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#Casual
Just to let you know, I'm still watching this thread, even though I can't contribute.  In the fall, I'll start running this as well, so I'm glad for everything you find!
I've always had an interest in running this. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I like to think of myself as an excellent strategist. I've been playing through the game semi-casually, and been creating strategies along the way. I know you're not down with the NG+ idea, but that's what I've been working on. Sadly, though, I still don't quite have enough information to properly plan something.

I've learned quite a lot by reading this thread today, and now want to help. I need every last bit of information collected to make a proper plan for an NG and NG+ route. So far, however, this is what I've come up with, having just read the first two pages here.

1. The game goes pretty normal at first. Stay alive and do every last thing you can to make money. Open chests, break boxes, and pray that you get full Steve food. Now matter how you look at it, Steve is your ace in this race. Kill every enemy possible with Steve and no one else and upgrade him as soon as you can.
2. Monica is your biggest nightmare. No matter what you must avoid using her at all costs. You NEED Steve, and you NEED money. Continue as you did before, collecting anything you can get your dungeon crawling little hands on, and keep breaking those rock boxes and pray for fuel.
3. Once you acquire the Barrel Cannon, you're safe... For now. Spend that extra time on the floors to clear out the monsters. You need A LOT of experience and money, and in the long run, it'll make things faster. This will also help with Erik who needs time before he makes new bombs.
4. Hold off on your people recruitment until you hit the final floor of Chapter 2. By that point, you'll have a decision to make. If you got a chestnut in your escapades, and you have a good sum of cash or items, skip Polly. If not, recruit her. Since you happen to be in the area, recruit everyone you can, except for Parn and Clair. When all that is taken care of, go about your business as usual. Make Gordon happy, and if need be, make Polly happy too and go shopping in the future for Donny's coins and Parn's paint.
5. By about this point, you should be sitting nicely atop your lovely Steve, plowing your way through everyone. That's good. That's very good. Hopefully you had enough money after your inventory purge to build yourself a better Energy Pack. If not, keep praying for fuel, or visit Cedric often. And hey, during one of those visits, upgrade your sweet ride with some of those awesome EXP points you've been hording! Remember, too, that even switching between Max and Steve to preserve his longevity is still faster than Steve dropping dead or traversing the land himself until you can make that sexy propeller leg. And again, it may sound like filthy casual speak, but a small bit of time to improve your ride is a great investment to the overall time.
6. Go as far out of your way as you need to for those stat increasing items. Remember that it's better to be able to take multiple hits than to have to stop and heal during a boss fight. Especially if that boss hits you just one or two times more than expected. The extra 10-20 seconds it took will more than make up for the death of one of your characters, and it'll help save on menu time and item consumption for when you need the money those specific items could bring.
7. I trust it's common knowledge by now, but the theme here is an immense setup for a clean sweep later on. It might take you the first few chapters, but come Chapter 4, when you can invent the Turkey, you'll be sailing through the game at a remarkable speed. I mention the Turkey, as it becomes your god send. Make a bunch, sell a bunch, and then build. Money is no longer an issue for maybe a 5 minute investment. And, with that being the case, you are free to invent anything you want when it becomes available.
8. Why did I not see anyone mention Pau? Pau, believe it or not, saves more time than absolutely anything else by revealing your map, telling you which chests not to open, which monsters have the Gate Key, and most importantly, makes it so you know when there's a locked door in the dungeon that needs a key from a chest. The amount of time saved by your extensive setup for Steve, and having Pau with you, more than makes up for the time spent preparing, since you will no longer have to guess which of the enemies has that pesky Gate Key.
9. You all have done a lot of work in planning this game, which is why I'm skipping some details. You all know the drill, so why bother again? But let's go a little more in depth here. Since you will be plowing through the levels, easy peazy lemon squeezy, you'll need to do something about those pesky kids and their final boss fight. I suggest what someone had done earlier and buy Max his Poison Wrench, or if you can come up with something better, have at it. However, I suggest inventing the Ruler Sword, and not buying the Claymore. It hits one more time in the combo, has a faster swing, and also comes with ABS up, so you can add some stats to it a little easier if need be.
10. Chapter 5 is as far as I've gotten myself, but reading what I've been told, the rest of the game is really simple. Chapter 7 apparently doesn't need EVERY last piece of georama, but that'll take some real practice. And now comes the last boss fight. If you went and got a good chunk of stat increasers, good. That makes it easy. If not, I wish you luck. With the Ruler Sword, I believe you should hit Dark Element faster, and you should still be doing some damage with Max too. If you took the time to upgrade the sword a little, good! That should help too. If not, best wishes. And by this point, I feel like it was settled that Barrel Cannon 4 was the Steve weapon of choice, so I suggest that too.

That's what I've come up with based of just the vague knowledge I have. Summarized... Spend the first couple chapters working on Steve, hoping for luck, and praying you get the right amount of money and materials. Even if it takes you an hour or so, it'll pay off in the end when you're running around annihilating everything in your path. You guys have to remember that even though you're speed running, proper setup is absolutely key in saving the ultimate amount of time. I'll learn all of your findings and work on a really good strategy to optimize the routing. This has become my new subject of interest, so expect to finally see a run after 3 years of this topic being around. My estimation, sub 5 hours optimized. I'll be running this soon.
And update.

