Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

2014-12-26 01:59:42 am

Oh wow I can't believe I missed that, it's literally one room away.

You actually can cancel the aurora fist if you have the aurora ring equipped. Maybe that'll come in handy somewhere, but here it's easier to start the fist farther away so it ends at the right time.

I tried it and you only don't get hardlocks at the right edge. So with floating boots or a hard sequence of super jumps you get some useless zips to Skel Cave A and Aqueduct B in the same places the other one takes you. Now very inconsistently, you can slide out of the usual place with the summoning tome to get to Skel Cave B, but that's completely unviable. With some serious glitching with floating boots I could even manage a zip to the save in Cavern A, which again isn't good for anything.

I also just tried out the same sort of thing with the ball in the ball race when it stops while using the invincibility potion. No luck, apparently the ball's solid hitbox is way smaller than it looks.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-12-26 06:20:12 am

ZX497: 2014-12-26 06:19:35 am

ZX497: 2014-12-26 03:02:35 am

2014-12-26 03:00:50 am

Oh yeah, Aurora Ring. Also, I didn't realize you could just go backwards a bit and activate the Fist late to get a quicker cancel, I thought you had to activate it when you hit the floor near the box pretty much. Anyway, yeah, I guess the other location works then too. And yeah, it doesn't appear useful Tongue

You can go OoB there using the ball, at least if you have Floating Boots. You just face the corner, keep holding up and use a Medicine Jar. Then when you maneuver correctly (tap left, wait, tap right usually does the trick), you'll get pushed under the floor. You can get to that same OoB area using Moon Physics too, by just whip launching.

Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this, but there's actually an easy warp from both ball mazes to Drac Chamber B. You have to get on top of the area, and then just jump+whip on a proper location. Technically speaking, you could also whip launch off a Fleaman at ball maze B to get there without needing either Moon Physics or Floating Boots. But uhh, yeah, you'd have to whip launch off a Fleaman -_-

EDIT:

Oh yeah, I guess it'd be possible to finish a run starting at Clock Tower savepoint. Bridge warp to Clock Tower, Save there, File Select Warp back to beginning, get Lizard Tail, zip to Marble Gallery B, get Floating Boots, candle zip to Aqueduct B, get the Mecidine Jar and use the Save Room function. I dunno why you'd do this, but at least it'd be a special kind of a run Tongue

Oh yeah, Aurora Ring. Also, I didn't realize you could just go backwards a bit and activate the Fist late to get a quicker cancel, I thought you had to activate it when you hit the floor near the box pretty much. Anyway, yeah, I guess the other location works then too. And yeah, it doesn't appear useful :P

You can go OoB there using the ball, at least if you have Floating Boots. You just face the corner, keep holding up and use a Medicine Jar. Then when you maneuver correctly (tap left, wait, tap right usually does the trick), you'll get pushed under the floor. You can get to that same OoB area using Moon Physics too, by just whip launching.

Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this, but there's actually an easy warp from both ball mazes to Drac Chamber B. You have to get on top of the area, and then just jump+whip on a proper location. Technically speaking, you could also whip launch off a Fleaman at ball maze B to get there without needing either Moon Physics or Floating Boots.  But uhh, yeah, you'd have to whip launch off a Fleaman -_-

EDIT:

Oh yeah, I guess it'd be possible to finish a run starting at Clock Tower savepoint. Bridge warp to Clock Tower, Save there, File Select Warp back to beginning, get Lizard Tail, zip to Marble Gallery B, get Floating Boots, candle zip to Aqueduct B, get the Mecidine Jar and use the Save Room function. I dunno why you'd do this, but at least it'd be a special kind of a run :P

Sopha

2014-12-26 05:17:31 pm

So with the first box puzzle zip you can align yourself at a pixel so you can slide out of the skeleton silo. I could only get this to work with a double jump, though I think it might be possible without it. From there you can go to SkelCaveB and ClockTowerB. And if you slide out in a short window you can get to an OoB in SkelCaveB, from which there's another difficult zip you can do to get to the WalkwayB tower OoB. That opens up a few more that I could get: WalkwayB inbounds, ClockTowerA, and with a super jump ChapelB. So there's some more in the RoomA->SkelCaveA->ChapelA sequence that can zip pretty much anywhere.

And that reminds of a no floating boots low% run I was thinking about. Since floating boots breaks the game all by itself, low% could also exclude special equips (no crushing stone, crush boots, floating boots, or infinite boots.)

Get a save at the entrance to do the file glitches from -> File Select Start to TopFloorA with a second file -> Get a medicine jar at CavernA -> At some point, hopefully after grinding somewhere, copy that file to a third -> Play that up to getting Maxim's Ring, which will involve Copy File Warping to EntranceA and getting the slide and double jump from there (I forget if copy file warping needs another file, if so it can go over the first one) -> Get Moon Physics from the zip at SkelCaveB -> Do the Maxim Ring Transfer Glitch to drop it in the main file -> Then go to CavernB via the fist box puzzle zip to ChapelA or the zip in TreasuryA -> Camera Glitch -> Door warp back from AqueductA to CavernA -> Then...

Then you just need a zip to anywhere in the top-left area, hopefully B, from which you can go to CenterChamberB. But I can't find any. You can get moon physics again but then you're trapped in AqueductB. You can door warp from there and get some zips but they all take you nowhere. You can't activate the warps at ClockTowerA with a single jump either, even with moon physics.

So this would be the one for all the glitches if it can be completed. Getting levels should preferably be done with the Talos glitch, even though that's really extremely difficult with just a cross at low-level.

So with the first box puzzle zip you can align yourself at a pixel so you can slide out of the skeleton silo. I could only get this to work with a double jump, though I think it might be possible without it. From there you can go to SkelCaveB and ClockTowerB. And if you slide out in a short window you can get to an OoB in SkelCaveB, from which there's [i]another[/i] difficult zip you can do to get to the WalkwayB tower OoB. That opens up a few more that I could get: WalkwayB inbounds, ClockTowerA, and with a super jump ChapelB. So there's some more in the RoomA->SkelCaveA->ChapelA sequence that can zip pretty much anywhere.

And that reminds of a no floating boots low% run I was thinking about. Since floating boots breaks the game all by itself, low% could also exclude special equips (no crushing stone, crush boots, floating boots, or infinite boots.)

Get a save at the entrance to do the file glitches from -> File Select Start to TopFloorA with a second file -> Get a medicine jar at CavernA -> At some point, hopefully after grinding somewhere, copy that file to a third -> Play that up to getting Maxim's Ring, which will involve Copy File Warping to EntranceA and getting the slide and double jump from there (I forget if copy file warping needs another file, if so it can go over the first one) -> Get Moon Physics from the zip at SkelCaveB -> Do the Maxim Ring Transfer Glitch to drop it in the main file -> Then go to CavernB via the fist box puzzle zip to ChapelA or the zip in TreasuryA -> Camera Glitch -> Door warp back from AqueductA to CavernA -> Then...

