even for a moment, as each
Puppet can do incredible amounts of damage. Note that each one is equipped
with a Red Ring, meaning they’ll do increased Focus Attack damage with every
hit. If you have a Fo. Defense tank, this is a chance for them to potentially shine.
Power Sakuya has the Strategist Ability, which increases by 50% the Power of all
Skills with a base Power of 60 or less; of course, this is every attack she has. Cru-
ciform, a Void-type Skill that strikes twice with a base Power of 50 and a base Ac-
curacy of 90%, is her go-to attack. Keep in mind that since Strategist buffs all
Skills with a base of 60 or less, you’re actually getting hit with two attacks of 75
base each, which is an insane 150 base total. That total is the max that any nor-
mal Skill in the game reaches (the only exception being Death Match at 1 HP), so
while Cruciform won’t be type-boosted, it still does a ton of damage with only a
10% chance to miss. If you have an Illusion-type Puppet, send her out and you’ll
force Sakuya to rely on her other attacks thanks to Illusion’s immunity to Void-
type Skill. Sakuya can still do a lot of damage with her other Skills, but they are
much less dangerous overall.
Speed Flandre is arguably the weakest of the bunch. She hits hard with 120 base
stats in both Fo. Attack and Sp. Attack, and has a solid 110 base Speed. However,
neither Light nor Dark tend to hit weaknesses much aside from each other, Neth-
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er, and in Dark’s case, Void. Avoid using Puppets of those types and punish her
with Illusion, Fighting, or Steel. Also, if you still have an Illusion-type Puppet
ready to go, you can reduce both her Light and Dark damage significantly, though
she does have off-type Skills.
Power Remilia hits like a truck. Worse, she’s been given a Red Ring, so she’ll do
more Focus Attack damage than usual. Adding to the damage, she has the
Charge! Ability, which boosts her damage by an additional 30% in exchange for
her Skills not being able to activate secondary effects (such as a 10% chance to
cause Burning, etc.). In short, you’ll be getting hit hard, and possibly getting
outsped thanks to her also having a 110 base Speed. Expect to get hit by Fire,
Dark, and Wind attacks primarily, so avoid all types that are weak to those moves
if possible. She has terrible base 60 Defenses, which means you can potentially
one-shot her if you survive her first hit and respond with Light, Electric, Illusion,
Warped, or especially Steel (4x effectiveness!).
As hard as it may be, you’ll be showered in Experience after this fight, and espe-
cially canny Puppeteers might be able to get double experience for all six of their
Puppets by just switching them in and out, should they survive.
After your victory, Remilia smugly informs you that she wasn’t actually trying (the
liar), and goes on to say your next objective is Youkai Mountain to the Northwest.
You can also speak to her again and give your Puppets nicknames or change your
old ones.
Enter the room behind her and receive your hard earned prize for completing the
Scarlet Devil Mansion: a Fate Thread. This is basically the Master Ball of TPDP,
and guarantees a seal on any wild Puppet, though you still need to defeat them to
complete the process (beware of Puppets with Puppet-swapping Skills or escape
Skills!). Unlike Pokemon games, you actually get a respectible amount of them
throughout the game (at least 7), so don’t be afraid to use them if you find a Puppet
you really want, especially later on when even Oath Threads struggle to seal at full
HP.
Head down to the first floor and exit the Southern doors. However, don’t leave the
Mansion yet, as you have an Incident Case to pick up from Koakuma. Head West
and down the stairs to the Great Library and work your way around to her. As
promised, you’ll receive Incident Case 3. While not necessary, if you talk to Patch-
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ouli, she’ll mention something about being able to develop your Puppets further,
though it’ll take time to research. This feature won’t be available for quite a while,
but once Patchouli completes her research, it’ll be key to maximizing your Pup-
pet’s stats later on (and also key for making an awesome starting NG+ team!).
For now, exit the Scarlet Devil Mansion and congratulate yourself on a job well
done.
9. Intruders in the Kappa Hideout
As Remilia mentioned, your next stop is Youkai Mountain. To get there, you’ll
want to head West from the Misty Lake. From the Scarlet Devil Mansion, head
South to Misty Lake itself, and then take the Western split and follow it down just
past the bridge. Head West from there to find a prank-loving Kappa who’s been us-
ing Optical Camouflage to hide herself and block the road. Unfortunately for her,
the batteries for her Camouflage cuts out, and left with no choice, she challenges
you to a fight!
Mischievous Kappa Kiyomi

Lvl 25, Light
Lvl 25, Water/Steel
After you defeat Kiyomi, the road becomes available for use. Proceed West to the
next area, Genbu Ravine.
Genbu Ravine Puppets

Normal Komachi Water/Nether Normal
Normal Nitori Water/Steel Normal
Normal Wakasagi Water Normal
Normal Iku Electric Rare
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Upon entering Genbu Ravine, you’ll almost immediately run into a Fairy who also
was tricked by the Kappa.
Fairy Lil
Lvl 25, Earth/Steel
Lvl 25, Dark
Continue West until you reach a West/North split and turn North. We’ll come back
later for the Western split, which leads to the Forest of Magic Part 2, but requires a
boat to enter.
Heading North, you’re stopped briefly by Gensokyo’s favorite Paparrazi/Newspa-

per Journalist, Aya. She’s excited to hear about your trip to Youkai Mountain and
invites you to visit her later in the Tengu Village, located halfway up the mountain.
After Aya leaves, follow the path as it twists and turns until you’re stopped by a
Kappa lying in wait.
Kappa Mitsuo
Normal Nitori, Maintenance No Accessory
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
After trouncing Mitsuo, continue along until you eventually are stopped by yet an-
other Kappa.
Kappa Yuume
Lvl 25, Water/Steel
Lvl 25, Water
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Eventually, you’ll come to a cave; enter it and proceed to the end of the path and
down the ladder.
Genbu Ravine Cave Puppets

Normal Kisume Dark/Fire Normal
Normal Hina Poison/Nether Normal
Beware of the Hina Puppets you find here, as they all have Air Cushion, protecting
them from Earth attacks, as well as the Miasma Skill which has a 100% chance to
Heavily Poison your Puppets. This can quickly make an otherwise simple journey
into a dangerous and/or expensive slog. I advise just retreating if you see a Hina
Puppet to save on resources.
Head North and up the stairs to find a ghost who’s lost her way.
Ghost Ami
Normal Komachi, Suppresion No Accessory
Lvl 26, Water/Nether
Head back down the stairs and take the Eastern split to find another Kappa block-
ing your path.
Kappa Nami
Lvl 24, Water
Lvl 24, Water/Steel
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Normal Rika, Maintenance No Accessory
Lvl 24, Fire/Steel
Just to the North, you’ll find an East/West split. Take the Western split first to find
Skill Card 74, Shark Trade. This is pretty terrible in most situations unless you’re
playing a stall Puppet holding a Status-inflicting item; you can use this to trade the
item to the opposing Puppet and force them to die a slow death of Heavy Poi-
son/Heavy Burn. You’ll have little use for it now, however.
Head East past the split to find a Kappa standing around. When you talk to her,
you find out that she’s in a panic because the Puppet Liberation Front has taken
over the Kappa Hideout! Since Kappas and Humans are sworn friends (suppos-
edly), she asks if you can help. Reply Yes to be transported to the Kappa Hideout.
Kappa Hideout Puppets

Normal Suika Fighting/Earth Pot on Center Island
Inside the house directly to the North, you’ll find a salesman Kappa on the right
and another Kappa above him that lets you take a rest and heal your tired Puppets.
While the salesman Kappa doesn’t have much, he does let you restock on healing
items and Threads.
Once you’re prepared, leave the house and head Northwest. Cross the bridge and
grab the Telescope sitting there. Cross the bridge again and head East and then
North up the stairs. Ignore the Fairy blocking the doorway and any other door-
blocking Fairies in the area, as they won’t let you pass nor battle them. Continue
North to find your first Puppet Liberation Front challenger!
Puppet Liberation Front Fernannu

Lvl 26, Void
Fernannu goes down pretty easily, so move on and talk to the Fairy standing
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around in the middle of the area before the bridge for another fight.
Puppet Liberation Front Lola

Lvl 26, Nature/Dark
Cross the bridge to find another Fairy standing around ready for a battle!
Puppet Liberation Front Marion

Lvl 25, Nature
Lvl 25, Water
Head South from Marion down two flights of stairs to find yet another Puppet Lib-
eration Front member waiting for you!
Puppet Liberation Front Oria

Lvl 24, Water
Normal Hina, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 24, Poison/Nether
Lvl 24, Light/Wind
Head further South to find a flight of stairs leading North; take them and keep
going North to find the third type of Puppet Liberation Front Fairy: the Sunflower
Fairy type. Despite being different, they aren’t much stronger than any of the other
types, so crush her with all your might!
Puppet Liberation Front Kurisu

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Lvl 25, Dark
Lvl 25, Light
Kurisu goes down easily enough, and also happens to be the final Puppet Libera-
tion Front member at the hideout to fight. Head back to the first house to heal if
necessary, and when prepared, head South from Kurisu along the cliff all the way
to the house.
Before you can enter, you’ll encounter the Three Fairies of Light (Sunny in red,
Star in blue, and Luna in white). You’ve already fought more than a couple of their
Puppets before, so you likely know them by now. They start bragging about hav-
ing stolen an Optical Camouflage unit from the house, which is a bit redundant for
them since Sunny can bend light to do the same thing. Regardless, they’re in such
high spirits that they decide to continue on with their mischief-making and head to
the Tengu Village before you can confront them.
With their objective complete, it looks like the only thing you can do is survey the
crime scene. Head inside the house to find a rather angry Kappa named Nitori,
who immediately accuses you of stealing the Optical Camouflage and challenges
you to a fight!
Kappa Engineer Nitori

Defense Hina, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 30, Poison
Defense Chiyuri, Metallurgy No Accessory
Lvl 30, Electric/Water
Power Nitori, Byakutei’s Metal No Accessory
Lvl 32, Water/Steel
While not as tough as Remilia was, Nitori is still a fairly challenging encounter.
Her Defense Hina gets immunity to Earth damage because of her Air Cushion
ability, meaning she’s only weak to Wind. Worse, Defense Hina will take two
turns to lay down two sets of Poison Traps, inflicting all of your Puppets that en-
ter the battlefield with Heavy Poison. She’s so tanky that you likely won’t be able
to one-shot her, but she’s far more susceptible to Sp. Attacks, meaning you have a
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chance if you have a strong Wind-type Puppet. Also, remember that you can use
the Spin Smash Skill to wipe out any and all traps laid on the battlefield, which re-
duces Defense Hina to merely a tanky wall. Myouren Tea can also completely
negate the penalty for switching Puppets in, but relying on item use can get ex-
pensive quickly.
Defense Chiyuri is also fairly tanky, but not to the point where she sacrifices dam-
age. Ice Gatling is one of those Skills where it hits 2-5 times for 25 base damage
per, meaning it can deal quite a lot of damage if it hits four or five times. Hon-
estly, she’s not too hard to take out, but if you’re trying to beat her before your
Puppet succumbs to Heavy Poison, it gets a lot harder.
Power Nitori, oddly enough, is possibly the weakest of the bunch. She has a very
respectible 130 base Fo. Attack, and quite a lot of HP at 120 base, but she’s very
slow and not very tanky (especialy against Sp. Attacks). Watch out for her Ham-
mer Throw attack, which has Steel typing and will hit hard against most Puppets.
All in all, if you can wipe out Defense Hina before she lays two sets of Poison
Traps, this battle becomes straightforward. If not, you’ll have to rely on killing
Puppets as quick as possible to outrun the ramping Heavy Poison damage.
After the fight, Nitori realizes her mistake and apologizes. She asks if you can
journey to the Tengu Hideout and retrieve her Optical Camouflage for her. In ex-
change, she gives you the Inflatable Boat and offers a further reward once you
bring back the Camouflage. The Inflatable Boat is an incredible item that, as ex-
pected, allows you to now travel on most water surfaces. This opens up quite a
few new sections of previously explored areas, such as the Forest of Magic and
Routes 3 and 4, where you can now gather new items and fight new Puppeteers.
We’ll tackle all of this soon in Side Quest Section 2, but for now, let’s continue on.
Before leaving her workshop, in the Northern section, check the left side of the
Western cabinet for a rare Hakurei Shinshu. Unlike the Moriya Shinshu, these re-
store a fainted Puppet’s health to full; also unlike the Moriya Shinshu, they can’t be
bought in stores, so save them for serious encounters.
There’s nothing left of value in Nitori’s House, so leave the house and work your
way West along the cliff and then down the stairs. It’s time for some item gather-
ing. Approach the water and hop into your boat. First, head South and follow the
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lake edge East to find a Dessert of the Sun. Head straight East from there to find a
solitary house. Before entering, check the pot for another Hakurei Shinshu (they’re
rare, I swear!). Enter the house and grab the Small Bit in the Northwest section.
Ignore the various boxes and cabinets, as despite what you’d expect, they’re empty.
Leave the house and head North from there. You’ll find yourself back at the heal-
ing house. Heal up and then head Southwest from the dock outside the house to
find an island. Check the upper of the two barrels for a Dessert of the Sun. The
lower barrel has a Suika Puppet inside; consider grabbing her if you need a good
Fighting-type or Earth-type Puppet, as her Defense Style is quite good (Charge! is
an amazing Ability that just further helps boost her damage).
The house itself has nothing of value, so ignore it and head Northwest to land.
Once on land, head North, ignoring the first house as well as the Western of the
two Northwest houses. Enter the Eastern of the two Northwest houses and check
the right side of the Northern cabinet for a Dessert of the Sun.
Leave the house and head East until you come to another house. Enter and check
the East side for Skill Card 22, Air Stamp. This is another in the line of Skill
Cards that swaps out the opposing Puppet for another one (or ends the battle
against a wild Puppet), but note once again that it has a Priority of -6. This means
that, no matter how fast or slow your Puppet is, that this move will almost certainly
take place after the other Puppet’s attack. This is probably again a hard pass.
There are no more items or battles to be had in the Kappa Hideout; when you’re
ready, leave via the Kappa on the dock to the South of the healing house.
Back in the cave, hop back into your boat and make your way East. Note that you
can’t get into random encounters while riding a boat; keep this in mind for future
exploration purposes. Not long after disembarking, you’ll run into a Kappa that
heard of your exploits in the Hideout and wishes to challenge you to battle!
Kappa Takeo
Normal Rika, Maintenance No Accessory
Lvl 25, Fire/Steel
Normal Iku, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 25, Electric
An easy enough fight, but beware of Iku’s Air Cushion as well as her abilities
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such as Stormcloud’s Eye which can Paralyze you.
Not long after Takeo, you’ll find a Kappa cowering against the wall. Talk to her
and she’ll start a fight in self-defense!
Kappa Rina
Lvl 25, Water/Steel
Lvl 25, Water
Now that you’re done picking on the scared Kappa (you bully, you), head up the
ladder and head South along the East wall to grab a Chirei Sweet Bun. Exit the
cave, ignoring the water for now, and head East, following the path as it twists and
turns. Eventually, you’ll come to a big bridge; cross it and head West past the giant
set of stairs to find a Rest Area.
The Peddler inside has four Spell Cards, each of which could potentially be useful
to your party. Spell Card 90, Overrun, is an excellent buy at 20,000. It is a Void-
type Sp. Attack Skill that has a base 100 damage, meaning it’ll do consistant dam-
age to everything except Light, Dark, and Illusion (damage is negated vs. Illusion).
It’s also useable on most Puppets, so if at all possible, put it on your Spread At-
tack-reliant Puppets, especially Void-type ones.
Spell Card 98, Will-o’-Wisp, is a Fire-type Skill for 35,000 that can Burn and in-
flict Dark on your enemy at an 85% success rate; the percentage is a little low for
my liking, but it should be low if it do both at the same time. Consider it if you
like causing Status Effects, and especially if one or more of your Puppets are a
stall-based Fire-type.
Spell Card 99, Shocking Wave, costs 35,000 and is a pretty self-explanatory Elec-
tric-type Skill. At an 85% success rate, it’ll put a tier-two Paralysis Status Effect,
also known as Shock, onto the enemy Puppet unless it’s Earth-type. This is good
to counter Speed-reliant Puppets, but whether or not it’ll be worth the turn to use
(and likely damage you’ll take) is hard to say.
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Spell Card 100, Acid Tears, is a Poison-type Skill which Poisons and Scares the en-
emy Puppet at an 85% success rate. Much like Will-o’-Wisp, it’ll highly depend
on whether you’re willing to risk a miss or two for applying two Status Effects at
once, especially for a costly 35,000.
Personally, I’d just grab Overrun for now and leave the rest for when your pocket-
book has more zeros in it, especially if you’ve been stocking up on healing items
and Threads throughout your journey.
For those wishing to only focus on the Main Quest, please skip ahead to the next
section, Scaling Youkai Mountain. Side Quest Section 2 will be devoted to collect-
ing any and all items, encountering a number of new Puppets, battling all enemy
Puppeteers, and exploring all the new areas opened up by unlocking the Inflatable
Boat. Just like before, all of these areas are entirely optional (for now, at least), but
gathering the rare and useful items as well as the experience will give you a huge
boost heading into Youkai Mountain. There are some potentially brutal fights wait-
ing for you there, and you’ll want all the advantages you can get.
To give you an idea of some of the spoils waiting for you, these range from held
items such as the Red Ring and Jar of Poison, rare healing/leveling items such as
the Hakurei Shinshu and Rainbow Candies, and a multitude of highly useful Skill
Cards that will likely give your Puppets a big boost. Some of these items will only
be encountered by going out of your way to areas not visited in the Main Quest
while others can be gathered later on when you’re required to visit/revisit certain
locations. However, many of these items, such as the Skill Cards, are best gathered
now in preparation for tougher battles ahead. Also, you’ll gather quite a lot of
money items both from traveling as well as from encounters that will be give you a
solid chunk of change to work with later on.
The choice, as always, is up to you.
I’ll detail this in the most timely, straightforward order to make this as efficient as
possible, leading from one location to the other as seamlessly as possible. That
said, feel free to tackle these areas in whatever order you wish, as all the Puppet-
eers will be of similar levels.
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A. Genbu Ravine Secrets
Starting from the Genbu Ravine Rest Area, head East to the large body of water.
Surf down the waterfall to the South and follow the river until you see an island
with a Kappa on it and an item. Ignore the Kappa and grab the Binoculars.
Head back into the Water and follow it around the bend until you can disembark on
the same island’s bank again. Follow the road until you come to a red-haired Fairy
that wants to battle!
Fairy Karine
Normal Aya, Free Will No Accessory
Lvl 26, Wind
As expected of a Fairy, the battle ends quickly. Continue East to find a cave en-
trance guarded by a Kappa.
Kappa Mariko
Normal Iku, Electromagnetic No Accessory
Lvl 25, Electric
Lvl 25, Water/Steel
Head inside the cave and head West to find another Kappa, this time blocking some
stairs.
Kappa Yumi
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
Don’t go up the stairs after your victory, as the Kappa was just a decoy to force you
to fight more random Hina Puppets and get Poisoned. Instead, head up the North-
ern path to the end. Ignore the Ghost for a moment and head West to find a Jade
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Hairpin. Return to the Ghost and give him an exorcism he’ll never forget.
Ghost Takuya
Normal Tojiko, Desperation No Accessory
Lvl 26, Electric
After the battle, follow the path East and down the stairs. At the split, ignore the
empty Northern path and instead head South. Your prize for clearing this optional
cave is a Red Ring, which slightly boosts damage done by Focus Attacks. It’s pret-
ty solid, so give it a shot.
Head West over the two hurdles and leave the cave. Jump back into the river and
follow it down the nearby waterfall. Snag the nearby Skill Card 9, Frenzied Jour-
uri, which is literally the same as Overrun, except it does Fo. Attack damage in-
stead. With its base 100 damage, it’s an excellent skill to have on Fo. Attack Pup-
pets, and especially Void-type ones.
Back in the water, continue South and follow the river until it goes over a very
wide waterfall. Grab the Dessert of the Sun and then head South to disembark for
good. From here, head West past the split and take the Southern path to find your-
self in the Forest of Magic yet again.
B. Forest of Magic Part 2
Forest of Magic Part 2 North Puppets

Normal Sunny Light Normal
Normal Luna Light/Wind Normal
Normal Star Light/Water Normal
Normal Ellen Illusion Rare
If you thought the Forest of Magic Part 1 was confusing, you’ll learn to love this
section of it. Interestingly enough, the two sections never actually meet, though
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you can see sections of Part 1 blocked off by trees. For better or worse, Part 2 is
easily bigger than Part 1, complete with a North section and a South section (each
with their own selection of wild Puppets), so get ready for a hike. Thankfully,
you’ll find a conveniently located healing spot not far in that’ll serve as your base
of operations.
From the entrance, head South and cross the lake. There’s a big East/West split
here that eventually meets up, but for the sake of early access to healing, let’s head
West first. You’ll soon find a Fairy waiting for someone to play with.
Fairy Nina
Lvl 27, Nature/Dark
Lvl 27, Dark
While still not a great challenge, take note that the enemy Puppet levels are stead-
ily rising. While you won’t see Style Puppets yet, that time is getting closer.
Continue along the path as it winds South, ignoring all splits until you reach the
Southern river. Cross it and engage the another Kappa (and Nitori Puppet).
Kappa Minato
Normal Rikako, Insight No Accessory
Lvl 27, Electric/Steel
Lvl 27, Water/Steel
Take the Southern path and you’ll soon approach a strange house. Who would live
all the way out here...? Here’s a hint, she’s a witch dressed in black and you’ve
fought her twice now.
Check the mushroom just outside the Northwest fence to get a free Mushroom
Powder before heading inside. The witch herself isn’t home, and amusingly
enough there’s actually nothing of value to pilfer from Marisa, but at least she was
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kind enough to make the bed for you. Head up the stairs and take a nap whenever
you need to heal up.
Back outside, head back to where the Kappa is and jump into the river. Head
South and hug the Western bank to find an Awakening Charm. Backtrack to the
North afterwards and keep going until you reach a large bridge. Disembark onto it
and head West until you reach a North/South split. Head North and follow it all
the way until you reach a Fairy blocking the way ahead.
Fairy Ulia
Lvl 29, Void
Keep going and fight through all the mud and grass until you eventually find Skill
Card 14, Voice of Famine, waiting for you at the path’s end. This is a pretty solid
Skill for Nature-type Puppets with a Fo. Attack focus, as it has a respectably strong
95 base Power and 100% Accuracy. The Weaken part of it can be ignored, how-
ever.
Head all the way back to the split near the bridge and continue on to the South. At
the next split, take the Western path and follow it until you find a Ghost waiting at
the end.
Ghost Shouji
Normal Lunasa, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Jump over the hurdle and marvel at the path blocked by boulders to the West.
You’ll find the means to get by eventually, though it won’t become really important
until far later on.
For now, return to Marisa’s House and rest up for the next chunk of exploration.
Once you’re prepared, head East to find a small bridge and jump North into the riv-
er. Check the mushroom near the Northeastern side of the river to find another
Mushroom Powder and then follow the river until you see the familiar Kappa
again. This time, disembark onto the Northern bank and head all the way North
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back to the lake near the entrance. This time we’ll be taking that Eastern split.
Follow it all the way until you reach a Fairy looking for a fight!
Fairy Patricia
Lvl 29, Water
Head East until you reach a North/South split; hop over the Southern hurdle and
then another. Turn East and you’ll see a Youkai offering to show you the way if
you defeat her.
Youkai Kagami
Lvl 29, Dark
As the Youkai says, ignore the Southern path and head North. Work your way
around until you see a mass of mushrooms behind some trees. The second mush-
room in the second row has a Mushroom Powder. Grab it and then approach the
Fairy to the South for another fight.
Fairy Lidy
Lvl 27, Nature
Lvl 27, Water
Head South from the Fairy and you’ll reach the split from before. Take the West-
ern path past the previous Fairy and go up the set of stairs to find a West/South
split. Ignore the Western path and head South to find a Youkai wandering around
in the muck.
Youkai Akina
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Lvl 26, Water/Wind
Normal Hina, Air Cushion No Accessory
Akina puts up a bit more of a fight than the previous encounters, but still should go
down easily enough. After defeating her, keep heading South until you come to a
West/South split; take the Western split past some grass to run into another Kappa!
Kappa Natsumi
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
Lvl 26, Water
Normal Rika Maintenance No Accessory
Lvl 26, Fire/Steel
Just past the Kappa in the center of the mud is Skill Card 30, Unfettered Soul. This
is an interesting Nether-type Skill that does double damage (55 base Fo. Attack) if
you don’t have an Accessory equipped. Accessories are pretty useful, but it’s also
hard to argue with an overall 110 base damage attack. I’d potentially still prioritize
the Accessory if you have a valuable one on already (if not, go with the Skill until
you get a good Accessory), but the choice is up to you.
Head back to the split and take the Southern path. You’ll soon run into the small
bridge near Marisa’s House. Your Puppets are likely getting tired by now, so con-
sider heading West back to the house to heal up.
From where we left off, head South to find a Mushroom Powder sitting in the
grass. Not far South from there, you’ll find a Ghost ready to battle!
Ghost Hirotaka
Normal Lyrica, Sound Absorb No Accessory
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From Hirotaka, head East past a bunch of hurdles until you reach a new area. Fol-
low the path and you’ll reach a Fairy that’s waiting near an item.
Fairy Izumi
Lvl 26, Water
Lvl 26, Water
Just past Izumi you’ll find Skill Card 31, Poisoned Arrow. This is a very nice Poi-
son-type Focus Attack that has a base Power of 80 and 100% Accuracy; not only
that, it also has a 10% chance to inflict Poison and also has an increased chance to
deal Critical Hits. The increased chance to deal Critical Hits will likely activate
enough to offset the base Power of 80, which will eventually be eclipsed by higher
Power skills. Consider using it if it’ll fit into your party setup.
Head back to the Ghost and head South across the big bridge to find yourself in the
next area. We’re about halfway done with the exploration I’d wager, so keep an
eye on your Puppets’ health bars and take trips back to heal whenever needed.
Forest of Magic Part 2 South Puppets

Normal Alice Steel/Light Normal
Normal Rikako Electric/Steel Normal
Normal Yuki Fire Normal
Normal Mai Water Normal
Normal Marisa Light/Electric Rare
Follow the path until you see two Ghosts facing each other not far from a lake.
Talking to either one will start an encounter, so let’s start from the Western ghost.
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Ghost Mizuho
Normal Yuyuko, Quick Eye No Accessory
Lvl 29, Nether
Ghost Kiku
Normal Merlin, Sound Absorb No Accessory
From the Ghosts, head East and follow the path until you see a suspicious mush-
room growing on a log. Inspect it to get a Mushroom Powder and then continue
on. Hop down the hurdle and head East at the split. Continue East until you reach
a massive tree; check the Mushroom at its base for another Mushroom Powder.
Just to the Southeast is another Fairy waiting to battle!
Fairy Ulea
Lvl 27, Light/Wind
Lvl 27, Light/Water
From Ulea, head South and then East to find an extended North/East/South split.
Take the Eastern path and follow it as it turns North past a small lake. At the near-
by North/East split, take the Eastern path and forge your way through a ton of grass
and mud to find a Healing Charm waiting at the end. Consider using this for a
tankier Puppet, as it’ll heal a nice amount of damage once per fight (or multiple
times with Skills/Abilities that recycle Charms).
Return to the split and head North past the Fairy playing in the mud. You’ll find
Skill Card 68, Drought, right next to some water. This is a pretty bad Skill Card, as
you won’t come across too many enemy Puppets that rely on healing; the only ex-
ception would be if they had Food Rations, but even then it likely would be better
overall to spend the turn damaging them or buffing your Puppet.
Hop into the water and follow it East until you come to an area you can disembark
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to the South. Follow the path and you’ll eventually come to an old man blocking
the path.
Old Man Ryouzou

Normal Kasen, Sermon No Accessory
Lvl 27, Fight./Illusion
Continue along the long path and head North at the split to find Skill Card 47, Pol-
len Mist. This is a solid Nature-type Sp. Attack that has a base 95 Power and
100% Accuracy. It also has a bonus 10% chance of lowering the opponent’s Sp.
Attack. The damage is solid and it has 100% Accuracy; give it a shot if it fits your
team.
Head back to the split and head West to find a lake. Surf across it and grab the Jar
of Poison on the other side. This is the first of a few items that are hyper-special-
ized in their usage. If your Puppet is a Poison-type, it’ll act the same as a Food Ra-
tions and heal them a bit each turn; otherwise, it’ll do the same amount as damage
instead. You can also combine it with a Skill such as Shark Trade to give it to the
enemy instead, though it likely won’t be worth it compared with an actual damage
ability. Still, it’s quite useful for healing Poison Puppets.
At this point, we’ll be heading all the way back past the massive tree to the two
Ghosts by the lake. Feel free to continue on farther back to Marisa’s place to heal
before continuing if needed. From the Ghosts, surf across the lake to the South and
take the Western path, following it as it turns South until you come to a East/South
split. Continue South until you encounter a Youkai demanding for you to hand
over your Puppets. Teach her that crime doesn’t pay!
Youkai Shizuha
Follow the path as it curves around and heads back North up a set of stairs. Just
past the Fairy with a Marisa Puppet, check the mushroom on the stump for another
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Mushroom Powder. Keep on the path until you come to a North/East split. Turn to
the North and talk to the Fairy for another battle!
Fairy Oruel
Normal Komachi, Grace of Water No Accessory
Normal Eiki, Sermon No Accessory
Lvl 26, Light/Fighting
Normal Komachi, Grace of Water No Accessory
Just past the Fairy, take the narrow path East to find the Repetitive Arts held item,
which boosts the damage of a Skill when used multiple times in a row. Head back
South past the Fairy and take the Eastern split. Continue heading East at the
North/East split not long after, and ignore the patch of grass leading North to an
empty dead end. Instead, keep going until you reach a very battle-obsessed Youkai
blocking the path.
Youkai Sakura
Normal Ran, Disturber No Accessory
Lvl 27, Illusion/Fire
After defeating the Youkai, head into the muck until you find a Fairy playing
around.
Fairy Equall
Lvl 26, Dark
Lvl 26, Nature/Dark
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Lvl 26, Water
Beware of a surprise Toxic Haze Poison-type attack from Wriggle.
Past the Fairy, you’ll find a rabbit Youkai that’s far, far from home. Don’t be
fooled, as she still wants to fight.
Youkai Amari
Now that the mini-gauntlet is over, head North to the end of the path and snag Skill
Card 80, Claim, which prevents the foe from using the same Skill twice in a row.
This one is very situational, so I’d say pass unless you really see a need for it down
the line.
With that final item, you’ve snagged every last item and fought every last Puppet-
eer in the Forest of Magic Part 2. We’ll be heading over to Part 1 later on for an-
other item and Puppeteer, but for now take a deep breath as you make your way
past Marisa’s House and out of the forest.
C. Misty Lake and the Ice Cavern
Honestly, I’d save this one for later in the game in Side Quest Section 4, but there
is one mediocre Skill Card you can grab from the upper levels of the Ice Cavern if
you wish. The lower levels will be blocked off until much later in the game, how-
ever.
Make your way back to Misty Lake and hop into the water. Believe it or not,
there’s no hidden treasures to be had on the lake itself, so just head for the center to
find a large island with a cave.
Ice Cavern Upper Floors Puppets

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Normal Magan Poison/Dark Normal
Normal Letty Water Normal
Once inside, head down the ladder to find yourself in one of the infamous ice slid-
ing puzzles. There are three openings; take the leftmost one and slide South, West,
South, East, North, East, South, West, North, West, South to get Skill Card 76, Be-
hind You! This is a so-so Skill at best as it only has a 90% chance to Scare the op-
ponent, but there are times where it might be useful.
That’s all there is to do for now in the Ice Cavern aside from catching a Magan or
Letty (the Ice Cavern is the only place to find Letty), though neither of which are
particularly amazing Puppets. If you need help escaping the ice puzzle, head
North, East, South, East, North, West, North, East, North to reach the Eastern exit.
D. Route 5 Northwest
Head to the Southwest exit of Misty Lake and enter Route 5’s Northwest section.
Follow the path until you come the Eastern split heading to the river. Take it and
cross the river to snag a rare Fate Thread, making this detour well worth it.
E. Forest of Magic Part 1
Make your way South and then West to Kourindou, located just outside the Forest
of Magic. Talk to the Youkai outside for a quick heal, and feel free to check Rinno-
suke’s shop for more wares (primarily one-use-per-battle hold items that buff one
Type’s damage, such as Void or Light).
Enter the Forest of Magic once again. Make your way once again towards Alice’s
house until you come to a bridge crossing over the river. Hop into the Northern
part of the river and follow it all the way up past the lake to another bridge. Cross
over this bridge and continue following the river North until you eventually reach a
place to disembark. Interestingly enough, a Fairy blocks your path even all the
way out here.
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Fairy Nina
Lvl 28, Nature
After defeating her, she’ll desperately claim there’s nothing past here. Unfortu-
nately for her, let’s ignore her and keep going to find her hidden treasure, Skill
Card 58, Poison Bomb. This Poison-type Sp. Attack is quite a decent Skill in the
same vein as Pollen Mist and other similar skills, with a 95 base Power, 100% Ac-
curacy, and 10% chance to inflict Poison. I’d say consider the Poison inflict
chance to be a nice bonus and use it primarily for its high stats. All in all, another
great skill for this point of the game.
With that, you’ve now 100% cleared the Forest of Magic in its entirety, although
there are some rocks blocking the path to a new location in Part 2. Since we can’t
take destroy them (yet), we’ll call it a day.
F. Route 5 South
Leave the Forest of Magic and follow the path South until you reach the big lake.
Jump into the lake and follow it East to find a Rainbow Candy.
Head back to the path and continue South until you reach a small bridge. There’s a
very small area in which you can jump into the Southern part of the river; do so
and follow it for what seems like an eternity to find a hidden little house. Inside,
snag Skill Card 37, St. Elmo’s Fire, from the table. This Illusion-type Skill is very
similar to the likes of Fire Wall and other such skills, as it increases its base Power
of 65 by 50% if the enemy is holding an item, with the side effect of destroying
their item (for the battle only). It’s an okay attack that gets better later in the game
when most if not all enemy Puppets are holding items, especially when they’re
holding healing items such as Food Rations or annoying items such as the Black
Choker. Until then, it’s a very situational Skill.
There’s nothing else of interest in this odd, isolated hut, so feel free to leave and
make your way back to the mainland and head East towards the Human Village.
Once you reach the massive bridge, jump into the Southern body of water and
cross it to the sandy island. Check the Southern tree stump for a hidden Rainbow
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Candy.
Keep heading East once you return to the mainland until you’re just outside the
Human Village. Jump into the river and head North to find a grassy outcrop to the
East. Hidden towards the back is a Haste Charm.
That’s the end of item gathering on Route 5; next up is Route 4.
G. Route 4
If you’ve forgotten, Route 4 can be accessed from the Southwest Gate of the Hu-
man Village.
This should be fairly quick, so let’s start by following the path until you see a body
of water to the West. Cross it to find Skill Card 49, Chrome Ray. With a base
Power of 90 and 100% Accuracy, this Steel-type Sp. Attack is just a bit worse than
the likes of Poison Arrow and Pollen Mist. However, it’s still a very solid attack
for Steel Puppets.
Cross the water again to the South and continue along the path until you cross a
small bridge. Once you see a hurdle that leads South into a grassy path leading
East, hop over it and head East until you reach a small lake. Skill Card 15, Tumble
Plant, is on the other side. This Nature-type Fo. Attack Skill does higher damage
the higher your Puppet’s ‘cost’ is (see the official Puppetdex for more info, but ba-
sically is related to their base stat total). The basic idea here is that stronger Pup-
pets, such as Shinki, Reimu, Hecate, Kanako, etc., have higher costs to offset their
higher stat bases, and thus this Skill will deal semi-massive damage to those Pup-
pets while minimal damage to ones such as Maribel, Ruukoto, etc.
It’s a tricky Skill to use until you pretty much memorize which Puppets are gener-
ally stronger than others, but it can do a lot of damage if used right. Consider us-
ing it if you can keep another Nature-type Skill to use as well.
And that concludes Route 4. Easy enough. As an aside, Teru appears in the Bam-
boo Forest and tries to sell you an item for 10,000,000. Apart from being a likely
scam, the game caps you out at holding 9,999,999 at once, preventing you from
completing the purchase. This is most likely a throwback to the old Pokemon Bi-
cycle salesman who attempted to do the same thing. *A big thank you to my
friend fruity_mario24 for the awesome explanation.
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H. Route 3, Myouren Temple, and the Divine Spirit Mausoleum
This trip will require you to return all the way to the Divine Spirit Mausoleum,
meaning you might want to pack a few Talismans or Bead Necklaces to avoid
fights against very weak Puppets during the journey.
To begin, follow the main path of Route 3 until you reach the house; from here turn
South and then East to get to a small lake. Cross it to get a Sturdy Rope. From
here return to the main path and follow it all the way to Myouren Temple.
From the temple, head East and cross the body of water to get Skill Card 32, Vac-
uum Rupture. This ultra-powerful Skill is the reverse equivalent of two-turn
charge skills, instead forcing you to rest a turn after using it (which naturally leaves
you exposed to attacks from whatever Puppet swaps in). However, at a base Power
of 150 and 100% Accuracy, this Fighting-type Fo. Attack Skill is still an amazing
ability to keep on a Fo. Attack focused Puppet as a battle ender or for when you
really, really need to one-shot a Puppet and just get it out of your life. Just don’t re-
ly on it too often, as it only has 5 SP, not to mention the enemy Puppeteer will
likely take the opportunity to swap in a Puppet that can in turn one-shot your Pup-
pet by striking its weakness.
There aren’t any more lakes in Myouren Temple, so continue on through the Cem-
etary and into the cave leading to the Great Mausoleum. As pretty as it is to surf
across the lily-covered water, there’s nothing of value to be found. Pass on through
and enter the Divine Spirit Mausoleum.
Hop into the water on the West side of the bridge and cross over to the narrow
path. At the end, you’ll find Skill Card 93, Spinning Air. To make a long story
short, it’s the same great kind of Sp. Attack Skill as the likes of Pollen Mist and
Poison Bomb, only Wind-type. Use it like the rest if it fits.
Miko and the others have a few new things to say, but nothing especially impor-
tant. When you’re ready, head all the way back to the Human Village and then
East onto Route 1.
I. Route 1 and Hakurei Shrine
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This will be the last retraveled area on our Side Quest journey; after this, we’ll be
exploring a few new areas before climbing Youkai Mountain.
From the Human Village, head East until you can jump in the Southern river. Fol-
low it South until you can disembark to the West. At the end of the path, past a lot
of grass, is Skill Card 62, Ultra High Tone. If I said it was the same as Pollen Mist
and Poison Bomb, except Sound-type, you should get the idea. It’s another great
move, especially since Sound is an incredibly useful type later in the game. This is
actually one I’d suggest using on a few Puppets just due to its overall usefulness.
Head back to the river and make your way East back to the mainland. Once there,
jump into the lake to the East and head East until you see a Bandage sitting in the
grass on an island to the Northeast. A Bandage Accessory boosts how much ab-
sorption Skills such as Life Drain heal your Puppet. It’s great if you have a Defen-
sive Puppet with an absorption Skill that can greatly benefit from the additional life
span, though it likely will become less useful as the game goes on and you get bet-
ter Skills to replace the generally weaker absorption Skills. Plus, Food Rations is a
lot more reliable in general.
Return to land and follow the path East all the way back to the Hakurei Shrine.
Hakurei Shrine Puppets

Normal Sukuna Steel/Earth Normal
Normal Sumireko Warped/Void Normal
Normal Shingyoku Void Normal
Normal Kana Nether/Sound Normal
Normal Rin Fire Normal
Normal Reimu Void/Illusion Very Rare
This must look a bit nostalgic by now, huh? Head West and cross the small pond
past the sleeping turtle (congratulations if you recognize him!) and disembark on
the Western bank. This secluded area has a Hakurei Shinshu at the end, and, per-
haps equally importantly, a few new Puppets you can snag. If you need to have
Reimu on your team, be prepared for a long wait, as she has an extremely low ap-
pearance chance. She’s so strong it very well might be worth the effort, though.
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This will be your only chance to get her for a very, very long time, and even later
on she’s hard to find.
After returning to the main area, you have the option of heading towards the Shrine
itself to talk to Kasen, a hermit who’s watching over the shrine while Reimu is
gone. She won’t have anything important to say now, but later on she’ll play an in-
credibly important role in Patchouli’s research. More on that later, however.
You also have the option while Reimu is out to finally enter her room. As expected
of a penniless Shrine Maiden, there’s not much there. If you’re feeling particularly
evil, you could check the dresser and take her last Fujiwara Rice Cookie, but then
she’d have no food left...
Once you’re finished poking around, it’s time to return all the way back to Genbu
Ravine’s Rest Area. As stated earlier, we’ll be exploring a few new areas before
scaling the mountain.
J. Road of Liminality and the Sanzu River
From the Rest Area in Genbu Ravine, head South and then West to find yourself at
the Road of Liminality.
Road of Liminality Puppets

Normal Kokoro Void/Fighting Normal
Normal Louise Wind Normal
Normal Yuuka Nature/Electric Rare
Normal Suika Fighting/Earth Barrel near Central Stalls
Normal Yuugi Fighting Barrel near Northeast
Stalls
This is the path dead souls take to reach the Sanzu River, where they’re ferried
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across and receive the Yama’s judgement. Thankfully, you’re just here to gather
items, find new Puppets, and engage in Puppet battles.
Immediately jump into the river and cross it to find a Dessert of the Sun. Cross
back over and head West to find the first Ghost of many.
Ghost Suou
Normal Komachi, Suppression No Accessory
Suou goes down easily enough, especially if you followed Side Quest Section 2
and bulked up a bit. Follow the path as it curves North across a bridge. Jump into
the Western river and head across and North just a bit to find Skill Card 87, Light-
ning Cut. This Electric-type Fo. Attack Skill is fairly solid. It has a respectable
base 90 Power and 100% Accuracy, and a nice occasional bonus of a 10% chance
to raise your Speed. All in all, it’s an okay Skill that you should use if you don’t
have anything better; otherwise, there are better Skills to use.
Head back to land at the same spot you entered the river and continue North. Just
before you reach the Youkai, take the narrow path East filled with grass to its end
to find a Rainbow Candy. Head back and talk to the Youkai to start another battle!
Youkai Nem
Normal Yuuka, Peaceful No Accessory
Nemu has a different design than the other Youkai you’ve encountered, but still
goes down just as easy.
The second Youkai just past Nemu isn’t a Puppeteer; ignore her and follow the
winding path until you find a Sunflower Fairy enjoying the stalls.
Fairy Helianthus
Normal Ringo, In Sync No Accessory
Lvl 27, Nature
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Normal Ringo, In Sync No Accessory
Lvl 27, Nature
While Ringo is weak, watch out for her Hornet’s Flit Nature-type attack, which
can deal a lot of damage if it hits four or five times.
You’ll soon come across some stalls as you continue on. Ignore the girl wandering
around just south of the stalls as well as the Ghost stallkeepers. Instead, check the
Eastern pot for an Oath Thread. If you want to fight another Suika Puppet, head
behind the stall and check the barrel; otherwise, check the far Northwest box for a
Chirei Sweet Bun.
Many of the wandering Ghosts, humans, and Youkai to the North aren’t Puppet-
eers, and instead are just there to enjoy the stalls. The Ghost to the South of the
Easternmost stall, however, is ready for a fight if you want one.
Ghost Hasura
The next part gets complicated, so let’s start from the Easternmost stall and head
West behind the stalls. Check the Eastern box for a Myouren Tea. The second bar-
rel from the East has a rare Yuugi Puppet, which might be worth grabbing now
rather than searching for it later. The box to the West of the red stall has a Rainbow
Candy.
Leave an offering at the Jizo statue to continue piling up good Karma before head-
ing to the Southern part of the path for another battle against a ghostly Youkai.
Youkai Senka
Normal Eiki, Sermon No Accessory
Head back to the Northern part of the path and follow the stalls West. The very
last pot in the Northwest has a Moriya Shinshu. From here, continue West past the
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bridge and you’ll eventually find yourself at the Sanzu River.
Sanzu River Puppets

Normal Mima Nether Rare
Normal Rin Fire Rare
Normal Eiki Light/Fighting Rare
Head down the large set of steps and turn immediately West. Check the statue for
a Talisman, and then continue West and check the Northwest rock for another one.
Return to the path and head South past all the Ghosts into the grass to the South-
east. You’ll find rare Puppets in the grass such as Eiki, Komachi, and Mima here,
all of whom are solid (especially Eiki and Mima!). The Ghost next to the hut men-
tions something odd about being struck by frenzy upon entering. Sadly, you won’t
get to investigate for now because it’s locked. Continue following the grass North
to find Skill Card 97, Poltergeist. This is yet another Skill in the vein of Pollen
Mist and Poison Bomb, except instead of having a base Power of 95, it has a base
of 90. Still, it’s a solid Nether-type Skill that might fit into your party.
You can’t actually jump into your boat and try to cross the Sanzu River due to the
fact that only the dead may pass (and you might very well instantly die upon touch-
ing the water), meaning there’s not a lot left to do here currently. You’ll have the
opportunity to come back here far later in Side Quest Section 4 for a few optional
events. For now, return to the Genbu Ravine Rest Area and prepare for an arduous
journey up the mountain.
11. Scaling Youkai Mountain
Let me say this: Youkai Mountain is no joke. If you’ve been following the Guide
and went on a Side Quest journey, you’ll be in solid shape, but bad decisions can
still cost you big.. If your Puppets are still in the low-to-mid 30s, you’re going to
be in for a rough time. My Puppets are typically all Level 43-45 or so by this time,
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and even then there still tends to be a few close moments here and there during my
playthroughs.
You’ll be experiencing a massive roadblock in the form of an old friend soon

enough that’ll be your first real test; if you can beat her, you should be just fine un-
til you reach the top. If not, you’ll need to bulk up a bit or try a new strategy.
Again, if your Puppets are in the lower 30s, you’ll be in for a fun time. You have
been warned.
Once you’re prepared, head East from the Genbu Ravine Rest Area and head up
the massive set of stairs to begin the climb.
Youkai Mountain Ascent Puppets

Normal Shizuha Nature Normal
Normal Minoriko Nature Normal
Normal Momiji Steel Normal
Normal Hatate Wind Normal
Normal Aya Wind Rare
Interestingly, the Puppets you find while climbing the mountain aren’t all the same
you’ll find on the descent. There are a lot of new Puppets to be found here, though
none of them stand out as particularly amazing aside from Aya. You’ll see why
Aya, specifically Power Aya, is a top-tier Puppet in a short while.
That said, this section of the mountain (the ascent) is the only place in the game to
find Shizuha or Minoriko, so snag them if you’re interested. The others can all be
found on the descent.
At the East/West split, head East and talk to the Fairy for a fight.
Fairy Yulia
Lvl 27, Nature
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Lvl 27, Nature
After defeating Yulia, head back West and continue up the stairs. Follow the path
until you reach another East/West split and head West and grab the Topaz Hairpin
just down the stairs. Don’t head back up the stairs quite yet, instead heading all the
way around the narrow path until you find Skill Card 56, Ghost Wave, at the end.
Honestly, you likely just received Poltergeist not long before, and the 30% Scare
chance isn’t high enough to offset the 10 lower base damage in my opinion. If the
chance to inflict Scare seems good enough for you, however, then go for it.
Return to the split and head East until you come the first of many Tengu that will
block your ascent up the mountain.
Tengu Midori
Normal Momiji, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 27, Steel
Lvl 27, Steel
Keep going up the mountain to find a Fairy wandering around; speak to her if you
wish to fight.
Fairy Jumi
Lvl 28, Water
Just before the next set of stairs, check the Eastern rock for an Oath Thread.
This is the moment where we’ll find out if your party is ready for Youkai Mountain
or not. I strongly, strongly suggest returning to the Rest Area and healing if you
are at all injured.
Once you’re prepared, continue up the mountain and cross the bridge at your own
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peril.
Cue the music and get ready for a beatdown by Gensokyo’s Incident Solving Spe-
cialist!
Shrine Maiden of Gensokyo Reimu (2)

Power Aya, Salvo Red Ring
Lvl 32, Wind/Fighting
Defense Suika, Charge! Red Ring
Lvl 32, Fighting/Fire
Power Reimu, Self Exorcism Clear Hairpin
Do you remember when Reimu’s biggest threat was her Normal Reimu Puppet?
Well, those happy times are past. Welcome to the reign of Power Aya, whose Sal-
vo ability makes her the undisputed Queen of mid-game. Rounding out the trio is
Defense Suika and Power Reimu, who are both quite strong in their own right,
though Defense Suika is the weak link at this point of the game.
First up, of course, is Power Aya. I wrote a small novel about her in the Useful
Puppets Section, but to summarize, if she decides to use either the Wind-type
Twister or Fighting-type Shooting Arts (2-5 hit Fo. Attack Skills), she has a 100%
chance to hit you five times thanks to her Ability, Salvo. This nails you with a
combined 125 base Power 5-hit combo, with each hit getting a chance to deal a
Critical Hit for further damage. Now boost the damage more thanks to her Red
Ring Accessory. Ouch. To make matters worse, she will outspeed any Puppet
you have with near certainly, meaning that she could wipe out most of your Pup-
pets in one turn that aren’t resistant to Wind and Fighting or have a significant
level advantage (such as from Side Quests).
The good news? Puppeteer AI is still fairly stupid at this point of the game and
won’t always abuse this tactic, sometimes choosing instead to do far weaker at-
tacks for no reason whatsoever. Furthermore, there are four Puppets in the entire
game that have Warped/Nether or Nether/Warped typing and thus completly neg-
ate Power Aya: Extra Parsee, Extra Sekibanki, Extra Seija, and Extra Hecatia (un-
til she changes form). Unfortunately, you won’t find Normal Parsee yet, so you
can either get one of the other three Puppets or beat her by managing to take a hit
and then wiping her out, preferably with Wind, Steel, or Electric.
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Defense Suika while controlled by enemy Puppeteers at this point of the game is
good at being a nuisance...and that’s about it. Once she gets better Skills from
leveling and Skill Cards, she becomes far more imposing. Defense Suika will al-
most certainly use her first turn to send out a Duststorm that does a small amount
of damage at the end of each turn to all non-Earth Puppets; amusingly enough,
Defense Suika is Fighting/Fire (she used to be Fighting/Earth as a Normal Style
Puppet), meaning she’ll get injured by this as well. Because her move pool is still
limited at Level 32 (and without Skill Cards), she doesn’t pose as much of a threat
as she should with the Charge! Ability, which boosts her damage by 30% at the
cost of not being able to activate secondary effects of attacks. That doesn’t mean
she can’t do solid Focus Attack damage, however, which is further boosted by her
Red Ring. Watch out for Corkscrew (Fighting-type), Rising Sun (Fire-type), and
Stone Rain (Earth-type).
Power Reimu is less dangerous than Power Aya, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a
very real threat. She has a very strong base 125 Fo. Attack and semi-high HP at
100 base, with respectable Defenses and Speed. She hits like a truck and has a
fair chance of surviving a hit or perhaps two. She can be outsped by Speed-fo-
cused Puppets, and otherwise has a decent to good chance to outpace most others.
Power Reimu is a very straightforward Puppet to go against; either you knock her
out or you’ll likely be watching your Puppet go down. She still doesn’t have ac-
cess to her most powerful moves yet, which mean she’s not the monster she will
be later, but she does have good type coverage between Fighting-type, Illusion-
type, Earth-type (Rocky Barrage), and Void-type Skills. The best part about
Power Reimu is that she no longer is the frustrating Void/Illusion type combo
from when she was Normal Style, meaning she has a few new weaknesses to ex-
ploit. A 4x Sound weakness paints a big target on her back, but you can also hit
her with Wind or Illusion for great effect. Just don’t get your Sound, Wind, or Il-
lusion Puppet knocked out in one hit when swapping in.
For beating her, you’ll get a well-deserved Bhava-Agra Set. Perhaps more impor-
tantly, you’ve earned the right to continue up Youkai Mountain.
You’ll likely need a heal after that fight, but don’t head back to the Rest Area.
There’s a conveniently located house just past the bridge and up some stairs that
has a slacking Tengu in it who will allow you to rest and heal your party.
After healing, head back South to the body of water to the East. Jump into the
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water and go down the waterfall. Disembark to the East where all the grass is and
travel Northeast to find Skill Card 18, Spiked Stones, waiting at the end. This
Earth-type Skill deals Fo. Attack damage, but only has a base Power of 60. What
makes it unique is that it has a guaranteed chance of lowering the opponent’s
Speed. I still think it’s too big of a trade-off for that low of a base Power, but it
does have its uses.
Return to the water, hop into your boat, and follow the twists and turns all the way
back down to the bottom. Disembark to the West and make your way back up the
mountain.
Talk to the Kappa in front of the cave if you need to purchase supplies. As with
most caves, you’ll be getting into a large number of random encounters. While this
is good for getting Experience, consider stocking up on Talismans if you’d rather
not get into fights every ten seconds.
Youkai Mountain Cave Puppets

Normal Hina Poison/Nether Normal
Normal Sara Earth Normal
Normal Yamame Poison/Earth Normal
Once you are prepared, step foot into the cave and take the East split to find a Fairy
lying in wait.
Fairy Yurshel
Lvl 28, Nature
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Keep following the path North and up the stairs to find a Tengu standing around
waiting for someone to pass by.
Tengu Kenichi
Normal Hatate, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 28, Wind
There’s a nice set of Blue Earrings just to the South of Kenichi that you can get to
by heading down the Western stairs and following the path East. Blue Earrings are
the Sp. Attack equivalent of a Red Ring; put them on an appropriate Puppet and
they’ll serve you well.
From here, head West past the stairs and then straight North past splits heading in
different directions. You’ll soon come to a Youkai at the end who appears to be
blocking the path West, but won’t stop you if you try to pass. If you talk to her,
however, she’ll gladly fight you.
Youkai Akane
Normal Yatsuhashi, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 27, Sound
Normal Benben, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 27, Sound
At the end of the narrow path is a Rainbow Candy. Head back to the Youkai and
head South until a path opens to the East. Follow it until you reach a Youkai stand-
ing by a set of stairs.
Youkai Chiyu
Normal Ichirin, Overwhellm No Accessory
Lvl 27, Fighting
Normal Murasa, Stream Form No Accessory
Lvl 27, Water
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Climb the stairs to find Skill Card 79, Upbeat. This Sound-type Skill is very situa-
tional, as it prevents foes from using Status-causing skills for three turns. In some
situations, this can be quite useful, but you’ll rarely find it worth a permanent slot
in your four-Skill rotation.
There’s nothing else to the found past the Youkai to the East, so instead head West
past the main road to find another path almost directly across; continue on this new
path, stopping to pick up a Chirei Sweet Bun along the way. At the end is a ladder
that leads down to the next area.
On the second floor, follow the path until you reach a South/East split. While the
ladder leading to the exit is to the South and then West, there are plenty of items
and Puppeteers to be found by instead heading East.
Head up the stairs to the East and hug the Southern part of the platform as you pro-
ceed until you reach a set of stairs with a Contract Thread just beyond. Snag it and
then take the stairs down to find a Youkai watching the path further South.
Youkai Chateau
Lvl 28, Water/Steel
Just past the Youkai is an annoyed Tengu who yells at you for ignoring the No
Trespassing sign at the entrance of the mountain.
Tengu Mami
Lvl 26 Poison/Nether
Normal Nitori, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
After beating Mami, she warns you to be careful since the mountain is very danger-
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ous; amusingly enough, the most dangerous one so far came from off the moun-
tain. Regardless, continue onwards and head up the ladder at the end of the path.
Not far into the next area, you’ll run across another Youkai to beat up.
Youkai Nozomi
Continue along the path until you can climb the stairs to the raised platform and
grab the obvious Chirei Sweet Bun. Head South from there, ignoring the Youkai to
the West, instead heading South until you come to yet another Tengu.
Tengu Kenichi
Lvl 28, Wind
At the end of the path, you’ll come to an exit from the cave. No, this is not the ac-
tual continuation of our journey up the mountain but instead a side area that you
likely saw earlier when grabbing items. The Youkai outside has nothing important
to say, so continue onwards and grab the Dispel Charm.
Inside the hut is Hina, a Curse God that has an unusual service to offer you. If you
ever want to release one of your Puppets back to the wild, you can talk to her and
she will do so for free; however, you will never see that particular Puppet again,
and you will lose whatever Accessory you have attached. Personally, you should
never need to rely on her services, as you have plenty of space in your Puppet Box
for more than one of each type of Puppet, and there are ways later on of making
Puppets with poor stats much, much better. Still, she’s there if you decide you
want to get rid of a Puppet.
For now, head back into the cave and make your way back down to the second lev-
el’s raised platform. From the stairs, continue East to find another set of stairs.
Take them and follow the path to find a ladder leading down to a third floor of the
cave. At the very end, snag the Thorn Charm and head back up to the second floor.
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Return to the split just past the Western part of the raised platform area and head
South to find a wandering Youkai with nothing important to say and a ladder just to
the West of her. Take it.
This is the last part of the cave. Head South to find a Tengu guarding the path.
Tengu Nazuna
Lvl 27, Electric
Lvl 27, Wind
Head South and exit the cave and celebrate a successful trip. However, you might
need to make another trip through momentarily unless your Puppets are in excel-
lent shape, as you have not one but two mandatory mid-boss esque battles ahead
before you can reach another Rest Area.
Just around the bend from the entrance are a pair of sisters you’ve likely seen in
Puppet form, Minoriko and Shizuha. Each of them are willing to battle you if you
speak to them, though they’ll put up a bit more of a fight than the normal rabble!
Goddess of Autumn Leaves Shizuha

Lvl 30, Nature
Speed Shizuha, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 30, Nature
Not much strategy needed here, though watch out for Speed Shizuha’s much high-
er Fo. Attack damage and Speed than the Puppets you’ve been fighting; she
doesn’t do near as much as Reimu’s Puppets, but Speed Shizuha can still take out
an already weakened Puppet from the cave trip. She can also heal herself with
Power Drain.
Harvest God Minoriko

Lvl 30, Nature
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Power Minoriko, Spirit of Yang No Accessory
Lvl 30, Nature
Much like her sister, her only real threat is her second Puppet, Power Minoriko.
This time, the damage is Sp. Attack focused, however, and it should be noted that
Power Minoriko also has a self-healing attack.
From the sisters, head West through the grass to find Food Rations! This amazing
item heals whatever Puppet holds it for a bit of HP at the end of every turn (not in-
cluding at the end of battle, however). You’ll want to give it to your bulkiest Pup-
pet (aka the one with the most Defensive stats), as they’ll get the most benefit from
it.
Return to the sisters and head North. You’ll soon come to a series of small steps
and a Youkai blocking the Eastern path. While the steps are the path to continuing
up the mountain, there’s yet another cart blocking the way forward just past the
step summit.
Instead, prepare yourself for a forced encounter against one of the guardians of
Youkai Mountain, Momiji.
Patrol Tengu Momiji

Lvl 29, Water/Steel
Speed Momiji, Stubborn No Accessory
Lvl 30, Steel
This is actually a fairly straightforward fight. Normal Hina and Normal Nitori are
the same as you’ve seen before, though note that Hina is lacking her Air Cushion
Ability, granting you the option to hit her with Earth.
Speed Momiji is just a fast damage dealer. Watch out for Killing Bite, a Steel-
type Fo. Attack which does a fair chunk of damage. Also be aware that because
she has the Stubborn Ability, neither your full HP Pupper nor her can be knocked
out in one blow (unless you use a multi-hit attack).
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After defeating Momiji, you have a decision to make. There’s one mid-boss esque
battle between you and the next Rest Area. If your Puppets are severely injured,
consider healing them with items or return through the cave to the slacking Tengu
for healing.
Once you are prepared, continue East and then North, ignoring the Kappa by the
river for now. You’ll soon find what appears to be another cave entrance, but in ac-
tuality is the secret entrance to the Tengu Village.
Tengu Village Puppets

Normal Hatate Wind Three in Pots
Head North and you’ll be met by Aya, who informs you that the Tengu are in an
uproar right now due to a series of thefts. She then challenges you to a Puppet bat-
tle to prove your innocence, though it’s more likely she just wants an excuse to bat-
tle you.
Newspaper Reporter Aya