I decided to try a quick test run using my scavenger idea, and learned I still have a bit to relearn about the game. My overall time from start to the beginning of CH3 was 2:03. I did make a few mistakes here and there, as I am slightly out of practice with the start of the game. I accidentally tried using a post instead of the pipe for the energy pack. Cost about a minute. Didn't realize I'd picked up a poison apple, which cost about 30 seconds of travel. Forgot Gorgon needed a Holy Water, which cost a couple minutes. Didn't happen to switch Erik out of the party after bombs, so I didn't get the proper amount of Gilda I needed. Steve died once, which cost around 20 seconds. I didn't have all the right georama elements for what I needed, which cost about 2 minutes to go get some and get back to town and build it. I also don't know the individual level gate key holders, so I went and killed many more enemies than I needed, but that ended up helping Steve. I also have a plan for later in the game involving a synth sphere from the first wrench. At some point it just needs to be leveled up to 5, and then given all the attack possible, and then the Poison Wrench needs to be upgraded enough to take the sphere. That should help with the final boss, or Griffon in chapter 6. You can use it on Monica if you want, since she's faster, but that's personal preference.

All in all, this game can easily be done in less than 6 hours. Once you acquire Pau, your map becomes available, you know which enemy has the gate key, you can make Turkeys, and it becomes much easier to manage. Most of your time will go into the setup, as I mentioned earlier. Ridepod fuel isn't as necessary as I originally believed, as it is much faster just to run and switch until you have the propeller, and by then you should have an upgraded energy pack, so you should have little trouble at all dealing with everything.

On some side notes, I found Cedric to be quite useful when Erik is recharging, because Steve is your best friend and he helps Steve grow faster. Borneo is also a good substitute because he can give you georama from every enemy, if you're doing what I believe is the overall faster way, anyway. I'm still doing research on party people until Pau, who will never ever leave ever. Anyway, I'll keep you posted. And to everyone who's been here before me, who did all this awesome research I've used in my planning, thank you! We'll do it guys! It's been years in the making!
Another update.

So my original plan was not quite as consistent as I had originally believed. Changes have been made. Also, I have been hard at work creating a spreadsheet file with all of the information for Dungeons and Georama. In it, I have each floor of the dungeon, which enemy drops the gate key, which geostones you need to collect, and for areas with branching paths (not Star paths) I have the floor name listed as well. In addition to that, I have listed all the georama elements you need in exact quantities, how much it'll cost, and all of the necessary items you need to build. I don't have a script written yet to follow the order of things you need to do, but by the end of my spreadsheet I'll have enough data. I'm also working on figuring out a good plan for what weapons to use when it comes to the final battle. I'm also going to do a specific test to see what would be overall faster to gain Gilda (Turkey Vs. Lure), since you will only need to farm for money once. I see the general idea is that the Lure is faster than the Turkey, but I still believe it'd be less random and overall take less time than going through the Finny Frenzy. The Turkey takes many more button inputs and a lot more concentration to do quickly, but in the end, I feel the time it takes to farm maybe 15-20k Gilda would be a bit less than training a fish, recruiting someone, inventing the rod, winning the race, and then doing all the shenanigans to get the money. I'll be testing that today. And as of the end of Chapter 4, you can make the Turkey, which is only a short bit off from the opening of the Finny Frenzy. With that in mind, an alternative Steve weapon is indeed in order. By the end of Chapter 4, Steve should be cruising around with the Propeller leg, and have an upgraded energy pack, and with luck an upgraded body too.

All in all, I'm sure my research is getting everyone nowhere at all, but I'd say give me a break since it's barely been a week since I started. Anywho, we'll get this going soon enough. Once I've learned what I need, expect a much more planned out route. Until then, I hope everyone else is still hard at work!
Games!
This game is one of my "I'll get to it eventually" projects, so I unfortunately have nothing to add, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I also love spreadsheets, so hope you make all this research available later Smiley

Good work so far.
Thank you, sir. The spreadsheet helps greatly. I'm taking a quick break from my practice and test runs, and at the start of Chapter 4 I'm sitting at 3:17. I did make a few errors, and got some pretty bad luck, but my scavenger idea has proven reliable in 3/4 tests to have enough gilda to get the gold paint, both coins, all the georama, and the himarra badge all together. It's pretty much decided that if you don't get a chestnut from a chest, your run is dead. Using the spreadsheet I'm making, my time was considerably dropped by at least 20 minutes, with a few cases where a couple minutes could be saved.

Anyway, I only have the spreadsheet up to Vennecio done. I still need Chapters 5-7 (Maybe 8). I also still need to add the specific inventions to the list. Chapter 4 is the big one though. After Chapter 4 money isn't too big of an issue. I'm getting off track. I'll try to make the PDF a downloadable file, but I've never used an online file sharing thing before. In any case, I'll finish the spreadsheet soon, so everyone running the game doesn't have to scour the net like I've been doing. It's also a little messy, as I'm unfamiliar with spreadsheet software, so when I finish gathering data, I'll organize it and make it a bit more reader friendly.
Well I just finished my test run of Chapters 1-4 and finished with 4:59. My data was incorrect, and there were a few things I didn't know. I also forgot that Claire needs a pot torch, so I have to update my data to accommodate the new learnings. I still say not bad for my first run of those chapters in a straight segment. Tomorrow will be spent doing more research and updating the files. On the bright side, though, I know that there's plenty of time to be saved. I know I lost at least 40 minutes altogether, between a forgotten geostone, Claire not being home when I went to recruit her (had to come back), learning you can only make a certain number of mailboxes, and have them placed, and learning you can only have 4 iron houses in Veneccio, I had to spend a little time improvising to complete Veniccio 100%, since the Nova Cannon seemed to be a thing that was decided to be gotten. However, I think I can just go an invent BC2 and not waste as much time and energy. After seeing myself say that, I could have invented that back in Chapter 3... Ugh. And BC3 in Chapter 4. Oh how much faster things would have gone. Okay. I need to add the section to my files. I'll return in a few days when I have my data completed.

