DDC Easy scoring notes

I thought it'd help to write up some notes about my scoring streams for those unfamiliar with it. Questions/suggestions appreciated.

More details about gameplay mechanics can be found on the wiki page:
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Double_Dealing_Character/Gameplay

- Point Item Value (PIV, or "Value" in-game) -
A very important number to increase throughout the game, since it adds to the value of point items for the remainder of the run. In DDC, PIV is increased by:
  - 2 per canceled bullet, from finishing a boss phase, or when bombing a stage portion or nonspell (not a spell card). Optimizing both types of bullet cancels is very important in DDC.
  - 1 per graze. Grazing is less important, but still adds up at a high level.
  - a small amount when hitting enemies with the focused shot, or either shot at full power. This tends to be mostly constant throughout the run.

- Auto-collect multiplier -
Auto-collecting many items at once gives a score bonus and a life/bomb part. This can be done using the point of collection (PoC, moving near the top of the screen), by bombing, or by boss dialogue.

20+ items give a 0.5 bonus (1.5x multiplier on the auto-collected items) and a bomb part. Every 5th bomb part is replaced by a life part. 0.5s are mostly useful for building up resources, particularly in stage 1.
60+ items give a 2.0 bonus (3x multiplier) and a life part. 2.0s are important throughout the game both for points, and for lives to spend on bombing for PIV.
30,40,50 items increase the multiplier but still give a bomb part. In particular, 1.6 is the tier below 2.0, and may indicate a missed 2.0.

- Route details (Easy scoring) -
The best places to bomb for PIV are Sekibanki and Benben's lasers. Sekibanki's nonspells are very profitable, and even though bombing spells doesn't give PIV, Sekibanki's 2nd spell spawns so many proximity bullets/lasers it's worth bombing for graze. Benben's lasers give large amounts of PIV when canceled whether they're spawning or already spread across the screen; they can also be grazed, but optimizing the cancel is more important.

Spell card bonuses are also very high in DDC, so speedkilling is important after the first stage or two.

Speedkilling midbosses spawns more post-midboss enemies to keep the stage synced to the music. These enemies are particularly valuable for score (and life parts from 2.0s) on stage 3 and 5, but exist in all stages except stage 6.

Bombing boss Seija onward for PIV isn't worth it on Easy. There aren't enough point items remaining in the game; remaining lives are worth 10m, ~11-12m after accounting for the power loss from dying, and remaining bombs are worth 3m. Finishing with 8 lives is important, and it's usually optimal to die before boss Seija to start building up bomb parts for the remainder of the game.

- SakuyaA specifics -
SakuyaA's bomb cancels bullets once when X is pressed, and a second time when you take a hit during the bomb. This is both good for PIV gain, and allows two auto-collects per bomb, on stage portions. This bomb deals no damage, so unlike non-Sakuya characters, SakuyaA can spend all lives/bombs on Sekibanki for PIV, without finishing off patterns early.

Timing out a bomb (instead of taking a hit for the second bullet cancel) gives 3 bomb parts. These don't count toward the cycle where every 5th bomb part is replaced by a life part, so they can desync it.

Shift-tapping near a boss causes the homing knives to attach/explode immediately. The size of the explosion depends on the number of knives, so stacking knives with the correct rhythm dramatically increases damage (since the new knives amplify the exploding knives), allowing for very fast speedkills at 4 power. It's also possible at 3 power but with different position/timing.

SakuyaA's focused shot is actually worth a tiny bit more PIV (adds up to a few hundred per boss) if you're not aiming at the boss. It's only relevant on bosses you don't bomb or speedkill, though.


- Split notes -
I tried to color-code my splits, but if it's unclear: white numbers for score (in millions), blue for PIV (in thousands), red for lives, green for bombs.

Score/PIV are always truncated (rounded down). Life/bomb parts are not decimal (e.g. 2.7 bombs means 2 bombs, 7 bomb parts).

Numbered splits are for the *end* of the stage. Unnumbered splits are for the start of the boss (e.g. the split between 2 and 3 is the start of boss Kagerou in stage 3, while the split labeled 3 is the end of Kagerou).