Assist Hatate, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 35, Wind/Illusion
Power Aya, Salvo No Accessory
Assist Hatate is little to write home about, though she can put out moderate dam-
age.
Once again, Power Aya is the potential nightmare here. The same strategy applies
this time as last time, though she’s a bit slower and does a bit less damage than
Reimu’s Power Aya.
After beating her, you explain who the real culprits are. Aya then pulls out an Inci-
dent Case book out of nowhere, saying this is likely the rare item they wanted. She
offers it to you on the condition that you take care of the real culprits.
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Fair enough deal, right? Accept her offer and she’ll tell you to find her later on
once you’ve dealt with them.
After Aya flies off, head North and continue heading North past the first four-way
split. At the second split, head East until you see the familiar roof of a Rest Area.
Inside, there’s a Tengu selling Threads and Puppet-repelling items on the West
side, and the familiar item clerk next to the healing clerk at the counter selling the
next tier of healing item, Misty Jelly. You’ve found a few by now, but they heal
200 HP and cost 1200 to buy. Restock your healing item supply if needed and then
leave the Rest Area.
Head East and up the stairs to find a Magatama in the only pot you can reach.
Magatamas are the third and best tier of repellant, keeping wild Puppets at bay for
300 steps. You’ll eventually be able to buy them later.
Head back down the stairs and go West to the house next to the Rest Area. Inside,
check the Eastern dresser’s right side for a Chirei Sweet Bun.
At the four-way split, we have the option of taking either a Northern loop around
the town or a Western one. We’ll take the Northern loop, so head North and imme-
diately get stopped by a furious Tengu whose note pad was stolen.
Tengu Cocco
Lvl 28, Wind
Normal Momiji, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 28, Steel
Lvl 28, Steel
Note that enemy Puppet levels are rising. You are almost to the point where even
the grunts will be using Styled Puppets. Be prepared.
Right to the West of the Tengu, check the barrel for a Moriya Shinshu. Follow the
path as it heads up a small flight of stairs, and then make a sharp turn East. Head
to the end and check the bottom pot for a Chirei Sweet Bun, and then enter the
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house you passed by. Inside, check second box East of the Northern table for a
Magatama before grabbing the obvious Serein Godstone. This item is the first
you’ll find in a series of Godstones that boost the length of a particular Weather ef-
fect when that effect is caused by the holder, which in this case is the Sunshower
effect. While not typically a useful item for the average team, this can be a god-
send (heh) for themed teams that rely on a particular Weather effect to excel. How-
ever, it’s unlikely that you’re relying on such a team comp, so leave it in your bag
and use something better suited for damage or survivability.
Cross the river and climb the stairs before heading West. Your next opponent is
blocking your path.
Tengu Hiroyuki
Lvl 29, Water/Steel
Upon defeating her, she gives a good hint about where the Three Fairies of Light
are hiding; that said, we’ll be saving them for last anyway.
Head directly West, ignoring Aya, and check the barrel for an optional Hatate Pup-
pet encounter.
From there, head South and down the steps, but don’t go past that point. Instead,
turn East and follow the narrow path behind the house for a hidden Skill Card 86,
Flying Frenzy. This is an excellent Wind-type Focus Attack in the same vein as
Voice of Famine and the various Sp. Attack Skill Cards with a base Power of 95.
You likely won’t have a Wind-type move better, so use it if possible.
Travel South from there until you are stopped by a Tengu whose diary was stolen.
Just like before, you’re the prime suspect!
Tengu Nasiki
Normal Hatate, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 30, Wind
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Lvl 30, Wind
Also just like before, the Tengu goes down easy.
The Eastern of the two nearby barrels has yet another Hatate Puppet hiding inside.
Fight her for easy Experience if you wish and then head inside the house. The
Southeast pot has a Moriya Shinshu that you can grab. That’s all that’s in the
house; leave and head East all the way until you reach the Rest Area again. Heal
up and prepare for a confrontation with the true culprits!
Return to the four-way split and head South to the next four-way split (the South-
ern barrel has another Hatate Puppet). From there, turn West and enter the nearby
house. Check the Southeastern pot for an Oath Thread.
Back outside, head West and follow the path until the end, where you’ll see three
bushes in a row. There can’t possibly be anything or anyone in there, but check
one of them anyway and see what happens.
In fact, check all three of them (or the same one three times) and you’ll be forced
into a battle against the Three Fairies of Light!
Puppet Liberation Front Fairies of Light

Lvl 26, Light
Lvl 26, Light/Wind
Lvl 26, Light/Water
Speed Luna, Sanguine Opal Hairpin
Lvl 32, Light/Sound
Power Star, Niche Opal Hairpin
Lvl 32, Light/Water
Power Sunny, Flash Opal Hairpin
Lvl 32, Light/Fire
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Honestly, this looks overwhelming at first due to the sheer number of enemy Pup-
pets, but it’ll be an easy fight if you don’t have any Puppets weak to Light. There
are two Puppet versions of each Fairy, one with a Style and one still in Normal
Style.
There’s not much to say here apart from reiterating not to throw out any Puppets
weak to Light, especially since there’ll be an almost constant Aurora Weather ef-
fect up (boosting Light damage and lowering Dark damage). They’ll be primarily
using Light-type Skills alongside the Aurora Weather, including the Priority-
boosted Over Ray (thereby outspeeding most attacks guaranteed) as well as more
powerful moves such as Diffusion Laser (boosted further by the Opal Hairpin
each Styled Puppet is wearing). This sounds scary, but their damage is still so
low that you’ll likely mow right through them.
Power Star has the most damage among the three, so don’t leave out any Puppets
out below half health against her.
Especially since there are six enemy Puppets and the fight is fairly easy, remem-
ber to swap all of your Puppets in at least once (preferably against one of the Nor-
mal Puppets) to ensure each one gets double Experience, as it’s a sizeable amount.
Upon winning, the three Fairies will run away, leaving nothing behind in the
bushes. While there is no message to confirm this, you did get the Optical Camou-
flage back. Go talk to Aya in the Northwest part of the Tengu Village for a small
cutscene in which she confirms the Optical Camouflage has been retrieved. She’ll
then hand over Incident Case 4 to you as promised before departing.
While you can technically trudge all the way back down the mountain to the Kappa
Hideout and give Nitori back her stolen goods, you should hold off until later. Not
only is that an incredibly long treck back down and then back up Youkai Mountain,
you’ll get a handy item before too much longer that will allow you to teleport to
any Rest Area or town you’ve been to, including the Kappa Hideout. Wait until
then if at all possible.
While the Tengu wandering around town have a few new things to say, none of it is
particularly important. Once you are prepared and have healed up again at the Rest
Area, head South and leave the Village.
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Remember the Kappa just South of the Tengu Village entrance? Now that your
Puppets are doing great, talk to him for a brief fight!
Kappa Takurou
Lvl 27, Water/Steel
Normal Rika, Immovable No Accessory
Lvl 27, Fire/Steel
Head West from the Kappa back to the small series of steps going up the mountain
next to Momiji. Follow them up and stick to the path as it winds its way up the
mountain and around some twists and turns. You’ll eventually come to another
Kappa who is guarding the next set of stairs.
Kappa Yuuko
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
Lvl 26, Water
Lvl 26, Water/Steel
This is the point where you’ll have to make a painful decision in the name of get-
ting a Skill Card. Take the river East all the way until you come to a waterfall. De-
scend it and then head East again, ignoring the Western waterfall, to find yet anoth-
er waterfall to the East. Go down that one and follow the river until you see Skill
Card 50, Smash Spin, all the way to the South. Smash Spin is one of those situa-
tional moves that can be incredibly useful when the situation calls for it, but it only
has a base Power of 60, meaning it’ll be severely outclassed damage-wise by other
Wind-type Sp. Attack moves. What Smash Spin does is eliminate all Traps, some
binding effects, and Drain Seed. The latter two are less important, but being able
to get rid of Traps can be quite useful in the few fights later in the game where
you’ll wish you had it in reserve. Unless you’re using a Puppet with the Strategist
Ability (boosting the Power of all Skills of 60 base Power or lower by 50%), I’d
consider either slapping it on a fourth Skill slot that you might never use anyway or
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just keeping the Skill Card for later.
The bad news, and why this was a painful decision, is that once you descend the
next waterfall and disembark to the West, you’ll find yourself just outside the
house with the slacking Tengu, meaning you’ll have to traverse all the way back
through the cave and up the mountain to get back where you were. Consider buy-
ing a Talisman or two from the handy Kappa Trader next to the cave entrance to
prevent a two-minute journey from becoming a ten-minute journey.
Once you make it back to the Kappa guarding the stairs, head up them and follow
the narrow path as it works its way to the West. Check the rock to the Southwest
just before the next set of stairs for an Oath Thread, and then take the stairs only to
be stopped by another Tengu.
Tengu Miki
Lvl 28, Wind
From Miki, head East until you come to another section of the river and jump in.
No waterfalls this time, however. Simply head across straight East and grab the
Silver Coin on the opposite bank before returning back to the mainland.
Climb the nearby stairs to the North and keep going past swathes of grass until you
reach what appears to be the top. Ignore the Tengu to the North and continue East
until you see a Youkai on the Northern edge of the path. She won’t stop you, but if
you talk to her she’ll tell you that she’s undefeated before attacking!
Youkai Tomoe
Lvl 26, Electric
Lvl 26, Wind
Lvl 26, Wind
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The obvious punchline here being that this is her first battle, meaning she couldn’t
have lost before. Guess we fixed that for her.
Continue to follow the path as it turns North. You’ll soon see a Moriya Shinshu in
the grass; grab it and head East until you come to a Youkai to the North. Much like
Tomoe, she won’t fight you unless you talk to her.
Youkai Minamo
Normal Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 28, Dark/Fire
This is the last normal Puppeteer fight of this part of Youkai Mountain. I would
strongly suggest healing your Puppets to full by returning to Tengu Village or
through healing items, as the next fight will be fairly tough.
Once you’re prepared, head East from Minamo and cross the bridge. You’ll soon
come to a new area. Follow the path until you come to a North/East split and then
head North. Within moments, you’ll find yourself in Moriya Shrine. Interestingly
enough, the entirety of Moriya Shrine and the lake behind it appeared one day on
top of Youkai Mountain from the Human World, plunging the Tengu society into
chaos. Perhaps there will be a clue as to how to return here...?
Save just in case once you reach the large gate just before the top of the mountain.
Walk up the small set of steps and you’ll be greeted by an old friend. Sanae, who
was watching over the Hakurei Shrine and who also gave you your Puppet Box, re-
turned home while you were journeying around Gensokyo. Attracted by the com-
motion, Kanako, one of the two Gods of Moriya Shrine, also makes an appearance.
She expresses surprise at seeing someone else from the outside world, only to be
stopped by Sanae. The Shrine Maiden of Moriya Shrine tells her God to stand
back, as today is her day to play with you!
Shrine Maiden of the Mountain Sanae

Defense Reimu, Composed Clear Hairpin
Speed Marisa, Collectomaniac Obsidian Hairpin
150
Speed Sanae, Common Senseless Blue Earrings
Lvl 40, Wind/Earth
Sanae is a tougher fight than you would expect from such a nice person. Her Pup-
pets are all fairly high Level compared to what you’ve encountered, though they
likely are still dwarfed by your own Puppets’ Levels. That said, they all are dan-
gerous in their own way; don’t let your guard down.
Defense Reimu is about as much of a nightmare as Normal Reimu was, only with
higher stats. Void/Illusion is an aggravating type-combo that only is weak to
Sound and Warped, and also has a bevy of resistances on top of that. She won’t
beat you through pure damage, instead relying on frustrating Skills such as Invoke
Deity that randomly raises one of her stats by two stages to power up before chip-
ping away at you; normally this wouldn’t be so bad, but for some reason Sanae’s
Defense Reimu tends to get two-stage Evasion boosts more than anything else.
On one of my playthroughs, she got three of these boosts in a row, making it
nearly impossible to hit her with anything but guaranteed-hit Skills, at which
point she almost took out my entire party by herself. Of course, she’s bulky
enough that you likely won’t beat her in one hit. Counter her stat boost strategy
by wiping her out before she can bulk up; you’ll outspeed her with many of your
Puppets, so try to hit her with Sound or Warped and go for a two-shot knockout.
While hopefully you’ll take her out before her Evasion skyrockets, Time Screw is
an excellent Warped-type Skill for bypassing her Evasion boosts, as it guarantees
a hit.
Speed Marisa is perhaps the most straightforward of all. She’s a glass cannon
with mediocre Defenses but a blisteringly high Speed base (135) and a respect-
ably high Sp. Attack base (115). She will almost certainly outspeed you, and
tends to favor Star Flare (Light-type) over her other Skills unless targeting a
weakness. Like Defense Reimu, Speed Marisa has a lot of resistances primarily
thanks to her Light typing, and is only weak to Earth, Dark, and Illusion. She’ll
go down like a house of cards if you hit her with one of those or even a normal ef-
fectiveness attack from a damage-focused Puppet.
Speed Sanae is problematic. She hits hard with a wide variety of Spread Attack
Skills such as Jewelry Storm (Earth-type), Wind Wave (Wind-type), Tri-Effect
(Void-type), and Unknown Flare (Illusion-type). Even worse, she has the Com-
mon Senseless Ability, allowing her to ignore damage immunities (such as Void-
type Puppets being immune to Illusion-type damage) and strike for normal dam-
age. Ironically enough, each of her Skills have an immunity associated with
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them, meaning you’ll have to be careful of assuming your Warped-type Puppet is
immune to Wind Wave, etc. Furthermore, whatever your Puppet’s secondary type
is (if any) will determine the effectiveness of any attacks affected by her Ability.
For example, an Illusion/Dark type will be affected by Tri-Effect despite the usual
Void immunity thanks to her Ability, but since the example Puppet’s secondary
type is Dark, the Void Skill would strike for half damage. Similarly, if you had a
Fire/Wind Puppet, her Jewelry Storm Skill would deal 2.0x damage because Fire
is weak to Earth (despite Wind being immune to Earth). Be very careful of get-
ting caught off guard by this.
Thankfully, Speed Sanae’s actual Sp. Attack base is only 115, so she won’t be put-
ting out overbearing amounts of damage unless she hits a weakness. She’ll still
hit hard enough to feel it, however, and her 100 base Speed means she’ll have a
decent chance at hitting before your Puppets. The key here is to strike at her
myriad of weaknesses, including Water, Nature, Steel, and Warped. You should
be able to one-shot her, but be cautious of getting one-hit KO’d yourself before
getting your attack off.
After a hard-fought battle against Sanae, you’ll receive the Superpower Glove.
The Superpower Glove is just what you need to break through those fragile bould-
ers that have been blocking your path from time to time. As you may imagine, this
opens up quite a few areas to explore and gather items from. We will, of course,
touch on these soon, but before we journey again across Gensokyo, there’s one
more special item to collect that will allow us to travel between areas with far in-
creased efficiency. That will be coming soon, but there’s a few things to do first.
Most importantly, your Puppets need healing. If you value your Puppets’ lives, do
not talk to Kanako yet and instead enter the building to the Northeast. The interior
should look fairly similar to the Hakurai Shrine, albeit with one fewer room. Be-
fore heading there, check the second pot from the Southwest to find a Moriya Shin-
shu. Inside the room, there’s nothing to do but heal up and use the Puppet Box if
needed.
Head outside and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Sanae says to check
around Gensokyo for leads on the doll incident. If you wish to skip a few optional
areas filled with items, new Puppets, and a difficult optional battle with an excel-
lent prize for victory, then please check the next section, Descent from Youkai
Mountain, for the next part of the Main Walkthrough. That said, I highly suggest
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you at least make an attempt at the optional boss fight, as the prize is worth the
struggle.
Since we’re technically still climbing the mountain, we’ll stay here instead of creat-
ing a new Side Quest Section.
First up is a difficult boss fight. As you may have guessed, Kanako is quite inter-
ested in you. If you speak to her, she’ll show you the power of a God!
Mountain God Kanako

Powe Sanae, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 43, Wind/Water
Speed Suwako, Moody No Accessory
Lvl 45, Earth/Water
Power Kanako, Unjustness Red Ring
Lvl 48, Wind/Nature
Kanako’s Puppets are at a much higher Level than anything you’ve seen to this
point. That alone makes them dangerous, but, similar to the other boss fights with
similar music you’ve had, her AI is much smarter than the average grunt. Com-
bine that with more dangerous moves at their disposal and you have a stiff chal-
lenge from both the Puppets as well as the tactics used.
In fact, her AI is the strongest you’ve encountered thus far, and is on the next tier
of difficulty. This means that you’ll get your first look at mind-reading bosses
(fun!). Kanako can inexplicably tell what Skill you chose, which allows her to
swap out a Puppet who would have had a weakness to the chosen Skill to one that
might have a resistance or neutral effect. Be ready for it to happen and do your
best to plan accordingly. Also be ready for the opposite to happen, where Kanako
uses a barrier-piercing Skill that targets the Puppet you swap in instead of the one
you swapped out.
Power Sanae loves to start off with Flash Bullet, which immediately inflicts Con-
fuse on your Puppet, hampering your offensive capabilities. Confuse, if you ha-
ven’t encountered it before, causes your Puppet to fail to act about 50% of the
time, though the reality is likely greater than 50%. Power Sanae then uses Shock-
ing Wave to slow your Puppet down to a crawl, further hampering them. At this
point, it’s a toss-up whether she’ll stay in or if Kanako will swap to one of her
other Puppets. You can either swap out your Confused Puppet to eliminate the
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condition instantly or just hope your attack comes through; that said, swapping
out for another Puppet likely means they’ll get hit with the Confused condition
too upon swapping in. To take Sanae down quickly, hit her with a 4.0x effective-
ness Electric Skill or a 2.0x effectiveness Warped or Poison Skill.
Speed Suwako is a nightmare if you let her stay out for too long thanks to her
Moody Ability, which, at the end of every turn, raises a random stat by two levels
and lowers another random stat by one. While this can sometimes work against
her, oftentimes she’ll get either a Speed boost or a damage boost and start becom-
ing a serious issue. What makes this even worse is her Supernatural Border Skill,
which nullifies whatever attack hits her that turn. Forcing her to swap out can be
one way to combat this, and there are also Skills that either copy or eliminate ene-
my stat boosts. She also uses Scorn to lower the SP by four of whatever Skill
your Puppet used last, but that likely won’t make a huge difference. Take Speed
Suwako out by aiming for her obvious weakness to Nature (4.0x effectiveness),
though a well-placed Fighting-type Skill does wonders as well thanks to her Earth
typing. Don’t get discouraged if she uses Supernatural Border; just attack with
the same Skill again and nail her until she goes down. Above all, don’t prolong
the fight longer than it needs or you could be facing a total party wipe.
Power Kanako is far more straightforward than the others, for better or worse.
She’s got a boatload (130 base) of HP and almost as much Fo. Attack (120 base),
meaning she’ll likely take a hit and deal tons of damage. You’ll see a return of
Twister (Wind-type) from Power Aya’s moveset, although Kanako doesn’t have
any guarantee of hitting five times with it. That said, it still remains her favorite
Skill to use in most situations, averaging 3-4 hits (25 base Power per hit plus indi-
vidual chances to land a Critical hit). She also uses Stone Rain (Earth-type) to
catch you off-guard. Of course, she’s also a whopping Level 48, meaning you’ll
have to fight her as carefully as possible since she’s almost certainly of similar
Level to your Puppets (perhaps a few lower).
It was said earlier, but I’ll reiterate it now: if you swap a Puppet out against
Power Kanako, she’ll almost certainly choose a Skill that will pierce its barrier for
a one-round KO. It’s happened multiple times in my various fights with her
where I’ll have a Puppet out that is immune to Twister, for example, and I’ll swap
into a different Puppet weak to Wind (thinking that they are safe to swap in and
outspeed Kanako next turn to KO her) only to get hit with Twister inexplicably.
It’s a terrible feeling to have that happen and watch their health bar go from 100-
0.
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If you need to swap Puppets around for Experience gain purposes (5,016 for each
participating Puppet!), try to do it against Power Sanae, though this may be one of
the few fights where you could end up losing the battle if you try to do so. Just be
prepared to fight to the death with Power Kanako, as she will happily attempt to
mow down every Puppet you swap in against her.
If you managed to overcome Kanako, congratulations on overcoming a very diffi-

cult fight! You’ll be richly rewarded for your victory. In addition to the three Gold
Coins dropped, you will be given a Combat Handbook, which is an excellent Ac-
cessory that multiplies the Experience gained by the Puppet holding it by 1.5x.
That includes both if they do fight and if they don’t; of course, if the Puppet is sent
out to fight, they’ll get incredible Experience gains by having this item equipped,
soon outpacing the rest of your Puppets. This is a great way to power up weaker
Puppets and catch them up to the rest of your team, and is also a great way to speed
up your party’s overall Experience gain by passing it around occasionally.
Neither Kanako nor Sanae have much else to say, but there’s still more to do before
continuing on. If you head West from the pair, you’ll find a path that extends all
the way to a lake hidden far behind the shrine. None of the Youkai in the area are
hostile, so ignore or talk to them at your leisure as you make your way past.
Moriya Shrine Puppets

Normal Aya Wind Normal
Normal Seiran Void/Electric Normal
Normal Sanae Wind/Water Normal
Normal Kanako Wind/Earth Rare
Normal Suwako Earth/Water Very Rare
If you are interested in finding rare Puppets, there are plenty to be had in the grass
around the lake. For new Puppets, you’ll find Sanae, Kanako, and Suwako, with
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Sanae being the easiest to find and Suwako the hardest by far. You’ll also see other
unusual Puppets here like Ringo, Hatate, and Seiran, and also should have a chance
of finding Aya at a more normal rate (though still difficult due to the sheer number
of Puppets). If you can’t find Suwako, and odds are good you’ll struggle to do so,
there’s a much easier area to find her at later in the game, albeit at a much higher
level.
Once you’re done searching for Puppets, hop into the lake and travel all the way
West until you reach the bank. Ignore the Southwest split and instead follow the
Western bank North until you see a small swathe of grass heading West. At the
end of the path, you’ll find an Almighty Godstone. This Godstone lengthens any
and all Weather conditions when they are caused by the holder; you’ll likely have
as little use for it as with the previous one, but if your party runs off of keeping a
Weather effect up, it’ll be perfect.
Head to the Northeast corner of the lake and disembark. There’s a path leading
North through more grass that leads to a North/East split. Take the Northern steps
first to find a Massage Charm. This one cures Paralysis, though it’s more or less
pointless compared to the Curing Charm that heals any and all Status Effects un-
less you need a specific Status Effect to remain on you while curing Paralysis.
At any rate, head East after heading down the steps and you’ll enter a new area.
This hidden section is chock full of items as well as a few guests from the Moon.
Directly East from the entrance is Seiran, who is busy working alongside her co-
hort to maintain their base of operations.
Moon Rabbit Seiran

Speed Rei’sen, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 32, Void/Water
Power Ringo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 32, Nature/Illusion
Speed Seiran, Recalibration No Accessory
Lvl 34, Electric/Void
There’s not too much to worry about here. Speed Rei’sen basically has one tactic:
spam Purple Lightning over and over again to do damage and boost her paltry Sp.
Attack every turn until she does enough to actually hurt; just don’t let her have
too much time to power up and you’ll be fine. Power Ringo has Hornet’s Flit, a
Nature-type Fo. Attack that hits 2-5 times. You’ve likely seen it before, and it
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hurts just as much now as then. Speed Seiran is mainly just fast, barely hitting
hard enough against my Wind/Water Speed Futo to bring her to half even with
4.0x effectiveness.
Honestly, you should pretty much be able to one-shot each of them or close to it.
In case you haven’t been there yet, you’ll hear a hint from Seiran about how to visit
the Lunar Capital (for more information, see Side Quest Section 1). Sadly, you
still can’t fight the residents there, so enjoy taking your frustrations out from that
on these two.
Just North of her, check the two boxes for two sets of Hakugyou Dango (hint, ex-
pect to see a lot of that around here). Enter the house and check the right side of
the dresser for an Oath Thread, and then head directly East and grab another Haku-
gyou Dango from the box. Make your way around the table and grab yet another
one before leaving the house.
Just nearby is Ringo, the leader of their two-person unit.
Moon Rabbit Ringo

Power Rei’sen, Common Senseless No Accessory
Lvl 32, Void
Defense Seiran, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 32, Fire/Illusion
Defense Ringo, In Sync No Accessory
Lvl 34, Nature/Light
This fight is almost the same as before. Power Rei’sen has the Common Sense-
less Ability, which acts the same as when Sanae’s Speed Sanae had it. However,
Rei’sen has no damage to speak of, so it’s not much of a threat. Defense Seiran
changed her typing dramatically from before, but isn’t a big threat; that said, she
can steal your held item for the battle’s length, though that shouldn’t be a huge is-
sue here. Defense Ringo is weak and capable of being one-shot despite being a
Defense Style Puppet; also, she still spams Hornet’s Flit.
In fact, all of them should go down in one blow for the most part.
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Rather than give a step-by-step guide for finding the rest of the items outside, I’ll
just simplify it. Ignore the barrels and check every possible box for a bevy of Ha-
kugyou Dangos. Once you’ve gathered them all, head inside the Northeast house.
Check the barrel to the West of the entrance for a Rainbow Candy. Every box in
the West has a Hakugyou Dango in it, so work your way around that side of the
house until you come to Skill Card 92, Frozen Prison. This attack is the same as
the likes of Pollen Mist and Poison Bomb, except as a Water-type Skill; also, for
some reason it lacks a secondary effect. Use it like you have the other Skills.
The left side of the dresser has yet another Hakugyou Dango. The barrel to the
South, however, has a Moriya Shinshu inside. That completes both the house and
this side area. Head back to the Shrine’s lake when you’re finished.
Our final task here is to collect a few items to the far Southwest. Make your way
across the lake and follow the river that branches to the Southwest. Go down the
waterfall and you’ll soon see an item to the West in an area separated by trees.
Hug the trees and you’ll find a place to disembark, albeit filled with grass. At the
end, you’ll find a Pinpoint Charm, a different type of Charm that raises a Puppet’s
Accuracy stat when they’re low on health. I’d give this one a hard pass.
Make your way back to the river and surf down two small waterfalls. You’ll even-
tually come to a large waterfall; go down it and then head immediately East, ignor-
ing the smaller waterfalls. You’ll find a place to disembark and grab another item,
a Wooden Sword. This cool-sounding item actually is pretty useless at this point
of the game; what it does is increase the amount of PP a Puppet gets after a fight.
This is very useful if you are training a new Puppet and need PP to boost its stats
like in the early game, but if you were to raise a new Puppet up now, it’d make far
more sense to just give it the Combat Handbook to get it leveled faster. The Pup-
pet would still get plenty of PP from battles regardless.
Back in the river, follow it all the way down until you are forced to take a path
East. You’ll soon find yourself back at the Moriya Shrine stairs. Heal up in the
bed if necessary.
That concludes our trip through Moriya Shrine! We won’t be back here for a long,
long time, and only if you decide to do an optional side quest.
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12. Descent from Youkai Mountain
You climbed your way up Youkai Mountain; now you have to get back down it.
Thankfully, there’s a completely new area opened up to the Southeast of Moriya
Shrine because of your shiny new toy, the Superpower Glove. Head all the way
South, leaving Moriya Shrine, until you come to a East/West split. Take the East-
ern split this time and follow it until you reach a set of rocks. Crunch one or both
of them out of your way and continue on until you are stopped by a Tengu guard-
ing the path.
Tengu Saki
Lvl 28, Steel
Lvl 28, Steel
Saki goes down easily compared to Sanae and Kanako (if you fought her). This
will be the norm for as long as Puppeteers have Normal Puppets, but you’re almost
to the point where that will change permanently. Not yet, though.
Continue along and you’ll be stopped by a Youkai singing the praises of Mystia
(heh).
Youkai Akari
Lvl 27, Sound/Dark
Lvl 27, Sound/Dark
Lvl 27, Sound/Dark
The next Youkai blocking the way is a short way down the path. This time, how-
ever, they want to eat you!
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Youkai Kaede
Normal Yamame, Nimble No Accessory
Lvl 27, Poison/Earth
Gotta love copy fights.
Towards the end of the linear path, you’ll find a Chirei Sweet Bun. Almost imme-
diately after, you’ll see a Tengu that will fight you if you make eye contact with
him, though you could sneak around him by hugging the wall to the North.
Tengu Shouhei
Lvl 28, Steel
Lvl 28, Wind
The next cave is a bit shorter than the previous one, but still has a few twists and
turns in it. The same wild Puppets from before can be found here, however, so be-
ware of Normal Hina’s Miasma Skill unless you like Heavy Poison. Enter and fol-
low the straightforward path until you are stopped by a Kappa.
Kappa Sakiko
Lvl 27, Water/Wind
Lvl 27, Water/Steel
Normal Komachi, Suppression No Adornmnet
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North of the Kappa, you’ll come to an East/West split. Take the East split and fol-
low it until you are stopped by a Tengu.
Tengu Shinobu
Normal Kanako, Strong Smile No Accessory
Lvl 28, Wind/Earth
Normal Suwako, Moody No Accessory
Lvl 28, Earth/Water
At the end of the path lies a Moriya Shinshu. Return to the split and head West this
time. At the North/South split, head South and go up the stairs to snag a Misty Jel-
ly. Go back down the stairs and head North until you come to a Ghost that is sit-
ting in the middle of nowhere. It won’t fight unless you talk to it, but who doesn’t
like exorcisms?
Ghost Gendou
Head Northeast from the Ghost and down the ladder to the next area. From the lad-
der, head South and get ready to battle another Tengu.
Tengu Ten
Lvl 28, Wind
Lvl 28, Wind
Ignore the apparent side paths to the East and West and head South. Before going
up the stairs, head East and snag the Deadly Secrets Accessory. Deadly Secrets
helps the Puppet holding it deal more damage when its attacks pierce through the
enemy’s barrier (i.e. a Fire-type Skill vs Nature-type Puppet). This is a pretty great
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held item for a Puppet who naturally has access to a wide variety of attacks that
can hit many weaknesses, such as Extra Satori. If your Puppets can’t do that, then
this item will be less useful than others you could give them.
Back at the stairs, climb them and follow the path East. You’ll eventually come to
your first Evil Spirit type of Puppeteer. These Puppeteers are generally supposed
to be evil, though they rarely act that way except as a joke. Either way, he blocks
the path. Show no mercy.
Evil Spirit Youhei

Lvl 29, Electric
Now that you’ve given the Spirit a reason to be vengeful, head East and then down
the stairs to the South. At the Northeast/South split, head Northeast past the
friendly Youkai and follow the path to find a Bronze Mirror. This one-use per bat-
tle Accessory will let your Puppet get the same stat boost as the enemy does, albeit
only once. This is too situational for me, but perhaps you could find a use for it,
especially against a Puppet that boosts its Speed or damage.
Return to the split and head South, following the path as it turns West. A less
vengeful Ghost sits in the middle of the path. Talk to it for a battle!
Ghost Tagataka
Normal Kana, Skilled Hand No Accessory
Lvl 29, Nether/Sound
Past Tagataka, head West and then North, ignoring the stairs. Follow the path as it
skirts around the raised plateau until it comes to a North/South split. Ignore the
Northern path for now, instead heading South, where you’ll immediately run into
another Evil Spirit!
Evil Spirit Nobutada

Normal Nue, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 29, Illusion/Elec.
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South of Nobutada is an Onyx Hairpin, which boosts the damage of Sound Skills.
Head back to the split and continue North to find a ladder at the end. Climb it and
go South. You’ll soon find a Puppet Liberation Front member guarding the path!
Puppet Liberation Front Lorraine

Lvl 29, Water
At the end of the path lies the exit to the cave. Enjoy the breath of fresh air and no
longer having random Puppet battles every five steps.
Youkai Mountain Descent Puppets

Normal Tenshi Earth Rare
Normal Kasen Fighting/Illusion Rare
There are two new Puppets available in the grass from here to the bottom of the
mountain. Tenshi and Kasen make their appearance, both of whom are fairly
strong Puppets, though their appearance rate is rare. You can find them much,
much easier elsewhere, but not for quite awhile.
Follow the path West until you see a rock just past some stairs; check it for a Talis-
man and then go down the stairs. Not too far away is a Kappa that will stop you
and force you into a battle!
Kappa Chika
Normal Rika, Immovable No Accessory
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Lvl 29, Fire/Steel
Just past the Kappa, ignore the stairs and head into the Northern grass instead to
find an Amethyst Hairpin, which boosts Poison-type Skill damage.
Descend the stairs and follow the path until you reach an East/West split. To the
West is what appears to be a new area, but an endless fog prevents you from mak-
ing headway. You’ll have to come back here much later in the game. Instead, head
East and follow the path all the way until you reach a cutscene, ignoring all the
friendly Youkai along the way.
The girl with a ribbon, Medicine, should look familiar; she’s the one who ran into
you when you first made your way to the Human Village! You’ll see her giving or-
ders before finding out that she’s the leader of the Puppet Liberation Front!
The green-haired lady with a parasol, Yuuka, is a new face that’s tagging along
with Medicine. Though she calls Medicine the leader, she certainly seems sure of
herself...
At any rate, you’re free to continue onwards after the two leave. You won’t be able
to pass to the South thanks to the guards, but you can head up the stairs and take a
well-deserved break at the Rest Area. The healing item lady behind the counter
doesn’t have anything new to sell, but the Peddler in the Northwest does. He’s
marketing a bevy of Anti-Type Charms for 15,000 each, with a Charm for every
type in the game. These one-use held items reduce the damage from one hit of an
attack from the specific type listed on the Charm. There’s honestly not much use
for these unless your Puppet only has one weakness; even then, there are other held
items that could potentially be more useful depending on your Puppet’s stats. If
you think it’ll work in your party, however, give it a try!
There is one special note to keep track of, especially if you’ve been doing extra
battles to search for Puppets. In the ‘Tools’ section of your inventory, there’s an
item called Magical Fragment. As the description implies, you’ll want to hold onto
these...to a degree. However, you can only hold 255 at once, meaning you might
want to get rid of a chunk of them if you are above 175 or so. You’ll be getting
quite a lot more throughout your playthrough, and they’re worth 200 a pop to sell;
better to unload some rather than reach the maximum and let additional ones go to
waste. That said, I wouldn’t drop below 100 to be safe.
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Once you are prepared to continue on, leave the Rest Area. Check the pot to the
far Northeast for a Moriya Shinshu before descending the stairs and heading East.
Follow the path until you reach a new area, Mayohiga. This isolated, mostly de-
serted place is home to a lot of cats and Chen, a shikigami of a shikigami. In other
words, she’s the servant of Ran, who is the servant of Yukari. You met Yukari all
the way back in the beginning of the game when you were sleeping on the bus.
Since Chen has a definite connection to Yukari, perhaps she can help you?
Mayohiga Puppets
Normal Chen Wind Normal
Normal Ran Illusion/Fire Rare
Normal Yukari Illusion/Void Very Rare
For now, head into the grass. In addition to the Magatama in the Northern of the
two pots, you’ll also find a Hakurei Shinshu lying in the grass. In the grass itself,
you’ll run into Chen, Ran, and Yukari Puppets. You’ve seen Chen before on Route
1, but Ran and Yukari are both new. Also important to note is that while Ran and
Yukari are both hard to find in comparison to Chen, they’re also far more powerful.
Thankfully, the small Puppet pool to work with makes even Yukari a bit quicker to
find than most Very Rare Puppets.
After grabbing the items and any Puppets as desired, head East and witness a cuts-
cene of the Puppet Liberation front harassing Chen. As important as this is, we’ll
let the two of them hash things out for the moment and instead head East at the
split to the house. Inside, check the pot to the North of the entrance for a Hakurei
Shinshu. Snag the Rainbow Candy in the corner, and check the right side of the
broken down dresser if you want to fight a Chen Puppet.
Back outside, it looks like the argument hasn’t resolved itself, so approach the cou-
ple and intervene in the only way you know how.
Puppet Liberation Front Mirumi

Lvl 29, Wind
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Lvl 29, Sound/Dark
Chen took the opportunity before the battle to run away, but she’s still in danger of
further harassment by the Puppet Liberation Front. Continue along the path and
you’ll be stopped by another member just after the stairs.
Puppet Liberation Front Felicie

Lvl 28, Water/Wind
Make your way immediately West and grab a Mushroom Powder from the farthest
pot. Turn around and return to Felicie, then head North until you reach the houses
with no doors. From there, head East and check the first pot for a Contract Thread.
Next, travel around the houses to find a Misty Jelly sitting in the grass. To the
West, there’s another house, though if you want to fight another Chen Puppet,
check the pot next to the house.
Inside the house, grab the Contract Thread from the Southeast pot. Ignore the right
side of the dresser unless you like fighting more Chen Puppets. Instead, grab Skill
Card 35, Charging Stun, from the table. This is another of the swap Skills, this
time Fighting-type, that does a bit of damage before forcing the enemy Puppet to
switch out. Also like the similar Skills, is has a -6 Priority, meaning it’ll almost al-
ways happen after the enemy’s turn. This is probably a Skill Card to skip unless
you really need to make the enemy swap out.
There’s another Chen to fight that’s hiding in the Southwest jar, but otherwise that
completes this house. Head outside and make your way West and then North until
you come to another Puppet Liberation Front member.
Puppet Liberation Front Edise

Lvl 27, Light
Lvl 27, Light/Water
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Lvl 27, Light/Wind
Follow the path until you come to the final member remaining just up the stairs.
Puppet Liberation Front Renly

Normal Lily, Antibody No Accessory
Lvl 28, Void
Lvl 28, Nature
With Renly’s defeat, the Puppet Liberation Front is forced to retreat from Mayohi-
ga. Head North and you’ll see Chen. Hold from talking to her for the moment, in-
stead heading West into the grass to find a Rosary. While this sounds like another
way to repel wild Puppets, it actually is a held item that helps the Puppet holding it
to dodge enemy Skills, albeit only a small bit. The dodge chance is fairly minute,
but every bit can help; use it if you think it’s better than a damage-boosting held
item. Note that this item won’t protect from guaranteed hit Skills such as Time
Screw.
Return to Chen and she’ll recognize you from Yukari’s description. She’ll thank
you for protecting her before revealing that Yukari gave her something to pass
along to you. She then hands over the Gap Map. This amazing item lets you tele-
port to any Rest Area or town you’ve been to, and lets you teleport from almost
anywhere, including most caves and dungeon-esque areas (there are a few excep-
tions). For those familiar with Pokemon, it acts very similar to both an Escape
Rope and the Fly HM all in one! This, as you can expect, will be a very, very use-
ful item.
Follow Chen inside the house and check the right side of the dresser behind her for
a Rainbow Candy. That should wrap up all item gathering in Mayohiga, so let’s
give our new toy a try. Enter your inventory and go to the ‘Key’ section. Select
the Gap Map and choose the Youkai Mountain Rest Area to teleport there within
seconds, complete with a snazzy animation!
Here’s where the walkthrough diverges once again. Technically, descending the
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rest of Youkai Mountain is optional, plus we have a boatload of items to grab and
areas to check out in the rest of Gensokyo thanks to our Gap Map and the Super-
power Glove. A few of these areas are brand new and have additional items to find
and new Puppets to snag. Much of it will be quite efficient, but there will be some
time involved.
This will all be catalogued under our next part of the walkthrough, Side Quest Sec-
tion 3. Similar to before, those wishing to ignore this and continue on with the
Main Quest may instead skip to Journey to the Underground. You will be missing
out on a significant number of Skill Cards and other goodies, but the choice is
yours.
One thing to make note of: the fastest method of healing is now available to you.
Whenever you need to heal, simply teleport to Kourindou and talk to the nearby
Youkai for healing. This will shave seconds off each time you do it (as it’s much
faster than walking into a Rest Area and going through dialogue options and addi-
tional animations), likely saving you entire minutes by the end of the game.
Welcome to the final Side Quest Section of the walkthrough until much, much later
in the game. We’ll be starting with the remainder of the descent from Youkai
Mountain, which will take us right to Misty Lake for our next Side Quest, albeit
with a brief stopover at the Kappa Hideout to return Nitori’s Optical Camouflage.
After our stop at Misty Lake, we’ll be hopping around the rest of Gensokyo to take
care of business.
A. Descent from Youkai Mountain Finale
Starting from the Youkai Mountain Rest Area, head South past the previously
guarded area until you come to a member of the Puppet Liberation Front who
bravely decided to stick around to confront you.
Puppet Liberation Front Rosemary

Power Lily, Auto Heal No Accessory
Lvl 29, Nature/Void
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Yes, you are reading that right. A Level 29 Power Lily. This technically
shouldn’t be possible, but we’ll throw Rosemary a bone since Power Lily will go
down in one hit regardless.
From the game-breaking Rosemary, head South and then West to find two sets of
stairs at a West/South split. Head up the Western stairs and go North past the
grassy path to the West. Instead, head all the way North, then make your way West
and follow the path as it turns South. At the end, head West through the grass and
follow the path down multiple flights of stairs. Once you reach the split, ignore the
empty Southern path and instead head East. Down the next flight of stairs, you’ll
head East again until you reach a grassy path with a hut at the end. Before entering
the hut, check the rock next to it for a Bhava-Agra Set.
Inside, grab Skill Card 13, Waterfall Drop, from the table. This Water-type Fo. At-
tack is very similar to Frenzied Joururi with its base 100 Power and 100% Accu-
racy. It has no secondary effects, but that hardly matters when you can throw down
tons of damage for a potential one-shot. One note of caution, however, is that the
Skill only has 10 SP, meaning it’s not meant for long-term dungeon delving. Still,
it’s an amazing Skill that will be highly useful for Fo. Attack Water-type Puppets.
There’s nothing more in the house or in the area, so teleport back to Youkai Moun-
tain Rest Area (it’s faster by far). Follow the path South all the way back to the
split near two sets of stairs. This time, head South down the stairs and follow the
path as it turns West near the river. This will eventually lead you past a grassy area
on the Northern side. The Tengu wandering around the grass will happily fight
you if you speak to her.
Tengu Kazune
Normal Sanae, Divine Protection No Accessory
Lvl 28, Wind/Water
Lvl 28, Wind
Further West from the grassy patch where Kazune wanders is another, smaller
grassy patch with a Myouren Tea at the Northern tip. From there, head South until
you reach a bridge. Jump into the water on the Western side and follow it until you
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can disembark at the next bridge. Travel North and up the steps before heading im-
mediately East. The rock in the middle of the Eastern area has a hidden Rainbow
Candy.
Return to the steps and continue West, jumping into the lake. On the Western
bank, you’ll find Skill Card 55, Eye of Laplace. This Dark-type Sp. Attack has an
Accuracy of 100% and a base Power of 80, but makes up for the lower base Power
by having a higher chance to land a Critical Hit. This is currently the best Dark-
type Skill Card you have for Sp. Attack; it’ll work quite well until you naturally
learn a higher base Power Dark-type Skill, at which point you’ll have to make the
tough decision between a better chance at a Critical Hit or more base Power.
Back on the mainland, make your way back South down the steps, past the bridge,
and down the next three sets of steps. You’ll soon come to a Kappa that’s guarding
the path, though you can easily bypass him by taking to the water.
Kappa Nobuyuki
Normal Murasa, Stream Form No Accessory
Lvl 28, Water
Lvl 28, Water/Steel
Just around the bend is yet another Puppet Liberation Front member staring wist-
fully into the water. After checking her official PLP Manual, she launches her at-
tack!
Puppet Liberation Front Isabelle

Lvl 28, Nature/Dark
Lvl 28, Dark
Just Southeast of Isabelle is a series of hurdles leading to a wide staircase. Before

climbing it, check the nearby rock for a Talisman. At the top of the staircase, turn
West until you run into Hatate, a journalist similar to Aya who always is fiddling
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with her cellphone. She seems delighted that you appeared, calling you a scoop be-
fore starting a fight!
Spirit Photography Reporter Hatate

Speed Aya, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 34, Wind
Power Hatate, Salvo No Accessory
Lvl 34, Wind/Void
Hatate is a very simple fight compared to the likes of Sanae and Kanako. Speed
Aya is more or less toothless by this point, especially since her beloved Twister
Skill (Wind-type) doesn’t come paired with the Salvo Ability to guarantee five
hits. Just don’t swap in anything weak to Wind and she’ll be easy.
Power Hatate, ironically enough, has the Salvo Ability, but lacks the base stats to
make effective use of with Twister. Bafflingly, she prefers to instead use Spring
First (Wind-type) to attack first, as the Skill has a higher Priority than most Skills.
The flip side of this is that Spring First does almost no damage unless your Pup-
pet is weak to Wind, so just tank the blow and wipe her out.
After defeating Hatate, check the rock to the Southwest for a hidden Silver Coin.
Once you’ve grabbed it, head back down the steps and past the hurdles. Make
your way East along the path until you come to a friendly Kappa and a Tengu
standing around. Hop into the water behind them and head Northeast to find Skill
Card 11, Rising Sun, on the opposite bank. At this point of the game, you might be
tempted to immediately pass on a 50 base Power Skill with a 100% Accuracy.
However, don’t count this Fire-type Fo. Attack out right away. It’s secondary ef-
fect is a guaranteed boost in Speed, meaning you’ll be doing at least some damage
alongside boosting your Puppet’s Speed every turn. Granted, some Skills will
boost Speed by two levels per turn, or boost Speed and a damage stat, but this is
one of the few that allows you to do damage and get a guaranteed boost out of it.
Give it a try if you have a speedy Fire-type Fo. Attack-reliant Puppet; in two turns
you’ll be faster than pretty much anything, though you have to survive two turns of
combat to get there.
Follow the river to the Southeast and head down the first waterfall. Turn East and
follow the river to the end and disembark on the wide Southern bank. Make your
way South and you’ll soon discover a suspiciously large number of Puppet Libera-
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tion Front members!
Puppet Liberation Front Nadia

Lvl 28, Light
Lvl 28, Light/Water
Puppet Liberation Front Polaanu

Normal Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 28, Dark/Fire
Normal Yamame, Infectious No Accessory
Puppet Liberation Front Lint

Normal Medicine, Poison Thorns No Accessory
Lvl 28, Poison/Nature
Lvl 28, Wind
After defeating the barrage of Puppet Liberation Front members, head East and
grab Skill Card 54, Star Flare. This Light-type Sp. Attack is interesting for a base
80 Power Skill. It has a 20% chance to lower the opponent’s Accuracy, which can
severely impact their effectiveness. While you are usually better off using stronger
Skills for the most part, there are times where you won’t be able to defeat a tanky
enemy Puppet in one or two turns; getting a clutch Accuracy drop can help lower
their damage. That said, it’s only a 20% chance, so rely on this secondary effect at
your own risk.
Unfortunately, the Fairy at the bottom won’t let you pass through, and she doesn’t
even know the reason! It seems like something may be brewing in the Under-
ground; we’ll have to find an alternate entrance later.
For now, you should return to the river and head West. Go down the series of
waterfalls until you reach the bottom. Disembark and head North to the stairs.
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Follow the grassy path West to find Skill Card 40, Heavenly Blessing. This Skill is
one of a quattro that are heavily reliant on Weather or Terrain effects being up.
The way Heavenly Blessing works is that if there’s a Weather effect up such as
Aurora or Heavy Fog, the type of the Skill will change from Void to one that
matches the Weather, and the 50 base Power will double to 100. Honestly, this Sp.
Attack Skill is way too much effort for little reward, as it requires a Weather effect
to function, and even then it only becomes a 100 base Power Skill. The nice part
about it is that it could give a Puppet the ability to use a Skill type that it normally
couldn’t, and 100 base is pretty solid. If you’re running a Weather-reliant team,
you’ll possibly find use for it; otherwise, don’t waste the Skill slot.
Return to the river and head West. You’ll soon come across one final member of
the Puppet Liberation Front.
Puppet Liberation Front Rito

Lvl 28, Wind
This final victory marks the last of Youkai Mountain’s Puppeteers! Apart from a
quick visit to Nitori over in the Kappa Hideout, there’s nothing left to do on or
around the mountain for quite a while. If you wish, you can follow the path West
to see how it meets up with Misty Lake. Otherwise, we’ll be heading over to the
Kappa Hideout next, so get out your Gap Map and teleport there!
B. Kappa Hideout
Stop in the nearby house for healing if needed and then sail West across the lake.
Work your way to the Southwest and enter Nitori’s House. Talk to Nitori to re-
ceive Skill Card 81, Distortion Bomb. Much like Voice of Famine and Flying
Frenzy, this Warped-type Fo. Attack Skill falls in the 95 base Power category that
has a nearly pointless 10% chance of a secondary effect. Ignore that and appreciate
the Skill for having awesome damage, quite possibly better than any other Warped
Fo. Attack Skills your Puppets currently have.
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C. Misty Lake
Our next stop is a side path leading to a new area in Misty Lake. Teleport to the
Scarlet Devil Mansion and head South until you reach the lake. Follow the coast-
line East and make your way to the far Eastern side of the lake. You’ll eventually
see a grassy path heading Eastward; follow it until you find a series of breakable
rocks that separate Misty Lake from a new, unexplored area.
Misty Lake Abandoned House Area Puppets

Normal Lyrica Sound/Nether Normal
Normal Merlin Sound/Nether Normal
Normal Lunasa Sound/Nether Normal
Behind the rocks is an alternate color of grass, similar to how Route 5 worked.
The new grass has different Puppets to find, including your first shot at the Prism-
river Sisters (Lyrica, Merlin, and Lunasa) as well as Kana. These Puppets are all
decidedly mediocre, but I suppose you could start a band if you caught them all.
You’ll soon come to an old, deserted two-story house at the end of the path. I hope
you like haunted houses!
Inside, you’ll see a lot of what you’d likely expect. Nothing. There are, however,
two rooms and a staircase on the first floor. For the sake of the guide, let’s head to
the Western room first. Enter it to be greeted by a thumping sound, though there’s
nobody in the room. Check the trash can for a Rainbow Candy before leaving.
Head to the Eastern room next and enter it to find a floating chair. Again, there’s
nothing there, though make sure to snag another Rainbow Candy in this room’s
trash can.
Climb the staircase and check the Eastern side of the second floor for Skill Card
38, Detonation Burst. This Sound-type Fo. Attack Skill is massively powerful at
120 base Power, but at a cost. Every use causes both your Fo. Attack and Fo. De-
fense to drop a level. This nasty side effect makes the Skill an exercise in tactics; it
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works great when using it and then swapping out your Puppet the turn after, but if
you try to keep fighting with your Puppet, you’ll do less damage and potentially
take more. Honestly, you would be wise to keep another Sound-type Skill in re-
serve if you want to use Detonation Burst once in awhile, but it works great if you
really need to do a lot of up-front damage, consequences be darned.
Enter the room just North of the staircase. You’ll hear the sound of something
shattering; upon investigation, your character will see a broken plate on the ground.
The hidden Rainbow Candy this time is in the Eastern dresser’s left side.
Leave the room and head to the final room in the Southwest. Check the Southern
trash can for one more Rainbow Candy.
That concludes the haunted mansion...is what I’d like to say, but actually it’s time
to see just who or what has been causing this commotion. Head back to the hall-
way and head to the room just North of the staircase. Talk to the figure standing
there and prepare yourself for a fight!
Ghostly Band Lyrica

Defense Lunasa, Slow Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 33, Sound/Poison
Power Merlin, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Lvl 33, Sound/Fight.
Speed Lyrica, Resonance No Accessory
Expect three similar mid-boss fights, all of whom have the same Puppets, and two
of whome have Puppets with the exact same Styles, only in a different order.
The biggest thing here to note is that using Puppets weak to Sound will likely be a
very bad idea. Though their Levels are lower, it’ll still do a significant amount of
damage if they hit a weakness. Hit them with Wind or Electric to put their per-
formance to rest.
Go downstairs and check the Eastern room to confront the one behind the floating
chair.
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Ghostly Band Lunasa
Lvl 33, Sound/Fight
Speed Lyrica, Sound Absorb No Accessory
The order may be different, but the strategy remains the same. Punish with Wind
or Electric and avoid Puppets weak to Sound.
As expected, we’ll be heading to the Western room for one final fight.
Ghostly Band Merlin

Power Lyrica, Charge! No Accessory
Lvl 33, Sound/Illusion
Assist Lunasa, Suppression No Accessory
Lvl 33, Sound/Nether.
This time, Lyrica and Lunasa are sporting different Styles. Power Lyrica has a bit
more of a threat than before thanks to her Charge! Ability, boosting her damage
by 30% in exchange for not being able to activate the secondary effects of her at-
tacks. This doesn’t make her dangerous, persay, but it does mean you have to pay
a bit more attention if she uses a Sound-type attack.
The rest will fall just as easily as before. All of them retain the same weakness to
Wind and Electric, so blow or fry them as desired.
Though the battles are done, there’s still one thing left to do. Return to the second
floor and enter the Western room. You’ll see a floating piece of paper that falls to
the ground; your character will automatically walk forward and check it to find out
it’s a photograph. What’s written there is a reference to the fourth Prismriver sis-
ter, Layla. Despite all four of them being Ghosts, Layla supposedly died long ago.
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Leave the room and head right back inside. Check the exact spot where the paper
was lying (two spaces below the Northern trash can) for Layla’s Amulet. This
unique held item will cause the item drop rate for battles to double, presumably
doubling your income. Throughout all four playthroughs, I’ve found that, by the
end, I had enough money without using the Amulet to buy everything I needed, in-
cluding most Peddler Skill Cards and enough healing items to get by. However, if
you find yourself using healing items liberally (especially if you don’t return to a
Rest Area to heal whenever injured), then this might be worth using.
D. Route 5
Warp to Kourindou for healing, and then teleport to the Human Village and head
West onto Route 5 (it’s faster than heading from Kourindou). Head North along
the path to the area with the small trees. Cut on through and follow the path until
you see a Fairy standing by a set of steps.
Head due North up the steps and you’ll see a breakable rock to smash through.
You’ll finally be able to grab Skill Card 23, Thieving Wind. It’s a Wind-type Fo.
Attack with a base Power of 60 that has the added effect of taking the foe’s held
item. I wish I could say it was a useful Skill, but there are few situations where I
could think of where I’d rather not have an item equipped in order to steal the op-
ponent’s for the length of the battle (you give it back afterwards, sadly). The rare
exception is if the opponent’s Puppet is using a Black Choker, which can be a very,
very frustrating item to deal with; however, you’ll effectively be wasting a turn
stealing the item, leaving them with a half health bar or so, instead of hitting them
with a more powerful Skill and bringing them to 1 HP. In short, use this Skill only
if you really think it’ll help.
That’s the end of Route 5 item collecting; next up requires us to journey over to the
Forest of Magic for a couple of brand new areas.
E. Road of Reconsideration and Muenzuka
Teleport to Marisa’s House in the Western section of the Forest of Magic (if you
haven’t been there yet, see Side Quest Section 2). Remember the breakable rocks
in the Southwest? We’ll be busting through to see what lies beyond.
To get there, head Northwest until you see the Kappa standing by the river. Cross
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the river and continue North until you reach a large bridge. Head West across the
bridge and then turn South, traveling through the muck until you eventually reach
the rocks.
Break the rocks and continue onwards to find yourself on the Road of Reconsidera-
tion. This is a pretty cool area theme-wise, and it even replaces the normal wild
Puppet grass with red flowers. Don’t be fooled, however, as you’ll still enter into
battle if you travel through the flowers.
Road of Reconsideration Puppets

Normal Medicine Poison/Nature Normal
From the entrance, head North to find a Ghost lounging around. While it isn’t par-
ticularly hostile, talk to it and fight it anyway.
Ghost Megami
Cross the water to the West and grab Skill Card 57, Love or Pain. This Nether-
type Sp. Attack Skill is unique in that it does double damage if the enemy Puppet is
inflicted with a Status Effect (i.e. Burn, Poison, etc.). That means its so-so base
Power of 65 turns into a whopping 130 base, dealing massive damage. If you have
a reliable way to set up Status Effects without getting your Puppets KO’d by using
a turn doing so (or taking a second turn after that to swap in a Puppet capable of us-
ing this attack), this is a very effective Skill. If not, don’t waste the Skill slot.
Why the rest of the area has flowers but this section has normal grass, I have no
idea. The Puppets you find are the same.
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From the Ghost, head South until you are stopped by a Fairy.
Fairy Meril
Lvl 27, Earth/Steel
Normal Nazrin Collectomaniac No Accessory
Lvl 27, Earth/Steel
Follow the path North until you find Skill Card 10, Blow from Calamity, sitting on
the path in plain sight. This Void-type Fo. Attack Skill is pretty much the antithe-
sis of Love or Pain. Instead of doubling its 70 base Power when the enemy Puppet
is inflicted with a Status Effect, it instead doubles its Power when your Puppet has
a Status. Even better, it ignores the Fo. Attack penalty for having the Dark Status
when you use this Skill. There’s something to be said about having a potential 140
base Power Skill without crippling drawbacks such as needing two turns to use or
dropping your stats after using the Skill.
However, the big setback here is that your Puppet needs to suffer from a Status Ef-
fect to make the Skill worthwhile. There are a few held items that cause your Pup-
pets to suffer from Heavy Burn or Heavy Poison, though you’ll suffer a ton of dam-
age from using this tactic. Otherwise, you need to rely on being inflicted with a
Status Effect from an enemy Puppet, which as you can imagine is hard to accom-
plish on demand. This Skill is honestly best when paired with an Ability such as
Pride or Nimble that boosts your Puppet’s stats when inflicted with a Status Effect.
Skipping this one is likely your best bet, but it can be incredibly effective under the
right circumstances.
Be wary of carelessly jumping over hurdles in the Road of Reconsideration unless

you like having to make your way back to the place you jumped from. That said,
we’ll be doing a bit of this in the name of item collecting. From the Skill Card’s
location, jump the Western hurdle and ignore the red-haired Fairy for a moment.
Instead, head South through the flowers and hurdles. Talk to the Ghost for a battle!
Ghost Yuujiro
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Not far to the West of the Ghost is a Rainbow Candy. Continue West and head
through the large flower field to the South until you are stopped by a Fairy.
Fairy Kirie
Normal Eiki, Sixth Sense No Accessory
Despite what the large area implies, there’s nothing to be found in the flower field.
Return to the Ghost’s area and continue East to find a hurdle that leads you back to
the previously explored area. Head North from there and jump the Western hurdle.
This time, pass by or talk to the Fairy for a fight!
Fairy Erina
Follow the path North as it winds around. Hop over the first hurdle you come to,
but not the second one after that. Instead, follow the path West and then North un-
til you come to a house. Check the barrel for a Hakurei Shinshu. Don’t go inside
the house, as it has nothing of value. Instead, head West to enter the next area,
Muenzuka.
Muenzuka Puppets
Normal Rinnosuke Void Normal.
Normal Renko Void Normal
Normal Maribel Void Normal
Normal Yukari Illusion/Void Normal
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Two new Puppets make their debut: Maribel and Renko. In addition to being en-
countered at a much lower level than the surrounding Puppets (Level 19-21), their
base stats for their non-Extra Styles are abysmal at 375, putting them squarely as
the worst non-Normal Puppets in the game based on that (though it should be said
that they get unique Abilities available only to them in these forms). However,
their Extra Styles give them a reasonable 105 point boost for a total of 480 base.
Granted, this doesn’t make them amazing, but they do get highly specialized stat
spreads that makes Extra Renko the best tank in the game stat-wise (205 in both
Defenses!) and Maribel a decent Fo. Attack Puppet with solid stats. That said, you
probably should just grab them for collection purposes and move on at this point in
the game.
Head West until you reach the river. Check the Northern flower field for a Clear
Hairpin, which boosts Illusion-type Skill damage. Head South to find a Vintage
Wine laying out; maybe someone brought it for a picnic and forgot?
Next to the Southern bridge is a Sand Godstone, acting in the same manner as the
Serein Godstone, only this time boosting the duration of Duststorm. Continue
West past the bridge to find a large amount of flowers; consider using a Bead
Necklace if you wish to avoid battles.
Ignore the obvious item for now and instead stick to the Southern edge of the area,
making your way West. There’s a Silent Godstone in the Southwest part of the
flower field, this time boosting the Calm Weather effect. Just to the North of the
Silent Godstone, check the stone out of line in the West for a Silver Coin. Head
North from there and check the second of the Eastern rocks for another Silver
Coin. Make your way East, ignoring the Northern flower path, to grab a Halo God-
stone (boosts Aurora) and a Twilight Godstone (boosts Heavy Fog).
Now that you’ve grabbed all the items in this area, head North through the flowers
to find a beautiful sight waiting for you.
To the West is a short path with Skill Card 63, Supernatural Border. You may re-
member this from Speed Suwako in the Kanako fight, who used it to great success
in stalling for time in tandem with her Moody Skill. Supernatural Border has a Pri-
ority of 4, meaning it’ll go before almost every Skill in the game regardless of the
enemy Puppet’s Speed. It blocks all damage taken from the enemy’s attack that
turn, though consecutive uses lowers the success rate significantly (alternating it
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every other turn keeps it at a 100% success rate). Here’s the deal: if you use a
stall-based team revolving around Status Effects (such as Heavy Burn or Heavy
Poison), this Skill is godlike for a tanky Puppet to have, especially when paired
with Food Rations. The enemy Puppet will struggle to kill you while their health
drains away in ever-increasing chunks. It’s also really good for stalling when used
in conjunction with Continue and Unconscious Mind (both sold at the Route 4 Rest
Area by the Peddler). However, it’s not nearly as good by itself unless you see a
two-turn attack coming. Use it if you really think it’ll help your team, but you’ll
likely pass on it in this playthrough.
This concludes item collection in both the Road of Reconsideration and Muenzuka
for the time being. Far later in the game as part of a side quest, we’ll return to the
tree to snag an important item for someone, but for now teleport back to Kourindou
and heal up for the next section.
F. Route 2 West
This is the last stop of Side Quest Section 3. You’ll find the entrance to Route 2 to
the East of the Human Village; teleport there and head East from the Village until
you reach the river. Head straight North from there for a very cleverly disguised
breakable rock hidden alongside other rocks. Smash it to bits and pass on through.
Route 2 Puppets
Normal Ellen Illusion Normal
Normal Meira Steel/Dark Normal
Normal Ruukoto Steel Normal
Speed Kogasa Water/Light Rare
Power Sekibanki Dark Rare
The grass in Route 2, whether on the East or West side, has two new Puppets to
snag: Ruukoto and Meira. This is the only place in the game to find Ruukoto
(thankfully, she’s fairly easy to find), so take a walk in the grass if you want to fill
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your Puppetdex. Meira especially is worth the search, as she has quite solid stat
spreads for her Styles.
Just as a note, this will be the first area with Puppeteers rocking teams of Styled
Puppets. You’ll still have a huge level advantage (giving you additional Skills and
stats), but don’t let your guard down overly much.
Head North past the first Human standing around. The second person is a Puppet-
eer, and they’ll force a battle with you if you want to pass!
Elite Puppeteer Haruna