Side note. I am sorry I'm talking so much. I'm just hoping to help everyone as much as I can. And breathe some life into the topic.
Edit history:
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-08 12:02:18 am
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-07 11:50:59 pm
Yeah no chestnut is game over. I seem to have good luck with it though. Maybe 90% of runs. Another run ender is not getting a Carrot drop from a Sand Moler for Pau. It doesn't prevent you from progressing, but it's not worth continuing without him.

I have posted this before, but I have a rough route/guide for the whole game. My plan is to focus on Steve all the way to the last few levels, then nuke the final bosses with Supernova.

There are three major hurdles in the game for using just Steve: Gaspard I, Griffon I, and the Final Boss rush. Gaspard is a problem because you are forced to fight him with Monica. I kill him with Improved bombs from Erik. Griffon I is resistant to Ridepod attacks and I am setting up for Supernova anyway, so I kill him with the Steal gun. To craft the Steal Gun I play Spehda for a coin in chapter 5. Throughout chapter 7 I am using the ABS from gatekeeper kills and nearby mobs to level up 2 Soul Breakers and a Heavy Hammer to synth to the Steal gun. With the stats on those, all it needs is the Moonstone from the final Georama to have the stats to upgrade to Supernova, which devastates the final bosses.

I will probably never have time to run this seriously, but am more than happy to help plan and test strategies. If there are any problems with the route let me know.

Route:
CHAPTER 1

-Settings > Text Speed Fast, Time Fast, Map Mode 3
-3rd cutscene after battle can't be skipped until you can see Cedric
-Get Wrench
-Circus nonsense, spin attack 2 Clowns at a time

-1-1 Rat x 6
-1-2 Rat x 3
-1-3 Balloon x 4
-Linda

-Belt, Window+Wooden Box. Fountain, Pipe, Milk Can, Book
-Morton, Buy
(0) 20 Scrap of Metal
(0) 2 Thick Hide
(0) 2 Huck of Copper
-Invent (Don't make yet)
    Energy Pack (Belt,Milk,Pipe)
    Aquarium (Fountain, Window, Wooden Box)
-Get money from Cedric
-Make Pack

-Linda
-Start collecting Ridepod Fuel (For Chap  5-6 bosses and MFP)
-1-4 Vanguard x 4
-1-5 Vanguard x 3 (Kill Nightmares for Silver Ball)
-Halloween
-Picture of Firehouse
-Flotsam

CHAPTER 2

-Repair Robot Parts
-Get Bombs (6b)
-Sindain
-Firbits

-2-1 Himarra x 8, Picture of Himarra
-2-2 Tore x 5 (Must have 600EXP)
-2-3 Tortoise x 4 (Kill with whatever bombs are on hand)

-Great Fish Swamp
-Talk to Firbits
-Catch 2 Fish (Get some extra bait after first catch, one must be a Prisclean)
-Utan
-Poison Apple if needed
-Catch Mardan
-Give fish
-Go back to Firbits
-Leave dungeon, Repair Robot Parts, Barrel Cannon
-Move to Sindain
-Carpenterian

-Move to Swamp
-Utan
-Exit

-2-4 Pumpkin Head x 6, Geostone
-2-5 Tore x 5, Geostone
-2-6 Pixie x 6, Geostone
-2-7 Gyumo x 5. Geostone
-2-8 Hunter Fox x 6, Geostone
-2-9 Hunter Fox x 4

-Leave Dungeon, cutscene warp to Sindain
-Pickup everything but Firbit House, break everything but the Trees
-Picture of Tree
-Move to Station
-To Conda, Buy
    (40)15 Rolling Log
    (1)2 Sturdy Cloth
    (1)1 Glass Material
    12 Sticky Clay
    (1)3 Sugar Cane 
    6 Forest Dew
    (1)9 Scrap of Metal
    2 Silver Ball
    1 Hunk of Copper
    3 Light Element
    2 Wind Element

-Move to Palm Brinks
-Buy a Holy Water from Bruno if needed
-Recruit Gordon, Claire (if night), Ferdinand, and Adel
-Picture of Phone
-Invent and Build Bell Trigger (Fountain, Phone, Tree)
-Recruit Gerald
-If day, move to Palm Brinks Station, Exit, and recruit Claire

Move to Sindain
-Build and Place
    3 Pot
    2 Wooden House
    1 Eye Tree 1
    1 Eye Tree 2
    1 Nose Tree
    15 River
-Adel and Gordon Reside in Sindain
-Future
-Past to Future again
-Past to Future a 3rd time
-Coins, Himarra Badge, and Gold Paint
-Upgrades

-Move to Woods
-1-1 Sundrop, Escape
-Rainbow Falls
-Scene on top of the Flower is skippable after camera focuses on Monica
-Rainbow Butterfly
-Future
-Take Train
-Repair Robot Parts
-Get Bombs
-Move to Sindain

Pickup and Break Everything but the Firbit House, the Pots, and Trees, take the Trees and the Pots

-To Lin’s House
-Move to Palm Brinks
-Upgrades
-Recruit Donny and get the Upgrade
-Exit Dungeon
-Start the Polly quest and Talk to Morton
-Recruit Parn
-Get Purple Paint in Parn’s House
-Check Morton’s House
-Recruit Bruno
    Picture of Candle
-Recruit Dr. Dell
-To Lin’s House

CHAPTER 3
-Save Destruction Crystals(up to 10) and Power Crystals(2), especially after Chapter 3

-Move To Starlight Canyon

-3-1 Masked Tribesman x 8, Geostone (Use Cannonball Arm if possible)
-3-2 Elfas x 3, Geostone
-3-3 Dog Statue x 4
-3-4 Thunder Gemron x 4 (Gamefaqs Lies!)

