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Hello guys,
I've been routing & running this game now for a couple of weeks and I guessed a couple of notes could help.
(So far all information is based on the PAL-PC version)
Hype: The Time Quest
For those of you who are not familiar with 'Hype: The Time Quest', it's a 1999 game similar to TLoZ: OOT with all characters looking like Playmobil figures (Playmobil is a german company who sells Toys in a similar style to LEGO). When the evil God Barnak attacks the kingdom of Taskan the IV, Hype, a knight of his and protagonist of this story tries to protect his king but get's turned into stone and thrown back in time. The game starts in the time of Taskan I with a young magician Godoug trying to awake a knight-statue in his garden and when actually succeeding it turning out to be Hype who immediately tells Godoug his story and getting a important ally for his quest to get back into his time. Well you can guess the rest - through the course of the game you travel forward in time and while defeating foes and making new allies you will ultimately go back into your era and confront Barnak (who pretty much slaved the whole kingdom by then and has an evil plan to conquer the world from there).
I first played this game when I was like 6-8 years old and that's probably also why I still enjoy it. When I looked into it about a month ago I was still familiar with most of the game and still loved it. So while I was playing through the game again, I actually found a speedrun for this online - by a guy named Sarick in 2h 34minutes. Long story short - I want to destroy this game, so I looked at his route - changed it to save up to ~10 minutes and now we are trying to just get faster at this game. If you wanna join us - this could be a good place to start from.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Runners & Personal Bests
Any%
DarnokPL - 1:59:51
Findus - 2:09:06
Sarick - 2:13:47
MkayIndianaJones - 2:30:00
Without Runs
Musiccontrol
MothBallFamicom
VisionElf
Some runners might be not active.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
General Idea About the Speedrun
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Any% Route (a lot of text)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Skips
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Small Time-savers
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Glitches, Bugs & other Research
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mechanics Study
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stats, Items & Magic
I will try to keep the information updated. (Last Update: 10-08-2014 // Updated Times: 19-07-2015)
Happy running everybody!
/Findus
NOTE:
I only updated the Runner's section. Some pieces of information on stuff I found is missing, but overall nothing that makes a difference time-wise. I will add the missing information and generally look into overhauling this post/write-up when I start running the game again.
I have no idea when I'll find the motivation to jump back into it right now though.
I've been routing & running this game now for a couple of weeks and I guessed a couple of notes could help.
(So far all information is based on the PAL-PC version)
Hype: The Time Quest
For those of you who are not familiar with 'Hype: The Time Quest', it's a 1999 game similar to TLoZ: OOT with all characters looking like Playmobil figures (Playmobil is a german company who sells Toys in a similar style to LEGO). When the evil God Barnak attacks the kingdom of Taskan the IV, Hype, a knight of his and protagonist of this story tries to protect his king but get's turned into stone and thrown back in time. The game starts in the time of Taskan I with a young magician Godoug trying to awake a knight-statue in his garden and when actually succeeding it turning out to be Hype who immediately tells Godoug his story and getting a important ally for his quest to get back into his time. Well you can guess the rest - through the course of the game you travel forward in time and while defeating foes and making new allies you will ultimately go back into your era and confront Barnak (who pretty much slaved the whole kingdom by then and has an evil plan to conquer the world from there).
I first played this game when I was like 6-8 years old and that's probably also why I still enjoy it. When I looked into it about a month ago I was still familiar with most of the game and still loved it. So while I was playing through the game again, I actually found a speedrun for this online - by a guy named Sarick in 2h 34minutes. Long story short - I want to destroy this game, so I looked at his route - changed it to save up to ~10 minutes and now we are trying to just get faster at this game. If you wanna join us - this could be a good place to start from.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Runners & Personal Bests
Any%
DarnokPL - 1:59:51
Findus - 2:09:06
Sarick - 2:13:47
MkayIndianaJones - 2:30:00
Without Runs
Musiccontrol
MothBallFamicom
VisionElf
Some runners might be not active.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
General Idea About the Speedrun
So far there's a lot of running around involved. The game has almost no side content to the main story. So in a speedrun we just do the whole story (well 99%) as quickly as we can and the way this game is designed you got to run a lot to get to your next story objective.
Another major part of the game is platforming. This will actually take a bit of practise to get around. Sarick & I are both playing the PC version, which means we use the keyboard to control the game and also that the platforming feels super clunky sometimes. Jumps may not be recognized when input too quickly or when used on moving platforms. This can get a bit frustrating, but it gets better with practise.
The third big part of the game is not so much the combat itself, but the bosses. There's 10 bossfights in the game which basically take up more time than the combat you go through inbetween. So you want to practise those - but honestly 6 are very easy - 2 take a little bit of practise - 1 is the biggest RNG in the game - and at last Barnak might seem random, but you manipulate him decently.
The last part I atleast want to mention is cutscenes. They take up quite some time in the run, and even tho they are not really long, there's a lot of them every now and then - which you got to get used to. Of course we're working on skipping through as much as possible right now, but cutscenes seem pretty solid as of now.
But don't be afraid - this game can actually give you a fun time. It starts of as a pretty laid-back run but gets progressively harder through the course of the story and ends in a pretty epic battle after about 2 hours and 20 minutes (as of now). Also as a plus I would mention the music which is actually pretty good in some places, even tho not as iconic as the idol Ocarina of Time.
Another major part of the game is platforming. This will actually take a bit of practise to get around. Sarick & I are both playing the PC version, which means we use the keyboard to control the game and also that the platforming feels super clunky sometimes. Jumps may not be recognized when input too quickly or when used on moving platforms. This can get a bit frustrating, but it gets better with practise.
The third big part of the game is not so much the combat itself, but the bosses. There's 10 bossfights in the game which basically take up more time than the combat you go through inbetween. So you want to practise those - but honestly 6 are very easy - 2 take a little bit of practise - 1 is the biggest RNG in the game - and at last Barnak might seem random, but you manipulate him decently.
The last part I atleast want to mention is cutscenes. They take up quite some time in the run, and even tho they are not really long, there's a lot of them every now and then - which you got to get used to. Of course we're working on skipping through as much as possible right now, but cutscenes seem pretty solid as of now.
But don't be afraid - this game can actually give you a fun time. It starts of as a pretty laid-back run but gets progressively harder through the course of the story and ends in a pretty epic battle after about 2 hours and 20 minutes (as of now). Also as a plus I would mention the music which is actually pretty good in some places, even tho not as iconic as the idol Ocarina of Time.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Any% Route (a lot of text)
(I wrote this in a day - there might be small mistakes every here and there)
If you wanna see the route in action you can just use this VOD. There's no tutorial or anything like that yet - but I might do a route walkthrough with commentary in the future.