Power Yumemi, Aggressive No Accessory
Lvl 32, Light/Water
As an aside, Yumemi is pretty awesome looking. You’ll be able to find her very
soon, if you are interested.
Head East into the grass for a Gold Coin, and then talk to the boy wandering
around to get into a battle!
Rascal Atsushi
Assist Sekibanki, Melancholic No Accessory
Lvl 31, Dark/Nether
Power Sekibanki, Bright Form No Accessory
Lvl 31, Dark
Head North and return to the path. Cross the Northern body of water and check the
rock up the stairs for a Grimoire. Back across the water, head West and talk to the
girl wandering around the grassy patch for another fight!
Tomboy Hikari
Speed Nazrin, Sand Force No Accessory
Lvl 30, Earth/Steel
Power Kyouko, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
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Lvl 30, Sound
Defense Momiji, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 30, Steel/Earth
Return to the path and head West, following the path as it turns North into a new
area.
Route 2 Ruins Area Puppets

Normal Kotohime Void Normal
Normal Rikako Electric/Steel Normal
Normal Chiyuri Electric/Water Normal
Normal Yumemi Light/Water Rare
Of importance to note is that the grass here in what is called the Ruins Area of
Route 2 contains a surprisingly large number of Puppets, some of which you won’t
find anywhere else. Ellen, Kotohime, Rikako, and Kana make their return, with
Chiyuri and Yumemi making their debut. Both of them are decent Puppets, and
this is the only place in the game to find them; grab them if you’re interested.
From the entrance, go straight North for Skill Card 83, Dense Fog Bloom. As a
two-turn, Warped-type Sp. Attack Skill, it pretty much works like you’d expect it
to. Charge up the first turn, taking a hit or allowing the enemy Puppet to swap out,
and then do a boatload of damage on the second turn with its massive 120 base
Power. If you have the Fast Talker Ability or the Heavy Fog Weather effect up,
it’ll come out instantly, making this otherwise mediocre Skill stellar. Again, it’s
probably not a worthwhile investment unless you have a Puppet such as Extra Mar-
isa with the Fast Talker Ability (see Useful Puppets Section for more info on her)
or you’re running a Heavy Fog-reliant team, so leave it in your bag and use a base
90-100 Power Skill instead.
The note in the Southeast is interesting, but has nothing of importance to add to the
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playthrough itself. You’ll be coming back to this area far later in the game for a
side quest, much like Muenzuka, but for now, you’ve done everything you can.
That concludes the entirety of Side Quest Section 3. Heal up at Kourindou and get
ready for a trip to the Underground.
14. Journey to the Underground
If you haven’t updated your stock of Talismans, I highly advise you do so unless
you like fighting an astonishing number of random battles. That’s right, we’re
going to go cave delving! If you’re not a fan of retracing your steps after using the
Gap Map to heal up at Kourindou, stock up on healing items as well. The upcom-
ing cave is far larger than any you’ve been in thus far, and might very well be the
largest in the game in sheer size. You’ll almost certainly need to heal up at least
once.
Once you are prepared, teleport to Route 1’s Rest Area. Just to the Northeast is a
breakable rock that you can smash to get to Route 2 East. If you followed Side
Quest Section 3, you already have been to the Western side of it. Though they
aren’t connected at all, the Puppets are the same (aside from the Western side’s spe-
cial Ruins Area).
Route 2 Puppets
Normal Ruukoto Steel Normal
Speed Kogasa Water/Light Rare
Much like in Route 2 West, everybody from here on out in the game will be using
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Styled Puppets. While they still won’t be too bad because of your high Levels,
note that they’ll still be a much greater threat overall thanks to their higher base
stats.
Not too far up the path is an old man on the West side. Talk to him for a fight.
Old Man Toshisada

Powre Kasen, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Where the path curves North is a Youkai spinning around. If she sees you, she’ll
gladly battle you.
Youkai Tsukasa
Assist Hina, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 31, Poison/Dark
Defense Hina, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 31, Poison
Head to the West and you’ll soon find a Fairy wanting to play!
Fairy Rose
Speed Daiyousei, Skilled Hand No Accessory
Lvl 32, Nature
As you turn towards the North, make sure to leave an offering at the nearby Jizo
statue. After climbing the first set of steps, turn East and head through the grass to
find a Moriya Shinshu on a raised plateau.
Continue to the North and turn East at the water. A hungry Youkai watches the
path ahead.
Youkai Chitose
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Defense Parsee, Metallurgy No Accessory
Lvl 32, Dark/Nether
Follow the path all the way around the lake. Stick to the Southern part of the path
and check the Southwest rock for a Misty Jelly. The Youkai watching the cave en-
trance is concerned for your well being; show her why you’ll be more than a match
for whatever lies in wait!
Youkai Azuya
Speed Chiyuri, Common Senseless No Accessory
Lvl 32, Electric/Light
After you defeat her, you’ll be granted entrance to the cave. Consider teleporting
back and grabbing healing before heading inside.
Cave to the Underground Puppets

Normal Parsee Dark/Nether Normal
Normal Yuugi Fighting Rare
Defense Kisume Dark/Water Rare
Power Yamame Poison/Earth Rare
Defense Parsee Dark/Nether Rare
Normal Suika Fighting/Earth Very Rare
Welcome to the Cave to the Underground. This will be your home for the next
hour or so, minus potential breaks to teleport back for healing. It’s long, somewhat
complex, and is designed to grind you down before pulling a few stronger Puppet-
eers towards the end. Thankfully, you’ll be given ample warning in this guide as to
when you’ll want to potentially return for healing, and you can mitigate a good por-
tion of the grind by using Talismans. Of course, you sacrifice Experience and
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items to sell by doing so; I suggest fighting random encounters for at least the first
half or so. Once we take a healing break, you might want to use Talismans from
then on.
As a special note, you would be very wise to retreat from any fights involving Ki-
sume, as she almost always will have the Indomitable Ability (preventing a one-hit
KO), and will often use her guaranteed turn to inflict nasty Status Effects upon
your Puppets (primarily Burn and Dark). Yamame is also potentially dangerous if
she gets a turn to strike thanks to her Poison-type Skills (likely resulting in you get-
ting Poisoned), but if you can one-shot her, you’ll avoid the danger entirely.
Head North and cross over the bridge. Ignore the stairs leading North and instead
follow the path East. At the end of the short path is a rock containing Gold Dust.
Return to the steps and climb them; your first Youkai challenger lies just beyond!
Youkai Kokonoe
Speed Rin, Morale Boost No Accessory
Lvl 32, Fire/Earth
Power Kagerou, Invigorative No Accessory
Lvl 32, Dark/Earth
Follow the straight path all the way to the end. Head down the ladder and continue
along the linear path until you come to another Youkai to battle!
Youkai Ai
Defense Parsee, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 33, Dark/Nether
Just to the South of Ai is a Chirei Sweet Bun. Head back to the main path and fol-
low it up the next ladder. There’ll be an Evil Spirit blocking the path after a short
ways.
Evil Spirit Takemitsu

Defense Tojiko, Jamming No Accessory
Lvl 33, Electric/Nether
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Eventually, you’ll reach your first split after going down a short set of steps.
Ignore the stairs to the West and instead follow the path as it winds around to the
South. Follow the again linear path until you come to a Rainbow Candy just down
a set of steps.
Return to the ladder leading deeper into the cave. You’ll soon see a Youkai stand-
ing next to a large pit. You can pass by if you wish, but she’s happy to battle if
you’d like!
Youkai Mio
Power Koishi, Charge! No Accessory
Lvl 33, Void
Turn to the North and follow the path until you come to a West/North split. Head
up the Western ladder for now. At the end of the long path, you’ll find a Gold Coin
if you check the obviously discolored rock.
Return to the split and go North. You will see a guy with horns before too long;
this is an Oni, and they love to fight!
Oni Atsurou
Power Suika, Drunkard No Accessory
Defense Suika, Battle Mania No Accessory
Lvl 31, Fighing/Fire
Assist Kasen, Battle Mania No Accessory
Lvl 31, Fight./Nether
Raise your hand if you half jumped out of your seat when Power Suika popped
out. She’s one of the few 640 base stat total Puppets, meaning she has an Ability
that somehow works against her in exchange for her ridiculous stat base. In this
case, she’s forced to do nothing every other turn. If you let her, she’ll hit you
really, really hard with her absurd 165 base Fo. Attack, so try to one-shot her if
you can, especially with a Sp. Attack.
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The rest of the Puppets are straightforward enough to deal with, though their Bat-
tle Mania Ability will prevent you from swapping out your Fighting-type Puppets
(no effect on other types).
For the record, Oni-type Puppeteers love Fighting Puppets; be prepared for that
when you fight them.
Continue along the path and up the ladder. You’ll soon come to another Evil Spirit
that is watching the path.
Evil Spirit Kuruto

Speed Tojiko, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Lvl 33, Electric
Pass over the natural bridge and head East at the next split to find another odd-col-
ored rock and another Gold Dust. Return to the split and go South until you are
forced to choose between going East or West. To the East is Skill Card 17, Rocky
Barrage. This Earth-type Fo. Attack Skill is of the base 80 Power category that has
an increased chance to land Critical Hits. It’s the best Earth-type Fo. Attack Skill
Card you have by this point, so if its better than or equal to whatever your Earth
Puppet is using, give it a shot!
Take the West path this time and follow it until you see an odd Youkai girl hopping
around in a bucket. As you likely know by now from the numerous Puppets
you’ve encountered in this cave alone, this is Kisume, and she’ll happily bat-
tle/frustrate you if you talk to her!
Tsurube-Otoshi Kisume
Assist Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 34, Dark/Fire
Defense Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 34, Dark/Water
Much like you’d expect, Kisume will send out two Puppet versions of herself.
Wonderful. They love to use Panic Call and Eye of Laplace; Panic Call will
knock your Puppet’s held item away and deal twice as much damage, so watch
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out for that.
For some reason, Kisume’s Kisume Puppets never really used Status Effects
against my Puppets, unlike the random ones wandering around. Still, don’t let
your guard down, especially since both of them have the Indomitable Ability and
thus can’t be one-shot (except by multi-hit Skills).
By this point, your Puppets are probably looking a bit ragged. I’d suggest teleport-
ing back to Kourindou to heal quickly, then teleporting back to Route 1’s Rest Area
and making your way back to and through the cave to here. I also highly suggest
using Talismans from this point on simply to keep your Puppets healthy and SP
high.
Once you’re prepared, head down the ladder. Just past the bridge, turn East and
follow the narrow path to the end for Skill Card 95, Brave Burst. It’s a Fighting-
type Sp. Attack Skill with a base Power of 90, and that’s about it. This is a good
Skill Card, but it’d be nice if the base Power matched up with the similar 100 base
Power Skills instead. Beggars can’t be choosers, however. Use it if it fits!
Back at the split, head North and follow the path up two sets of steps. Head East
until you are forced to head North or South; take the Southern path around until
you find a Chirei Sweet Bun. Head North and then West until you see an Evil Spirt
in need of an exorcism!
Evil Spirit Shouno

Defense Mima, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 33, Nether
Head back East to the long set of stairs and go down to the next area. You have a
ways to go yet, so don’t let your guard down. After a long sereis of twists and
turns, you’ll find another Oni blocking the path.
Oni Mizue
Power Yuugi, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 32, Fighting
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Defense Suika, Charge! No Accessory
After defeating Mizue, the linear path continues to the East. Just past the stairs, a
Youkai blocks your path!
Youkai Rie
Speed Chen, Flexible No Accessory
Lvl 31, Wind
Power Tokiko, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 31, Wind
Defense Mystia, Good Management No Accessory
Lvl 31, Sound/Dark
Eventually, you’ll reach a very long bridge after a minute of travel or so. This is
where the Youkai Yamame spends her time. If you try to pass by, she’ll stop you
and request a match!
Tsuchigumo Yamame
Assist Wriggle, Jamming No Accessory
Lvl 32, Nature/Poison
Power Medicine, Poison Body No Accessory
Lvl 32, Poison
Assist Yamame, Infectious No Accessory
The biggest issue with fighting Yamame’s Puppets is they all have the potential to
inflict Poison. Unless you have a Steel Puppet out the entire time, you’ll very
likely get Poisoned and have to waste an item after battle curing it. Her Puppets
don’t actually do a lot of damage, however, and you’ll mow through them with
ease, Poison or no.
Power Medicine’s Poison Body Ability means that she can potentially Poison you
with a 30% chance after using any Skill, even if she’s not using a Poison-type
Skill. She managed to get my Puppet Poisoned with Shadow Bomb, a Dark-type
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Skill.
Assist Yamame has the Changeling Dark-type Skill that will let her swap out for a
different Puppet if she has any remaining, but you’ll likely one-shot her before
she can do so.
Continue to the West and make your way down the series of narrow staircases until
you reach the bottom. To the East of the main path is Skill Card 73, Flash Bullet.
This Light-type Skill has a 100% chance to Confuse the enemy Puppet; you might
remember this semi-frustrating Skill used in the Kanako fight. Depending on how
the dice roll, this can be one of the most frustrating Skills or one of the best.
There’s a 50% chance that a Confused Puppet won’t be able to attack, which, if
you can get this to happen twice before they recover from the Confusion, makes
the Skill worth the use. If they simply attack anyway, it’s terrible. The gamble
makes it intriguing, but this might be better as a pass, especially since enemies in
this game tend to have better luck when chance is involved than you do.
Back at the main path, head North, passing under the bridge, to reach the next area.
Notice the scenery change; savvy gamers might be expecting a boss battle not long
after stepping foot onto the bridge. You would be half right.
Jealousy of the Underworld Parsee

Power Yamame, Infectious No Accessory
Defense Parsee, Metallurgy No Accessory
Lvl 35, Dark/Nether
Parsee is more of a mid-boss kind of fight as opposed to a boss battle. Both
Power Yamame and Defense Parsee are fairly easy fights thanks to their mediocre
base stats. You should be able to outspeed both of them with no issue, meaing
Power Yamame should go down before her Poison-type Skills become a threat.
Defense Parsee might survive a hit, though if you strike at her 4x weakness to
Light, she’ll almost certainly get one-shot.
There’s honestly nothing too scary here that requires in-depth tactics; go wild and
wipe the floor with Parsee.
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Once Parsee loses, you’ll gain entrance to the Former Hell City. This is the main
base of the Underground, and will be the closest Gap Map location for the rest of
the trip. It has all the necessary amenities, including a Rest Area and a special
shop selling unique Skill Cards.
While I’m sure your Puppets need a visit to said Rest Area, let’s look for a few
items on the way. There aren’t any enemies here, so don’t worry about getting into
fights with wild Puppets or Puppeteers.
To start, go across the bridge and head West to the stairs going down. Go South
until you reach the river before turning East. Follow the path all the way until you
see a Moriya Shinshu at the end. Head West past the stairs to a clump of rocks.
Cross the river and grab the Chirei Sweet Bun on the Southwest side.
Return to the bridge near the entrance of town and head North to the next four-way
split. Go past the Rest Area and check the barrel for a Hakurei Shinshu.
Enter the Rest Area and heal your Puppets. Check with the Rest Area’s healing
item shop to find out that you can finally purchase Moriya Shinshu for 1500 each!
This is an excellent investment; I always grab enough to put me at 20 or so, which
typically lasts until the end of the playthrough.
There’s a rumor going around town that as part of the festival, there’s a Puppet-bat-
tling contest of some sort happening. We’ll check into that shortly.
For now, leave the Rest Area and head West past the split until you reach the build-
ing with a blue curtain above the doorway, marking it as a shop. The shopkeeper
inside sells Talismans, Magatamas (for the first time!), Contract and Oath Threads
(also the first time!), something called Javelin Arts, and Skill Cards 1-7.
Each Skill Card costs a whopping 25,000, but grants access to a special Fo. Attack
Javelin Skill based on the Skill Card’s listed type (i.e. Water Javelin is a Water-type
Fo. Attack). One of your Puppets might have learned one of these Skills naturally,
but oftentimes you’ll be able to teach multiple Javelin Skills to a Puppet. Each one
has a base Power of 80, an Accuracy of 100%, and a 10% chance for a bonus ef-
fect. I absolutely love Javelin Skills for their versatility and reasonable base
Power; while not all Puppets can use all Javelins, oftentimes you’ll get off-type
Javelins that can be used. One special note, however: Extra Satori, who would
normally get huge use out of Javelins thanks to her type-changing Ability and high
base Fo. Attack stat actually can’t use any of them (makes sense to prevent her
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from being too overpowered, but still sucks).
In addition, Javelin Arts sells for 10,000 and boosts the power of Javelin Skills
when held by a Puppet. While I rarely use more than one or two Javelins on a Pup-
pet, you could theoretically use three or four Javelins and make great use of Javelin
Arts on a Fo. Attack Puppet.
From the shop, head North and then East until you reach a house. Inside, check the
Northern pot for a Chirei Sweet Bun.
Leave the house and head East past the split to another house. Check the Southeast
pot for another Chirei Sweet Bun.
From there, head all the way back West to the four-way split North of the shop.
Head North up the stairs and check the Western barrel for a Moriya Shinshu.
Ignore the nearby shop, as it’s a hot springs that you aren’t able to use. Instead,
head East past the steps heading North, which lead to the next area but is blocked
off during the festival, until you come to some steps heading South. Check the sec-
ond Western barrel from the top for another Moriya Shinshu.
Back up the stairs, head East past the sake shop and cross the bridge. You’ll find
Skill Card 41, Earthly Blessing, on the other side. If you remember Heavenly
Blessing, this is the exact same Skill, except for Terrain effects instead of Weather.
Also of note is that the base Power is 60 instead of 50, meaning once it doubles
it’ll rise to 120 base Power. That said, Terrain effects are very rare to see from ene-
my Puppeteers, so unless you are the one using Terrain, this one might be better off
left unused.
Return to the four-way split just South of the steps. Make sure your Puppets are
healed up and your strongest Puppet is put in the lead position. Saving might also
be a good idea just in case. Once you are prepared, talk to the Ghost behind the
counter to the West and join the Puppet-battling contest!
The rules are simple. There are three rounds; defeat each opponent to win, receiv-
ing a full party heal after each fight (though it’s never mentioned). Each one will
be a bit tougher than the last (and more difficult than the grunts in the cave), but if
you made it this far, you can do it!
Evil Spirit Smofie
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Lvl 35, Electric
Defense Parsee, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 35, Dark/Nether
You’ve seen Speed Tojiko enough by now to know how to handle her. Defense
Parsee can be wiped out the same as the last fight with her 4x weakness to Light.
Assist Lunasa puts out a solid amount of damage, but if you watch out for her
Sound-type Skills, you should be fine.
Youkai Torute
Power Hatate, Salvo No Accessory
Lvl 35, Electric
Power Sanae, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 35, Wind/Water
Assist Udonge, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 35, Illusion
Power Hatate is similar to Power Aya, but far slower and with less damage. You
should be able to outspeed her before Salvo becomes an issue, though there’s no
guarantee she’ll be smart enough to use a five-hit Skill even then, as she tends to
favor Spring First (Wind-type boosted Priority Skill) instead.
Power Sanae loves to use Veil of Water first to guarantee you can’t lower her
stats. That really doesn’t matter much when you can zap her with Electric to tar-
get her 4x weakness and one-shot her. If you let her get a second or third turn,
she’ll make you pay with higher Power Skills.
Assist Udonge starts with St. Elmo’s Fire (Illusion-type) to blow away your held
item as well as do double damage; she’ll use this every turn after you send a new
Puppet out against her. Her damage is so low, however, this isn’t a huge threat
unless your Puppet is weak to Illusion. That said, she can randomly Confuse your
Puppets with her Chaos Induction Ability, so avoid prolonging the fight if possi-
ble.
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Long-time fans of the Touhou series will almost certainly recognize the final Pup-
peteer. As you might expect, she’ll give you a run for your money!
Eternal Evil Spirit Mima

Power Marisa, Sand Devil Opal Hairpin
Lvl 43, Light/Dark
Defense Reimu, Economist Clear Hairpin
Power Mima, Curse Return Sugilite Hairpin
Lvl 45, Nether/Light
If you thought the previous two fights were too easy, Mima will give you a much
stiffer challenge. She’s still not on the level of Kanako, but that doesn’t mean her
Puppets can’t deal significant damage if you let them.
Power Marisa is perhaps the best example of that. As the epitomy of a glass can-
non, she has a whopping 140 base Fo. Attack and a great 115 base Speed, mean-
ing unless you have a very, very fast Puppet out, you might be watching some
fireworks...or Over Ray (Light-type boosted Priority Skill) if you are fortunate.
Also annoying is her Light/Dark typing, as that has a few unexpected resistances
such as Electric, Sound, and Warped. Try to put out an Illusion-type Puppet to
completely stymie her attacks, then blast her away with one blow!
Defense Reimu is tanky and loves to spam Revolving Illusions to deal a surpris-
ing amount of damage despite her lower base Fo. Attack stat. She also uses Evil-
Guided Arrow (Light-type) and Guided Missile (Void-type), though these aren’t
quite as dangerous. Unlike Kanako’s Defense Reimu, this one doesn’t rely on In-
voke Deity, meaning you just need to deal with an above-average tanky Puppet.
Sound and Warped are her two weaknesses; aim for those and you might KO her
in one hit.
Power Mima is kind of odd in that she can put out a ton of damage with her base
135 Power stat, but she doesn’t have the Defenses or Speed to really keep herself
safe to use it. Also amusingly, she likes to use the Curse Reversal Skill to take
both Puppet’s HP totals and average them out, which could be a good thing if you
send out a weakened Puppet and she uses it while still at full health. Be prepared
for Over Ray spamming, meaning the incoming damage will be surprisingly low
unless she decides to use Soul Hound (Nether-type). She has a 4x weakness to
Dark which will instantly wipe her out. Just don’t try Fighting-type Skills, as
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Power Mima’s Nether typing will cause them to miss.
After defeating her, Mima acts a bit surprised at losing, but seems to be happy with
the fun battle. As a reward, she gives you a hint about the Puppet incident: don’t
stick to one thing, as what she feels coming from the dolls isn’t a single power.
Quite an interesting hint, though what could it mean? You’ll have to wait until
much, much later to discover the answer to this one.
Mima goes on to invite you to seek her out again if you’d like, though you won’t
have the capability of doing so until you are far stronger; we’ll meet her again in
Side Quest Section 4. Look forward to it!
For now, she takes her leave as the announcer Ghost takes the stage. For your vic-
tory, you receive a surprise Incident Case 5 book. You likely didn’t read the fourth
one yet, so feel free to go back to the Bookstore in the Human Village and read
both if you are curious. As a note, you’ll be forced to read through them all later
on to progress the game, so if you don’t do it now, you’ll need to do it later. You
can easily teleport back to the nearby Rest Area by changing the Gap Map’s page
with A or D until you see the Former Hell City’s Rest Area on one of the maps.
There’s nothing left to do in the Former Hell City, so restock on items if necessary,
especially Talismans or Magatamas. You’ll almost certainly want them in the next
big dungeon area, as random encounters are plentiful and there are a lot of twists,
turns, and backtracking. Be prepared or you might regret it!
As a side note, from here on out is when the game really begins to pick up in inten-
sity, both in terms of story and overall Puppeteer difficulty. The next few hours es-
pecially are among my favorite moments of the game largely because of this, so
strap in for a wild ride!
From the four-way split next to the contest Ghost, head North up the steps and then
East until you reach a double set of steps going North. From there, continue
straight ahead until after you cross the bridge, at which point take the Eastern path
to a new area.
Road to Chireiden Puppets

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Normal Suika Fighting/Earth Normal
Normal Parsee Dark/Nether Normal
Normal Yuugi Fighting Normal
Normal Nue Illusion/Electric Normal
Normal Kasen Fighting/Illusion Normal
Defense Suika Fighting/Fire Rare
Defense Parsee Dark/Nether Rare
Power Yuugi Fighting Rare
Power Nue Illusion/Electric Rare
Power Kasen Fighting/Illusion Rare
The Road to Chireiden is a completely linear path that has a few Puppeteers and
random encounters with Puppets you’ve seen before.
While we’re on the subject of similarity, the Oni blocking the way North is likely a
familiar one by now. She loves drinking sake and battling, so make sure you’re
ready for Fighting-type Puppets!
Oni Yuugi
Power Suika, Drunkard No Accessory
Power Kasen, Charge! No Accessory
Power Yuugi, Unbound No Accessory
Lvl 38, Fighting
Yuugi is packing many of the same Puppets you’ve seen before. Power Suika is
only a nightmare on the first turn and then every other turn afterwards, but a well-
placed attack to one of her myriad of weaknesses (Water, Nature, Wind, Fighting,
and Sound) should do the trick. Power Kasen is using the Charge! Ability, which
makes her the biggest threat overall; that said, she’ll go down quick to Sp. At-
tacks. Power Yuugi mainly spams Rising Sun (Fire-type) for about three turns
with the goal of raising her Speed; the flipside of this is that it does no real dam-
age, and you should be able to beat her before she starts outspeeding your Pup-
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pets.
After defeating Yuugi, she’ll guess that you intend to take on the Puppet Liberation
Front that took over the Geyser Control Center. She tells you to speak to the mas-
ter of Chireiden for more information.
For the sake of time, just assume that the path ahead is linear, leading from one
Puppeteer to the next. Be careful of the random Kasen Puppets, as they can have
the Sermon Ability that can apply the Weak Status Effect to your Puppet after Ka-
sen gets hit.
Oni Aichi
Power Yuugi, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 34, Fighting
Evil Spirit Sora

Lvl 35, Electric
Oni Risa
Power Kasen, Charge! No Accessory
Evil Spirit Kanji

Apparently, Kanji spent some time bulking up its Defense Tojiko. This is the
highest Puppet level you’ve seen thus far, but this won’t be the norm yet, so don’t
freak out. Simply handle it like a higher HP tank and you’ll be fine, especially if
you use Fo. Attacks to crush it.
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The surprise Defense Tojiko aside, that was a pretty straightforward area. At the
very end, you’ll find Chireiden Manor. There’s nothing outside to snag, so go
ahead and enter it.
Chireiden Puppets
Normal Satori Illusion Normal
Normal Utsuho Fire/Light Normal
Normal Koishi Void Rare
There aren’t any random battles in Chireiden, though you will see a lot of pets run-
ning around thanks to the master’s love of animals; there’s only a small section of
grass later on that has the above Puppets, which will be covered when we get there.
For now, we’ll be grabbing a few items and healing up in a bed before proceeding,
so follow along closely.
In the room just to the East of the entrance there’s a Rainbow Candy. Head West
past the stairs (don’t go up them yet!) and enter the side room to find a Bhava-Agra
Set.
Return to the entrance of Chireiden and head straight North until you find a small
side path with a staircase. Go up the staircase and enter the room. Inside, you’ll
find a Puppet Box and bed to heal with. Go ahead and take a nap, though don’t be
surprised if you get a visitor!
From the room with the bed, head West across the bridge to find another door that
leads into a balcony area. Check the Western room as you go around for a Chirei
Sweet Bun and then snag the Oath Thread at the end of the balcony path.
Return to Chireiden’s entrance one more time. Approach the Western staircase and
take a moment to save your game...just in case.
Once you’ve done that, not that there was a particular reason to or anything, go
ahead climb the staircase and enter the nearby room. As you enter, a Youkai girl
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will take notice of your entrance and approach. This is Satori, the master of Chirei-
den. She begins to narrate your character’s inner thoughts, including why you’ve
come. Indeed, she has the ability to read minds. Unfortunately for you, she’s not
in a helping mood, and you’re forced into a battle!
For those of you who know Satori from the Touhou games, you might have seen
this one coming. For those not in the know, enjoy.
Lord of Chireiden Satori

??? ??? ???
This will be your toughest match yet, and quite possibly the toughest one in the
game depending on your Puppets.
As you might have noticed, Satori doesn’t have any Puppets of her own, and will
instead copy whatever your current party is, down to the Accessories and Skills,
using these copies as her team; her Puppets will start in the exact same order as
you, though she won’t necessarily send them out in order. Her being able to copy
your Puppets is a direct reference to her ability in the Touhou games to use the
Spell Cards of the acquaintences of the chosen player character combo.
Now it’s time for you to see just how good of a Puppeteer you are when faced
with equally powerful Puppets and an AI that knows how to use them. Fortu-
nately for you, you’ll have the capability to use healing items as a major crutch,
reviving KO’d Puppets and healing weakened ones. However, time spent healing
is time for Satori to further lay the beatdown on you, meaning pick your spots
carefully or you’ll get party wiped.
One of the best strategies is to start the battle off with a sweeper Puppet, aka one
that is very fast and hits very hard. If you can get the first hit in against your
clone and take it out, you can hopefully wipe out most if not all the rest of the
slower enemy Puppets, making the battle far easier.
Another very good strategy is if you have a Puppet that can boost its stats, either
Speed and Fo. Attack/Sp. Attack or both Defenses. With luck, you’ll be able to
bulk your Puppet up so much that its either a completely unkillable tank or attack
hard and fast enough to wipe out the entire enemy team in one-shot.
In the end, however, you know your party the best. Think about the strategies
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you’ve used thus far and figure out the best way to counter them to find your path
to victory.
One important thing to note is the potentially massive Experience gain to be had
since your Puppets are all likely in the 50s and 60s by now (and thus so are the en-
emy Puppets), and there are likely six of them. If at all possible, send each of
your Puppets in at least once and keep them alive for huge gains.
While you should be able to clear the battle the way it was intended, if you abso-
lutely can’t handle it after a few tries, there is a way to take the cheap way out.
Return to the Puppet Box and put all of your party Puppets in the Box, taking out
a single low-level Puppet, such as those from Route 1. You should be able to then
win the fight simply by using Yin/Yang Energy until the enemy is dead, healing
once if absolutely necessary. You’ll be missing out on a lot of Experience, money
items, and satisfaction, but it’s your call.
After beating her/yourself, Satori will open the way to the Geyser Control Center.
Return to the room with the bed for healing and then take the previously unex-
plored path North to enter the room with the balcony. The grass here holds quite a
few new Puppets, including Satori, Utsuho, and Koishi, though you’ll likely see
more of Rin than anything else. All three of the new Puppets are pretty great in
their own way, so it might be worth the time to search for them.
In the Southwest of the courtyard area next to the fountain, you can grab a Magic
Ring. This held item raises the chance for Critical Hits, meaning it’s tailor-made
for Puppets that either rely on Skills with already boosted chances of Critical Hits
such as Eye of Laplace or for Puppets that rely on multi-hit attacks (looking at you,
Power Aya). It’s an okay item otherwise, and may or may not have a place for
your current team.
There’s nothing else to do in Chireiden, so head to the Northwest and follow the
long path through the set of double doors as it enters a basement-type area and then
eventually leads you to an entirely new location.
15. Fanning the Flames
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Remains of Blazing Hell Puppets
Normal Yuugi Fighting Normal
Normal Utsuho Fire/Light Normal
Normal Kikuri Illusion Rare
Speed Yuugi Fighting/Water Rare
Speed Rin Fire/Earth Rare
Power Utsuho Fire/Light Rare
Normal Konngara Steel/Fighting Very Rare
What RPG wouldn’t be complete without a volcano-esque area, right? Conven-

iently, the Touhou games have one already built in, so naturally we were going to
come here sooner or later. Thankfully, the heat and scorching flames don’t seem to
bother your character much, perhaps thanks to some sort of magical protection?
Hard to say, but just roll with it.
The Remains of Blazing Hell are likely the most confusing place in the game to
navigate thanks to a myriad of twists, turns, side paths, ladders, hurdles, and a ton
of battles thanks to the large number of both enemy Puppeteers and frequent ran-
dom encounters. I still think the Cave to the Underground is longer if we’re just
counting the main path, but if you happen to go through all the side paths, the Re-
mains of Blazing Hell wins by a mile.
Here’s the deal; towards the very end is a conveniently located split that either
takes you to the exit or sends you over a series of hurdles to an extremely large ser-
ies of paths and side paths that eventually lead back to the first floor. We’ll of
course be navigating the entirety of the area for items and Puppeteers, but you’ll
need to keep an eye on your Puppets’ health totals. Don’t be afraid at any time to
either pop a Magatama and retrace your steps back to Chireiden or take the Gap
Map back to the Former Hell City (use A and D to switch pages of the Gap Map),
though the latter will require a lengthy journey back since Chireiden doesn’t have a
Gap Map fast travel.
With all that out of the way, let’s get moving.
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From the entrance, immediately head East and check the Northeastern rock at the
end of the path for a Gold Dust. Back at the entrance, go North past the bridge and
head West once you’re able. Check the rock for another Gold Dust. Head up the
nearby steps and talk to what looks like a Fairy with a halo for a fight!
Fairy Shitora
Speed Utsuho, Positive No Accessory
You’ll find out after the fight that the Fairy was impersonating a Zombie and is
wearing makeup with a costume. You’ll see more of them throughout the area, but
they’re not much different than a normal Fairy aside from the Puppets they use.
Return to the Eastern bridge we skipped and go across it to find an Evil Spirit wait-
ing for you on the other side.
Evil Spirit Takekazu

Power Nue, Telescopic No Accessory
Sadly, the hurdle to the South is a shortcut to return to the entrance; make your way
around to the North instead. Hop over the next hurdle in the East and grab the
Rainbow Candy. Leave the side area via the Northern hurdle and go North to get
stopped by another Evil Spirit.
Evil Spirit Shigemoto

Defense Seija, Unjustness No Accessory
Lvl 36, Poison/Light
Just past Shigemoto, you’ll see a split with an odd cat on the Western bridge. Ap-
proach it only to have it run away; the idea is that you’re supposed to follow it and
thereby stay on the correct path. For now, that’s what we’ll do since the Northern
path is actually connected to the hurdle area at the bottom floor and we’ll need to
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traverse the hurdles for an item anyway.
Cross the bridge and check the Northern rock for a Gold Dust before making your
way around and climbing the steps. Follow the path to the West and down another
set of steps. Head East briefly to pick up a Chirei Sweet Bun, then go West and
follow the path as it turns North. Talk to the Evil Spirit for another battle!
Evil Spirit Shouichi

Defense Kikuri, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 36, Illusion
To the North is a ladder leading down to the next floor. You’ll almost immediately
run into another Evil Spirit once you get there.
Evil Spirit Kazuyori

Speed Tojiko, Morale Boost No Accessory
Lvl 36, Electric
At the split, head across the bridge to the South first. The ladder there will take
you back up to an isolated island on the first floor where you’ll find the aptly
placed Skill Card 67, Thermit. This Fire-type Skill has a 90% success rate of ap-
plying the Heavy Burn Status Effect to the enemy Puppet. With the right party or
Puppet setup, this can be an extremely powerful Skill, though technically com-
pared to the Miasma Skill Card you’ll find later on in the playthrough it isn’t quite
as good since it doesn’t get a similar boost in Accuracy for matching the Puppet
type with the Skill type. Still, 90% Accuracy is very solid overall, and you can
raise that further with a Telescope or Binoculars. If you already have a Puppet ca-
pable of learning Thermit that focuses more on tanking than straight damage-deal-
ing, this is a good Skill. If not, you might want to skip it.
Return to the second floor and take the narrow Western path this time as it curves
to the North. You’ll eventually come to a North/East split, with the cat once again
present, this time to the East. Unlike last time, we’ll be heading the other way to
get items and Puppeteers, so go North for now and head down the steps.
Unfortunately, the Southwest island with an item can’t be accessed yet, but we’ll
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hit it later on from the third floor. In the North is another Zombie Fairy that wants
to play!
Fairy Arienelle
Speed Rin, Southern Expanse No Accessory
Lvl 35, Fire/Earth
Power Rin, Up Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 35, Power/Nether
Not that you shouldn’t be able to one-shot her, but watch out for Power Rin’s Up
Tempo Ability, as she’ll keep boosting her Speed at the end of every turn.
To the North of Arienelle is an Oath Thread at the end of the path. Return to where
the cat is waiting and approach it. Follow it after it runs off until you run into yet
another Zombie Fairy!
Fairy Angel
Power Futo, Unbound No Accessory
Lvl 35, Earth/Fire
Speed Futo, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 35, Wind/Water
As an aside, Angel may be the best name for a Zombie Fairy ever.
If your party is getting tired, this is the best time to return for some healing around
now. One Magatama should get you all the way back guaranteed, or a Talisman
will get you most of the way back. Otherwise, you’ll have a few more battles to go
until we reach a bed.
From Angel, head down the steps and follow the path until you reach a bridge.
Cross it and grab the Rainbow Candy, then cross the bridge again and head West.
You’ll eventually come to a Zombie Fairy; while you can potentially sneak past,
she’d surely appreciate the entertainment.
Fairy Morgan
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Defense Suika, Battle Mania No Accessory
At the end of the path is another ladder, this time leading down to the third floor.
Another Zombie Fairy waits for you across the bridge.
Fairy Marie
Defense Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 35, Dark/Water
Assist Yamame, Nimble No Accessory
Continue on until you reach a South/West split. At the end of the Western path is a
Chirei Sweet Bun. Return to the split and head South until you run into the cat one
last time. She heads East, but this is actually a trick. While we’ll want to go there
eventually for item collection and Puppeteers, the path quickly takes us over hur-
dles and forces us to fight our way back to the first floor. Let’s first head to the
South and work our way towards the healing area.
Up the stairs is the final fight separating you from the exit. Her name is Utsuho,
and she’s fiercly loyal to Satori, albeit not particularly smart. If you want to pass
by, you’ll have to force your way through!
Subterranean Sun Utsuho

Lvl 40, Fire/Earth
Speed Utsuho, Positive No Accessory
Power Utsuho, Aggressive Ruby Hairpin
Lvl 43, Fire/Light
Utsuho, despite the boss battle music, is more of a mid-boss fight than anything.
That said, she’s not entirely a pushover.
Speed Rin is by far the weakest link here. She is very fast, but you can still poten-
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tially outspeed her with a top-tier Speed Puppet; otherwise, weather her attack and
wipe her out in one blow, especially with her massive 4x weakness to Water.
Speed Utsuho is as much of a nightmare as you make her. If you simply fight her
with pure damage, you’ll likely have the edge due to her lower level. That said,
she’s a strong Sp. Attack Puppet with great all-around stats, though she’s not par-
ticularly fast despite her Speed Style with only a base 90 Speed stat. However, if
you start inflicting her with debuffs such as Speed decreases, she becomes an ab-
solute monster instantaneously with her Positive Ability, which raises her Sp. At-
tack by two levels whenever a negative debuff is applied. Note that this is only
for stat drops, not Status Effects.
Power Utsuho is a really, really slow glass cannon, which is exactly as bad as it
sounds. Mediocre base HP and really low Speed and Defenses means she likely
will go down instantly if you tickle her. However, if you let her start doing dam-
age, she’ll really hit hard despite the level gap. Don’t let that happen and she’ll
be a cinch.
After the battle, Utsuho kind of shrugs and decides that since she fought you, it’s
okay if you pass by. Cool.
Head West until you are given the choice of going up a set of steps or down a set.
Go up the Northern steps and follow the path to the end to snag a Burning Stone.
This held item will inflict your Puppet with the Heavy Burn Status Effect just by
holding it unless they have the Fire typing. This sounds bad, but it has its uses.
For example, give it to a tanky Fire-type Puppet who can also learn the Shark
Trade Skill, then swap off held items with the foe. They’ll quickly burn to a crisp
while you weather the storm. Another use is to inflict your Puppet with Heavy
Burn in order to make use of Abilities that rely on having a Status Effect, such as
Gale. While the damage taken hurts, getting a 50% boost in Speed, Fo. Attack, or
Sp. Attack is oftentimes a worthwhile gamble. That said, those are pretty expert-
level strategies, so try it at your own risk.
Head back to the double set of stairs. Just down the Southern set is a rock hiding a
Gold Dust. Cross the bridge and follow the path until you see a Youkai girl named
Rin. This is actually the cat that guided you through the area and then attempted to
misguide you at the end, leaving you stranded in a difficult situation (though you
still have the Gap Map). She claims it was a mistake, and that Satori asked her to
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guide you.
Regardless, head South and leave the area temporarily. Follow the path until you
reach a wooden door. Inside, you can rest up and prepare for a long item gathering
trip. Before you leave, snag the Bhava-Agra Set from the pot directly West of the
bed.
For those wishing to skip the useful items and continue on with the main walk-
through, skip ahead to the next section, Battle for Gensokyo’s Future. The rest of
this section will be dedicated to exploring the massive optional area that Rin tried
to lead you down. It should be said that there are two Skill Cards to be had, so
it’ll be a worthwhile trip.
Return to Utsuho’s location, head down the nearby stairs, and then take the Eastern
path. If random battles are getting tiresome, it might be wise to start going through
your stock of Puppet repellant. That said, you can get some nice money items, in-
cluding Gold Coins, from the random encounters in this area.
You’ll soon come to a hurdle that leads to Skill Card 12, Burn Strike. This excel-
lent Fire-type Fo. Attack Skill is a combination of Critical Hit boosting Skills and
Skills that grant a 10% chance for a secondary effect. With a base Power of 90, it
already would be a solid choice, but with the increased Critical Hit chance, it be-
comes really strong. The 10% chance to cause a Burn Status Effect is a nice bonus
as well. If your Puppet uses Focus Attacks, it might be a worthwhile Skill to use.
A few steps away is an Evil Ghost. Why not try your new Skill out here since its
Puppet is weak to Fire?
Evil Ghost Hiroshi

Power Konngara, Final Form No Accessory
Hop over the second hurdle, and then a third. Just North is a rock with an expen-
sive Gold Coin hidden within. Follow the path until you cross over a bridge; take
the Northern offshoot path for a Chirei Sweet Bun, then head East until you find a
ladder to the second floor.
Cross the bridge and you’ll immediately see another Chirei Sweet Bun sitting in
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plain sight. Take the Northeast path and follow it until you reach an Evil Spirit
watching to the South.
Evil Spirit Takeshi

Speed Seija, Unjustness No Accessory
Lvl 36, Poison
Head up the stairs behind Takeshi for a Dessert of the Sun. Continue along the
main path as it heads West and then North until you come to a Zombie Fairy who
bluntly says she’s cosplaying.
Fairy Debora
Speed Yuki, Charge! No Accessory
Lvl 35, Fire
Power Mai, Strict Dosage No Accessory
Lvl 35, Water
To be fair, cosplaying is serious business, so give the Fairy some credit even if she
wasn’t a great Puppeteer.
Just to the North of her is a Magatama. Head across the bridge and go Northwest
to a set of steps. This eventually will lead you to a ladder heading back down to
the third floor.
Follow the path until it splits between West and South. Ignore the nearby Fairy for
now and take the Southern pass until you run into yet another Zombie Fairy stand-
ing near a bridge.
Fairy Elena
Power Rin, Flexible No Accessory
Lvl 35, Fire/Nether
Lvl 35, Fire/Earth
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Beyond Elena, you’ll find a Hakugyou Dango and Chirei Sweet Bun.
Return to the split. Go West and talk to the Fairy for a fight!
Fairy Loana
Speed Utusho, Duel No Accessory
At the following North/South split, take the North path for a battle against an Evil
Spirit.
Evil Spirit Tomokazu

Defense Nue, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 36, Illusion/Poison
Another Zombie Fairy waits for you to the North.
Fairy Noelle
Speed Mokou, Hate Incarnate No Accessory
Lvl 36, Fire
Just South of the steps is a rock with a Silver Coin inside. At the very end of the
path is an Oath Thread. Return to the North/South split and this time head South
until you reach another set of steps. At the end of the Southern mini-path is a rock
containing Gold Dust.
Just Northwest from the steps you descended is a Hakurei Shinshu; snag it and then
head up the Western steps. Head due North and check the rock at the end for an-
other Gold Dust. Up the second set of steps is a ladder to the Northwest, but check
the rock to the East of it for more Gold Dust.
Up the ladder is your reward for heading all the way to the end, Skill Card 91,
Backdraft. It’s very similar to Spinning Air and Poltergeist in that it’s a 95 base
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Power Skill with a 10% chance for a secondary effect (Burn in this case), except
Backdraft is a Fire-type Sp. Attack Skill. Use it like the others, as its quite solid.
Return all the way back to the second floor’s Northeast/West split just beyond the
bridge to the East that has a ladder leading to the third floor hurdles. This time
we’ll be taking the Western path. Cross over the massive bridge overlooking a
waterfall of fire and appreciate the awesome sight. On the other side, you’ll see an-
other Evil Spirit watching the Southern path.
Evil Spirit Yuuji

Continue along the linear path as it continues on until you reach the ladder back up
to the first floor. You’re almost done!
However, there’s one last Evil Spirit blocking your path, so take it down and finish
strong!
Evil Spirit Shiten

Defense Mima, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 36, Nether
Just past the raised plateau to the East is a small path hiding a Chirei Sweet Bun.
Grab that and make your way all the way back past Utsuho to the room with the
bed. Here’s a brief set of directions to keep you from getting lost: cross the
bridge, take the ladder at the end of the path, take the path as it curves around the
lava to the West, take the East path at the North/East split, stick to the main path
and ignore all bridges until you reach the ladder, take the South path at the
South/West split, continue on the South path at the next split, and finally, take the
southern steps at the split to reach the exit.
Take a well-deserved break and sleep in the bed. With this, you’ve officially com-
pleted the Remains of Former Hell!
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16. Battle for Gensokyo’s Future
Here it is, the climactic confrontation with the Puppet Liberation Front. Will you
be able to stop their nefarious plans or will they succeed in liberating Gensokyo’s
Puppeteers of their Puppets?
You’ll be facing the best they have to offer, so make sure you’re prepared for any-
thing. Once you’re prepared, take the Southern exit and enter the Geyser Control
Center. Follow the path until you are stopped by a cutscene.
Unfortunately, you’ve walked directly into a trap, not that you’ve been making ef-
forts to disguise your approach. You’ll be forced into battling the entirety of the
Puppet Liberation Front’s officers right now!
...Well, that was the case until a certain someone’s theme starts blaring, causing the
officers to scatter. Thanks to her interference, you’ll be spared the forced gauntlet.
Instead, she’ll order you to help out since you stuck your neck into this incident.
She’ll take the Western path and order you to take the other (Southern) path, which
meet up at the same place.
In the end, you’ll be doing half the gauntlet, with time in between each fight to re-
turn to the bed and heal whenever needed. That said, don’t look down on them just
because you beat them before, as they powered up a bit since you fought last!
Puppet Liberation Front Luna Child

Speed Rei’sen, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 37, Void/Water
Speed Kagerou, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 37, Dark/Wind
Speed Luna, Sanguine No Accessory
Lvl 37, Light/Sound
Though she claims she can fight without her two allies, Luna Child herself is basi-
cally a grunt, albeit one with slightly higher Puppet Levels. As a special note, Lu-
na Child loves to send out Speed Luna as her second Puppet, causing the Weather
to become Aurora; be prepared in case this happens to you.
Speed Rei’sen is weak but fast. She might hit you once, but you should be able to
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one-shot her without issue.
Speed Kagerou is far more dangerous. She has high Speed and Sp. Attack (120
base each), meaning she can do some damage before your Puppets might be able
to act. Plus, she has a surprise Earth-type Skill in Mud Dango to catch you out if
you try to target her Wind typing with an Electric-type Puppet. That said, she’s
not very tanky, meaning you’ll likely be able to one-shot her, especially with your
massive Level advantage.
Speed Luna is basically there for her Sanguine Ability and that’s it. She’s very
fast but just as weak as Speed Rei’sen both in terms of damage and Defenses.
Shred her as you please.
Puppet Liberation Front Sunny Milk

Defense Star, Sanguine No Accessory
Lvl 37, Light/Illusion
Speed Luna, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Lvl 37, Light/Sound
Assist Sunny, Active No Accessory
Lvl 37, Light
Sunny Milk is perhaps a bit stronger than Luna Child, which isn’t saying much.
Defense Star has a 4x weakness to Illusion, but will always get the Aurora effect
out before she goes down. She, along with the other two Puppets, love to spam
Over Ray for minimal damage, but acting faster than your Puppets thanks to the
increased Priority.
Speed Luna is much the same as the last one you just fought, except she can neg-
ate Sound-type Skills thanks to Sound Absorb. Watch out for a surprise Wind-
type Skill in Dancing Wind that could catch you off-guard.
Assist Sunny doesn’t have a whole lot going for her. As with the other two Pup-
pets, she primarily uses Over Ray, even when it makes little sense. Crush her and
end the fight.
If you take the stairs next to Cirno before fighting her, you’ll get to watch a small
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cutscene of Reimu crushing Wriggle with her Suika Puppet. It seems like Reimu is
mowing through the Puppet Liberation Front as easily as you are.
Puppet Liberation Front Cirno (2)

Speed Daiyousei, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 38, Nature
Power Cirno, Up Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 38, Water/Nature
Cirno may be the Strongest when it comes to Danmaku (or not), but when it
comes to Puppet battles it goes about like you’d expect. There’s no need for a
real strategy here, so dismantle her as you please.
Puppet Liberation Front Rumia

Assist Sekibanki, Melancholic No Accessory
Lvl 38, Dark/Nether
Power Rumia, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
Lvl 38, Dark/Fire
Poor Rumia. She lost to you and lost everything. Or at least, that’s what I’m
guessing since she no longer has her Cirno, Daiyousei, Wriggle, or Mystia Pup-
pets. Perhaps Medicine took them away as punishment?
Either way, this fight is easy. Assist Sekibanki will put out a Heavy Fog Weather
effect thanks to her Melancholic Ability and then basically be a punching bag.
Power Rumia is supposed to make use of the Heavy Fog to deal increased Dark-
type damage, but half the the time she uses a Fire-type Skill such as Flare instead.
No matter how fast you beat them down, Reimu will still have beaten you to the
crossroads by the time you arrive. She’ll gloat for a moment before heading on.
Since she seems to have things under control, let’s leave the Incident Expert to her
business and go loot the place, shall we?
Head North and then West to the split at the end, and then take the Northern path to
find a door. You’ll find quite a few items inside. Next to the boxes on the first side
path is a Misty Jelly. Navigate the small box maze to the North of that for Skill
Card 25, Sunbeam Dance. This Light-type Fo. Attack Skill is the first of a few that
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you’ll find that double their base Power of 60 when there’s a Weather effect out
and eliminate it. It has its uses, but rarely outside of a few fights (such as the ones
you just finished) will the enemy Puppeteers use Weather effects (and wasting a
turn to put one up isn’t worth it just for this Skill). This makes it a pretty pointless
Skill unless you know one of those Puppeteers is coming. I’d pass on it personally,
but if you have a Weather team it’s value rises considerably.
In the East side of the room is a larger box maze. Snag the obvious Rainbow
Candy that’s just North of the entrance. Take the path next to that one that leads to
a dead end in the Northeast; check the Eastern box along the end of the path for a
Silver Coin. Grab the Moriya Shinshu in the South and Skill Card 84, Impulse, to
the North. Impulse is yet another in the line of base Power 95 Sp. Attack Skills,
and works just as well as the others. This one is Warped-type, and has a 10%
chance to lower the enemy’s Sp. Defense. If it fits your party, give it a try!
The last item is another hidden Silver Coin in the Southeast; check the lone box to
find it.
Back outside, if you head directly South, you’ll see Reimu surrounded by Puppet
Liberation Front members with Medicine taunting her just out of reach. Not so
high and mighty now, eh?
She’ll be fine for the moment, so let’s return and heal up. Return to the nearby
split and head straight East, following the path past Mystia, Star, and Daiyousei
(Wriggle is also just to the Southeast of Star). Feel free to chat with them if you’d
like; all of them are pretty upset at their loss to the seemingly invincible Reimu.
Once you’ve healed and prepared, return to the split where Reimu was waiting for
you. Head South and follow the path until you reach the big battle happening.
Medicine seems to have the situation well in control, leaving Reimu frustrated.
However, your arrival shifts the balance, forcing her to confront you directly!
Puppet Liberation Front Medicine

Power Rumia, Brutality No Accessory
Lvl 45, Dark/Fire
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Power Sunny, Absorbent No Accessory
Lvl 45, Light/Sunny
Power Medicine, Poison Body Amethyst Hairpin
Lvl 48, Poison
The Leader of the Puppet Liberation Front, Medicine, is a much stiffer challenge
than the other officers were. She comes at you with four Puppets, the most of any
fight aside from potentially Satori’s thus far, and each one is fairly strong in their
own right.
Expect the AI to be proactive here, swapping Puppets in out-of-order and actively

targeting weaknesses. Medicine’s AI isn’t quite on the mind-reading level of Ka-
nako, but it’ll still be tough.
You would expect Power Rumia to be the weakest link, but in actuality she can be
very powerful. She has an amazingly high base Sp. attack of 145 and a respect-
able Speed base of 105, but pays heavily for it with low base HP and Defenses.
That said, she has the capability to be extremely dangerous thanks to her Brutality
Ability, which boosts her damage by 50% in exchange for a 20% drop in Accu-
racy. Hopefully, you’ll one-shot her before that becomes an issue, but if not, pray
for a miss or your Puppet might go down.
Power Cirno is fast and deals a decent amount of Fo. Attack damage. Straightfor-
ward enough unless you let her live for a few turns, as her Up Tempo Ability will
boost her Speed to uncatchable levels by that time. Her damage is pretty respect-
able, so don’t let your guard down. Poison works wonders against her thanks to
her 4x weakness, but you likely could just hit her normally and she’ll go down
thanks to abysmal 40/40 Defense base stats.
Power Sunny spams Star Flare (Light-type), making her an easy target for any re-
sistant Puppets. She does a surprising amount of damage for a Puppet with low
total base stats, but likely is the weakest of the bunch thanks to her straightfor-
ward strategy. If you had to pick a Puppet to stall for time against or to swap Pup-
pets in and out for Experience gain, this would be the one.
Power Medicine loves spamming Shadow Bomb for whatever reason just because
it’s a boosted-Priority Skill. This makes her much, much less of a danger than she
should be. Be careful of sending anything weak to Poison out against her (such as
Water, Nature, or Warped), however, as she’ll likely swap strategies and target
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their weakness.
After losing, Medicine runs away to the North, leaving her allies behind. Reimu
tells you to follow her; if you talk to the Puppet Liberation Front members sur-
rounding her, you’ll find out a few have already lost to Reimu. She really does
have things under control this time, so follow Medicine!
In the next area, take the Western path to the next split and then head East for Skill
Card 89, High Tone Crush. This 95 base Power Sound-type Fo. Attack Skill has a
nice 10% chance to lower one of the enemy Puppet’s base stats randomly. Since
Sound is perhaps the best late-game type in the game thanks to being able to coun-
ter Fighting, Illusion, and Warped (all of which are prominent late-game), this Skill
will potentially be very useful. Use it if you have a Fo. Attack Puppet that can!
From there, head West and then North to the next split. Take either direction, as
they meet up at the same place, and then take the Northern path to find yourself
back at the surface!
For those who took part in Side Quest Section 3, this area will look familiar. The
Puppet Liberation Front members we defeated to the North will still be defeated,
but Medicine is nowhere to be found. For now, heal up at Kourindou and return to
the Human Village to regroup.
If you’d like, you can talk to Akyuu for a hint as to where Medicine could have
gone, though this isn’t necessary to continue the game. The most likely place for
her to have gone is her home, Suzuran Field. Thus, let’s head for there and see if
we can’t put an end to the Puppet Liberation Front once and for all.
To get to Suzuran Field, we’ll need to head to Route 5 through the Southwest gate
of the Human Village. Once there, follow the path until you can head South; the
Puppet Liberation Front Guards from before are gone, leaving you a clear shot to
Route 6.
Route 6 Puppets
Normal Louise Wind Normal
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Normal Lily Void Normal
Normal Mamizou Illusion/Nature Normal
Speed Meira Steel/Dark Rare
Defense Louise Wind Rare
Speed Daiyousei Nature Rare
Power Lily Nature/Void Rare
Power Mamizou Illusion/Earth Rare
Puppet Levels, both that of wild Puppets and that of Puppeteers’ Puppets, have ris-
en a bit to average at around 39-40. This still isn’t much of a threat, but it does
mark a trend that will continue from here on out; don’t be surprised if your Puppets
lose a few Levels of their massive advantage in the coming areas. Also of note,
there are no new Puppets for quite a while, so focus on avoiding the grass as much
as possible unless you want to grind.
Leave an offering at the Jizo statue near the entrance to Route 6 for additional Kar-
ma and then head South past the hurdle to the West (we’ll be making a circle that
eventually comes back here). Follow the path until you are stopped by a Farmer
looking to try his luck.
Farmer Yuudai
Power Yuuka, Unjustness No Accessory
Continue along the road for a ways until you come to two children, one in the grass
and one watching the road. Talk to each one for a battle!
Rascal Takumi
Defense Nue, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Speed Seija, Unjustness No Accessory
Lvl 39, Poison
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Tomboy Kosaya
Power Ellen, Spirit of Yang No Accessory
Lvl 40, Illusion
Eventually, the path will split between heading East or up a staircase. Take the
stairs and follow the narrow path around until you come to a Puppeteer blocking an
item. He won’t take kindly to your attempted thievery, so be ready for a fight!
Elite Puppeteer Ryouji

Speed Seiga, Infiltration No Accessory
Lvl 39, Nether
Power Futo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 39, Earth/Fire
It turns out all he was guarding was a Misty Jelly. Return to the split and continue
East. The Youkai who seems to be watching the path is indeed a Puppeteer, but her
Puppets are too tired to battle. Just to the South is an East/South split; take the
Eastern path through the grass and head North until you run into a Puppeteer that
wants to battle!
Elite Puppeteer Saya

Speed Nitori, Electromagnetic No Accessory
Lvl 39, Water/Electric
Power Wakasagi, Grace of Water No Accessory
Lvl 39, Water
After defeating Saya, we’ll hop into the water to the East first. Cross over to the
other side and check the Northwest of the grassy patch for a Floating Stone. This
held item is very, very situational, making the holder immune from Earth-type
Skills but is destroyed (for the battle) if any other type of Skill is used. Unless you
can guarantee you’ll be hit by an Earth-type Skill, pass on this one.
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Back in the water, head North past the narrow path leading East and disembark at
the large Eastern bank. Interestingly enough, the path here will take you to Route
5, where you can finally claim that isolated item that you may have spied earlier
on. This is Skill Card 96, Catastrophe, an Illusion-type Sp. Attack Skill that is an-
other in the line of base Power 95 Skills with a 10% chance for a secondary effect
(in this case lowering Sp. Defense). For those whose Puppet(s) may have learned
Unknown Flare already (base 80 Power, but with a 30% chance to Confuse), I’d
pick Catastrophe instead because of the extra 15 base Power, but the Confuse
chance is quite nice. Still, it’s better to potentially KO a Puppet in one hit than rely
on a low chance to Confuse in my opinion, but for Puppets with lower Sp. Attack
that are meant for stalling, Unknown Flare could be the better choice.
Return to the water and go South until you reach the small Eastern path cutting
across to the river on the other side. Take the path, hop in the water, and go North
until you see a Hakurei Shinshu on the Eastern bank.
Head back to the Puppeteer’s location, this time taking the Northern path that leads
to the lower part of the Eastern river. Follow it all the way South until you see
Skill Card 88, Dancing Sword, on the Southern bank. Apart from having one of
the coolest Skill names, this Fighting-type Fo. Attack Skill is another of the base
80 Power Skills with a boosted Critical Hit chance. It’s the overall best Fighting-
type Fo. Attack Skill Card you’ve gotten thus far (Vacuum Rupture has a lot of
drawbacks), but whether or not your Puppets have already learned something stron-
ger could make it obsolete.
That finishes off this water-filled side area. Return to the Puppeteer and head
South until you reach the main path again, then continue South over a large num-
ber of hurdles. Eventually, you’ll reach a Youkai with a bucket on her head that
wants to battle!
Youkai Mizui
Power Kokoro, Infinite Changes No Accessory
Lvl 40, Void/Light
A special note here: while Power Kokoro is slower than dirt, if you let her attack,
her Infinite Changes Ability will come into play, changing her type to match that
of the Skill she uses. In other words, if she uses a Light-type Skill, she’ll become
a Light-type Puppet just before the Skill takes effect, meaning it’ll get type-
boosted damage. This effect lasts until she uses another Skill, at which point her
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type will change to match that one.
If your Puppets are getting tired, you might want to Gap Map back for healing; we
are approaching a Rest Area, but there’ll still be several fights until we get there.
The bike ride back from the Human Village only takes about a minute or so, and
healing up will allow us to fight the remainder of the Puppeteers, especially ones
off the main path, without worry.
Head North up both sets of steps, ignoring all the empty side paths, until you find
your first Puppet Liberation Front member. They’ll be fairly common from here
on out, and all of them will be desperate to protect their Leader!
Puppet Liberation Front Remi

