Contact(DS) Routing/Testing(FIRST FULL RUN COMPLETE!)

Edit history:

EnkerBlues: 2014-02-14 02:07:53 pm

2014-02-14 02:06:11 pm

YouTube video for your convenience =P.

Also, here is some data on the Big Tourist Drop: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak4jQ-0zRV5pdElyWXh1SWNRejY4N1BrWjNXN1FReVE&usp=sharing

Highlights from the Data:
-I killed the guy 110 times so I could break this up into 10 groups of 11 kills(since 11 is how many times we would have to kill him)
Percent Drop: 16/100(14.5%)
Number of Groups with 0 money drops: 1
Number of Groups with 1 money drop: 4
Number of Groups with 2 money drops: 4
Number of Groups with 3 or more money drops: 1
Based on this, it seems there is a 90% we'll get SOMETHING rather than nothing, sometimes even 2 drops.

-Lowest Money Amount: 253(3 Potions)
-Largest Money Amount: 476(5 Potions)
-Average Money Amount: 370(4 Potions)
Based on this, it seems we'll get at LEAST 3 Potions out of the guy(this is assuming he drops, and drops a minimum of 1).

I may do another 110 and see if the data remains somewhat the same. So far it seems grinding EP from Big Tourist may be extremely beneficial.

[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONg4XbTzDzc[/URL] YouTube video for your convenience =P.

Also, here is some data on the Big Tourist Drop: [URL]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak4jQ-0zRV5pdElyWXh1SWNRejY4N1BrWjNXN1FReVE&usp=sharing[/URL]

Highlights from the Data:
-I killed the guy 110 times so I could break this up into 10 groups of 11 kills(since 11 is how many times we would have to kill him)
Percent Drop: 16/100(14.5%)
Number of Groups with 0 money drops: 1
Number of Groups with 1 money drop: 4
Number of Groups with 2 money drops: 4
Number of Groups with 3 or more money drops: 1
Based on this, it seems there is a 90% we'll get SOMETHING rather than nothing, sometimes even 2 drops.

-Lowest Money Amount: 253(3 Potions)
-Largest Money Amount: 476(5 Potions)
-Average Money Amount: 370(4 Potions)
Based on this, it seems we'll get at LEAST 3 Potions out of the guy(this is assuming he drops, and drops a minimum of 1).

I may do another 110 and see if the data remains somewhat the same. So far it seems grinding EP from Big Tourist may be extremely beneficial.

EnkerBlues

2014-02-14 08:30:55 pm

Welp, I attempted the first full run aaaaaaaaaaaaaand.... found a new softlock in Pyramid >.>. This completely ended the run. I don't know exactly what happened, but to text mash I use Y and A...well it seems this was too fast, or maybe my using "Y" caused the game to think I was trying to call up Skill Menu rather than start the scene? The scene started...but after a little bit, the text box went blank and the guy went through all the steps to the cutscene up until the part where the bubble comes over his head to speak. There was no way to get out of this, no menu would pop up, no movement was allowed. Needless to say, this was a very anti-climactic end to a run I was really excited about.

Side note: Big Tourist dropped ~850 gold for me this time. I barely had to grind. Unfortunately I made a ton of mistakes, got bad monsters spawns, got stuck twice by monsters and had to use too many food resources.

Monsyphon

Edit history:

Monsyphon: 2014-02-16 09:25:56 am

Monsyphon: 2014-02-16 09:25:41 am

2014-02-16 09:24:39 am

Really ManoxMano

This is some incredible stuff Enker. Applause to you for doing all this testing!

Did a count on the items that we currently get on the route -->Ft. Eagle and it's close to 700-800. Depends greatly on the RNG from the coins. Despite this if we get 1 gold drop with around avg 750 gold from the chests thats 10-12 potions. Risky but not bad.

And that's a really wierd glitch, never happened to me. I'm gonna gamble on the fact that the archeologist was following you that the game acted up. I actually tap the screen with my stylus for text skipping so that's never happened to me./ Maybe if I tap my character.....

EnkerBlues

2014-02-16 12:34:31 pm

Thank you, wasn't as bad as I thought to kill the dude that many times. Actually had some fun figuring all that out.

So, how far out of the way do you have to go to get all those items necessary? It sounds like a little bit of a safer strat, but if you have to go out of your way/get extra keys to open up boxes it could end up costing a bit of time. Time to test, I guess!

