Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

2014-07-16 04:22:31 am

Quote from Sopha:

It has two parts. First you go towards the candle in air and divekick with neutral down, rather than forward down; it should still go forward

Ahhh, this is the part I was doing wrong, I didn't use the "neutral" divekick to hit the candle. Now I'm getting these launches, thanks!

You're right about the ending. If you have all furniture, Lydie will lean against Juste right at end of the good ending.

Sopha

2014-07-20 09:06:18 pm

I found a glitch.

With this, it's possible to bypass both the RNG to get floating boots and taking the time to get either the camera lock or moon physics glitches. It's looking like it might end up being the optimal route. Now zips going to chapel A or the keep ceiling are going to be extremely useful.

I still only know of a way to zip to the center chamber A without floating boots, so this is only useful for a bad ending. Also, this makes the thing I said about the two bad endings being almost the same no longer true, but I still don't think they should be separated.

The downside is fist is a frankly terrible subweapon, and without something that can damage-glitch, Maxim could take a while to kill. Plus, there's no good places for grinding or defense items along the route. I'm going to try to get the minimum needed to not die in one hit, stock up like 40 potions, and hope the maxim fight doesn't take more than 8 minutes.

charleon

2014-07-21 02:34:24 am

What is a man?

Haha that's awesome Sopha, thats the exact same zip maxim uses. I could never in my dreams have wished that Juste would use the same means as maxim only a month ago. Remarkable progress you two are displaying!

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-09-04 01:11:16 pm

ZX497: 2014-09-04 01:09:15 pm

ZX497: 2014-09-04 01:08:17 pm

ZX497: 2014-09-04 01:07:40 pm

2014-09-04 01:07:17 pm

Sopha

2014-09-05 02:27:22 am

Somehow every time I want to get active in this again, ZX just happens to find a new glitch at the same time....

Since that glitch causes all sorts of unexpected behavior, it could be very useful. Though since the treasury can't be entered before it, that means you can't get there with just a double jump. It seems that it's the same thing as the glitch at the end of my other video, and it's triggered by entering and exiting a cutscene unexpectedly. So there may be other setups for it that can fit into a speedrun.

Anyway, I've been mostly stuck on routing. The floating boots are definitely the best for every category, but with how unlikely that drop is, I'm tempted to just disqualify them from everything. I couldn't even get an example run since they wouldn't drop a single time for me after hours of grinding. So what would be useful is to know exactly how luck and rare ring affect the drop rate. The luck items are lucky charm, lucky ring, twilight cloak, kaiser mail, dracula's ring, and rare ring. Of them, twilight cloak and dracula's ring are easy to get without losing much time. Then rare ring could be gotten with the glitched start at skeleton cave, but that would take about 3 minutes, so it's probably not worthwhile. I'm thinking I'll just pretend floating boots don't exist.

Besides that, I found that fire-fist can damage glitch, so the maxim fight could be less than a minute optimally. The problem with the route I have is I want to get the best combination of level+defense items to survive maxim's hits and potion chug everything off, but all of those are very out of the way and I want to minimize that. From my observations of how defense affects damage, the base defense from level ups doesn't seem to do anything, and everything depends on the equipment.

So the routes very heavily depend on those two calculations, and I haven't had any motivation to try to figure them out. If you or anyone wants to pull some wizardry to get them, that would be really helpful.

Then I just found a new route that can be used for good and bad endings. From the final block puzzle in Skel Cave A on the right, that alcove can be exited with holding back and jumping to not have to momentum stop with magic and can be used to reach even the places I thought needed a griffin wing. So this is a farily consistent zip that can reach Cavern A, Aqueduct B, and Chapel A.

So you can glitch start at skeleton cave, and keep that save to save-warp to after getting a double-jump.