Upon defeating her, she’ll claim there’s nothing beyond this point. Sounds like we
are heading the right way!
Follow the path West and then North, ignoring the Southern steps leading to an
empty field of grass. Take the Eastern path at the split to snag an Oath Thread.
Head West and zig-zag through the small maze of grass until you are stopped by
another Puppet Liberation Front member.
Puppet Liberation Front Laise

Assist Sunny, Sanguine No Accessory
Lvl 39, Light
Power Luna, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Lvl 39, Light/Wind
Head down both sets of steps and go East until you reach yet another set of steps.
At the top, check the Western of the three rocks for a Rainbow Candy.
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Descend the steps and follow the path East as it twists and turns until you see two
Youkai standing near a path just to their West. Check the path for a Champion’s
Medal, which can cause opponents to flinch from the Skills of the Puppet holding
it, and then talk to each Youkai for a fight!
Youkai Hana
Assist Satori, Shadow Stitch No Accessory
Lvl 39, Illusion
Power Alice, Stubborn No Accessory
Lvl 39, Steel/Light
Assist Satori’s Shadow Stitch will prevent your Puppet from swapping until you
defeat her. She’s also surprisingly tanky thanks to a whopping base 195 HP stat,
but her damage is pitiful, making her Ability less of a concern.
Youkai Shiori
Defense Mamizou, Wisdom Eye No Accessory
Ignore the Southern steps for the moment and instead take the Southeastern path.
Just before the next set of steps, check the Southern rock for Gold Dust. Work
your way around to the obvious item to snag Skill Card 26, Evil-Crushing Arrow.
As a Light-type Fo. Attack Skill in the same vein as the other base Power 95 Skills,
it’s a very solid Skill that likely will act as a direct replacement for Skills such as
Light Javelin. use it if it fits!
Interestingly enough, there’s another Skill Card just to the Southeast. Head East
and then South at the split with two sets of steps, making your way past the locked
secret hideout of the Puppet Liberation Front. To the East is Skill Card 61, Gravity
Blast. This is an Illusion-type Sp. Attack Skill that does amazing damage with a
base Power of 120...that is, if the enemy is at full health when you use it. If not, it
does significantly less damage. If you have an Illusion-type Puppet, specifically a
Sp. Attack reliant one, that often tries to one-shot enemies, this Skill will be a per-
fect fit. Just don’t expect it to be much use if the enemy is already injured.
Nobody is home in the supposedly secret hideout, and there’s nothing up the sec-
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ond set of steps, so let’s head back to the Youkai pair and descend the nearby steps.
You’ll find yourself in a gigantic maze of grass. Follow the narrow path as best
you can do avoid pointless battles. In the Northeast, you’ll find a Puppet Libera-
tion Front member trying to protect her boss, albeit nowhere near the correct path
through the maze. Take pity on her and honor her gesture by beating her down in a
Puppet battle.
Puppet Liberation Front Kirika

Power Orange, Harassment No Accessory
Lvl 38, Void
Defense Tokiko, In Sync No Accessory
Lvl 38, Wind/Electric
Defense Rumia, Healing Power No Accessory
Lvl 38, Dark
Beware of Defense Rumia’s Dark Innocent Skill, which is a Dark-type Fo. Attack
version of the five-hit Skills. It can do a lot of damage if you send out a Light-
type Puppet, meaning you might want to send in a Puppet with Dark, Fighting, or
Illusion typing instead.
Follow the maze to the end (or just head due South from Kirika through the grass)
to find the exit. At the split, head North first and teach the Sunflower Fairy a les-
son!
Puppet Liberation Front Naomi

Speed Aya, Free Will No Accessory
Lvl 40, Wind
There’s nothing beyond her, so head South and follow the path, ignoring the grassy
side path. You’ll eventually see a Rest Area in the distance, but for the second
time this playthrough you’ll be stopped by a cunning Maid looking to prey on your
tired Puppets!
Maid Maiko
Power Youmu, Gale No Accessory
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Speed Sakuya, Sand Force No Accessory
After fending Maiko off, head inside the Rest Area and heal up. The healing item
shop has a new item, Dessert of the Sun, available for a whopping 2500 each; on
the flip side, it heals your Puppets to full, so it’ll be more and more useful as the
game goes on and your Puppets break the 200 HP threshold.
The nearby Trader sells the expected Puppet repellants and Threads, but also has
four Sp. Attack Skill Cards for sale at 35,000 each, all of which are nearly the
same. Skill Card 43, Inferno (Fire-type), Skill Card 51, Thunderlord’s Scorn (Elec-
tric-type), and Skill Card 59, GIGANTIC (Fighting-type), have all the same stats
with with a base Power of 120, Accuracy of 85%, and a 10% chance of causing a
debuff or Status Effect. Skill Card 44, Cold Rain (Water-type), has the same base
Power of 120, but has a slightly lower Accuracy of 80% to make up for having a
10% chance of causing the Stop Status Effect. Stop is the most debilitating Status
in the game since it prevents the affected Puppet from acting for a random number
of turns, leaving them a sitting duck, which explains the 5% drop in Accuracy. All
of these Skills carry a significant risk of missing for not terribly much reward in
my opinion since 120 isn’t much better than the base 100 or base 95 Skills you’ve
found thus far or naturally learned. That said, if you’re a gambling fan, you’ll love
these Skill Cards.
While I’d advise passing on the Skill Cards, you might want to sell some of your
spare money items that have been building up. Especially important is your Magi-
cal Fragment stack, which likely is near or at the max of 255 if you haven’t been
managing it. These are worth a solid 200 per, and while they’re very important lat-
er on, you don’t need a full stack yet (and likely won’t need more than 150 or so
period). Keep about 125 for now and sell the rest; I’ll let you know when you
should start hoarding them for real.
Once you’ve finished with your shopping, leave the Rest Area and head South to
Suzuran Field.
Suzuran Field Puppets

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Normal Eirin Poison/Water Normal
Normal Medicine Poison/Nature Normal
Power Mystia Sound/Wind Rare
Power Udonge Illusion/Poison Rare
Assist Eirin Poison/Water Rare
Speed Aya Wind Rare
This place is a myriad of hurdles, with a few Puppet Liberation Front members
guarding the area, and a few items mixed in among them. We’ll tackle the Western
side first. Head as far West as possible and then hop over the first hurdle. Head
through the gap and turn West to find a member of the Puppet Liberation Front
guarding an item!
Puppet Liberation Front Akua

Lvl 40, Light/Sound
Behind Akua is a Wolfsbane Root, which acts the same as the Burning Stone held
item you picked up earlier, except it inflicts the Heavy Poison Status Effect to the
Puppet holding it unless they’re a Poison-type Puppet. Don’t use it unless you
have a Puppet built around it.
Hop the Southern hurdle and fight the next Puppet Liberation Front member!
Puppet Liberation Front Nyaru

Lvl 41, Light/Fire
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Once again, hop over the Southern hurdle into the grass to find Skill Card 77, Mi-
asma. This Poison-type Skill is one of the best in the game for tanky Poison-types,
as it has a guaranteed 100% chance to inflict the Heavy Poison Status Effect if used
by a Poison Puppet; for all other Puppets, it has a 90% Accuracy rating. While not
as good if you’re using a damage-focused Puppet, it’ll still have its uses, especially
when the enemy Puppet can take a few blows.
If you still haven’t found a Medicine Puppet, you’ll almost certainly find one
quickly. Otherwise, jump over the hurdle and make your way back North to find
another Fairy standing in a gap between hurdles.
Puppet Liberation Front Maruko

Power Wakasagi, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Lvl 41, Water
Surprisingly enough, your opponents seem to have a grip on the direness of the sit-
uation. Too bad they have no chance of stopping you!
Return to the entrance of the area, this time taking the Eastern path. Two final Pup-
pet Liberation Front members will be waiting for you over the next few hurdles!
Puppet Liberation Front Kuto

Defense Rumia, Dark Clothing No Accessory
Lvl 40, Dark
Power Letty, Last Defense No Accessory
Beware of Defense Rumia’s Dark Innocence Skill and you’ll be fine.
Puppet Liberation Front Kukuri

Defense Eiki, Sermon No Accessory
Lvl 40, Light/Nether
Power Komachi, Moody No Accessory
Lvl 40, Water/Steel
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Hop over one last hurdle and grab the Magatama lying in plain sight. You would
be very wise to Gap Map back to Kourindou for some healing and then Gap Map
back to Route 6’s Rest Area, as your next battle with Medicine will be significantly
tougher than before.
Once you’re prepared, return to Suzuran Field and take the Eastern path all the way
to the field of Suzuran flowers in the Southeast.
As expected, Medicine is waiting for your arrival. There aren’t any tricks or traps
this time, however, as you’ve already wiped out the entirety of the Puppet Libera-
tion Front. The former doll is unable to understand why Humans treat dolls and
Puppets the way they do, using them as tools before tossing them away. Summon-
ing her feelings of rage, she confronts you for one final battle to determine Genso-
kyo’s future!
Puppet Liberation Front Medicine (2)

Power Alice, After Move Life Charm
Lvl 46, Steel/Light
Assist Hina, Air Cushion Small Bit
Lvl 46, Poison/Dark
Power Kokoro, Infinite Changes Deadly Secrets
Lvl 46, Void/Light
Speed Mokou, Hate Incarnate Ruby Hairpin
Lvl 46, Fire
Power Medicine, Poison Body Jar of Poison
Lvl 52, Poison
You likely wiped the floor with Medicine last time, but don’t expect it to go so
easily here. All of her Puppets are far stronger than before, and not necessarily
just Level-wise. They have better Abilities, strong Accessories, and great Skills.
Further complicating the fight is the AI, which is smarter than before. Prepare for
frequent swap-outs to prevent barrier-piercing Skills and mind-reading on the lev-
el of Kanako’s fight. It wouldn’t be unfair to say this is the toughest fight in the
game thus far aside from Satori.
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Power Alice fills her tank role well. She’s sturdy enough to require two blows,
perhaps three, to KO her. This is only made worse due to her Life Charm, which
will recover a chunk of her health once it drops to half or so. She’ll also use
Moon’s Protection to boost her Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense by one level each,
meaning her base 120 Sp. Attack will quickly become an issue if she gets a few
uses off.
Assist Hina’s life purpose is to spam Poison Trap until she lays two layers down,
causing your Puppets to get badly Poisoned whenever swapping in. Her Small
Bit will cause your Puppets to take a bit of damage after every attack, which isn’t
the end of the world, but can be annoying. If you have Smash Spin (Wind-type)
available to clear the area of Poison Traps, you basically neutralize Assist Hina
entirely. If not, you’d better KO her as soon as she comes out if you don’t like
getting Poisoned or Badly Poisoned when swapping Puppets in. Just don’t try to
hit her with Earth-type Skills, as her Air Cushion Ability will negate those.
Power Kokoro has the Infinite Changes Ability, which, if you remember from the
previous one, will change her Void/Light typing to instead be that of whatever
Skill she uses, taking place just before the Skill happens to grant it type-boosted
damage. This makes her dangerous as is, but consider that she now is combining
this with the Deadly Secrets held item, boosting the damage of all barrier-piercing
Skills. Seeing an issue here? Type-boosted damage plus barrier-piercing damage
plus Deadly Secrets equals a lot of pain, possibly resulting in one-shot KOs.
Power Kokoro’s biggest weakness is her abysmal Speed, though she has Spring
First (Wind-type) to ignore Speed and attack with boosted Priority. She’ll spam
Spring First more than anything else unless you keep a Puppet out there strong
against Wind, so try to manipulate her into using that before she hits you with
anything else. She also uses Flashover (Fire-type) and Twin-Thrust (Fighting-
type) if the situation calls for them.
Speed Mokou has the Fire-type Fire Wall Skill that she uses against your Puppet
to knock their held item away as well as deal double damage, boosted further by
her Ruby Hairpin. She also uses off-type Skills such as Sorrowful Tune (Sound-
type) to make your life difficult, though her biggest threat by far is Fire Wall and
her other Fire-type Skills. Watch out for her Hate Incarnate Ability to take a
chunk of your Puppet’s health after you KO Speed Mokou.
Power Medicine is just as frustrating as before thanks to Poison Body randomly

granting her Skills the chance to Poison you. Worse, she comes paired with a Jar
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of Poison that acts like Food Rations, healing her a bit every turn. She’s tanky
enough to likely survive a hit, and won’t hesitate to throw out Dark-type Skills
such as Shadow Bomb and Dark Arrow despite being a pure Poison-type Puppet.
Thankfully, Shadow Bomb does little damage, and she loves spamming it as
much as before. If you happen to get Poisoned, ignore it and just take her out.
Medicine seems crushed by her second loss in a row. She fully expects Puppets to
be thrown away once people get bored of them, much like they often do. Realizing
she’s failed to protect them, Medicine officially dissolves the Puppet Liberation
Front before disappearing in tears.
However, before doing so, she does mention that Yuuka, the green-haired lady with
a parasol from before, taught her how to get revenge on Humans. It sounds like
you may have one more piece of business to take care of before this issue is fully
resolved...
17. The Garden of the Sun
Your Puppets will almost certainly need some healing after that tough fight; once
you’re prepared, return to Suzuran Field and make your way to the exit in the
Southwest. It’s time to go hunt down Yuuka.
For those familiar with Yuuka from the Touhou games, you’d be right if you
thought she was in the Garden of the Sun. Conveniently, it’s to the West of here,
though it’ll eventually require progressing through another cave to get there.
Route 8 Puppets
Normal Orange Void Normal
Normal Kurumi Dark Normal
Normal Elly Steel/Wind Normal
Normal Mugetsu Illusion/Dark Rare
Normal Gengetsu Illusion/Light Rare
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Power Orange Void Rare
Power Kurumi Dark Rare
Power Elly Steel/Wind Rare
Leave Suzuran Field and you’ll find yourself at Route 8. This is the first place you
can find the Mugetsu and Gengetsu Puppets in the wild, and the only location until
the very end of the game. The probability of meeting them is low, but both of them
are very solid Puppets that could serve you well in a future playthrough. Search
the grass and grab them if you’re interested.
Just South of the entrance is a Fairy (not the Puppet Liberation Front) that’s search-
ing for maid-like Puppet, but if she spots you, she’ll start a fight!
Fairy Saika
Power Wriggle, Quick Eye No Accessory
Lvl 40, Nature/Dark
By the by, the Puppet she is searching for is Mugetsu.
Continue along the path until you come to a pair standing around. The red-haired
Fairy won’t fight you, but the Youkai Rabbit will!
Youkai Karin
Power Udonge, Worrywart No Accessory
Hop over the hurdles to the South and make sure to leave an offering at the Jizo
statue. If you’ve been doing this whenever possible, you should have only one left
after this one!
A Fairy is lying in wait for you when you round the bend as the path curves West.
If you stick South, you can avoid her, but you’ll have to fight her if you want to ex-
plore the Northern path.
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Fairy Lumar
Speed Sara, Good Management No Accessory
Lvl 40, Earth/Electric
Follow the Northern path to the end for a Misty Jelly, then return and take the
Southern path. You’ll soon come to a cave entrance, but if you check to the South
of the cave, you’ll run into a rare Tengu that is doing GPS measurements.
Tengu Kazemaru
Assist Hina, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 40, Poison/Dark
Lvl 40, Steel
Once you’ve defeated Kazemaru, go ahead and enter the nearby cave.
Hillside Cavern Puppets

Normal Sara Earth Normal
Normal Koishi Void Normal
Normal Kokoro Void/Fighting Normal
Defense Sara Earth Rare
Defense Kisume Dark/Water Rare
Power Yamame Poison/Earth Rare
Power Koishi Void Rare
Power Kokoro Void/Light Rare
Welcome to Hillside Cavern. Much like the name suggests, this isn’t a particularly
233
lengthy journey, but there are two floors and side paths. You should be able to
make it to the end in one trip, at which point you can talk to a nearby Youkai for
healing.
As a note, Kisume and Sara Puppets run rampant in this cave; they all have the In-
domitable Ability or the False Courage Skill (which will accomplish the same ob-
jective of surviving your attack), so you might want to run away or just use a Pup-
pet repellant to avoid the situation altogether. That said, there are other Puppets
aside from those two, but you’ve seen them all before.
Head North and climb the stairs to find a Myouren Tea. Descend the stairs and go
around to the East to find a Youkai just itching for a fight!
Youkai Tsukimi
Power Ran, Jamming No Accessory
Lvl 40, Steel
From Tsukimi, go North and then West, ignoring the set of stairs to the North. Fol-
low the long path all the way until you find a lost Fairy that needs help finding the
way out.
Fairy Evange
Lvl 39, Dark
Lvl 39, Dark/Fire
Lvl 39, Dark/Fire
Just past the Fairy to the West is a Rainbow Candy. Head straight East to find the
ladder leading down. You’ll immediately see a Ghost lying in wait for you!
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Ghost Shisui
Speed Youmu, Gale No Accessory
South of Shisui is a narrow path leading to a Gold Coin. West of Shisui is a set of
steps and a path leading under a bridge; ignore the steps for now and follow the
path to find Skill Card 48, Jewelry Storm. Oddly enough for this point of the
game, it’s only a base 80 Power Earth-type Sp. Attack Skill. Granted, it’s the only
Earth-type Sp. Attack Skill Card you’ve come across thus far, but your Puppets
have almost either learned it already or learned a better Skill by now.
Return to the steps and work your way up them and across the bridge. A Youkai is
lying in wait just past the bridge.
Youkai Yuumi
Power Benben, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 40, Sound/Void
Speed Kogasa, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 40, Water/Light
Follow the path, ignoring all the side paths, until you descend some steps and come
across a Ghost near a wide chasm to the South.
Ghost Mitae
Lvl 41, Electric
Head West up the steps and follow the path all the way to another set of stairs
down. Go South past a lake and grab the Silver Coin near the chasm.
Take the other path to the Northwest and you’ll come to a Fairy near another lake.
Fairy Jannu
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Lvl 39, Light/Wind
Lvl 39, Light/Sound
Past Jannu to the North is the ladder leading back up to the first floor. The path
from here on is linear; follow it all the way over the long bridge over the chasm
and snag the Dessert of the Sun to the West on your way out.
Take a breath of fresh air and talk to the red-haired Fairy next to you to split some
Sunflower Cake, which will heal your Puppets to full. She’ll be your main source
of healing from now until after you clear the Garden of the Sun, and thus you
should return to her whenever you need to. Also note that you have no nearby Gap
Map locations until after the Garden of the Sun; if you teleport away for whatever
reason, you’ll have to hoof it back through Hillside Cavern.
Note that all wild Puppets in this area are the same as the rest of Route 8.
Before doing anything else, hop across the lake and check the Southwest piece of
land for Skill Card 52, Lightning Speed. This Electric-type Sp. Attack Skill is a
another enemy Puppet-swapping Skill, except that it actually has a normal Priority
and base 70 Power. I have no idea why its significantly better than the other simi-
lar Skills, but consider keeping it in reserve in case you end up against Puppets that
enjoy using self-buffing Skills.
Return to the mainland and talk to the Fairy near the grass. It seems your legend is
spreading already, though that does put a target on your head.
Fairy Soreenu
Assist Lily, Phlegmatic No Accessory
Lvl 39, Void
Power Sunny, Flash No Accessory
Lvl 39, Light/Fire
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Two different Youkai block your way at different points of the linear path; force
your way through each and work your way towards the Garden of the Sun!
Youkai Kanade
Assist Kisume, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 40, Dark/Fire
Speed Nitori, Maintenance No Accessory
Youkai Sasara
Defense Elly, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 40, Steel/Earth
Power Kurumi, Wariness No Accessory
Lvl 40, Dark
After defeating Sasara, continue along until you reach the next area.
Garden of the Sun Puppets

Normal Lyrica Sound/Nether Normal
Normal Merlin Sound/Nether Normal
Normal Lunasa Sound/Nether Normal
Normal Wriggle Nature/Dark Normal
Normal Yuuka Nature/Electric Normal
Speed Lyrica Sound/Nether Rare
Power Merlin Sound/Fighting Rare
Defense Lunasa Sound/Poison Rare
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Welcome to the Garden of the Sun. Home of sunflowers, Sunflower Fairies, and
the caretaker of it all, Yuuka. Note the sign near the entrance saying not to break
the flowers; of all the Youkai in the game you don’t want to anger, Yuuka might be
one of the top three on that list. Good thing you can’t actually break any, right?
This area is somewhat confusing and has a lot of twists, turns, and empty side areas
filled with grass. This walkthrough will take you through as efficiently as possible,
though there will be some backtracking involved.
Start by heading West at the first split and then West again at the next intersection
until you come to a small lake to the South of the path. Cross it to snag Skill Card
19, Impact Rebellion. This odd Steel-type Skill is unique in that its Power is based
proportionally on the opponent’s Speed stat, becoming stronger the higher their
Speed is, and inversely proportional to your Puppet’s Speed stat, becoming stron-
ger the slower your Puppet is. In layman’s terms, the bigger the difference be-
tween your Puppet’s lower Speed and their Puppet’s higher Speed, the better this
Skill becomes. On the right Puppet, the results are devestating. This is typically a
Skill you plan around to use on a New Game Plus Puppet, raising all of their stats
as high as possible (aka full S-ranks) except Speed. Feel free to try it if you have
an especially slow Puppet, though you won’t quite get the full effect.
Head Northwest from there and go up the first set of steps. Take the path West of
the second set of steps and fight the Sunflower Fairy blocking your way.
Fairy Himawari
Power Komachi, Moody No Accessory
Lvl 42, Water/Steel
Himawari is a very fitting name for a Sunflower Fairy since Himawari is Japanese
for sunflower.
Skill Card 75, Sweet Nightmare, is located just past Himawari on the path. It’s on
the same vein as Thermit and Miasma, except it Blinds the enemy Puppet. While
this can stymie the enemy Puppet’s Fo. Attack offense, you might be better off just
dealing damage instead.
Head South from Himawari, ignoring the Northern steps, and take the Northern
path at the four-way split. The Sunflower Fairy to the North complains about her
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doll lecturing to her and tries to take her frustration out on you!
Fairy Filia
Defense Eiki, Unjustness No Accessory
Ironically enough, the Defense Eiki didn’t have the Sermon Ability, which would
have fit the situation perfectly. Alas.
Take the narrow East path and talk to the next Fairy for a fight!
Fairy Feinnorn
Power Lily, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 42, Nature/Void
While the correct way is North, detour to the South and up the stairs, snagging the
Oath Thread at the end. Return to the Fairy and head North and ignore the Eastern
path for the moment to grab a Dessert of the Sun at the end of the spiraling North
path.
Take the short Eastern path to the split and then head South until you appear be-
hind a Fairy. Since they love to play tricks on you, why not surprise one for a
change?
Fairy Risannu
Power Medicine, Poison Thorns No Accessory
Lvl 42, Poison
Beware of using Fo. Attacks against Power Medicine, as she’ll likely Poison you
for doing so thanks to her Poison Thorns Ability.
Take the path North, ignoring all offshoot paths for the moment. You’ll be stopped
by yet another Sunflower Fairy looking for a battle!
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Fairy Pelonia
Defense Yuuka, After Move No Accessory
Lvl 40, Nature/Earth
Assist Komachi, Suppression No Accessory
Power Aya, Gale No Accessory
While Pelonia does have a Power Aya, she lacks the Salvo Ability that makes her
so dangerous, though she still could hit five times with Twister or Shooting Arts if
she gets lucky.
Return to the nearby Western path to find another Fairy in the field to the South-
west.
Fairy Kurounu
Assist Wriggle, Vanishing Act No Accessory
Lvl 41, Nature/Poison
Lvl 41, Dark/Fire
Take the path just North of Kurounu and follow it until you come to a small grassy
patch with a Fairy hidden within.
Fairy Shia
Assist Cirno, Active No Accessory
Lvl 41, Water
Lvl 41, Light/Wing
Return to the path and head West until you are stopped by another Sunflower Fairy.
Fairy Mehito
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Assist Komachi, Grace of Water No Accessory
Speed Aya, Gale No Accessory
Lvl 41, Wind
Mehito lacks the common sense to realize how bad of an idea it is to threaten Yuu-
ka’s sunflowers, but thankfullly she stops when she feels a dangerous presence
nearby.
At the end of the path, take the Western split to find a Fairy guarding a nearby
item!
Fairy Meriaria
Power Shizuha, Strict Dosage No Accessory
Lvl 42, Nature/Wind
Just past her to the West is an Oath Thead lying in a grassy patch.
If you were going to return to the Sunflower Cake Youkai for healing back on
Route 8, this would be the time. You won’t want to have any weakened Puppets
for the next encounter.
Once you are prepared, take the Eastern split this time. As you take your first step
into the wide-open area to the North, you’ll instantly hear Yuuka’s pre-battle
theme. If it gives you a slight feeling of dread, you’d be right.
Yuuka seems a bit disappointed that Medicine was defeated, but claims she was
merely an advisor, not an actual member of the Puppet Liberation Front. Still, it’s
obvious to both parties that you need to take care of this loose end, so Yuuka gladly
takes you up on a Puppet Battle!
Flower Master Yuuka

Power Kurumi, Suprise Tactics Binoculars
Lvl 52, Dark
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Power Elly, Recoil Offset Jade Hairpin
Lvl 52, Steel/Wind
Power Yuuka, Unjustness Deadly Secrets
Despite merely being a ‘Flower Master,’ don’t let your guard down for a moment.
Yuuka herself is known as a Youkai with monstrous physical strength, and her
Puppets reflect that. Thankfully, she only has three Puppets to your likely six,
meaning you have a definite advantage in that regard.
Watch out for AI similar to the second Medicine fight, as she’ll swap in and out as
needed to protect her Puppets.
Power Kurumi is dangerous. Not only can she deal respectable damage, but she
combos her Binoculars (increasing her Accuracy) with Gorgon’s Eye, a Skill that
can Stop your Puppet for anywhere from 1-5 turns. She’ll then take the opportu-
nity to wail on your defenseless Puppet with Skills such as Eye of Laplace (Dark-
type), likely wiping them out unless you swap them out (into another potential
Gorgon’s Eye) or spam healing items. Even worse, if she starts using Flame
Wave (Fire-type), it’ll increase her Sp. Attack every turn, making her into more of
a monster. The ideal is to take her down before she can use Gorgon’s Eye, but if
you can’t, send out a tanky Puppet to weather the storm (preerably one strong
against Dark and Fire). Power Kurumi is weak to Steel, Light, and Fighting, so
target her with those and aim for a one-shot!
Power Elly can be an extremely dangerous Puppet, but here she isn’t that bad.
She’ll primarily use Skills such as Foehn Winds to deal damage, but watch out for
a surprise Spiked Stones (Earth-type) that will slow your Puppet down. Thank-
fully, she’s quite slow and only mildly tanky; once again, aim for a one-shot, espe-
cially since she’s 4x weak to Warped and 2x weak to Fire.
Power Yuuka has massive physical strength, represented by high base HP (100),
Fo. Attack (140), and Fo. Defense (100). However, this is balanced out with
abysmal Speed (45) and low Sp. Attack (60). She holds Deadly Secrets, giving
her barrier-piercing attacks further damage, likely resulting in an immediate one-
shot KO. As you would expect, she uses Fo. Attack Skills such as Spark Javelin
to do damage. However, she also uses Tumble Plant (Nature-type), which does
higher damage the higher your Puppet’s ‘cost’ is (see the official Puppetdex for
more info, but basically is related to rulesets for online Puppet battles). The basic
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idea here is that stronger Puppets, such as Shinki, Reimu, Hecate, Kanako, etc.,
have higher costs to offset their higher stat bases, and thus this Skill will deal mas-
sive damage to those Puppets while minimal damage to ones such as Maribel,
Ruukoto, etc.
Of course, the best way to defeat her lies in attacking first and wiping her out in
one blow, preferably by using a Sp. Attack Skill that aims at her Steel or Fighting
weaknesses. If you let her hit you, it’ll be like a freight train just smashed into
your Puppet, likely resulting in a KO. Don’t let that happen.
Despite her loss, Yuuka seems pleased with the entertainment you provided,
though she does regret that her fun with manipulating the Puppet Liberation Front
has ended. Your character asks her about the Puppet incident, and while she firmly
denies having anything to do with the creation of the Puppets, she does point you
in a new direction. Instead of focusing your efforts in Gensokyo, perhaps the origi-
nal cause comes from a world outside it, specifically one filled with evil existen-
ces.
She wishes you good luck, specifically referring to you as coming from the outside
world. Obviously, she knows far more than she’s letting on, but she simply smirks
and departs, leaving you to do the leg work from here.
While your Puppets are tired, don’t return for healing yet. Check the Northwest
small stump for a Rainbow Candy, then head East past the house and snag a Bha-
va-Agra Set from the Northern-most barrel. Enter the house to find Yuuka tending
to some flowers. Even if you talk to her, she won’t give you any new information,
but if you check the table you can find Incident Case 6. She definitely knows
something about what’s going on...
At any rate, you’ve officially unlocked the Garden of the Sun Gap Map location,
meaning you can teleport away and return back after getting healing.
From here, the walkthrough splits again. If you simply want to continue with the
story, skip ahead to the next section, Return to Myouren Temple. That said, you’d
be skipping out on the entirety of Route 7, which, while not particularly long, is
still worth exploring for Puppeteers and valuable items, such as four different Skill
Cards.
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For those exploring Route 7, heal up and then head North of the Garden of the Sun.
Route 7 Puppets
Normal Benben Sound Normal
Normal Yatsuhashi Sound Normal
Power Benben Sound/Void Rare
Speed Yatsuhashi Sound Rare
Defense Seija Poison/Light Rare
Speed Seija Poison Rare
Power Raiko Sound/Electric Very Rare
Assist Raiko Sound/Electric Very Rare
There aren’t any new Puppets here, but if you missed out on the likes of Yatsuhashi
and Raiko, you can find powered up versions of them in the grass.
Not too far along the path is another Sunflower Fairy lying in wait.
Fairy Crulia
Power Yuuka, Peaceful No Accessory
Head North to the river and then hop into water just West of the rocks. Take the
river West until you can disembark to the North. Head up the steps and check the
Northwest rock for a Rainbow Candy before grabbing the obvious Skill Card 42,
Flashover. This Fire-type Sp. Attack Skill has a base Power of 80 and a 30%
chance to Burn the foe. Honestly, damage-wise your Puppets likely have learned
better Skills by now, and 30% is a bit low for taking a drop in Power. Still, if you
don’t have anything better, it’ll work in a pinch.
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Return to the main path and head East. Stop by the Jizo statue and make an offer-
ing (you’re almost done with them!) and continue on past the Youkai. You’ll even-
tually come to a patch of grass with a Fairy wandering around. Talk to her for a
battle!
Fairy Naae
Defense Star, Aurora Grace No Accessory
Lvl 41, Light/Sound
Lvl 41, Light/Fire
Head up the Northern steps and go East up multiple flights up steps to eventually
find a Silver Coin at the end. Return to the path and this time go West, taking the
Southern split when able. Follow the narrow path, grabbing the Moriya Shinshu
from the lone rock, and continue on until you reach a Youkai Rabbit who was
slacking off.
Youkai Airi
Assist Udonge, Chaos Induction No Accessory
Lvl 41, Illusion
Defense Ran, Disturber No Accessory
Lvl 41, Illusion/Earth
Power Kagerou, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 41, Dark/Earth
To get the Misty Jelly on the raised platform to the East, return to the steps you
passed and follow the path West.
Back on the main path, head North until you are stopped by a Fairy.
Fairy Kiia
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Speed Rika, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 42, Fire/Steel
Defense Orange, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 42, Void
Just to the West of Kiia is a rock hiding an Oath Thread. Continue in that direction
until you descend the steps. In the grass, you’ll find a hungry Youkai looking for a
meal!
Youkai Nayuki
Defense Letty, Supine No Accessory
Return to the main path and resume your journey West. You’ll eventually come to
a pair of Youkai, specifically ones born from instruments, called Benben and Yatsu-
hashi. If you walk right in front them, they’ll be happy to engage you in battle!
Tsukumogami Benben
Speed Yatsuhashi, Instant Win No Accessory
Lvl 46, Sound
Lvl 48, Sound/Void
Benben is straightforward as long as you avoid using Puppets that are weak to
Sound. Wind and Electric Skills will be your friend here.
Tsukumogami Yatsuhashi
Defense Benben, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 46, Sound/Nature
Defense Yatsuhashi, Some Guts No Accessory
Much like Benben, this fight is easy enough so long as you avoid obvious weak-
nesses, especially Puppets weak to Sound. Electric is no longer as useful here,
but Fire, Steel, Wind, and Poison all are effective against both Puppets.
246
If you need healing, you’d be wise to teleport back around this point. When you
return, you can easily take the river straight North to reach this same area for a
handy shortcut.
Follow the path as it continues West and then curves North. Talk to the Old Man
standing next to the Fairy for a battle!
Old Man Noburou

Power Iku, Electromagnetic No Accessory
Lvl 42, Electric
Speed Wakasagi, Fog Traveler No Accessory
Lvl 42, Water/Sound
Head North to the river, jump in, and head Northwest to find Skill Card 29, Lost
Crisis, just off the bank. Lost Crisis is a Dark-type Sp. Attack that doubles its base
Power of 60 if a Terrain effect is active, and also removes the Terrain effect. Since
enemy Puppeteers never, ever use Terrain, this is a terrible Skill choice for your
party; if you play online, you might find more use for it, however.
Return to the path and head East. Just down the path is an Elite Puppeteer looking
for a challenge!
Elite Puppeteer Hibiki

Defense Ichirin, Duel No Accessory
Lvl 42, Fight./Electric
Defense Meiling, Choleric No Accessory
A Farmer waits for you only steps from Hibiki.
Farmer Gonzou
Speed Shizuka, Spirit of Yin No Accessory
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Lvl 42, Nature
Defense Minoriko, Spirit of Yang No Accessory
Explore the small side area to the Northeast for a Moriya Shinshu located on the
Western side. Back on the main path, continue East past the Fairy with her Puppet
only to be stopped by another Puppeter just past.
Fairy Kiia
Power Mystia, Up Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 42, Sound/Wind
Power Medicine, Poison Body No Accessory
Lvl 42, Poison
Another Elite Puppeteer awaits farther along, just North of a large grassy area.
Elite Puppeteer Yuuichi

Power Keine, Byakutei’s Metal No Accessory
Lvl 43, Steel/Light
Of course, you’ll need to enter the Southern grass to find Skill Card 24, Plasma
Ball, though I suggest heading as far East as possible and then hopping the hurdle
to snag it. Plasma Ball is an Electric-type Fo. Attack that has a measly Power of
20, but guarantees the enemy Puppet will be Paralyzed. Honestly, this is pretty
bad, as Paralysis only slows the enemy Puppet, and thus you’d be better off just
dealing damage instead.
Follow the path as it turns North and then East, taking it all the way to Route 6.
There are no enemy Puppeteers here, but there is one item to be had. Go all the
way East just until the hurdle, but don’t hop over it! Instead, hop into the river and
cross it to find a well-hidden Skill Card 53, Thunder Force. Whereas Plasma Ball
was terrible, Thunder Force more than makes up for it as another addition to the
base Power 95 Skill group. As an Electric-type Sp. Attack, it’ll be very useful in
the remainder of the game as an anti-Sound deterrent, which is a very common
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type later on.
That concludes the entirety of Route 7, as well as the extension of Route 6. Heal
up and prepare for a tough series of fights ahead.
18. Return to Myouren Temple
If you were playing the game without this guide, this is one of a few moments
where you’d likely be incredibly lost. Thankfully, if you were to talk to Akyuu
(not necessary, however), she would mention something about a temple and the
leader having been sealed away in another world. Well, the only actual temple in
the game is Myouren Temple, so that’ll be our next destination.
Teleport there with your handy Gap Map and head straight ahead into the temple’s
main building. Gone is the sign allowing you to heal up, as the leader herself is
back. Her name is Hijiri (also known as Byakuren), and she seeks friendship be-
tween Youkai and Humans; a long time ago, she was sealed away because of this,
but the actions of her loyal followers, as well as the inadvertant help of Reimu and
Marisa, caused her seal to be broken. She also happens to be the embodiment of
Bishamonten, a Buddhist God that serves as the protector of the righteous and the
Buddhist patron of warriors.
Contrary to what the last bit might have implied, Hijiri is actually a very nice per-
son, but she won’t simply hand over such dangerous information without testing
your abilities. Before you can fight her, however, you’ll have to go through her
five loyal followers first. A cutscene shows where they’re placed around the tem-
ple and graveyard.
As a note, since you can no longer heal here, Kourindou is by far the fastest way to
heal before using the Gap Map to return. Feel free to do it as much as necessary.
Interestingly enough, one extra Youkai showed up here, though she wasn’t called
by Hijiri. You can skip the completely optional fight if you’d like, but for those in-
terested, head Northwest around the main temple building to find her in the corner!
Undefined Nue
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Speed Kogasa, Warning Shot No Accessory
Lvl 48, Water/Light
Defense Murasa, Negative Aura No Accessory
Defense Nue, Disturber No Accessory
Nue isn’t a terribly complex fight, but her Defense Puppets hit surprisingly hard.
Defense Nue especially can be dangerous thanks to her Sneak Attack Skill (Illu-
sion-type), which has a boosted Priority of 1, but fails if your Puppet uses an even
higher Priority Skill (such as Over Ray) or uses a non-damage Skill. Be prepared
to likely get hit by that or a suprirse Sound-type Skill.
Now for the actual five fights. Head directly South of the temple towards the en-
trance; you’ll find a Youkai there named Kyouko who is known for her energetic
greetings and echo-reliant Danmaku.
Yamabiko Kyouko
Speed Kogasa, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 48, Water/Light
Lvl 48, Sound/Wind
Power Kyouko, Niche No Accessory
Lvl 48, Sound
Kyouko is easy if you watch out for Sound-type damage. Speed Kogasa will go
down quick, though likely will get a hit off beforehand. Power Mystia will be-
come a problem if you let her get multiple turns to build up Speed with Up Tem-
po, but otherwise isn’t a huge threat. Power Kyouko does a lot of damage, and
even has a surprise Electric-type Skill in Stormcloud’s Eye. In all cases, Electric-
type Skills will decimate them.
To the East near the small lake is your next challenger. Captain Murasa (yes, Cap-
tain) heads a flying treasure ship which was used to help resurrect Hijiri. Nowa-
days, she’s far more grounded, but she’ll sink you if you take her lightly!
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Captain Murasa
Power Nue, Hobgoblin No Accessory
Power Murasa, Negative Aura No Accessory
Lvl 49, Water/Sound
Welcome to your first instance of one Puppet masquerading as another one. Cap-
tain Murasa will send out what appears to be a Power Murasa, but in actuality is
Power Nue in disguise thanks to her Hobgoblin Ability. You’ll likely be expect-
ing some sort of Water or Sound-type Skill coming at you, but you’ll likely eat an
Illusion-type Skill or even Electric-type Skill instead. If you have the Quick Eye
Ability, it’ll spot that the enemy’s Ability is Hobgoblin, but otherwise you won’t
know the faker until you hit them, at which point their true colors will be re-
vealed.
That’s the biggest threat in this fight, honestly. So long as you aren’t fooled by
Power Nue and try using an apparent 4x weakness-targeting Electric-type Skill
against her while she’s faking (though do so against Power Murasa and watch her
HP plummet), you’ll be just fine.
Amusingly enough, even Murasa herself can’t explain why the temple has a Cap-
tain. Just roll with it.
Go North from Murasa until you come to a giant bell to the East. The Youkai
standing next to her is your next opponent. Ichirin comes as a pair with her cloud-
esque friend, Unzan, though since this isn’t a Danmaku battle, you don’t have to
worry about getting punched out of nowhere by him like in Touhou 12.
Nyudou Handler Ichirin

Power Ichirin, Duel No Accessory
Lvl 51, Fighting
Ichirin is a one-hit wonder, and thus is quite easy so long as you start with the
right Puppet. Power Ichirin is solely a Fighting-type, so target her with Wind or
Sound. Don’t be surprised if she uses Stone Throw (Earth-type), though if you’re
using a Wind-type Puppet that won’t matter.
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Head North and then West to the end of the path. The Youkai near the steps is
Shou, Hijiri’s main disciple and the overall number two in the temple.
Disciple of Bishamonten Shou

Power Kyouko, Niche No Accessory
Lvl 48, Sound
Speed Nazrin, Infiltration No Accessory
Lvl 48, Earth/Steel
Power Shou, Absorbent No Accessory
Out of all the fights, Shou is probably the hardest. Power Kyouko does a lot of
damage with Primal Noise (Sound-type) if you let her, though she goes down
easily thanks to low Defenses. Speed Nazrin is a glass cannon with low Defenses
to make up for high Speed and Fo. Attack, and will hit hard with Stone Throw
(Earth-type) or Killing Bite (Steel-type). Power Shou has moderate stats aside
from her massive 145 base Sp. Attack, so if you let her, she can really deal dam-
age.
If you mess around, they’ll make you pay, but otherwise don’t have any particular
tricks to be afraid of.
Go North into the graveyard and continue straight North all the way until you reach
the well. Standing in front of it is Nazrin, a treasure-hunting Youkai Mouse that
helped Shou and the others (Kyouko-aside) release the seal on Hijiri.
Dowser Nazrin
Speed Shou, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 49, Light/Earth
Speed Nazrin, Infiltration No Accessory
Lvl 49, Earth/Steel
Nazrin is far easier than mostly everyone except Ichirin. Watch out for Earth-type
Skills and you’ll avoid the majority of the danger. Fighting-type Puppets will do
very well here.
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If you’ve followed my guide as I took you in a semi-circle around Myouren Tem-
ple, then you’ve encountered all five disciples (and Nue), meaning Hijiri will fi-
nally fight you directly. This will be as difficult a fight as you might imagine, so
Gap Map out to heal up and head back to Myouren Temple.
Hijiri is impressed with how fast you defeated her disciples. She questions your
decision to solve the doll incident, however, asking why there isn’t a path in which
the residents of Gensokyo walk side by side with Puppets. Seeking to prove the
righteousness of her ideals, Hijiri prepares to fight!
Priestess of Myouren Temple Byakuren

Defense Ichirin, Duel Large Shield
Power Nue, Hobgoblin Small Bit
Speed Shou, Imposing Stance Opal Hairpin
Lvl 54, Light/Earth
Speed Hijiri, Unbound Curing Charm
Lvl 57, Fighting/Light
Hijiri is quite strong. She uses the Puppets of three of her closest followers as
well as one of herself, each of which are strong and bearing Accessories suited to
their specific niche.
Her AI is also quite strong, so don’t be surprised to see swap-outs and mild mind-
reading, though not on the level of Kanako.
Defense Ichirin has a Large Shield, which reduces the damage of resisted Skill
types done to her, but increases the damage of barrier-piercing Skills. Despite
being ‘Defense’ Ichirin, she really doesn’t have great Defenses (only base 80
each), though her HP is higher than normal. Expect to see Strike Shot (Fighting-
type) a lot since the AI loves Priority-boosted moves. Good for you, since it’ll
minimize the damage you’ll take.
Power Nue is much like the previous one you fought. She’ll potentially be
swapped in to impersonate another one of Hijiri’s Puppets thanks to her Hobgo-
blin Ability, so be careful of falling for a fake. Unlike last time is her Inferno
Skill (Fire-type) that she’ll use to catch you off-guard. She also loves using Thun-
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der Veil to both Paralyze and Confuse your Puppet, leaving them heavily debili-
tated and potentially a sitting duck. There’s not much you can do if this hits you
aside from either using a Myouren Tea to solve both issues or swapping out, but
be wary of swapping into another Thunder Veil use.
Speed Shou is a fast attacker with mediocre Defenses and HP. You’ve seen this
often enough to know how to handle it, but be especially careful of sending Pup-
pets out against her weak to Earth, as she’ll target them with Rocky Barrage when
they swap in and likely wipe them out. Other than that, she has a ton of weak-
nesses, so pick one and wipe her out in one shot.
Speed Hijiri is almost exactly like Speed Shou stat-wise; handle her the same, but
be wary of getting hit by Dancing Sword, a Fighting-type Skill which lands Crit-
ical Hits often. She likes using the weak but higher Priority Over Ray if it does
neutral damage, so try to manipulate her into spamming that while you dismantle
her with Wind or Illusion. If you try hitting her with a Status Effect, her Curing
Charm will instantly heal it, so don’t even bother.
Upon her defeat, Hijiri expresses regret that, despite your obvious talent, you’re at-
tempting to get rid of the dolls instead of coexisting with them. Thankfully, she
drops the issue and fulfills her promise with you, telling you about the world of De-
mons and Devils, Makai. The entire world of Makai itself was created by a single
person, and the Puppets may have been created by that person as well. She read in
a book that there may be a connection to Makai in the hills behind the Hakurei
Shrine. If you’re looking to go to Makai, that might be your best bet.
She also gives you the Incident Case 7 book, having obtained it by chance. This
makes quite a number of books that you have collected thus far; if you haven’t re-
turned to the Bookstore in the Human Village, you might want to do so now and
catch up on reading. Remember, you’ll have to do this at some point anyway, so
better to do it now than wait and do them all at once. Besides, you might see an
odd parallel developing between the events described within and your own journey
if you do...
19. Journey to Another World
254
Thanks to Hijiri, your destination is set. I highly advise returning to the Route 6
Rest Area and restocking on necessary healing items, Threads, and Magatamas, as
the journey to Makai will be quite long.
Interestingly enough, you haven’t seen Reimu or Marisa for quite some time.
They’ve been working hard to get to the bottom of this incident as well. Where
could they be...?
Once you are prepared for anything, save your game and teleport to the Hakurei
Shrine. The hills you are looking for are to the North of the Shrine. From the Gap
Map teleport location, head directly East past the main Shrine and the smaller stor-
age building. Follow the path as it turns North, only to be stopped by a familiar
face!

Defense Alice, Suppression No Accessory
Power Patchouli, Immovable No Accessory
Lvl 54, Fire/Water
Speed Marisa, Positive Black Choker
Well, I guess we found Marisa, or rather she found us. She’s way tougher than be-
fore when you fought outside the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, and she’s changed
her lineup a bit too.
Speed Nitori has the annoying Electromagnetic Ability which absorbs Electric-
type Skills and raises her Sp. Attack; avoid this and instead target the weak Kappa
Puppet with Poison or Earth to wipe her out instantly. She loves using the Steel-
type Twin Gears Skill, which has a small chance to miss but does a lot of damage
from its two hits. Thankfully, it isn’t type-boosted, but beware of getting caught
off-guard by it.
Defense Alice will make you pay if you use a Fo. Attack Skill and don’t one-shot
her, as her Mirror’s Reflection Skill will send double the damage taken back at
you (if she survives the hit). Since Defense Alice has very solid Fo. Defense, the
255
possibility of her surviving a Fo. Attack Skill and sending double the damage
back is very real; be careful. She also uses Revolving Illusions (Illusion-type) to
deal damage normally, though this is less of a threat.
Power Patchouli does DAMAGE. Yes, that needed to be capitalized, as she will
hurt you if you let her with a base 140 Sp. Attack. She’s extremely slow and
physically frail, meaning targeting her abysmal 35 base Fo. Defense instead of her
boggling 155 base Sp. Defense would be a far better strategy. She loves using
high-risk, high-reward Skills such as Cold Rain to deal exceptional damage at the
risk of missing. If you’re lucky, she won’t hit, but if she does your Puppet will
definitely feel it.
Speed Marisa is the most dangerous Puppet on the team. Of great importance to
note is her Black Choker Accessory, which will prevent you from KO’ing her in
one hit (unless you use a multi-hit Skill). Expect to see a lot more of these in the
future. True to her Style, Speed Marisa is extremely fast and hits hard with Sp.
Attack Skills; thanks to her Speed and her Black Choker, she’ll likely get two at-
tacks off at minimum before you can KO her. For whatever reason Speed Marisa
spams the off-type Ultra High Tone more than anything else, though don’t let
your guard down in case she uses a Light-type or Electric-type Skill to target
weaknesses.
Despite her training, for whatever reason Marisa didn’t expect you would get stron-
ger too. The Ordinary Magician seems a bit disappointed, but disappointment
turns to a brief moment of shock as she realizes where you’re headed. Eager to
beat you to the punch, she decides to go to Makai as well and heads...South? Per-
haps she needs to heal her Puppets after the beatdown you gave her.
Actually, that’s probably a good idea for you to do as well. Gap Map to Kourindou
as always and then teleport back.
Once you are prepared, resume your march Northward into a brand new area.
Hakurei Mountain Puppets

Assist Sunny Light Normal
Power Sunny Light/Fire Normal
256
Power Luna Light/Wind Normal
Speed Luna Light/Sound Normal
Power Star Light/Water Normal
Defense Star Light/Illusion Normal
Normal Shingyoku Void Rare
Normal Reimu Void/Illusion Very Rare
There aren’t any new Puppets to be had here, though you have another shot at Re-
imu if you didn’t catch her yet. She’s still terribly rare, however.
You’ll come to an odd split at the end of the path. While it seems normal, if you
try to head East, you’ll run into an invisible wall that prevents you from advancing.
Odd, but perhaps what lies beyond will be revealed in due time...
For now, it seems like you’ll have to head West. Within a few steps, you’ll see a
very familiar figure waiting for you on the path ahead. This will be a very, very
difficult fight, and I strongly suggest you take anti-Power Aya measures now, put-
ting out a counter to the Wind/Flying type Puppet in your leadoff spot.
Approach Reimu to cue her usual theme. She seems annoyed to see you, much
like usual, but this time its mixed with some suspicion since you’re heading to
somewhere you really don’t belong. After thinking it through, she comes to the
conclusion that the Puppet Incident intensified since you came (it did). Deter-
mined to solve this once and for all, the Incident Specialist of Gensokyo decides
it’s your turn to taste defeat!

Power Aya, Salvo Champion’s Medal
Defense Suika, Charge! Bandage
Defense Yukari, Unjustness Food Rations
Lvl 54, Illusion/Dark
Power Reimu, Economist Life Charm
257
At least she remembered your name finally.
Round 3 with Reimu is about as bad as you’d expect. Her Puppets are as strong
as Marisa’s, including the nightmare that is Power Aya. If you prepared for
Power Aya ahead of time, this fight will become far easier. If not, good luck.
Power Aya is the same as before, only this time she has a Champion’s Medal that
gives each hit of her Salvo-boosted Skills a chance to make your Puppet flinch.
Combine this with her extremely high base 130 Speed and respectable 105 base
Fo. Attack, and you have the recipe for a party wipe on your hands just from
Twister (Wind-type) and Shooting Arts (Fighting-type). She’ll crumble in one hit
if you can get a hit in, which will be your key to victory. Don’t try to tank her
head-on or else you’re gonna have a bad time.
Defense Suika does exceptional damage for a Defense Style Puppet thanks to her
Charge! Ability. You won’t see any secondary effects to her Skills, but the flip
side is they’ll be coming at you 30% stronger than usual. Don’t let your guard
down because of this, as she packs a wallop. You can likely take her down in one
hit if you have a strong enough Puppet thanks to the Level difference, but don’t be
surprised if she manages to survive somehow thanks to her 100/100 base De-
fenses and 110 HP base.
Defense Yukari is potentially the weakest link here, or at least as much of a weak
link as Yukari can be. With massive base Defenses (140/140) and a decent 105
base Sp. Attack, she’ll be more than capable of taking a few hits from neutral
damage Skills and dealing damage back. This is amplified by her Food Rations,
which heals her a bit every turn. To avoid a prolonged battle, hit her with Steel,
Illusion, or Sound, though she’ll likely survive for a second turn.
Power Reimu has the Economist Ability paired with a Life Charm. This means
that if you hit her and she doesn’t go down, her Life Charm will heal her by
around 1/3 of her health and then her Economist Ability will kick in at the end of
the turn, allowing the Life Charm to be used again (should she survive another
hit). Her damage is high, but her stats aside from Fo. Attack and HP are all mod-
erate at best. You can likely defeat her with a single Wind, Illusion, or especially
Sound-type Skill (4x weakness to Sound!) and thus make her Ability and Acces-
sory useless.
258
After the fight, a disgruntled Reimu decides to leave Makai to you and Marisa, in-
stead checking Heaven to see if a certain mischief-loving angel is at fault (or
equally likely, Reimu’s goal is to take her frustrations out on her). Regardless, it
seems that she’s trusting you to get to the bottom the incident. Perhaps she’s
warming up to you finally?
Once again, heal up as necessary and return here once you’re prepared. We’ll be
continuing North and then West, passing a big tree that may look quite familiar to
those of you who explored the Forest of Magic Part 2 (indeed, it’s the Three Fairies
of Light’s current home, though they aren’t there currently).
Before climbing the steps, check the narrow path to the West for Skill Card 33, Me-
teor Impact. This Fighting-type Fo. Attack Skill has a whopping base Power of
150, meaning there’s something up with the Skill that makes it a gamble. In this
case, it has a Priority of -3, meaning almost any Skill in the game will act before it,
and, for the icing on the cake, if your Puppet takes any damage that turn before
being able to use Meteor Impact, the Skill will fail. In other words, this Skill is all
about timing to use correctly. That said, I’d still choose Vacuum Rupture (Skill
Card 32) over this one if you really wanted a base 150 Power Skill, as at least you
are guaranteed to get the Skill off as normal.
Head up two sets of steps and take the side path East to find Skill Card 36, Flower
of Hell. As a base 80 Power Illusion-type Fo. Attack Skill, Flower of Hell gets its
primary value from its 30% chance to break the foe’s stance, preventing that Pup-
pet from avoiding the next attack. This can be deadly when combined with high-
damage, low-Accuracy Skill such as Exploding Fist (Fire-type) or Divine Thunder
(Electric-type), which have 50% Accuracy but high damage and a guaranteed nasty
debuff or Status Effect. However, the chance to break the foe’s stance is still only
30%, meaning that choosing this Skill instead of a more powerful one, such as
Ephemeral, is accepting the trade-off of less damage for the potential for a wombo
combo. Of course, the enemy Puppeteer could simply swap their Puppet out to
protect them anyway.
Before entering the cave, follow the cliff West and then South to find a Hakurei
Shinshu. Once you’ve grabbed it, head into the cave and prepare for a slog.
Hakurei Cave Puppets

259
Defense Reimu Void/Illusion Normal
Power Reimu Fighting/Illusion Normal
Speed Marisa Light/Electric Normal
Defense Mima Nether Normal
Power Mima Nether/Light Normal
Power Yuuka Nature/Electric Normal
Defense Yuuka Nature/Earth Normal
Defense Sara Earth Normal
Speed Sara Earth/Electric Normal
Hakurei Cave is fairly long from entrance to exit, but not as much so as the Cave to
the Underground. However, it can be very complex, especially in the first floor
where there are a multitude of side areas to explore for items.
Expect to see a lot of Puppeteers and familiar wild Puppets, including the previ-
ously rare Reimu, Marisa, and Mima Puppets at a normal encounter chance. If you
don’t like random encounters, pop a Magatama and expect to go through quite a
number of them during your journey. You’ll likely need to make a return trip after
exploring a few side areas in the first and second floors, and perhaps another return
trip before the end. Slow and steady and all that.
Also important to note is the fact that you’ll be dealing with much stronger Puppets
on average than the grunts previously had. The average is 48-50, though you’ll see
wild Puppets at 51 occasionally.
Let’s begin. Right away, you’ll see a surprise Skill Card 21, Gensokyo Typhoon,
sitting out just West of the entrance. This is quite possibly the best two-turn Fo.
Attack Skill in the game, with a base Power of 140 and the added chance of land-
ing Critical Hits, but unlike many two-turn Skills, it can’t be sped up by a specific
Weather effect (though the Fast Talker Ability is viable!). If you’re willing to take
a hit to use it, this is a massively powerful Skill that can take out most Puppets in
one blow, though watch out for the enemy Puppeteer swapping out for a Warped-
type Puppet later in the game and nullifying the damage (counter this with the
Common Senseless Ability).
260
Follow the path to the North, ignoring the Eastern path leading to a wrong-way
hurdle. At the steps, head West first and prepare for your first fight!
Evil Spirit Tadashi

Power Mima, Hot Head No Accessory
Your reward is a Magic Crystal waiting at the end of this side area. Return to the
stairs and climb them, following the long, linear path until reaching a split between
stairs heading South and a bridge heading East. Take the stairs first and approach
the Youkai for a fight!
Youkai Paula
Defense Mamizou, Slow Tempo No Accessory
Power Ran, Morale Boost No Accessory
Lvl 49, Illusion/Void
Take the ladder in the Northwest down to the next floor to find yourself in a side
section of the second floor. Go East and get ready for another Ghost fight.
Ghost Atsuji
Lvl 50, Nether
Grab the Dessert of the Sun and return to the ladder area, this time heading South.
There’ll be a Youkai not far down the steps.
Youkai Niimi
Speed Sakuya, Nimble No Accessory
Power Remilia, Charge! No Accessory
Lvl 49, Dark/Wind
261
The prize just past Niimi is Skill Card 46, Rainbow Flowers. As another two-turn
Skill, this time a Nature-type Sp. Attack one with a base Power of 120, it works
quite well if you have the Aurora Weather effect out, letting you use it instantly for
as long as Aurora is up (or the Fast Talker Ability). You’ll likely want to skip it if
you don’t have the right Puppet setup for it, but it can be devastating to unleash it
as a one-turn Skill.
Return to the ladder, climb it, and head back up the Eastern stairs. Don’t hop over
the hurdles or you’ll have to work your way back here. Take the bridge leading
East and continue along the path until you are stopped by a Youkai who has a
whopping six Puppets to her name.
Youkai Ao
Defense Seija, Unjustness No Accessory
Lvl 45, Wind/Water
Power Shou, Flash No Accessory
Speed Sanae, Common Senseless No Accessory
Lvl 45, Wind/Earth
Power Youmu, Gale No Accessory
This is a hell of a fight for a grunt. Interestingly enough, the Puppets are all Stage
5 bosses in the Touhou games, and are ordered from Touhou 14 (Seija) to Touhou
6 (Sakuya). Ao has good taste in Puppets, as they all are fairly strong in their own
way.
You should still be able to blow through them thanks to your massive Level ad-
vantage, but watch out for Speed Sanae’s Common Senseless Ability, as it can al-
low her to attack any type in the game even if it normally would be immune.
As an aside, this is an excellent opportunity to swap each of your Puppets in to
262
get a boatload of experience for your entire party.
To the Northwest of Ao is a Bhava-Agra Set. Take the Eastern steps and go North
at the split. The Youkai there would love to battle with you if you’re up to it.
Youkai Mako
Speed Flandre, Hot Head No Accessory
Lvl 50, Dark/Light
To Mako’s East is Skill Card 60, Unknown Flare. If you have an Illusion-type Pup-
pet that uses Sp. Attack Skills, you almost certainly have it already, but for those
who don’t, it’s a base Power 80 Skill that has a 30% chance to Confuse the enemy
Puppet. It’s a pretty solid Skill, though since you already have Catastrophe (Skill
Card 96) if you’ve been following the guide, I wouldn’t swap out for it.
Head South this time until you reach another ladder going down. You’ll find your-
self in yet another side area of the second floor. Right away, you’ll be stopped by
an Evil Spirit; time for an exorcism!
Evil Spirit Toshimoto