Era I - Timing starts when you begin a new game in the menu. You try to skip the dialogue in the first cutscene as fast as possible and just follow Godoug to the courtyard. After he tries to give you instructions about how to hit the first dummy just turn around and leave. You want to get to the gate while collecting at least the plastics (20P) that you find on the bridges. You will now surpass the gate (see 'Tutorial Skip') and leave the mansion area through the cave into the forest. From here on just follow the path to the city - when you get the cutscene of the first bandit appearing kill him and pick up the plastyks (20P) he might drop. (If he doesn't I would recommend resetting, you will need 200P later in the game and in order to get it fast random drops are huge help - this is 3 minutes in so resetting the game to always get plastyks here is not too much of an effort - you can hope for good luck with RNG instead tho) Now continue to the city entrance - hope for good luck for the 'Lady Skip' (if you don't get arrows from the guard, destroy the barrel and pick those up - you will need them) and enter.
In the city you want to go into the well, through the sewers (there are two bats here you probably would want to kill by crossbow), into the castle gardens (there's a 10P drop right next to the 2. lever - pick it up) to the throne room ASAP. After been thrown in the dungeons just pick up the yellow herb and try to get as fast to your weapons as possible. Defeat the torturer and get into the room with the ghosts. You want to get into the corner on your right and quickly kill the ghosts (you can actually hit all 3 while jump slashing). After this you will actually unlock a secret room behind you which contains your first spell - The Ice Tri. It will be very useful to defeat the third boss in this game very quickly. From there on just continue through the dungeons as you usually would, get to the throne room and face the first boss of the game.
Granslak
Continuing through the story you want to just get out of the castle & city as quick as possible and head for the monastery. Take the path on the right leading to the bell tower and simply jump over all of the guards. After you're in the tower you activate the levers as soon as you can to get to the top. You can actually skip all of the guards here as well without getting hit, but see what works for you. When you enter the platforming room you could pick up a red potion from the chest, if you want. However you want to just get to the next boss quickly so climb up the platforms to the top one. I recommend to practise this room for a while, because it's one of the hardest parts of the game to get fast at. You can actually save a lot of time - but falling down will cost you. When you're finally up in the bell room run towards Mhasse and face the second boss.
Mhasse
In the cutscene after the fight you will pick up the first jewel which you now want to charge immediately. Get down the belltower, leave the monastery, head towards Godoug's Mansion and equip the First Dragon's Breastplate. After exiting the hollow tree tunnel Zatila will enter the glade in a small cutscene. Talk and agree to fly with him. When you charge up the jewel take the path on your right (collecting these crystals is not fully optimized yet, but just taking the right path over the left saves a bit of time). When you finished go to the city and travel into the second era using the sundial on the city square.
Era II - Head towards the labs, skip the first two guards, free the magicians, pick up that one yellow herb and complete the 'puzzle' (3-2-1-2 ordered by when you open up the chambers the buttons are in). Get into the next room, activate the lever on your right and runs past the closing gate. Go through the next room and find Godoug & Rajoth. Activate the two buttons in the cages and then either slash the staff (needs timing) or shoot it from the last cage/table. Run through the next room and head for Rajoth's planetarium.
Rajoth
On your way out don't forget the plastyks on the ground and head towards the imprisoned Godoug. Use your new spell to free him and escape with him. After you're out you want to head directly into the forest to the secret tunnel, that is now accessible and guarded by 3 bandits. Defeat them and activate the lever - hit Karen once to trigger the cutscene. After getting the bracelet go back into the city, hit the sundial and travel back to T1 (Era of Taskan I). Run towards where the labs would be, equip the bracelet somewhere on the way and talk to the architect in front of the fence. Return to T2 and go back to the secret tunnel in the forest. Talk to the bandit there and head towards the heart of the forest. Press the button in the hollow tree and enter the bandit hideout. Make your way to Karen (make sure the bracelet is still equipped) talk to her and get the Bandit Badge. When leaving the hideout again you will also get a fake pass for the Court of Courage - or as I like to call it - the circus. This is also your next target. Get to the city and enter the circus with your new fake pass. You will now proceed into the fourth bossfight of the game.
The Gladiator
Head towards the Trophy Chamber (the tent exit has to turn slightly to the right). In the platforming room you can pick up an additional red pot by shooting the upper barrel on the third platform. Clearing those barrels also help when getting back up after the Trophy Chamber, so you might want to destroy those barrels anyway. Don't forget to pick up the Fire Ring spell in this room as well. When you go through the next door, take out your crossbow and shoot the golden bracelet in the ceiling. The portcullis (what a word) will open and you already face the next boss(es).
The Trophy Dragons
Just leave the Trophy Chamber, Circus (there's a barrel next to the exit that always has a drop, which might help you) and City behind you and head into the forest to Zatila's Glade. He will again appear in a short cutscene and take you up into the sky to charge the second jewel. (When collecting the crystals start with collecting 30 on your left and then turn right to the other path of crystals - start with collecting the one in front, not above, the small mountain and you should be good. You hit the amount of needed crystals a few inches from the whirl away) After completing this head back to the city again and hit the sundial to travel to the third era.
Era III - From the city square head to the secret roof and enter the castle gardens. Ignore the guards and make your way into the throne room. You will have to sit through a cutscene and then head to Senekal & Taskan IV (the child) who are waiting upstairs. Sit through the second cutscene and on your way out pick up the purple potion behind the throne. Now head for the city sundial again, travel back to T2 and go to the circus. Talk to Young-Senekal and challenge him to fight for his weapons..
Senekal
After a lot of crying and lost time you will finally have defeated Senekal. When exiting the circus check your Plastyks. If you didn't have any additional luck up to now you should be at 80P. If that's the case you should definitely pick up the following Plastyks. There's a Lady next to the city well in T2. When you talk to her four times (she screams and runs away each time) she will drop 80P which will get you to 160P and pretty close to the magic 200P. (If you however have more Plastyks you can consider skipping her, since she takes about 30-40 seconds of your time). However with the right amount of Plastyks you can now head back into T3 and go to the monastery. Go left through the door and activate the lever in room. Kill the archer (Good chance of 40P drop) somewhere on your way before you take the ladder to the Senekal's hideout. Don't forget to press the button before passing the bridge and then hand Senekal's weapons over to him. You can pick up the potions upgrade if you feel unsafe about your later game, it's just 5 seconds of difference. From here on go back to Godoug's Manor and take the back entrance into Godoug's secret room. Talk to him and then proceed to the stone circle in the forest. Do the Puzzle (1 = Leaves, 3 = Butterfly, 5 = Paw/Footprint 7 = Lucky Charm) and open the entrance to the Lost City. Go through the platforming and traps as fast as possible, pick up the purple potion from the chest and enter the final chamber. You will now face Zatila's incarnation of Hype.