Using it, the routes would be...
-Bad Ending: Get double jump, block-puzzle-zip to Chapel A, go straight to the end using ice fist. (Can use the really inconsistent single jump ice fist to get platinum tip and a bunch of $$$. And can grind skeleton glasses before copy-file-warping to the start.)
-Good Ending: Get double jump, block-puzzle-zip to Aqueduct B, lower crushing tip, reset to block-puzzle zip to Chapel A to zip to Clock Tower B right next to the crushing tip or go all the way around the locked path to crushing tip, fight legion and shadow, reset to block-puzzle-zip to Chapel A, zip to Walkway A, get maxim's ring, camera-lock, go through the center tower to the end.

I haven't timed these to see if they're faster, but they're good to know.

Somehow every time I want to get active in this again, ZX just happens to find a new glitch at the same time....

Since that glitch causes all sorts of unexpected behavior, it could be very useful. Though since the treasury can't be entered before it, that means you can't get there with just a double jump. It seems that it's the same thing as the glitch at the end of my other video, and it's triggered by entering and exiting a cutscene unexpectedly. So there may be other setups for it that can fit into a speedrun.

Anyway, I've been mostly stuck on routing. The floating boots are definitely the best for every category, but with how unlikely that drop is, I'm tempted to just disqualify them from everything. I couldn't even get an example run since they wouldn't drop a single time for me after hours of grinding. So what would be useful is to know exactly how luck and rare ring affect the drop rate. The luck items are lucky charm, lucky ring, twilight cloak, kaiser mail, dracula's ring, and rare ring. Of them, twilight cloak and dracula's ring are easy to get without losing much time. Then rare ring could be gotten with the glitched start at skeleton cave, but that would take about 3 minutes, so it's probably not worthwhile. I'm thinking I'll just pretend floating boots don't exist.

Besides that, I found that fire-fist can damage glitch, so the maxim fight could be less than a minute optimally. The problem with the route I have is I want to get the best combination of level+defense items to survive maxim's hits and potion chug everything off, but all of those are very out of the way and I want to minimize that. From my observations of how defense affects damage, the base defense from level ups doesn't seem to do anything, and everything depends on the equipment.

So the routes very heavily depend on those two calculations, and I haven't had any motivation to try to figure them out. If you or anyone wants to pull some wizardry to get them, that would be really helpful.

Then I just found a new route that can be used for good and bad endings. From the final block puzzle in Skel Cave A on the right, that alcove can be exited with holding back and jumping to not have to momentum stop with magic and can be used to reach even the places I thought needed a griffin wing. So this is a farily consistent zip that can reach Cavern A, Aqueduct B, and Chapel A.

So you can glitch start at skeleton cave, and keep that save to save-warp to after getting a double-jump.

Using it, the routes would be...
-Bad Ending: Get double jump, block-puzzle-zip to Chapel A, go straight to the end using ice fist. (Can use the really inconsistent single jump ice fist to get platinum tip and a bunch of $$$. And can grind skeleton glasses before copy-file-warping to the start.)
-Good Ending: Get double jump, block-puzzle-zip to Aqueduct B, lower crushing tip, reset to block-puzzle zip to Chapel A to zip to Clock Tower B right next to the crushing tip [i]or[/i] go all the way around the locked path to crushing tip, fight legion and shadow, reset to block-puzzle-zip to Chapel A, zip to Walkway A, get maxim's ring, camera-lock, go through the center tower to the end.

I haven't timed these to see if they're faster, but they're good to know.

ZX497

2014-09-05 06:28:08 am

Mmm, Rare Ring can't actually be gotten by doing a Wrong Warp at the start of the game, sadly... while it's possible to grab the ring, you'll be stuck in the area with the ring, since you need Double Jump to get out of there. Similarly, you can't grab the save point prior to getting the ring, since you can't reach the ring area anymore for the same reason: there's one ledge that's just too high. So, while you can get it, you just can't save, unless there's something you know and I don't Tongue

Also, getting a sub 1 hour low% run should be possible. I think the route you suggested months ago, where you do a candle launch zip after getting the Floating Boots is hands down the best option. Where you want to go after the candle launch is a little bit up in the air:

- Luminous Cavern B zip. Good for doing the Camera Lock glitch, and for buying potions.
- Chapel of Dissonance A zip. Good for doing the zip for Relic Skip, but hard to get healing items.