Then you just need a zip to anywhere in the top-left area, hopefully B, from which you can go to CenterChamberB. But I can't find any. You can get moon physics again but then you're trapped in AqueductB. You can door warp from there and get some zips but they all take you nowhere. You can't activate the warps at ClockTowerA with a single jump either, even with moon physics.

So this would be the one for all the glitches if it can be completed. Getting levels should preferably be done with the Talos glitch, even though that's really extremely difficult with just a cross at low-level.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-12-26 11:57:50 pm

ZX497: 2014-12-26 10:34:11 pm

ZX497: 2014-12-26 09:07:32 pm

2014-12-26 08:58:49 pm

Mmm, you actually _can_ activate the warp portal at Clock Tower A with just Moon Physics and nothing else. It requires some very precise damage boosts off the harpies, but it does work all the way up. How would you get Camera Lock, though? And how would you get Moon Physics on that file? I don't see a way out of Aqueduct B, all the zips you can do there at that point just lock up.

Unrelated to anything, I don't think I mentioned this glitch I found like, some months back (reason being, doesn't seem like there's any use for it). If you land with the Floating Boots on the same frame you get hit by something, you'll get into this weird state where you're stuck hovering on ground. You're unable to do anything except move, and attacks don't knock you back. If you go over a ledge, you'll trigger a damage boost and get knocked back. Outside of going over a ledge, or getting hit by one of those big attacks that can knock you off your feet even when grounded, there's no way to cancel this (taking off Floating Boots does nothing).

The most interesting thing I could find was triggering the Death cutscene at Marble Gallery A from the left side with this activated, which caused Juste to get damage boosted during the cutscene... but that's about it. Speaking of that cutscene, if you trigger it from the right side, you'll actually wrong warp during it, since Juste Walks through the doorway on the right with camera locked. It doesn't take you anywhere useful (Marble Gallery A, the same way you came in from).

Mmm, you actually _can_ activate the warp portal at Clock Tower A with just Moon Physics and nothing else. It requires some very precise damage boosts off the harpies, but it does work all the way up. How would you get Camera Lock, though? And how would you get Moon Physics on that file? I don't see a way out of Aqueduct B, all the zips you can do there at that point just lock up.

Unrelated to anything, I don't think I mentioned this glitch I found like, some months back (reason being, doesn't seem like there's any use for it). If you land with the Floating Boots on the same frame you get hit by something, you'll get into this weird state where you're stuck hovering on ground. You're unable to do anything except move, and attacks don't knock you back. If you go over a ledge, you'll trigger a damage boost and get knocked back. Outside of going over a ledge, or getting hit by one of those big attacks that can knock you off your feet even when grounded, there's no way to cancel this (taking off Floating Boots does nothing).

The most interesting thing I could find was triggering the Death cutscene at Marble Gallery A from the left side with this activated, which caused Juste to get damage boosted during the cutscene... but that's about it. Speaking of that cutscene, if you trigger it from the right side, you'll actually wrong warp during it, since Juste Walks through the doorway on the right with camera locked. It doesn't take you anywhere useful (Marble Gallery A, the same way you came in from).

Sopha

Edit history:

Sopha: 2014-12-27 02:08:05 pm

Sopha: 2014-12-27 01:45:30 pm

2014-12-27 12:18:36 pm

Whoa, I tried damage boosting up to the Clock Tower A warp forever but couldn't get it to work. I may have been overestimating the value of getting it though. The warps in Entrance and near Pazuzu are the ones you'd need. The one at Entrance requires an Ice Book and the one near Pazuzu is still impossible.

I... hadn't actually thought about getting the camera lock without anything. A single jump can't easily take you up far enough above the water platform. The only way to skip to Center Chamber B would be the camera lock so it's essential. Luckily I did find a way just now: If you jump into the side of the spike platforms backwards it can damage boost you onto it, and you have to do it twice up to the camera lock platform, giving you just enough of a window to try the zip once. Now going in backwards is the hard part, changing direction in air is frame perfect, but dashing back and jumping is easier. Coupled with the inconsistency of the zip alone, this would be a retryer, but it's possible.

You can get moon physics without anything from the zip at SkelCaveB near the big skull. I don't think you have to zip from off-screen if you have camera lock on. Actually, the Maxim Ring file should probably not use that one since it's really inconsistent. Still, it traps you in AqueductB if you don't have a double jump or ice fist.

A thing I didn't mention: you can damage boost in CavernB up to the keyhole-warp using the big explosion the enemies cast. For whatever reason, that attack damage boosts you higher than usual. It's serious RNG though, and the fist box puzzle zip to ChapelA is probably a better way of going to that area.

So it's still looking down for completing a run with nothing at all... Wait a minute though... I inexplicably have a save in Clock Tower A with moon physics on and just a Lizard Tail. More than getting the warps usable, this could open up a zip to that top-left area. I shall look into this...

EDIT:
Okay, I figured out what I did in that save. I must have got it by some miracle, because it's barely possible and I don't remember having to work that hard for it.

It's still possible with the camera locked, but harder. I don't think you can get the camera lock with moon physics so it would have to be in that order. It goes:
Zip in SkelCaveB to AqueductB to get moon physics -> Go down and door warp to higher up in AqueductB -> Go down to left of the slime generator and zip into the wall on the left from the entrance (it works inconsistently and you have to door warp again if you miss) -> Then you have to slide out in the next room to get higher in AqueductB again, but in order to be close enough to slide out, you have to slide at what seems to be a frame perfect time in the previous room, somehow that moves you forward a little (if you miss, it hardlocks and you'd have to reset back to getting the camera lock again) -> Go down a room and zip from that platform to the right (it'll go off-screen) and that should take you from AqueductB to ClockTowerA -> From there, I know there's at least a zip in ChapelB to TopFloorB, going to the end.

So that's great and all, but it needs a Lizard Tail. If you have one you can just slide through RoomA instead to get to the end. You can alternatively get up to that zip in AqueductB with ice-fist, but it doesn't seem possible without anything. So you can complete the game with one of a relic, a spellbook, or a special equip, but not without anything so far.

EDIT 2:
IT'S POSSIBLE

Instead of sliding out, you need to get out by dashing. Now you can't dash while crouched, but you can dash out of whipping while crouched. Go into the zip with the sequence knife->whip so your whip is out when it needs to be. Then dash right to cancel the whip at the same frame perfect frame as you would with the slide. Then you have to get out of that wall by crouch whipping, dash-canceling right twice all really fast together before you zip up into a hardlock. You'll be off-screen doing this, so you don't even get visual-cues for when the whip is cancelable.