Anti-Hype
With defeating Anti-Hype you get the third jewel. Zatila immediately takes you into the sky to charge it up (find your own route) and you will be able to travel into the Era of Taskan IV.
The Almanacs
In order to do that go from Zatila's glade to Godoug's Mansion and use his sundial. You will trigger the cutscene, with Barnak's knights waiting for you and return to Godoug in T3. He tells you about the almanacs and you immediately head towards the monastery to get the first. Take the path to the right, enter the bell tower, do the usual lever-pulling and get into the platforming room. Take out the first archer (good chance of 40P drop) you meet and either take out the second archer (also good 40P chance) with your crossbow or ignore him until you stand infront of the barrel he's next to, then destroy the barrel and climb up to him while he's burning. However you chosen to take him out proceed to the top platform and get up to the bell room. Shoots the bell with your crossbow and wait for some of the bats to fly towards you. Use your Fire Ring spell to stay safe and wait to be able to go down again. Next head to the ground floor of the bell tower and enter the door in the back of the room. You can pick up a red pot from the chest now and then either perform the 'Paper Skip' or just fight the paper guards (one Fire Ring is enough). Push all the buttons in the library and go through the gates to find the Monastery Almanac. In the chest next to it (right) you could pick up another yellow herb. before you exit the monastery make sure your Plastyks-Count is 200. The enemys here actually seem to have an increased drop chance and also drop 40P at once. If you somehow lack money just kill a few more guards before heading towards the city.
Before actually entering the city check the side room on left after you passed the drawbridge. The shoemakers son (which is now incredibly old) waits in that corner for you to give him 200P. Hand him the money and he will let you test the amazing shoes he makes with your Plastyks. Complete the race (If you die by falling of the map it will cost you at least 30-45 seconds!) and immediately equip the shoes after. These 'Hermes Boots' actually speed up the upcoming parts of the game by a lot. So you want to have them on whenever you think you can do the upcoming movement/platforming.
Now enter the city, go down the well, through the sewers and into the labs. Go up the ladder and complete the first pipe puzzle (X T i - combination next to the magician). Get the key as your reward and lock up the inner chambers. Enter, exit immediately, dodge the thrown knifes by jumping (not hard, but may take practise) and go back to the pipes. Complete the second pipe puzzle (K T O) and jump to the guard spawning on the upper platform. Defeat him and make your way to the highest pipe ( // ). After you activate it either defeat the other two guards or try to get as much of the remaining combination done as possible (The whole thing is // i T - but you can look at it each time you press one of these buttons). After completing this third pipe puzzle go towards the inner chambers again and enter the secret room you unlocked. You now have the Magicians' Almanac.
Leave the labs and sewers and head for the secret roof to enter the castle. Get into the throne room and use some ice magic (Tri is cheaper) to extinguish the flames in the chimney. Press the button and enter the Champion's room. Talk to the female (I actually forgot her name..) and race all over the Kingdom back to Zatila's glade. Let him take you to the Dark Tower.
Enter and defeat the three ghosts in the first room, collect the pieces for the symbol of bad and head down the tower to the teleport room (You can skip all the enemies but have to stop for destroying some barrels inbetween). Use the symbol to activate the the teleport platforms and go red-yellow-blue to get to Enost's chamber. Shoot an arrow at the window with the flying armor on his left. (You don't have to aim too much, big hitbox). After he exited the room (your camera will change) you can safely collect Enost's Almanac. After picking it up get the hell out of there, use one red teleport to immediately get to the bottom again and head for Zatila. Fly back to the glade and go to Godoug's Manor. Use the front entrance and meet the magician one last time in his library. You will now race all over again to the city to strike the sundial there and enter the final era safely.
Era IV - When you enter the city square of T4 you can actually run past the two guards who wait for you and just head for the inn. You want to meet up with you betrothed upstairs (SFW) and get the key to the castle dungeons. Leave the inn, go up to the not-so-secret roof and enter the castle gardens. Get into the throne room and lock up the gate on the right with your new key. Get all down the dungeons to the room where the king is caged. Defeat his guard and free him (You might have the option to perform the 'King Skip' here) and follow him down to the other cells. Use your old cell key to free the knight and the lady and help them out of the dungeons. You exit into the Champions Room and talk to the ghost of Godoug. Collect the potions on the table, get out of the chimney and castle to get to the sundial. Travel back into T3 and race to the stone circle in the forest again. Do the puzzle, enter the city and get into the final chamber. Complete the colour puzzle (nothing to remember here, just do it) and talk to the god to receive the fourth and last freaking jewel. You now also have the task to collect the four banners of Taskan through the course of time.
The Flags - You are still in T3 when you exit the lost city. Head towards the secret tunnel and enter it. Make your way over the platforms to the exit on your right into the ex-trophy room. Activate the lever behind the barrels and collect the Flag of Taskan III. Exit through the tunnel again and head from the forest into the city. Use the sundial to travel to T2 and go to the bandit hideout. Talk to Karen to get the key to the monastery and immediately head there as well. Use the key, stay right, enter the bell tower and go through the door in the back. You can't do the skip in this era, but fighting the paper guards doesn't take too long. Run all the way through the library and pick up the Flag of Taskan II in the back. Fight all the other paper guards (still Fire Ring is great here) and exit. Get to the city and hit up the sundial again - this time we go to T1. The flag is in the throne room, you know the way. So you will have the Flag of Taskan I soon as well. There's only one time travel to be done after this, so get your ass over to the sundial one last time (better repair your armor on the way) and enter T4. Race back to the inn and get the Flag of Taskan IV from your betrothed. Now all ready to rumble leave the city and head towards Zatila. (You will have to fight two guards before the drawbridge lowers, other than that skip all enemies). Charge up the last jewel and land at the dark tower. Pick up the Fire Drake spell after Zatila tragically dies (c'mon every damn run). Race down to the teleport room and get to Enost's chamber again. After a lot of running around this is finally the next boss.
Robo-Enost
Use the red platform again and then get back all the way up to the ghost room. Go up the hidden stairs and use the key at the end to proceed. Kill the guards and move up the ladder. Pull the lever and jump down. pull the lever out there and then walk through the gate to pull the lever on the other side. Go up the ladder again and jump down through the gate. You can now go up the ladder to reach the elevator. Go up the elevator and make your way through the floors - clearing all three enemys on each one to raise the black platform. When you got through all three you will now step on the platform and head to the final two bossfights and after like 2 1/4 hours the end the game.
Voyhd
Defeating Voyhd now means we got 9/10 bosses which only leads us to the epic conclusion of this run - the god who wants to slave the worlds...