The second option would probably be faster, but Maxim is pretty much an impossible obstacle.

Oh yeah, there's also an easier zip to get to Marble Gallery B at the start of the game. You might've figured this out since you were talking about Dracula's Ring, but yeah, if you get to the Dracula's Ring area, and dagger launch from the _lower_ ledge, you'll get inside the wall. It's still not the easiest thing, but significantly easier than the alternative.

Mmm, Rare Ring can't actually be gotten by doing a Wrong Warp at the start of the game, sadly... while it's possible to grab the ring, you'll be stuck in the area with the ring, since you need Double Jump to get out of there. Similarly, you can't grab the save point prior to getting the ring, since you can't reach the ring area anymore for the same reason: there's one ledge that's just too high. So, while you can get it, you just can't save, unless there's something you know and I don't :P

Also, getting a sub 1 hour low% run should be possible. I think the route you suggested months ago, where you do a candle launch zip after getting the Floating Boots is hands down the best option. Where you want to go after the candle launch is a little bit up in the air:

- Luminous Cavern B zip. Good for doing the Camera Lock glitch, and for buying potions.
- Chapel of Dissonance A zip. Good for doing the zip for Relic Skip, but hard to get healing items.

The second option would probably be faster, but Maxim is pretty much an impossible obstacle.

Oh yeah, there's also an easier zip to get to Marble Gallery B at the start of the game. You might've figured this out since you were talking about Dracula's Ring, but yeah, if you get to the Dracula's Ring area, and dagger launch from the _lower_ ledge, you'll get inside the wall. It's still not the easiest thing, but significantly easier than the alternative.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-09-05 08:06:25 am

ZX497: 2014-09-05 07:01:48 am

2014-09-05 06:39:32 am

Oh yeah, hey. I didn't even notice the glitch at the end of that Ice Fist video you posted, yeah, that's definitely the same thing. And what this actually means now, is that we can fully explore Castle B as well, if we're lucky: Open the hatch with Drac Relics, do the glitch, exit by Infinite Jumping until you wrap around the map.

Why this might not work, is that you can't maneuver left or right while you're climbing up the shaft: if there's a bad flag of some kind blocking your way, there's nothing you can do. Although, I'm pretty sure it's possible to zip out of the Drac chamber with moon physics, which would solve the issue.

EDIT: Seems like this doesn't work. Trying to get in the elevator will trigger the walking animation and results in a softlock, and it's not possible to zip out of the chamber with Moon Physics. It would be possible to Gravity Boot zip out of there, if they only worked Tongue

What might still be possible is doing this, except with Camera Lock active. That might stop the game from softlocking when trying to reach the elevator.

EDIT 2:

Well, that didn't work either, cause I completely forgot you can't use Magic while off-screen. So, this is looking pretty unlikely.

Oh yeah, hey. I didn't even notice the glitch at the end of that Ice Fist video you posted, yeah, that's definitely the same thing. And what this actually means now, is that we can fully explore Castle B as well, if we're lucky: Open the hatch with Drac Relics, do the glitch, exit by Infinite Jumping until you wrap around the map.

Why this might not work, is that you can't maneuver left or right while you're climbing up the shaft: if there's a bad flag of some kind blocking your way, there's nothing you can do. Although, I'm pretty sure it's possible to zip out of the Drac chamber with moon physics, which would solve the issue.

EDIT: Seems like this doesn't work. Trying to get in the elevator will trigger the walking animation and results in a softlock, and it's not possible to zip out of the chamber with Moon Physics. It would be possible to Gravity Boot zip out of there, if they only worked :P

What might still be possible is doing this, except with Camera Lock active. That might stop the game from softlocking when trying to reach the elevator.