So yeah, technically possible. But in terms of masochistic runs, this one's definitely up there.

Whoa, I tried damage boosting up to the Clock Tower A warp forever but couldn't get it to work. I may have been overestimating the value of getting it though. The warps in Entrance and near Pazuzu are the ones you'd need. The one at Entrance requires an Ice Book and the one near Pazuzu is still impossible.

I... hadn't actually thought about getting the camera lock without anything. A single jump can't easily take you up far enough above the water platform. The only way to skip to Center Chamber B would be the camera lock so it's essential. Luckily I did find a way just now: If you jump into the [i]side[/i] of the spike platforms backwards it can damage boost you onto it, and you have to do it twice up to the camera lock platform, giving you just enough of a window to try the zip once. Now going in backwards is the hard part, changing direction in air is frame perfect, but dashing back and jumping is easier. Coupled with the inconsistency of the zip alone, this would be a retryer, but it's possible.

You can get moon physics without anything from the zip at SkelCaveB near the big skull. I don't think you have to zip from off-screen if you have camera lock on. Actually, the Maxim Ring file should probably not use that one since it's [i]really[/i] inconsistent. Still, it traps you in AqueductB if you don't have a double jump or ice fist.

A thing I didn't mention: you can damage boost in CavernB up to the keyhole-warp using the big explosion the enemies cast. For whatever reason, that attack damage boosts you higher than usual. It's serious RNG though, and the fist box puzzle zip to ChapelA is probably a better way of going to that area.

So it's still looking down for completing a run with nothing at all... Wait a minute though... I inexplicably have a save in Clock Tower A with moon physics on and just a Lizard Tail. More than getting the warps usable, this could open up a zip to that top-left area. I shall look into this...

EDIT:
Okay, I figured out what I did in that save. I must have got it by some miracle, because it's barely possible and I don't remember having to work that hard for it.

It's still possible with the camera locked, but harder. I don't think you can get the camera lock with moon physics so it would have to be in that order. It goes:
Zip in SkelCaveB to AqueductB to get moon physics -> Go down and door warp to higher up in AqueductB -> Go down to left of the slime generator and zip into the wall on the left from the entrance (it works inconsistently and you have to door warp again if you miss) -> Then you have to slide out in the next room to get higher in AqueductB again, but in order to be close enough to slide out, you have to slide at what seems to be a frame perfect time in the previous room, somehow that moves you forward a little (if you miss, it hardlocks and you'd have to reset back to getting the camera lock again) -> Go down a room and zip from that platform to the right (it'll go off-screen) and that should take you from AqueductB to ClockTowerA -> From there, I know there's at least a zip in ChapelB to TopFloorB, going to the end.

So that's great and all, but it needs a Lizard Tail. If you have one you can just slide through RoomA instead to get to the end. You can alternatively get up to that zip in AqueductB with ice-fist, but it doesn't seem possible without anything. So you can complete the game with one of a relic, a spellbook, or a special equip, but not without anything so far.

EDIT 2:
[color="blue"][u][i][b]IT'S POSSIBLE[/b][/i][/u][/color]

Instead of sliding out, you need to get out by dashing. Now you can't dash while crouched, but you [i]can[/i] dash out of whipping while crouched. Go into the zip with the sequence knife->whip so your whip is out when it needs to be. Then dash right to cancel the whip at the same frame perfect frame as you would with the slide. Then you have to get out of that wall by crouch whipping, dash-canceling right [i]twice[/i] all really fast together before you zip up into a hardlock. You'll be off-screen doing this, so you don't even get visual-cues for when the whip is cancelable.

So yeah, technically possible. But in terms of masochistic runs, this one's definitely up there.

ZX497

Edit history:

ZX497: 2014-12-27 10:59:10 pm

2014-12-27 10:40:21 pm

Quote:

I... hadn't actually thought about getting the camera lock without anything. A single jump can't easily take you up far enough above the water platform. The only way to skip to Center Chamber B would be the camera lock so it's essential. Luckily I did find a way just now: If you jump into the side of the spike platforms backwards it can damage boost you onto it, and you have to do it twice up to the camera lock platform, giving you just enough of a window to try the zip once. Now going in backwards is the hard part, changing direction in air is frame perfect, but dashing back and jumping is easier. Coupled with the inconsistency of the zip alone, this would be a retryer, but it's possible..

This still doesn't make sense to me. There's no spike platforms near the ground there, there's only the flying skulls. A single jump doesn't get you up anywhere in that elevator shaft :/

EDIT:

Oh yeah, you can activate the elevator. Derp. I guess this does give you one shot at the camera lock.

[quote]I... hadn't actually thought about getting the camera lock without anything. A single jump can't easily take you up far enough above the water platform. The only way to skip to Center Chamber B would be the camera lock so it's essential. Luckily I did find a way just now: If you jump into the side of the spike platforms backwards it can damage boost you onto it, and you have to do it twice up to the camera lock platform, giving you just enough of a window to try the zip once. Now going in backwards is the hard part, changing direction in air is frame perfect, but dashing back and jumping is easier. Coupled with the inconsistency of the zip alone, this would be a retryer, but it's possible..[/quote]

This still doesn't make sense to me. There's no spike platforms near the ground there, there's only the flying skulls. A single jump doesn't get you up anywhere in that elevator shaft :/

EDIT:

Oh yeah, you can activate the elevator. Derp. I guess this does give you one shot at the camera lock.

ZX497

2015-01-14 08:58:54 am

Hitting the sprite limit and accomplishing something somewhat interesting.

Sopha

2015-02-08 07:31:57 am

New meme category: "No Magic"

No Magic mode is a special game mode in Harmony of Dissonance that is activated by entering "NO MAGIC" as the filename. What it does is remove all spellbooks from the game. Everything is exactly the same, except there are no collectible spellbooks. I think it is a unique and innovative kind of mode that is rarely seen in games, and thus deserves its own category to show off everything about it.