-Exit
-Repair Robot Parts at Sindain, Cedric as 3rd Party Member
-Move to Palm Brinks and Buy Seal-Breaking Scroll(2 if Possible)
-Recruit Polly
    Now would be a good time restock on food/powder if needed

-Move to Starlight Canyon
-3-5 Elfas x 11 Take Moon Exit
-3-8 Elfas x 6
-3-9 Fire Gemron x 2, Geostone
-3-10 Thunder Gemron x 2
-3-11 Elfas x 2
-3-12 Dragon x 1

-Buy Scroll if needed
-Return to 3-5 Break Seal, Take the Sun Exit
-3-6 Elfas x 4
-3-7 Fire Gemron x 4, Geostone

-Exit Dungeon
-Move to Sindain Station
-Repair Robot Parts
-To Conda, Buy
16 Sturdy Rock
(2)1 Sturdy Cloth
(2)5 Glass Material
4 Sticky Clay
(3)10 Forest Dew
5 Scrap of Metal
1 Holy Element
(4)9 Earth Element
(1)1 Fire Element
-To Balance Valley
-Make
13 Thorn Tree
1 Brick House
1 Chinese Stand
1 Star Lamp
1 Church
-8 Trees, Church and Bruno at farthest Platform
-Everything else +Parn and Ferdinand on closest

-Future
-Lao Chao
-3 Bridge (all but Star Items one) and Middle Upgrades
-To Starlight Canyon
-Barga’s Valley(Can't skip Spheda explanation HIT NO!)
-Fail to impress Monica with less than amazing Spheda skillz
-White Windflower
-Future
-Miracle Dumplings
-If low on Crystals and money, go get bombs from Erik
-Save Lin’s Life
-Future
-Chest in front of Star Items(If you don't have 10 Destruction Crystals, 4 Hunter Crystals, and 2 Power Crystals now BUY THEM)
-Starglass
-To Starlight Canyon

-Phantom Memo Eater
-3-13 Wind Element x 5
-3-14 Dragon x 3
-3-15 Holy Gemron x 2
-3-16 Dragon x 5

-Lighthouse
-Cant Skip the Top of the Lighthouse Scene before the battle until the camera changes
-Takes 8 Bombs to kill Gaspard

-Future
-Can't skip second cutscene until you see Moonflower Palace
-Take Train
-To Balance Valley
-Buy 20 Red, Blue, and Green Paint (If cant afford, move Parn into the purple house when building Luna Lab for the rest)
-Pick up the Pots and Break the Stand, the House, the church, and the Lamp

-To Veniccio Station
-Repair Robot Parts
-Cedric as 3rd Party Member

CHAPTER 4
-A Carrot is needed from a Sand Moler
-4 Hunter Crystals and 700 Ridepod EXP are needed for the end of Chapter 4

-Pau
-To Ocean’s Roar Cave
-4-1 Geron x 4, Geostone
-4-2 Geron x 4
-4-3 Beach Rat x 4, Geostone
-4-4 Beach Rat x 4
-4-5 Geron x 6, Geostone
-4-6 Sand Moler x 8
-4-7 Auntie Medusa x 4
-4-8 Shiva x 2
-Cave of Ancient Murals

-Move to Veniccio Station
Repair Robot Parts, Upgrade Core
-To Conda, Buy
    (23)44 Rolling Log
    4 Bundle of Hay
    (1)9 Sturdy Cloth
    (2)2 Sticky Clay
    (4)20 Glass Material
    (2)86 Scraps of Metal
    (3)5 Light Element
    (11)4 Water Element
    (2)7 Fire Element
    1 Wind Element
-If extra money go buy a Seal Breaking Scroll
-Make
8 Pier
4 Iron House
1 Pot Torch
2 Shop Boat
-Build Veniccio(Build it so everything but the purple house would be picked up by getting rid of 2 Piers)
-Move Claire, Parn (if still need Paint), and Donny in

-Future
-Get 3 Upgrades on way to Red Lab
-Invent Aquarium and put extra Chapter 2 Fish in
-Electric Worm
-Picture of Energy Pipe in Red Lab

-Puppet Shingala

-Move to Ocean’s Roar Cave
-4-9 Zappy x 2 (GAMEFAQS!! DX)
-4-10 Sand Moler x 4
-If Needed get a Scroll
-4-11 Neo Vanguard x 4 Geostone
-4-12 Sand Moler x 4
-4-13 Neo Vanguard x 4
-4-14 Zappy x 6 Geostone
Exit Dungeon

-Build and Place Windmill and 8 Luna Stone Light
-Future
-Shell Talkie, Upgrade in back of Blue Lab

-Get Medicine
-Heal Shingala
-Dr. Jaming

-Future
-Center Platform Upgrades at 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11 o’clock
-Ma
-Take Train
-Can't skip scene where the train is arriving

CHAPTER 5

-Repair Robot Parts.
-To Heim Rada
-To Veniccio
-Pickup Iron House and Pot Piers, also pickup Windmill
-Recruit Pau
    Add to party
-To Heim Rada
-Picture of Geyser

-To Mount Gundor
-5-1 Rifle Wolf x 6, Geostone
-Exit and buy a Scroll
-5-2 Steam Tore x 2, Geostone
-5-3 Ice Gundron x 4
-5-4 Rifle Wolf x 6
-5-5 Steam Tore x 2, Geostone, Clear floor and win Spheda for a Bandit Coin
-5-6 Griffon Soldier x 6
-5-7 Griffon Soldier x 6
-5-8 Steam Tore x 2, Geostone
-5-9 Griffon Soldier x 6
-5-10 Rifle Wolf x 2
-5-11 Steam Tore x 4
-Exit Dungeon