EDIT 2:

Well, that didn't work either, cause I completely forgot you can't use Magic while off-screen. So, this is looking pretty unlikely.

Sopha

2014-09-05 04:17:56 pm

Oh, I forgot about that detail on the rare ring.

Getting a sub 15 minute low% run should be possible, if even that, with good RNG. I guess I forgot to mention, but there's a third skip to the final boss room. With the floating boots, if you hold up in a zip, it zips you downwards slowly. This lets juste do exactly the same thing as maxim where maxim would use his ninja roll, except holding up with floating boots.

After the candle launch, you use the floating boots zip to get to the sky around the top floor room. From there, you can follow the maxim any% route exactly.

Since near floating boots is a good grinding spot, you can be very overleveled for maxim. For potions, you can either take a detour to treasury B, or smash the thing keeping the final boss door closed in castle A from the top floor sky, then zip to the center tower and go to the shop there, and then enter the boss room normally.

This would be the optimal way to get to the boss chamber in castle B for any ending. And I would totally do it, but I've yet to get floating boots to appear in even a practice run so I can make sure the route I have works. The way I have grinding it set up, it takes around two minutes for seven tries at the drop, and you'd be lucky to get it on the 50th try. So I planned to practice the whole route and then not mess up the one time I get them.

But then for other categories too, that's just not happening. And the floating boots final boss zip often hardlocks too, so I'm not very excited about that.

And I found this on youtub:

It looks like it uses moon physics to launch over the elevator to get both the cutscene glitch and the upward movement locked to exit the boss chamber. It also shows the zip to the top floor sky I was talking about.

Oh, I forgot about that detail on the rare ring.

Getting a sub 15 minute low% run should be possible, if even that, with good RNG. I guess I forgot to mention, but there's a third skip to the final boss room. With the floating boots, if you hold up in a zip, it zips you downwards slowly. This lets juste do exactly the same thing as maxim where maxim would use his ninja roll, except holding up with floating boots.

After the candle launch, you use the floating boots zip to get to the sky around the top floor room. From there, you can follow the maxim any% route exactly.

Since near floating boots is a good grinding spot, you can be very overleveled for maxim. For potions, you can either take a detour to treasury B, or smash the thing keeping the final boss door closed in castle A from the top floor sky, then zip to the center tower and go to the shop there, and then enter the boss room normally.

This would be the optimal way to get to the boss chamber in castle B for any ending. And I would totally do it, but I've yet to get floating boots to appear in even a practice run so I can make sure the route I have works. The way I have grinding it set up, it takes around two minutes for seven tries at the drop, and you'd be lucky to get it on the 50th try. So I planned to practice the whole route and then not mess up the one time I get them.

But then for [i]other[/i] categories too, that's just not happening. And the floating boots final boss zip often hardlocks too, so I'm not very excited about that.

And I found this on youtub:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD3G_Qyzms0[/url]

It looks like it uses moon physics to launch over the elevator to get both the cutscene glitch and the upward movement locked to exit the boss chamber. It also shows the zip to the top floor sky I was talking about.

ZX497

2014-09-05 04:40:27 pm

Ohhh, that is really interesting. It doesn't seem like it gives you "unlimited map", though, unless there's something I'm missing... I gotta test this out later Tongue

Also, yeah, holding up does cause you to zip down with the boots, as does hovering upwards. The Floating Boots oscillate up and down, and if you're moving up (not holding any buttons), you'll zip downward, at a fast speed. You can only do this for a little while, though, cause, well, you'll start floating down after about a second. Similarly, if you jump and whip, at a certain point during your jump you'll get zipped downward. At least with Moon Physics activated, this can be used to zip to Drac's Chamber without the Floating Boots.

