Rules

Full Official Rules

The full official rulebook can be found here:

English: TWC Handbook
日本語: TWC_Handbook_JP.pdf

Format

The players from each team will play against each other simultaneously.

For every match, each player can earn points for their team:

1st place - 2 points
2nd place - 1 point
3rd place - 0 points

In 2-team matches, the first place will gain 2 points and second place will gain 1 point.

If multiple players have the same TWCScore at the end of a match, they are considered tied and their points will be split equally.

Whichever team has the most points at the end of Touhou World Cup is the winner.

TWCScore

The quality of credits is calculated through the TWCScore Calculator. This is a scoring metric which compensates for differences in shot type performance so that there is a point of comparison between credits in a category.

The TWCScore of credits is used to determine player ranking at the end of a match, with each player's best performing credit being used.

For Survival Categories, each shot type starts with a prescribed TWCScore with this value being cut in half every time the player dies.

For Scoring Categories, TWCScore increases exponentially as the player's in-game score increases.

Reset Timer

Each Category has a Reset Timer which counts down as the match progresses, this shows the time in which a player can start a new credit.

Players can start as many credits as they want while the Reset Timer is counting down.

When the timer reaches zero, the players cannot start any new credits, but they can finish a credit already in progress.

Gameplay Rules

Survival Categories

In Survival Categories, players will try to finish the game without dying. They can only die a maximum of five times and are not allowed to use bombs or any other in game mechanics to help them.

Here is a quick breakdown of how different game mechanics affect Survival Categories:

All Touhou Games

Bombs: Bombing at anytime is considered two deaths.

Touhou 7

Supernatural Border: Breaking a border manually by pressing the bomb key is considered two deaths. However, running into a bullet while a border is active will only count as one death.

Touhou 8

Last Spell: Getting hit during a Last Spell is considered a death. Not meeting the time orb requirement in Stage 1-5 is also considered a death.
Timing out a Last Spell is not considered a death.

Touhou 9

This category is played under different conditions to all other Survival Categories in TWC. The goal of a player performing a credit in Phantasmagoria of Flower View Lunatic Survival is to maximise the number of remaining lives at the end of the credit. Each Shot Type will be assigned a TWCScore by the TWCScore Rubric according to the number of remaining lives.
TWCScore of this category can be regarded as substituting "7 - the number of remaining lives" for the "the number of misses" in the formula of other Survival Categories in TWC, with the exception that a bonus of [0.02 * the duration (in seconds) of Stage 9 first round] is added at the end of a credit. An additional TWCScore bonus will be applied when there are 7 remaining lives. Any credit that ends with less than 2 lives remaining will always attain a TWCScore of zero.

Touhou 11

There is a TWCScore Bonus for a credit that captures all spellcards and finishes with zero deaths.

Touhou 12

UFOs: Summoning a UFO is considered a death. However, collecting UFO tokens is allowed and does not count as a death.

Touhou 12.8

This category is played under different conditions to all other Survival Categories in TWC. The goal of a player performing a credit in Great Fairy Wars Lunatic Survival is to play through the game on Lunatic difficulty while avoiding all enemy attacks and gaining gold medals from spell cards. Gold medals are attained by capturing spell cards without using Ice Power or a Perfect Freeze. TWCScore increases exponentially by the number of gold medals captured by the player and is lost depending on the number of misses. The parameters of this exponential gain are different for each route. The number of misses in a Great Fairy Wars Lunatic Survival credit does not affect the validity of the credit in any form. However, any otherwise valid credit in a match of Great Fairy Wars Lunatic Survival which ends in a Game Over will always attain a TWCScore of -50.

Touhou 13

Trance: A manually activated trance is considered two deaths.
Additionally, there is a TWCScore Bonus for a credit that captures all spellcards and finishes with zero deaths.

Touhou 16

Season Release: Releasing your season gauge is considered two deaths.

Touhou 17

Animal Spirits: Channeling a Berserk Roar (3 or more of the same animal tokens during roar mode) is considered 2 deaths. Breaking a Berserk Roar by touching a bullet gives no extra punishment. However, breaking either a Berserk Roar or a Standard Roar by pressing the bomb key will always be considered one death.

Touhou 18

Only four ability cards are allowed to be equipped, used or activated at any time. These are:

Money Comes and Goes On its Own
Fragmented Life Card
Fragmented Spell Card
Ringo-Brand Dango

Additionally, the players are only allowed to buy "Money Comes and Goes On its Own" from the card shop between stages.

The "Money Comes and Goes On its Own" card.

Touhou 19

Players will incur no penalty for taking a hit with a shield active. Players will also incur no penalty for regenerating their shield by using their gauge.

Scoring Categories

In Scoring Categories the players will try to finish the game while gaining the highest score possible. They can die, bomb and use any other mechanics as much as they want.

Some extra details about Scoring Categories:

Unlike previous years of TWC, there is now no penalty to TWCScore if a player Game Overs in a Scoring Category.
Players of the Phantasmagoria of Flower View Lunatic Scoring category are not allowed to select Aya or Medicine.
In Touhou 17 and Touhou 18, it is possible to reach the maximum value the score counter can display, known as a counterstop. If this happens, we will use the player's "True Score" which can be determined by using counterstop removal patches.
In Touhou 12, the score counter will display the player's score incorrectly if the score reaches a high enough value. However, if this happens, the game will still record the player's score correctly on the high score leaderboard and that value will be used instead.
In Touhou 18, the "Market Manip." option from thprac is allowed for use. However, credits that directly use Market Manipulation are considered invalid. Market Manipulation can be performed both before and during the match. This rule is subject to change depending on dialogue with players.

Allowed Game Mods

Vpatch is allowed for all applicable games.

thprac can be used for practice during a match, but all cheats must be disabled when performing credits.

Counterstop Removal Patches and Scorebug Patches are allowed.

Visual, Audio and Translation patches are not allowed.

Other Rules

Players must stream their gameplay while playing their match, without covering any HUD or gameplay elements.
The replay file of each player's best performing credit must be submitted to the TWC Committee at the end of a match.
Please hide the ending when you reach the end of the game.