100th Black Market/Gameplay

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This article describes the overall gameplay and background information for 100th Black Market.
For general or level-specific strategy, see here.


Gameplay

Controls

The game may be played using either a keyboard or a gamepad. Keyboard controls are as follows:

  • The Arrow Keys move Marisa Kirisame around the screen.
  • Z causes a short barrage of shots to be fired; it may be held down for rapid fire.
  • X deploys Marisa's Magic Circle.
  •  Shift slows Marisa's movement and makes her hitbox visible.
  • C activates the currently selected Active Card.
  • D cycles through your Active Cards.
  • Esc pauses the game and brings you to the in-game menu.

Playable Characters

Marisa Kirisame is the sole playable character in 100th Black Market.

Basic Gameplay

Shot

Marisa's "shot" is her primary method of damaging enemies. Unlike many games in the Touhou Project series, Marisa's shot in 100th Black Market does not change in behavior after collecting Items. Instead, the power, attack area, and general behavior of her shot is affected by whatever Ability Card(s) she has equipped.

The behavior of her shot also remains the same whether she is focused or unfocused.

Magic Circle

Replacing Spell Cards in this game is the Magic Circle. The Magic Circle can be used with the X key, and will slow down enemy bullets and damage enemies that enter it while it lasts. If the button is held, the circle can be moved for a short time before being deployed, but Marisa will be unable to move while this is happening.

The Magic Circle recharges over time and will appear around Marisa when it's ready to use. Its properties and behavior can be altered with certain Ability Cards.

When the Magic Circle is ready, but not deployed, it will form a small radius around Marisa and follow her wherever she moves. With the Magic Circle in this state, Marisa will slow down enemy bullets when she grazes them, and they will remain slowed as long as they are close to her. Bullet money will also be released from grazed enemy bullets. Simply getting close to enemies will not damage them, however.

Bullet Money

The main "currency" in 100th Black Market. Bullet Money comes out of bullets when they come in contact with Marisa's Magic Circle. These purple, square-shaped objects can be collected when Marisa gets close enough to them. Extracting Bullet Money from bullets does not cause the bullets to disappear.

Regular Funds still drop from defeated enemies and can be used to unlock Ability Cards legitimately from the Card Shop. At the end of a Market stage, a portion of the collected Bullet Money will be converted into Funds.

Items

Bullet Money and Funds are the only collectable items that appear in 100th Black Market. Unlike a majority of the game's predecessors, Power Items, Life Items/Fragments, and Point/Green Point Items do not make an appearance.

Because Marisa does not have the ability to activate a Spell Card attack at will in this game, Bomb Items and Bomb Fragments do not appear either.

Point of Collection

Close to the top of the screen is a line known as the point of collection. Just like in previous Touhou Project games, crossing it will cause all of the items on-screen to be drawn to Marisa and collected. As is the case for all Touhou games from Mountain of Faith onward, the POC can be used at any time; Marisa does not need to be focused nor be at a certain power level.

Lives

To compensate for the dense barrage of bullets that define the danmaku subgenre of shoot-'em-up games, Marisa's hit box is relatively small. If the player holds the  Shift key, a white dot, approximately 5×5 pixels in size, will appear. This allows the player to see precisely where her hit box is. If a bullet, laser, or an enemy itself comes into contact with Marisa's hit box, she will be hit.

If Marisa is hit, she will lose 1 life. If Marisa loses a life, gameplay will continue as usual, and she will return to the fight immediately. Once Marisa loses her last life, though, the player will fail the Market stage and be returned to the main menu.

Unlike many other games in the series, getting hit does not cause Marisa's attacks to decrease in power nor potency.

In this game, the player's stock of lives is represented by a row of hearts located near the bottom right corner of the screen. When Marisa gets hit and loses a life, 1 heart will disappear from the row. If there are no hearts present, this indicates that Marisa has only 1 life left.

Marisa begins each Market stage with 2 lives total (that is, 1 extra life). This number can be increased by equipping certain Ability Cards before starting the Market stage or purchasing certain Ability Cards at a Black Market during the stage. Since there are no Life Items or Life Fragments in the game, these are the only ways to have more than 2 lives at one time or refill Marisa's stock after losing one.

Markets

These are the self-contained stages that make up 100th Black Market. Each Market can be played through individually and returned to at any time, no matter how far the player has progressed in the game. Replaying stages is encouraged, as it allows the player to unlock and collect additional Ability Cards.

Each individual Market consists of several waves of enemies as well as more formidable foes in the form of Market Bosses. Both the enemy waves and the bosses are selected semi-randomly.

The player's goal is to survive each of these enemy waves and defeat the boss that appears during the Final Wave.

There are 6 Markets, as well as a Tutorial Market and an End of Market, for Marisa to investigate.

The player can also test their skills, endurance, and Ability Card combinations in the Challenge Market. This Market consists of more waves than the other Market stages, with a Market Boss appearing every other wave.

Enemy Waves

Each Market stage has several of these. Upon beginning the stage, Marisa will immediately encounter the first wave of enemies. They are typically made up of weaker, generic stage enemies including, but not limited to Fairies, Sunflower Fairies, or Wheel Ghosts, using a behavior randomly selected from a series of named presets, and presented in the Enemy Wave warning. Their difficulty will range from Very Easy to Overdrive depending on the market and the number of the wave. Marisa will clear the enemy wave if she has at least 1 life remaining when the timer at the top of the screen reaches zero. Eliminating all of the enemies is not a requirement, as reinforcements will appear indefinitely as long as the timer has not reached zero.