On another note, you can damage glitch using the Crushing Stone! And why this is interesting, is because you can do these damage glitches using magic, among other things: this would eliminate grinding for hearts for the most part. The way damage glitching like this works, is that you just stand near an enemy, and release the charge (you basically have to hit the enemy with the large electric arc that appears near Juste... no need to charge it fully, just the bare minimum works). One particularly ridiculous combination for this is Summoning Tome + Book, as in the Fairy familiar: she deals such a ridiculous amount of base damage it's pretty hilarious to see that stacking. A lot of the combos work just fine, actually.

Ohhh, that is really interesting. It doesn't seem like it gives you "unlimited map", though, unless there's something I'm missing... I gotta test this out later :P

Also, yeah, holding up does cause you to zip down with the boots, as does hovering upwards. The Floating Boots oscillate up and down, and if you're moving up (not holding any buttons), you'll zip downward, at a fast speed. You can only do this for a little while, though, cause, well, you'll start floating down after about a second. Similarly, if you jump and whip, at a certain point during your jump you'll get zipped downward. At least with Moon Physics activated, this can be used to zip to Drac's Chamber without the Floating Boots.

On another note, you can damage glitch using the Crushing Stone! And why this is interesting, is because you can do these damage glitches using magic, among other things: this would eliminate grinding for hearts for the most part. The way damage glitching like this works, is that you just stand near an enemy, and release the charge (you basically have to hit the enemy with the large electric arc that appears near Juste... no need to charge it fully, just the bare minimum works). One particularly ridiculous combination for this is Summoning Tome + Book, as in the Fairy familiar: she deals such a ridiculous amount of base damage it's pretty hilarious to see that stacking. A lot of the combos work just fine, actually.

ZX497

2014-09-05 04:52:01 pm

Quote from Sopha:

And the floating boots final boss zip often hardlocks too, so I'm not very excited about that.

MMM, you gotta make sure you're floating upwards before you go left. Basically, when you're at the top of that Axe Armor room at Castle Top Floor, walk left with Floating Boots equipped, release every button, then when you get to the area where Maxim does the barrel roll for the zip, wait a split second so you start floating upwards, then tap left. Works every single time.

Sopha

2014-09-05 05:43:12 pm

Oh he has to be floating upwards for it to work. Okay, now I'm getting it consistently.

The crushing stone damage glitch is cool. I don't think it would replace other subweapon damage glitches since magic runs out really quickly. Working it in could lead to some time saved though.

KentaKurodani

2014-09-05 07:38:57 pm

Metroid 2 Ho!

So when is the Juste All Bosses Route gonna be a thing? Tongue

ZX497

2014-09-06 02:27:59 am

So I got around to testing the stuff that was shown in the video, not much to say really. It works just like you'd expect it to: just fly over the trigger zone, and the "elevator" will keep lifting you up infinitely, loading zones disabled. If you go near the middle of the screen (the spot where Juste starts running towards the elevator), you'll be locked in place. So yeah, that's that, cool stuff, you could probably map the whole Castle B using this. It's gonna be really annoying, since avoiding harmful flags is somewhat difficult.

Oh yeah, the trick itself is hard to pull off, your dagger throws need to be just right. Not sure what the frame window is or whatever, but it's actually surprisingly difficult to get across.

ZX497

2014-09-06 05:33:17 am

Guess this is one way to gain Level Ups.

Sopha

2014-09-06 11:59:58 pm

Awesome! That might just make level grinding a thing of the past. It might even make the level 50 shop in the entrance a viable thing. Infinite boots and mana potions in particular are useful from it.

Is there any particular reason that has to be done with a crushing stone damage glitch as opposed to any other type of damage glitch? Besides that it's much harder to do otherwise. I'll try that out.

Quote from KentaKurodani:

So when is the Juste All Bosses Route gonna be a thing? Tongue

Juste really prefers collecting furniture to beating bosses. Wink

And another thing I found,

Notice that it takes him to the top of the platform at 0:33, unlike similar versions of the glitch. Though going up further requires a double jump and there's a wall blocking you anyway, you can lure the cylinder enemy there down and use it to damage boost you into the save. From there you can copy-file warp back and keep that save.