I may just start using "A", I don't know if it'd be fair if I double tapped my trackpad really fast to scroll text =P. I really hope to do a console run of this game sometime, my brother in UT has my DS and I will be moving down there in August. Then there's the issue of being broke and not having a DS Capture Card =P

Monsyphon

2014-02-16 03:47:31 pm

Really ManoxMano

Since the fat man appears pretty early, you can be selective about which chests you pick up. Got 3 big coins and now you have 1200? Skip the After Golem gold chest, pick the Mallet and you're good to go. Got only one big coin? Grab all the chests you can, grind a bit on the soldier. The only chest you really have to get is the Deserted Hidden chest

Yeah I really wanna get a one of those premade DS's since I suck with hardware lol but I should hunt for a silver DS..

EnkerBlues

Edit history:

EnkerBlues: 2014-02-17 08:34:11 pm

EnkerBlues: 2014-02-17 08:16:45 pm

2014-02-17 08:07:36 pm

Holy crap, I'm so happy right now. Incredibly happy. I just found 2 scene skips that save a total of ~4 minutes and 15 seconds.
I'll have video's of these up tomorrow or so.

I was playing around with that soft lock in the pyramid, tried to reproduce it(which I did) and see if there was a way I could use it to my benefit. Turns out you can skip that whole scene.
There are a couple ways to do this:
-Completely ditch the archaeologist after he finds the crack in the wall. You don't need him at all to advance
-If he ended up keeping up with you somehow, as soon as you enter to room with the scene, WALK IMMEDIATELY OUT. This cancels the scene and sends the archaeologist back to Aegis.
-The third method is if you failed to do the previous too, but has a risk of the softlock I discovered earlier. When you first enter the area with scene, start mashing A, this will bring up the dialogue of "Don't go ahead of me, I'll get scared and go back to the entrace" etc. Keep mashing A and holding DOWN after this scene and more dialogue will come up, but you will be able to move freely around the room! Just go to the next area and continue the run. There may be a chance where you get sucked in to Terry's designated spot during the scene, but you can just override that and move along!

Once I found this was possible, I got curious about another scene in which something weird happened to me. It is the Torture Scene in Akomujo castle.
After the scene with Nadia and Bull, Bull drags you in to the torture room. As soon as the screen goes black, HIT THE MENU BUTTON AS FAST AS YOU CAN. This will bring the menu up. Exit the menu, and hold down on the dpad and Terry will exit the room. You will end up in the room where Nadia and Bull kidnap you, but you have full control of Terry! Just carry on!

I also accidentally did a double KO on myself while fighting Wolf Leader. Basically, the death dialogue with the professor played on the top, but on the bottom, the Wolf Leader gave me the outfit. Once WL dialogue ended, I ended up back on the ship...where Terry laid in bed and never got up! This was a one in a million chance, but hey, it could happen. I wonder if I had used the Menu if I would have been able to potion or something.

Holy crap, I'm so happy right now. Incredibly happy. I just found 2 scene skips that save a total of ~4 minutes and 15 seconds.
I'll have video's of these up tomorrow or so.

I was playing around with that soft lock in the pyramid, tried to reproduce it(which I did) and see if there was a way I could use it to my benefit. Turns out you can skip that whole scene.
There are a couple ways to do this:
-Completely ditch the archaeologist after he finds the crack in the wall. You don't need him at all to advance
-If he ended up keeping up with you somehow, as soon as you enter to room with the scene, WALK IMMEDIATELY OUT. This cancels the scene and sends the archaeologist back to Aegis.
-The third method is if you failed to do the previous too, but has a risk of the softlock I discovered earlier. When you first enter the area with scene, start mashing A, this will bring up the dialogue of "Don't go ahead of me, I'll get scared and go back to the entrace" etc. Keep mashing A and holding DOWN after this scene and more dialogue will come up, but you will be able to move freely around the room! Just go to the next area and continue the run. There may be a chance where you get sucked in to Terry's designated spot during the scene, but you can just override that and move along!

Once I found this was possible, I got curious about another scene in which something weird happened to me. It is the Torture Scene in Akomujo castle.
After the scene with Nadia and Bull, Bull drags you in to the torture room. As soon as the screen goes black, HIT THE MENU BUTTON AS FAST AS YOU CAN. This will bring the menu up. Exit the menu, and hold down on the dpad and Terry will exit the room. You will end up in the room where Nadia and Bull kidnap you, but you have full control of Terry! Just carry on!

