I have played every single mainline Touhou + spin-offs + a lot of fangames:
Shift slows you down and lets you see your hitbox, depending on the game it also changes your shots.
Spellcards look harder than they actually are, if its too intimidating, focus on your character and their immediate surroundings.
Don't fully back yourself up to either the bottom or a corner (Only exception is if you know jerking).
Reimu is better for learning spellcard patterns, in every game.
Learn streaming (moving slowly to one side while grazing shots).
Easy is for cowards, normal is acceptable, hard is fine, lunatic defines both the difficulty and the player willing to do it.
You don't have to start with EoSD, DDC is a fine starting point too, at this point no Touhou fan cares which game you started on, as long as you ain't a spin-off pleb. LoLK is the hardest one, so leave it for last.
If you use a spellcard (bomb) the exact moment you get hit, you don't loose a life (spellcard save), its very difficult to pull-off reliably, fan-games are more lenient on the timing, so you can practice there.
Its mostly memorizing patterns and muscle memory, spellcards that are completely random are very rare.
If you go to the top of the screen, you character will collect all the drops automatically, but its risky af.