So that adds another save you can get early, along with those at SkelCave A, and the general center area A. It's not actually useful for anything, as far as I know, though.

Awesome! That might just make level grinding a thing of the past. It might even make the level 50 shop in the entrance a viable thing. Infinite boots and mana potions in particular are useful from it.

Is there any particular reason that has to be done with a crushing stone damage glitch as opposed to any other type of damage glitch? Besides that it's much harder to do otherwise. I'll try that out.

[quote="KentaKurodani"]So when is the Juste All Bosses Route gonna be a thing? :P[/quote]
Juste really prefers collecting furniture to beating bosses. ;)

And another thing I found,
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqNyblE_e94[/url]
Notice that it takes him to the top of the platform at 0:33, unlike similar versions of the glitch. Though going up further requires a double jump and there's a wall blocking you anyway, you can lure the cylinder enemy there down and use it to damage boost you into the save. From there you can copy-file warp back and keep that save.

So that adds another save you can get early, along with those at SkelCave A, and the general center area A. It's not actually useful for anything, as far as I know, though.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-09-07 01:29:33 am

2014-09-07 01:29:05 am

Nice! I've always wanted to reach that Clock Tower save early. I guess you're stuck in there, though, cause of that wall.

Sopha

2014-09-07 01:29:19 am

Found more things on youtub:

The last one, in particular, could cut it down to just under a minute if I can figure out what's going on.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-09-07 02:51:00 am

2014-09-07 01:49:37 am

Mmm, a regular damage glitch (cross -> divekick -> whip) against Talos does seem to work as well for Level Ups.

Sopha

2014-09-11 08:07:53 am

I finally got a floating boots drop and the route skipping double jump works, though I'm pretty sure the room of illusions candle zip has an even tighter timing on the setup using floating boots than with a double jump, though maybe I'm just not used to it. Either way, with the god RNG it would take and the inconsistency of the candle zip, it will take a while before an actual run with that route ever gets completed.

I also found a consistent way to zip to SkelCaveA from the candle zip by divekicking off-screen a little bit below where it takes you, and then jumping to the left a bit. This essentially cuts out any need to do the file select glitch and save warp glitch to keep a save there. Using that in addition to talos leveling, the alternative route going [get double jump->savewarp to entrance a->candle zip to skel cave a->puzzle zip to cavern a->level up ~20 levels on talos->savewarp to skel cave a->puzzle zip to chapel a->zip to maxim using ice fist] is a viable alternative to the one using floating boots. A more safe variant would go through death to get the super jump and use that instead of ice fist to skip to maxim. It's still not that safe though, since it includes a talos fight where any little poke will instakill you and you have very few spare hearts to miss damage-glitches.

I haven't tried to figure out the damage-calculation quite yet, but surviving a hit so you can heal everything off depends mostly on maximum hp rather than defense. And maximum hp is influenced mostly by level ups, with the life max ups scattered around the castle making very little difference. So getting levels quickly at either talos or the jumping bone heads is the key to tanking hits on the boss. I have beaten maxim at low level not getting hit before, but playing it safe with the lowered damage output you have at low level really eats into the time you save by not having to grind and get a ton of potions.

And I found a speedrun-viable setup for the cutscene glitch! From the chapel A big out of bounds area, take the first out of bounds top exit from the left, which takes some divekicking on the skeletons. Leave that screen down on the far right edge, which should take you to a narrow horizontal sliver above some skeleton archers. Jump from the left end of it and exit left on the next screen. Depending on how you high you are exiting left, it can take you to three different positions with the cutscene glitch active. Two places on the screen right of where you meet maxim in walkway, and with a double jump, the left edge of the walkway tower. You have to have never entered walkway previously for this to work, which means using a zip to chapel A. The one at walkway tower is particularly good because you can divekick left out of bounds and go over many different squares.

I'm not really sure how to tell what flags are being activated though. Are there any good ones that you can get with just a double jump using that?