I also accidentally did a double KO on myself while fighting Wolf Leader. Basically, the death dialogue with the professor played on the top, but on the bottom, the Wolf Leader gave me the outfit. Once WL dialogue ended, I ended up back on the ship...where Terry laid in bed and never got up! This was a one in a million chance, but hey, it could happen. I wonder if I had used the Menu if I would have been able to potion or something.
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DY_QSkJ45Q[/URL]

Monsyphon

Edit history:

Monsyphon: 2014-02-17 08:24:53 pm

2014-02-17 08:24:47 pm

Really ManoxMano

This is some amazing information Enker. I'll definitely be practicing these strats as I run the game. This shit is incredible.

The screen goes dark for a long time during the intro cutscene for the Log Cabin...wonder if that can be skipped...will be testing that

And the Double KO is really something!!

EnkerBlues

2014-02-17 08:26:53 pm

Ya, Ft. Eagle is my next area for finding skips. I really dislike that place, haha. It requires the most intense playing, lots of things have to go right.

Monsyphon

2014-02-17 08:42:45 pm

Really ManoxMano

So far nothing, I've been trying the Y skip so far

EnkerBlues

Edit history:

EnkerBlues: 2014-02-17 09:00:18 pm

EnkerBlues: 2014-02-17 08:53:59 pm

2014-02-17 08:52:56 pm

I have to tell you man, I was giddy like a little school girl when I found the Torture Skip. I've never found a skip/glitch before. My original goal with this game was to get it under 2 hours. After messing around and playing it seemed like that would be impossible...but if we can find more skips, then this could be under 2 hours. I would really like to test with Habara as well, since the scene at the end takes quite a bit.

I forgot to add something to the Torture Skip
-When done perfectly: Terry appears as normal, the game pauses for about 2 seconds and you can continue on your way.
-When done a little late: A flash of Terry in his underwear will show up on the screen, but then you exit the room. Terry will be INVISIBLE. I tested a couple things with the invisibility: A)Monsters can still see you. B)If you go to battle mode, Terry will be unable to move, and monsters will have a field day on you. It is still possible to Ship Decal at this point to go back. C.) If you are hit by a monster, you freeze, but can ship decal. D). Invisibility will disappear when you reach the Mint scene.
I thought this could make the skip risky, but a simple opening of the menu and eating something will reverse invisibility.
When done too late(you'd have to be REALLY slow to do this): A flash of Terry will show, the game will get confused a bit, then Nadia will pop up on the balcony out of nowhere and the scene will continue as normal.

Currently routing stuff live for a bit. Going through more of Aegis. It's a no-go on skipping the scene where Terry just goes nuts for 45 seconds and hits a tree.

I have to tell you man, I was giddy like a little school girl when I found the Torture Skip. I've never found a skip/glitch before. My original goal with this game was to get it under 2 hours. After messing around and playing it seemed like that would be impossible...but if we can find more skips, then this could be under 2 hours. I would really like to test with Habara as well, since the scene at the end takes quite a bit.

I forgot to add something to the Torture Skip
-When done perfectly: Terry appears as normal, the game pauses for about 2 seconds and you can continue on your way.
-When done a little late: A flash of Terry in his underwear will show up on the screen, but then you exit the room. Terry will be INVISIBLE. I tested a couple things with the invisibility: A)Monsters can still see you. B)If you go to battle mode, Terry will be unable to move, and monsters will have a field day on you. It is still possible to Ship Decal at this point to go back. C.) If you are hit by a monster, you freeze, but can ship decal. D). Invisibility will disappear when you reach the Mint scene.
I thought this could make the skip risky, but a simple opening of the menu and eating something will reverse invisibility. 
When done too late(you'd have to be REALLY slow to do this): A flash of Terry will show, the game will get confused a bit, then Nadia will pop up on the balcony out of nowhere and the scene will continue as normal.

Currently routing stuff live for a bit. Going through more of Aegis. It's a no-go on skipping the scene where Terry just goes nuts for 45 seconds and hits a tree.

sketchfile

2014-02-18 06:54:47 am

Some skips found eh? That's really cool! Gratz on finding some!

EnkerBlues

2014-02-23 12:12:58 pm

Man I'm pretty bummed. I was set to do my full run this week, but scheduling conflicts/Twitch Plays Pokemon occurred so I was unable to do a run. I plan on doing one this Monday or Wednesday though, but I can't guarantee it.

