Touhou Koumakyou New Classic Score, items, and extends

Touhou Koumakyou New Classic uses the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil scoring core, not Perfect Cherry Blossom’s cherry gauge. You collect power, point items, bombs, 1UPs, and you graze. The HUD on New Classic shows Hi Score, Score, Player, Bomb, Power (max 128), Graze, and Points. Challenge Mode replaces the life stock with Infinite plus a death count — that number is a practice tally, not a scoring multiplier. If you only want to 1CC, you can ignore high-score routing after you understand extends. If you want Extra lives in the basement, you cannot.

Power

Red items raise Power toward 128. Full power is the line you want before a midboss or boss. Small power trickles during stages; big power and full-power items appear from midbosses and some bosses. Dying drops power. Challenge Mode still drops power on each death, which is why a messy Challenge run can feel weaker than a clean credit even with Infinite lives. Do not bomb just to farm power unless you are already at the collection line and the bomb is free.

Point items and the collection line

Blue point items are the score. Their value rises the higher you collect them. Fly to the collection line near the top of the playfield to vacuum everything on screen. New Classic did not add an auto-collect at full power the way later games do as a default assumption — height still matters. Grazing a little on the way up is fine; dying on the way up is not. Survival 1CC players collect high when the pattern is empty, then sit low for bosses. Scoring players live at the line whenever the stage allows.

Graze

Graze increments when a bullet passes close to the hitbox without hitting it. New Classic draws the hitbox while you focus, which makes graze farming less of a guess than in 2002. Graze adds score. It is not a shield. Classic keeps the invisible-hitbox feel; graze there is the old skill. Circular bullets in New Classic (inscribed circles of the old squares) are slightly smaller, so graze windows can feel different between builds. Confirm on the build you will submit a score on. See gameplay changes.

Extends

Original EoSD extra lives sit at 10, 20, 40, and 60 million. Use those thresholds as the working reference for New Classic’s same scoring core unless a patch note says otherwise. A story 1CC on Normal does not require chasing 60 million. Extra does appreciate the extra life. Point-item height on Stages 1–4 is the cheap way to hit 10 and 20 million before Sakuya starts taxing bombs. Do not suicide-farm extends in Challenge Mode and expect that score to carry into a credit — Challenge and limited-life credits are different runs.

Bombs, 1UPs, and Extra

Bombs are green. 1UPs are rare. Extra Stage is stingy: two 1UPs on the stage, then Flandre. You cannot buy extra resources with score the way some later games flood extends. Plan the Extra Stage as a resource graph, not a score attack, unless you already 1CC Lunatic for fun.

Challenge Mode versus score attack

Challenge Mode’s death counter does not raise point values. Dying still interrupts collection. If you are practicing score, use limited lives so a death costs what it will cost on the board you care about. Spell Practice captures pay the card bonus without stage items; use it to learn, not to pad a leaderboard. Steam achievements track shot-specific story clears, not point totals.

Practical routing

1. Stages 1–2: collect high, full power before Rumia and Cirno if you can without dying.
2. Stage 3: extra end waves in New Classic punish lingering in the old corner. Collect, then leave. Details on the walkthrough.
3. Stage 4–5: Patchouli and Sakuya are where bombs and height trade off. Prefer life over 50 extra point items.
4. Stage 6: Remilia. Score is secondary to the Remilia plan.
5. Extra: ignore vanity graze if it risks Q.E.D.

How to 1CC is the survival plan. This page is the HUD. Play New Classic if you want the visible hitbox while you learn height. Play Classic if you want 2002 collection with Japanese menus. Standard includes both.