-To Heim Rada Stop
-To Conda, Buy
    52 Sticky Clay
    (3)45 Scrap of Metal
    10 Silver Ball
    4 Hunk of Copper
    (3)7 Light Element
    4 Thunder Element
    3 Fire Elements
 
-Move to Heim Rada
-Make
    13 Pot
    3 Iron Stand
    1 Iron Chimney 2
    1 Generator
    1 Great Crane
    1 Power Arm
-Picture of Power Arm

-Future
-Picture of Work Crane
-Picture of Jump Gate(Transmission Device)
-Invent, Build, and Equip Steal Gun(Book, Fountain, Work Crane)
-To East Gate
-2 Upgrades Just past Lift
-Second Floor, Time Bomb
-2 Nearby Upgrades
-Picture of Drum Can In G-Parts
-First Floor
-To Time Gate

-To Mount Gundor Peak
-Break the Fire Squall
-Break the Flying Battleship
-Lower Exit

-5-12 Chimera x 2
-5-13 Lava Runner x 6
-5-14 Chimera x 4
-5-15 Bone Lord x 4
-5-16 Red Dragon x 6
Exit Dungeon

-To Cedric’s House
-Repair Robot Parts
-Future
-To West Gate
-Upgrade
-To Lift
-3rd Floor
-Upgrade under ramp
-Fire Horn

-To Mount Gundor Mouth
-Can't skip parting lava cutscene
-Gaspard

-Future
-Picture of Paznos
-To Bridge
-Paznos vs Golems Cutscene
-Every time the scene shifts to inside Paznos after the Golem army is first show is a skippable mini-scene

-To Heim Rada
-If no Gun Repair Powder, take Cedric for Sirus.
-Pickup the Pots, Windmill, and the Houses, Break 12 Pots
-To Veniccio
-Rebuild Luna Lab
-Ixion
-After the first two scenes no skipping until Chapter 6!

CHAPTER 6

-Sirus

-To Rainbow Butterfly Woods Star Path
-2S-1 Spirit Flyer x 6
-2S-2 Mad Tore x 4
-2S-3 Mad Tore x 6
-Trentos
-Earth Gem

-To Starlight Canyon Star Path
-3S-1 Balalla x 12
-3S-2 Balalla x 6
-3S-3 Bluno x 6
-Lapis Garter
-Wind Gem

-To Palm Brinks
-Seal Breaking Scroll

-To Ocean’s Roar Cave Star Path
-4S-1 Star Tortoise x 4
-4S-2 Fat Naga x 6
-4S-3 Arkerath x 4
-Sea Dragon
-Water Gem

-To Mount Gundor Star Path
-5S-1 Red Fox x 6
-5S-2 Fire Spirit x 4
-5S-3 Flaming Nail x 8
-Inferno
-Fire Gem

To Sindain Station
To Conda, Buy
    (6)4 Sturdy Rock
    (1)42 Sturdy Cloth
    14 Glass Material
    (24)6 Sticky Clay
    57 Scrap of Metal
    10 Silver Ball
    15 Hunk of Copper
    2 Water Element
    6 Fire Element
If enough extra go get the last Seal Breaker

-To Kazarov Stonehenge
-Gems in Altars
-Talk to Osmond
-Enter Palace
-No Skippy this Scene

CHAPTER 7

-Build a Fountain and take a picture
-Invent, Build and Equip
Jet Hover(Candle, Firehouse, Relaxation Fountain)
Soul Breaker x 2 (Energy Pipe, Geyser, Transmission Device)
Heavy Hammer (Drum Can, Paznos, Power Arm)
-Moonflower Palace

-Level Steal Gun to +3 in MFP
-As soon as the following items hit level 5 Synth the listed materials to them and synth them to Steal Gun
Heavy Hammer
    27 Scraps of Metal
    5 Sturdy Cloth
Soul Breaker x 2
    19 Sturdy Cloth Each

-7-1 Castle Eater x 6
-7-2 Club x 5, Geostone Get, Kill a Diamond
-7-3 Evil Performer x 6
-7-4 Castle Eater x 6, Sun Exit
-7-5 Evil Performer x 6, Geostone
-7-6 Moon Goyone x 6
-7-7 Stormy x 2
-7-8 Moon Goyone x 6, Geostone
-7-9 Moonflowephant x 1
-7-10 Evil Performer x 6, Geostone
-Garden
-Flower of the Sun

-Moon Exit
-Make sure to have a Scroll

-7-11 Stormy x 1, Geostone
-7-12 Fire Drake x 4, Geostone
-7-13 Moonflowephant x 2, Geostone
-7-14 Guardia x 4, Geostone Get
-7-15 Thunder Ghost x 4, Geostone
-7-16 Vanguard Mk 2 x 2
-7-17 Stormy x 2
-7-18 Vanguard Mk 2 x 6, Geostone
-7-19 Leogriff x 2
-Alexandra’s Room
-7-20 S. Club, Geostone
-7-21 Vanguard Mk 2 x 6
-7-22 Leach x 4
-7-23 Vanguard Mk 2 x 4
-7-24 Earth Dragon x 4
-Exit Dungeon
G
-All Non-Monica Foyer Upgrades
    All but 3rd on left and right
    Downstairs all but 2nd on left
    Left, Under stairs
    Right, by stairs
    All but 2nd on right
    2 by door
 