Monsyphon

2014-02-23 02:50:57 pm

Really ManoxMano

No problem dude I get emails everytime you go live anyways

EnkerBlues

2014-02-25 10:07:24 pm

Late game practice. I had bad routing through Akumujo and got stuck on a lot of things in Habara.

EnkerBlues

2014-03-05 06:40:27 am

It's finally been done. My full run of the game is complete. Clocked in at 2:28:16.9. I will break down this run at a later date, so feel free to dissect it yourself. There were A LOT of mistakes in the second half of the game, and a lot of unforseen things made this run a little scary at the end.

Monsyphon

2014-03-05 02:03:42 pm

Really ManoxMano

Great job! Did you get stuck between those soldiers on Ft. Eagle, before the Saber?

sketchfile

2014-03-05 02:49:35 pm

Nice to see a full run! Can't wait to see the breakdown.

EnkerBlues

2014-03-07 08:02:39 am

Let the breakdown begin!

Deserted Isle:
Nothing really of note here...I just skip all the tropical fruit now. A little more risky but it has yet to really backfire on me.

Caldoaxa
I get a first try super bug, but it took forever to get 30 STR. Got a bunch of misses and it seemed to do a lot of the Armor spell.

Fat Tourist gave me a lousy money drop, but thankfully gave me 2 Chicken Bites, which I can sell for 125c a piece. So I get around 534 from him. I figured that'd still require me to get the Mage's Rod and the Gold Chest after defeating Stone Giant. Fat Tourist also HIT ME! This requires a trip to the bath because the spider in the Dropping Fence area always hits me.

Got good monsters spawns, didn't get stuck and was able to take on Stone Giant relatively easily. Pretty happy with this area in general.

Fort Eagle

The escort of gramps and the dog went...eh. Not terrible, not great. At least they didn't get despawn or stuck too bad. I'll take it.

Log Cabin Brawl went pretty awry. The cows ended up blocking the Red Soldier, making me have to deal with 1 or 2 first. Then, the Red Soldier got caught on the corner of the stairs so I couldn't hit him. Not a bad fight per se, but got a little sketchy.

The walk to the Fort and the Wolf Leader fight went great.

I SELL THE MALLET FOR SOME STUPID REASON! This is so dumb I can barely stand it. I need the mallet for the room at the pyramid that requires a Heavy Weapon. This will force me to take my chances on the Merchant at Aegis dropping a bash-type weapon. It is most likely to happen, but I wouldn't depend on it.

(To be continued...)

Let the breakdown begin!

[u]Deserted Isle[/u]: 
Nothing really of note here...I just skip all the tropical fruit now. A little more risky but it has yet to really backfire on me.

[u]Caldoaxa[/u]
I get a first try super bug, but it took forever to get 30 STR. Got a bunch of misses and it seemed to do a lot of the Armor spell.

Fat Tourist gave me a lousy money drop, but thankfully gave me 2 Chicken Bites, which I can sell for 125c a piece. So I get around 534 from him. I figured that'd still require me to get the Mage's Rod and the Gold Chest after defeating Stone Giant. Fat Tourist also HIT ME! This requires a trip to the bath because the spider in the Dropping Fence area always hits me.

Got good monsters spawns, didn't get stuck and was able to take on Stone Giant relatively easily. Pretty happy with this area in general.

[u]Fort Eagle[/u]

The escort of gramps and the dog went...eh. Not terrible, not great. At least they didn't get despawn or stuck too bad. I'll take it.

Log Cabin Brawl went pretty awry. The cows ended up blocking the Red Soldier, making me have to deal with 1 or 2 first. Then, the Red Soldier got caught on the corner of the stairs so I couldn't hit him. Not a bad fight per se, but got a little sketchy.

The walk to the Fort and the Wolf Leader fight went great.

I SELL THE MALLET FOR SOME STUPID REASON! This is so dumb I can barely stand it. I need the mallet for the room at the pyramid that requires a Heavy Weapon. This will force me to take my chances on the Merchant at Aegis dropping a bash-type weapon. It is most likely to happen, but I wouldn't depend on it.

(To be continued...)