Rules:
- Enter "NO MAGIC" as filename to activate this mode
- Visit all 5 spellbook locations to show that there really are no spellbooks
- Wait around at where each spellbook would be for a few seconds to let the pointlessness of it all sink in
- Timing ends when you kill yourself afterward
- Any use of magic results in immediate disqualification. NO EXCEPTIONS

Tips and Tricks:
- Make sure to use R instead of the space when inputting the filename, otherwise it won't work

Current Route:
- Zip from drawbridge to Clock Tower A and save there
- Start a new game and do the copy file warp to warp the main save back to the beginning (Since you're only doing the leaf glitch once, it might be best to use the screen transition death method or maxim cutscene glitch method instead of going up to the first save to activate it)
- Do the usual route getting the slide and double jump, except also visiting the ice book and fire book locations (The order of these shouldn't matter) (Getting the heart max up near the ice book might be useful) (Maybe also get the axe in marble gallery instead of treasury)
- After the double jump, walk to Top Floor B and go past the Minotaur to where the wind book would be but isn't because this is No Magic mode (Keep the axe and recharge hearts at the Skeleton Cave, Treasury, Cavern crossroads on the way)
- Possibly pick up the holy book in a room to the left and recharge hearts there. Note that the holy book isn't a magic book so it's allowed. Use it to zip from Top Floor B to Skeleton Cave A, then from that same room, do the sequence of zips to get to the summoning book location (The first of those zips is incredibly inconsistent and will kill many a No Magic run) (Not sure if you can use axe or holy water instead of holy book to zip; if so, those might be better) (Bonus points for picking up the wizard's urn near the summoning book, to show that it is literally the urn, since the hard part is over)
- Save warp to Clock Tower A and go through the race to get to the bolt book location, then get an enemy to kill you (If you slow down a little, you can get an arabaki to follow you to the bolt book location and kill you there)

I think this route would be a little faster than having usual start saving at entrance and using the candle-zip. If it ends up being slower then forget everything, since the only possible reason to run this would be that the beginning part is completely different from all the other categories.

New meme category: [size="16"][b]"No Magic"[/b][/size]

No Magic mode is a special game mode in Harmony of Dissonance that is activated by entering "NO MAGIC" as the filename. What it does is remove all spellbooks from the game. Everything is exactly the same, except there are no collectible spellbooks. I think it is a unique and innovative kind of mode that is rarely seen in games, and thus deserves its own category to show off everything about it.

[u][b]Rules:[/b][/u]
- Enter "NO MAGIC" as filename to activate this mode
- Visit all 5 spellbook locations to show that there really are no spellbooks
- Wait around at where each spellbook would be for a few seconds to let the pointlessness of it all sink in
- Timing ends when you kill yourself afterward
- Any use of magic results in immediate disqualification. NO EXCEPTIONS

[u][b]Tips and Tricks:[/b][/u]
- Make sure to use R instead of the space when inputting the filename, otherwise it won't work

[u][b]Current Route:[/b][/u]
- Zip from drawbridge to Clock Tower A and save there
- Start a new game and do the copy file warp to warp the main save back to the beginning (Since you're only doing the leaf glitch once, it might be best to use the screen transition death method or maxim cutscene glitch method instead of going up to the first save to activate it)
- Do the usual route getting the slide and double jump, except also visiting the ice book and fire book locations (The order of these shouldn't matter) (Getting the heart max up near the ice book might be useful) (Maybe also get the axe in marble gallery instead of treasury)
- After the double jump, walk to Top Floor B and go past the Minotaur to where the wind book would be but isn't because this is No Magic mode (Keep the axe and recharge hearts at the Skeleton Cave, Treasury, Cavern crossroads on the way)
- Possibly pick up the holy book in a room to the left and recharge hearts there. Note that the holy book isn't a magic book so it's allowed. Use it to zip from Top Floor B to Skeleton Cave A, then from that same room, do the sequence of zips to get to the summoning book location (The first of those zips is incredibly inconsistent and will kill many a No Magic run) (Not sure if you can use axe or holy water instead of holy book to zip; if so, those might be better) (Bonus points for picking up the wizard's urn near the summoning book, to show that it is literally the urn, since the hard part is over)
- Save warp to Clock Tower A and go through the race to get to the bolt book location, then get an enemy to kill you (If you slow down a little, you can get an arabaki to follow you to the bolt book location and kill you there)

I think this route would be a little faster than having usual start saving at entrance and using the candle-zip. If it ends up being slower then forget everything, since the only possible reason to run this would be that the beginning part is completely different from all the other categories.

Sopha

2015-02-25 04:25:43 am

I guess I'll update here

First, I used a new route to get a good ending in 28:34 with a downright terrible final battle

This route can get sub-27 and I was hoping of getting an actually decent sub-28 time on it before posting, but so many of my attempts died on the candle-zips you don't even know. I honestly think getting sub-25 good ending is humanly possible and I have a lot of crazy route ideas that I want to keep adding until I can get that. The first of these involves moon-physics for extra zips, but after running this it's starting to seem easy there's only one candle-zip.

Then I got a sub-7 hard boss rush. I don't know where these are tracked, but I'm pretty sure this is both the best Juste and best overall boss rush time

All Furniture Route
Finally I made an unoptimized best ending (all furniture) route as a simple extension of one of my other route ideas to use as a baseline before I optimize it (that is, add bullshit tas strats everywhere so I can't even complete it). It surprisingly turned out to be fairly concise and simple for the ~35 items you have to collect, keeping down candle-zips and door-warps to a minimum while still being fast. I'm not even sure if cutscene glitching is faster than simply collecting Drac's relics, since they're mostly close to the route. The route below will get Drac's relics because that's more interesting. I didn't actually run this yet but I think it should work...

I used these as reference for furniture locations:
furniture
map

I grouped the pieces of furniture. Some of these can be split up if the route is optimized but for now...

A- Chair, Side Table, Stuffed Stag (Treasury/Skel Cave B)
B- Sage Statue, Silver Dishes, Strange Mirror (Cavern B)
C- Gold Trinket, Silver Trinket (Walkway A)
D- Antique Table, Lucky Cat (Clock Tower A)
E- Tall Clock, Raccoon Figure (Clock Tower B)
F- King-Size Bed, Rocking Chair, Old Radio (Walkway B)
G- Castle Drawing, Chandelier, Closet, Teacup, Teapot (Top Floor/Treasury A)
H- Phonograph, Bookshelf (Skel Cave A)
I- Pretty Vase, Ancient Urn (Entrance B)
J- Silk Curtain, Candleholder, Smiling Statue (Gallery/Wailing Way B)
K- Candlestick, Wine Glass (Top Floor A/B)
Ungrouped: Hero Statue (Chapel B) and Wizard's Urn (Skel Cave B near summoning tome)

Now the actual route:

Part 1:
1- Do the usual route to get double jump except pick up the furniture in group A and enter and exit Cavern once. You need the sign to pop up so that you can do a zip later. -> [Save warp back to Entrance.]
2- Activate Entrance warp, get Hint Card 3 and Platinum Tip -> Fight Giant Bat to open drawbridge (can get fire book if you want) -> Get Drac's Ring -> [Save Warp to Entrance A]
3- Do the candle zip to Skel Cave A while activating Top Floor warp -> Save at Skel Cave A -> Get floodgate key -> Box zip to summoning tome and wizard's urn -> [Save Warp to Skel Cave A]
(Alternatively, can use ZX's strategy to activate the top floor warp and get summoning tome together, but that takes a second candle zip.)
X- (Can cutscene glitch and save warp to Skel Cave A here if not getting drac relics)
4- Box-zip to Chapel A while activating Cavern warp. (this takes sliding to the left off the screen around where the drumstick is; can't do this if it's the first time visiting cavern) -> Grab Drac's Eyeball -> zip sequence into Aqueduct B+moon physics (by way of walkway A tower) -> Lower crushing tip in ClockTowerB -> zip in room left of the save to the right to ClockTowerA -> Save at ClockA and reset to disable moon physics