-To Sindain Conda, Buy
    47 Sturdy Rock
    (16)22 Rough Rock
    2 Glass Material
    1 Gold Bar
    3 Light Element
    (1)15 Holy Element
    15 Earth Element
    16 Water Element 
    2 Life Element
-To Moonflower Palace, Make
2 Petal Stream
1 Hall of Sorrow
1 Stardust Pond
2 Starlight Stairs
2 Flower Beds
1 Palace Stairs
16 Moon Column
1 Silver Bench
8 Road to Golbad
4 Roads
2 Camellia Tree
-Try not to totally fail at placing all that
-Moon Stone
-Supernova

-”Sirus”
-Griffon
-Minibosses
-Dark Element
.done


Edit: @Goat: Claire can be found in front of the shop by the station during the day. After recruiting Gerald, you can move to there and walk right out to recruit her.
Edit2: Farming Gilda after chapter 3 is unnecessary. You will get more than enough just opening chests to make sure you don't get screwed over by missing a door key and looking for the ever useful Magic Stone (especially with Pau).
I had no idea Clair wouldn't be home. I thought she was always there. That actually helps a lot! In regards to Gilda, I still do need to farm for my route. I am doing risky strats that involves opening as few chests as possible, so basically only the ones that are directly in my path (as of CH4).

I also have good luck with chestnuts and carrots. I almost never don't get them, but when my time jumped from 2:05 to 2:13 based just on the fact that I had to recruit Polly, go back and get Ferdinand, and then continue, I decided never to recruit Polly and kill the run.

I went and used IB's against Gaspard I. Worked really well, as I had 12 of them and didn't need to use more than a couple for her floors. I'll have to see about the Supernova idea, but I am thinking of using a decently upgraded Wrench. Same basic idea, except I am planning on upgrading the starting wrench to 5, throwing all the attack I can on it, synthesizing, and the adding it to the Poison wrench you can buy in Chapter 5. I got lucky in this test run and picked up a bandit coin, though. That's irrelevant though. I appreciate your help! I'll take a gander at your route when I have a little bit of time, as it is late, and work is early.
Alright. I did a Chapter 1-2 run again. I'm glad to say I've consistently dropped my time to well below 2 hours, but still not quite good enough.

Places where time can be saved includes;
The first two fights with Griffon Soldiers and Clowns. I suck at killing them efficiently.
Breaking the old habit of picking up ABS when I'm not Steve. Old habits die hard.
Using the item menu less. Sometimes it can't be helped.
Purging the inventory and visiting Erik less. I like bombs and free money a lot...
Better navigation through the dungeons. Still getting the hang of it.
Better luck with item drops, like Holy Water from Bats, and carrots from Molers, and the damn Gate Key.
Better luck with Geostone placement, and enemy spawns being away from chests.
Better shopping, and actually knowing exactly what I need when I need to shop so I don't waste time looking at my data.
I could be a small bit more efficient with the georama placement and character recruitment.
I also had SEVERELY bad luck with Ridepod fuel and rock. Easily broke 30 rocks or more and not a single one.

My total ending time at the very beginning of Ch.3 is 1:41. I estimate I could save about 10 minutes total just from these small bits alone. There's just a lot to memorize for a newbie runner like me. In any case, I'll continue this run until I hit Ch.5, and see how much time is saved from my first practice to that point. One day very soon I will have a completed run for all of you. Also, the reason I'm only practicing the first few chapters is so I can work on the spreadsheet, so all of the data one might want to know will be in the same place.
For the clowns, if you do a charge attack immediately it will hit all four of them. then you do a second one to kill the two in front of you. After the charge attack the last two will die from one normal attack.
Well, Havok, after trying to figure everything out, I do believe your route, as of right now, is the best route we're going to get. Of course, Spheda for the Bandit Coin is just sort of a back up plan in case you don't get one from a chest. Anyway, I'll learn your route and put it to the test... Soon.
If you have any questions about the route or something that needs tested I'll be happy to help. I'd like to compete with you, but its hard to find time to consistently do 6 hour runs.

Eventually I would like to route out Max only or Monica only. I feel that, though arbitrary, they would be much more interesting and strategic than the any% run. 100% would be fun to route too, but an absolute horror to play. I'm thinking all medals, all costumes, all permanent upgrades, all characters recruited, all ideas/inventions, and chapter 8 completed.
I think the only feasible way to do a complete 100% of this game would be through segmentation. There is just WAY too much for a single sitting, no matter how fast you are. But I would like to see the category of All Dungeons at least. That one is doable. The easiest 100% would be all Georama and Chapter 8. And it would be pretty ridiculous to see a Max or Monica only run, especially with the floors of dungeons that require you to use the opposite character.

I would also like to compete with you. I never want to do something without any competition. Guess it's a male trait to compete for the top spot. Haha. But anyway, so far I haven't even done a practice past Ch. 4, so I'm very far off from the difficult part of the game. I know what you mean about not having time. I barely have six hours available in a day to run this game right now. I still think it's possible to get it down to less than 5 hours, provided you have absolutely amazing luck and do everything flawlessly. In any case, I've reviewed your route quite a few times now, and even though I can't say for sure about Ch.5 onward, everything through Ch.4 is about as good as it can get, although I feel that inventing the BCII will overall save time and money, as it kills enemies in one less hit than BCI, and it takes very little to actually invent and make. Aside from the Well, everything is basically done without losing any time. You can snap the barrel just about anywhere in Palm Brinks, the tree is a given, so the well only takes maybe a minute if you have a bad geostone placement, but it'll take you all the way to the Finny Frenzy, and it saves you on time when killing enemies, which I anticipate will be realistically about a minute's worth, and it saves on repair powders and item menu times as well, depending on your luck.