Monsyphon

2014-04-17 02:51:17 am

Really ManoxMano

Ive been trying to find more skips because of the inspiration I found from the torture skip, and since I got back into this game recently. I have found two other spots that are similar to the torture scene in the following way: that Terry moves (independently) into another sector of the map, and that the decal icon on the top right appears for a brief second. These sections are:
The beginning of FT, Eagle, where Terry meets the old man and they walk to the next sector on the left
After beating Habara, Terry walks into Professor's room
So far, I've found zilch. I hope to find something soon

toomanylettersaaa

2014-05-04 11:25:02 pm

oh man, i just dug this game up and started a new play through after 6+ years. what a neat coincidence to find a completed run!

toomanylettersaaa

2014-05-05 01:28:59 pm

btw, every time you travel to a different island, your stickers are automatically refilled

EnkerBlues

2014-06-07 02:06:37 pm

Oh wow, decided to check this today and glad to see some new posts! I'm planning on doing some more runs soon. This semester kicked my butt so I didn't get a chance to get many more runs in, then I moved on to Wild ARMs Any%, but I want to give this run a bit more love since it feels partly like my speedrunning baby. Gonna derust and get back to it!

EnkerBlues

2014-07-28 03:20:39 pm

So it looks like I'm getting jipped by using emulator when it comes to the Balloon Decal. I did a progressive run while I was on vacation, and when using the actual DS, the balloon decal deals 600-700 damage, whereas on the emulator I'm only able to get about 350 from it! This could dramatically change the last battle sequence of the game, since you could use the balloon to completely wipe out Lester/Bull, or you could use mochi in combination with the sun/moon to get rid of lester and take out bull, and save the 700 damage for the Dragon.

I'm considering using the latter method, since the dragon is harder to hit and has a lot more HP. Killing Lester is priority since he attacks fast and hits HARD, whereas Bull doesn't hit fast at all, but simply has a lot of HP.

Since Dual Flash misses the dragon so much, I'm suggesting this for the final battle: Grind out the first half of the Dragon fight using solely regular attacks, using Mochi and the Sun/Moon Decal to kill off Lester, then using regular attacks on Bull. Use the Balloon Decal on Dragon, and then use up Dual Flash, finish off with regualr attacks. If Sun/Moon gives you "Moon", then use Dual Flash on Lester rather than the Dragon. Another method would be to save up all Dual Flash for Mint to finish her off fast, since she can take quite a bit and doesn't have a lot of HP.

So it looks like I'm getting jipped by using emulator when it comes to the Balloon Decal. I did a progressive run while I was on vacation, and when using the actual DS, the balloon decal deals 600-700 damage, whereas on the emulator I'm only able to get about 350 from it! This could dramatically change the last battle sequence of the game, since you could use the balloon to completely wipe out Lester/Bull, or you could use mochi in combination with the sun/moon to get rid of lester and take out bull, and save the 700 damage for the Dragon.

I'm considering using the latter method, since the dragon is harder to hit and has a lot more HP. Killing Lester is priority since he attacks fast and hits HARD, whereas Bull doesn't hit fast at all, but simply has a lot of HP.

Since Dual Flash misses the dragon so much, I'm suggesting this for the final battle: Grind out the first half of the Dragon fight using solely regular attacks, using Mochi and the Sun/Moon Decal to kill off Lester, then using regular attacks on Bull. Use the Balloon Decal on Dragon, and then use up Dual Flash, finish off with regualr attacks. If Sun/Moon gives you "Moon", then use Dual Flash on Lester rather than the Dragon. Another method would be to save up all Dual Flash for Mint to finish her off fast, since she can take quite a bit and doesn't have a lot of HP.

Monsyphon

2014-08-20 10:12:05 pm

Really ManoxMano

I think using resources on the Dragon is a must, he's the hardest guy to get hits and depends heavily on rng.

With Lester/Bull, and Mint, you can attack them pretty much non-stop if they aren't hitting you.
Barely play the end because I always like doing start-finish runs, but I never got hit by Mint by keeping her in the corner and having the right rhythm.
I'm thinking of buying DS recording equipment so there can finally be a real run of this game

Nice to see you again Enker

psi_sig

Edit history:

psi_sig: 2016-04-06 12:19:00 am

2016-04-06 12:18:24 am

Contact(DS), HLD, MMX

incase anyone stumbles upon this and not the http://www.speedrun.com/Contact page
new strats and notes
Notes : http://pastebin.com/2f0TFTbP
Condor Pass:

The Run Around:

Current Best 2:15:44