Power Yukari, Placid No Accessory
Lvl 50, Illusion/Void
Do NOT let Power Yukari get five turns, lest you find yourself with a nightmare
on your hands. Her Placid Ability makes her a pushover until then, so wipe her
out and move on.
Follow the path South until faced with a Southwest/East split. Go East, but be
ready for a Youkai to pounce!
Youkai Seika
Defense Yoshika, Inverse Reaction No Accessory
Assist Kasen, Battle Mania No Accessory
263
Lvl 48, Fight./Nether
Power Yuyuko, Quick Eye No Accessory
Lvl 48, Nether/Nature
Behind Seika is another Wooden Sword that is completely useless for your current
Puppets.
To the Southwest is yet another Youkai, this time blocking your path.
Youkai Fubuki
Assist Koishi, Curiosity No Accessory
Defense Kokoro, Poker Face No Accessory
Continue West until you reach a set of steps. Climb them and then head East, fol-
lowing the path as it curves North. Just before the bridge, talk to the Ghost for a
battle!
Ghost Totomi
Assist Magan, Quick Eye No Accessory
Lvl 50, Poison/Dark
Across the bridge, head East to be stopped by a Youkai Rabbit looking to show off
her rare Puppets.
Youkai Hiren
Power Yorihime, Insight No Accessory
Lvl 49, Steel/Light
Defense Toyohime, Optimist No Accessory
Lvl 49, Water/Earth
Both of these Puppets are very strong. Watch out for surprise off-type moves
264
such as Power Yorihime’s Rocky Barrage.
The Ghost just past Hiren is also willing to fight if you speak to it.
Ghost Kazunori
Defense Eiki, Unjustness No Accessory
All that’s left is to grab the item you likely noticed when you crossed the bridge.
Descend the multiple staircases and head West to find the Hexagon Charm, which
raises a Puppet’s Sp. Defense when its health is in the red.
I highly suggest returning to Kourindou for some healing, but if you’d like to keep
going, head straight East over the hurdle, go up the ladder, and then jump the West-
ern hurdle to end up back near the entrance.
From the entrance, we’ll be heading North once again, but once you reach the
stairs take the Northeastern path instead. The Youkai watching the path will stop
you as soon as she spots you, however.
Youkai Aniya
Power Seiga, Infiltration No Accessory
Lvl 48, Nether/Poison
Lvl 48, Wind/Water
Power Miko, True Admin No Accessory
Lvl 48, Light/Fire
Watch out for Power Miko’s high stat totals; take her below half HP and her True
Admin Ability will greatly reduce her damage output.
Continue on until you reach a Northwest/East split. Take the Northwest split until
you run into a Sunflower Fairy far, far from home.
265
Fairy Aliese
Power Komachi, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 49, Water/Steel
Defense Eiki, Sermon No Accessory
At the end of the path is your second Combat Handbook (if you defeated Kanako).
As a reminder, this amazing held item multiples all Experience gained by 1.5x, and
it applies whether the Puppet sees battle or not. I’d definitely use it (preferrably
use both!), though you may want to pass it around occasionally to guarantee all
Puppets stay at similar Levels.
Return to the Northwest/East split and go East only to be immediately stopped by

another Fairy.
Fairy Natasha
Assist Sunny, Sanguine No Accessory
Lvl 48, Light
Lvl 48, Light/Sound
Power Star, Niche No Accessory
Lvl 48, Light/Water
Head down the first set of stairs and go Northeast until you reach a ladder. Prepare
for a battle against a Youkai soon after climbing!
Youkai Azaka
Speed Iku, Gale Form No Accessory
Lvl 49, Electric/Wind
Power Tenshi, Indomitable No Accessory
Lvl 49, Earth
Head South to find a veritable treasure chamber. Snag the Hakurei Shinshu, Col-
266
umn Charm (boosts Fo. Defense in a pinch), and Dessert of the Sun, then return
back to the first floor. Head to the Southeast and grab the Fate Thread before curv-
ing around to the West and fighting the Ghost.
Ghost Masami
Power Youmu, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Head West and back up the stairs, this time going East to the next set of stairs.
Oddly enough, you’ll run into a Zombie Fairy farther up the path.
Fairy Ana
Lvl 49, Wind/Water
Lvl 49, Light/Fire
Down the stairs, you’ll run into a Youkai toting six instrument-themed Puppets.
They’re all Sound-type, so plan accordingly!
Youkai Shirayuki
Speed Lyrica, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Assist Merlin, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Speed Yatsuhashi, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 45, Sound
Defense Benben, Warning Shot No Accessory
Power Raiko, Active No Accessory
267
This fight will be as easy or hard as you make it. If you have a Wind-type Puppet,
you’ll roll through everything except Power Raiko with minimal issue (Electric-
type is also good, though Defense Benben and Power Raiko don’t have a weak-
ness to it).
Watch out for Assist Merlin, as she can potentially get a lucky buff from one of
her Skills that raises all of her stats one level, which she can then combo with the
Sound-type Skill Infinite Scales that gets stronger the more stat buffs the Puppet
has.
Power Raiko’s sole weakness is Earth, so target her with that or whatever your
best neutral damage Skill is.
Of course, with this much Experience on the line, try to swap all of your Puppets
in if possible.
Grab the Rainbow Candy to the East. As a side note, this is likely the best place to
return for healing if you need it, as everything from here on out will be on the sec-
ond floor.
Once you are prepared, head down to the main part of the second floor. You’ll
soon run into another Youkai, though this one isn’t nearly the ordeal the last one
was.
Youkai Fayumi
Power Nue, Telescopic No Accessory
Head East and cross the water to find an Echelon Charm on the other side. Much
like the other Charms you’ve been finding recently, this one boosts Evasion when
the Puppet is in a pinch.
Return to the main path and head South. The linear path will take you for quite
awhile until you reach the point where an Oni guards the road ahead. You can
sneak by him, however, if you hug the Southern rock.
268
Oni Shoudai
Power Konngara, Final Form No Accessory
Take the Southern steps and go East to find a Moriya Shinshu. Whatever you do,
don’t continue South and hop the hurdle unless you want to have to work your way
back here.
Return to the path and head East all the way until you reach the exit from the main
cave area. This marks the final section of the Hakurei Cave, and it’s an empty,
straight shot from here until the very end.
Once you begin approaching a series of pillars, stop and save your game, just in
case. Once you are prepared, continue forward.
Within steps, Makai’s Gatekeeper, Sara, will appear and stop you. If you want to
pass by, you’ll have to defeat her!
Makai Gatekeeper Sara

Defense Elly, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 50, Steel/Earth
Speed Meiling, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 50, Fighting
Defense Sara, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 54, Earth
Sara is a half-step above the grunts you’ve been fighting. She’s not terribly
powerful, but she has a few things to watch out for.
Defense Elly is straightforward enough. She does respectable damage, but goes
down instantly to Fighting-type Skills thanks to her 4x weakness.
Speed Meiling is a glass cannon with decent Speed. You’ll deal with her easily
enough if you use Wind or Sound, though honestly she crumbles at most damage.
Defense Sara likes using Mine Trap twice, which then deals a chunk of damage
whenever your Puppets swap in. However, this isn’t very effective when the one
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laying them only has three Puppets max, and in reality likely lost at least one of
those already. While she’s laying traps, wipe her out with Water, Nature, or Fight-
ing.
After defeating Sara, she grumbles about how things always turn out this way. Un-
able to stand your character’s pitying gaze, she disappears in a huff. With the way
open, step forward to teleport to a brand new area...
Welcome to Genmukai, a realm in between Gensokyo and Makai. This is one of

the coolest locations in the game; it’s a shame that Genmukai is basically a brief
stopover in the main story.
That said, there is one Skill Card to snag. Work your way around the teleporter
(not through) and head South. You’ll find a small jumping puzzle, though it basi-
cally amounts to a game of follow the arrows. At the Eastern side, you’ll see what
appears to be another teleporter to the North, but it currently is blocked off by
giant, creepy pillars. Perhaps they’ll be gone once you finish your business in Ma-
kai...? For more information, see Side Quest Section 4.
Work your way around and snag Skill Card 82, Stealth Kill. This Warped-type Fo.
Attack Skill has a base Power of 80 and will always hit. It also bypasses the ef-
fects of Magical Barrier, though you’ll almost never see that used. It’s a solid Skill
for countering Puppets that like to raise their Evasion or lower your Accuracy,
though for pure damage, Distortion Bomb (Skill Card 81) is superior.
Return to the main teleporter and head North this time. Follow the lengthy path all
the way to the end. As odd as it sounds, go into the light.
Frozen World Puppets

Speed Yuki Fire Normal
Power Yuki Fire/Water Normal
Power Mai Water Normal
Defense Mai Water/Fire Normal
270
Power Magan Poison/Nether Rare
Normal Elis Dark/Electric Rare
Normal Sariel Dark Rare
Power Elis Dark/Poison Very Rare
Power Sariel Dark/Warped Very Rare
This is the Frozen World. It’s a part of Makai, but your true goal lies far beyond.
Note that while is no teleporter to return with, your Gap Map is functional (though
you would have to work your way back through Hakurei Cave if you used it).
Thankfully, you’ll come across a method of healing soon enough, so don’t worry
too much.
Interestingly enough, you’ll find both grass and Puppets hiding inside. It seems the
Puppet Incident truly reaches far beyond Gensokyo. Returning from the Forest of
Magic Part 2 are Yuki and Mai. If you stopped by the Ice Cavern, you’ll recognize
Magan as well. Completely new are Elis and Sariel, both of whom are pretty cool
(Sariel especially).
Head North to find what is either your first or second sliding puzzle, depending on
if you checked out the Ice Cavern or not yet. Just like it wouldn’t be an RPG with-
out a volcano area, it wouldn’t be a Pokemon-style game without sliding puzzles.
Our first goal is to emerge at the Eastern end, so follow my directions carefully to
get there. At the far Eastern side of the entrance, go North, East, North, East,
South, East, North, East, North, East, South, East. This will take you to the East-
ern exit.
Continue along the path until you come to a Devil. Thankfully, Puppet battles are
all the rage in Makai as well!
Makai Resident Adelaide

Power Yuuka, Unjustness No Accessory
271
Thankfully, Devils are on the same level as the grunts in Hakurei Cave. Check the
grass to the Northeast of the Devil to find another Echelon Charm.
Return to the sliding puzzle. From the Northern-most entrance, head West, South,
West, North, West, North, West, North, East, and North to escape.
The Devil girl wandering around is Elis, and she’s surprisingly nice for a Devil.
She’ll happily heal you whenever your Puppets get tired.
To the North of Elis is another sliding puzzle (ignore the Western path with a
wrong-way hurdle). From the Western-most entrance, head North, East, South,
West, North, East, South, East, South, and East to reach the Eastern exit.
Grab Skill Card 16, Shooting Press, right next to the exit. Shooting Press is pretty
much the best Earth-type Fo. Attack in the game, as it has a base Power of 100, an
Accuracy of 100%, and no secondary effects or detrimental effects to worry about.
It’s straight, pure, simple damage, and it works great. If it fits, I’d use it.
We now have to cross the maze again. Take the Northern-most entrance and head
West, North, West, and North to reach the Northern entrance. Easy enough. At the
nearby split, head East and fight the Devil who likely needs some entertainment in
this frozen wasteland. Unfortunately for you, she’s a huge fan of rotting Puppets...
Makai Resident Anine

Power Yoshika, Armor Purge No Accessory
Lvl 45, Poison
Defense Yoshika, Inverse Reaction No Accessory
Lvl 45, Poison
Defense Yoshika, Full Power No Accessory
Lvl 45, Poison
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Lvl 45, Nether
Be wary of a few of the Yoshika Puppets using Final Tribulation (Void-type), wip-
ing themselves out in an attempt to deal heavy damage to your Puppets. Amus-
ingly enough, however, if you have an Illusion-type Puppet out, this will deal no
damage and still result in them being KO’d. Win-win!
Also watch out for getting Poisoned, which is likely the bigger danger here.
Speed Seiga at the end has Love or Pain (Nether-type), which will do incredible
damage if your Puppets are suffering from a Status Effect (i.e. Poison).
As with all six-Puppet fights, this is a gold mine of Experience; make sure to
swap all of your Puppets in at least once to get huge gains!
Return to the split and head North to the next sliding puzzle. This one is extremely
simple, just take the center of the three possible entrances and head North to the
end.
Check to the East for Skill Card 28, Dark Arrow. This is almost exactly like Cruci-
form, except as a Dark-type Fo. Attack Skill. It strikes twice, each hit getting a
base Power of 50, but it’s an all-or-nothing situation with a base Accuracy of 90%.
It has a great payoff if it works, but this one is best left for the gamblers.
Take the Western path until you reach a Fairy. While you could sneak past by hug-
ging the trees to the South, she could use a break from trying to read in the snow.
Fairy Adeline
Power Yuyuko, Quick Eye No Accessory
Head up the stairs along the path to find another Hexagon Charm. At the next set
of stairs, instead head South and jump the hurdles to find Skill Card 94, Dark
Sweets. As yet another in the line of excellent base Power 95 Skill Cards, this
Dark-type Sp. Attack Skill is a stellar addition to your lineup. The rare 10%
chance to inflict Blind, thereby debilitating Fo. Attack Puppets, is icing on the
cake.
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Since you’re back near Elis, you might as well heal up before making your way
back.
Once you’ve returned, climb the steps and continue on until you reach a Zombie
Fairy that appears to be blocking a side path West. However, she won’t attack you
unless you talk to her.
Fairy Anemone
Speed Rin, Southern Expanse No Accessory
Lvl 49, Fire/Earth
Power Utsuho, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 49, Fire/Light
Past Anemone is Skill Card 8, Overskill. As a Recoil Skill, this Void-type Fo. At-
tack Skill has a whopping base 120 Power, but deals 1/3 of the damage inflicted
back to you (unless you have the Recoil Offset Ability). This is a great move for
Speed-focused Puppets who likely would be KO’d from being hit anyway, and es-
pecially great for Void-type Puppets in that category. However, if your Puppet
doesn’t fit the bill, you might want to avoid this one and instead use Frenzied Jour-
uri (Skill Card 9).
Head South from the Zombie Fairy to find one last sliding puzzle. From the West-
ern-most entrance, head South, West, South, East, North, and East to snag the Out-
look Glasses on the Eastern side of the puzzle. This Accessory will identify the en-
emy Puppet’s held item when your Puppet swaps into battle, kind of like a lite ver-
sion of the Quick Eye Ability. However, this becomes entirely pointless when rely-
ing on the Guide.
From here, take one step South from the Northern-most entrance leading back into
the sliding puzzle. Go West, North, West, and North to reach the next checkpoint
area, so to speak.
Take the Eastern-most entrance and head South, East, South, West, and South to
reach the end.
If your Puppets need any healing, use an item or two and then save your game.
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As you continue South, you’ll soon run into an unusual-looking pair. The one with
white wings is Gengetsu, and the other is Mugetsu. They seem excited to find a
talented-looking Puppeteer to challenge to battle!
Dream World Sisters Gengetsu and Mugetsu

Speed Remilia, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 52, Dark/Fighting
Speed Flandre, Unbound No Accessory
Lvl 52, Dark/Light
Power Mugetsu, Brutality No Accessory
Speed Gengetsu, Eastern Expanse No Accessory
Gengetsu and Mugetsu are a stiff challenge, but nothing you shouldn’t be able to
overcome at this point of the game.
Speed Remilia is very fast with a base Speed of 130, but she also has decent De-
fensive stats. You should still be able to one-shot her, however. In the likely
event she gets an attack off, watch out for a surprise Blaze Spear (Fire-type) that
could catch you off-guard. She seems to favor that attack, so don’t be suprised to
see it unless you have a Puppet weak to Dark or Fighting.
Speed Flandre is the weakest link of the team. She’s not as fast as Speed Remilia
or Speed Gengetsu, hits only a little harder, and isn’t particularly tanky. She tends
to spam Dark Sweets (Dark-type), but also has Star Flare (Light-type) and De-
struction (Void-type). She’ll go down easily enough to Steel, Fighting, or Illu-
sion, though you could easily KO her with a powerful enough neutral-damage
Skill.
Power Mugetsu is a potential monster that you need to watch out for. Her Brutal-
ity Ability is what sets her apart, as it boosts her already formidable Sp. Attack
damage by 50% in exchange for a 20% chance to miss. This can turn an attack
your Puppet would otherwise survive into a dirt nap...or a complete miss if for-
tune favors you (hint, it likely won’t). Her mediocre Speed is her biggest weak-
ness, meaning you can strike before she gets rolling; however, watch out for her
surprisingly high Sp. Defense, as she might end up surviving a Sp. Attack Skill
not aimed at her Steel, Illusion, or Sound weaknesses.
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Speed Gengetsu is the epitome of a glass cannon, with Speed as high as Speed Re-
milia, higher damage, but terrible Defenses and HP. Watch out for a surprise
Light-type Skill to catch you off-guard, but otherwise, swap in an Earth-type Pup-
pet and then let her have it.
The odd pair seem pleased despite their loss, marveling at your Puppets’ strength.
They point at your unexpected strength as the reason why they aren’t going to stop
playing with the Puppets, after which they bid you farewell.
Don’t worry about health levels, as there are no more Puppeteers left. Simply head
South and step on the teleporter to your next destination.
20. Pandemonium
Makai Puppets
Defense Sara Earth Normal
Speed Sara Earth/Electric Normal
Defense Louise Wind Normal
Assist Louise Wind Normal
Power Alice Steel/Light Normal
Defense Alice Steel/Illusion Normal
Normal Yumeko Steel Rare
Normal Shinki Illusion/Dark Rare
Welcome to the town of Makai, which doesn’t make a lot of sense but roll with it.
Everybody in the town is friendly despite being Devils, so feel free to talk to who-
ever you’d like.
There are two shops in Makai. The first shop in the center of Makai is for healing
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items, and has everything you could possibly want aside from Hakurei Shinshu,
which aren’t sold in shops. While I wouldn’t use any items to heal (you’ll find a
source of healing soon), I would highly advise stocking up here, specifically to the
point where you have at least 20-25 of the larger healing items, Moriya Shinshu,
and Myouren Tea. If you don’t, you very well may find yourself running out of
healing items in an area just past the town where your Gap Map doesn’t work.
Consider yourself warned.
The other shop to the Northeast has the typical Threads and repellants, but also has
a ton of Skill Cards for 15,000 each. All of these Skill Cards grant access to a Sp.
Attack Sign Skill based on the type written on the Skill Card. Here’s the deal: all
Puppets can use any Sign, regardless of type. That means you could have a Fire-
type Puppet use a Water-type Sign, for example. However, there are two major
drawbacks here. First is that each Sign is only a base Power of 60 (though when
combined with the Strategist Ability that rises to 90, a much better Power). The
second issue is that a Puppet can only know one Sign at a time. You have to pick
one, though you can always change it for another. Honestly, Signs are good for hit-
ting weaknesses if your Puppet uses Sp. Attacks, but the low base Power is a big
killer. Unless you have a Sp. Attack Puppet with the Strategist Ability, I’d think
long and hard about if they’ll really be useful.
Before jumping into any of the grass in search of new Puppets, head to the North
part of town by the river. Just South of the bridge is Louise, a nice lady who will
heal your Puppets whenever you’d like. There’s also a Puppet Box, though what
you’d need it for at this point I’m not sure.
In terms of Puppets, there are two new ones to snag along with a ton of other Pup-
pets. Yumeko and Shinki can only be found here, and both are excellent Puppets
with multiple high-end Styles. Shinki especially has a total stat base that’s nearly
broken at 600, which is the highest in the game aside from Puppets that have a de-
tracting Ability to make up for their high stats. Grab them if you are at all inter-
ested. This should also fully complete your Puppetdex if you’ve collected every
Puppet thus far. If you managed to complete this task, congratulations!
If, by some crazy miracle, your Puppets aren’t at least Level 60 by now, you would
be wise to grind around here until they reach that threshold (unless you’re going
for a low-level playthrough, in which case I wish you the best of luck...and RIP).
Once you’ve stocked up on healing supplies and finished your other business in
town, head North across the bridge. Continue along the linear path all the way un-
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til you finally arrive at Pandemonium.
Talk to the receptionist and she’ll ask if you have an appointment. Unfortunately,
you don’t, so she’ll correctly label you as an intruder. She’ll thus open up the large
door to the West. Note that once you enter, you won’t be able to leave, whether by
doorway or even the Gap Map; either you make it to the end or you don’t. If you
didn’t take my advice earlier about healing items, this will be your final chance.
An important note: from here on out, Levels make very little difference. Assume
that you can and will be wiped out by making poor decisions even if you have a
large Level advantage. The damage and tactics coming your way are now signifi-
cant enough to be a major threat throughout, and the enemy Puppets’ stats are high
enough to function like they’re meant to, whether in damage, Defenses, or Speed.
Think tactically, strike at weaknesses, and protect your Puppets from obviously bad
situations.
With that in mind, if you are prepared, enter the open doorway.
Welcome to this game’s version of the Elite Four from Pokemon. You’ll have to
fight your way to the end, with time in between each battle to heal your party and
save. There aren’t any items or wild Puppets to be had here, so the first three bat-
tles will be listed in gauntlet style. These will be among the toughest battles
you’ve had thus far, but believe in yourself and your Puppets to seize victory!
Makai Witch Yuki

Lvl 58, Fire/Earth
Speed Futo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 58, Wind/Water
Speed Clownpiece, Telescopic No Accessory
Speed Marisa, Positive No Accessory
Speed Yuki, Charge! Black Choker
Lvl 62, Fire
As your first fight, Yuki is perhaps the easiest one. The two main themes of this
battle are Speed and Fire, meaning Water will often be your best friend here. That
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said, not all of her Puppets are Fire-type.
Yuki’s AI, and indeed the entirety of the battles fought here, is smart enough to
realize when a Puppet is in danger and swap it out. Don’t be surprised if your
planned barrier-piercing Skill ends up being resisted.
Speed Rin is fast and hits hard with Fo. Attack Skills, but isn’t particularly dura-
ble. Beware her surprise Killing Bite Skill (Steel-type).
Speed Futo is an exception to the Fire-type lineup, but functions the same. She’ll
outspeed most of your Puppets, doing significant damage in the process, but will
crumple if hit by Electric. Watch out for a surprise Inferno (Fire-type) meant to
catch you completely off-guard.
Speed Clownpiece is very fast and that’s honestly about it. If she manages to tar-
get a weakness, it’ll hurt, but she isn’t particularly threatening otherwise.
Speed Marisa is much like the previous Puppets here minus the Fire-typing, so
handle her the same.
Speed Yuki has a few surprises to mix things up a bit. She has a Black Choker,
instantly making her a potential nightmare due to that alone (as a reminder, the
Black Choker prevents the Puppet from being one-shot KO’d unless hit with a
multi-attack Skill). She uses Encourage to try to force your Puppet into using the
same Skill over and over. Speed Yuki, in addition to the obvious Fire-type Skill
in Backdraft, also has Unknown Flare (Illusion-type) to strike you unexpectedly.
She does a very high amount of damage thanks to Charge!, so don’t let your guard
down.
Makai Witch Mai

Speed Seiga, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 58, Nether
Power Doremy, Appeased Spirit No Accessory
Lvl 58, Illusion/Nether
Power Iku, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 59, Electric
Assist Satori, Shadow Stitch No Accessory
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Lvl 60, Illusion
Power Mai, Strict Dosage Life Charm
Lvl 62, Water
Mai is a far more balanced Puppeteer than Yuki was. She uses primarily single-
type Puppets, each of which contribute to her overall strategy of buffing her
team’s survivability with Field Protect and/or Field Barrier (Speed Seiga/Power
Iku), inflicting painful Status Effects (Speed Seiga), forcing your Puppets to re-
main out and suffer through them (Assist Satori), and forcing them to repeat a pre-
viously used Skill that allows a resistant Puppet to swap in and take advantage
(Assist Satori). She has two clean-up Puppets in Power Doremy and Power Mai
that are meant to wipe out weakened Puppets with heavy damage (one is fast and
fragile while the other is tanky but slow), all the while benefiting from the effects
of Field Protect/Field Barrier to help protect them while they dismantle the rem-
nants of your team.
Speed Seiga has lower Speed than many Speed Puppets, but higher Defenses to
make up for it. She often start by using Field Protect, reducing the effectiveness
of Fo. Attacks by half for five turns. This is likely is the first time you’ve seen
this tactic, and it can be very effective. If you have one of the Break Skills meant
to counter this, it’ll stymie this tactic’s effectiveness. She also uses Will-o’-Wisp
to both inflict both Burn and Dark at the same time in exchange for a small
chance of missing. If she accomplishes all of this, she’ll likely use Changeling
(Dark-type) to swap out for another Puppet.
Power Doremy has a base 125 in Fo. Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed, but terrible
Defenses to make up for it. She uses Catastrophe (Void-type) and Pollen Mist
(Nature-type) in addition to the expected Illusion and Nether-type Skills. Sneak
Attack (Illusion-type) is especially dangerous thanks to it being able to strike be-
fore normal Priority Skills, though you can potentially counter it by using an even
higher Priority Skill (such as Over Ray), which makes Sneak Attack fail.
Power Iku will start off with Field Barrier, reducing the effectiveness of Sp. At-
tacks by half for five turns. If possible, cancel it out like with Speed Seiga. Also
important to watch out for is her Air Cushion Ability, preventing you from hurt-
ing her with Earth-type Skills, her only weakness. Because of this, it might take a
few turns to KO her if you don’t have the pure damage to one-shot her with a neu-
tral damage Skill.
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Assist Satori will force you to keep out whatever Puppet is out when she enters
the battlefield thanks to her Shadow Stitch Ability. She has a boatload of HP, but
mediocre Defenses and almost nonexistant damage. Watch out for her to use En-
courage, thereby forcing your Puppet to repeat the last Skill used for a few turns,
and then potentially swap out to a Puppet resistant to the repeated Skill.
Power Mai does solid damage and has high HP to pair with 80/80 in base De-
fenses. She also has a Life Charm that will restore a chunk of her health when
she drops to around half health. Beware of a surprise Earth-type Skill in Shooting
Press to catch your Electric-type Puppets off-guard when they try to target her
weakness.
Makai Maid Yumeko

Lvl 59, Light/Fire
Power Sagume, Reflect Guard No Accessory
Lvl 59, Poison/Sound
Defense Kokoro, Moody No Accessory
Power Sakuya, Strategist No Accessory
Speed Yumeko, Salvo Champion’s Medal
Lvl 63, Steel
Yumeko is the strongest thus far, using Puppets that have unique Abilities and
high stat bases in an attempt to crush you flat out.
Power Miko is one of the special 620 base stat total Puppets, meaning she has
some sort of drawback from her Ability to compensate. In this case, Power Miko
is most dangerous when she’s above half health, as once she drops below that
threshold, her True Admin Ability cuts her damge in half. However, until that
point, her massive base 150 Fo. Attack and 115 base Speed will make her an abso-
lute monster. Start the battle off with a fast Puppet and try to one-shot her with
her with Earth, Dark, or Illusion-type Skills. Even if you fail, she’ll still be signif-
icantly hobbled. Watch out for a surprisingly powerful Over Ray (Light-type,
boosted Priority).
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Power Sagume hits hard with Sp. Attack Skills and has respectable Speed, but
that’s about it. She has the expected Poison-type Skill via Poison Bomb that she
prefers using, but she has the Fire-type Flashover in reserve to counter Steel-types
who would naturally swap in to take advantage of their Poison immunity. She
goes down pretty much instantly to a Wind-type Skill thanks to her 4x weakness,
so try to nail her with that if possible.
Defense Kokoro doesn’t start off overly tanky. She has a fairly high HP reserve
and a strong 125 base Sp. Defense, but her Fo. Defense is only base 80. Further-
more, her damage is mediocre at best and her Speed terrible, meaning you should
be able to outspeed her without issue, preferably targeting her weaker Fo. Defense
with Wind or Sound. However, the issue becomes when she combines Merry
Dance, boosting both her Fo. Defense and Sp. Defense by one level, with her
Moody Ability, boosting a random stat by two levels and lowering a stat ran-
domly by one level. This can quickly become a defensive nightmare, with De-
fense Kokoro potentially gaining three levels of Fo. Defense or Sp. Defense in
one turn if Moody works well, or even worse, gaining two levels of Evasion to go
along with her increased Defenses. Don’t let this spiral out of control; beat her
down quickly or else you’ll regret it.
Power Sakuya does a lot of damage with weaker Skills thanks to her Strategist
Ability, though her low Speed is the equalizer here. This includes the Priority-
boosted Overtake Strike (Steel-type), though you’ll only be dealt normal damage
by her Dancing Sword (Fighting-type). Watch out for a surprise Mirage Edge (Il-
lusion-type) boosted by Strategist. Try to target her with Fire and Sound, which
are her only weaknesses.
Speed Yumeko is basically Power Aya with less Speed and marginally higher De-
fenses. She’ll use the Steel-type Rapid Throw to deal a guaranteed five-hit com-
bo, with each hit getting a chance to both land a Critical Hit as well as make your
Puppet flinch (thanks to her Champion’s Medal). You’d be right if this sounds
terrifying. She’ll still potentially outspeed your Puppets, so try to fight Speed Yu-
meko with a resistant Puppet, especially Fire or Warped. She’ll likely crumple in
one blow, so do your best to hit her before she can lay down the pain.
After defeating Yumeko, you would be very wise to heal your Puppets to full and
save your game, as your final opponent is significantly stronger than her subordi-
nates.
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When you are prepared, continue forward and proceed to the top of Pandemonium.
Meet the creater of Makai, Shinki, as well as the one who created the Puppets. She
expresses surprise that they spread to Gensokyo, but explains that she made the
dolls because she thought her world needed more cuteness. She didn’t expect them
to start world hopping, however.
Regardless, if you want her to make things right, there’s only one thing to do.
Prove yourself to be the superior Puppeteer for the sake of returning home!
Creator of Makai Shinki

Speed Junko, Hate Incarnate Deadly Secrets
Lvl 62, Light/Dark
Speed Hijiri, Unbound Black Choker
Lvl 62, Fighting/Light
Power Mima, Curse Return Opal Hairpin
Power Yumeko, Morale Boost Life Charm
Lvl 64, Steel/Dark
Power Sariel, Flawless Obsidian Hairpin
Lvl 64, Dark/Warped
Power Shnki, Weather Resist Curing Charm
Shinki is indeed a God, and as you would expect from the creator of the Puppets,
has quite a strong lineup. She has a full team of six, each of whom is quite power-
ful on their own (and have high base stat totals), but also have Accessories as
well.
Her AI is brutal, often capable of reading your mind and reacting to your chosen
Skill. Expect frequent swap-outs as well as the potential of being targeted with a
barrier-piercing Skill upon swapping in.
Speed Junko has base 125 Sp. Attack and Speed, so don’t be surprised to get
nailed before you can act. Note that she has Deadly Secrets, meaning she’ll likely
one-shot your Puppets if she manages to hit a weakness. Your best shot is trying
to outspeed her if possible, but if that isn’t possible, send out a Puppet that is re-
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sistant or neutral to both Light and Dark, such as an Illusion-type Puppet. Be
ready to take some damage upon KO’ing Speed Junko thanks to her Hate Incar-
nate Ability.
Speed Hijiri has decent 80/80 Defenses for a Speed Puppet, which pairs nicely
with a base 120 Fo. Attack and 110 base Speed. She has a surprise Shooting
Press Skill (Earth-type) as well as the expected Fighting and Light-type Skills.
Watch out for her frustrating Black Choker to prolong the battle by prevening a
one-shot KO (unless you have a multi-hit attack such as Cruciform or Twister).
Lacking a Puppet who can negate a Black Choker, your best bet with Hijiri is to
send out a tanky Puppet and simply outlast her, using a healing item if necessary.
Wind and Illusion are your best bets here.
Power Mima is the weakest link here. She does a lot of damage thanks to her
base 135 Fo. Attack, but Nether is only good against Nether (though it can strike
most types for neutral damage), and Light is only barrier-piercing against Dark
and Nether. You can easily counter her assault by simply sending out a Light-
type Puppet, which gets resistance against both of those types. Watch out for her
Spark Javelin Skill (Electric-type) to try and catch you off-guard.
Power Yumeko does brutal Fo. Attack damage which has the potential to be fur-
ther boosted by Imposing Air (which boosts both Fo. Attack and Speed one lev-
el). She’s not particularly tanky or speedy, meaning you should be able to over-
come her with a Speed-focued Puppet. Watch out for a surprise Shooting Press
Skill (Earth-type). Whatever you do, don’t let her start wiping out your Puppets,
or else her Morale Boost Ability will come into play, boosting her Fo. Attack each
time she defeats a Puppet. This can quickly spiral into trouble if you let it, espe-
cially if she starts using Imposing Air to boost her Speed and Fo. Attack further.
Try to take her out with her 4x weakness to Fighting-type Skills, which also con-
veniently neutralizes her Life Charm that otherwise would heal her upon reaching
half health or below.
Power Sariel is basically a glass cannon with high Fo. Attack (130 base), high Sp.
Attack (125 base), and solid Speed (110). She uses the powerful Distortion Bomb
(Warped-type) and Night Step (Dark-type) to deal heavy damage, but also uses In-
ferno (Fire-type) when necessary to deal damage when Warped and Dark are re-
sisted. You are quite capable of using a tanky Puppet to weather the storm and
grind her down, though a faster Puppet can simply strike at her 4x weakeness to
Fighting-type Skills and wipe her out in one blow.
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Power Shinki has massive overall stats. Watch out for her base 130 Sp. Attack,
base 115 Fo. Attack, and base 100 Sp. Defense. She won’t outspeed many Pup-
pets with a base Speed of 80, but she’s capable of taking a hit. Don’t even bother
trying to inflict her with a Status Effect, as her Curing Charm will completely
negate that. In addition to the expected Illusion-type and Dark-type Skills, Power
Shinki also has Ultra High Tone (Sound-type) and Burn Strike (Fire-type), though
Burn Strike goes off of Fo. Attack instead of her more dangerous Sp. Attack stat.
Hit her with Steel, Illusion, or Sound and go for a one-turn KO!
While this may be difficult to accomplish, swapping all six Puppets in for Experi-
ence gain will net you almost 15k Experience per, and just shy of 22.5k Experi-
ence for those with Combat Handbooks.
After her defeat, Shinki promises to end the Puppet Incident and get rid of all the
Puppets, though it’ll take quite a long time because of the huge power involved.
In the meantime, it’s time for you to return. Shinki bids farewell as your character
closes their eyes and returns to where they belong...
Or at least, that’s the idea, but a familiar face interrupts your slumber. Yukari con-
gratulates you on your success, though she also congratulates herself on choosing
to bring you into Gensokyo to solve the incident. She gives you a hint about it
being a good idea to explore Gensokyo again once you awaken, as things may have
changed while you were gone. Yukari also raises the possibility of meeting her di-
rectly, which could be interesting or terrifying, depending. For now, however, she
bids you to close your eyes and enjoy a well-deserved rest.
Congratulations on clearing the Main Story of Touhou Puppet Dance Performance!

Enjoy the awesome credit sequence, filled with a great remix of the various loca-
tion and battle themes, as well as callbacks to the various locations you’ve visited.
Your journey is not yet done, however, as the Expansion’s Story that has been run-
ning parallel to the Main Story has yet to be completed. Celebrate your accom-
plishment, but know that your character’s journey is not yet over. There are new
battles, new revelations, and surprise encounters yet to be had!
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21. Little Sister
For those who are familiar with the Touhou games, yes, you likely are correct in as-
suming who this section’s title refers to. And yes, it won’t be pretty.
Unexpectedly, you’ll wake up in the Hakurei Shrine. Marisa will greet you upon
leaving the room, and you’ll soon end up in Reimu’s room with the usual trio.
Tsundere Reimu grumbles about finding you unconscious near the Shrine and hav-
ing to bring you in and take care of you, though Sanae quickly spoils Reimu’s act.
They congratulate you on defeating Shinki, and expect that reports about decreas-
ing number of Puppets will come in soon. That means, however, that you can’t re-
turn to the Human World quite yet. Excited, Marisa realizes this means she still
has a chance to finally defeat you before you return.
Reimu drives everybody out, though Marisa disappears somewhere to train. Sanae
again hints that you should travel around Gensokyo and look for new places to visit
and new meetings to be had; additionally, she also welcomes you back to her
Shrine.
At this point, there are a number of Side Quests and rematches you can take part in,
such as tougher rematches with Reimu or Sanae. While we certainly will cover
these, there are actually a few more Side Quests that have yet to open up (one of
which provides a very nice reward that you’ll likely want as soon as possible);
thus, we will cover those in the upcoming Side Quest Section 4 when everything
becomes available.
I would strongly suggest replenishing your depleted stock of healing items; either
Route 6 or Makai have the best selections (Dessert of the Sun is only available at
Makai, though in many cases it’ll be overkill) and are only a Gap Map away. As a
special note, you should no longer be selling Magical Fragments from here on out.
Additionally, many of the Traders around Gensokyo, including the ones in the Hu-
man Village, Genbu Ravine, Kappa Hideout, and Former Hell City have updated
merchandise, most of it being Accessories. Many of these are very expensive, with
many priced at 250,000. If you are interested, feel free to check them out.
I’ll highlight two special items to make note of, however. The first, Clear Stream
Mochi, is in the Human Village’s shop and sells for 10,000 each. It will reset the
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PP allocated in one of your Puppet’s stats, thus allowing you to reallocate the PP
into a different stat. If you made a mistake with this earlier, you’ll want to take ad-
vantage of this opportunity and maximize your Puppet’s potential strengths.
The other special item is an Accessory, found in Former Hell City. You might re-
member the Black Choker from previous battles as the held item which prevented
you from one-shotting enemy Puppets. This is a very, very powerful Accessory, at
the painfully expensive price of 250,000. This item will work just as well for your
Puppets, especially those who are more of a glass cannon type of Puppet that tends
to get one-shot often. Just remember that it’ll only work if your Puppet is at full
health and hit with a Skill that would otherwise one-shot them. Once it breaks, it’s
done until battle is over (at which point it’ll regenerate just like the Charms).
I think that covers mostly everything, though there is one more piece of business
before we continue. You’re firmly in late-game territory by now, meaning you
can’t let your guard down just because your Levels are likely higher. Much like in
Makai, many of the battles you’ll take part in will have significant danger in-
volved, meaning you’ll need to use your head and fight well. Also, expect to see a
LOT more of Extra-Style Puppets, meaning you’ll need to be prepared for even
more unusual Abilities and a suddenly common Warped-typing.
The idea now is that you’re meant to wander around Gensokyo until you find new
things to do, but let’s skip the filler and move on to where we need to be. Teleport
to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to find it under a deluge of rain. If you head South
and talk to Meiling, she’ll mention something about it being better not to enter
now...
Eh, we beat Shinki, so what’s there to be scared of, right? Enter the Mansion only
to be stopped immediately by Sakuya, who tells you that Remilia wishes to see
you. Proceed to Remilia’s room and you’ll hear a piece of conversation between
Remilia and a very impatient Flandre, who is Remilia’s little sister. Enter the room
and Remilia will look very, very relieved.
To make a long story short, Flandre is bored and needs someone to ‘play’ with. It
just so happens that Flandre heard about your prowess as a Puppeteer and wants to
see it for herself, and began incessently pestering Remilia for her to bring you.
Should you survive, Remilia will properly reward you, so why not give it a try?
Flandre is waiting for you in the basement. To get there, first return to the Great
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Library (take the Western stairs going down in the entrance hallway) and take the
Eastern exit of the Great Library to enter the Mansion’s maze of hallways with ran-
dom battles (use a Talisman).
Go East to the split, North to the next split, East down the long hallway, South at
the next split, East all the way past the side paths, and then South at the split. Fol-
low that path until you reach the center area and the doorway.
Once you enter the previously locked door, you’ll be treated to a music change and
series of descending stairs. Continue on until you reach the next doorway, which
leads to a large conference room of sorts. There is nothing in the room itself, so
head to the Northeast exit and save your game before entering.
Flandre is obviously excited to see you. To say she’s a shut-in isn’t quite fair, since
she’s not allowed to leave the Mansion, but 495 years is a long time to be stuck
there.
Also not helping is the fact that her playmates tend to break before long. Three
other Flandres suddenly appear, and she wonders if you’ll break as well before
launching a four-Flandre attack!
Four of a Kind Flandre

Speed Utsuho, Duel No Accessory
Speed Clownpiece, Telescopic No Accessory
Power Mokou, Fox’s Wedding No Accessory
This is a mini-nightmare, as you’ll fight four strong opponents in a row without a
break in between. Try to mow through as many as possible without swapping, as
your party will get grinded down bit by bit if you do so.
This fight centers around Fire-type Puppets. The biggest danger here is Power
Mokou, who loves using Sneak Attack (Illusion-type) to get free hits off before
your Puppet attacks (unless you use a higher Priority Skill). Use Water or Earth-
type Puppets and wipe them out before you take unnecessary damage.
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Four of a Kind Flandre (2)
Power Udonge, Precise Aim No Accessory
Speed Gengetsu, Eastern Expanse No Accessory
The theme of this fight is Illusion-type Puppets. Illusion, Sound, and Warped-
type Skills will help you blow through this fight.
Watch out for Speed Sakuya’s Stalk and Murder Skill (Steel-type), which pre-
vents you from hitting Sakuya on the first turn of it if you act second, and then
strikes for heavy damage on the second turn. Try to nail her with a Warped-type
Skill for 4x effectiveness before she can use it.
Four of a Kind Flandre (3)

Defense Sukuna, Master’s Defense No Accessory
Lvl 65, Steel/Earth
Defense Tenshi, Flawless No Accessory
Lvl 65, Earth/Light
The theme of this fight is Defense-Style, Earth-type Puppets, meaning Water, Na-
ture, and Fighting will be your best bets.
That said, Defense Yuuka only takes neutral damage from Water and Nature, so
target her with Steel or Fighting to wipe her out.
Defense Sukuna is cute, but isn’t particularly dangerous unless you let her spam
Iron Wall Stance and then use Fo. Attacks against her. You should be able to
wipe her out fairly easily, but don’t use Fighting-type Skills against her since her
Master’s Defense Ability neutralizes them.
Defense Tenshi also uses Iron Wall Stance multiple times before attacking, and
her Fo. Defense stat base is already massive to begin with at 155. Don’t even
both with Fo. Attack Skills unless you hit her before she can start bulking up. She
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also has First Aid to recover half her health instantly, meaning this could become
a battle of attrition. Thankfully, this is also your cue to restore your Puppet’s
health with items (so long as you have a tanky Puppet out that is resistant to Earth
and Light). You’ll want to be at near full health before the final, tougher fight.
Sister of the Devil Flandre

Speed Flandre, Unbound Black Choker
Lvl 68, Dark/Light
Power Flandre, Overwhelm Golden Hairpin
Lvl 68, Dark/Fire
Extra Flandre, Full Power Good Belt
Lvl 68, Warped/Light
This fight is against all three of Flandre’s Styles: Speed, Power, and Extra. She’ll
give you a run for your money, but each Style has serious drawbacks you can ex-
ploit.
Speed Flandre is a literal glass cannon, with bases of 120/120 in Fo. Attack/Sp.
Attack, 110 base in Speed, and bad Defenses and HP. The biggest issue here is
that she has a Black Choker, which works exceptionally well with Puppets like
this. If you have a very fast Puppet, you can likely outspeed her, but another op-
tion is to send out a resistant Puppet to Dark and Light (such as an Illusion-type
Puppet) and then grind her down. She’ll use high-Power Skills such as Arclight
that deal potentially massive damage, but drop her Sp. Attack or Fo. Attack by
two stages. Also be aware that she has Panic Call (Dark-type), and thus can get
rid of your held items and also deal double damage because of it. Try to defeat
her with Steel, Fighting, or Illusion-type Skills.
Power Flandre suffers from having high Fo. Attack (115 base) and Sp. Attack
(145 base), which means her other stats suffer because of it. In this case, she’s
fairly slow and has minimal HP, making her a ripe target for a one-hit KO. She
has St. Elmo’s Fire (Illusion-type) that has the same effect of eliminating your
Puppet’s Accessory and dealing double damage as Panic Call does, so don’t be
surprised to see her start with that. Crush her with any one of her myriad of weak-
nesses (Water, Earth, Dark, or Illusion).
Extra Flandre is a literal one-hit wonder thanks to Good Belt, which greatly in-
creases the Fo. Attack damage dealt but restricts her to only being able to use the
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same Skill over and over until she swaps out or is KO’d. Combine this with Full
Power, which boosts her damage further in exchange for taking a bit of damage at
the end of every turn, and you’ll have a very dangerous adversary on your hands.
She also has really solid Fo. Defense with a base of 120, meaning you might want
to go with Sp. Attack Skills instead. However, she’s pretty slow, so try to out-
speed her and go for a one-hit KO with Poison, Illusion, or especially Sound (4x
effectiveness!).
Flandre seems on the verge of snapping, but in reality is very happy to have found
a sturdy playmate. She asks if you can come back to play again so she won’t be
lonely.
Indeed, you can stop back here for a rather large series of puzzles, games, and an
eventual rematch with Flandre (only one fight this time, however) if you so choose.
We’ll cover that in Side Quest Section 4 later, though if you were to teleport some-
where else and return, you could do it immediately. It’s a bit complex, however, so
I suggest following the Guide. Also important to note is that your Puppets plain
aren’t ready for Flandre round 2 yet...trust me on this one.
Flandre doesn’t give anything to you for beating her (aside from the money items
dropped), but if you return to Remilia, you’ll be given a whopping five Fate
Threads. Instead of taking the maze back, simply leave the basement, use the Gap
Map to teleport to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and then make your way to Remilia
from the entrance.
There is actually another, greater prize for defeating Flandre: Reincarnation! If

you’ve noticed those letters next to your Puppet’s stats that range from E- to S,
they represent that stat’s Rank. Similar to the hidden IV system in Pokemon, this
is what affects your stat’s level of growth; in this game, however, you can actually
see the Rank. A stat with a lower Rank, such as E-, will end up significantly lower
than if it had a higher Rank, such as an A-.
So, what does that Reincarnation thing have to do with this? Well, Reincarnation
is the method in which you can change those Ranks, potentially making them bet-
ter or worse in the process. This also resets your Puppet’s Level to 1, meaning you
shouldn’t do it lightly. However, this is the only way to get a Puppet with full S-
Rank stats aside from your chosen Puppet at the start of the game. This can make a
massive difference in viability, and you’ll notice a huge difference during a play-
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through if your Puppets have stats with higher Ranks.
However, I don’t suggest you do anything with Reincarnation currently, as reset-

ting your Puppets to Level 1 is a bad idea during the actual playthrough. However,
this is a key system for New Game Plus, where you’ll be able to transfer over a full
team of Puppets (appearing at Level 5 when you get them from the Puppet Box).
Combine this with the capability of making them full S-rank and you can create an
awesome custom team of whatever Puppets you want for the playthrough. For
more information, please see the New Game Plus Preparation Section, and specifi-
cally the subsection for Reincarnation.
For now, you should make your way to the Great Library and head to Patchouli’s
area. Check the the table to the West that has a second Akyuu Doll on it for a large
number of Reincarnation Items. Talk to Patchouli if you want to hear a semi-de-
tailed explanation of Reincarnation, though I’ll be providing a more thorough one
later in the guide.
22. Cherry Blossoms in the Netherworld
The next step in your journey will take you to the Netherworld, a place where
Ghosts are sent by the Yama to wait to be reincarnated. Of course, nobody tells
you this; only by checking random pages in your Gap Map would you stumble
your way there.
Make sure your Puppets are healed up and your healing item stock replenished
(don’t forget to save!). Open up your Gap Map and use the A or D Keys to find
that a new page has been added to your Gap Map. You’ll recognize the Divine Spi-
rit Mausoleum, but the other three locations are new. We’ll cover the Yakumos’
Residence and Heaven soon in Side Quest Section 4. For now, teleport to the Bar-
rier of Life and Death.
You’ll appear in an isolated area in the clouds with a large door open to the North.
Pass through it to find yourself in the Realm of the Dead. Cherry Blossoms line
the long staircase, though this isn’t a normal phenomenon...
Proceed up the stairs to find a familiar face waiting for you. As expected of the
battle-addict Marisa, she’ll immediately challenge you to a fight!
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Power Patchouli, Resonance No Accessory
Lvl 63, Fire/Water
Defense Alice, Suppression No Accessory
Extra Mima, Pride No Accessory
Lvl 63, Nether/Dark
You think Marisa would have bulked up her Puppets more considering how badly
she keeps losing to you. That said, she’s still quite dangerous, so don’t let your
guard down.
Expect swap-outs if Marisa senses her Puppets are in danger.
Power Patchouli has massive Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense, but terrible Fo. Defense
and Speed. Don’t let her get an attack in and this becomes an easy KO, otherwise
you’ll get nailed by any number of powerful Skills that have the potential to de-
stroy you.
Defense Alice is much the same as the last time. She uses Mirror’s Reflection in
an attempt to deal twice the amount of Fo. Attack damage that she takes that turn,
but if you one-hit KO her with her 4x weakness to Warped, this becomes a non-is-
sue. She has Revolving Illusions (Illusion-type) to deal a small amount of dam-
age, but don’t expect it to be a huge threat. Try to hit her with Sp. Attack Skills to
target her weaker Sp. Defense stat.
Speed Nitori is a Puppet you’ve seen enough times to know how she works, but
she has a few tricks up her sleeve to catch you off-guard. Her Electromagnetic
Ability lets her absorb Electric-type Skills and also boost her Sp. Attack. She has
Waves of Earth to further stymie Electric-type Puppets as well as Steel-type Pup-
pets. If she has to pick a Skill, she often goes with Thunder Force (Electric-type).
Extra Mima is very fast and has decent Defenses. She has a wide variety of
Skills, including Gigantic (Fighting-type), Poison Bomb (Poison-type), and the
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expected Nether and Dark Skills. She goes down pretty easily, especially if you
hit her with Light to target her 4x weakness.
Speed Marisa comes paired with a Black Choker, so don’t expect to one-shot her.
This, of course, means you’ll be subject to a likely two turns of damage since
Speed Marisa is so fast. There aren’t any real surprises here apart from Eye of
Laplace (Dark-type), so just grind this one out and watch out for her hard hits.
This is a pretty easy fight to find time to swap Puppets out for Experience gain,
and you’ll get quite a lot for doing so.
The reason Marisa is here is because she heard from a Tengu (likely Aya) that
Cherry Blossoms began to bloom once again, which was the cause of a serious in-
cident in the past. She one-sidedly decides to have a contest to see who can discov-
er the reason behind their bloom before taking off, claiming victory goes to the one
who moves first.
Of course, your Puppets likely need a bit of healing, so pop by Kourindou to visit
our favorite healing Youkai before resuming your ascent up the stairs.
Marisa is quite talented at sneaking past gate guards thanks to her numerous trips
to the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s Great Libary to ‘borrow’ books; sadly, you lack that
ability, and are quickly stopped by Youmu, a half-Human, half-Ghost gardener who
swears to defend her master from any and all intruders!
Netherworld Gardener Youmu

Power Udonge, Precise Aim No Accessory
Speed Youmu, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Youmu is a highly-talented master of the blade, but usually serves as gardener and
general play toy of the Netherworld’s master, Yuyuko. Don’t underestimate her,
however, as she’s also a capable Puppeteer.
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Power Udonge has the annoying Gorgon’s Eye Skill (Illusion-type), which can
Stop your Puppet for a few turns and leave them open to her assault. She has a
very high Fo. Attack and decent Speed stat, but your Speed-focused Puppets can
likely act first and hopefully wipe her out before she can Stop them. Hit her with
Earth, Wind, Illusion, or Sound to take her out.
Speed Sakuya is a glass cannon that loves using poweful type-boosted Skills to
wreak havoc. She’ll be hard to outspeed, so you might want to rely on grinding
her down with a tanky Puppet. Try to target her 4x weakness to Warped.
Speed Youmu has high Fo. Attack, high Sp. Attack, and high Speed, meaning she
conversely has lower Defenses to make up for it. She’ll rely on Overtake Strike
(Steel-type, boosted Priority) to deal damage in small chunks, but also will use a
surprise Twin Thrust Skill (Fighting-type) to deal two hits, both for powerful
damage. She has a ton of weaknesses, so take her out with Earth, Light, Dark,
Nether, or Warped.
Heal up again and then make your way into Hakugyokurou, home of Yuyuko, You-
mu, and an assortment of Ghosts.
Hakugyokurou Puppets
Power Lily Nature/Void Normal
Speed Lyrica Sound/Nether Normal
Power Merlin Sound/Fighting Normal
Defense Lunasa Sound/Poison Normal
Speed Youmu Steel/Nether Normal
Power Yuyuko Nether/Nature Normal
There aren’t any items to collect outside of the residence, so go ahead and enter it
to find yourself in a definatively Japanese-style mansion. Marisa is looking around
in the Western room, but there’s nothing to collect there, so instead head East past
the next split and proceed down the long hallway. Inside the Eastern room, grab
both Hakugyou Dangos and return to the hallway.
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Return to the split and head North and then East to the double-door room, which
has another Hakugyou Dango inside.
Take the hallway North and then enter the room just West of the single path to find
a Youma Scroll: Red. This Accessory is only useful for a single Puppet, Extra Ko-
suzu, who uses her Bibliophilia Ability at the start of battle to read her held Youma
Scroll and completely alter her type and stats. If you aren’t using her, it’s com-
pletely useless.
Make your way to the Northern exit of the manor. You’ll find yourself in a very
nice garden that seems to have nobody around. However, if you take one step for-
ward and then head due East, you’ll soon be stopped by Yuyuko, who is in an ex-
cellent mood because of the Cherry Blossoms. In fact, she’s in such a good mood,
she challenges you to a Puppet battle for the sake of entertainment!
Spirit of the Netherworld Yuyuko

Power Youmu, Mind’s Eye No Accessory
Extra Yukari, Wisdom Eye Food Rations
Lvl 70, Illus./Warped
Power Yuyuko, Quick Eye Food Rations
Yuyuko is a step above Youmu, but you should be able to handle her easily
enough if you’ve made it this far. Just don’t be surprised to see sudden swap-outs
to avoid barrier-piercing Skills.
Power Youmu is physically strong, with high Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense, but has
weak Sp. Defense to make up for it. With a base Speed of 90, she can outspeed
slower Puppets, but she can still be outpaced by Speed-focused ones. She once
again loves using Overtake Strike (Steel-type, boosted Priority) to do chip dam-
age instead of actual damage Skills, so take advantage of this before she changes
her mind and wipe her out with Earth, Light, Dark, Nether, or Warped.
You might think Extra Yukari is an odd Puppet for Yuyuko to have, but in actual-
ity, Yukari and Yuyuko are best friends. Extra Yukari is odd in that she has Food
Rations, but she isn’t particularly tanky, though her Defenses and HP are solid.
Her Fo. Attack has a base of 125 and her Speed a base of 95, meaning she is a
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touch faster than Power Youmu was and hits just as hard. Extra Yukari has the El-
ement Reverse Skill, which makes your Puppet’s resisted types become weak-
nesses and their weaknesses become resistances (i.e. a Fire-type Puppet becomes
strong against Water and Earth, but weak to Fire, Nature, and Steel). She uses
type-boosted Skills such as Ephemeral (Illusion-type) to deal solid damage, but
one hit with a Sound-type Skill to target her 4x weakness before she can act will
eliminate both her Food Rations and her damage.
Power Yuyuko also has Food Rations for whatever reason. Like Extra Yukari, her
Defenses and HP are solid, but not exceptional. Her Speed is mediocre at best,
but her Sp. Attack is fairly high with a base of 125. Her Off-Season Bloom Skill
(Nature-type) does a lot of damage, so be on-guard for it. She has a ton of weak-
nesses (Fire, Steel, Light, Dark, and Nether), but be on guard for her to swap out
before you can hit her with one.
Yuyuko is a bit surprised to have lost, but seems happy because of it. She offers
you dango (likely more of the Hakugyou Dango you’ve been finding), which heals
your party to full. Until you solve the Cherry Blossom Incident, if you need more
healing, you can speak to her again.
Sadly, it seems Yuyuko has nothing to do with the Cherry Blossoms. Surf to the
Western bridge and follow the path North, heading through the gate.
As Cherry Blossom petals flutter down around you, proceed North to see a ton of
Lily Puppets wandering around. To the Northeast is Lily White herself, but all she
does is complain of the heat.
Check the giant tree in the center to see a solitary Lily Puppet standing there suspi-
ciously. Speak to it to enter into battle with a Level 99 Lily Puppet! You can’t ac-
tually capture it, so don’t waste your Threads. Simply knock it out as best you can.
Once she is defeated, the Lily Puppet and all the other ones in the area will disap-
pear along with the Cherry Blossom petals. While you may not be able to see it
until you move, the Lily Puppet you defeated left behind a present. Check it to
find Incident Case 8, though why a Puppet would be holding an Incident Case is
odd...
Return to Hakugyou and enter the mansion. Head South to find Marisa waiting for
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you. She’ll look disappointed that the ruckus was all because of a Fairy Puppet.
She swears she won’t lose when next you fight before taking off.
With this, you’ve cleared the Netherworld, and are one step closer to collecting the
entirety of those mysterious Incident Reports. Good job!
At this point, we’ve unlocked the last of the remaining Side Quests. As such, the
next section will be devoted to completing each and every one of them, though you
can pick and choose at your leisure, of course.
One of these will unlock a battle with the other God of Moriya Shrine, Suwako,
who will give you a better version of the Combat Handbook when defeated. I
highly suggest getting it to speed your Puppets’ growth.
If you wish to continue with the Expansion Story, skip the following section of the
guide and proceed with the section afterward: Old Enemies, New Friends. For
everybody else, we have some serious Side Questing to do!
We’ll start off with the Kasen item collecting Side Quest that’s key for New Game
Plus Reincarnation preperation as well as making Suwako appear. There’ll be a lot
of entirely optional encounters after that, including delving into the deepest parts of
the Ice Cavern.
A. Kasen’s Side Quest
This one almost needs a guide, as there’s little chance you’ll successfully complete
Kasen’s request otherwise.
Teleport to the Youkai Mountain Rest Area and head West until you reach the aptly
named Youkai Mountain Misty Area.
Youkai Mountain Misty Area Puppets

Power Marisa Light/Dark Normal
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Defense Tokiko Wind/Electric Normal
Speed Iku Electric/Wind Normal
Speed Shou Light/Earth Normal
Power Kokoro Void/Light Rare
Right away, you’re faced with a South/West split. We’ll head West first. Snag the
Rainbow Candy as you make your way to the next area.
Check the Northern grassy patch for a Youma Scroll: Blue (still likely worthless
for your party). The Charm Peddler to the South has pretty much every Charm in
the game as well as a Gold Talisman and a Silver Talisman. If those two held
items interest you, hold off on buying them, as you’ll get one of each for free for
completing a different Side Quest. You’ll also find a Life Charm very soon, so
hold off on that as well unless you want multiples. To the Southwest of the Peddler
is another Rainbow Candy; snag it and then leave the area via the Western exit.
Grab the Wedge Charm (raises the Puppet’s Fo. Attack in a pinch) as you make
your way to the split. Amusingly enough, you’ll see the same Trader to the North,
so instead head South to find yourself in a new area.
The grassy area far to the West has a Rainbow Candy. There’s nothing else here,
so continue along the path to the Northwest exit.
You’ll reach a North/South split soon enough. The North path leads back to the
original entrance of this maze-like area, so instead head South and then take the
Western path.
Head into the Western grass and snag the hidden Rotation Charm (raises a random
stat in a pinch) just past the stump. At the South/West split, head South first to find
a Life Charm (restores a chunk of HP at around half health or lower) at the dead
end area. Return to the split and head West to find yourself in a completely new
area without fog.
Kasen’s House Area Puppets

Power Komachi Water/Steel Normal
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Defense Hijiri Fighting/Light Normal
Power Kasen Fighting/Illusion Normal
Power Miko Light/Fire Normal
Power Reimu Fighting/Illusion Rare
Leave an offering at the Jizo statue as you make your way to the house. If you’ve
been dedicated thus far, it’ll be your final Jizo statue; perhaps all this good Karma
you’ve been building will come back to you in the near future...?
Inside the house, you’ll find Kasen, a hermit who you may remember was Shrine-
watching for Reimu during the Puppet Incident. Not wasting any time, she’ll ask
for a favor from you. While she was gone, some of her valuable possessions were
stolen by Puppets and scattered around Gensokyo. If you manage to find all four,
she’ll reward you with a very valuable item for Reincarnation that will greatly aid
in creating full S-Rank Puppets. Plus, this opens up the Suwako Optional Boss
Fight as well, so it’s a win-win!
Interestingly enough, one of her missing items is located fairly close by at the
Great Toad’s Pond. We’ll be journeying back into the fog, but this time it’ll be a
much shorter trip.
From Kasen’s House, head East. At the next area, head North and follow the path
to the next section. At the grassy intersection, head South. Grab the Vee Charm
(raises Sp. Attack in a pinch) as you make your way through to the Great Toad’s
Pond.
Great Toad’s Pond Puppets

Assist Cirno Water Normal
Power Cirno Water/Nature Normal
Speed Suwako Earth/Water Normal
Defense Suwako Earth/Steel Normal
This is an excellent place to find the otherwise extremely rare Suwako, so if you
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haven’t gotten her yet, this is your chance.
You’ll see an absolute ton of frogs hopping around, and one of them just happen to
have Kasen’s first lost item. Thankfully, it’s always in the same general place.
Check in the area around the shrine to the Northeast of the large pond. You’ll see a
frog that moves much faster than the rest; catch it to receive the Peach Hairpin.
This concludes our business in this area, and collecting the Hairpin also happens to
unlock the very lucrative Suwako battle back at the Moriya Shrine. If getting twice
as much Experience for one Puppet every battle sounds exciting to you, then con-
sider checking out ‘Moriya Shrine Part 2’ before continuing on with Kasen’s Side
Quest. You’ll likely get excellent use out of the Accessory if you do!
Our next stop will be Route 2 West in the Ruins Area. To get there, teleport to the
Human Village and head East to Route 1. On Route 1, hug the path on the North
side until you come to a cluster of rocks, one of which can be broken to access
Route 2 West. After that, simply follow the path until you reach the Ruins Area.
You’ll see an apparent girl named Kana defeat a wild Puppet and collect something
unusual that it dropped. You’d be right if you expected this to be one of Kasen’s
lost items. Thankfully, Kana offers to give it to you if you defeat her in a Puppet
battle!
Poltergeist Kana
Defense Lunasa, Slow Tempo Golden Hairpin
Extra Kana, Negative Aura No Accessory
Lvl 65, Nether/Void
Yes, Kana is actually a Ghost of sorts, though it’s complicated. Regardless, she
won’t likely be a huge threat to you at this point, though if your team struggles
with Sound-type Puppets, you might want to be careful.
Expect them all to do solid damage, especially Extra Kana and Power Lyrica
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(thanks to her Charge! Ability), but you can outspeed each one and likely one-hit
KO everybody except potentially Defense Lunasa, who has really high Defenses
but pathetic damage.
After defeating Kana, she gives you the Way of the Knife and departs.
From here, we’ll be heading to the Hakurei Shrine. I’d suggest you heal up and
prepare for a tough fight or two depending on if you choose to partake in the op-
tional battle with Reimu. Then again, why skip the fun? Speak to her in her room
and get ready for a challenge!