I finally got a floating boots drop and the route skipping double jump works, though I'm pretty sure the room of illusions candle zip has an even tighter timing on the setup using floating boots than with a double jump, though maybe I'm just not used to it. Either way, with the god RNG it would take and the inconsistency of the candle zip, it will take a while before an actual run with that route ever gets completed.

I also found a consistent way to zip to SkelCaveA from the candle zip by divekicking off-screen a little bit below where it takes you, and then jumping to the left a bit. This essentially cuts out any need to do the file select glitch and save warp glitch to keep a save there. Using that in addition to talos leveling, the alternative route going [get double jump->savewarp to entrance a->candle zip to skel cave a->puzzle zip to cavern a->level up ~20 levels on talos->savewarp to skel cave a->puzzle zip to chapel a->zip to maxim using ice fist] is a viable alternative to the one using floating boots. A more safe variant would go through death to get the super jump and use that instead of ice fist to skip to maxim. It's still not that safe though, since it includes a talos fight where any little poke will instakill you and you have very few spare hearts to miss damage-glitches.

I haven't tried to figure out the damage-calculation quite yet, but surviving a hit so you can heal everything off depends mostly on maximum hp rather than defense. And maximum hp is influenced mostly by level ups, with the life max ups scattered around the castle making very little difference. So getting levels quickly at either talos or the jumping bone heads is the key to tanking hits on the boss. I have beaten maxim at low level not getting hit before, but playing it safe with the lowered damage output you have at low level really eats into the time you save by not having to grind and get a ton of potions.

And I found a speedrun-viable setup for the cutscene glitch! From the chapel A big out of bounds area, take the first out of bounds top exit from the left, which takes some divekicking on the skeletons. Leave that screen down on the far right edge, which should take you to a narrow horizontal sliver above some skeleton archers. Jump from the left end of it and exit left on the next screen. Depending on how you high you are exiting left, it can take you to three different positions with the cutscene glitch active. Two places on the screen right of where you meet maxim in walkway, and with a double jump, the left edge of the walkway tower. You have to have never entered walkway previously for this to work, which means using a zip to chapel A. The one at walkway tower is particularly good because you can divekick left out of bounds and go over many different squares.

I'm not really sure how to tell what flags are being activated though. Are there any good ones that you can get with just a double jump using that?

ZX497

2014-09-11 03:34:01 pm

I'm not really sure how to tell what flags are being activated though. Are there any good ones that you can get with just a double jump using that?

I have no idea. You can get on top of the area with just the double jump, though: when you get to the end of the "pipe", you just jump up and out, and then immediately go back right... the edge will actually just zip you straight up. Since the area wraps around both vertically and horizontally, you can probably hit a large chunk of the flags with just the double jump, if you can just navigate properly.

Sopha

2014-09-12 12:58:07 pm

I mean how do you know the flags are being activated at all? Do you use a ram watch or something to tell? So far I haven't found anything unusual besides the screen warping around and triggering transitions to death or the main menu. I'll try playing around with it a bit more, I guess.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-09-14 10:13:29 am

2014-09-14 10:13:16 am

I just save the game with the "Saveroom" -function, and load the save to see if something interesting has happened Tongue

charleon

2014-09-15 12:31:27 am

What is a man?

It would be nice if some TAS-guy has some RAM watcher setup for all th emayor flags so one could experiment and get instant feedback Smiley

Sir VG

2014-09-15 10:37:53 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

I know where the memory values are for the furniture and relics. I did this game for achievements at RetroAchievements (seriously, just finished it up today). I don't know how the memory values will translate to anything helpful for you, but I'll share what I know.

Interesting is that Konami actually uses just single bits for storing that stuff (even encyclopedia entries). For relics, there's separate memory values for whether a relic is collected and whether it's on. Items in inventory are stored as separate 8-bit entries. It's in the order of I believe (going off of memory) items, special goods (JK/MK rings, smash boots and dark glasses), head, armor, boots, goods (other stuff). I even found the values for the player's stats.