Until I have enough practice, a new computer, recording device, and a day off, I won't be able to really do much more than research heavily, which it seems you've already done. I have to update and memorize my data to really drop my time significantly enough though. But I will say the Supernova idea seems incredibly sound, which is great, because that last boss would be the run killer. Also, is there a point in the game where Ridepod fuel can just be purchased? If so then we can better route to cut out the stupid rocks that seem to be the bane of my existence.

I'm also curious about the materials you have in parenthesis. It's the only thing I don't understand about your route. Is it meant to be the number you should have after breaking everything down, or the minimum amount you need?

And as my last statement, I'm very glad this game is not nearly as random as I once thought it was. When you know what monsters have the gate key, and which geostones to pick up, it becomes a lot easier. Also, I seem to notice a small trend in Starlight Canyon. The exit to every floor for my last two attempts was always on the opposite side of the entrance. Is it supposed to be like that? Or is that just a strange coincidence?
To answer my own question, yes. You can buy it, but at a pricey 2000g each. But I think that shouldn't be a problem. My idea to do a short Turkey Farm might actually pan out to reduce the time it takes to actually find these bastards in rocks! Or, if luck is kind, you can break rocks up to a certain point, since by your idea looting chests for those blessed magical crystals is a great alternative source of income, it might pan out later on. I lost a lot of time due to some serious bad luck with those stupid rocks.
Edit history:
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 05:28:30 pm
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 04:16:51 pm
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 04:16:01 pm
The Monica only floors are already a problem in the any%. I find the best way to deal with them is to just buy Seal-Breaking Scrolls from Morton.

As far as difficulty goes, I think chapter 4 is the hardest dungeon. Once you have Nova Cannon and Pau, clearing floors is really easy. Some of the later bosses can be dangerous though. Gaspard III can kill you pretty easily, the chapter 6 bosses can be sneaky sometimes, and Griffon III is super scary. Did you know you can one cycle Halloween if you start attacking him before the hint box comes up?

The materials in parentheses are the minimum you should have on hand, the other number is what to buy... I think. Its been awhile since I typed that out. I'm probably just going to combine the two numbers and if it seems like I have too much, then I'll re-test the required materials.

I wouldn't bother buying fuel. Just minimize the amount of hits you take and utilize Cedric and you should be fine. I usually shoot to have 3 cans of fuel by the time I get to Moonflower Palace and I try not to use it at all until then.

Yeah this game is a lot more consistent than it seems at first glance and I'm pretty sure your right about the exits. Would be nice if there were trends for gatekeepers too haha.

Edit: I'll look into adding BCII. One concern is Chapter 3 is the hardest chapter money-wise.

Edit2: Wow I suck. I started to do a playthough of the route to get familiar with the game again and died to a Pixie in Chapter 2. That was the second death.. but it was a game over due to the Blue Seal. I also died to a skeleton in the first stage of the chapter while taking a picture of a Himmara. I play a lot of Japanese games on the PS2, so I was really struggling with the x and o button being switched. Maybe 3 minutes worth of struggling...

I think time-wise chapter one was 31 min and I died in 2-6 at 50 min.

I almost killed Flotsam without having to wait for him to jump once, I'm going to mess around with that.
Edit history:
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 05:28:56 pm
Accidental Post
Honestly, I find Ch.3 to be really easy when it comes to money, but perhaps I'm missing something? Then again, every time I have to either shop with Conda, or take care of Steve, I always get bombs, so I tend to always have a small excess of income. I also like to use regular bombs on the turtles in Ch.2 so I don't have to use IBs. But now that I think about it, you almost always get 2 bombs when you get them from a chest, which ends up making you 10 more gilda than one IB... But IBs are a lot stronger and more useful... Guess it's just up to personal preference. In any case, your strategy also involves buying gems when at the item shop, so that might also be the difference right there. In my practices I never bought anything more than what I needed, so I had plenty left over. I also spend all of my excess money for Ch.2 on more georama elements so I can escape from the dungeon and lose basically nothing at all. I think that's probably how I had enough gilda for all the georama and the BC2.

I did actually know about Halloween. I just need to practice to get the time down as low as possible. I lose a bit of time just because I'm not up to par with efficiently killing things. When it comes to travel, I still need to work on diagonal running to save more time. I just haven't gotten used to the analog stick positioning and such.

I suck at Flotsam. I need to practice that a lot, as I have not yet had a perfect fight. I somehow always manage to get a bomb to land on the train... And 31 minutes is my average time when finishing Ch.1, and my best Ch.1-2 run so far was 1:41, so don't even worry about your time. I still have a long way to go before I can catch up. And uh... I have a few embarrassing deaths every now and then... I died to a clown on the first floor a couple practices ago...

I'll have to do a full run through the game tomorrow, and hopefully that will yield some good results. I'd like to see a full total time, since a lot changes after Ch.4. Also, do you ever get defense upgrades for Steve? Or improve the armor or energy pack? I'm trying to figure out exactly what I should do to help my robot improve its longevity, just in case stupid enemies get the upper hand, which has happened... Namely the damn Gemrons.
Maybe I need to add a few more bomb stops.. and I do use regular bombs on the tortoises if I have them. I buy the gems just in case rng screws me over. I just sell up to exactly how much I need in Jurak Mall, so dying isn't an issue.

