Abyss Soul Lotus scoring info

So. This game. This has a very obtuse scoring system that it took me a while to even figure out. It's a fun system to route once you know how it works, and the anti-stall mechanics are a nice change from many scoring systems' boss farming, but it can be difficult to understand for a viewer.

The basics:

- This game has no bombs. (Look at the sidebar-- the bombs are frozen!)
- Shield meter (bottom left) charges by collecting crystals (canceled bullets). Taking a hit subtracts 100%.
- At 300% shield, press X to use a release, HSiFS-style. Releases are the only way to gain PIV.
- Reimu and Yukari are manually swapped with C.
- The game is timed, 24:00:00 decreasing irregularly, but since it's basically "score to survive", clock mechanics are mostly irrelevant in scoring. The only relevant mechanic is dying loses ~33 minutes (on Normal) on the clock.
- If there's at least 18:00:00 remaining on the clock at the end of stage 3, the stage 4-6 bosses use an extra timeout spell.

Release charging:

- Most enemies cancel bullets when killed, dropping red/purple crystals, which charge both the shield meter (bottom left) and swap meter (bottom right).
- Boss phase cancels (including the cancels as midbosses spawn) also drop red/purple crystals.
- After swapping characters, the swap meter drains. During this time, red/purple crystals charge the shield meter faster.
- Capturing a spell maxes out the shield meter at 300%.
- Dying sets the shield meter to 200%.

Chain multiplier:

- Each release after the first adds 0.1 to the chain multiplier. (2 releases -> 1.1 mult, 3 releases -> 1.2 mult, and so on)
- Multiplier affects PIV and initial spell bonuses.
- Chain resets every stage, or if the 25-second timer runs out. (It also resets if you press X when not at 300% shield!)
- The 25-second timer pauses during spell cards.

Reimu/Yukari A mechanics:

- Bullets inside the release circle become PIV.
- If a chain is active, bullets outside the release circle become gold crystals. Gold crystals help charge the next release, and give PIV-scaled points. (Gold crystals aren't boosted by character swapping, and they don't charge the swap meter!)

- Reimu has higher DPS than Yukari.
- Reimu/Yukari A's passive: After swapping from Yukari to Reimu, Ran persists while the swap meter is draining. This burst of DPS can improve spell bonuses.

Other:

- Releases fail spell cards, *unless* it's at the start of a spell, before the spell bonus is visible.
    - It generally maximizes the PIV cancel to release as late as possible without failing the spell. (I use the spell name as a reference, releasing before the name reaches the top of the screen.)
- Spell cards only drop point items if captured!
- Items stolen by rabbit familiars (Theft Sign "Point Item Thief") are subtracted at 1.0 multiplier, but added back at current multiplier. So it's profitable to let rabbits steal items.
- Graze is worth 5000 points flat. It's possible to spawn-graze during releases, and 15,000 graze over the course of the run adds up to 75 million, which isn't negligible.
- The clear bonus is a static 100 million. Remaining lives and clock are irrelevant.

Spell bonus reference for final timeout spells (can be used to verify the stage's final multiplier):
Stage 4: Death Arcanum "Life Hanging on a Thread": 48m   = 20m * 2.4
Stage 5: Limitless "Sea of Aether Particles":      89.3m = 23.5m * 3.8
Stage 6: "Snow Lotus Requiem":                     81m   = 30m * 2.7

Summary of scoring goals:

- Release to spawn-cancel bullets for PIV
  - Stage 5/6: gold crystals matter more than PIV
- Chain releases to build up multiplier
- Swap characters as needed to charge releases faster
- Capture spells (for multiplier-scaled spell bonuses, point items, and maxing out the release meter)