BARNAK
And that's it. You stop your time when you deal the final blow to Barnak, so make sure to be ready on the last 10%. Early runs definitely can be under 3 hours - a good run will be under 2:30 and a great one will get close to 2:20.
Final Notes About the Route
If you wanna see the route in action you can just use this VOD. There's no tutorial or anything like that yet - but I might do a route walkthrough with commentary in the future.
Era I - Timing starts when you begin a new game in the menu. You try to skip the dialogue in the first cutscene as fast as possible and just follow Godoug to the courtyard. After he tries to give you instructions about how to hit the first dummy just turn around and leave. You want to get to the gate while collecting at least the plastics (20P) that you find on the bridges. You will now surpass the gate (see 'Tutorial Skip') and leave the mansion area through the cave into the forest. From here on just follow the path to the city - when you get the cutscene of the first bandit appearing kill him and pick up the plastyks (20P) he might drop. (If he doesn't I would recommend resetting, you will need 200P later in the game and in order to get it fast random drops are huge help - this is 3 minutes in so resetting the game to always get plastyks here is not too much of an effort - you can hope for good luck with RNG instead tho) Now continue to the city entrance - hope for good luck for the 'Lady Skip' (if you don't get arrows from the guard, destroy the barrel and pick those up - you will need them) and enter.
In the city you want to go into the well, through the sewers (there are two bats here you probably would want to kill by crossbow), into the castle gardens (there's a 10P drop right next to the 2. lever - pick it up) to the throne room ASAP. After been thrown in the dungeons just pick up the yellow herb and try to get as fast to your weapons as possible. Defeat the torturer and get into the room with the ghosts. You want to get into the corner on your right and quickly kill the ghosts (you can actually hit all 3 while jump slashing). After this you will actually unlock a secret room behind you which contains your first spell - The Ice Tri. It will be very useful to defeat the third boss in this game very quickly. From there on just continue through the dungeons as you usually would, get to the throne room and face the first boss of the game.
Granslak
- is a pretty easy bossfight. After you gain control of Hype turn left and go around the column which you stand next to. Run towards the gate and then turn for the stairs - by this you will hear Granslak walking towards you, which will get him in a spot you will immediately will be able to hit him. This might take a few tries to pull off at first, but it gets really easy once you got it. After you got up the stairs the whole fight is pretty easy. If you manipulated him correctly he will be standing almost right in front of you and you will be able to hit him pretty quickly. Get in the first 3 hits - then add the 4th one which will make him stumble so you just have to jump ontop of him to complete the fight. After the animation of him vanishing hit the helmet which is racing around the room and you will be rewarded with you first purple potion. Pick up the First Dragon's Breastplate now of course.
Continuing through the story you want to just get out of the castle & city as quick as possible and head for the monastery. Take the path on the right leading to the bell tower and simply jump over all of the guards. After you're in the tower you activate the levers as soon as you can to get to the top. You can actually skip all of the guards here as well without getting hit, but see what works for you. When you enter the platforming room you could pick up a red potion from the chest, if you want. However you want to just get to the next boss quickly so climb up the platforms to the top one. I recommend to practise this room for a while, because it's one of the hardest parts of the game to get fast at. You can actually save a lot of time - but falling down will cost you. When you're finally up in the bell room run towards Mhasse and face the second boss.
Mhasse
- is probably the easiest fight in the game. You have to jump slash him when his back is near the railing in the middle of the room. He will stumble back and fall all the way down. So when you start the fight - turn right and run towards the distant corner of the railing you will be facing. Wait there until he triggers his running animation towards you - take a few steps away from the railing and wait for him to bounce onto the ground and back on his feet. If you lined him up correctly he will now turn towards you while being directly next to the railing. Just perform one well timed jump slash and the fight is over in a couple of seconds.
In the cutscene after the fight you will pick up the first jewel which you now want to charge immediately. Get down the belltower, leave the monastery, head towards Godoug's Mansion and equip the First Dragon's Breastplate. After exiting the hollow tree tunnel Zatila will enter the glade in a small cutscene. Talk and agree to fly with him. When you charge up the jewel take the path on your right (collecting these crystals is not fully optimized yet, but just taking the right path over the left saves a bit of time). When you finished go to the city and travel into the second era using the sundial on the city square.
Era II - Head towards the labs, skip the first two guards, free the magicians, pick up that one yellow herb and complete the 'puzzle' (3-2-1-2 ordered by when you open up the chambers the buttons are in). Get into the next room, activate the lever on your right and runs past the closing gate. Go through the next room and find Godoug & Rajoth. Activate the two buttons in the cages and then either slash the staff (needs timing) or shoot it from the last cage/table. Run through the next room and head for Rajoth's planetarium.
Rajoth
- When you have the Ice Tri spell, this bossfight is about as hard as the first two. You have to hit him 3 times with it and he's done for. (Firemage exposed to ice magic equals win) One of the challenges is actually not to forget to get hit yourself in order to get some more plastyks from him. When you defeat him there are three drops spawning in the room, which differ from how well you did in the fight. When you defeat him in under 10 seconds and without being hit you will spawn two purple potions - but if you get hit once you will get 2x15P as drop. (You also get a blue pot on both and Sarick said there's actually a third drop possible which you get when you did really-really bad. It's arrows so pretty useless for us). So just defeat him as fast as possible while still getting hit once by one of his spells (just running into the wall of flames does not seal the deal). After the fight complete the lever puzzle (Blue and then right to left) and pick up the Ice Jav.
On your way out don't forget the plastyks on the ground and head towards the imprisoned Godoug. Use your new spell to free him and escape with him. After you're out you want to head directly into the forest to the secret tunnel, that is now accessible and guarded by 3 bandits. Defeat them and activate the lever - hit Karen once to trigger the cutscene. After getting the bracelet go back into the city, hit the sundial and travel back to T1 (Era of Taskan I). Run towards where the labs would be, equip the bracelet somewhere on the way and talk to the architect in front of the fence. Return to T2 and go back to the secret tunnel in the forest. Talk to the bandit there and head towards the heart of the forest. Press the button in the hollow tree and enter the bandit hideout. Make your way to Karen (make sure the bracelet is still equipped) talk to her and get the Bandit Badge. When leaving the hideout again you will also get a fake pass for the Court of Courage - or as I like to call it - the circus. This is also your next target. Get to the city and enter the circus with your new fake pass. You will now proceed into the fourth bossfight of the game.
The Gladiator
- can be random at times, but when having access to enough mana for two Ice Javs he will not have much time to be random. Just try to keep up with his jumping, be aware about the bombs and his knockback and hit him if he's standing still. He will sometimes charge towards you, which might give you the chance to strike him twice on one platform. Other than that - use two Ice Javs to get him to 10% HP and finish him with 2 sword slashes. (It's so fast I actually never tried the crossbow..).