Power Aya, Salvo Champion’s Medal
Power Suika, Drunkard Good Belt
Extra Kasen, Stubborn Golden Hairpin
Lvl 65, Fight./Warped
Defense Yukari, Unjustness Food Rations
Extra Reimu, Mind’s Eye Black Choker
Lvl 68, Wind/Warped
Reimu decided to undergo a team change, swapping around some of her Puppet
Styles and Accessories.
That said, her Power Aya remains the same as before. She’s just as dangerous
with Salvo and her Champion’s Medal, so don’t let her get rolling or else you’ll
regret it. You know enough by now the damage she can do. However, she’ll
likely get swapped out if Reimu senses danger, so don’t be surprised if she reap-
pears at a terrible time and starts wreaking havoc.
Power Suika is one of those Puppets with a massive stat base but a terrible Ability
to make up for it. In this case, she has one of the highest Fo. Attack stats in the
game at base 165, but can only attack once every other turn thanks to Drunkard.
However, combine this with her Good Belt and a solid base 100 Speed and she
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becomes a terrifying assassin that swaps in for one turn, does incredible damage,
and then swaps back out afterwards. She primarily uses Fighting and Earth-type
Skills (which are type-boosted), so avoid having Puppets out that are weak to
those or you’ll see them get one-shot unless you can cut through her high health
pool first. However, she also has Inferno (Fire-type) to mix things up a bit as
well.
Extra Kasen is a fun one. She has the Stubborn Ability, which prevents her from
being one-shot. That said, she has such high HP and Fo. Defense (130 base) that
it’ll be hard for you to do that anyway unless you aim at her much lower Sp. De-
fense. She uses the Impulse Skill (Warped-type) as her primary Sp. Attack Skill,
but also uses Fire-Dragon Spiral (Fire-type) to deal damage and then deal addi-
tional damage at the end of every turn for 2-5 turns as well as keep your Puppet
from swapping out. Hit her with Sound to strike for 4x effectiveness and ruin her
day.
Defense Yukari is mainly the same as before, but now she uses Skills such as
Field Protect to lower your entire team’s damage, which will almost certainly
cause serious issues for you unless you have a Break Skill handy. She uses Un-
known Flare (Illusion-type) to do solid damage, but she’s mainly there to be a
brick wall and to use Field Protect.
Extra Reimu is much faster than Reimu’s other Styles, clocking in just shy of
Power Aya. She’ll use that Speed to rain down powerful Skills such as Flying
Frenzy (Wind-type) and Tumble Plant (Nature-type) to do damage while hiding
behind her Black Choker for protection from a one-hit KO. Extra Reimu is only
weak to Poison and Electric, and since Poison-types get barrier-pierced by Wind-
type Skills, send out a tanky Electric-type Puppet if possible to grind her down.
Watch out for a swap-out to Power Suika if she feels threatened by an Electric-
type Skill, however.
Reimu sulks a bit and swears to find a way to defeat you before you return home.
Considering how much she hates training, however, this probably won’t happen
anytime soon.
Head next door to heal up. You’ll see an odd-shaped thing in the corner of the
room, so save up first and then check it out.
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This is actually Shinmyoumaru, leader of the Inchlings. She naturally takes of-
fense to your character’s rough handling of her and decides to punish you with a
Puppet battle!
Descendant of the Inchlings Shinmyoumaru

Power Raiko, Active No Accessory
Lvl 63, Sound/Void
Speed Yatsuhashi, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 63, Sound
Speed Seija, Usurpation No Accessory
Lvl 63, Poison
Power Sukuna, Indomitable No Accessory
The question should be raised as to how an Inchling can handle Puppets bigger
than herself, much less five.
Regardless, Shinmyoumaru is a strong Puppeteer who has the entire latter cast of
Touhou 14 as her team (starting from Stage 4 onwards). If you hate Sound-type
Puppets, be prepared for a fun ride, as you’ll be dealing with three of them.
Power Raiko is always a tough one thanks to her sole weakness to Earth and high
Sp. Attack. Thankfully, she’s quite slow, so try to take her out before she can deal
her devestating damage, preferably by striking at her slightly lower Sp. Defense.
Power Benben does slightly less damage than Power Raiko, but has a bit more
Speed to make up for it. She has a surprise Lightning Cut Skill (Electric-type) to
catch Wind-type Puppets off-guard, but aside from that, expect a straightforward
fight. Target her multitude of weaknesses and try to take her down before she has
a chance to strike.
Speed Yatsuhashi is potential trouble waiting to happen. Her Sp. Attack damage
starts off lower than the others at a solid base 105, but she uses Brave Song to
boost it by two levels, making it quite formidable. She’s fast enough to outspeed
all but the fastest of your Puppets, making her Speed combined with Brave Song
a potentially dangerous combination. She has Rapid Throw (Steel-type) to deal
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potentially solid off-type damage with 2-5 hits, with each hit getting boosted
slightly by the Strategist Ability. She is a pure Sound-type Puppet, so nail her
with Electric or Wind to shut her down.
Speed Seija is reasonably fast for a Speed-Style Puppet, but has surprisingly low
Fo. Attack as her main attack stat. Her high HP stat (for a Speed-Style Puppet,
anyway) will make it harder to one-hit KO her unless you aim for her weaker Fo.
Defense stat. She has the Dark-type Panic Call Skill which removes your Acces-
sory and deals double damage if it does so. Honestly, she’s the weakest link here
if you ignore the chance to be Poisoned, so use her as a breather to heal your Pup-
pets if she is sent out in the middle of the battle.
Power Sukuna has a lot of Fo. Attack and a solid amount of Fo. Defense, but the
trade-off here is a so-so Speed stat and lower Sp. Defense. She also has a surpris-
ingly low base HP (60), making her a ripe target for a one-shot. Power Sukuna
uses Samurai Edge (Steel-type) and Reckless Dive (Fighting-type, deals damage
to Sukuna if it misses) to deal high type-boosted damage in exchange for a chance
to miss. Her Indomitable Ability (prevents a one-shot) means that she’ll almost
certainly get an attack off unless you use a multi-hit Skill. Grind this one out with
a Defense-focused Puppet if possible, aiming at her weaknesses to Fire and Fight-
ing.
Interestingly enough, Shinmyoumaru saw one of Kasen’s lost items in the well be-
hind the Shrine. Reimu will kick the both of you out because of the commotion,
but you can simply return to the room and heal up.
Head West from the entrance and follow the path behind the Shrine. You’ll see
Suika loitering around and looking for a fight. If you wish, you can walk by her
without issue, but for those looking to battle, prepare for a Suika-filled fight!
Oni Suika
Defense Suika, Charge Silver Hairpin
Extra Suika, Imposing Stance Straw Doll
Lvl 68, Fire/Water
Power Suika, Drunkard Life Charm
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Suika is pretty straightforward. All of her Puppets do high amounts of damage,
meaning you will either want to outspeed them and go for the one-shot (difficult
since they are also fairly sturdy), or grind them out and beat them in two turns.
Watch out for Extra Suika’s Racing Earth Skill, which boosts her Speed by two
levels. Combine this with her massive damage and things can get ugly.
Check the well just past Suika to find the Dog Whistle. That makes three out of
four items found!
Kasen’s final item is in Muenzuka, which is far to the West of Marisa’s House in
the Forest of Magic Part 2. From Marisa’s House, head Northwest, cross the small
river, and continue Northwest until you reach the large bridge. Take the Southern
path to the end and you’ll find yourself on the Road of Reconsideration.
Follow the path South until you reach an area with hurdles on both the East and
West. Jump the Western hurdle, take the path North, and hop over another hurdle.
Take this path as it curves North and you’ll reach Muenzuka. From there, simply
follow the path until you reach a large field of flowers and rocks; make your way
to the Northern flower path and take it to the end. You’ll find the Monkey Seat in
front of the beautiful purple tree.
With this, you’ve collected all of Kasen’s items. Use the convenient Gap Map tele-
port location to return to her house directly. For your troubles, you’ll receive the
Rainbow M. Stone. This awesome item is key to maximizing your Puppet’s Rank
gains in Reincarnation; for more information, see the New Game Plus Preparation
Section, and more specifically the section on Reincarnation.
B. Moriya Shrine Part 2
There are two optional battles available at Moriya Shrine. Make sure your Puppets
are healed up and then teleport there. Talk to Sanae for a rematch!
Shrine Maiden of the Mountain Sanae (2)

Speed Kogasa, Warning Shot Straw Doll
Lvl 65, Water/Light
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Power Nue, Hobgoblin Silver Hairpin
Power Kanako, Unjustness Golden Hairpin
Lvl 65, Wind/Nature
Defense Suwako, Stimulative Anti-Flora Charm
Lvl 65, Earth/Steel
Extra Sanae, On the Edge Black Choker
Lvl 68, Light/Void
Sanae is much stronger than before, and is a full-fledged boss fight now. She has
strong AI that will occasionally read your mind and act accordingly, targeting
swapped-in Puppets with barrier-piercing Skills and swapping her own out when
in obvious danger.
As a special note, be wary of getting tricked by Power Nue’s Hobgoblin Ability,

as she’ll impersonate another of Sanae’s Puppets and try to catch you off-guard.
The trickery will end when she takes damage, but if you have a Puppet out that’s
weak to Illusion or Electric, it might be too late.
Speed Kogasa is by far the weakest link here. She has boosted damage thanks to
her Straw Doll Accessory, though it reduces her health a bit whenever she uses a
Skill. Either prepare yourself to take a hit with a tanky Puppet and grind it out
that way, or simply outspeed her (she only has base 110 Speed, so it’s doable) and
strike before she can.
As mentioned above, Power Nue has the Hobgoblin Ability, so you actually won’t
know when she swaps in unless you send in a Puppet with the Quick Eye Ability
or you start seeing surprise Illusion-type or Electric-type Skills. You’ll simply
have to manage the best you can, though in the rare case where Sanae swaps in
two similar Puppets back to back, that’s a big clue that one or the other is the fake.
Once she is revealed as the fake, strike hard at her with Earth, Illusion, or Warped
to prevent her from retreating and returning as yet another Puppet’s fake.
Power Kanako is straightforward, but powerful. She’s not fast enough to out-
speed you, but makes up for it with high HP and decent Defenses. She’ll do a lot
of damage with Skills such as Foehn Winds (Wind-type, does recoil damage) and
Natural Beauty (Nature-type), but if you outspeed her with a Steel-type Puppet,
you can strike at her 4x weakness and send her packing.
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Defense Suwako isn’t actually that bad. She has higher Fo. Defense than Sp. De-
fense along with a decent HP total and Sp. Attack stat. She won’t win many races
with her so-so Speed, but she can take a hit or two unless you hit her with her 4x
weakness to Fighting. Silver Rain (Steel-type) is her go-to Skill, but she also has
Waves of Earth to target anyone foolish enough to swap in an Electric Puppet.
Extra Sanae is a monster waiting to happen. You do NOT want to go for a one-
shot KO against her unless you like potentially getting swept. Her On the Edge
Ability boosts her Speed by three times and boosts her damage by 30% when she
has 1 HP, and guess what the Black Choker is designed to do? Try to hit her with
a weaker Skill or one that she’ll resist (such as Void or Light) to take her below
max health, then finishing her with a 4x effective Dark-type Skill on the next turn.
She loves using Over Ray (Light-type, boosted Priority), so gamble on her using
that instead of her more dangerous Sneak Attack (Illusion, boosted Priority, fails
if your Puppet doesn’t attack) or Death March (Void-type, becomes more power-
ful the lower Extra Sanae’s health gets). If she somehow gets to 1 HP, hope you
can somehow finish her off, perhaps with a boosted-Priority Skill of your own,
before she takes advantage and starts rolling.
If you manage to defeat Sanae, you get a rare portrait of her with tears in her eyes,
you bully, you.
The next part can only be done if you started Kasen’s item-gathering Side Quest.
Heal up and then make your way to the lake far behind the Shrine. Take off from
the middle of the path and head straight North to find a figure standing on a lone is-
land.
Meet Suwako, a frog-like being who, along with Kanako, is a God of Moriya
Shrine. She seems excited to see someone come out this far, especially the person
who managed to beat down Sanae and Kanako. She’ll challenge you to a fight as
well!
Native God Suwako

Speed Utsuho, Duel Good Belt
Lvl 65, Fight/Fighting
Power Aya, Salvo Good Ring
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Power Sanae, Lucky Life Charm
Lvl 65, Wind/Water
Defense Kanako, Unjustness Silver Hairpin
Lvl 65, Wind/Earth
Speed Suwako, Moody Straw Doll
Lvl 68, Earth/Water
Suwako is just as strong as you would expect of a God. Her AI is equivalent to
the likes of Kanako and Shinki, meaning expect heavy mind-reading, Puppet-
swapping, and barrier-piercing attacks upon swapping in.
Speed Utsuho has a Good Belt, meaning she’ll get a significant boost in Sp. At-
tack, but be stuck with only using one attack until she swaps out. Despite her
Speed-Style label, she actually isn’t very fast, and only has a base Speed of 90. In
other words, you should be able to act before her if you plan ahead, hopefully
wiping her out in one blow with Water, Wind, or Sound. Watch out for a surprise
Electric Sign targeting weaknesses, as while it is fairly weak with a 60 Power
base, her Good Belt will make it dangerous.
Making her return is the team wipe specialist, Power Aya. Did you know that she
can learn Godstone Frenzy (Earth-type) in addition to her other five-hit Skills,
Twister and Shooting Arts? Well, you do now. Unlike Reimu, Suwako actually
uses Power Aya to deadly effectiveness, but is hampered by her Good Ring,
which significantly boosts Fo. Attack but forces her to repeat the same Skill until
she swaps out. This prevents her from changing Skills to target weaknesses, but
she’ll be swapped out if this becomes an issue (such as being forced to repeat
Godstone Frenzy against a Wind-type Puppet). If she ends up being the last Pup-
pet standing, try to manipulate her into using whichever Skill is least damaging
overall for your team and then finish her as soon as possible.
Power Sanae is a bit frustrating. Her Life Charm may very well come into play
thanks to a base 90 HP, Fo. Defense, and Sp. Defense. She loves compensating
for her lower Speed by using Shocking Wave, which, if it hits, will inflict the
Shock Status Effect on your Puppet. This means you’ll always go last and get hit
by any attack guaranteed. Don’t underestimate her damage either, as she has a
strong Sp. Attack base of 120. The best way to deal with her is to strike first be-
fore she can cause any mayhem, preferrably aiming at her obvious 4x weakness to
Electric-type Skills. Just don’t be surprised if she gets swapped out for Defense
Kanako or Speed Suwako to nullify the blow.
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Defense Kanako has a massive Fo Defense stat (140 base), meaning you don’t
want to strike at that or you’ll bounce off. She also does significant Fo. Attack
damage with recoil Skills such as Foehn Winds. You should also be ready for a
surprise Tumble Plant (Nature-type), which does significantly more damage if
your Puppet has a high Cost (see Puppetdex for more info). Thankfully, she’s
rather slow, so try to outspeed her and strike with Water, Nature, Steel, or Warped.
Speed Suwako is a fairly typical battle until you factor her Moody Ability in. At
the end of every turn, she’ll get a two stage boost to one random stat and a one
stage drop in another. This can quickly spiral into a nightmare, especially if she
gets boosts in Speed, Sp. Attack, or Evasion; what makes this even more frustrat-
ing is her Supernatural Border Skill, which protects her from all damage the turn
she uses it, which basically gives her a free Moody boost every other turn (since
Supernatural Border likely fails if used in succession).
The topper on this is her Straw Doll, which will sacrifice a small amount of HP
after every attack in exchange for a large boost in damage. Combine this with
Moody and this just makes things much worse. In terms of damaging Skills,
you’ll see the likely Earth and Water-type Skills, but she also has Gravity Blast
(Illusion-type), which does far more damage if your Puppet is at full health. You
can potentially outspeed her if you have a very fast Puppet (though a single turn
of Moody can potentially change that), but the safer bet is to send out a tanky
Puppet that is resistant to Earth and Water in the hopes of grinding it out in one or
two turns max.
For winning one of the hardest battles in the game, Suwako gives you the Native
Grace Accessory, which doubles both Experience and PP gain. This is by far the
best way to Level up your Puppets, so make sure to always have it equipped (pref-
erably with both Combat Handbooks as well) to help boost your team even higher.
C. A Meeting with Yukari
That pretty much says it all, honestly. You’ve waited the entire game for a chance
to meet her, and this is your big chance!
First, however, there’s an optional fight with Chen back in Mayohiga. If you don’t
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take the opportunity now before meeting with Yukari, you won’t get the chance
again. Teleport to the Youkai Mountain Rest Area and head East, following the
path to Mayohiga and through it until reaching Chen’s house in the back. Talk to
her for a battle!
Yakumo’s Cat Chen

Power Rin, Flexible No Accessory
Lvl 62, Fire/Nether
Speed Shou, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 62, Light/Earth
Speed Chen, Free Will No Accessory
Lvl 64, Wind
Chen is an easy enough fight.
Power Rin can use Will-o’-Wisp to inflict Burn and Dark at the same time, and
has the Speed to potentially do it before your Puppet can act; however, she’ll go
down in a single blow with her weak Defenses, Status Effects or no.
Speed Shou is a lot like Power Rin in that she’s fairly fast but has lower Defenses
because of it.
Speed Chen is blisteringly fast, but has so-so damage at best. Expect Blaze Spear
(Fire-type) to be one of her attacks of choice along with the expected Wind-type
Skills.
After defeating her, she’ll ask if you’ve challenged Yukari and Ran yet. She’ll hint
at using the Gap Map to find them.
Heal up and prepare as usual, because who knows what will happen when dealing
with Yukari Yakumo. Once you’re ready, check your Gap Map and use the A or D
keys to cycle pages until you reach the page with four locations on it. Choose Ya-
kumo’s Residence, which is in the upper-left box.
Yakumo’s Residence Area Puppets

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Speed Chen Wind Normal
Power Ran Illusion/Fire Rare
Defense Yukari Illusion/Dark Rare
In the grass to the South, you’ll find the entire Yakumo family of Puppets (Chen,
Ran, and Yukari). This is the best chance to nab Yukari in the game, so if you ha-
ven’t gotten her yet, this would be the time.
Head West until you reach the house, but before going in, head South to find a
Skirmisher Charm, which raises Speed in a pinch. There’s nothing left of interest
outside; enter the house and pass through the sole door in the entrance area. Either
speak to Ran or attempt to pass by and she’ll challenge you to a battle!
Shikigami of Yakumo Ran

Extra Momiji, Counter Stance No Accessory
Lvl 63, Steel/Nature
Power Mamizou, Hobgoblin No Accessory
Lvl 63, Illusion/Earth
Assist Chen, Niche No Accessory
Lvl 63, Wind/Earth
Extra Ran, Supine No Accessory
Lvl 65, Warped/Earth
Ran is a significant step up from Chen, though still not on the level of Suwako,
Marisa, or Reimu. Watch out for her Power Mamizou’s Hobgoblin Ability to
come into play.
Extra Momiji is dirt slow. You could outspeed her with almost anything, but she
has high Defenses and decent HP. Her Counter Stance will deal a bit of damage if
you hit her with a BU-type Skill (these are usually direct contact Skills, such as
Cruciform). Thankfully, she does mediocre damage at best. Torch her with her
4x weakness to Fire and prevent her from using annoying trap Skills.
Expect Power Mamizou to come out masquerading as Extra Ran after Extra Mo-
moji goes down. If you don’t see the Sun Shower Weather effect come up, it’s ac-
tually Power Mamizou; this should hopefully prevent you from being caught out
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by her Hobgoblin Ability, which can lead you into a bad situation since Power
Mamizou does surprisingly high damage. Watch out for her Killing Bite Skill
(Steel-type) that gives her further opportunity to punish your Puppets if you fall
for her trick.
Assist Chen is fast and that’s about it. She loves using Encourage to force your
Puppet to continue using the same Skill over and over, but her Defenses and HP
are so mediocre that it’ll probably backfire on her anyway. Blow on through her
and move on.
Extra Ran has high Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense, and especially Speed, but lower HP
and extremely low Fo. Defense. She loves using Luscious Whisper (Warped-
type) to deal consistantly high damage, but also has a surprise Cold Rain Skill
(Water-type) to use if needed. It will be difficult to outspeed her, so instead try to
send out a Puppet capable of taking a few hits in order to defeat her.
If needed, heal up and return. Once you are prepared, enter the room and finally
speak to Yukari face-to-face. She greets you by name and asks how you’ve been
enjoying Gensokyo; after all, life here is far different than in the outside world.
She mentions something about adding some more variety to your journey in Gen-
sokyo before challenging you to a fight!
Sage of Gensokyo Yukari

Extra Chen, Known Limits No Accessory
Lvl 65, Earth/Void
Extra Suika, Imposing Stance No Accessory
Lvl 65, Fire/Water
Lvl 65, Earth
Power Ran, Morale Boost No Accessory
Extra Yukari, Wisdom Eye Life Charm
Lvl 68, Illus./Warped
It makes me incredibly sad that Yukari was only given the typical boss music in-
stead of Necrofantasia. Then again, that might be a bit too intimidating, but it still
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sucks.
Either way, Yukari is a powerful opponent, so prepare for a tough battle. Her AI
is surprisingly mediocre, however, so she won’t necessarily be reading your mind
like Suwako or Reimu can.
Extra Chen loves using Raid (Void-type) to strike before your Puppet can. This
deals minimal damage, however, and is a poor use of her otherwise solid Fo. At-
tack and Speed. Don’t be surprised if she pulls out an attack such as Swallow Cut
(Wind-type) as well, but Extra Chen is easily the weakest link of the fight.
Extra Suika does a lot of damage, but has middling stats all around aside from her
Sp. Attack. She’ll use the expected Fire and Water-type Skills, but also pulls out
GIGANTIC (Fighting-type), which can miss but deals tons of damage if it hits.
She’s fairly straightforward, so try to beat her down with Earth, Electric, or Poi-
son.
Power Tenshi has high Fo. Attack (base 130) and a fairly high Fo. Defense (base
115) to threaten you with alongside a decent base 95 Speed. She has a surprise
Sound-type Skill in Detonation Burst that will deal tons of damage, but lower her
Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense after using it. She also has Brandish (Steel-type),
which does solid damage in exchange for dealing recoil damage to her. If she
uses Brandish, it’ll leave her wide open without her Indomitable Ability to other-
wise prevent a one-shot.
Power Ran has a fairly high Speed (base 115) to pair with her high Fo. Attack
(base 125), but her biggest threat is in being able to inflict the Heavy Burn Status
Effect by using Thermit. This can be incredibly debilitating if your Puppet is left
out for multiple turns; try to defeat her before she can use it or heal it up with a
Myouren Tea.
Extra Yukari has a high Fo. Attack (base 125) and that’s about it. The rest of her
stats are all decent (bases are all 80-100), but nothing special, though that may be
enough to bring her Life Charm into play. She has Shooting Press (Earth-type) to
catch you off-guard in addition to the expected on-type Skills. She’ll go down ex-
tremely easy if you use a Sound-type Skill to target her 4x weakness.
After losing, Yukari confirms to herself that she was indeed correct in bringing
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you. She brings you outside her house to the Eastern section of her property.
Bringing your attention to the series of gates to the North, she explains that this is
where you can fight against people from other dimensions.
In other words, you’ve now unlocked the ability to go online and battle with other
people who are playing this game. This is a semi-difficult process to set up, but if
you are interested in fighting other people, this is the place to do it.
If you return to Yukari, she’ll hint that there may be more to find around Genso-
kyo...
D. Heaven
There is one last new location on the Gap Map that we can travel to. There aren’t
any huge rewards for clearing it, but there are some expensive items to be found
that could save you quite a lot of money if you were to buy them otherwise.
Heaven is found on the same Gap Map page as the Yakumo House. Check the bot-
tom-right box to find the teleport location, though make sure you heal up first!
Heaven Puppets
Defense Suika Fighting/Fire Normal
Speed Iku Electric/Wind Normal
Defense Tenshi Earth/Light Normal
Defense Ichirin Fighting/Electric Normal
You’ll find yourself in a peaceful land soaring above the clouds. If you haven’t
found Tenshi or Iku Puppets yet, this is a great place to find them.
Follow the path West for a ways. You’ll eventually be meet an usual-looking You-
kai called Iku who warns you of the dangers in Heaven before attacking!
Oarfish Iku
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Speed Seiga, Curse Return No Accessory
Lvl 66, Nether
Speed Rei’sen, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 66, Void/Water
Power Sagume, Reflect Guard No Accessory
Power Iku, Air Cushion No Accessory
Lvl 68, Electric
Iku is a fairly standard mid-boss fight.
Speed Seiga uses Solar Eclipse to inflict both Fear and Confusion on your Puppet
before using Moon’s Protection to boost her Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense. She
then uses Ghost Wave to deal consistant damage while you’re still debilitated. I’d
suggest outspeeding her and going for a one-hit KO if possible.
Speed Rei’sen does minimal damage, but is very fast and has the Strategist Abil-
ity to help boost her damage a bit when using weaker Skills. Watch out for a sur-
prise Unknown Flare (Illusion-type) to catch out those who think they’re safe
from her type-boosted Void Skills.
Power Sagume hits hard and is fairly fast, meaning you’ll have to either send out
a very fast Puppet to one-shot her before she can act or simply grind it out. She
loves using Primal Noise (Sound-type) to deal consistantly high damage, but
watch out for her debilitating Poison-type Skills as well. A nice Wind-type Skill
will send her packing thanks to her 4x weakness.
Power Iku does a lot of Sp. Attack damage and is fairly tanky. She has Inferno
(Fire-type) and Gravity Blast (Illusion-type, deals heavy damage if your Puppet is
full on HP) to deal off-type damage in addition to Thunderlord’s Scorn (Electric-
type). She’s immune to Earth-type Skills thanks to her Air Cushion, so Power Iku
is one of the few Puppets without any weaknesses. Grind it out the best you can.
After defeating Iku, she once again warns you of the dangers of being found by an
Angel.
Head West past the stairs going up and instead head down the steps to the West.
Grab your second Deadly Secrets (boosts barrier-piercing damage) of the play-
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through in the flower field in the Northwest. Return to Iku and head up the stairs
next to her, though I’d consider healing before going any farther.
Just to the East of the bridge, grab a Bhava-Agra Set. At the North/East split past
the bridge, head North first and climb multiple sets of steps. The Ghost is friendly,
so ignore it and head West. You’ll see an item past the water, but skip it for the
moment and instead follow the path North. Continue on it all the way as it curves
around, passing by the friendly Human, until you reach a long bridge heading
South. At the far side you’ll find a Straw Doll, which boosts damage by a solid
amount in exchange for taking a small amount of damage every time you use a
Skill.
Return to the friendly human and head East over the hurdle to grab the item from
before, a Javelin Arts. This item boosts the damage of Javelin Skills, but unless
you use multiple ones per Puppet, it likely won’t be worth it.
Head back to the North/East split from earlier and go East. Before heading up the
stairs, check the grassy field to the North for another Bhava-Agra Set. Go ahead
and climb the stairs now, following the path to the lake and up a large set of stairs.
Save if you want to and then continue on to meet Tenshi, a mischievious Celestial
who caused quite a big incident in the past simply because she was bored. She’ll
grumble about Reimu having previously come to punish her, but once she realizes
the older Angels aren’t around, she’ll challenge you to a Puppet battle!
Celestial Tenshi
Power Iku, Air Cushion Silver Hairpin
Lvl 70, Electric
Power Suika, Drunkard Golden Hairpin
Lvl 70, Earth
Tenshi is strong, but since she only has three Puppets, you should be able to han-
dle her well enough.
Power Iku is almost the exact same as before (perhaps a bit tankier), except she
has a Silver Hairpin to boost her Electric-type Skill damage. She still has Gravity
Blast (Illusion-type) and Inferno (Fire-type) as off-type Skills. Handle her just
like you did previously, though beware of her Lightning Speed Skill (Electric-
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type) that will swap her out with another of Tenshi’s Puppets.
Power Suika is massively powerful and will one-shot your weaker Puppets if you
let her. She can only attack once every other turn thanks to Drunkard, however,
so use that to your advantage. She has a solid base 100 Speed, so don’t be sur-
prised if she moves before your slower Puppets. Expect the usual Fighting-type
and Earth-type Skills as well as Inferno (Fire-type).
Power Tenshi has high Fo. Attack (base 130) and a fairly high Fo. Defense (base
115) to threaten you with alongside a decent base 95 Speed. She loves using
Brandish (Steel-type), which does solid damage in exchange for dealing recoil
damage to her. If she uses Brandish, it’ll leave her wide open without her Indomi-
table Ability to otherwise prevent a one-shot.
Tenshi doesn’t have a lot to say, especially since you already figured out who the
culprit of the Puppet Incident is.
Go ahead and descend the two waterfalls and disembark at the Western bank.
Head South until you see a Bhava-Agra Set in between two hurdles.
That completes your trip to Heaven!
E. Karmatic Reward
This Side Quest is very easy if you’ve been keeping up on it through the Guide, as
you should already be at the end point. If not, you’ll have some serious backtrack-
ing to do.
If you remember all the Jizo statues that we’ve passed throughout the journey,
you’ll need to visit all the ones that you did not leave an offering at (requires a
healing item, preferably Fujiwara Rice Cookies). If you kept up with the guide and
left an offering each time I suggested doing so, you’re already set!
They can be found on Routes 1-8, outside Kasen’s House, and on the Road of
Liminality.
Once you’ve left an offering at each one, teleport to the Sanzu River. We’ll check
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out the hut that’s now open in the next section; for now, descend the stairs and
make your way West and then North to the dock. You’ll find someone standing in
the boat. Talk to her and you’ll find out she’s Komachi, a Shinigami who ferries
the souls of the dead across the Sanzu River. Since she’s got free time, she decides
you’ll be an excellent way to relieve her boredom.
Shinigami Komachi
Speed Meiling, Healing Power Good Belt
Lvl 65, Fighting
Power Suika, Drunkard Good Ring
Extra Komachi, Flat Speed Good Belt
Lvl 65, Water/Warped
Komachi is a fairly straightforward fight if you take into account that each of her
Puppets have a Good Belt or Good Ring, meaning they’ll be forced to repeat the
same Skill over and over in exchange for a damage boost.
Speed Meiling has a surprise Detonation Burst (Sound-type) that does significant
damage but results in a loss of Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense. Apart from that, she’s
a typical Speed Puppet.
Power Suika isn’t as dangerous as some of the other times you’ve fought her
since she relies on her Sp. Attack stat instead of her Fo. Attack stat, but the same
rules apply. Expect her to swap in and out to make use of her Good Ring’s Speed
boost while navigating around her Drunkard Ability.
Extra Komachi isn’t terribly strong or fast, instead being kind of an all-rounder.
She has Wind Wave (Wind-type) to catch you off-guard as well as the expected
on-type Skills.
After defeating her, her boss, Eiki, shows up and starts chewing her out for cutting
her job. She then turns to you, thinking that you might have been the instigator of
the Puppet battle. Thankfully, she recognizes you as the person who has been leav-
ing offerings at the Jizo statues. She decides to give you a present in return for
your good deeds. You receive the Gold Talisman and Silver Talisman, which raise
either Fo. Defense or Sp. Defense once per battle upon receiving the corresponding
Fo. Attack or Sp. Attack. They’re very expensive at 250,000 each, so it seems
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your good deeds brought good fortune! That’s Karma, baby!
F. Hell
Heal up and return to the Sanzu River. We’ll be entering the hut, aptly named the
Nightmare Hut. As you may have guessed, this is similar to when you journeyed
to the Lunar Capital. If you don’t have any B. Dream Pills, return to the Human
Village and get one from Reisen, who is just East of the Rest Area.
Enter the bed and use the B. Dream Pill to enter a Dream once again. You’ll imme-
diately be approached by a being called Hecatia, who wonders who you are. A
woman named Junko appears and answers the question, having heard of your ex-
ploits in Gensokyo. Hecatia will perk up and ask for your help with something and
immediately bring you to Hell.
Yes, that Hell. Or at least, the Hell that exists in the Touhou universe, which is
about as bad.
The just of the situation is that Hecatia’s subordinate, Clownpiece, is in a tower and
hasn’t responded to Hecatia’s summons because she is engrossed in playing with
Puppets. Your job is to go in there and get her to come out, likely through a Puppet
battle.
Of course, you could simply leave Hell to the South, but let’s help them out for
fun. That said, expect multiple fights on the way there from Clownpiece’s subordi-
nates. Also, there are no wild Puppets to be found in Hell, interestingly enough.
There will be three battles, one for each floor. To save space, I’ll list them in
gauntlet format, though you can return and talk to Junko for healing in between.
Hell Fairy Jeshua

Speed Marisa, Positive No Accessory
Speed Futo, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 65, Wind/Water
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Extra Ran, Ascertainment No Accessory
Lvl 65, Warped/Earth
Eshua’s theme is fast Puppets that deal a lot of damage. Power Aya is by far the
most dangerous, but you should have a strategy for dealing with her by now. The
others are all very fast as well, so expect to struggle if you fight them Speed with
Speed. Grind it out with Defensive Puppets if possible.
Hell Fairy Rooda

Defense Doremy, Dark Clothing No Accessory
Defense Hecatia, Restraint No Accessory
Lvl 65, Earth/Dark
Extra Kasen, Restraint No Accessory
Defense Kikuri, Southern Expanse No Accessory
Lvl 65, Illusion
Rooda uses Defense Puppets that are meant to outlast yours. However, this strat-
egy generally fails when you factor in how much stronger your Puppets are than
hers. You should be able to simply one-shot them with your Level advantage,
though you could also grind it out with superior Defense-focused Puppets.
Watch out for Extra Kasen’s Fire-Snake Spiral that prevents your Puppet from re-
treating.
Hell Fairy Eere

Power Sagume, Reverse Function No Accessory
Extra Sukuna, Active No Accessory
Lvl 65, Water/Earth
Extra Yuuka, Overwhelm No Accessory
Lvl 65, Nature/Light
Power Flandre, Overwhelm No Accessory
Lvl 65, Dark/Fire
Erre’s theme seems to be Puppets that have high Fo. Attack or Sp. Attack. In oth-
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er words, expect a lot of damage to come your way. You should be able to handle
this fairly well if you try to strike first before they get their damage out, though
Extra Sukuna may be the exception with her very fast Speed (125 base). Power
Sagume is also fairly fast, though you can likely outspeed her with your fastest
Puppet.
Once you are all healed up, ascend to the final floor of the tower. You’ll see
Clownpiece playing with a Puppet of herself, Junko, and Hecatia. Talk to her four
times for her to finally notice you. She’ll see your Puppets and get excited, chal-
lenging you to a battle!
Hell Fairy of Madness Clownpiece

Speed Clownpiece, Telescopic Good Earrings
Extra Junko, Hate Incarnate Counter Bit
Lvl 70, Void
Defense Hecatia, Restraint Silver Hairpin
Lvl 70, Earth/Dark
Extra Clownpiece, Glamorous Rebellion Tome
Lvl 70, Fire/Warped
Clownpiece is a challenging fight that will pit you against some very powerful
Puppets. She loves swapping Puppets in and out almost as much as she loves ac-
tually fighting. This can almost become a dance of sorts, with her swapping out,
then you swapping out, and back and forth it goes.
Speed Clownpiece has a set of Good Earrings, meaning you should expect her to
deal moderate damage but either repeat the same Skill every turn or swap out (far
more likely). She has the off-type GIGANTIC (Fighting-type) to catch you off-
guard, but apart from that she’s basically a very fast mediocre damage dealer and
that’s it.
Extra Junko is basically a Defense-Style Puppet in disguise. She has 120 base
stats in HP and both Defenses, meaning she’s not meant to beat you down di-
rectly, but instead tank blows and inflict nasty debuffs and Status Effects. She
uses Miasma to inflict the Heavy Poison Status Effect, which will quickly drain
your Puppet’s life away while you chip away at her Void-typing. When forced to
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attack, she’ll deal low damage with normally powerful Skills such as Overrun
(Void-type) and Stormcloud’s Eye (Electric-type). Watch out for her Counter Bit,
which will likely do damage whenever you hit her. I suggest fighting her with a
Steel-type Puppet to avoid Miasma’s debilitating effects, though she’ll likely
swap in Extra Clownpiece or Speed Clownpiece to counter that (aim for the likely
swap-in with your attack!).
Defense Hecatia is odd. She has a chance of using Whole Being (Void-type) to
basically self-destruct and attempt to take your Puppet with her, though Clown-
piece is canny enough to avoid using it when you have an Illusion-type Puppet
out (since Defense Hecatia would be KO’d but deal no damage). She has the off-
type Cross Drive (Fighting-type, lowers Speed after use), but it does mediocre
damage unless it catches a weakness. Watch out for her impossibly high Sp. De-
fense (base 200!); aim at her much lower Fo. Defense instead and crush her with
her 4x weakness to Fighting-type Skills.
Extra Clownpiece is dirt slow, but uses nasty Fo. Attack Skills such as Overdrive
(Warped-type, reduces Fo. Attack by two stages afterwards) to deal heavy damage
before likely swapping back out. She has high HP and Sp. Defense (120 base
each), but an abysmal Fo. Defense (base 35!) that you should target. If you can
catch her before she attacks, you’ll be fine, but otherwise, expect to feel some
pain; however, if you knock her into the red but fail to KO her, she’ll use her Re-
bellion Tome to boost both her Fo. Attack and Sp. Attack by two stages. Don’t
get caught out by that if possible. As a note, she has Supernatural Border to elim-
inate the damage taken that turn, but this basically is a stall tactic designed to
work with Extra Junko’s Miasma Skill.
Upon hearing that both Hecatia and Junko are waiting for her, Clownpiece will flee
the area. Leave the tower to find that Clownpiece has been captured and already
given a firm lecture.
There isn’t any particular reward for having completed this Side Quest, although if
you wish to fight much, much stronger versions of the Tower Fairies, you can talk
to Clownpiece to have her power them up. If you decide to fight them, know that
you’ll be dealing with full parties of around Level 95 Puppets.
If you decide to undertake this optional challenge, good luck!
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G. Ice Cavern Part 2
The ice blocking the path deeper into the Ice Cavern is gone, meaning you can now
descend and find the various items waiting within. Expect a lot of sliding puzzles,
many of which overlap and intersect.
Ice Cavern Upper Floors Puppets

Normal Letty Water Normal
Once inside the Ice Cavern, head down the ladder to find yourself at a sliding puz-
zle. There are three openings; take the leftmost one and slide South, West, South,
East, North, East, South, West, North, West, South to get Skill Card 76, Behind
You! (if you didn’t get it earlier). This is a so-so Skill at best as it only has a 90%
chance to Scare the opponent, but there are times where it might be useful.
Take the ladder to the West to enter the Lower Floors of the Ice Cavern.
Ice Cavern Lower Floors Puppets

Power Magan Poison/Nether Normal
Power Elis Dark/Poison Normal
Power Sariel Dark/Warped Normal
Power Cirno Water/Nature Normal
Power Letty Water Normal
Yes, the Puppets available are much higher level than the ones above, and all are
Style Changed.
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You’ll find yourself in an area with two sliding puzzles, one to the South and one
to the West. Take the West one first, entering from the two Western entrances. Go
South, West, North, West South, West, South, East, and North to find a Fate
Thread. To escape, simply go South, West, North, East, South, East, and North.
Skip the Southern sliding puzzle entirely by heading all the way East and then hop-
ping the Southern hurdle. If only the rest were so easy.
Head Southwest and enter the small sliding puzzle at the space between the two
rocks. Snag the Magical Fragment and then head back across and go East. The
path splits here to the North to another sliding puzzle and East up some stairs; let’s
use the Northern sliding puzzle first.
We’ll be entering the sliding puzzle from the second entrance from the South
(looks like a small divot area). Head East, North, West, and North to the central is-
land. Make your way across it and head South to escape the puzzle.
Head East and cross a small ice patch to find a Magical Fragment up some stairs.
Head Southwest and grab another Magical Fragment to complete this side area.
We’ll have to cross the sliding puzzle again. Take the Western-most entrance and
head North, West, South, and West to escape. Take the nearby stairs and follow the
path until you descend a different set of steps.
From here, the Ice Cavern becomes a small navigation nightmare. There are slid-
ing puzzles covering the rest of this floor and the one below it, with various ladders
leading up and down. There’s only one correct path to reach the end (though clev-
er explorers may figure out additional ways to access this correct path that bypass
much of the bottom floor), but you’ll want to explore as much as possible to collect
the rest of the items.
Let’s head Southeast for now. You’ll reach another sliding puzzle; enter through
any of the Western entrances except the one farthest West and go South to reach a
small area with a ladder. Don’t go down it yet, instead heading to the Southwest
entrance back into the sliding puzzle. Go West, North, and West to find a Blue M.
Stone, which is one of a number of colored stones you’ll find here that deals with
the Reincarnation process. Honestly, it’s pretty pointless to collect them since you
have the Rainbow M. Stone, but we’ll grab ‘em anyway.
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You can’t actually reach the Southern exit from here, so take the Northern-most ex-
it and head East and then South to reach the ladder going down. Take it.
Head South and then West at the first path, continuing on until you reach another
Magical Fragment. Continue West all the way until you find a hidden Red M.
Stone.
Return to the East and then head directly South to find a Green M. Stone. Head
straight West across multiple sliding puzzles until you find a Black M. Stone in a
side area. Return to the split you just passed and head slightly North until you
reach another path heading East. Take it until you slide into a wall to the East, then
head North until you disembark. You’ll find a Magical Fragment to the West.
We’ll be entering the sliding puzzle directly South of here. There are actually two
different areas it can lead, so first take the Eastern entrance, heading South and
then West all the way until you find a Gold M. Stone.
Return East across the first sliding puzzle in your path. Take the Northern-most en-
trance at the next one and head East and then North to find yourself back where
you were at previously.
This time, take the Western-most entrance and go South to find yourself in a new
section entirely. Continue heading South past the ladder and through additional
sliding puzzles until you reach the White M. Stone. This completes your collection
of all the M. Stones in the game! Good job!
Go ahead and take the ladder you passed back up to the second level. This will be
the final sliding puzzle, though you’ll have one more item to snag first.
From directly North of the ladder, head North, East, South, West, North, and East
to reach an area with a Purify Charm, which reverts the first lowered stat change
that happens in battle.
We’ll be hopping back into the same ice puzzle, except this time over a Western
hurdle. Take one step South from the Northern wall and then head West, South,
East, and South to escape the puzzle and once again reach the ladder area. There’s
only one more slide to make here. Head to the Western-most entrance surrounded
by rocks and head straight North to reach the ladder that will end your sliding mis-
ery. Descend the ladder and put an end to the ice puzzles.
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I might have lied there. You actually have one additional slide to make, though it’s
literally a straight slide. Go North around the rock and cross the ice to find the lad-
der leading to the deepest part of the Ice Cavern.
Save your game and then head North around another rock to find Letty, a Youkai
who embodies Winter and who seems to have been expecting you. She seems ex-
cited at the possibility of relieving her boredom and challenges you to a Puppet bat-
tle!
What Winter Left Behind Letty

Extra Eiki, Known Limits Dream Shard
Lvl 75, Warped/Void
Power Yuuka, Unjustness Dream Shard
Power Lily, Auto Heal Dream Shard
Lvl 70, Nature/Void
Speed Shizuha, Spirit of Yin Dream Shard
Lvl 75, Nature
Power Minoriko, Spirit of Yang Dream Shard
Lvl 70, Nature
Power Letty, Force of Nature Dream Shard
Lvl 75, Water
Aside from the buffed-up Hell Fairies, the following optional boss, and the post-
game fights, this is one of the tougher optional fights in the game. Expect a very,
very difficult fight, not just because of the higher Levels and full party, but also
because of a strong AI that punishes mistakes and protects their Puppets from
danger.
Interestingly, all of Letty’s Puppets have a Dream Shard. That alone should be an
eyebrow-raiser, since your Starting Puppet comes with one and that’s the only one
you get through an entire playthrough. This will boost all their stats by a bit, so
don’t be surprised if they do more damage than normal, are faster, etc.
Extra Eiki is more or less a Defense Puppet with very high HP (base 140!) and
solid 100/100 base Defenses. She has a potentially annoying protective Skill
called Pretense, which changes her type to become Fighting-type. This is meant
to prevent you from targeting her Warped-typing, though if you use Sound in-
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stead, it’ll still do barrier-piercing damage. She is very slow, but watch out for
Luscious Whisper (Warped-type) to deal type-boosted Sp. Attack damage.
Power Yuuka does a ton of Fo. Attack damage at the cost of being extremely
slow. Aim for her lower Sp. Defense stat since her Fo. Defense is fairly high.
You’ll want to be careful of high-damage Skills such as Thor’s Hammer (Electric-
type), which does a bit of damage back to Yuuka in recoil. However, she’ll then
use Power Drain to recover that damage, making it an easy trade-off. Expect
those two Skills to alternate back and forth unless you give her a reason not to.
Power Lily has surprising damage for such a low base stat total Puppet. Expect a
variety of Skills, such as Thunder Force (Electric-type), Pollen Mist (Nature-
type), and Flashover (Fire-type, can cause Burn!) to make her a semi-dangerous
opponent. However, she crumples if you aim at her abysmal Fo. Defense, and she
can be outspeed with a reasonably fast Puppet.
Speed Shizuha is fairly fast, but honestly doesn’t do enough damage to make her
a huge threat. However, her Voice of Famine (Nature-type) can cause your Pup-
pet to become Weak, preventing their HP from recovering. Either outspeed her
with a very fast Puppet or simply grind it out and heal the Status Effect later.
Power Minoriko does fairly high Sp. Attack damage and has solid HP to back it
up. Her Speed is pretty much average and her Defenses mediocre. She loves us-
ing Petal Dance (Nature-type) to attack for 2-3 turns in a row for high damage be-
fore becoming Confused.
Power Letty has a higher Sp. Attack (base 120) to go along with her solid HP
(base 100) and Sp. Defense (base 110). However, she’s very slow and has lower
Fo. Defense, meaning you can likely get a one-shot if you aim for that and do Na-
ture, Electric, or Poison damage. Watch out for her Gravity Blast (Illusion-type)
to deal high damage to full-HP Puppets.
Congratulations for defeating Letty!
H. Flandre’s Game
This next section is quite long and has a mediocre prize for completing it. How-
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ever, Flandre would love her favorite playmate to return back to suffer through a
gauntlet of games, puzzles, and other tribulations...
At the end, be prepared for a post-game type of battle with absolutely brutal diffi-
culty. If your Puppets aren’t in the 90s, you’ll be hard-pressed to succeed.
If any of the above sounds like fun, then let’s do this!
Teleport to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and talk to Remilia to find out that Flandre
has prepared some sort of game for you. Head to the basement and let’s see what
she has in mind.
You’ll find a Fairy waiting in front of the door; once you speak to her, she’ll go tell
Flandre and the rest to get ready. Descend the steps and enter the room to find ten
Teddy Bears sitting around the conference table and a Fairy Maid just next to the
entrance. Speak to her to find out that Flandre left a diary of hints in the Northwest
bookcase of the room.
So, here’s the deal. There are ten puzzles/games/activities waiting for you. Each
one you successfully complete gets you a step closer to Flandre, and before starting
each one you can read the diary for a hint in completing the next activity. Failure
will almost always mean a battle against a Fairy Maid with Puppets in the Level 65
range. Of course, if you follow the Guide, you won’t have to worry about
that...hopefully.
If you need healing, talk to the Fairy Maid near the entrance. As a note, follow the
Guide to the letter here as much as possible, as checking on random objects, at-
tempting to leave the room, and choosing the wrong options can and will result in
failure and thus a battle.
Enter the Northeast room to find yourself in what at first seems like a murder
scene. Thankfully, the Fairy is alive, but very hungry. Speak to her and she’ll ask
for you to give her the cake on the Western table. Go to it and choose to bring her
the whole cake (first option). Talk to her again and she’ll eat the whole thing and
then pass out, dropping an Old Key that will let you leave the room.
You’ll appear back in the main area, which will be the exact same except a bear
will be missing from the table. Get the process? Save (I’d do so after each objec-
tive) and head to the next puzzle.
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In the next room, speak to the sleeping Fairy and choose to shift the time of the
alarm clock (first option), allowing her to sleep longer. Grab the Old Key sitting
next to her and leave the room. Do NOT ignore the Fairy and try to just swipe the
Key or else you’ll get into a battle.
The third activity is a timed game of tag. You need to capture (talk to) the Fairy
Maid running around before 30 seconds elapse. Get an idea of the layout of the
room and then check the exit door. As you head away from it, the Fairy Maid will
approach you and challenge you to a game of tag.
If you are fast, you can catch her in the large Eastern area; otherwise, stick to the
inner sections of the hallway to make up distance on her and keep mashing the Z
key until you catch her. If you fail, you’d likely be better to reset than take time
battling, but it’s up to you!
The fourth activity is hide-and-seek. Talk to the Fairy and she’ll ask if you’ll play
hide-and-seek (say Yes). She’ll then conceal herself in one of the choppable trees
in the area. You have three attempts before she gets tired (meaning failure and a
battle). Thankfully, the answer is the same time. Check the Northeast tree that is
circled by flowers and choose to cut it, though you’ll have to try four times or so
until she comes out. You’ll get the Old Key for your trouble.
Number five is a puzzle of sorts. You’ll be in a room with a lot of intersecting

paths with one dead end in the Northwest corner. You’ll need to approach the
Fairy from behind to force it to the next intersection in front of it over and over un-
til you trap it in the Northwest corner.
Talk to the Fairy Maid and she’ll run East. Follow her and talk again to make her
go South. Do the same again and she’ll run West. Continue West and talk to her
again to make her go West again, trapping her. She’ll force you into a very easy
battle against a single Level 65 Eirin. Crush her to get the Old Key.
The sixth activity is a logic puzzle. You’ll need to answer each question correctly
or you’ll be forced into a battle. This is quite difficult in Japanese, so while the
choice location will be correct, the English translation may be a bit different.
Choose the first answer (pursuing a Fairy that was running away), then the second
answer (six beds), then the first answer (Old Key), and finally the second answer
(No).
Activity seven is another logic quiz. Only one Fairy Maid is telling the truth; the
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rest are liars and will fight you if you walk through their door. Ignore them and
simply go through the red-haired Fairy Maid’s door.
The eighth activity involves fixing a Teddy Bear. Talk to the Fairy Maid in the
room to get the Ripped Teddy Bear. Check the note on the table to get a list of ma-
terials and tools you’ll need to fix it. They are scattered around the room. Check
the pot on the stove for Scissors. The Northwest glass cabinet has Cloth. In the
Northeast, check the dresser for a Needle. The bed has Large Cotton, and the
Southeast box near the entrance has the Thread. Once you have collected all five,
check the note again for instructions on how to fix it. Once it’s done, hand the Big
Teddy Bear over to the Fairy Maid and watch her get crushed. Check the fainted
Fairy for the Old Key needed to leave the room.
The ninth room is based on a dream written in the diary. You are supposed to fig-
ure out which Puppets are mentioned in the dream and then choose the correct
ones. Talk to the Fairy Maid and then grab Yuuka in the Southeast, Utsuho in the
Northwest, and Flandre in the North center next to Utsuho. Speak to the Fairy
Maid once again and confirm that you chose the right Puppets; she’ll return and
grant you access to the door.
If your Puppets need healing, speak to the Fairy Maid near the entrance, as you
won’t get another chance; you’d be wise to save your game as well.
The last activity is incredibly simple. Simply enter the room and then leave. The
music suddenly stops as both doors lock. Check the table for an Ancient Coin,
which unlocks the doors. The Ancient Coin boosts the chance of successfully seal-
ing a Puppet, which by this point of the game is almost certainly pointless. That
said, if you haven’t captured at least one of every Puppet character, you’d be wise
to use this hard-earned Accessory to do so.
However, there is one last ‘activity’ to complete. You could walk away now and,
quite honestly, you’d be likely making a wise choice. Flandre round two is by far
one of the toughest fights in the game, if not the toughest overall, and there isn’t
any reward for doing so aside from personal satisfaction. Her Puppets are strong,
and they almost certainly have higher stats than they should. Her AI is brutal,
swapping in and out frequently, yet also targeting the weaknesses of swapped-in
Puppets with deadly precision. If you are looking for a challenge, this will more
than fit the bill.
If you are prepared for the worst, enter Flandre’s room once again and get ready for
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an absolutely nightmarish fight.
Sister of the Devil Flandre (2)

Defense Hecatia, Restraint Golden Hairpin
Lvl 95, Earth/Dark
Power Raiko, Active Topaz
Power Nue, Hobgoblin Deadly Secrets
Speed Suwako, Moody Good Earrings
Lvl 95, Earth/Water
Extra Koishi, Infiltration Black Choker
Lvl 95, Warped
Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. This fight will press you and your Puppets to
the limits against an all-star cast of Puppets designed to crush you, with an AI that
mocks your feeble tactics. Oh, and the Puppets may or may not have stats that ex-
ceed what they’d normally be capable of getting. For example, Extra Flandre
(base Speed of 70) was able to outspeed my Extra Satori (base Speed of 120) with
both a Speed Mark and a full 64 PP extra of Speed. I’m calling hacks, meaning
even though I’ll provide base stats as usual, don’t be surprised if they end up
being higher somehow.
On the bright side, you get to enjoy a special arrangement that can only be heard
here. The developers took a nod at the stellar Touhou Pokemon-esque Japanese
phone game that uses a boss theme similar to this. It certainly makes you feel like
you’re in for a heck of a fight, eh?
Don’t be surprised if you go through most of your healing item stash here; I’d
consider even digging into your stash of Hakurei Shinshus if things get dire,
though unless you’ve made a serious dent into her Puppets, you might be better
off just resetting.
As a note, watch out for Power Nue to switch in and pretend to be someone else,
most likely as Extra Flandre. Assume that whatever Puppet swaps in is likely to
be her if your Puppet is weak to Illusion or Electric.
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Defense Hecatia is almost simple if you avoid her massive base 200 Sp. Defense.
Almost. She will deal a lot of Fo. Attack damage, and very likely will get a
chance to use it thanks to her high Level (granting higher HP and Defenses). She
has Impact Rebellion (Steel-type) to potentially catch you out as well. She’s in-
credibly slow, however, and 4x weak to Fighting-type Skills. Don’t be surprised
to see her swap out to the resistant Power Nue if you aim for it, however.
Power Nue has the Hobgoblin Ability, meaning she’ll pretend to be another Pup-
pet, which can have devestating results since she has the Deadly Secrets Acces-
sory which boosts her barrier-piercing Skills. If she hits you with a type-boosted
Gravity Blast (Illusion-type, does high damage if your Puppet is at full HP), ex-
pect to watch your Puppet’s health bar plummet. She also has Inferno (Fire-type)
and the expected Electric-type Skills for further type coverage.
Power Raiko has a Topaz that makes her a very deadly one-hit wonder even if
your Puppet is resistant to Electric-type Skills. She’ll use Brave Song to boost
her Sp. Attack by two levels and then strike with Thunderlord’s Scorn (Electric-
type) to likely destroy your Puppet in one-hit regardless of their weakness, though
if you try using an Earth-type Puppet she’ll likely go with Sound instead and save
her Topaz for later. She is also surprisingly tanky (more so than she should be),
meaning a one-shot is likely a pipe dream here.
Speed Suwako is going to be very tough to stop. She hits like a cannon, is almost
uncatchably fast, and has decent Defenses and HP, all of which only get worse the
longer she survives thanks to her Moody Ability (boosts a random stat by two
stages, drops a random stat by one stage). Her Sp. Attack damage is capable of
even wiping out Defense-focused Puppets in two hits, especially since her Good
Earrings make her damage even more of a threat (at the cost of forcing her to re-
peat the same Skill or swap out).
Extra Koishi has a massive 130 base Fo. Attack and HP, meaning she’ll hit like a
truck and likely take a few hits (though her Black Choker almost guarantees that
happens anyway). Flower of Hell (Illusion-type) and Detonation Burst (Sound-
type, lowers Fo. Defense by one stage after use) are both dangerous off-type Skill
that will deal serious damage. She is fairly slow, however, so try to take advant-
age of this and strike with multi-hit attacks to wipe her out. Alternatively, you
might be able to grind this one out with a Defensive Puppet that has self-buffing
Skills such as Merry Dance, allowing you to continue boosting your Defense and
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potentially tank the rest of the fight.
Extra Flandre is very dangerous thanks to her Full Power Ability, which increases
her damage significantly in exchange for taking damage at the end of each turn
she uses a Skill, as well as her Good Belt, which will boost her Speed at the cost
of being forced to repeat the same Skill over and over. She is surprisingly slow
even with the Good Belt, but that won’t matter when she uses Overdrive (Warped-
type) to deal massive damage and one-shot your Puppet, albeit at the cost of drop-
ping her Fo. Attack by two stages afterwards. Expect her to swap out after doing
that or if her repeated Skill ends up becoming an issue.
In terms of strategies that work, self-buffing or party-wide buffs become huge

here. I was able to get two rounds of Merry Dance (buffs Defense and Sp. De-
fense) off on my Defense Hijiri and become basically unstoppable by that point,
since I could just use a healing item every other turn along with further Merry
Dances until I only took 40 or so damage a hit (with the Aurora Grace Ability and
Food Rations that became how much she recovered a turn); from that point, it was
just a matter of grinding it out. Alternatively, if you somehow can get a few dam-
age and Speed buffs up on a glass cannon without getting wiped out, that would
also allow you to potentially just mow through the entire enemy party with the
possible exception of Defense Hecatia thanks to her extremely high Sp. Defense.
Party-wide Defensive buffs such as Field Barrier and Field Protect are also very
viable to help reduce the overall damage taken, though having to swap out to a
damage Puppet afterwards could be a tough sacrifice to make. Inflicting damag-
ing Status Effects such as Heavy Burn or Heavy Poison and then grinding it out
could also work.
If you managed to defeat Flandre, you have officially earned full bragging rights
among the TPDP community, as she is a nightmarish fight. Congratulations on
your accomplishment!
If you want to rematch her at any time, you can simply reenter her room and talk to
her, though it is the exact same fight as before.
I. Additional Optional Touhou Character Encounters
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This section is dedicated to both new and rematch opportunities with any Touhou
characters that open up before post-game, not including the ones listed in the other
Side Quest sections (such as Reimu, Tenshi, Flandre, etc.). These have no particu-
lar reward for completing them, but it can be fun to see what Puppets a new oppo-
nent like Alice or Rin has, or how a previously-fought opponent such as Yuugi or
Sara has changed up their lineup.
For simplicity’s sake, the order presented will mirror that of the main walkthrough,
proceeding from the earliest explored areas (such as the Divine Spirit Mausoleum)
to the latest ones (such as the Remains of Blazing Hell).
Divine Spirit Mausoleum
Ghost Tojiko (2)