I never upgrade Steve's defense. I run around as Max and switch to kill things. For the most part its easy enough to dodge attacks and it gets a lot better once you get BC. Max can take at least one hit all throughout the game, so if it looks bad you can quickly switch. Once you get Nova Cannon and are able to block again, you are pretty much set. The most dangerous enemies are Gemrons, Elementals and the Skeleton Archers in Chapter 7. The most effective ways to deal with them is to either shoot them from farther than lock-on range or lure the one you want out of the crowd.

I don't run diagonally yet, but plan to start next run. 
Diagonal runs save so much time. Over a 15 second run you save 3 seconds, so if you run for a minute, you save 12 seconds. 5 minutes of diagonal running saves 1 minute of straight running. I never don't have enough bombs, but I also make many more stops than I should. I just want to be safer when it comes time for Gaspard 1, but other than him, who only takes 8 bombs, there's not much use for them other than free money. I am trying to think really quick about when I definitely go for bombs though. I know I get them right away at Ch.2, then I get more when I have to leave Fish Monster, then again when it's time for georama, and depending how much time has passed, I'll get more before Rainbow Butterfly. And I take care of the recruitment spree first before running back to Sindain. I generally end up with 12 by the end of Ch.2, and last time I went by your route and got a seal breaking scroll, so I went to take care of Steve and got more bombs, then I actually stopped at Dragon Slayer, went back for Steve, and got more bombs, and then went the sun exit, did the georama and sold about 12 bombs, then went back in and proceeded all the way to the third to last floor to get the geostone with the well, then left to build it, made the BC2, then went and took care of Steve and got more bombs, leaving me with 12 altogether, which I was planning to sell for the Veneccio georama. All in all, I had well over 4000g when I started Ch.4, also due to good luck with chests.

I do have a question in regards to Final Bombs and the last bosses... Do items effect them at all? If so, why not FB everything at the end?
I just went and did a quick run of the last boss with a nearly finished file from god knows when. Dear god. Griffon. Holy Christ. Griffon. You are absolutely correct about the Supernova. I just wish those Soul Breakers didn't have that thing that drains 2hp a hit from you. I also learned that Steve can be used when Dark Element grows to the giant form and uses his ridiculous beam attack. He doesn't have a resistance to anything when he's like that, so good. In any case, your Supernova plan worked excellently. I would think it best to use the Magic Gun for as long as you can in order to Synth as much attack as possible onto it when it becomes the Supernova. I also learned that FBs don't really do too well against Griffon, and have no effect on DE, but what scares me is that I was completely upgraded and the bastards still did a number. Any way around this?
Edit history:
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 11:58:44 pm
HavokMoobii: 2014-08-11 11:56:42 pm
Thats why I recruit Polly. I use the 20 Crunchy Breads for Griffon III, and I buy Heart-Stop Cherries from Julia (I think). I dont really remember the fight, so I cant go into detail now, but its definitely doable. Wait.. You can hurt DE when hes doing that beam? I usually just switch to Monica or Steve and wait for him to kill them.

I think I added a bomb stop after GFS once, but Erik didn't have enough stamina to make both batches. I went and added 3 trips to my route, that should sort out my money issues. I'll also be adding BCII.

For Gaspard, do you pin him down with the bombs for the quick kill? It can be a little risky, as they are hard to aim, but it saves tons of time.

Man I wish I could record.

Edit: Im going to try to do a full run tomorrow to get a rough time. I'll also try out the BCII and Diagonal running.
Edit2: Chapter 7 seems throw all sorts of Stamina Drinks at you. Helps a ton with the final bosses.
Sadly no. I couldn't quick kill Gaspard. Not practiced enough for that. Haha. Yeah. I was surprised when he went all big. I had no idea what he was doing (it's been many years since I fought him) so I just switched to Steve to sponge the attack, which somehow missed. Then I noticed the giant blob and instinctively started shooting at it for no reason at all, but then saw it was doing damage. It didn't stop doing damage until he finally shrunk back down to size and moved back to the battlefield. So that saved a bit of time. I think it would be faster to save the Chinese Stand and buy your weight in Chicken. I still haven't had any trouble with leaving him there and still building everything I need. Polly just takes too much time, it's only a 4 minute quest, but that's 4 minutes. 2 if you're quick enough. And talking to Ferdinand later on only takes about 30 seconds to move to BV, geo-warp over there, grab your chicken and leave. It costs a bit, but when you're rolling in dough (heh) it doesn't matter much. Until you get to the point where you can buy it without worry, just use your cheese and bread, and whatever else the monsters and chests feel like giving you.

So that's where all those stamina drinks came from... I wondered why I had 10 when I went to fight Griffon. Haha. In regards to his freezing crap, I just used an anti-freeze amulet and went to town. He did end up killing me there, but I had a revival powder. I was mostly doing that fight just to get an understanding of how hard it was going to be using the weapons we're deciding on. Supernova wrecks, and the BC3 is good against DE when he's big. He's weak to exorcist, so BC3 works wonders.

Even if Erik doesn't have the full batch ready, I still take his 3 available, because eventually you'll have spent enough time in the dungeon for him to have a full batch again. When it comes to the early game, I feel like it's better to not let even a single gilda go to waste, especially when it's multi-purpose and potentially life saving. It also saves a lot of trouble when you need to get all the money you need for the Jurak shop trip. I feel like my ideas are a little slower, but are more consistent and rely less on luck. I'm not really sure though.

In any case, we'll get this gravy train rolling soon enough. I also just had a really embarrassing game over with Shingala... Stupid thing wouldn't open its mouth and I missed my only chance to throw it in.
The fish respawns. On my phone, will post more later.
I know the fish respawns, but I did too much damage to Shingala when I finally got it to open up, then missed, and its HP was too low, so I couldn't damage it enough to get a second chance.