Head towards the Trophy Chamber (the tent exit has to turn slightly to the right). In the platforming room you can pick up an additional red pot by shooting the upper barrel on the third platform. Clearing those barrels also help when getting back up after the Trophy Chamber, so you might want to destroy those barrels anyway. Don't forget to pick up the Fire Ring spell in this room as well. When you go through the next door, take out your crossbow and shoot the golden bracelet in the ceiling. The portcullis (what a word) will open and you already face the next boss(es).
The Trophy Dragons
- are actually the first encounter that will take a little bit more time. When fighting the first two dragons try to hit both of them when casting the Fire Ring spell. Depending on your mana I would try to hit them with it twice and then get the last % of them off by slashing. (On a sidenote - when you kill one of them while damaging both, the damage will only be applied to the dying one. So you can't kill both in one final spell or slash. It is also possible to hit them both with a single slash, if they are lined up correctly). Fighting the final dragon is what drains time in this fight. Just stay in the middle of the room, turn fast (hold sprint) and wait for him to fake and appear and then slash him immediately. If he appears -very- close or even under you use your Fire Ring very fast. Since the Fire Ring also deals more damage than a sword slash also use all the magic you got here (don't waste herbs or potions tho) to speed it up. When finally defeating the boss you will pick up an improved armor (which will put your armor to 100% again) and the second jewel (these also always restore and increase your HP/MP - See Stats)
Just leave the Trophy Chamber, Circus (there's a barrel next to the exit that always has a drop, which might help you) and City behind you and head into the forest to Zatila's Glade. He will again appear in a short cutscene and take you up into the sky to charge the second jewel. (When collecting the crystals start with collecting 30 on your left and then turn right to the other path of crystals - start with collecting the one in front, not above, the small mountain and you should be good. You hit the amount of needed crystals a few inches from the whirl away) After completing this head back to the city again and hit the sundial to travel to the third era.
Era III - From the city square head to the secret roof and enter the castle gardens. Ignore the guards and make your way into the throne room. You will have to sit through a cutscene and then head to Senekal & Taskan IV (the child) who are waiting upstairs. Sit through the second cutscene and on your way out pick up the purple potion behind the throne. Now head for the city sundial again, travel back to T2 and go to the circus. Talk to Young-Senekal and challenge him to fight for his weapons..
Senekal
- is one of the worst fights in the game and the mentioned RNG machine we see in this run so far. You can actually manipulate parts of his AI to make you defeat him quicker but the distance he's jumping inbetween is still random and can hurt your time a lot. The strategy is pretty similar to the gladiator. Follow Senekal around, avoid his attacks and hit him as often as you can. He has a lot of frames on which you cant hit him tho. If you're in the distant and he's about to throw his hammer towards you, it's worth a try to shoot an arrow while running & jumping towards him. He will start a block-move which cancels his hammer. When you get on his platform he has two moves. A knockback which you can avoid by dodging to the right/left (has to be very fast tho) or casting magic (which can lock you in position longer than you want, or also not hit him). Generally using magic to defeat him seems pretty exhausting, since it does not deal significantly more damage to him, while needing a lot of mana to do so. After he did or did not (depending if and when you hit him then) his knockback he might do a second attack where he spins around and will be attack-able again at the end of it. You seem to be able to manipulate him to use the spin by standing pretty close to him when he recovers from your first attack. This way you can get multiple attacks on one platform, which speeds up the whole fight. It is not 100% consistent tho.
After a lot of crying and lost time you will finally have defeated Senekal. When exiting the circus check your Plastyks. If you didn't have any additional luck up to now you should be at 80P. If that's the case you should definitely pick up the following Plastyks. There's a Lady next to the city well in T2. When you talk to her four times (she screams and runs away each time) she will drop 80P which will get you to 160P and pretty close to the magic 200P. (If you however have more Plastyks you can consider skipping her, since she takes about 30-40 seconds of your time). However with the right amount of Plastyks you can now head back into T3 and go to the monastery. Go left through the door and activate the lever in room. Kill the archer (Good chance of 40P drop) somewhere on your way before you take the ladder to the Senekal's hideout. Don't forget to press the button before passing the bridge and then hand Senekal's weapons over to him. You can pick up the potions upgrade if you feel unsafe about your later game, it's just 5 seconds of difference. From here on go back to Godoug's Manor and take the back entrance into Godoug's secret room. Talk to him and then proceed to the stone circle in the forest. Do the Puzzle (1 = Leaves, 3 = Butterfly, 5 = Paw/Footprint 7 = Lucky Charm) and open the entrance to the Lost City. Go through the platforming and traps as fast as possible, pick up the purple potion from the chest and enter the final chamber. You will now face Zatila's incarnation of Hype.
Anti-Hype
- can kill you pretty quickly if you don't react in time. This is actually an unfair mirror match considering this version of Hype already has all dragon and ring spells which we will only be able to pick up later. You will start the fight of by spamming your sword slashes, trying to hit him as soon as his invulnerability ends. Since his cooldown after being hit is actually higher than Hype's (and his) cooldown of performing a sword slash he will hit you a random amount of times while you wait for him to turn vulnerable. Though we have the nice twist of being able to completely confuse his AI by repeatedly hitting and forcing him back, so he will not turn towards us when we change our position. Being able to do this, is probably what makes you a good runner in this fight. The thing is, this only works until he starts using his spells. Because after a certain amount of time (or health? I never researched this) he starts using his spells, preferringly the elec drake, which will turn you to pieces if you dont pay attention to your healthbar. Good thing you can dodge his spells by casting your own. I would recommend using the Fire Ring spell, which will avoid his spells and damage him after he finished casting aswell. (Being slow with your cast will allow him to cast a second spell which makes him invulnerable, be quick) This makes the fight a lot easier and overall it's a fight of mediocre difficulty, if not easy.
With defeating Anti-Hype you get the third jewel. Zatila immediately takes you into the sky to charge it up (find your own route) and you will be able to travel into the Era of Taskan IV.
The Almanacs
In order to do that go from Zatila's glade to Godoug's Mansion and use his sundial. You will trigger the cutscene, with Barnak's knights waiting for you and return to Godoug in T3. He tells you about the almanacs and you immediately head towards the monastery to get the first. Take the path to the right, enter the bell tower, do the usual lever-pulling and get into the platforming room. Take out the first archer (good chance of 40P drop) you meet and either take out the second archer (also good 40P chance) with your crossbow or ignore him until you stand infront of the barrel he's next to, then destroy the barrel and climb up to him while he's burning. However you chosen to take him out proceed to the top platform and get up to the bell room. Shoots the bell with your crossbow and wait for some of the bats to fly towards you. Use your Fire Ring spell to stay safe and wait to be able to go down again. Next head to the ground floor of the bell tower and enter the door in the back of the room. You can pick up a red pot from the chest now and then either perform the 'Paper Skip' or just fight the paper guards (one Fire Ring is enough). Push all the buttons in the library and go through the gates to find the Monastery Almanac. In the chest next to it (right) you could pick up another yellow herb. before you exit the monastery make sure your Plastyks-Count is 200. The enemys here actually seem to have an increased drop chance and also drop 40P at once. If you somehow lack money just kill a few more guards before heading towards the city.