Speed Iku, Gale Form Straw Doll
Lvl 65, Electric/Wind
Speed Nitori, Electromagnetic Large Shield
Power Nue, Telescopic Telescope
Extra Aya, Unjustness Counter Bit
Lvl 65, Wind/Electric
Speed Tojiko, Morale Boost Opal
Lvl 65, Electric
Don’t let your guard down just because it’s Tojiko. She now has five Puppets and
can handle them a bit better than before.
Speed Iku isn’t really fast, and is really an all-rounder with base 80-85 stats aside
from her 115 base Fo. Attack. That said, her Straw Doll will pump up her dam-
age a bit at the cost of taking a bit of damage every time she uses a Skill. Watch
out for her surprise Waterfall Drop (Water-type) to catch you out.
Speed Nitori is reasonably fast and does decent Sp. Attack damage, but her claim
to fame in this fight is her Large Shield, which reduces damage taken from re-
sisted type Skills and increases the damage taken from barrier-piercing Skills. As
you can imagine, this can be quite effective on the right Puppet; however, Speed
Nitori has too many weaknesses for this to be effective. She does have the Elec-
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tromagnetic Ability to absorb Electric-type Skills, so avoid that and simply wipe
her out as you please.
This is one of the few times where Power Nue won’t be using her Hobgoblin
Ability to impersonate another Puppet, so enjoy the straightforward fight. She
does high damage, but also has Thunder Veil to inflict Shock upon your Puppet
(unless they’re Electric or Earth-type). She’s incredibly slow, meaning you can
easily strike and potentially get a one-shot.
Extra Aya isn’t Power Aya, meaning she’s not nearly as much of a threat. That
said, she has very consistent base stats in the 90-100 range across the board (ex-
cept for her paltry Fo. Attack). She’ll be somewhat tanky, somewhat fast, and
somewhat of a Sp. Attack threat. To summarize, beat her down with Steel or
Warped and move on, though expect a sizeable damage return from her Counter
Bit if you use a BU-type Skill (which are usually direct-contact Skills).
Speed Tojiko has very high Fo. Attack (base 135) and Speed (base 130). You
likely won’t outspeed her, but if you can manage to mitigate the damage from her
Electric-type Skills (or send out an Earth-type to ignore the damage), she’ll be
easy enough. Watch out for her Changeling Skill (Dark-type) as a means of es-
caping while still doing damage as well as a surprise Light-type Skill to pair with
her one-off Opal.
Forest of Magic Part 1, Alice’s House
Seven-Colored Puppeteer Alice

Power Mima, Curse Return Opal
Defense Yuuka, Unjustness Silver Hairpin
Power Reimu, Economist Amber
Extra Alice, Jamming Golden Hairpin
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Lvl 65, Light/Fire
The original Puppeteer herself is a reasonably tough fight, especially when you
figure that she probably hasn’t done any particular training. Alice’s Puppets are
all strong and have annoyingly effective Accessorys to go with them. Her AI will
also act to save her Puppets, meaning don’t be surprised if she swaps in and out a
bit.
Speed Marisa and Black Chokers seem to be a popular combination, so why not
yet another one. She’s very, very fast and does fairly high Sp. Attack damage.
Expect this one to take two turns unless you have a multi-hit attack capable of
breaking through the Black Choker, though Marisa may swap out with Lightning
Speed (Electric-type, normal Priority and swaps out for another Puppet) the turn
after taking damage.
Power Mima uses Ruinous Voice in attempt to KO your Puppet along with Power
Mima after three turns. You can thwart this tactic by swapping out before the end
of the third turn. Expect high Fo. Attack damage and solid Sp. Defense from
Power Mima, though nothing will save her from a 4x effective Dark-type Skill. If
she does manage to survive a blow, expect her to use Curse Reversal to take the
total of both your Puppet’s remaining health and hers and give half back to each
of you. Her Opal is meant to be used with Over Ray, which is almost certainly
not a threat unless you have extremely low health.
Defense Yuuka is a solid tank thanks to her massive 185 Fo. Defense and boosted
Sp. Defense because of the Silver Hairpin (though it’ll still be quite low). She has
a solid amount of HP and high Fo. Attack to boot, balanced out by her abysmal
Speed. You’ll struggle to get a one-shot KO, though there’s a chance if you strike
at her Sp. Defense with a barrier-piercing attack.
Power Reimu can be very dangerous thanks to her Economist Ability which pairs
nicely with the one-off Amber, which boosts Fighting-type Skills. She’s slow
enough to outspeed and potentially one-shot, especially if you target her with her
4x weakness to Sound, but if you let her roll, she can potentially get multiple uses
out of that Amber.
Extra Alice is a glass cannon that also has high HP. She has a base 100 Speed,
meaning your faster Puppets can still outspeed her. In addition to the expected
Light and Fire-type Skills, she has an odd fondness for Lost Crisis (Dark-type).
Either outspeed her and go for the one-shot or grind this one out.
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Cave to the Underground exit (entrance to Former Hell City)
Oni Yuugi (2)

Power Yamame, Infectious Tiger Eye
Defense Parsee, Karmic Retribution Silver Hairpin
Lvl 65, Dark/Nether
Power Suika, Drunkard Amber
Power Kasen, Charge! Bandage
Power Yuugi, Unbound Ruby
Lvl 65, Fighting
Yuugi definitely bulked her party up significantly since last time. She also has
stronger AI that can read your mind and protect her Puppets from potentially bar-
rier-piercing Skills.
Power Yamame has the Infectious Ability, which will replace your Ability with
the useless but highly-contagious Infectious Ability once you either you hit her or
she hits you (this lasts until the end of the battle). Apart from that, she uses
Shriek to reduce your Sp. Attack by two stages, which can be very debilitating.
Apart from that, she’ll do mediocre damage (watch out for her Tiger’s Eye to
boost her Waves of Earth Skill to deal higher damage one time only), but beware
of the chance to be Poisoned by her Poison-type Skills.
Defense Parsee is fairly straightforward. She’ll do moderate Fo. Attack damage,

but otherwise is there to simply soak up attacks and protect Yuugi’s damage-deal-
ing Puppets. If you use a Fighting-type Skill against another Puppet, expect to
see her swap in and soak it up.
Power Suika is the same one-turn wonder as usual, except this time she has Am-
ber, meaning she’ll do significantly higher Fighting-type damage with one attack
before it shatters. This will likely one-shot your Puppet unless it has massive De-
fensive stats, so expect the worst and either sacrifice a weaker Puppet for the one-
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time powerful blow or see if your Defense-focused Puppet can hang on. Apart
from that, she’s the same as usual, so target her on her off-turns and take her out!
Power Kasen uses the Dark Power Skill to boost her Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense
by one stage each. This, when combined with her already massive base 140 Fo.
Attack and Charge! Ability (boosting her damage by 30% in exchange for no sec-
ondary effects from Skills), makes her a huge threat. She’s very slow and has
lower Sp. Defense, so try to use a Sound-type Skill to aim at her 4x weakness and
KO her before she starts cleaning house!
Power Yuugi is likely the easiest Puppet on the list provided you don’t let her
have two turns. The first turn she’ll use Inner Power, which drops her HP signifi-
cantly but raises her already massive Fo. Attack (base 165!) by a full six stages,
meaning if she so much as sneezes at you on turn two onwards, it’s over. Thank-
fully, she’s so slow that you’ll be able to get away with swapping a Puppet in
while she uses Inner Power and then wipe out the remainder of her HP (hope-
fully) on turn two before she can strike. If she does get a hit off, expect her to use
her one-off Ruby to significantly boost a Fire-type Skill. Then again, if she gets
any hit off, your Puppet is almost certainly a goner, resistance or no.
Chireiden
Lord of Chireiden Satori (2)

??? ??? ???
Speak to Satori whenever you wish to fight against your party once again. This
can be a valuable method of both training and testing your party’s strengths and
weaknesses, though it’ll be a difficult fight for sure.
Remains of Blazing Hell exit (Geyser Center Entrance)
Kasha Rin
Power Rin, Up Tempo Sugilite
Lvl 66, Fire/Nether
Extra Yoshika, Common Senseless Deadly Secrets
Lvl 66, Nether/Earth
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Extra Utsuho, Sore Loser Reflect Bit
Lvl 66, Fire/Wind
Extra Rin, Infiltration Food Rations
Lvl 68, Fire/Poison
Rin is a bit challenging, but her difficulty is more in her unusual Puppets rather
than outright strength.
Power Rin has Up Tempo, meaning you’ll need to take her out within a few turns
or else she will outspeed pretty much every Puppet in the game. Thankfully, her
Defenses are extremely low, so you should be able to wipe her out quickly.
Extra Yoshika has the Common Senseless Ability, allowing her to strike even if
an immunity comes into play. Her Deadly Secrets is an interesting combination
with this considering her potential capability to use Earth-type Skills for barrier-
piercing damage against an Electric/Wind Puppet, for example. She has massive
HP (base 160!) and decent Fo. Attack, but that’s about it.
Extra Utsuho can use Eye of Calamity to inflict both Burn and Fear at the same
time, crippling Sp. Attack-reliant Puppets as well as doing consistant damage at
the end of every turn. Apart from that, Extra Utsuho does decent damage and is
otherwise not particularly noteworthy.
Extra Rin has fairly high Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense, and Speed as well as her unex-
pected Poison-type. She’ll use Sweet Desperado (Poison-type) to try to deal sig-
nificant damage, but will also have her Sp. Attack fall by two stages for doing so.
Strike at her Fo. Defense and aim for a one-shot.
Remains of Blazing Hell exit (close to Geyser Center Entrance)
Subterranean Sun Utsuho (2)

Speed Rin, Morale Boost Black Choker
Lvl 66, Fire/Earth
Extra Satori, Infinite Changes Straw Doll
Power Koishi, Charge! Telescope
Lvl 66, Void
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Speed Utsuho, Duel Silver Hairpin
Utsuho isn’t terribly different than the last fight. That said, she’s still pretty dan-
gerous, especially since this time she has some nasty items like Black Chokers
and the like.
Speed Rin uses the Dark Power Skill to make her Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense rise
by a stage, making her even more dangerous when you consider her blistering
Speed and Black Choker. You’ll need to grind this one out with a Puppet capable
of taking a hit or two, though if you play it right, you might be able to wipe her
out while she uses Dark Power multiple times in a row, especially if you hit her
with a multi-hit weakness, such as her 4x weakness to Water (Ice Gatling is amaz-
ing here). Watch out for her surprise Tumble Plant Skill (Nature-type), which
does large damage if your Puppet has a high cost (see Puppetdex for details).
Extra Satori is a nightmare. She’s quite fast, which likely allows her to act before
your Puppet can. This allows her to bring into play her Infinite Changes Ability,
which will change her type to be that of the Skill she chose that turn (and it’ll
change just before the Skill goes off to make it type-boosted). This can make the
fight a terrible whirlwind of sending out a Puppet to take advantage of her current
type only for her to change to another type before you can act, likely swapping to
a type that your Puppet is weak to. She has Voice of Famine (Nature-type) and
Revolving Illusion (Illusion-type) for sure, though don’t be surprised if she pulls
out a Warped, Sound, or Fire-type Skill as well.
Power Koishi prefers using Luscious Whisper (Warped-type) to deal solid off-
type Sp. Attack damage. However, she can also use Thunderlord’s Scorn (Elec-
tric-type), which can be absolutely devestating. She has solid Defenses and HP,
but a Dark-type attack can send her packing in a hurry.
Speed Utsuho does very high Sp. Attack damage, but isn’t particularly speedy de-
spite what her Style would imply. She uses high-risk, high-reward Skills such as
GIGANTIC (Fighting-type) and Volcano (Fire-type, lowers SP. Attack by two
stages after using it) to deal massive damage. Try to strike before she can and
one-shot her, as you don’t want to take that kind of damage head-on.
Myouren Temple
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Nyudou Handler Ichirin (2)
Extra Futo, Sore Loser Black Choker
Lvl 68, Nether/Fight.
Power Ichirin, Duel Silver Hairpin
Lvl 68, Fighting
Ichirin doubled her number of Puppets, but that shouldn’t be near enough to
worry you.
Extra Futo has a Black Choker to prevent her from being one-shot since she has
terrible Defenses and mediocre HP. She’s blisteringly fast, however, and deals
solid Fo. Attack damage. You’ll even see a rare appearance of Specter’s Waltz
(Nether-type). Unless you can use a multi-hit attack to pierce through her Black
Choker, you’ll have to grind this one out in two turns. Thankfully, she has so
many weaknesses this should be simple.
Power Ichirin loves to use the Heavenly Ascent Skill (Fighting-type), which deals
a lot of damage but lowers her Fo. Defense and Sp. Defense by a level each.
Watch out for a surprise Stone Throw (Earth-type). She has a solid Sp. Defense
Skill, so try to aim at her Fo. Defense instead.
Myouren Temple
Disciple of Bishamonten Shou (2)

Power Kyouko, Niche Onyx Hairpin
Lvl 65, Sound
Speed Nazrin Infiltration Hematite
Lvl 65, Earth/Steel
Power Murasa, Stream Form Sapphire
Lvl 65, Water/Sound
Power Ichirin, Duel Golden Hairpin
Lvl 65, Fighting
Power Shou, Absorbent Skirmisher Charm
Shou is far more dangerous this time around. She added a few Puppets and
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boosted their levels significantly, and even though it’s the expected Myouren
Temple Puppets, they make a surprisingly well-balanced group. Her AI is also
fairly strong, so expect mind reading and all that comes with it.
Power Kyouko can deal high Sp. Attack damage and that’s about it. She has terri-
ble Defenses and low Speed, but her HP is higher to make up for it. Expect her to
swap out for Speed Nazrin if you target her with an Electric-type Skill. Other-
wise, try to strike first and aim for a one-shot with Wind.
Speed Nazrin has the incredibly dangerous Mad Rush Stance, which boosts her al-
ready high Speed by two stages as well as her Fo. Attack by one stage. She’ll
likely be capable of outspeeding any of your Puppets simply by using it once, al-
lowing her to strike first with high damage. Apart from the expected Earth and
Steel-type Skills, she also has Panic Call (Dark-type) to make you drop your Ac-
cessory and deals double damage if it does so. Crush her with her 4x weakness to
Fighting as soon as possible.
Power Murasa deal fairly high Fo. Attack damage and has a decent Sp. Defense to
back it up. She isn’t particularly powerful, but can put out consistant damage.
Outspeed her and go for the one-shot KO with Electric-type Skills (4x effective-
ness) if Speed Nazrin is down, or aim for her myriad of other weaknesses if she’s
still around to avoid a swap-in.
Power Ichirin loves to use the Heavenly Ascent Skill (Fighting-type), which deals
a lot of damage but lowers her Fo. Defense and Sp. Defense by a level each.
Watch out for a surprise Stone Throw (Earth-type). She has a solid Sp. Defense
Skill, so try to aim at her Fo. Defense instead, though this time she has a Golden
Hairpin to help shore it up a bit.
Power Shou has a massive base 145 Sp. Attack and otherwise very mediocre stats.
You should be able to crush her before she can attack, but if you don’t, expect her
oncoming attack to deal a lot of damage.
Hakurei Cave exit (can get there quickly by using Makai’s teleporter and choosing
the first option, Gensokyo)
Makai Gatekeeper Sara
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Defense Momiji, Indomitable Hematite
Lvl 64, Steel/Earth
Defense Ichirin, Duel Silver Hairpin
Defense Elly, Iron Resolve Food Rations
Lvl 65, Steel/Earth
Speed Meiling, Healing Power Amber
Lvl 65, Fighting
Defense Sara, Choleric Counter Bit
Lvl 68, Earth
Sara is much stronger than before, though she still should be a fairly easy push-
over by this point. She also has a nearly full team of Defense Puppets, although
most of them have fairly weak Defenses (though semi-high HP).
Defense Momiji has Indomitable, which acts the exact same as a Black Choker.
Expect to have to grind this one out, though Fighting-type Skills will do incredi-
ble damage thanks to her 4x weakness.
Defense Ichirin has a surprisingly high Fo. Attack and HP, but otherwise ex-
tremely mediocre stats for a Defense Puppet (80/80 base Defenses and 30 base
Speed). You should honestly be able to defeat her pretty easily regardless of if
you go for the one-shot or grind it out.
Defense Elly uses Strenuous Stance to boost her Fo. Attack by two stages. That’s
enough to actually make her do some sort of damage, though she’s still not a huge
threat until she gets it off twice or three times. You should be able to easily one-
shot her before then if you aim at her 4x weakness to Fighting.
Speed Meiling is the lone exception to Sara’s team, though she shares the same
overall type themes. She hits very hard with a base 130 Fo. Attack and is fairly
speedy, but will go down to just about any attack thanks to her so-so Defenses and
HP. Watch out for her Shooting Arts Skill (Fighting-type), as it’ll get boosted by
her one-use Amber to do significantly higher damage.
Defense Sara has the Choleric Ability, which kicks up a Dust Storm that does a
bit of damage at the end of every turn unless your Puppet is Earth-type. She uses
Iron Wall Stance to boost her Defense by two stages, meaning you should instead
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focus on her much lower Sp. Defense stat.
The final rematch is with Mima, but getting to her will take a bit of explanation.
Do you remember the outer space area called Genmukai? Mima’s home is found
by going through the Eastern teleporter and then navigating a small maze.
To get there quickly, take the Makai teleporter to the third option on the list (Gen-
mukai). Head South and then East to the far end, and then head North to the new
teleporter.
Genmukai Puppets
Speed Marisa Light/Electric Normal
Power Marisa Light/Dark Normal
Defense Mima Nether Normal
Power Mima Nether/Light Normal
Power Sumireko Warped/Steel Normal
Speed Sumireko Warped/Void Normal
This area has random encounters and items, so follow along closely and consider
popping a Repellant or two (this is one of the easiest places to find Sumireko, how-
ever). Head South and grab the Rainbow Candy visible to the East. Take the West
path until you reach an East/South split; head East to the end to find a Counter Bit,
which deals damage whenever your Puppet takes a BU-type Skill (usually direct
contact Skills).
Return to the split and head South. Cross the bridge and continue South, ignoring
the side paths that are actually a circle. At the East/West split, head West to find a
Golden Hairpin, which boosts Fo. Defense but prevents the Puppet from using Sup-
port Skills. Take the Eastern path from there all the way until you reach the tele-
porter exit.
Welcome to Reimaden, Mima’s own little slice of space. Head North until you al-
most reach the stairs to Mima, but turn East to grab a Fate Thread and then West to
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find a Silver Hairpin (same as Golden one except for Sp. Defense).
Save the game and prepare yourself for one of the tougher end-game fights. While
not nearly as brutal as Flandre round two, it’ll still be a heck of a challenge!
Eternal Evil Spirit Mima (2)

Speed Marisa, Positive Opal
Defense Reimu, Economist Curing Charm
Power Yuuka, Unjustness Silver Hairpin
Power Mima, Curse Return Life Charm
Mima’s Puppets are much, much higher level than before. Expect a strong AI that
will protect her Puppets from barrier-piercing Skills and potentially target your
swapped-in Puppets’ weaknesses with deadly precision. So basic boss battle stuff
by now.
Speed Marisa is almost impossible to catch, and to make matters worse, she has
an Opal to significantly boost her Light-type damage once. Expect to eat a very
painful attack unless you somehow can outspeed a base 135 Speed Puppet. That
said, she’s a complete glass cannon, so if your Puppet survives the blow, she’ll
likely crumple to any weakness-targeting Skill.
Defense Reimu has the always frustrating combination of Miasma and Superna-
tural Border, allowing her to inflict Heavy Poison on your Puppet and then stall
for time, whittling their HP down. A great response to this is to fight her with a
Steel-type Puppet, which also shuts down her only damaging Skill, Revolving Il-
lusions (Illusion-type). Don’t expect to get away with inflicting Status Effects
back upon Defense Reimu, as she has a Curing Charm to eliminate them and the
Economist Ability to get her Curing Charm back. And guess what Skill pairs ex-
cellently with this combination? Continue. It heals her HP to full, but forces her
to be Stopped for two turns, except her Curing Charm restores her to full health,
and then she gets it back allowing her to use Continue again if necessary. This is
a frustrating fight that you’ll simply have to grind out the best you can; target her
weaknesses to Sound or Warped for the best chance at victory.
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Power Yuuka is slow as dirt but hits like a truck and has a high HP and Fo. De-
fense to help her tank a blow. Her Silver Hairpin helps shore up her weaker Sp.
Defense, meaning she very well could get a shot off at you. Unless you can do
massive damage and blow through her Defenses, you’ll likely want to grind this
one out.
Power Mima uses Ruinous Voice to force a double KO of both her and your Pup-
pet within three turns if you don’t KO her in time. You shouldn’t have any issue
with this if you hit her with a 4x effective Dark-type Skill, though don’t disregard
her recoil-inducing Luminous Flux (Light-type) coming at you in the meantime.
Watch out for her Life Charm, which could potentially prolong the fight long
enough to actually bring Ruinous Voice into play; if this becomes an issue, simply
swap your Puppet out on the third turn to protect them.
J. Neo Puppet Liberation Front Puppeteers
If you’ve been running around Gensokyo’s numbered Routes, you almost certainly
have experienced a big surprise: the Puppet Liberation Front that you worked so
hard to crush is back! Not only that, these guys seem meaner than last time, with
threats to raze fields and actually harm Puppeteers.
You’ll be exploring the reasons behind their return in the next section (Old Ene-
mies, New Friends), but if you want take out the grunts, I’ve gone ahead and ex-
plored all around Gensokyo in an attempt to document every last one of them. As
far as I can tell, they only appear on the numbered Routes, but if anyone is able to
find one I missed, please let me know!
Note that this is entirely optional, as beating these grunts rewards nothing but per-
sonal satisfaction, extra Experience, and a chance to maneuver around Gensokyo
unaccosted. I would take out the one near Kourindou if you haven’t already just to
prevent potentially getting attacked when you go for healing, but it’s entirely up to
you. Also, these guys will disappear once you solve the mystery of their return, so
if you have any interest in fighting them, do so now!
Route 3 path near Human Village
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Neo Puppet Liberation Front Portis
Defense Murasa, Inverse Toxin No Accessory
Lvl 65, Electric
Route 3 path in grass West of small shrine
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Amani

Power Elly, Iron Resolve No Accessory
Lvl 65, Steel/Wind
Defense Mystia, Good Management No Accessory
Lvl 65, Sound/Dark
Route 5 near Human Village
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Porter

Power Wriggle, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 65, Nature/Dark
Lvl 65, Dark
Route 5 Southwest lake path
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Kurt

Defense Meiling, Choleric No Accessory
Power Keine, Overwhelm No Accessory
Lvl 65, Steel/Light
Route 5 near Kourindou
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Neo Puppet Liberation Front Rismul
Speed Chiyuri, Reckless No Accessory
Lvl 65, Electric/Light
Power Nitori, Recoil Offset No Accessory
Lvl 65, Water/Steel
Route 5 Misty Lake Southwest exit
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Mitra

Power Kyouko, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 65, Sound
Power Sekibanki, Bright Form No Accessory
Lvl 65, Dark
Route 6 near entrance from Route 5
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Pols

Speed Elis, Infiltration No Accessory
Lvl 65, Dark/Electric
Power Kurumi, Wariness No Accessory
Lvl 65, Dark
Route 7 near entrance
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Welpper

Power Tewi, Strategist No Accessory
Lvl 65, Illusion
Power Rin, Up Tempo No Accessory
Lvl 65, Fire/Nether
Route 7 near Jizo statue
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Neo Puppet Liberation Front Merlius
Power Letty, Force of Nature No Accessory
Lvl 65, Water
Power Ichirin, Overwhelm No Accessory
Lvl 65, Fighting
Route 7 Eastern path
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Grifila

Defense Koakuma, Healing Power No Accessory
Lvl 65, Warped
Power Tokiko, Healing Power No Accessory
Lvl 65, Wind
Route 7 Northern path
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Atus

Defense Louise, Lucky No Accessory
Lvl 65, Wind
Speed Aya, Free Will No Accessory
Lvl 65, Wind
With this, you’ve successfully defeated all of the Neo Puppet Liberation Front’s
grunts terrorizing Gensokyo! It’s time to finally get to the bottom of why they’ve
suddenly reappeared...
24. Old Enemies, New Friends
Now that you’ve finished up all the Side Quests, heal up and then return to the Hu-
man Village. You’ll see a maid at the gate to Akyuu’s Mansion. When you try to
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pass, she’ll spot you and tell you that Akyuu is calling for you. It sounds urgent, so
let’s stop over there for now.
Akyuu looks relieved to see you. She explains that the Puppet Liberation Front
that you crushed has apparently revived (if you followed Side Quest Section 4, you
know this very well), and this time they aren’t just committing acts of mischief but
are starting to do actual harm. Worried, she asks if you can help solve this issue.
Interestingly enough, she mentions that she heard the Puppet Liberation Front has
been seen in the Human Village. Hopefully they aren’t framing anything danger-
ous...
Leave the Mansion and you’ll spot a familiar face waiting specifically for you. Far
from being hostile, she almost looks happy as she runs away and hops over the cliff
to the East.
If this seems familiar, you’d be right. Head to the Northeast section of the Human
Village to find Cirno waiting for you. She says something about the Puppet Libera-
tion Front testing you before attacking!
Puppet Liberation Front Cirno (3)

Power Rumia, Brutality No Accessory
Lvl 70, Dark/Fire
Power Cirno, Daredevil No Accessory
Whether or not Cirno is the Strongest is a hotly contested subject, but in terms of
Puppeteer ability, she definitely bulked up a significant amount.
Power Rumia is surprisingly formidable. Her Brutality Ability means that she’ll
either miss or do a ton more Sp. Attack damage than you’d expect, and she even
has a surprise Illusion-type Skill in Unknown Flare to catch you out. She did sig-
nificant damage even to my Defense Puppet with boosted Defenses, so don’t let
your guard down just because it’s Rumia.
Power Cirno has the Fo. Attack version of Brutality (named Daredevil), meaning
you’ll either see a surprising number of misses or be devastated by massive in-
coming damage. She uses Peach-Thorn Arrow (Nature-type) and Ice Gatling
(Water-type), both of which are 2-5 hit Skills which will vary widely in damage.
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As always, Cirno looks shocked at her loss, but quickly recovers and tells you to
proceed to the next test. To make a long story short, you’ll be fighting the same
five misfits from the beginning of the game, found in the same locations. Daiyou-
sei is to the East, Wriggle to the Southeast, Mystia to the Northwest, and finally
Rumia is to the Southwest. You’ll have a chance to heal in between each one, so
take advantage of it. I’ll present the four remaining fights in gauntlet form to save
space, however.
Puppet Liberation Front Daiyousei (2)

Extra Cirno, Known Limits No Accessory
Lvl 70, Water/Fighting
Lvl 70, Nature
Extra Cirno exchanges low Speed and damage for surprisingly high HP and Fo.
Defense. This ends up being an overall terrible tradeoff, so crush her however
you please.
Speed Daiyousei uses powerful high-risk Skills such as Macroburst (Wind-type)

to offset her lower Sp. Attack damage. She’ll go down easily enough to Fire,
Steel, or Poison.
Puppet Liberation Front Wriggle (2)

Defense Daiyousei, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 70, Nature
Power Wriggle, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 70, Nature/Dark
Neither Puppet is particulary worth worrying about, though Power Wriggle does
have a surprise Sneak Attack Skill (Illusion-type, boosted Priority, fails if your
Puppet doesn’t attack) to catch you out.
Puppet Liberation Front Mystia (2)

Extra Wriggle, Instant Win No Accessory
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Lvl 70, Sound/Wind
Extra Wriggle uses Changeling to swap out with Mystia, so don’t be surprised at
that. Other than that, it’s a fairly straightforward fight.
Puppet Liberation Front Rumia (3)

Lvl 68, Nature
Extra Wriggle, First Hit No Accessory
Lvl 68, Sound/Wind
Lvl 72, Dark
This is the real test, so to speak. Rumia once again has a Puppet for each of the
five misfits (including herself, naturally), so she’s dealing with Puppets with low-
er base stat totals than most.
Power Cirno is stupidly fast this time around, and will only get more so if her Up
Tempo Ability is allowed to come into play. Unless your Puppet has extremely
high Speeds, you’ll likely eat an Ice Gatling (Water-type) or Peach-Thorn Arrow
(Nature-type) to the face, possibly for five hits. Be prepared for this eventuality.
Speed Daiyousei again uses high-risk Skills such as Macroburst (Wind-type) to

make up for her lower Sp. Attack, though she’ll use Pollen Mist (Grass-type) for
respectable damage as well.
Extra Wriggle is a hyper glass cannon that relies solely on getting the first hit,
which is the entire point of her Ability, First Hit, which raises damage when get-
ting the first hit. Either try to outspeed her (very risky with her base Speed of
130), or tank the hit and one-shot her.
Power Mystia builds up Speed every turn thanks to her Up Tempo Ability, and
does surprisingly high damage along with it. If you let her build up her Speed,
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she’ll be a monster that deals consistantly high damage very turn with Swift Air-
Raid (Wind-type) and Ultra High Tone (Sound-type). If you somehow let her
build up, send out a Puppet that is resistant or neutral to those and try to get the
second hit in.
Defense Rumia has no Speed, but really high Defenses to go along with a solid
HP base. Don’t be surprised if she takes a hit or two, though Light and Fighting-
type Skills will do wonders for you. Be wary of a surprise Killing Bite Skill
(Steel-type).
Upon defeating Rumia, you’ll be officially accepted as a member of the Puppet

Liberation Front! Congratulations, you passed the test...?
Since you are now their companion, you are immediately asked to help them out
and whisked away to their secret hideout on Route 6. You’ll come face-to-face
with none other than the Three Fairies of Light, who explain the situation to you.
They start by explaining that they had nothing to do with the Puppet Liberation
Front’s revival. Somebody stole the name without permission and is now causing
mayhem around Gensokyo, much to the chagrin of the former members. They es-
pecially seem upset that bad things are being done (not that stealing things for fun
is particularly good), including actually taking other people’s Puppets.
I would just like to point out that the title of their organization is the Puppet Libera-
tion Front, in case everybody forgot. Technically, the new group is doing a better
job than they did.
Anyway, their leader, Medicine, is missing and they haven’t been able to find her
anywhere, so they need your help to track her down.
As they and you likely figured out, she’ll be in the nearby Suzuran Field. Heal
your Puppets up first and then teleport to the Route 6 Rest Area. Suzanna Field is
directly to the South from there.
Feel free to ride around and talk to the various Puppet Liberation Front members,
but they provide little help in locating Medicine. You’ll find her by checking the
same place you had your climactic showdown in the Southeast. Save before ap-
proaching the seemingly empty field.
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As expected, she seems very, very unhappy to see you. Unwilling to believe that
you joined the very Puppet Liberation Front you crushed, she quickly loses her pa-
tience and attacks!
Puppet Liberation Front Medicine (3)

Extra Hina, Air Cushion Food Rations
Lvl 70, Poison/Fire
Power Raiko, Active Golden Hairpin
Extra Kokoro, Mindless Dance Good Earrings
Lvl 70, Sound/Dark
Speed Kogasa, Warning Shot Silver Hairpin
Lvl 70, Water/Light
Extra Medicine, Flat Speed Jar of Poison
Lvl 74, Poison/Warped
Medicine this time around will be a difficult fight and then some. Her AI is just
as powerful as before, capable of reading your mind and acting upon that. Expect
to see extremely frequent swap-outs, especially when Extra Hina is in danger.
Extra Hina is an annoying stall-focused tank and the biggest challenge on Medi-
cine’s team. She likes to use the Force Shield Skill every other turn (since it fails
when used in succession) to greatly reduce the damage she takes for one turn,
which just so happens to be the same amount as what she heals with her Food Ra-
tions. She also uses Drain Seed on turn two to start sucking your Puppet’s health
bit by bit and healing hers for the same amount, which is a frustrating combo
when you factor in Food Rations and Force Shield. She uses either a Poison-type
or Fire-type Skill when her Force Shield can’t be used and your Puppet is already
inflicted with Drain Seed.
To counter her, you’ll have to strike at her when her Force Shield is down, pref-
erably before she can hit your Puppet with Drain Seed. Earth would normally be
the go-to type of choice, but her Air Cushion Ability negates Earth-type damage
(unless your Puppet has the Common Senseless Ability). You’ll have to either try
Wind, at which point she’ll likely swap out into Extra Medicine and negate it, or
Water, which might mean Speed Kogasa gets swapped in. Either way, if you take
out her supporting Puppets that are meant to protect her, you’ll eventually take her
down. You could also potentially strike her for neutral damage instead, focusing
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on her terrible Fo. Defense, which might mean she doesn’t get swapped out and
thus gets KO’d.
Power Raiko is always a nightmare simply because of her odd type-combo, mak-
ing Earth her one and only weakness. She does a ton of Sp. Attack damage and
has respectable Defenses (bases 100/80) to back it up, but terrible Speed. Since
she’ll likely swap in at a terrible time for your active Puppet, you’ll have to swap,
take a hit, and then attempt to outspeed her on the second turn.
Extra Kokoro is tough. She has great Sp. Attack (125 base), solid Speed (100),
and solid Defenses (90/70 bases). Her Good Earring forces her to continue using
the Skill she uses first, but boosts the damage significantly. She has Petal Dance
(Nature-type) in addition to the expected Sound-type and Dark-type Skills, so
don’t be surprised by that. She’ll potentially swap in and out to avoid the penalty
associated with the Good Earring, but if she’s the last Puppet, you’ll know exactly
what you’re dealing with and can hopefully plan accordingly. The good news is
that she has so many weaknesses (Steel, Wind, Electric, Light, and Fighting) that
you can one-shot her without too much issue.
Speed Kogasa is straightforward to fight, though you’ll likely see her swap in to
take a blow for Extra Hina. She has a 110 base in both Fo. Attack and Speed, and
has decent Defenses to go along with that. There’s not a whole lot apart from that
to say, as she’s the weakest link on the team. Target her with any of the expected
weaknesses, but don’t be surprised if she swaps out as quickly as she swaps in.
Extra Medicine is the go-to swap-in to prevent your Wind-type Skills from harm-
ing the likes of Extra Hina because of Extra Medicine’s Warped-typing. She does
amazingly high damage thanks to relying on Skills such as Sweet Desperado (Poi-
son-type), which causes her Sp. Attack to drop by two levels after using it. She’s
surprisingly quick with a Speed base of 115 as well, which further complicates
matters. Beware of assuming Steel-type Puppets are safe here, as while Poison
damage no longer becomes an issue, her Warped-type Skills come into play.
If you made it out of that fight alive, good job.
Medicine still refuses to call you an ally. She is, however, surprised to hear that the
Puppet Liberation Front was taken over. The noise from your battle helps a few of
the other Puppet Liberation Front members find you, at which point they help clear
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the air. Cirno mentions that the Inverted Castle was taken over by the fake Puppet
Liberation Front, and that they might be using it as their base.
While Medicine still clearly doesn’t like you, she really, really doesn’t like her or-
ganization being co-opted by others. She officially restarts the Puppet Liberation
Front and vows to leave the fakers black and blue.
Cirno says that the Inverted Castle is floating near Youkai Mountain (specifically
on the Eastern side). Medicine orders you to help before leaving with the others.
Now the only question is how can you get there...?
25. Inverted Castle in the Sky
Once you’ve healed up your Puppets and restocked on healing items, teleport to the
Youkai Mountain Rest Area. You’ll see Aya a few steps to the South. She’ll be
busy looking for scoops as per usual, but once she realizes your intention to go to
the Inverted Castle, she’ll take you there personally.
From here on, you’ll be able to teleport to and from the Shining Needle Castle
without issue. For the record, the teleport location is just Southeast of the Youkai
Mountain Rest Area.
Enter Shining Needle Castle to find yourself in what basically amounts to a mas-
sive maze that will involve flipping, flopping, and plenty of forced battles against
members of the Neo Puppet Liberation Front in order to make it to the end. We’ll
be side tracking for extra items as well, including at least one Accessory.
Go ahead and enter the right room to run into Medicine, who blames you for being
slow. To be fair, Aya had to carry you, which could have slowed her down a bit.
Because of this, the others have already entered and immediately got separated
from Medicine. Your job is to get to the end and find out who is responsible for
usurping (heh) Medicine’s Puppet Liberation Front. By the by, if you got the joke,
good job.
There’s nothing in the room beyond Medicine, so leave and head West. You’ll pass
by what seems like a doorway, but you can’t reach the entrance. Ignore the switch
just out of reach at the end of the path and descend down to the next floor. Wriggle
is standing next to the first reachable switch, and talking to her reveals that the
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room turns upside-down when stepping on them. Do so.
Head North to find another switch; press it and snag what is likely your second
Floating Stone of the playthrough (it prevents Earth-type damage, but crumbles if
hit by another Skill type). Step on the switch again and the room will flip once
again. The room to the South hides an optional mid-boss, so of course go in there
and flip the switch to reveal her!
Tsukumogami Raiko
Defense Yatsuhashi, Some Guts Good Earrings
Power Benben, Mind’s Eye Good Ring
Lvl 72, Sound/Void
Extra Raiko, In Sync Food Rations
Raiko is either a tough fight if your team struggles against Sound-types or a cake-
walk if you have Puppets with Wind and Electric-type Skills.
Defense Yatsuhashi has Good Earrings, meaning the first Skill she attacks with
will deal significantly more damage, but will be used over and over again every
turn until she swaps out. She doesn’t do overly high damage usually, but a high-
risk, high-reward Skill such as Danmaku Orchestra (Sound-type) can become
deadly when combined with Good Earrings. Defense Yatsuhashi has very high
Fo. Defense, so strike with Fire, Steel, Wind, or Poison-type Sp. Attack Skills if
possible.
Power Benben deals high Fo. Attack damage that gets boosted higher by her
Good Ring. Watch out for her surprise Lightning Cut Skill (Electric-type) and try
to strike with Wind, Electric, or Dark-type Skills.
Extra Raiko has low damage but base 100s in HP, Fo. Defense, Sp. Defense, and
Speed. This works well with her Food Rations, making her a decent tank. How-
ever, she isn’t particularly threatening otherwise, so really all you need to do is
grind it out. Watch out for Sorrowful Tune (Sound-type) to lower your Sp. Attack
by one stage.
After defeating Raiko, head South out of the two rooms and snag the Hakurei Shin-
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shu. If your team needs healing, I’d go ahead and teleport out since you’re still
near the beginning. If not, step on the switch near Raiko and return to the main
area.
Go up the nearby stairs and hit the switch to find a Magic Crystal to sell later. Re-
turn to the main area and head North through the hallway only to be stopped by a
member of the Neo Puppet Liberation Front!
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Ivomenta

Power Orange, Usurpation No Accessory
Lvl 65, Void
Interestingly enough, the correct path actually involves flipping the switch behind
Ibometa, but let’s play along and explore for more items and Puppeteers.
Ignore the stairs for now and follow the hallway to the next room. Flip the switch
and leave the room to be stopped by another Fairy!
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Hydrancia

Speed Kagerou, Final Form No Accessory
Lvl 65, Dark/Wind
Power Wakasagi, Sound Absorb No Accessory
Lvl 65, Water
Exit the next room and head East to the narrow hallway to find a Fate Thread.
Head back to the West afterwards for another battle.
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Iris

Speed Seiran, Recalibration No Accessory
Lvl 65, Electric/Void
Power Hatate, Telescopic No Accessory
Lvl 65, Wind/Void
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Take the nearby hallway to the end to find a switch that returns you to where you
were. Head North to the stairway you passed earlier and descend to the next level.
Take the Eastern path first and step on the switch to find the second Fluorite of the
playthrough (boosts duration of protective Skills). Head North and then West past
Aya and flip the switch. You’ll find another member of the Neo Puppet Liberation
Front to the East!
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Rubum

Power Magan, Dark Clothing No Accessory
Power Lily, Deploy Smoke No Accessory
Lvl 65, Nature/Void
Return to the previous floor by taking the stairs, as the Southwest room is empty.
It’s time to finally hit the switch past the Fairy. Descend the stairs to the next area,
flip another switch, and follow the linear path past Mystia to find another Fairy
desperately trying to stop your advance!
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Catlair

Power Murasa, Negative Aura No Accessory
Lvl 65, Water/Sound
Power Yoshika, Ghost Form No Accessory
Lvl 65, Poison
Enter the nearby room and pass through it to the next. Hit the switch and take the
Eastern exit through the next two rooms to reach the final grunt member of the Neo
Puppet Liberation Front (or you could take the Western exit to say hello to Cirno,
though this is only for fun).
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Melia

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Defense Hina, Karmic Retribution No Accessory
Lvl 65, Poison
You’ve reached the point where you would be wise to return and heal up. This is
also the last chance you’ll have to fight all the Neo Puppet Liberation Front mem-
bers that are listed at the end of Side Quest Section 4, though these fights are com-
pletely optional and are for fun and Experience only.
Once you are prepared, return to Meria’s location and take the stairs down to the fi-
nal area. Save your game and enter the room to confront the one who took over
Medicine’s beloved Puppet Liberation Front!
Neo Puppet Liberation Front Seija

Assist Tewi, Lucky Black Choker
Lvl 74, Void
Extra Nue, Charge! Good Belt
Lvl 75, Wind/Nether
Assist Sekibanki, Melancholic Almighty Godstone
Lvl 74, Dark/Nether
Speed Kagerou, Final Form Life Charm
Lvl 74, Dark/Wind
Speed Wakasagi, Fog Traveler Straw Doll
Lvl 74, Water/Sound
Defense Seija, Usurpation Jar of Poison
Meet Seija. She’s an overall nasty character who is widely disliked by the major-
ity of Gensokyo’s residents...though she does have a pretty cool game starring her.
This fight will be pretty tough if you’ve been ignoring Side Quests; otherwise,
it’ll be refreshingly straightforward compared to the likes of Suwako. Expect a
somewhat strong AI that will occasionally swap Puppets in and out to protect
them from barrier-piercing Skills, and also will likely target Puppets swapping-in
with barrier-piercing attacks. Such is life from here on out.
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Assist Tewi will lay out Bind Traps and Stealth Traps, which will slow your Pup-
pet and deal damage, respectively, whenever your Puppets swap in. This can be
easily countered if you have a Puppet with Smash Spin (Wind-type, blows away
traps and Drain Seed), but if you don’t have that Skill prepared, you’ll have to
deal with getting slowed and slightly injured every time you swap in. She has a
Black Choker to ensure she does her job before getting KO’d, meaning there’s lit-
tle you likely can do to prevent her from laying her traps unless you can KO her
with a Speed-focused Puppet that also has multi-hit Skills.
Extra Nue does a high amount of Fo. Attack damage and is fairly tanky to back it
up. She has a surprise Sound-type Skill in Detonation Burst that will deal mas-
sive damage at the cost of lowering her Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense a stage each.
Extra Nue will deal even higher damage than normal thanks both to Charge!
(boosting her damage by 30%) as well as her Good Belt (forcing her to repeat the
same Skill over and over, but significantly boosting its damage).
Assist Sekibanki primarily exists to apply the Heavy Fog Weather effect to the
battlefield thanks to her Melancholic Ability. The Heavy Fog Weather effect will
last longer than usual thanks to her Almighty Godstone, so don’t expect it to fade
away after turn five. She also has fairly high Defenses, but almost no damage to
speak of. Honestly, she’s the weakest link here, so use her as a chance to heal up
if she comes out in the middle of the fight. Otherwise, wipe her out with a single
Light-type Skill thanks to her 4x weakness.
Speed Kagerou likes using Moon’s Protection to boost her Sp. Attack and SP. De-
fense by one level each. This, combined with her high base 120 Speed and the ef-
fects of the Bind Trap, will likely mean she can strike first and deal serious dam-
age if you let her power up. While you should be able to one-shot her without too
much issue, if she manages to survive a blow, expect her Life Charm to come into
play.
Speed Wakasagi is the very definition of a glass cannon, with high Sp. Attack and
Speed, but poor Defenses and mediocre HP. She has a surprise Wind-type Skill in
Macroburst (high damage but has a decent chance of missing), so don’t get caught
out by that. Beware of higher damage than expected thanks to her Straw Doll.
She’ll go down easily enough to just about anything, but striking at her 4x weak-
ness to Electric-type Skills will result in fried fish.
Defense Seija is a massive Sp. Defense tank who has a strong Fo. Attack stat as
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well. She also has a Jar of Poison to heal herself at the end of every turn for the
same amount as a Food Rations would. She loves using Venom Nova (Poison-
type) more than anything else, so try to fight her with a Steel-type Puppet to force
her on weaker Skills. Strike at her lower Fo. Defense with Earth, Wind, Dark, or
Illusion-type Skills and aim for a one-shot KO.
After the battle, Seija will complain that the Neo Puppet Liberation Front is useless
since it couldn’t help her on her road to usurpation. She’ll run away just before
Medicine enters the room, hitting her in the process.
Unexpectedly, Medicine thanks you for your help in putting down the usurper. She
decides to reward you, giving you a book that Yuuka passed on to her. Sound fa-
miliar? You’ll receive Incident Case 9, which is the second book that was in Yuu-
ka’s possession. Hmm...
Medicine decides to continue on with the Puppet Liberation Front, but only so
everyone can play together. She leaves in high spirits, promising to play a trick on
you someday.
With this, the Neo Puppet Liberation Front has been crushed. Gensokyo has been
saved from their tyranny, but there certainly is something odd going on with these
Incident Cases...
26. Final Chapter: Truth Behind the Incident
If you’ve been keeping up on reading the Incident Cases, you’ll have noticed that
there is a significant parallel between your journey and the one detailed in the
books. Perhaps the latest Incident Case you received from Medicine will shed
some new light on this?
Return to the Human Village after healing your Puppets and restocking on healing
items. We’ll be heading to the Bookstore located in the Southern half of town,
which conveniently is directly South of the Rest Area (just cross the bridge and it’ll
be the first building to the West).
If you haven’t actually read the Incident Cases yet, then here’s where you’ll need to
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do so. Talk to Kosuzu, read the book farthest down on the list, and then talk to her
again and follow the same process. Continue this until you’ve read all nine.
Kosuzu will remark that the story seems to be almost done, and the writer seems to
be a bit lonely at the prospect of having to part with their Puppets. No sooner than
she says this than a very familiar Puppet barges in and then runs back out. Perhaps
you should follow?
As expected, upon leaving the Bookstore you are greeted by a familiar face. Yu-
kari has been monitoring your progress, and noticed that you finally read all the di-
ary entries. She asks if you noticed the similarities between your own story and the
one written within the books. She goes on to ask if you believe that another ver-
sion of yourself exists somewhere out there in another time and space. Leaving
you a bit puzzled, she hands over the final diary entry and departs, saying that
you’ll find the true answer to the Puppet Incident in the place where your journey
first began...
Enter the Bookshop once again and read Incident Case 10. The author describes
how they journeyed throughout Gensokyo with their beloved Puppets before fi-
nally waking up from their dream. They pray that one day they’ll reappear in Gen-
sokyo and be able to meet their friends once again.
For completing the entire set of Incident Cases, you’ll receive the Bell Hairpin,
which, when held by the first Puppet in your party, will boost the wild Puppet en-
counter rate significantly.
If the one who wrote the Incident Cases was another version of you, does that
mean that you too will be forced to part from your friends in Gensokyo and your
beloved Puppets? And just what did Yukari mean by the place where it all began?
Well, if you can remember back to when you first entered Gensokyo, Marisa found
you somewhere behind the Hakurei Shrine. Perhaps that would be the best place to
start your search.
Note that from here on will be the true end-game of Touhou Puppet Dance Per-
formance: Shard of Dreams. If you or your Puppets aren’t ready for some very
difficult fights, then I suggest going through some of the Side Quest sections and
collect the items you may have skipped. I especially suggest completing the Kasen
Side Quest and fighting Suwako to get the Native Grace Accessory, which will sig-
nificantly boost the rate the Puppet holding it levels.
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If you are prepared to discover the truth behind the Puppet Incident, teleport to the
Hakurei Shrine and make your way to Hakurei Mountain behind the Shrine. You’ll
soon run into the Yukari Puppet that started all of this. Follow her to the previ-
ously blocked-off section to the East.
At the very end, you’ll run into Yukari once again. She seems pleased that you
were able to understand her hint, and hopes that you thought about what she said
before. You may answer however you wish to her question.
Yukari will point you to the East and depart, though she will remark that she hopes
your desire comes true.
Jump on your Inflatable Boat one last time and head East until you reach a cave.
Save your game and enter the cave.
Behind Hakurei Shrine seems like it would be a huge dungeon filled with wild
Puppets, but thankfully it isn’t. In fact, there are only two Puppeteers here and no
wild Puppets to be found.
You’ll spot your arch rival once again shortly upon disembarking. Reimu is get-
ting tired of meeting you like this, as she also figured out that the Puppet Incident
hasn’t been solved. After all, Shinki only made the Puppets for use in Makai, and
it normally isn’t easy to migrate across entire worlds. Somehow, they appeared not
only in Gensokyo, but also in Heaven and even on the Lunar Capital. The ring-
leader who caused this to happen is still out there somewhere, and both of you
seem to think that they’re beyond this point.
However, Reimu isn’t willing to give up her title of Incident Resolution Specialist.
Only one of you will proceed past this point to confront the ringleader. Prepare
yourself for the final battle with Reimu!

Extra Kasen, Stubborn No Accessory
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Defense Yukari, Unjustness No Accessory
Extra Reimu, Mind’s Eye Straw Doll
Lvl 80, Wind/Warped
Reimu is barely stronger than in her optional fight earlier. In fact, most of her
Puppets lost their Accessories between then and now, making this a fairly straight-
forward fight, though not an easy one.
Power Aya is the same as always. If you don’t know how to deal with her by
now, then I suggest avoiding sending out Puppets weak to Wind, Fighting, or
damage in general, as she’s very fast and does an absolute ton of damage. You’ll
likely have to absorb a blow before taking her down, though she still will go
down as easily as before.
Defense Suika has base 100s in Fo. Attack, Fo. Defense, and Sp. Defense, and an
even higher base 110 HP. She’s an excellent tank that also has the Charge! Abil-
ity to boost her damage by an additional 30%. Expect for her to do a lot of dam-
age and be able to survive a hit in order to do so. Thankfully, she has a multitude
of weaknesses to strike at, so pick one of them and grind it out. Watch out for
Dancing Rain (Sound-type) to catch you off-guard.
Extra Kasen has the Stubborn Ability, which means you won’t be able to one-shot
her unless you use a multi-hit Skill. She has massive Fo. Defense and HP, so
strike at her paltry Sp. Defense. Watch out for Cross Counter (Fighting-type),
which will deal twice the Fo. Attack damage dealt by your Puppet that turn.
Defense Yukari has very high Defenses and a fairly high Sp. Attack. She has the
Field Protect Skill, which halves the damage Reimu’s Puppets take from Fo. At-
tack Skills for five turns unless you strike with a Break Skill such as Field Break
(which destroys the protective barrier). Strike at her with Illusion or Sound-type
Skills and grind it out.
Extra Reimu does a lot of Fo. Attack damage thanks to her fairly high base 110 as
well as her Straw Doll. Worse, she’s very fast to go along with it, meaning you’ll
be hard-pressed to outspeed her and go for the one-shot. Watch out for her off-
type Dancing Sword Skill, which does Fighting-type damage and has a higher
chance to land a Critical Hit. She’ll do a ton of damage with Foehn Winds
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(Wind-type), but the heavy recoil when combined with her Straw Doll will poten-
tially wipe her out in a few turns if you can manipulate her into using it.
Reimu will accept defeat a touch more gracefully than usual, likely because of the
respect you’ve earned over the course of your journey. She understands your de-
sire to get to the bottom of this yourself, and tells you that if you’re going to do so,
you had better take responsibility and finish it.
Of course, before you can do so, you’ll likely want to heal up. After doing so, con-
tinue on to the end of the cave to find another teleporter, though this one has a
guard!
Gatekeeper of the Lake Kurumi

Speed Elis, Infiltration No Accessory
Speed Flandre, Unbound No Accessory
Lvl 72, Dark/Light
Extra Kurumi, First Hit No Accessory
Lvl 72, Wind/Poison
Kurumi is a cakewalk, so don’t overthink this one just because she has unusual
Puppets.
Speed Elis is a glass cannon that almost certainly will outspeed your Puppet, but
otherwise goes down in one hit. She does have a rare Dark-type Fo. Attack Skill
called Twilight Infection that will deal a lot of damage. Also beware of Ruinous
Voice, which will KO your Puppet if you leave it out for three turns.
Speed Flandre loves using Dark Sweets (Dark-type) more than any other Skill,
though if you send something out weak to Light she’ll change tactics. Otherwise,
she’s a glass cannon that has equally high Fo. Attack and Sp. Attack in exchange
for slightly less Speed. You could outspeed her with a very fast Puppet, but other-
wise grind it out and take her out safely.
Extra Kurumi does a lot of Sp. Attack damage and has a high Speed to go along
with it. She uses Sweet Desperado (Poison-type) to deal massive damage but
drop her Sp. Attack by two stages, but watch out for Divine Punishment (Fight-
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ing-type), which KO’s Extra Kurumi in exchange for dealing her current HP di-
rectly to you in damage (this is most dangerous at high HP). Her Fo. Defense is
far higher than her Sp. Defense, so protect yourself from the brunt of her assault
with Steel or Warped-type Puppets and aim for a one-hit KO!
After her defeat, you’ll get the right to pass by. However, you should heal up and
replenish any healing items as necessary, as you likely won’t be coming back after
you step on the teleporter.
Once you are prepared, enter the teleporter to be whisked away to your final desti-
nation.
Fantasy World Puppets

Power Kurumi Dark Normal
Power Elly Steel/Wind Normal
Power Yuuka Nature/Electric Normal
Power Mugetsu Illusion/Dark Rare
Power Gengetsu Illusion/Light Rare
Welcome to the Fantasy World. Surrounded by flowers, it may not seem particu-
larly different, but head North and you’ll understand what makes it unique. There
are no items to be found here, so follow the path as it soars over the empty void.
At the Western island, simply continue to the North and take the glass road again
until you reach a North/East split. Head North and Save before trying to pass by
the next gatekeeper.
Gatekeeper of Mugenkan Elly

Power Sakuya, Strategist No Accessory
Defense Ichirin, Duel No Accessory
Power Elly, Iron Resolve No Accessory
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Lvl 72, Steel/Wind
Elly is almost as simple a fight as Kurumi. Enjoy it while you can, as this will be
the last easier fight left.
Power Sakuya has a semi-massive Fo. Attack (base 135) and high Fo. Defense
(base 100), but is very slow to make up for it. Strike hard with Sp. Attack Skills
to make it easier for a one-shot. Strategist boosts the damage of Skills with a base
Power of 60 or lower by 50%, which Power Sakuya uses with boosted-Priority
Skills such as Overtake Strike (Steel-type).
Defense Ichirin isn’t particularly tanky aside from her higher HP, but she does do
a lot of damage. Expect that to become an issue if the fight gets prolonged. What
makes her especially frustrating is her Exploding Fist Skill (Fighting-type), as it
will Confuse your Puppet for a few turns and potentially prevent them from act-
ing. After using that, she’ll use Strike Shot (Fighting-type, boosted Priority) to at-
tack first, though this does minimal damage. She has the off-type Inferno (Fire-
type) to potentially catch you off-guard. You might be able to one-shot her if you
strike at her with Sound, her only weakness.
Power Elly is a nightmare waiting to happen if you let it. Her Mad Rush Stance
will boost her Fo. Attack by one stage and Speed by two stages, making her an
immediate threat after one use, and easily capable of outspeeding any of your
Puppets after the second. Don’t let her build up or she can and will become capa-
ble of wiping out your entire team. Take her out with a 4x effectiveness Warped-
type Skill if possible.
After defeating her, go ahead and enter the mansion. You’ll get a chance to heal
before fighting the penultimate boss of the game.
Mugenkan is filled with healing items as well as beds to heal on, so ignore the
stairs and instead head East and enter the hallway through the door. There’ll be
two doors to your East; the Southern one is empty, so instead go through the North-
ern one to find a Dessert of the Sun and a bed to heal in.
Back in the hallway, marvel at the surprising number of trees and flowers as you
continue on to the West; the owner of Mugenkan must be a real green thumb. The
door to the North is locked, and the other doors lead to empty rooms, so go ahead
and head out the other side’s exit.
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Go ahead and climb the stairs to find a surprising face: Yuuka. Save your game
before approaching her.
Speak to Yuuka and wince as that beautiful-yet-threatening pre-fight music starts

up. She obviously expected you to eventually reach here, though you took longer
than expected (must have been all the Side Quests, right?). Yuuka explains that she
received Mugenkan from a certain pair of sisters and is now the owner. You have
more important things to worry about than who that could be, as Yuuka begins her
attack!
Lord of Mugenkan Yuuka

Extra Kurumi, Deploy Smoke Good Belt
Lvl 80, Wind/Poison
Power Elly, Recoil Offset Life Charm
Lvl 80, Steel/Wind
Power Yuuka, Unjustness Silver Hairpin
Yuuka is a difficult fight even though she only has three Puppets. Expect her AI
to be strong, swapping in and out when in danger.
Two of her Puppets you’ve seen once before and know how dangerous they can
be, though I should reiterate that Power Elly needs to be taken out immediately or
else you’ll watch her blow through your entire party.
Extra Kurumi does a lot of Sp. Attack damage and has a high Speed to go along
with it, though this time she’s fast enough to outspeed pretty much all of your
Puppets. Extra Kurumi also comes with a Good Belt, which will cause her first
Skill used to repeat every turn after that until she swaps out, but will deal signifi-
cantly more damage. She uses Sweet Desperado (Poison-type) to deal massive
damage but drop her Sp. Attack by two stages, but watch out for the off-type GI-
GANTIC (Fighting-type) to deal heavy damage as well. Her Fo. Defense is far
higher than her Sp. Defense, so protect yourself from the brunt of her assault with
Steel or Warped-type Puppets (though she could one-shot KO Steel-types with
GIGANTIC) and aim for a one-hit KO!
Power Elly is a nightmare waiting to happen if you let it, and this time she has a
Life Charm to help her recover after non-lethal damage. Her Mad Rush Stance
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will boost her Fo. Attack by one stage and Speed by two stages, making her an
immediate threat after one use, and easily capable of outspeeding any of your
Puppets after the second. Don’t let her build up or she can and will become capa-
ble of wiping out your entire team. Take her out with a 4x effectiveness Warped-
type Skill if possible.
Power Yuuka hits like a tank on steroids. Expect her to be dirt slow but very
tanky thanks to her naturally high Fo. Defense and boosted Sp. Defense (thanks to
her Silver Hairpin). To be fair, it is possible to one-shot her, but it takes a very
powerful Puppet to do so. She’s the most straightforward Puppet on the list, but
that doesn’t make her less dangerous. You’ll likely need to grind this one out,
preferably targeting her weaknesses to Fire and Poison.
After defeating Yuuka, she’ll reiterate again that she has nothing to do with the
Puppet Incident, though she’ll point you in the direction of the ones who are. Yuu-
ka will open the locked door from before (telepathically perhaps?) and tell you to
check for yourself.
Let’s walk around the upper level of Mugenkan and check for more items before
going anywhere else. Go East to the doorway, pass through it, and then check the
Northern room for a Bhava-Agra Set. The doorway Southwest of that is a double
room that contains a Reflect Bit, which acts exactly like a Counter Bit but for EN-
type Skills (usually non-physical Skills).
Back in the hallway, check the Northwest room for a Youma Scroll: White, which
acts similar to the previous ones. Though once again this item will be useless for
your party, it does make the final collectable item in the Story Walkthrough! Con-
gratulations!
Head back downstairs and heal up. If your Puppets aren’t in the 90s, you likely
won’t have a chance in the upcoming fight. You’d be wise to either grind for lev-
els in the grass to the South of the mansion or go do some Side Quests and level up
naturally while collecting loot. This next fight is very, very tough.
If you feel you are prepared, head to the door that was locked before on the North-
ern side of the first floor hallway. Before passing through it, make sure your Pup-
pets have the best items and Skills possible. You might want to use a Break Skill
such as Break Shot (Skill Card 34) or Field Break (Skill Card 85) to deal with
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Field Protect and Field Barrier, though if you are confident in dealing with them
the old-fashioned way, go for it.
Save your game and know that this will be the final battle. Don’t be afraid to use
your best healing items if necessary, including the rare Hakurei Shinshu.
Pass through the door and head along the linear path as it leads you to the true cul-
prits behind the Puppet Incident.
They confess easily to having caused the spread of Shinki’s Puppets, as they
thought it would be interesting to see what happened when they spread to Genso-
kyo and beyond. However, you found them out in the end, albeit slower than they
expected.
If you want to put a stop to the Puppet Incident once and for all, you’ll need to de-
feat them in a winner-take-all Puppet battle!
The Atrocious Demons Gengetsu & Mugetsu