Enemy Wave behaviors are elaborated upon in the strategy article.

Once an enemy wave is cleared, Marisa will have the opportunity to purchase cards from a Black Market with any Bullet Money she has collected.

Final Waves

These occur at the end of every Market stage and function as this game's boss battles. During this wave, instead of facing generic enemies, Marisa will do battle against a Market Boss. Each individual Market stage has four different Market Bosses that Marisa can encounter. The one that appears is chosen at random every time she reaches the Final Wave of the Market. However, in order to face the fourth Market Boss, Marisa must defeat the other three. A comprehensive list of bosses that can be encountered in each Market can be found here.

The boss has a health bar that must be depleted completely in order to achieve victory. A Market Boss' health bar will have one or more markers on it; when their health is depleted enough to reach one of them, they will begin a spell card attack. If the player depletes the boss' health bar enough, the spell card attack will end.

Each attack, both normal and spell card, is also accompanied by a timer. If the timer reaches zero, the Market Boss will flee, ending the battle prematurely.

After defeating a Market's Boss, the player will be able to choose one of three special Ability Cards to unlock for purchase in the Card Shop. If you do not defeat the boss during the Final Wave of the Market, you will not have a chance to choose one of these Ability Cards.

The boss you defeat in the Final Wave influences what cards will be offered at the end of the Market stage; The unique card that is associated with a boss will only be available to purchase if you defeated that specific character during the battle.

Ability Cards

Introduced in Unconnected Marketeers, Ability Cards make an appearance once again in 100th Black Market as both a major gameplay element and plot device.

The four categories of Ability Cards remain the same as they were in Unconnected Marketeers. They are as follows:

  • Item Cards: These grant the player resources.
  • Equipment Cards: These add options to upgrade the player's shot or help erase bullets.
  • Passive Cards: These give benefits to the player without needing to be activated.
  • Active Cards: These clear bullets or give other benefits to the player by pressing C . Each one has a cooldown. If the player has multiple Active Cards, they can select which to use by pressing D .

The player can choose to enter a Market with any card that they have both unlocked through gameplay and purchased in the Card Shop. Marisa only has room for a single card at the start, but more Ability Card slots are unlocked as the player progresses, eventually allowing for her to carry a maximum of seven Ability Cards.

Several new, never-before-seen Ability Cards were introduced in 100th Black Market. A complete list, with descriptions, can be found here.

Equip Cost

The number of Ability Card slots that Marisa has is not the only thing that limits what Ability Cards the player can equip. Each card has a fixed "Equip Cost" that is measured in a percentage. Ability Cards that are considered to be more powerful have a higher Equip Cost.

Marisa begins the game with a 100% Equip Cost capacity. This capacity increases incrementally as the player progresses through the game and unlocks more Ability Card slots. In the Equipment menu, this capacity is represented by a bar at the top of the screen. This bar will fill as Ability Cards are equipped into available slots.

Marisa will only be able to use a set of equipped Ability Cards if the total Equip Cost is less than or equal to her total capacity. If the Equip Cost exceeds her capacity, the bar at the top of the screen will overflow and turn red. Total capacity or Equip Cost does not have any affect on how many Ability Cards can be purchased at a Black Market during a stage.

Black Markets

Black Markets are the main method of obtaining Ability Cards in 100th Black Market. After each enemy wave, a Black Market will open, and the player will be presented with a variety of Ability Cards available for purchase. Bullet Money is the only currency accepted at these establishments. Using the Bullet Money collected in that level so far, the player can purchase a maximum of three cards at each Black Market.

The player may also decide to purchase the Money Comes and Goes On its Own Ability Card. This card is always available for free and will give the player 50 ~ 100 Bullet Money. However, after purchasing this card, the player cannot buy anything else from that Black Market. If any other cards have been purchased, this card will become unavailable in the current Black Market. If the player does not have enough Bullet Money to afford any cards, Money Comes and Goes On its Own is purchased automatically.

Once an Ability Card is purchased at a Black Market, it will be available to be purchased at the Card Shop using Funds.

Ability Cards that have previously been purchased in the Card Shop will be discounted in Black Markets.

After completing a Market stage, or if the player restarts the stage, all Ability Cards purchased from the Black Markets will disappear. The only cards Marisa will have are the ones the player equipped her with before starting the Market stage.

Card Shop

The Card Shop is an above-board market where Ability Cards can be purchased legitimately using Funds. An Ability Card need only be purchased one time; After this, it can be equipped into one of Marisa's card slots before entering a Market stage.

Ability Cards only appear at the Card Shop once they are encountered and bought in a Black Market, or selected at the end of a Market stage.

Unlockables

Market Bosses:

  • Unlocking the 4th Boss in a Market: Defeat the first 3 bosses in a Market.
  • Unlocking Hidden 4th Market Boss: Enter the 4th Market while holding the Blank Card Ability Card.
  • Unlocking Hidden 6th Market Boss: Enter the 6th Market while holding the Capitalist's Dilemma Ability Card.

Glitches

  • Reduced bullet cap: If a player uses a magic circle during Tsukasa's "Fox Sign 'Delayed Pipe Fox Shot'" spell card under certain conditions, the bullet cap, a process that deletes bullets if there are too many bullets on screen at a time, will heavily reduce the limit for what's left of the Market, leaving very few bullets afterwards, especially during bosses.
  • Equipment card limit: If a player reaches a certain amount of equipment cards on their deck, around 11 to 13 cards, after attempting to leave the black market the game will immediately crash.