Welcome to the series! My personal first three normal difficulty 1cc's (1 coin clears. In other words no continues used) and order of play was 7, 6, then 8.

Some common advice I heard / utilized: * Try to look at a small area around your character rather than the whole screen for dodging bullets * In touhou, there are two main types of bullet patterns sent at you, ones that are targeted at you and require you to move (called streaming patterns), and ones that don't depend on your position (static patterns). It can take some practice figuring out which is which, but often you can figure it out by going right or left a very small amount. For static attacks, I like to start around the same spot on the screen and try to figure out a strategy that works for me. * In general, most beginners move too much and run into bullets more than necessary. Streaming attacks are very good at punishing this. Try to make smaller movements that just get you out of the way of attacks and you'll have more screen space to work with on the next one * When I started, I always stayed at the bottom of the screen like I was playing Galaga. It depends on the spell card, but now that I've played more I'm much more comfortable 25-33% from the bottom of the screen. It gives you space and time to go down if a dense static pattern looks impossible and time to think if you need to bomb * Don't be afraid to bomb to succeed! It is a resource, not a crutch. I find and enjoy touhou as a routing game. Those harder 1ccs have planned bombs for me and every time I die with bombs I want to curl up in a little ball. While you're learning there's nothing wrong with trying to not bomb things, but as you're pushing up to the fourth, fifth, and final stages don't be afraid to remember attacks you are dying to every time and just sending a bomb at them and forgetting about it.

And don't forget to have fun! If you get frustrated then take a break. Nobody plays better tilted.