Assist Koishi Curiosity Fluorite
Power Remilia, Charge! Black Choker
Lvl 85, Dark/Wind
Extra Satori, Infinite Changes Straw Doll
Extra Mugetsu, Spirit of Yin Dream Shard
Speed Gengetsu, Eastern Expanse Dream Shard
Expect a fight with crushingly strong AI, a highly-balanced team capable of both
defense and offense, and all sorts of strong Skills and Accessories. Hold nothing
back or else you’ll be annihilated.
Assist Koishi is the cornerstone of their strategy. She will lay out Field Protect
and Field Barrier one after the other before swapping out for another Puppet. She
has the Fluorite Accessory, meaning Field Protect/Barrier will last longer than
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usual. That’s her entire purpose, but it’s highly effective in protecting her damage
dealers and allowing them to steamroll your party. If you can use a Break Skill to
destroy Field Protect and Field Barrier before she swaps out, she’ll either remain
in the fight and try to keep them up or swap out for another Puppet to take the
blow; either way, you’ll break the barriers, which is the real goal here. If she
stays in, it’ll be your chance to defeat her and make the fight much, much easier.
Strike with Sound and Warped-type Skills, though don’t be surprised if she sur-
vives a blow thanks to her higher Defenses and HP.
Power Remilia is a typical glass cannon with high Speed, Fo. Attack, and Sp. At-
tack, and also has a Black Choker to prevent a one-shot. She further boosts her
damage by 30% more thanks to Charge! If she’s in danger, she’ll use the Change-
ling Skill (Dark-type) to swap out for another Puppet. She has the off-type Fire
Javelin in addition to on-type Javelin Skills, all of which do solid damage.
Extra Satori is a monster. Her Infinite Changes Ability lets her change her type to
be that of the Skill she uses, and it happens before the Skill goes off, meaning
you’ll see type-boosted damage coming your way. She has very high Fo. Attack
and high Speed, making her capable of outspeeding many Puppets and striking
you in a multitude of ways. Her Straw Doll will cause her to deal even further
damage, meaning you’ll need to figure out a way to manipulate her into either
swapping into a Puppet faster than her and aim for a one-shot or grind it out with
a very tanky Puppet capable of dealing with many different types of damage.
Extra Flandre swaps out Speed for high Fo. Attack and Fo. Defense, making her
into a quasi-tank that does strong damage. She has a Good Belt that boosts her
damage even further at the cost of having to repeat the same Skill over and over;
however, she’ll likely play the role of assassin, swapping in to do heavy damage
before swapping back out. Her Overdrive Skill (Warped-type) does massive
Warped-type damage but drops her Fo. Attack by two stages. Expect her to likely
swap out after using this.
Extra Mugetsu is kind of odd in that she has a very high Fo. Defense and a solid
Speed base, but low damage. Her Dream Shard will boost her stats by a fair
amount, however. She loves using debilitating Skills such as Thermit, which will
inflict the Heavy Burn Status Effect upon your Puppet, and also has Grace of
Mana to heal her HP by half. Her overall strategy is to stall for time for the
Heavy Burn to slowly whittle you down to nothing. Don’t let this happen; either
use a Myouren Tea or simply blow through her weaker Sp. Defense and go for a
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one-shot! Watch out for actual damage in the form of Alluring Maze (Warped-
type).
Speed Gengetsu is a pure glass cannon that does extremely high damage paired
with a massive Speed stat; this only becomes worse when paired with her Dream
Shard. Expect her to deal more than enough damage to wipe you out in one shot
if she hits a weakness. Watch out for her Macroburst (Wind-type) as well as the
expected type-boosted Skills. You might be able to outspeed her if you have a
stupidly fast Puppet, but it’s better to grind this one out.
Gengetsu is a bit disappointed that they lost, but both of them will marvel at the
fact that the Puppet Incident was solved by playing with Puppets.
However, they then tell you a shocking revelation: they can’t actually make Pup-
pets disappear since they didn’t prepare a means to do so. Your character doesn’t
seem particularly disappointed by this fact, though. In fact, you could say they
might be relieved, as they won’t have to say goodbye to their beloved Puppets and
the friends they’ve made along the way...
Congratulations! You’ve successfully cleared the entirety of Touhou Puppet Dance

Performance: Shard of Dreams! Enjoy the true ending cinematic in which your
character revisits the various places they’ve traveled through, only this time filled
with the Puppets they’ve grown to love. See if you can name them all!
After the credits finish up, those of you playing on New Game Plus will meet with
Doremy and receive the Puppets she held onto from the beginning of the game,
provided you moved them to Boxes 21-51. They’ll be in the same state as you left
them.
Your character will wake up in front of the Hakurei Shrine once again. If you talk
to Reimu, she’ll ask how things went. Upon hearing that the Puppets won’t be dis-
appearing after all, she’ll more or less shrug and say that since people are begin-
ning to accept the existance of Puppets in Gensokyo, Reimu no longer will inter-
fere.
At this point, you can go around and fight the various Touhou characters again for
fun, and many will have stronger teams than before. Some, like Reimu, will have
Puppets in or near the 90s, while others average around 65. These battles have no
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reward, however, and many will be fairly easy.
You can also go back and challenge Shinki and her cohorts again back in Makai if
you wish. They have very strong teams now, and will prove to be a great challenge
if you are looking for something to test your team against aside from Flandre
Round 2.
Finally, rumor has it that some sort of 3v3 Puppet tournament has opened up in the
Western part of the Human Village, with special rewards for beating a set number
of opponents in a row, up to Round 50 (at which point you can repeat the process
for additional rewards). If that sounds interesting, check it out!
This concludes the Main Walkthrough for TPDP: SoD. Thank you for using this
Strategy Guide to aid you along your journey. I hope you have grown to love this
game as much as I do!
VI. New Game Plus Preparation
Fittingly, now that you’ve beaten the game, it’s time to look more in depth at pre-
paring for New Game Plus (NG+). Touhou Puppet Dance Performance: Shard of
Dreams has a fairly straightforward NG+ mechanic in which any Puppets in your
current party at the time of starting the NG+ are reverted to Level 5 (though they
retain their stat Ranks) and put into Box 1 of your New Game’s Puppet Box; fur-
thermore, all Puppets that were in Boxes 21-51 are put aside until you beat the
game again, at which point they will all be returned to you in the same Box loca-
tion and condition. All Accessories, however, are removed upon starting a NG+,
meaning you can’t transfer over anything to give your Puppets an early boost.
What this amounts to is that you can prepare a whole new party for your NG+ that
you can use as soon as you get the Puppet Box from Sanae. Want to do a full play-
through with Puppets from the Scarlet Devil Mansion? You can do it! Want to
make the ultimate team? You can do that, too!
What makes this even better is that you can use the Reincarnation feature in your
finished playthrough to power the stat Ranks up for your chosen Puppets before
sending them over, allowing you to give them a huge boost in power. Whether that
mean you create full S-Rank Puppets or a combination of different Ranks, being
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able to choose a custom starting team and boost their Ranks is what makes NG+
awesome.
A. Puppet Box Preparation and Choosing a Team
Alright, let’s start with the obvious. Before we start tackling Reincarnation, we
need to get our Puppet Boxes in order. Don’t be like me on my first NG+ play-
through and realize at the end of it that you forgot to change over your Puppets to
Boxes 21-51 and thus not have any Puppets for the next NG+ playthrough.
Don’t do that. Instead, let’s just take care of it now. Go to any of the Akyuu Pup-
pets (I’d humbly suggest the one in the Scarlet Devil Mansion Great Library, since
we’ll need to go there to do Reincarnation anyway) and start transfering all of your
Puppets to Boxes 21-51. Yes, it will take awhile to do so, but you can make it
more entertaining and start organizing them by type, Puppetdex order, or however
else you’d like to do so. I suggest doing it by Puppetdex order, leaving holes to
mark whichever Puppets you are still missing.
If there are any Puppets you have yet to catch, this would also be a great time to go
find them, especially if you did the Flandre Side Quest up to the point where you
received the Old Coin at the end. You can get a guaranteed full S-Rank Puppet if
you choose it as your NG+ starter, meaning you can potentially get a new Puppet
that you haven’t caught yet for free, but any other Puppets you have to provide
yourself.
While we are on the subject of choosing Puppets, now would be an excellent time
to theorycraft a bit and figure out what kind of team you want. Do you want a bal-
anced team? Maybe you want to try out a tankier team that focuses on Status Ef-
fects and outlasting opponents? Perhaps a full glass cannon team to try to end en-
counters quickly? Use the Wiki’s Puppetdex to look at Puppets, their Styles, their
special Abilities, and Skills to see what sounds interesting. Even if you already
know the Puppets you want to use, their playstyle can drastically change depending
on which Style you choose, so keep that in mind.
B. Reincarnation
Now that you’ve organized your Puppet Box to put all your Puppets in Boxes 21-
50 (and hopefully figured out your next team for NG+), it’s time to look at the Re-
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incarnation system. This is a bit complex, but we’ll take it step-by-step.
First off, you need to have at least completed the Main Quest up to the point where
Reincarnation can be unlocked. If you haven’t solved the Puppet Incident and then
completed Remilia’s request in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you can’t access Rein-
carnation. Second, you need to go to the Great Library and grab the Items on the
table next to the second Akyuu Puppet. You can talk to Patchouli for a brief ex-
planation of Reincarnation, which doesn’t really explain much of what you need,
so just read this section instead.
What is Reincarnation? For those familiar with the Pokemon games, it’s basically
the far better version of Breeding. Reincarnation is the method that allows you to
change your Puppet’s stat Ranks, which are the letters next to your Puppet’s stats.
These Ranks are similar to the secret, hidden Internal Value (IV) system in Poke-
mon, which affects your stat’s level of growth. In TPDP: SoD, however, you can
actually see these Ranks, which lets you know how strong the stat growth will or
will not be. A stat with a lower Rank, such as E-, will end up significantly lower
than if it had a higher Rank, such as A-. The lowest Rank is E-, and the highest
Rank is S.
As you might expect, in most cases it is far better to have an S-Rank stat than a
lower one, with the only real exception being for Puppets relying on Skills that
power up the lower their Speed is. If you’re looking to play TPDP: SoD compete-
tively with other people, having Puppets with full S-Ranks is pretty much required,
and is also a near requirement for succeeding against some of the optional bosses
in late- and post-game.
Of course, starting a NG+ playthrough with full S-Rank Puppets is really awesome
as well.
The biggest negative to Reincarnation is that by itself, the Ranks your Puppets get
are random. Thus, you need to use special Magic Stones, such as the Rainbow M.
Stone or the Gold M. Stone, to help guarantee higher Ranks. The problem is that
you only get the Omega M. Stone at the start, meaning you’ll need to figure out
where the other ones are. Thankfully, the only stone you really want or need is the
Rainbow M. Stone, which is received from completing Kasen’s Side Quest. If you
haven’t done that yet, follow the directions in Side Quest Section 4, as it’s pretty
hard to complete without guidance. I’ll explain why the Rainbow M. Stone is by
far the best later.
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The other big negative to Reincarnation is that it drops the Level of the Reincar-
nated Puppet to 1, meaning you really can’t start Reincarnating Puppets until
you’ve finished with that playthrough, or at least, not unless you like spending a lot
of time farming Experience to level it up again. Remember, in NG+ all Puppets in
your chosen starting party will be made Level 5, regardless of whether they were
Level 1 or Level 100.
Okay, so let’s go over how Reincarnation actually works. Talk to the Akyuu Pup-
pet on the table in the Scarlet Devil Mansion Great Library to bring up the Reincar-
nation Menu. Reincarnation requires the use of one Magical Fragment each time
you do it, meaning you’ll want to have a stash on hand. In addition to that, you’ll
need to meet five additional requirements, which correspond to the five Submenus
on the right side of the screen.
The first Submenu option at the top is to choose the Puppet you want to be Rein-
carnated. Simple enough. The second and third options are to choose the two Pup-
pets that will help lend their stat Ranks to the Reincarnated Puppets; more on this
in the next few paragraphs. The fourth option is to choose the Mark, which will
boost whatever stat associated with the Mark by 10% (Red Mark: Focus Attack,
Blue Mark: Focus Defense, Black Mark: Spread Attack, White Mark: Spread
Defense, Green Mark: Speed). You might recognize this on your current Puppets
by the blue numbers on one of their stats, which shows what stat their current Mark
is boosting by 10%.
Finally, the fifth option is choosing which Magic Stone, if any, you want to use.
Magic Stones determine which Ranks are pulled from the supporting Puppets and
which are randomly rolled. This is why the stat Ranks of your supporting Puppets
are so important, as the better the Ranks that they have, the better the Ranks of
your Reincarnated Puppet. If you want full S-Rank stats, the best thing to do is use
two full S-Rank Puppets. As a first-time Reincarnation user, you only likely have
one Puppet that fits the bill (your starting Puppet always starts with full S-Rank
stats). Thus, you will have to choose one additional Puppet that has high overall
Ranks and make do as best you can. Later on, I’ll go over an effective strategy that
should help you quickly get a second full S-Rank Puppet to use as a support for the
rest of your Reincarnating needs.
However, it’s not enough to just have two full S-Rank supporting Puppets. Magic
Stones also play a large part in powering up your Reincarnated Puppet. They are
pretty complex, but let’s focus on the main ones.
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If you choose to not use a Magic Stone, then three Ranks are pulled at random
from the two supporting Puppets, replacing three of your Reincarnated Puppet’s
stat Ranks, while the other three are rerolled at random. This can make it very hard
to get the Ranks you want, and thus I advise you skip it.
The various colored Magic Stones, such as the Gold M. Stone or the Blue M.
Stone, keep the associated Rank from your Reincarnated Puppet (i.e. the Gold M.
Stone will keep your Reincarnated Puppet’s HP Rank the same), pull three Ranks
from the supporting Puppets, and randomly reroll two Ranks at random. While
this can be better than using nothing, there’s still a better option.
The Rainbow M. Stone is by far the best stone. It pulls five Ranks from your two
supporting Puppets, and rerolls the last Rank at random. With two full S-Rank sup-
porting Puppets, this means that you are immediately guaranteed to get five S-
Ranks for your Reincarnated Puppet, and have a 1/16 chance to get a full S-Rank
Reincarnation. This is what makes Reincarnation amazing, and is pretty much the
only Magic Stone you’ll want to use.
The odd Stone out is the Omega M. Stone, which keeps all your Reincarnated Pup-
pet’s Ranks the same, allowing you to change the Mark or start the Puppet out
fresh (perhaps in the hopes of using a different Style).
As I mentioned, if you don’t have the Rainbow M. Stone, it’s not worth trying to
Reincarnate. Just go do the Kasen Side Quest, described in Side Quest Section 4.
It’ll take an hour, tops.
With your Rainbow M. Stone in hand, it’s time to solve the other big issue: how to
get a second full S-Rank Puppet to use as a support? Sadly, there’s no way to mag-
ically make one appear (unless you play through NG+, at which point you’ll have
two by default once you get Boxes 21-50 back at the end of the game), meaning
you’ll need to put in a bit of work to make one.
First off, you’ll need two Puppets to be Reincarnated, your full S-Rank starter as a
support, and a second Puppet with high overall Ranks to be the second support.
It’d be best if you choose a few Puppets from your soon-to-be NG+ party to be the
Reincarnated Puppets, as that would be far more efficient.
Arrange your party so that one of the to-be Reincarnated Puppets is in the top spot.
Then, put your two supports in positions two and three. The fourth Puppet can go
after them.
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Save your game just in case RNGesus isn’t with you, and then open the Reincarna-
tion Menu by speaking to the Akyuu Puppet on the table. Put your lead Puppet in
the Reincarnation slot, and the two support Puppets in slots two and three. Choose
whichever Mark you want (Red for Focus Attack, Black for Spread Attack, or
Green for Speed are usually the best choices). Finally, choose the Rainbow M.
Stone.
Go ahead and Reincarnate your Puppet to see how it turned out. You will for sure
have two S-Rank stats, and hopefully three if RNGesus was kind. Either way,
here’s the trick for the next step: keep your full S-Rank Puppet as a support, but re-
place the other support Puppet (the one with overall high Ranks) with the Puppet
you just Reincarnated. Now, you’ll have two Puppets with S-Rank stats as sup-
ports, increasing your chances of getting S-Rank stats for the next Reincarnation.
Put your second Puppet that you designated for Reincarnation into the Reincarna-
tion slot; everything else should be set, unless you need to change the Mark. Go
ahead and Reincarnate. At minimum, you’ll see two S-Rank stats, but hopefully
you’ll see three or four. If you don’t see at least three, put the same Puppet back in
the Reincarnation slot and do it again until you get a minimum of three S-Ranks.
At this point, change out the other support Puppet (the one that we Reincarnated
earlier) with this one, and put that Puppet back in the Reincarnation slot. The idea
is that you’ll keep Reincarnating until you have four or five S-Rank stats, and then
you’ll swap them again. Reincarnate until one of them has five S-Rank stats.
Save your game at this point, as sometimes you can have bad luck. Enter back into
the Reincarnation Menu and put your full S-Rank Puppet into one support slot, and
your Puppet with 5/6 S-Rank stats in the second. Set up the rest of your slots as
needed and get ready to roll the dice. You’ll need to Reincarnate until you get full
S-Rank stats on your current Puppet. If it takes more than approximately fifteen at-
tempts, I’d reset the game to save the Magical Fragments.
Once you have your second S-Rank Puppet, all that remains is to finalize the rest
of your team. Here’s where you have a choice: you actually only need to have five
Puppets prepared for your NG+ team, as the NG+ starter will also have full S-Rank
stats. This means that you can just prepare five Puppets, saving you time and ef-
fort in the short term.
However, if you are relying on the NG+ starter, then you’ll have to pray to RNGe-
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sus for the correct Mark, or else you’ll need to do the rerolling method for starters
as detailed in the Main Walkthrough. This can be painful, as even though it’s a 1/5
chance to get the desired Mark, it takes a minute or two to reroll your starter if you
don’t get that Mark.
This means it could be far more time efficient to do your rerolling at the Reincarna-
tion Menu instead of at the start of NG+. The issue here is that I’m not entirely
sure if the Dream Shard works on Puppets other than the starter. If you don’t use
the starter (instead choosing to prepare a full party of six), then it may be the case
that you sacrifice the use of the Dream Shard, which is actually pretty powerful.
If anyone has confirmation on this, I’d love to know. Otherwise, I would assume
the Dream Shard doesn’t work on other Puppets, even though you can give it to
them.
C. New Game Plus Checklist
Before starting a New Game Plus playthrough, have you:
1. Organized your Puppet Box, moving all of your Puppets from Boxes 1-20 to
Boxes 21-51? If not, your Puppets won’t transfer over.
2. Decided upon your NG+ team? This includes catching any Puppets you need to
fill the slots.
3. Reincarnated all of the Puppets for your NG+ team for full S-Rank stats? Re-
member to use the Rainbow M. Stone to have a much easier time with Reincarna-
tion.
4. Put all of your NG+ Puppets into your active party? If they aren’t in your active
party, you can’t use them in NG+.
5. Optional: Make a backup Save for this playthrough, in case you ever want to
use it again. The game will overwrite this playthrough’s data once you Save the
game in NG+. I highly suggest making a “Backup Saves” folder inside the main
TPDP: SoD folder. Inside that folder, make another folder and name it after your
current starter (i.e. Tenshi Playthrough). Finally, go to the ‘save’ folder inside of
the main TPDP: SoD folder, Copy the enbu_ap.sav file, return to your named play-
through folder (inside the ‘Backup Saves’ folder), and paste the file there. This
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will ensure you always can go back to this playthrough if you ever want to by sim-
ply replacing the current enbu_ap.sav file in the ‘save’ folder. Beware, however,
that if you replace the file, it’ll overwrite your current playthrough, so make sure to
Copy it and make a backup beforehand.
I think this covers everything necessary for preparing for a New Game Plus play-
through. For me, NG+ is the best part of TPDP: SoD, as it allows you to play with
whatever Puppets you want, allowing you to create a custom team and see how it
fares.
Enjoy your second, third, and additional future journeys through Touhou Puppet
Dance Performance: Shard of Dreams! May your dream never end...
VII. Spoiler-Free Walkthrough
This is the (relatively) Spoiler-Free Walkthrough, which will cover all the pertinent
information required to clear both storylines. This is designed to allow you to ex-
perience the game through fresh eyes, relying as much on your own power as pos-
sible to successfully complete your journey. There’s not much I can do about some
of the Location spoilers (though some will be left out), but this Walkthrough will
do everything possible to avoid spoiling much else. This will be very bare-bones,
and will entirely leave exploration and navigation to you. Furthermore, there will
not be any battle strategies. However, you will be notified of any side-quest oppor-
tunities and optional areas as they become available.
I wish you the best of luck on your journey through TPDP: SoD!
Hakurei Shrine (Human World)

Speak to everyone around the Shrine to proceed. Choose your starting
Puppet from the man in the Northeast.
Leave the area through the Northeast exit.
Hakurei Shrine (Gensokyo)
Exit to the South.
Route 1
Exit to the West.
Human Village
Enter the large building to the North and speak to the master.
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Find the five hiding places and defeat each Puppeteer.
Route 3
Exit to the East.
Myouren Temple
Exit to the Northwest.
Myouren Temple Cemetary
Pass through and enter the cave.
Myouren Temple Cemetary Cave and Great Mausoleum
Pass through and enter the building.
Divine Spirit Mausoleum
Retrieve Incident Case 2.
Human Village
Enter the large building to the North again and speak to the master again.
Route 5
Visit the shop in the West-Northwest.
Forest of Magic
Enter the cottage in the Southwest.
Route 5
Visit the shop again.
Human Village
Enter the large building to the North once again and speak to the master.
Route 4
Pass through and leave to the East.
Bamboo Forest of the Lost
Make your way through the puzzle and claim the Woodcutter Doll in the
following area.
Return to the entrance and defeat the enemy waiting for you.
Side Quest Section 1
There are two optional bosses located in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost,
one of which is a powered-up rematch.
There is a secret area in the maze that leads to a whole new area.
Route 5
Cut through the small tree with the Woodcutter Doll and proceed to the
next area.
Misty Lake
Exit to the Northwest.
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Navigate through the mansion.
Misty Lake
Exit to the West-Southwest.
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Genbu Ravine
Proceed along the path and enter the cave.
Agree to offer your help when asked.
Once finished, exit the cave and continue North to the Rest Area.
With the Inflatable Boat, you now have access to new areas as well as old
areas with water that you can navigate through to find new Items.
The extra levels gained from doing so might be a wise idea.
Youkai Mountain
Ascend the mountain until your path is blocked by a cart.
Visit the nearby Tengu Village to open the path.
Continue your ascent and obtain the Superpower Glove at the top of the
mountain.
Descend to the Southeast, following the new path until you reach the Rest
Area.
Head East and defeat the enemies to earn the Gap Map.
With the Superpower Glove and the Gap Map (activated through the Bag
Submenu), most of Gensokyo is now available to explore further.
There are new areas, old areas with new Items, and new Puppets avail-
able to find.
Route 1
Gap Map to the Rest Area and head immediately Northeast to find a
breakable rock.
Route 2 East
Pass through to the next area.
Cave to the Underground
Navigate through the complex cave and reach the exit.
Former Hell City
Explore the city to find your next objective.
Once you’ve received the reward, continue on to the North and confront
the troublemakers, though be ready for a long trek.
Route 5
Exit to the South-Southeast, near the Human Village entrance.
Route 6
Exit to the Southwest.
Defeat the enemies in the next area, then exit to the Southwest.
Route 8
Pass through, enter the cave, and navigate to the exit.
Once you’ve emerged on the other side, the Sunflower Fairy next to the
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cave entrance will heal you.
Continue on and confront the boss at the end of the next area.
Optional: after defeating the boss, continue on to the North and explore
Route 7. Highly recommended to visit the nearby house before leaving
to pick up the Gap Map teleport location.
Myouren Temple
Enter the main temple and speak to the person inside.
Defeat the five subordinates located around Myouren Temple and the
Cemetary.
Return to the main temple and obtain Incident Case 7.
Hakurei Temple
Prepare for a long journey and leave the area via the Northeast path.
Proceed all the way to the very end, defeating any enemies that stop you.
Solve the Puppet Incident.
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Return to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and speak to Remilia.
Follow her directions.
*Reincarnation unlocked!*
Barrier of Life and Death
Open the Gap Map and tab through the pages until you find the teleport
option for here.
Proceed to the mansion at the end of the steps.
Leave the mansion through the back exit, then walk to the Northeast to
meet the owner (not visible until you reach the target area).
Head North and speak to the Puppet in front of the large tree.
At this point, every Side Quest in the game is now unlocked and avail-
able to complete.
Some of these Side Quests are very lucrative, and some will even be of
great help for those interested in New Game Plus.
Many of these Side Quests are difficult to complete, whether by Puppet-
eer difficulty or simply due to lack of direction, though some are possible
to simply stumble upon and complete.
For more information, see Side Quest Section 4 in the Main Walkthrough
section of the Strategy Guide.
Human Village
Head towards the large building in the North, then follow the directions
given.
What happens next will likely seem very familiar.
Route 6
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Teleport to the Rest Area and head South to the next area.
Youkai Mountain
Teleport to the Youkai Mountain Rest Area and speak to the person wait-
ing for you.
In the next area, navigate through the complex puzzle and get to the end
(you can use the Gap Map to leave and return).
Confront the troublemaker at the end.
Human Village
Return to the Bookstore in the Southern part of the Village.
You should have nine Incident Cases by now, and will have to read
through each one individually by speaking to the owner.
If you are missing an Incident Case, you missed one of the few optional
ones: Incident Case 3, Scarlet Devil Mansion Great Library; Incident
Case 4, Tengu Village; Incident Case 6, Garden of the Sun.
You MUST find and read all nine to continue.
Once you’ve done so, leave the Bookstore and receive Incident Case 10.
Enter once again and read the final Incident Case.
Hakurei Shrine
This will be the final push, so supply as necessary.
Leave to the Northeast and follow the path to the split. This time, head
East and follow it to the end.
Defeat all enemies in your way.
Confront the True Final Boss.
VIII. Useful Puppets Section
This section of the Strategy Guide is dedicated to discussing some of the more use-
ful Puppets in TPDP: SoD. Remember that all Puppets are useful at some point,
and their individual power spike(s) happen at different points. However, some
Puppets stand out more than others, which is what we’ll be using as the benchmark
for Puppets listed here. Just because a Puppet isn’t listed here doesn’t mean it can’t
shine in the right situation, and it is quite possible that you may think a Puppet is
deserving of being included in this list.
Currently, all of the Puppets provided are listed courtesy of myself, and I only have
my own experiences and observations to pull upon. If there’s a Puppet you think
should be on this list, please let me know! If possible, write up a short description
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of why you think it deserves to be in this section. If everything checks out, I’ll
happily include it in the next version of this Strategy Guide, and give you credit for
the discovery to boot!
For ease of comparison, I’ve created a five-benchmark rating system, going from
1-10, by which each Puppet will be evaluated. I’ll also classify them by their roles
(i.e. Glass Cannon, etc.), and type up a fairly detailed evaluation afterwards de-
scribing them in further detail.
The five benchmarks are: Ease of Use, Early-Game Strength, Mid-Game Strength,
Late-Game Strength, and Team Synergy. Let’s briefly describe each of these
benchmarks and why I think they matter.
Ease of Use will evaluate how easy or difficult it is to use each Puppet to its fullest
capability. A Puppet with a 1 rating is pretty much the definition of point-and-
shoot, able to be used with the barest minimal of thinking so long as you choose
the right Skills. Likewise, a Puppet with a rating of 10 is extremely challenging to
the point where they require expert knowledge and strategy to adequately use,
though the effectiveness of such usage may be in question with such high diffi-
culty.
Early-Game, Mid-Game, and Late-Game Strength are fairly self-explanatory if

you’ve read the earlier parts of this Guide. Not all Puppets are strong at all points
in the game, and this problem can be exacerbated by the addition of which Style
they are, as this can affect how easy or difficult it is early on when it comes to as-
signing PP to stats and Skill availability. Some Puppets are absolutely terrible
early on, but become monsters later. Others may be really solid choices for awhile,
but fade in usefulness as you progress. In all cases, their rating in each benchmark
will give you an idea of how powerful they are at each stage of the game.
Finally, Team Synergy is an important benchmark to factor in, as some Puppets on-
ly shine when put into the right circumstances. While many of the Puppets listed
here will be fairly capable of operating by themselves, some may rely or even re-
quire proper set-up from other Puppets to shine. Similarly, some Puppets actually
shine when used to power up the rest of the party or another Puppet, such as
through the use of Weather or Terrain effects. A low Team Synergy rating means
that the Puppet can operate fine on its own, but doesn’t offer much benefit to the
rest of the party; in other words, it can be safely put in most party compositions
and function well. A high Team Synergy rating means that the Puppet will require
a proper team built around it, whether for support or to be supporting.
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Please keep in mind that these ratings may change in future versions of the Strat-
egy Guide as further Puppets are added and reader input for current Puppets are
factored in. Again, while I have six playthroughs of TPDP: SoD, I’ve still only
scratched the surface of this game in terms of Puppet party composition and indi-
vidual usefulness. Please let me know if you agree or disagree with any of the rat-
ings or advice given!
Please note that none of these ratings are for PvP. I don’t do PvP in this game, and
nor do I have interest in it. As with the rest of the Strategy Guide, all ratings and
advice are for your journey through TPDP: SoD’s storylines.
The Puppets will be listed in order of Ease of Use from 1-10, with the easiest Pup-
pets to use listed first, and the later ones being harder to use. Even if you’re new,
don’t be afraid to try out a few of the later ones if they catch your eye; after all, just
because they’re more difficult to use, it doesn’t mean you can’t make them work!
Just make sure to follow the advice given if you’re unsure on how to use them.
Power Aya - Wind/Fighting
Role: Glass Cannon
Ease of Use: 1
Early-Game Strength: 5
Mid-Game Strength: 10
Late-Game Strength: 9
Team Synergy: 1
Starting off is the Queen of mid-game, and likely one of the superior late-game
Puppets as well. Why? The reason is because of an incredibly powerful Ability
called Salvo that is shared only by Power Aya, Speed Hatate, and Speed Yumeko.
This Ability fits Power Aya the best, however, due to her innate 130 base Speed
and still high 105 base Fo. Attack, allowing her to outspeed just about any Puppet
and deal crippling damage.
What does Salvo do? Salvo turns Power Aya’s 2-5 hit Skills, Twister and Shooting
Arts, into guaranteed 5-hit combos. Each hit has a base Power of 25, meaning you
now have a guaranteed base of 125 Power; furthermore, each hit gets a chance to
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deal a Critical Hit to deal even more additional damage. You’ll often get a Critical
Hit, and sometimes two. Oh, and both Twister and Shooting Arts have a 100% Ac-
curacy, so unless your Accuracy drops or the enemy Puppet raises their Evasion,
you’ll never miss.
This makes her the undisputed Queen of mid-game, which begins at Level 30 when
Puppets can choose a Style and runs to about Level 50 or so. No Puppet in the
game has a base 120 Power or higher Skill until they reach Level 42 or so, mean-
ing Power Aya instantly gets a huge advantage for the first half of mid-game. Fur-
thermore, many base 120 Power Skills have a huge disadvantage, such as two-turn
Skills that need to charge on the first turn (unless you have the right Weather effect
up or the rare Fast Talker Ability) and then activate on the second turn, or have a
severe drop in Accuracy to make up for the extremely high damage.
There are a few Puppets at Level 42 that start getting Skills with 140 or even 150
base Power, but the issue with these Skills is that you either get dealt a heavy recoil
(the effects of which can be mitigated), or they are a reverse two-turn Skill that
leaves your Puppet a sitting duck on the second turn and vulnerable to being wiped
out by whatever gets swapped in. The recoil Skills learned earlier on tend to be
Void-type, which means most Style-changed Puppets won’t get the type-boosting
benefits of using them. Reverse two-turn Skills are best as a battle finisher, used
on the final turn (and only have 5 SP to work with anyway).
However, Power Aya with Salvo doesn’t deal with those issues at all. She gets two
guaranteed 125 base Power Skills thanks to Salvo, each of which are type-boosted
for further damage, and have five chances to proc Critical Hits. Unlike similar
base Power Skills, she doesn’t have any disadvantages or particular setbacks from
using them, and even gets enough Speed to get her attacks off before getting hit.
Even in late-game, she remains dominant because of this advantage. Enemy Pup-
peteers start employing annoying items like Black Chokers (prevents a one-shot
KO), but multi-hit Skills ignore that issue and wipe them out anyway. Wind and
Fighting become highly-effective types, as Wind counters the more prevalent Poi-
son, Fighting, and Sound types that emerge by this point, and Fighting counters
Warped and Steel (the other most prevalent types). In actuality, Power Aya’s typ-
ing makes her well-suited to do at least neutral damage to every type in the game,
with Wind and Fighting having the good fortune of striking the other type’s re-
sisted/negated damages for either neutral or barrier-piercing damage. Twister and
Shooting Arts are quite literally the only damage moves that Power Aya needs to
succeed.
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So what other Skills could Power Aya use? Well, Break Shot is an excellent option
that counters the late-game annoyances of Field Barrier and Field Protect, albeit
not doing nearly as much damage in order to neutralize their effects. Perch is an
option if Aya needs healing, although this loses effectiveness as you progress later
into the game and start facing situations where you either one-shot them or they
one-shot you (though Power Aya usually ends up doing the one-shotting). Favor-
able Wind or Skanda are potential options if you find yourself out against a poten-
tially favorable matchup where you won’t get one-shot; I can think of one particu-
lar late-game battle where you could easily build her Speed or Evasion up and po-
tentially one-handedly sweep the otherwise difficult fight.
In short, Power Aya is one of the best Puppets in the game from both mid-game all
the way to late-game. Very few Puppets can stop her if she gets rolling, and choos-
ing to wear a Black Choker could help save her life in the few situations where she
gets outsped. Alternatively, a Red Ring for boosting her overall damage output or
a Magic Ring to boost her chances of getting a Critical Hit off of each hit of Twist-
er or Shooting Arts are very valid choices as well. The game designers loved to
pair her with a Champion’s Medal in order to try flinching the enemy Puppet;
while this is definitely an option to take against tankier Puppets, Power Aya should
be able to wipe out most enemies without needing this strategy.
If you’re looking for a top-tier Puppet to start the game out with, it’s hard to go
wrong with Gensokyo’s favorite Papparazi/Newspaper Reporter. Just make sure
that she either gets Fo. Attack boosted or Speed boosted for her starting Mark
(check the Starting Out section of the Main Walkthrough for more details).
Defense Suika - Fighting/Fire
Role: Brawler
Ease of Use: 1.5

Mid-Game Strength: 9.5
Team Synergy: 1
Defense Suika is one of the safest picks you can likely make. Despite what her
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Style implies, she best fits the role of a slow, yet high-powered Brawler, doing a lot
of damage after taking a hit from the enemy Puppet. However, she actually is very
sturdy, with 110 base HP and 100/100 Defenses. Unless she gets targeted by bar-
rier-piercing Skills, she almost certainly can take a hit, and possibly even a second
one.
The reason she’s great is because of her Ability called Charge!, which boosts her
damage by 30% in exchange for not being able to activate the secondary effects of
Skills (such as a 10% chance to inflict Burn, or a 20% chance to boost your Fo. At-
tack). This basically means that Defense Suika is meant to dish out consistantly
high damage, able to pretty much wipe out anything that comes her way in the
early goings.
Even before her Style change, Normal Suika also gets Charge!, meaning she does
very, very high damage. Her high HP and solid Fo. Attack/Defense means she can
likely take a hit or two without issue, and the fact that her Style change also relies
on Fo. Attack Skills means that you can safely boost her Fo. Attack stat with PP
and watch enemies get blown up instantly. For this reason, she’s almost unstoppa-
ble in the earlier parts of the game.
Her mid-game stat boost from Style changing gives Defense Suika the same useful-
ness, though her lower Speed means that the likes of Power Aya will always excel
just a bit more than her here, able to wipe out enemy Puppets before taking dam-
age. However, Defense Suika’s higher Defenses and HP mean that she’s very, very
dependable, and will carry you through much of the game despite having a lower
Speed.
Unfortunately, her usefulness starts to fall off in the middle to end of late-game.
While still useful, you not only start encountering more and more enemies with
Black Chokers, preventing a one-shot KO (and thus neutering Power Suika’s Abil-
ity in a way), but also start coming across stronger Puppets in general, which can
start to seriously press Defense Suika even when Black Chokers aren’t an issue.
Some Puppets will simply be too bulky to one-shot unless you start relying on base
120 Power Skills (which have a lot of drawbacks, such as reduced Accuracy), or
they’ll be strong and fast enough to potentially one-shot her. She still is very use-
ful, but her dependability does drop off a bit.
In all, however, Defense Suika is an excellent Puppet that deserves a look if you
are interested in a Brawler. She can dish out a ton of damage while being a solid
frontline for your team. As an added bonus, she can straight up carry you through
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early-game, sidestepping a lot of the more dangerous encounters and allowing you
to focus on building the rest of your team and eventually Style Changing them.
Even afterwards, she’ll still be the highlight of your team for a good portion of the
game.
Extra Shinki - Dream
Role: All-Rounder or Stall Tank
Ease of Use: 2 or 6, depending on Role

Team Synergy: 3 or 5, depending on Role
While I suggest Extra Shinki, any of her Styles are excellent. Why? She has the
largest base stat total in the game at 600 (not counting gimmick Puppet Styles,
which reach 620 but typically have a debilitating Ability to offset the high stats).
This means that if you take her base stats for HP, Fo. Attack, Fo. Defense, Sp. At-
tack, Sp. Defense, and Speed, they all add up to 600. That’s stupidly high. Really,
really, stupidly high. Let’s look at the some of the other Puppets listed in this sec-
tion as an example of how high that is. Power Aya: 525, Extra Marisa: 525, Extra
Sanae: 520. Most Puppets average between 480-530 or so, with some of the Tou-
hou game bosses and Ex. bosses getting 540 and higher.
Shinki, no matter her Style, gets the largest base stat pool to work with at 600, and
has no negative repercussions in the form of a bad Ability to hamper her. Power
Shinki and Speed Shinki are pretty similar in that they focus on high Fo. Attack
and high Sp. Attack at the cost of mediocre Speed and base Defenses averaging in
the 90s.
Extra Shinki, however, has a base 120 Speed and a clear focus of Sp. Attack at 110.
This is lower than Power/Speed Shinki’s primary damage stat, but it’s more than
enough to make her a solid damage dealer. What really sets Extra Shinki apart is
her Dream typing. Dream isn’t resistant nor weak to anything, meaning Extra
Shinki isn’t in any danger of getting caught off-guard by a surprise weakness-tar-
geting Skill. Thanks to her high HP, really high Fo. Defense, and so-so Sp. De-
fense, she’ll almost certainly take a hit or two as well.
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This does mean that she won’t get any type-boosted Skills to work with apart from
Yang Energy, which thankfully runs off of her Spread Attack. A type-boosted
Yang Energy is a dependable form of damage despite its measly base Power of 55,
as that’s a small price to pay for having no type interactions.
However, it’s important to note that she has a natural inclination to be part of a
Heavy Fog team thanks to her Surprise Tactics Ability as well as her Skill base,
such as Heavy Fog Bloom (becomes an instant one-turn use) and other Dark-type
Skills. This means she could be a very solid choice on a Dark-based team despite
not being on-type, though she can also set the same combo up herself if you dedi-
cate a Skill slot and a turn to create the Weather effect.
Extra Shinki may also be able to fill the role of a tank for a stall-focused team.
Without any weaknesses, she can stand up to just about anything without being
one-shot. While she can’t inflict damaging Status Effects, she has two Skills that
boost her Defenses (one sharp Sp. Defense boost, one Fo. Attack/Defense boost) as
well as access to all the important stalling Skills such as Continue, Unconscious
Mind, Magic Barrier, Supernatural Border, and even Field Protect (not Field Bar-
rier, unfortunately). Combine Food Rations with Magic Barrier, Supernatural Bor-
der, Unconscious Mind, and Continue, and you have an absolutely infuriating stall
tank that can let Heavy Poison/Heavy Burn tick for days. Bonus points for having
no weaknesses to target.
Either way, it’s hard to go wrong with Extra Shinki. Though she likely won’t be
one of the top-tier Puppets, she’ll be a dependable Puppet that you can rely on
throughout your playthrough, however you decide to use her.
Extra Satori - Illusion/Nether
Role: Glass Cannon
Ease of Use: 2.5

Late-Game Strength: 9.5
Team Synergy: 1
Extra Satori is one of the most unique Puppets in the game thanks to its Infinite
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Changes Ability, which only her and Power Kokoro get access to. What Infinite
Changes does is change Extra Satori’s type to solely be that of the Skill she chose
that turn, and it happens before she uses the Skill so as to give the Skill type-
boosted damage. This makes Extra Satori an incredibly versatile Puppet able to lit-
erally change to any type in the game so long as she can learn a Skill of that type.
The good news is that she has the stats to make this effective. Extra Satori is pretty
fast with a base Speed of 120. She has a base Fo. Attack of 105 and a base Sp. At-
tack of 95; neither of which are particularly stellar, but even though she’s leaning
towards Fo. Attack, she does learn Sp. Attack Skills as well. The biggest issue for
her is taking hits, as her Defenses are terrible and her HP pool fairly lacking.
So, just how well does Infinite Changes work? I used Extra Satori with a Speed
Mark and boosts to both Fo. Attack and Speed in the hopes of making her faster
than pretty much everything, and hopefully capable of one-shotting enemy Puppets
by targeting their weaknesses. She can deal a lot of damage thanks to this unique
capability, and she can also potentially save herself if she swaps to a type that re-
sists the enemy Puppet’s likely Skills. The bad news here is that she can’t actually
learn Javelin Skills, likely to prevent her from becoming stupidly broken, though
that does mean you need to rely on whatever she learns naturally as well as Skill
Cards. Thankfully, she can still learn plenty of Fo. Attack Skills with varying
types, such as Warped, Nature, Poison, Void, etc.
In terms of held items, you’d be best with choosing something to boost her dam-
age. I like Deadly Secrets for this, as Extra Satori is made for targeting weak-
nesses. It pairs excellently with Infinite Changes to give her type-boosted, weak-
ness-targeting damage. Other good choices are the ever-trustworthy Red Ring, a
Black Choker to save her from being one-shot, and a Large Shield to reduce the
damage she takes from resisted Skills (which works surprisingly well thanks to In-
finite Changes, though Extra Satori isn’t a tank).
There’s a lot of thinking and planning involved in making Extra Satori work, but
she really does well when she gets rolling.
*A special note about Power Kokoro. While Extra Satori is a speedy attacker lean-
ing more towards Fo. Attacks, Power Kokoro is a very slow but much tankier Pup-
pet, and also has equal 110 base Fo. Attack and Sp. Attack stats. If you’re love the
Infinite Changes Ability but hate glass cannons, Power Kokoro has great versatility
as a Brawler thanks to her high damage stats and can likely take a hit, albeit after
the opponent attacks as opposed to before (this brings in her unfortunate 4x Dark
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weakness).
Extra Marisa - Warped/Nature
Role: Brawler
Ease of Use: 3
Team Synergy: 1
Do you like doing DAMAGE? Do you find satisfaction in being a semi-tanky can-
non that blasts enemies into smithereens?
Well, Marisa always says that Danmaku is Power, so if you answered yes to the
above, you’re in the right place. The entire focus of Extra Marisa is that she needs
no setup to succeed. Send her out, point her in a direction, and watch the enemy
explode. Odds are good she’ll survive the hit, giving her a chance to deal massive
damage thanks not only to her base 140 Sp. Attack but also because of her Fast
Talker ability, which allows her to use those base 120 Power two-turn Skills in a
single turn. She gets two different Skills that fit the bill, one Warped-type and one
Nature-type. That’s pretty much all she needs to wipe just about anything out in a
single blow. Good thing too, because she has an abysmal Speed stat.
The biggest issue with Extra Marisa is if the enemy is using a Black Choker. That
pretty much stops her parade in its tracks, allowing the enemy to survive and get a
second shot off that likely will finish Marisa off, though her Defenses are high
enough she could manage to survive. You likely don’t need a Black Choker on her
to survive a hit unless you find yourself against a type-boosted weakness; either
put something on to boost her damage or give her Food Rations to raise her chan-
ces of surviving a second hit (she’ll heal twice, once after the first hit and again
after the KO; swap her out and back in again later for a third heal).
Another large issue is that she relies solely on Skill Cards for her two primary
Skills. The first, Dense Fog Bloom, you’ll find if you follow Side Quest Section 3,
by which point you’ll likely have reached Level 50 or higher, though you’ll still be
in mid-game due to the enemy Puppets being lower in Level. The second, Rain-
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bow Flowers, is found much later on in late-game, meaning you’ll be without it for
a large portion of the game. This means you’ll have to make do by using other,
normal Skills to fill in the gaps until then. She’ll be okay in the meantime, but
since her true value is in Fast Talker, you’ll have to wait until later to really see the
value of picking her.
I personally think Extra Marisa is the best Style for Marisa thanks to Fast Talker,
but if you’d prefer the more traditional glass cannon approach, you can go with
Power Marisa for the same firepower but in Fo. Attack (terrible Abilities unless
you have a Duststorm team, though), or you can choose Speed Marisa for a small
drop in Sp. Attack and survivability in exchange for a huge boost in Speed.
Defense Hijiri - Fighting/Light
Role: Tank
Ease of Use: 3.5

Mid-Game Strength: 8.5 (Tanks aren’t as neccessary here)
Team Synergy: 1
If you need a solid, consistant tank that can further boost her Defenses with Merry
Dance, Defense Hijiri is a great pick. Just going based off stats, you might think
that 105/100 bases aren’t super high for a Defense-based Puppet, and you would be
right. Her HP is also just above mediocre at base 90.
So why is she great? Aside from a solid base 120 Sp. Attack that makes her a de-
cent damage dealer, she has an exceptional type combination with Fighting/Light.
Her only two weaknesses are Wind and Illusion, meaning she is highly effective
against the majority of types in the game, including the annoying Sound and
Warped types.
What the stats and type combination doesn’t tell you is that she has the Aurora
Grace Ability, which heals her at the end of every turn for the same amount as
Food Rations does when the Aurora Weather Effect is up. Granted, you need to ei-
ther use a turn to set it up (since Hijiri can do it) or swap in after setting it up, but if
you combine this with Food Rations, she starts healing for a significant amount
every turn. If you can get a few Merry Dances off before she gets targeted by bar-
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rier-piercing Skills, she can easily survive until she gets a full six stages of Fo. De-
fense and Sp. Defense boosts, giving her extreme tankiness and high sustainability.
At that point, you simply just grind through the entire enemy party while laughing
at their pathetic damage.
I liked using her with Rush Attack (2-5 hit Fighting-type Sp. Attack Skill), which
gives her the added utility of being able to smash through Black Chokers (without
the 10% chance of missing that Twin Thrust has), and Moonbow (Light-type Sp.
Attack Skill), which is one of the stellar 100 base Power Skills that just does high,
reliable damage, and also does increased damage when Aurora is up. Granted, she
won’t be able to strike with a variety of barrier-piercing attacks, but between Light
and Fighting, she can target most types for neutral damage, only struggling against
Illusion. For the damage-focused, you could use Brave Song to boost her Sp. At-
tack by two stages, though you’d be making a heavy sacrifice of having to drop
one of her other Skills in choosing to do so.
There’s flexibility in how you assign her Mark and PP as well. I chose to give her
a Sp. Attack Mark and assign PP to both Defensive stats, giving her a solid boost
of damage and survivability. You could potentially give her additional HP instead,
or further boost her already high damage. I’d advise against touching Speed, how-
ever, as she’ll never be fast enough to make a huge difference, and thus it’s much
better to focus those PP into bulking her Defenses, HP, or Sp. Attack up.
It’s hard to go wrong with Defense Hijiri since she just works so well. If she gets a
few Merry Dances off, she’s pretty much unstoppable, but works well in most bat-
tles even without doing so. She served as the cornerstone of one of my play-
throughs from her Style change until the very end, even acting as the key to defeat-
ing the toughest optional boss in the game.
Extra Renko - Light/Void
Role: Tank Specialist or Stall Tank
Ease of Use: 5.5

Early-Game Strength: 1.5
Mid-Game Strength: 4 or 7.5, depending on Status Effect access
Team Synergy: 1 or 3, depending on Role
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Extra Renko is an absolutely insane Puppet. There’s no other way to really put it.
Normal Renko is the epitomy of Magikarp from Pokemon, except instead of evolv-
ing at Level 20, she pretty much is terribad until Level 30 Once she hits Level 30,
she gets a massive power spike. She goes from having 40/50 base Defenses to hav-
ing an unparalleled 205/205. Literally no other Puppet in the game has even one
Defense stat that high (Defense Hecatia is the closest by a fair margin at 200 Sp.
Defense, but compensates by having a 70 Fo. Defense). Yes, she has an abysmal
HP base at 40, but that doesn’t matter if nothing can pierce through her Defenses
enough to prevent her from bulking up.
At Level 30, she gets access to Inspiration/Cheer, which boost Fo.Defense/Sp. De-
fense by two levels, respectively. Furthermore, she already has access to Field Pro-
tect/Barrier, which are party-wide boosts that also happen to make her Defenses
even better (combine this with Food Rations and she’ll heal half as much as she
likely takes in a turn even without other stat boosts). This makes her a monstrous
tank already, but let’s add in Skill Card access to Continue, which heals her to full,
removes Status Effects, but inflicts her with the Stop Status Effect for two turns,
and let’s also throw in Supernatural Border access upon her Style Change as well.
Even at Level 30, you get access to a solid stall tank that takes a bit of work to use
properly, but depending on which Skills you choose to take, can really help get
through some of those tougher boss fights with previously-applied Status Effects
such as Poison and Burn. As a bonus, she gets access to Miasma through a Skill
Card, allowing her to potentially inflict Heavy Poison (90% Accuracy) and then
stall it out without any help from other Puppets.
The issue? You can’t get the Miasma Skill Card until pretty much the end of mid-
game, meaning she can’t do this for quite a while. If one of your Puppets learns
Miasma or Thermit naturally, then they can do the stall setup for her. Otherwise,
she basically is a really good tank that can’t do any damage, which limits her use-
fulness tremendously. Basically, if you have access to a Heavy Poison/Burn-in-
flicting Puppet, she’ll be awesome; if not, she’s basically still fairly useless at this
point apart from letting you heal your other Puppets via item usage.
Of course, all of this changes upon getting Miasma, which instantly makes her val-
ue rise tremendously as late-game begins. Being able to self-inflict Heavy Poison
brings her to about an 8.5/10 already, which is great, but we aren’t done yet. You
see, she happens to learn another awesome Skill at Level 56 called Shinigami’s
Waltz. This Skill is basically her trump card, allowing her to sacrifice half of her
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current HP to cause an effect that drops the opponent Puppet’s health by 1/4 each
turn. It’s best used after boosting her Defenses up a few stages, at which point she
has no risk of being KO’d even at half health. At this point, every usage of it either
forces a swap the next turn (still dropping their HP by a fourth), allowing you to in-
flict Heavy Poison again and then repeat the process, or allowing you the opportu-
nity to further bolster your Defenses. At this point, you could run with Inspira-
tion/Cheer/Miasma/Shinigami’s Walz and become a 9.5/10 monster.
But why stop there? At Level 70, she finally learns Merry Dance, which boosts
both of her Defenses by a stage. This allows her to remove Inspiration/Cheer and
add in another Skill from her list to further bolster her awesomeness. Let’s try
Supernatural Border, added via the Skill Card, which then allows her to prevent all
damage every other turn. Or, in our case, we inflict Heavy Poison, then Shiniga-
mi’s Waltz, and then Supernatural Border (if they stay in) or simply use Miasma
again in the hopes that they swap out into another Puppet. Either way, you likely
can’t lose at this point. Heck, change out Supernatural Border for Continue for a
full heal after Shinigami’s if necessary, though healing items would likely be better
simply for efficiency’s sake.
In all cases, please remember that she’s dirt slow, and 99% of the time will always
move last (except for reduced Priority Skills).
No matter how you approach her, Extra Renko is a monster that can’t be stopped
except if she gets forced out via swap-out Skills, but those are extraordinarily rare,
and are almost always in battles where Extra Renko simply wouldn’t be necesssary
anyways. She’s a boss destroyer, and she does her job well.
Extra Parsee - Nether/Warped
Role: Brawler Specialist
Ease of Use: 6
Early-Game Strength: 2.5 (Fo. Attack focus)
Team Synergy: 1 or 4, depending on Status Effects
There’s a lot to be said about Extra Parsee. Her base stats are fairly low overall, es-
pecially Speed, and her best damage stat is Sp. Attack with a so-so base of 100.
399
She has reliable Defenses at 90/110, but a mediocre base HP of 70, giving her a de-
cent chance to survive a hit but not a guarantee. This can be fixed with a Black
Choker, though a damage-boosting Accessory would synergize with her build the
best.
However, her stats don’t tell the full picture. She gets a unique Ability called Two
of a Kind that causes any damage-causing Skill chosen in battle to be used twice at
40% less damage. For math lovers, 60 + 60 = 120, meaning both uses combine to
deal 20% more damage (if they both hit), with the rare potential for double Critical
Hits. That’s pretty awesome, especially once you start getting stronger Skills to-
wards the mid-game.
In terms of her type combination, the results are solid. She has four weaknesses,
five resistances, and two immunities. The biggest issues are Light, Dark, and
Sound, which are all frequent types encountered throughout the game. However,
her immunity to Wind and Fighting is amazing, and means she can counter Power
Aya just by existing. Damage-wise, Extra Parsee has the capability to target every
type in the game for at least neutral damage, largely thanks to Nether’s heavy ver-
satility.
There’s a few interesting things you can do with Extra Parsee to make her stand out
even more. She works really well with previously-applied Status Effects thanks to
Love or Pain being type-boosted in addition to double damage. Since her Skills
apply twice, that means twice the chance for secondary effects to happen, which
gives her a lot more versatility if you’re willing to forgo the higher base Power
Skills for ones with better secondary effects. You can also, if you’re willing to take
the chance or you have Heavy Fog up, use Dense Fog Bloom (taught via Skill
Card) to have it apply twice when damage happens.
What she can’t do, however, is multiply non-damage Skills. This means there’s no
boosting her Evasion twice in a turn with Dead of Night, or no double Poison Trap
to instantly screw over the enemy team.
Extra Parsee is probably a more complicated pick that requires good planning to
use effectively. She’s not hyper complex, but you’ll need to prepare your Skills
and choose your deployment timing carefully to ensure success.
Extra Sanae - Light/Void
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Role: Glass Cannon Specialist
Ease of Use: 8.5

Early-Game Strength: 3.5 (Sp. Attack focus)
Team Synergy: 1
This is a decidedly expert-level pick, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Extra
Sanae has the potential to be the most broken Puppet in the game thanks to her On
the Edge Ability, which triples her Speed and boosts her damage by 30% when
she’s at 1 HP. The reason that this Ability works better on her instead of Extra
Shou, who shares it (and has a slightly higher base Speed), is that she has the Void
typing. There’s a special Void-type Skill called Death Match that gets stronger as
the user gets closer to death. Well, it’s hard to get closer to death than 1 HP, which
is what Extra Sanae should aim to be at. This means Death Match gets to be a
monstrous Skill which gets further boosted by her Void typing, benefits even more
from On the Edge’s damage boost, and almost is guaranteed to strike before the en-
emy Puppet thanks to the tripled Speed boost. Her other Skills also are pretty
great, though Death March is the real winner here, clocking in at an incomparable
base Power 200 when at 1 HP.
So, what are the downsides? Well, as you can guess, getting to 1 HP and not dying
is difficult. She can use the False Courage Ability to guarantee she survives any at-
tack with 1 HP minimum, but this can fail if used in succession. She has good
enough HP and Fo. Defense that she has a chance to survive and end up with 1/3
health left or so. This can be solved by using a Black Choker, which guarantees
she can’t be one-shot, and then using False Courage on turn 2 if the damage she
took wasn’t enough to drop her to 1 HP. The issue, of course, is that the Black
Choker isn’t available until much later in the game, meaning you’ll have to rely on
False Courage as a stopgap until then.
The biggest downsides, however, are damaging Status Effects, damaging Weather
effects, and those chip-damage attacks such as Raid, Tiger Rush, etc. that have in-
creased Priority. No matter how fast Extra Sanae gets thanks to tripled Speed, all it
takes is a Priority-boosted Skill to wipe her out. She also can’t outrun Poison or
Burn damage, and a Duststorm pretty much ruins her day outright.
However, when used properly, she’s almost impossible to stop. Death Match is on-
ly bad against Light, Dark, and Illusion types, so it has great type coverage. She
401
can use a Light Skill to wipe out Dark types, at which point she just needs to find a
way to counter Light and Illusion.
Again, Extra Sanae is an expert-level pick that I’d advise against trying on a first
playthrough, but when you get her working, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
IX. Special Thanks
I’d like to take a minute and thank the folks who helped make this Strategy Guide
possible.
First off, a big thank you to fruity_mario24 for all your help in figuring out the lo-
gistics of this Strategy Guide’s release. Without your help, I wouldn’t have been
able to get this Guide to the people who needed it.
Second, a big thank you to Lyricana for providing the list of altered/translated Pup-
peteer Titles and Names. While I’m sure I still missed a few of the changes, the
list was immensely helpful in ensuring the Strategy Guide’s accuracy is as close to
the English translation as possible.
While we’re on that subject, a big thank you and congratulations to all the mem-
bers of the TPDP: SoD English fan translation team, including fruity_mario24,
Lyricana, and all the others that I haven’t met but were so instrumental in making
the translation a success. Your project galvanized me to make this Strategy Guide,
and for that, I thank you. I further thank you for helping to bring this excellent
game to the English community at large with your translation. If even one person
decided to give this game a shot because of your translation, I think your effort was
well worth it.
A few more thanks are in order. Thank you to the r/Touhou Reddit community at
large, who supported and encouraged me during this long process.
Thank you FocasLens, who created Touhou Puppet Dance Performance and the
awesome Shard of Dreams expansion. You guys did an awesome job, though I still
wish you could add Touhou 16’s characters as well. Regardless, thank you for
being awesome!
402
Thank you to the Touhou Community at large, including all the art, music, and
game creators. You guys are the reason I fell in love with Touhou in the first place,
and your ever-expanding list of creations never fails to astound. I look forward to
seeing what awesome stuff you come up with next!
Of course, no Special Thanks section for anything Touhou-related would be com-

plete without a massive thank you to ZUN, who single-handedly created the be-
loved game series that we all fell in love with. I’d love to share a drink with you
sometime, you crazy man, you. Thank you!!!
Finally, a very special thank you to You. Thank you for giving this Strategy Guide
a try. I hope it served useful during your journey through Touhou Puppet Dance
Performance: Shard of Dreams. If it was at all useful to you, then I consider this
Strategy Guide a big success.
That concludes all the Special Thanks I currently have. If you have any sugges-
tions, constructive criticism, information on missed items/Puppeteers, or additional
Puppets to add to the Useful Puppets Section, please let me know (you’ll be added
to the Special Thanks section)! Send a Reddit message to Fuuya-151 and I’d be
more than happy to start up a conversation with you.
Thank you again for using this Strategy Guide! May your dreams of Gensokyo
never end.
403

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Touhou Puppet Dance Performance: Shard of Dreams

Strategy Guide (Version 1.0)

II. Legal Notice

III. How to Play

IV. Tips and Tricks

VI. New Game Plus Preparation

VII. Spoiler-Free Walkthrough

VIII. Useful Puppets Section

IX. Special Thanks

II. Legal Notice

I will always be happy to provide a downloadable copy of this guide on request, as

Directional Keys（↑↓←→） Moves your character in the world or

You’ll be traveling through a variety of locations, including forests, caves, towns,

1. Swap Puppets in for double the Experience gain.

2. A balanced party is a prepared party.

Title and Name of Enemy Puppeteer

Be aware that if battles are particularly straightforward or easy, such as against

1. Reality and Fantasy

Ordinary Magician Marisa

2. Trip to the Human Village

Novice Puppeteer Yuuichi

Don’t overthink this.

Novice Puppeteer Sachie

Human Village Puppets

3. The Puppet Liberation Front

Puppet Liberation Front Cirno

Puppet Liberation Front Daiyousei

Puppet Liberation Front Wriggle

Puppet Liberation Front Mystia

Puppet Liberation Front Rumia

Your conversation will be interrupted by a friend of Kosuzu who happened to hear

4. The Second Incident Case

If you are interested in trying to catch a Normal Wriggle Puppet (Nature/Dark),

Myouren Temple Puppets

Myouren Temple Cemetary Puppets

Jiang Shi Yoshika

Myouren Temple Cemetary Cave Puppets

Divine Spirit Mausoleum Puppets

Shotoku Taoist Miko

You’ll likely want to return for healing once Reimu leaves.

Novice Maid Yuzu

Book-Reading Youkai Tokiko

Old Man Yuichiro

Forest of Magic Part 1 Puppets

Puppet Liberation Front Aniese

After passing by a friendly pair of Fairies, you’ll eventually come to an East/South

6. Lost in the Bamboo Forest

At least Riko is surprisingly polite about impeding your journey.

Novice Puppeteer Hinako

Though she claims to be a Wolf, she’s definitely a Cat Youkai.

Continue on to find two Puppet Liberation Front members attempting to set up a

Puppet Liberation Front Fleur

Watch out for Normal Kyouko’s surprise Energy Bolt (Electric-type).

Puppet Liberation Front Wenny

Bamboo Forest of the Lost Puppets

Head East to the second area.

Go South to the third area.

Head West to the fifth area.

Lucky Rabbit Tewi

Eientei Area Puppets

Once you’re prepared, head inside to find yourself in a Japanese-style mansion.

Moon Rabbit Reisen

Person of Hourai Mokou