Before actually entering the city check the side room on left after you passed the drawbridge. The shoemakers son (which is now incredibly old) waits in that corner for you to give him 200P. Hand him the money and he will let you test the amazing shoes he makes with your Plastyks. Complete the race (If you die by falling of the map it will cost you at least 30-45 seconds!) and immediately equip the shoes after. These 'Hermes Boots' actually speed up the upcoming parts of the game by a lot. So you want to have them on whenever you think you can do the upcoming movement/platforming.
Now enter the city, go down the well, through the sewers and into the labs. Go up the ladder and complete the first pipe puzzle (X T i - combination next to the magician). Get the key as your reward and lock up the inner chambers. Enter, exit immediately, dodge the thrown knifes by jumping (not hard, but may take practise) and go back to the pipes. Complete the second pipe puzzle (K T O) and jump to the guard spawning on the upper platform. Defeat him and make your way to the highest pipe ( // ). After you activate it either defeat the other two guards or try to get as much of the remaining combination done as possible (The whole thing is // i T - but you can look at it each time you press one of these buttons). After completing this third pipe puzzle go towards the inner chambers again and enter the secret room you unlocked. You now have the Magicians' Almanac.
Leave the labs and sewers and head for the secret roof to enter the castle. Get into the throne room and use some ice magic (Tri is cheaper) to extinguish the flames in the chimney. Press the button and enter the Champion's room. Talk to the female (I actually forgot her name..) and race all over the Kingdom back to Zatila's glade. Let him take you to the Dark Tower.
Enter and defeat the three ghosts in the first room, collect the pieces for the symbol of bad and head down the tower to the teleport room (You can skip all the enemies but have to stop for destroying some barrels inbetween). Use the symbol to activate the the teleport platforms and go red-yellow-blue to get to Enost's chamber. Shoot an arrow at the window with the flying armor on his left. (You don't have to aim too much, big hitbox). After he exited the room (your camera will change) you can safely collect Enost's Almanac. After picking it up get the hell out of there, use one red teleport to immediately get to the bottom again and head for Zatila. Fly back to the glade and go to Godoug's Manor. Use the front entrance and meet the magician one last time in his library. You will now race all over again to the city to strike the sundial there and enter the final era safely.
Era IV - When you enter the city square of T4 you can actually run past the two guards who wait for you and just head for the inn. You want to meet up with you betrothed upstairs (SFW) and get the key to the castle dungeons. Leave the inn, go up to the not-so-secret roof and enter the castle gardens. Get into the throne room and lock up the gate on the right with your new key. Get all down the dungeons to the room where the king is caged. Defeat his guard and free him (You might have the option to perform the 'King Skip' here) and follow him down to the other cells. Use your old cell key to free the knight and the lady and help them out of the dungeons. You exit into the Champions Room and talk to the ghost of Godoug. Collect the potions on the table, get out of the chimney and castle to get to the sundial. Travel back into T3 and race to the stone circle in the forest again. Do the puzzle, enter the city and get into the final chamber. Complete the colour puzzle (nothing to remember here, just do it) and talk to the god to receive the fourth and last freaking jewel. You now also have the task to collect the four banners of Taskan through the course of time.
The Flags - You are still in T3 when you exit the lost city. Head towards the secret tunnel and enter it. Make your way over the platforms to the exit on your right into the ex-trophy room. Activate the lever behind the barrels and collect the Flag of Taskan III. Exit through the tunnel again and head from the forest into the city. Use the sundial to travel to T2 and go to the bandit hideout. Talk to Karen to get the key to the monastery and immediately head there as well. Use the key, stay right, enter the bell tower and go through the door in the back. You can't do the skip in this era, but fighting the paper guards doesn't take too long. Run all the way through the library and pick up the Flag of Taskan II in the back. Fight all the other paper guards (still Fire Ring is great here) and exit. Get to the city and hit up the sundial again - this time we go to T1. The flag is in the throne room, you know the way. So you will have the Flag of Taskan I soon as well. There's only one time travel to be done after this, so get your ass over to the sundial one last time (better repair your armor on the way) and enter T4. Race back to the inn and get the Flag of Taskan IV from your betrothed. Now all ready to rumble leave the city and head towards Zatila. (You will have to fight two guards before the drawbridge lowers, other than that skip all enemies). Charge up the last jewel and land at the dark tower. Pick up the Fire Drake spell after Zatila tragically dies (c'mon every damn run). Race down to the teleport room and get to Enost's chamber again. After a lot of running around this is finally the next boss.
Robo-Enost
- is new and improved and also incredibly easy. He actually has a lot of different attacks but you will mainly see one. However you start the fight, after you hit him 3 times in a row Enost will 'enrage' and perform a spin attack charging towards you. He's invulnerable when this happens so you want to stay away. So you would actually always hit him three times and then run in circles around the room, but there's a small trick that speeds all of this up. If you move into the small corner next to / behind where the almanac was you can actually reset Enost's spin attack. If you go there he will stop his attack and move to a fixed position on the other site of the room. While you still have to walk through the room a lot this is much faster than not resetting his spins. So just three slashes, followed by hiding and and immediately following him to his position and repeating the whole process until he's done for. You can actually try Fire or Ice magic to spice it up but so far it didn't really seem to be faster (and also you will need your magic for the last two fights) So you defeat him, pick up the key he dropped and press the button to activate the teleport platform again.
Use the red platform again and then get back all the way up to the ghost room. Go up the hidden stairs and use the key at the end to proceed. Kill the guards and move up the ladder. Pull the lever and jump down. pull the lever out there and then walk through the gate to pull the lever on the other side. Go up the ladder again and jump down through the gate. You can now go up the ladder to reach the elevator. Go up the elevator and make your way through the floors - clearing all three enemys on each one to raise the black platform. When you got through all three you will now step on the platform and head to the final two bossfights and after like 2 1/4 hours the end the game.
Voyhd
- the dragon of Barnak is pretty simply to fight. Use your new acquired Fire Drake spell to hit him. You want to wait him to land while you have the right distance, that his AI always will start breathing fire. This is the perfect time to answer with the Fire Drake spell which will hurt him a lot. You overall need to repeat this process 4 times to defeat him. (4 Fire Drake spells > your maximum mp, so keep some herbs/pots ready, don't blow all of it though) If he starts blowing air just run towards him to not get knocked too far away from him, also don't stand too close to the stone columns, so he can actually land in front of you. Other than that the fight is really fast & simple once you figured it out.