Part 2:
5- Activate ClockTowerA warp -> [warp to EntranceB] -> Get Lure Key and a whole of money bags. 25 bags = $10,000$$$ should be enough for 40 potions and one of the best armor sets. Could get by with less -> [warp to TopFloorA] -> Beat Pazuzu (This pazuzu fight is going to be pretty hard since you're vastly underleveled and will die in one hit. To make it easier you could get the guardian armor set first and possibly get crushing tip and bible in ClockTowerB early here also.)
-> Buy bunch of potions and equipment at shop below Pazuzu -> Go down into treasury getting group G also activating center warp and getting Moon Armor. Can get wind book here too. -> [warp from TreasuryA to ClockTowerB]
6- Save at ClockTowerB -> Get Crushing Tip -> group F and Drac's Heart in walkway -> Beat Shadow -> [Save warp]
7- Group E by smacking the guy to open the wall -> [Save warp]
8- [Warp to ClockTowerA] -> Save at ClockTowerA -> Get group D and Drac's Tooth (bolt book is here too) -> [Save warp]
9- Group C (can get some medicine jars) -> Maxim's Ring -> [Save warp]

Part 3:
10- [Warp to CavernA] -> Save at CavernA -> Open floodgates -> [Save warp] (Also can get level ups on Talos here)
11- Fight Death and get the wing -> [Save warp]
12- [Warp to CavernB] -> Get group B ending with mirror. (Into mirror is a 30 second autoscroller. You might be able to skip it by super jumping with medicine jar at the left edge. Problem is the way to get Drac's Nail involves not skipping it) -> go back to autoscroller and zip into Aqueduct A-> get Drac's Nail -> [Save warp to cavern A]
13- [Warp to EntranceB] -> Save at Entrance B -> Get group J (can take detour to grind at jp bonepillars) -> get Crush Boots -> [Save warp]
14- Go down to Drac's Rib and get group I -> Save at Basement B -> Warp to TopFloorB and then TopFloorA getting group K -> Open Maxim's door from the left in castle A -> zip from ChapelA to SkelCaveA (by way of minotaur) -> get group H -> [Save warp to BasementB]
15- [Warp to TopFloorB] -> get Hero Statue -> (Save warp and warp to CenterB / Zip sequence to FurnitureRoomB) -> Destroy the entire castle with all the furniture you collected

Since this route goes pretty much all around the castle, it can be used with minor edits to fulfill getting any combination of all furniture/spellbooks/relics/bosses and it's not a bad route for any of those. Maybe there will be more significant differences between them if they're optimized but that's partly why I don't think there needs to be the other categories.

One question- Should you visit the furniture room after getting all furniture? I'm not sure if it's required for the best ending, but it would be a shame to skip it if it isn't. Maybe I can just go to it after beating the game instead...

I guess I'll update here

First, I used a new route to get a good ending in 28:34 with a downright terrible final battle
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpsSJ9Z0TO4[/url]

This route can get sub-27 and I was hoping of getting an actually decent sub-28 time on it before posting, but so many of my attempts died on the candle-zips you don't even know. I honestly think getting sub-25 good ending is humanly possible and I have a lot of crazy route ideas that I want to keep adding until I can get that. The first of these involves moon-physics for extra zips, but after running this it's starting to seem easy there's only one candle-zip.

Then I got a sub-7 hard boss rush. I don't know where these are tracked, but I'm pretty sure this is both the best Juste and best overall boss rush time
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BhOKGIW6Gk[/url]

[b][size="18"]All Furniture Route[/size][/b]
Finally I made an unoptimized best ending (all furniture) route as a simple extension of one of my other route ideas to use as a baseline before I optimize it (that is, add bullshit tas strats everywhere so I can't even complete it). It surprisingly turned out to be fairly concise and simple for the ~35 items you have to collect, keeping down candle-zips and door-warps to a minimum while still being fast. I'm not even sure if cutscene glitching is faster than simply collecting Drac's relics, since they're mostly close to the route. The route below will get Drac's relics because that's more interesting. I didn't actually run this yet but I think it should work...

I used these as reference for furniture locations:
[url=http://www.castlevaniacrypt.com/games/hod/furniture.htm]furniture[/url]
[url=http://www.castlevaniacrypt.com/games/hod/images/maps/castlemap.gif]map[/url]

I grouped the pieces of furniture. Some of these can be split up if the route is optimized but for now...
[hidden]A- Chair, Side Table, Stuffed Stag (Treasury/Skel Cave B)
B- Sage Statue, Silver Dishes, Strange Mirror (Cavern B)
C- Gold Trinket, Silver Trinket (Walkway A)
D- Antique Table, Lucky Cat (Clock Tower A)
E- Tall Clock, Raccoon Figure (Clock Tower B)
F- King-Size Bed, Rocking Chair, Old Radio (Walkway B)
G- Castle Drawing, Chandelier, Closet, Teacup, Teapot (Top Floor/Treasury A)
H- Phonograph, Bookshelf (Skel Cave A)
I- Pretty Vase, Ancient Urn (Entrance B)
J- Silk Curtain, Candleholder, Smiling Statue (Gallery/Wailing Way B)
K- Candlestick, Wine Glass (Top Floor A/B)
Ungrouped: Hero Statue (Chapel B) and Wizard's Urn (Skel Cave B near summoning tome)[/hidden]

[u][b]Now the actual route:[/b][/u]

[u]Part 1:[/u]
[b]1[/b]- Do the usual route to get double jump except pick up the furniture in group A and [i]enter and exit Cavern once.[/i] You need the sign to pop up so that you can do a zip later. -> [Save warp back to Entrance.]
[b]2[/b]- Activate Entrance warp, get Hint Card 3 and Platinum Tip -> Fight Giant Bat to open drawbridge (can get fire book if you want) -> Get Drac's Ring -> [Save Warp to Entrance A]
[b]3[/b]- Do the candle zip to Skel Cave A while activating Top Floor warp -> Save at Skel Cave A -> Get floodgate key -> Box zip to summoning tome and wizard's urn -> [Save Warp to Skel Cave A]
(Alternatively, can use ZX's strategy to activate the top floor warp and get summoning tome together, but that takes a second candle zip.)
[b]X[/b]- (Can cutscene glitch and save warp to Skel Cave A here if not getting drac relics)
[b]4[/b]- Box-zip to Chapel A while activating Cavern warp. (this takes sliding to the left off the screen around where the drumstick is; can't do this if it's the first time visiting cavern) -> Grab Drac's Eyeball -> zip sequence into Aqueduct B+moon physics (by way of walkway A tower) -> Lower crushing tip in ClockTowerB -> zip in room left of the save to the right to ClockTowerA -> Save at ClockA and reset to disable moon physics