Speaking of stats, the game is pretty bizarre with a few of the stats. The game recalculates on the fly some of the player stats, like STR every time a monster dies. So even if the RAM value is edited, as soon as you kill something, it'll go back to what it was. A few scenes do that too (like when you transition from fighting Maxim to Dracula Wraith, for instance). HP doesn't do it at monster kills though, so it's not all stats.

I know where the memory values are for the furniture and relics. I did this game for achievements at RetroAchievements (seriously, just finished it up today). I don't know how the memory values will translate to anything helpful for you, but I'll share what I know.

Interesting is that Konami actually uses just single bits for storing that stuff (even encyclopedia entries). For relics, there's separate memory values for whether a relic is collected and whether it's on. Items in inventory are stored as separate 8-bit entries. It's in the order of I believe (going off of memory) items, special goods (JK/MK rings, smash boots and dark glasses), head, armor, boots, goods (other stuff). I even found the values for the player's stats.

Speaking of stats, the game is pretty bizarre with a few of the stats. The game recalculates on the fly some of the player stats, like STR every time a monster dies. So even if the RAM value is edited, as soon as you kill something, it'll go back to what it was. A few scenes do that too (like when you transition from fighting Maxim to Dracula Wraith, for instance). HP doesn't do it at monster kills though, so it's not all stats.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-10-25 04:44:48 am

2014-10-24 11:29:02 am

Route for Juste All Bosses:

There's no audio, RemoteJoyLite hit the file size limit when I was recording, cause I forgot to lower the quality of the recording. I probably could've salvaged the situation with some serious audio syncing, but considering the run wasn't that great I didn't bother. Instead of axing the whole thing entirely, I decided to share it as a private vid anyway, if you guys wanna learn this category.

The route was built around getting the Crushing Stone and the Summoning Tome ASAP, and then just demolishing everything with them.

The death-warps can be optimized by using the same file you progress on: instead of making a copy of it on first save point, you can just override your progress on one file. You can perform quick death warps from Skeleton Cave A: on your first visit, you have to get to the very edge of the screen, and then have an enemy (a skeleton) hit you with something the frame you leave the screen. On your second visit, you can just Holy Water a skeleton there just like usual.

It's a really fun run once you get the stuff Tongue

EDIT:

Oh yeah, it's actually probably faster not to do death warps, and instead use the Candle Zip at Marble Gallery as your hub, you'd just have to do that zip three times. One time for the Summoning Tome (this zip also gives you the Pazuzu warp room), second time to get to the Merman boss (and to open the clock tower gateway), and third time to get to Skeleton Cave A.

Route for Juste All Bosses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3OH81AOBpg

There's no audio, RemoteJoyLite hit the file size limit when I was recording, cause I forgot to lower the quality of the recording. I probably could've salvaged the situation with some serious audio syncing, but considering the run wasn't that great I didn't bother. Instead of axing the whole thing entirely, I decided to share it as a private vid anyway, if you guys wanna learn this category.

The route was built around getting the Crushing Stone and the Summoning Tome ASAP, and then just demolishing everything with them.

The death-warps can be optimized by using the same file you progress on: instead of making a copy of it on first save point, you can just override your progress on one file. You can perform quick death warps from Skeleton Cave A: on your first visit, you have to get to the very edge of the screen, and then have an enemy (a skeleton) hit you with something the frame you leave the screen. On your second visit, you can just Holy Water a skeleton there just like usual.

It's a really fun run once you get the stuff :P

EDIT:

Oh yeah, it's actually probably faster not to do death warps, and instead use the Candle Zip at Marble Gallery as your hub, you'd just have to do that zip three times. One time for the Summoning Tome (this zip also gives you the Pazuzu warp room), second time to get to the Merman boss (and to open the clock tower gateway), and third time to get to Skeleton Cave A.