Defeating Voyhd now means we got 9/10 bosses which only leads us to the epic conclusion of this run - the god who wants to slave the worlds...
BARNAK
- is the boss I personally hate. I don't even know how you're supposed to beat him if you are a child (After all this game was designed for 8-14yo kids). But nevertheless Barnak has his patterns and is beatable in a decent time if you keep practising (I am working on that right now). As soon as you start the fight with him off - you want to hit him with your Fire Drake spell. From there on the whole rest of it will be easier. Stand on the inner circle that you can find on the ground - Barnak will teleport to one of ~3 positions around you - two in front and one behind you. Try to use the audio to guess where he'll go and hit him before he hits you. If you damage him 3 times he will then always teleport in a position on the right side of the sundial / pole and start casting random electro fields that move around the floor. But since you know where he will go after the third hit, you will be fast and stop him before he can do any damage to you - just try to repeat this process to get his HP down. There's a couple more tricks to handle his ability set. If he casts the shockwave, directly aim at him and throw some magic his way (Fire Drake will hurt and has double the chance to hit). If he teleports in front of you and starts charging an attack towards you, you might wanna take a few steps back just like he does before his charge - there's actually a window after his attack in which you can hit him without him teleporting away (this can get frustrating). Well and the last detail and probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the fight is his tornado spell. Barnak is hold in place while casting and the tornado charges always towards you, meaning you can control it and actually damage Barnak himself. This however does not happen to often if you deal with him quickly. Maybe once or twice - but still fun.
And that's it. You stop your time when you deal the final blow to Barnak, so make sure to be ready on the last 10%. Early runs definitely can be under 3 hours - a good run will be under 2:30 and a great one will get close to 2:20.
Final Notes About the Route
This was A LOT of text, but the run itself is actually quite simple. Just try to always check if you know where to go after you did something. The whole backtracking thing this game is designed around with the same setting in different eras can get pretty confusing - so always think a bit ahead. Also a bit more specific: this route was designed around the Hermes Boots. Sarick who ran this game before me didn't consider them (since you actually have to get the money and all that) but speaking for myself they are what make this game fun for me. I would not have started running this if I found out I could not integrate them in a fast route. But they turned out to be faster than the usual way so I'm pretty happy with that. Also they raise the potential skill level that this game has. On a downside you tend to die in the most random places because you dont want to spent any money to repair your armor until you get them. And then you have no Plastyks left anymore and spent quite some time in Era III and IV where repairing is more expensive. So what happens is, any mistake you make that involves damaging your armor (getting random hits by enemies, falling to your death while platforming) while hurt the chances of the whole run. With the harder punishment for little mistakes and also the RNG considering money and some enemies, I feel it is required to be able to improvise. You can save a lot of runs by not following the route 100% but collecting a few more potions / herbs or repairing when you have to.
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Skips
(ordered by appearence in the run)
Tutorial Skip (by Musiccontrol)
Saves more than a minute. You are able to leave Godoug's mansion without completing the tutorial. Just head to the gate after Godoug instructs you to hit the first dummy. Try to jump on the rock wall on your right, when standing in front of the gate. You're able to stand on the polygon-edge that's running from the bridge to the top of the rock. You will need a bit of time to figure out how to get on the rock and then how to get high enough to jump over the gate - but you can get really fast. I actually only know how much time this skip safes roughly but it's still far more than the others we discovered and thus the most important one in the game so far. You skip three lessons from Godoug, the pickup animation of a spell (which you don't need) and also safe your first pick up of blue bolts - but we'll get to that later.
Lady Skip (by Sarick)
Saves a couple of seconds and results in a glitch. This one is based on my discovery of soft cutscene skips via pickups*. The cutscene you skip here is the appearance of the lady behind the bars before you enter the City the first time in T1. The item you use to break it are the first blue bolts/arrows. To do this the optimal way you will rely on the guard you have to defeat here to drop those bolts. Draw him towards the spot from where you would open the city gates and kill him there. When he drops the bolts collect them and wait with the pickup message open - after two or three seconds the lady will appear within her cutscene, which you now will break by closing the message window. You now are able to 1) enter the city immediately 2) can jump out of bounds and die if you wish. If you just walk towards the now open gate instead of entering it by pressing your action key you 'glitched' into an area that you should not be able to enter by default. It does not really lead to anything as of yet - but maybe a use for this will be found some time. Also on a different note you can try this skip with the bolts that drop certainly in the barrel next to the guard. It will save less time, but should be possible as well.
*If you pick up an item of a new category you will receive a message, that can give you control in a cutscene without black borders (I call them 'soft') after you close the message window.
Paper Skip (by Findus)
This one saves about 16 seconds and can be 100% reliable, when practiced. When you're in the Monastery of T3 you have a first encounter with Paper Guards before getting to the Almanac. You can skip the whole cutscene & fight by simply jumping the trigger. When entering the room with the paper-guard banners on the wall you want to jump from the door-frame into the room. Make sure you don't bump into anything and you will be able to skip everything easily. The harder part however is getting back. The trigger will still be there after you collected the almanac, so those 16 seconds might get lost again if you fail this. In order to get over the trigger you have to perform a long jump (hold sprint) that lands right in the door without bumping into the frame. You will have to practice the second part a lot, since the jump has to be near perfect. I would recommend using first person to make sure you are really lined up correctly and watching the wood panels on the floor for orientation.
King Skip (by Findus)
This skip safes 10-?? seconds and is the most random one so far. This is again a soft cutscene break that you try to use when freeing the king of his cage in the Dungeons of T4. It requires 1) defeating the guard on a spot that Hype will walk over after using the lever to free the king, 2) the guard to drop either an acorn or red bolts and 3) you not having picked up an item of these categories by accident. Only the second and third are tricky, but if you get lucky you can skip the longest soft cutscene in the game. You basically wanna break out of having to watch the king run away and disappear towards the dungeons. It would be such a great skip if it wasn't so deep in the run and highly RNG dependent.
This is all we got so far.
Tutorial Skip (by Musiccontrol)
Saves more than a minute. You are able to leave Godoug's mansion without completing the tutorial. Just head to the gate after Godoug instructs you to hit the first dummy. Try to jump on the rock wall on your right, when standing in front of the gate. You're able to stand on the polygon-edge that's running from the bridge to the top of the rock. You will need a bit of time to figure out how to get on the rock and then how to get high enough to jump over the gate - but you can get really fast. I actually only know how much time this skip safes roughly but it's still far more than the others we discovered and thus the most important one in the game so far. You skip three lessons from Godoug, the pickup animation of a spell (which you don't need) and also safe your first pick up of blue bolts - but we'll get to that later.