[u]Part 2:[/u]
[b]5[/b]- Activate ClockTowerA warp -> [warp to EntranceB] -> Get Lure Key and a whole of money bags. 25 bags = $10,000$$$ should be enough for 40 potions and one of the best armor sets. Could get by with less -> [warp to TopFloorA] -> Beat Pazuzu (This pazuzu fight is going to be pretty hard since you're vastly underleveled and will die in one hit. To make it easier you could get the guardian armor set first and possibly get crushing tip and bible in ClockTowerB early here also.)
-> Buy bunch of potions and equipment at shop below Pazuzu -> Go down into treasury getting group G also activating center warp and getting Moon Armor. Can get wind book here too. -> [warp from TreasuryA to ClockTowerB]
[b]6[/b]- Save at ClockTowerB -> Get Crushing Tip -> group F and Drac's Heart in walkway -> Beat Shadow -> [Save warp]
[b]7[/b]- Group E by smacking the guy to open the wall -> [Save warp]
[b]8[/b]- [Warp to ClockTowerA] -> Save at ClockTowerA -> Get group D and Drac's Tooth (bolt book is here too) -> [Save warp]
[b]9[/b]- Group C (can get some medicine jars) -> Maxim's Ring -> [Save warp]

[u]Part 3:[/u]
[b]10[/b]- [Warp to CavernA] -> Save at CavernA -> Open floodgates -> [Save warp] (Also can get level ups on Talos here)
[b]11[/b]- Fight Death and get the wing -> [Save warp]
[b]12[/b]- [Warp to CavernB] -> Get group B ending with mirror. (Into mirror is a 30 second autoscroller. You might be able to skip it by super jumping with medicine jar at the left edge. Problem is the way to get Drac's Nail involves not skipping it) -> go back to autoscroller and zip into Aqueduct A-> get Drac's Nail -> [Save warp to cavern A]
[b]13[/b]- [Warp to EntranceB] -> Save at Entrance B -> Get group J (can take detour to grind at jp bonepillars) -> get Crush Boots -> [Save warp]
[b]14[/b]- Go down to Drac's Rib and get group I -> Save at Basement B -> Warp to TopFloorB and then TopFloorA getting group K -> Open Maxim's door from the left in castle A -> zip from ChapelA to SkelCaveA (by way of minotaur) -> get group H -> [Save warp to BasementB]
[b]15[/b]- [Warp to TopFloorB] -> get Hero Statue -> (Save warp and warp to CenterB / Zip sequence to FurnitureRoomB) -> Destroy the entire castle with all the furniture you collected

Since this route goes pretty much all around the castle, it can be used with minor edits to fulfill getting any combination of all furniture/spellbooks/relics/bosses and it's not a bad route for any of those. Maybe there will be more significant differences between them if they're optimized but that's partly why I don't think there needs to be the other categories.

[b]One question-[/b] Should you visit the furniture room after getting all furniture? I'm not sure if it's required for the best ending, but it would be a shame to skip it if it isn't. Maybe I can just go to it after beating the game instead...

charleon

Edit history:

charleon: 2015-02-25 04:53:27 am

2015-02-25 04:51:42 am

What is a man?

Holy crap that Juste bossrush is amazing! I think i got a low 9 minute record myself (couldn't really figure out damageglitching on talos and a couple of otehr things). And that godly Death RNG to top it off? amazing! The only thing that visibly could have been better i guess is dracula phase 1? i don't recall exactly but i think i've 1 cycled him.

Sopha

2015-02-25 06:29:47 am

Drac phase 1 didn't go too well because of that platform there, but looking over it I made a bunch of small mistakes on most of the bosses. Really only Bat, Armor, Legion1, Talos, and Cyclops went as well as I could hope for.

Is that low 9 minute time for Juste or Maxim? Do you know what Maxim's record is? Since there's no real tracking it would be good to know. I assume this is Juste's and the time on your twitch page is Simon's.

charleon

Edit history:

charleon: 2015-02-25 08:48:55 am

charleon: 2015-02-25 07:45:03 am

2015-02-25 07:43:51 am

What is a man?

for Juste. I don't think anyone has done a Maxim Boss rush utilizing the damage-glitch, because I was the first player to actually implement the damage-glitch into the all bosses route. And I ahven't touched Maxim Boss rush at all. So Maxim Bossrush is pretty much up for grabs as well. I'll talk to Gttuna to see if we could get new cathegories on cvspeedruns for the bossrushes as well.
And yes, your assumption is correct. I should add that my Simon time doesn't utilize the damageglitch at all (it's done using the holy water subweapon). At the time we didn't know that simon could actually damageglitch

Edit: leaderboards up on cvspeedruns, already submitted your run for juste

Sopha

2015-02-26 07:16:41 am

Oh that was fast, thanks. Now it feels kind of weird since there's no boss rush leaderboards for the other games, but whatever. I'm just glad I get another first place Smiley

Sopha

2015-03-19 06:19:29 am

Here's sub-25 good ending now:

I thought it would be harder to achieve and I'd barely manage to eke it out but this route has so much potential, it could go as low as sub-23! So I'm not that happy with this run, especially since the zip after minotaur was supposed to take me to right after legion, and I lost a whole minute from that alone.

I'm not sure I even want to take it all the way to sub-23 though, because just about each and every zip has the potential to ruin everything if a sub-pixel decides to screw me over. It's horrible. The single biggest thing that could bring the time down now would be some sort of sub-pixel manipulation, and try as I might, I couldn't get anything to work. I just have to hope the sub-pixels deem me worthy.

Sopha

2015-06-09 12:28:49 am

The sub-pixels have smiled upon me today

I never thought I would take it this far. This run is just stupid good. Crazier still is it can go even lower to sub-20.

But I have some vague notes for a possibly even faster route that saves time by cutting out the cutscene glitch and getting the early griffin wing+moon physics combo for fast zips. I don't have any strategy for beating Maxim and I'm going to move on to other categories, but here are the notes

Same to SkelCaveA -> get crushing stone, savewarp -> summoning tome, savewarp -> go to Death, (summon+crushing to fight) -> MoonWing -> [up-zip to AquaA from CaveB, (right-side)up-zip to ChapelB, zip to WalkwayB; ~1min] -> Same from WalkwayB to Maxim's Ring -> [up-zip from WalkwayA tower to ClockA ball race, up-zip on left part, to Drac; ~2min, 2 1-frames] OR [up-zip from leftmost WalkwayA to ChapelB ~up-zip~> usualHard; ~1min, 3-4 1-frames] -> Win

It might take some trying out super jump zips to figure out what any of this is. I'm not really sure anymore. I am sure however that it's at least 5 frame-perfect inputs and a suicide mission at the very end. Some additional safety stuff may be required.

The sub-pixels have smiled upon me today
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miz0GF9DJ3k[/url]

I never thought I would take it this far. This run is just stupid good. Crazier still is it can go even lower to sub-20.

But I have some vague notes for a possibly [i]even faster route[/i] that saves time by cutting out the cutscene glitch and getting the early griffin wing+moon physics combo for fast zips. I don't have any strategy for beating Maxim and I'm going to move on to other categories, but here are the notes

[hidden]
Same to SkelCaveA -> get crushing stone, savewarp -> summoning tome, savewarp -> go to Death, (summon+crushing to fight) -> MoonWing -> [up-zip to AquaA from CaveB, (right-side)up-zip to ChapelB, zip to WalkwayB; ~1min] -> Same from WalkwayB to Maxim's Ring -> [up-zip from WalkwayA tower to ClockA ball race, up-zip on left part, to Drac; ~2min, 2 1-frames] OR [up-zip from leftmost WalkwayA to ChapelB ~up-zip~> usualHard; ~1min, 3-4 1-frames] -> Win

It might take some trying out super jump zips to figure out what any of this is. I'm not really sure anymore. I am sure however that it's at least 5 frame-perfect inputs and a suicide mission at the very end. Some additional safety stuff may be required.
[/hidden]

charleon

Edit history:

charleon: 2015-07-20 04:04:25 am

charleon: 2015-07-20 01:46:50 am

charleon: 2015-07-20 01:46:47 am

charleon: 2015-07-20 01:46:46 am

2015-07-20 01:46:20 am

What is a man?

Maxim Any% once again beaten to a pulp. Sopha took the WR almost a month ago, and by scrummaging through TAS-vids of the past, I've managed to really optimize the route and get a perfectly flawless run with it, enjoy! (32.73), it only took ~4500 attempts :D. Worthy to note is that this run is only roughly 2.73~~ seconds slower than the TAS, which uses different timing methods. It goes without saying though that if the TAS didn't use a super to kill drac it could improve the RTA time by a few seconds

Sir VG

2015-07-20 05:29:29 am

Fucking Weeaboo

I can't convey in words how great that run is. So I'll let this gif do it for me.

Sopha

Edit history:

Sopha: 2015-07-20 03:53:15 pm

Sopha: 2015-07-20 03:52:36 pm

Sopha: 2015-07-20 03:50:09 pm

2015-07-20 03:44:19 pm

Holy shit, gg.

Possible time saves
-I almost feel bad mentioning this now, but you can actually save ~~a whole second~~ .5 seconds by a smoother transition from clock tower straight into the room where you fall down. You have to delay releasing right for a moment after pressing A, but it's frame perfect or close to it for it to work, and you have to press A on a smaller range of pixels. If you look at my old video, I actually did get that timing correctly but then mashed A anyway as a safety measure.

-When you transition from Aqueduct to ClockTower, you're pressing A+Right. You only have to press Right for it to work and pressing A slows you down by about .2 seconds.

-I think dashing left instead of walking for spacing the second shuriken throw can technically be faster, but it requires much more precise inputs and probably more crit-luck since you aren't up in his face as early compared to the shuriken. It's probably not worth it since it'll only save around .15 seconds.

-Not sure about this one, but I think I was able to transition from a little lower down in the clock tower sometimes. If you want to perfect this, you'll probably have to have to test every frame there until you find the earliest one. Tongue

An explanation of how Maxim's roll works in the wall
I'll explain this in detail here...
To my knowledge, the game can move you in 3 ways vertically when you're stuck in a wall. These are: zipping up quickly, zipping down more slowly (speed varies), and not zipping.

It zips you up when you have no base vertical speed (vertical speed based on your action) or if you're moving down. And you don't zip at all if you're moving up fast enough. The most interesting case is if you have tiny upward base speed. Then the game zips you down, and the speed is determined by the action or your base speed or something. I think this is due to how it sort of sticks you along the ceiling if you tried rolling with Maxim against it or jump-whipping into it with Juste. I'm not sure if it depends on the exact action you're doing to be able to down-zip, but it does work with Maxim's roll.

After pressing Up+A, Maxim's roll is active as long as you keep holding Up. Since it goes first up fast, then up slowly, and then down, you have access to all 3 zipping types! Every time you press A in a wall with Maxim, he will first pause in the wall for his upward arc, then move down for a frame or two for the top of his arc, then move up. By mashing A Maxim is guaranteed to carry out his arc up to at least the down-zip part, so you can use that to move down a lot more in a wall.

He can move horizontally too. Every time you release Left or Right, you will move in the opposite direction. I'm not sure what pressing does if anything, but thinking only about the releasing has worked for me so far. In any case, I know that if you mash a direction, you will end up moving in the opposite direction.
---

So the way to go from ClockTower straight to the final room quickly is to, while holding Up+Right, first press A to start the arc, then release Right at the top of the arc so he moves left to the room right above Dracula and then immediately after that he moves down into the final room. This would require both a precise A press and a precise Right release.

The newest TAS route I considered humanly impossible since it requires mashing Left inhumanly fast to move right while in a corner wall at SkyWalkway. And there's no way to keep Maxim rolling absolutely still vertically without getting stuck, at best he moves up and down a little bit. And there's frame-perfect stuff and subpixel stuff before and after that too. I never managed to get it even once at a slowed down speed, but I do think it is technically possible with extreme mashing ability and basically perfect inputs.

So excluding that, I would estimate the absolute human limit to be 31.0-32.0 seconds.

Good job again though. The optimization you put in was the hardest and biggest time-saver left. I'm not sure if you want to take this all the way, but you probably shouldn't if you value your health. Wink

Holy shit, gg.

[b][u]Possible time saves[/u][/b]
-I almost feel bad mentioning this now, but you can actually save [s][i]a whole second[/i][/s] .5 seconds by a smoother transition from clock tower straight into the room where you fall down. You have to delay releasing right for a moment after pressing A, but it's frame perfect or close to it for it to work, and you have to press A on a smaller range of pixels. If you look at my old video, I actually did get that timing correctly but then mashed A anyway as a safety measure.

-When you transition from Aqueduct to ClockTower, you're pressing A+Right. You only have to press Right for it to work and pressing A slows you down by about .2 seconds.

-I think dashing left instead of walking for spacing the second shuriken throw can technically be faster, but it requires much more precise inputs and probably more crit-luck since you aren't up in his face as early compared to the shuriken. It's probably not worth it since it'll only save around .15 seconds.

-Not sure about this one, but I think I was able to transition from a little lower down in the clock tower sometimes. If you want to perfect this, you'll probably have to have to test every frame there until you find the earliest one. :P

[b][u]An explanation of how Maxim's roll works in the wall[/u][/b]
I'll explain this in detail here...
To my knowledge, the game can move you in 3 ways vertically when you're stuck in a wall. These are: zipping up quickly, zipping down more slowly (speed varies), and not zipping.

It zips you up when you have no base vertical speed (vertical speed based on your action) or if you're moving down. And you don't zip at all if you're moving up fast enough. The most interesting case is if you have tiny upward base speed. Then the game zips you down, and the speed is determined by the action or your base speed or something. I think this is due to how it sort of sticks you along the ceiling if you tried rolling with Maxim against it or jump-whipping into it with Juste. I'm not sure if it depends on the exact action you're doing to be able to down-zip, but it does work with Maxim's roll.

After pressing Up+A, Maxim's roll is active as long as you keep holding Up. Since it goes first up fast, then up slowly, and then down, you have access to all 3 zipping types! Every time you press A in a wall with Maxim, he will first pause in the wall for his upward arc, then move down for a frame or two for the top of his arc, then move up. By mashing A Maxim is guaranteed to carry out his arc up to at least the down-zip part, so you can use that to move down a lot more in a wall.

He can move horizontally too. Every time you [i]release[/i] Left or Right, you will move in the opposite direction. I'm not sure what pressing does if anything, but thinking only about the releasing has worked for me so far. In any case, I know that if you mash a direction, you will end up moving in the opposite direction.
---

So the way to go from ClockTower straight to the final room quickly is to, while holding Up+Right, first press A to start the arc, then release Right at the top of the arc so he moves left to the room right above Dracula and then immediately after that he moves down into the final room. This would require both a precise A press [i]and[/i] a precise Right release.

The newest TAS route I considered humanly impossible since it requires mashing Left inhumanly fast to move right while in a corner wall at SkyWalkway. And there's no way to keep Maxim rolling absolutely still vertically without getting stuck, at best he moves up and down a little bit. And there's frame-perfect stuff and subpixel stuff before and after that too. I never managed to get it even once at a slowed down speed, but I do think it is [i]technically[/i] possible with extreme mashing ability and basically perfect inputs.

So excluding that, I would estimate the absolute human limit to be 31.0-32.0 seconds.

Good job again though. The optimization you put in was the hardest and biggest time-saver left. I'm not sure if you want to take this all the way, but you probably shouldn't if you value your health. ;)

charleon

2015-07-20 09:33:20 pm

What is a man?

Thanks Sopha, everything you type is absolute truth, and I kinda came to the same conclusion with the newest TAS-route, even if I've succeeded to get the correct zip twice (but never the correct followup once i mashed left in the wall, I don't really know what to do there), and the times i actually did get it I have no idea what I did differently. I actually got a 34.64 the day before (without the optimization), but it had a far too slow pre-dracula-chamberzip which lost about 0.5 seconds.
I have gotten the almost perfect dracula chamberzip a couple of times, but as you say, the timing is really something. And as you say the A + Right input transition from Aqueduct to ClockTower is my own version of making that zip more consistent, sacrificing a wee bit of time to have more success with it (that let's me react to his vertical position in that screen and I can time the input to get to the correct screen). That being said I got , IMO the second fastest Dracula chamberadvance and even nailed the great RNG and two-shuriken dracula kill, my final prerequisite to be DONE with Maxim.

a couple of final things to mention to explain things:

While the screen goes black from the screen where the dracula door can be seen, the only thing you need to do is release all inputs, then you will get into dracula's chamber everytime.

I found a setup to get from the second screen (the screen after the minihop after candle whiplaunch) to the third screen faster, and it involved spacejumping right to touch the wall very early, then hold left when starting to descend from it. the timesave would be 0.15~ at most though

After timing the shorthop to the right, in the screen transition, you need to hold left for a few frames, otherwise you will zip into the wall and into another screen, and you need to release left pretty soon after, otherwise you will transition to the left without spacejump = RIP.

Actually there is a 5-10~ second(?) timesave for maxim all bosses that could be done, which is candlewhiplaunching off the same candle, but to the LEFT. You will zip upwards and into the bat boss door.

I agree that 31 - 32 might be the absolute rock bottom, but seeing as I only went for sub 34 and got a sub 33, I'm done! If anyone want to spend 10k attempts to improve this run they are welcome, but the run as it is is absolutely aestethically pleasing and I'll leave it at that for now :), thanks for breathing life into Any% again Sopha, I had fun doing it <3

Thanks Sopha, everything you type is absolute truth, and I kinda came to the same conclusion with the newest TAS-route, even if I've succeeded to get the correct zip twice (but never the correct followup once i mashed left in the wall, I don't really know what to do there), and the times i actually did get it I have no idea what I did differently. I actually got a 34.64 the day before (without the optimization), but it had a far too slow pre-dracula-chamberzip which lost about 0.5 seconds.
I have gotten the almost perfect dracula chamberzip a couple of times, but as you say, the timing is really something. And as you say the A + Right input transition from Aqueduct to ClockTower is my own version of making that zip more consistent, sacrificing a wee bit of time to have more success with it (that let's me react to his vertical position in that screen and I can time the input to get to the correct screen). That being said I got , IMO the second fastest Dracula chamberadvance and even nailed the great RNG and two-shuriken dracula kill, my final prerequisite to be DONE with Maxim.

a couple of final things to mention  to explain things:

While the screen goes black from the screen where the dracula door can be seen, the only thing you need to do is release all inputs, then you will get into dracula's chamber everytime.

I found a setup to get from the second screen (the screen after the minihop after candle whiplaunch) to the third screen faster, and it involved spacejumping right to touch the wall very early, then hold left when starting to descend from it. the timesave would be 0.15~ at most though

After timing the shorthop to the right, in the screen transition, you need to hold left for a few frames, otherwise you will zip into the wall and into another screen, and you need to release left pretty soon after, otherwise you will transition to the left without spacejump = RIP.

Actually there is a 5-10~ second(?) timesave for maxim all bosses that could be done, which is candlewhiplaunching off the same candle, but to the LEFT. You will zip upwards and into the bat boss door.

I agree that 31 - 32 might be the absolute rock bottom, but seeing as I only went for sub 34 and got a sub 33, I'm done! If anyone want to spend 10k attempts to improve this run they are welcome, but the run as it is is absolutely aestethically pleasing and I'll leave it at that for now :), thanks for breathing life into Any% again Sopha, I had fun doing it <3