Lady Skip (by Sarick)
Saves a couple of seconds and results in a glitch. This one is based on my discovery of soft cutscene skips via pickups*. The cutscene you skip here is the appearance of the lady behind the bars before you enter the City the first time in T1. The item you use to break it are the first blue bolts/arrows. To do this the optimal way you will rely on the guard you have to defeat here to drop those bolts. Draw him towards the spot from where you would open the city gates and kill him there. When he drops the bolts collect them and wait with the pickup message open - after two or three seconds the lady will appear within her cutscene, which you now will break by closing the message window. You now are able to 1) enter the city immediately 2) can jump out of bounds and die if you wish. If you just walk towards the now open gate instead of entering it by pressing your action key you 'glitched' into an area that you should not be able to enter by default. It does not really lead to anything as of yet - but maybe a use for this will be found some time. Also on a different note you can try this skip with the bolts that drop certainly in the barrel next to the guard. It will save less time, but should be possible as well.
*If you pick up an item of a new category you will receive a message, that can give you control in a cutscene without black borders (I call them 'soft') after you close the message window.
Paper Skip (by Findus)
This one saves about 16 seconds and can be 100% reliable, when practiced. When you're in the Monastery of T3 you have a first encounter with Paper Guards before getting to the Almanac. You can skip the whole cutscene & fight by simply jumping the trigger. When entering the room with the paper-guard banners on the wall you want to jump from the door-frame into the room. Make sure you don't bump into anything and you will be able to skip everything easily. The harder part however is getting back. The trigger will still be there after you collected the almanac, so those 16 seconds might get lost again if you fail this. In order to get over the trigger you have to perform a long jump (hold sprint) that lands right in the door without bumping into the frame. You will have to practice the second part a lot, since the jump has to be near perfect. I would recommend using first person to make sure you are really lined up correctly and watching the wood panels on the floor for orientation.
King Skip (by Findus)
This skip safes 10-?? seconds and is the most random one so far. This is again a soft cutscene break that you try to use when freeing the king of his cage in the Dungeons of T4. It requires 1) defeating the guard on a spot that Hype will walk over after using the lever to free the king, 2) the guard to drop either an acorn or red bolts and 3) you not having picked up an item of these categories by accident. Only the second and third are tricky, but if you get lucky you can skip the longest soft cutscene in the game. You basically wanna break out of having to watch the king run away and disappear towards the dungeons. It would be such a great skip if it wasn't so deep in the run and highly RNG dependent.
This is all we got so far.
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Small Time-savers
- You will travel jump distances even when you have no control of Hype. You can use this to save some time in cutscenes (and since there's a lot of these, there's a lot of small amounts of time to be saved) Secondly you can jump before pulling up the inventory if you have to use or equip items. And finally you can use it to exit areas quicker (A great example would be the cave you walk into from Godoug's Manor to the forest - you can actually jump directly into the loading zone)
- When moving into different areas there's often a couple of blind frames - which are actually fully loaded, but your screen is still black. You can actually start moving around already, which saves a good amount of seconds over the whole run. Each loading zone is slightly different though, so you just got to practice. Try to use the ingame sound.
- Try to use buttons and doors without your weapons out. Over the course of the game you have to use a lot of objects, so you save a bit of time by skipping those animations before/after interacting.
- When entering the cutscene for Godoug's lower courtyard, you can save about a second by getting a good long jump right into the doorframe. In order to do this quickly you would want to perform a setup jump, in which you already turn towards the door. It is not that easy so you will often loose more time instead saving some
- When killing the two bats in the sewers (T1) consider taking them out AFTER you pressed the button, skipping one at first is easy - two requires you to be really fast & accurate
- When pulling the two levers in the Castle gardens it is always possible to jump to the second one without spending time on barrels or enemies. You can do each time with one clean jump.
- When going through the dungeons (T1) you can skip destroying the barrels on the last platforming part. Just try to hit the platforms on the right next to the barrels. Practice makes you very fast
- When climbing up the platforms in the monastery, try to get as far as possible by just running. You can actually skip the first 2-3 jumps.
- Also you can reach the monastery elevator without using the last platform. Just do a longjump over it from the small platform in front of it.
- In the labs of T2 when meeting Rajoth the first time, you can save some time with early movement. You can actually control Hype before he's fully on screen after Godoug talks to you. Also when you press the second button in the cages you can jump out of it almost immediately.
- When leaving the circus after getting the jewel you can save about 5-7 seconds by dying as soon as you enter the arena again. Just jump to your death when arriving from the backside and wait for the game to spawn you on the entrance side of the room. There's only this one respawn point.
- The secret roof are has a jump that allows you to get from the platform of the first ladder directly into the opening in the castle wall. It is pretty hard to set up (especially with boots) so I would not recommend using it, as of now.
- Also when accessing the roof castle opening in the usual way, you can just run over there instead of jumping. Additionally if you do that you have a chance to directly run into the exit-trigger on the other side, since you just have to hit the hole here.
- When entering the stone circle area without boots you can do two quick jumps to get over the tree trunk, instead of running beneath it. I'm not sure if it saves time at all. But it feels like it and is fun.
- When pressing the last button in the stone circle puzzle make sure you immediately input a jump backwards. That way you will be standing on the middle platform when the cutscene ends and you can get to the torches quicker.
- In the Lost City you can get through the swingsword passage without getting hit. Be sure to be standing right in the middle of the corridor before the first blade swings in front of you and start running all the way up just right after the first blade is past the middle.
- When going down the belltower in T3 don't walk the last stairs to the ground floor. Instead go into the first floor area and jump down.
- When unlocking the upper pipe for the Magicians' Almanac try to just take out the guard on the top and activate the unlocked pipe, before jumping down to defeat the other two guards
- When entering T4 on the city square there's a gate that's supposed to be closed, but is for some reason open for a while when you enter the area by time travel. You can just run through and skip the city square and his guards.
- When passing the second small city gate in T4 make sure to turn around before you pass the next trigger. If you activate it while facing backwards the enemy spawns are more in your favor if you want to defeat them quickly. So before you run past the part of the corridor where the wooden fence is on the left, be sure to turn around and move backwards.
- In the dungeons of T4 you can get through the platforming really quickly with the boots. The first part can be done with only one or no jump at all. For the second platforming part you can actually just run straight forward over the first two platforms and then jump off before you get onto the big one.
- When moving into different areas there's often a couple of blind frames - which are actually fully loaded, but your screen is still black. You can actually start moving around already, which saves a good amount of seconds over the whole run. Each loading zone is slightly different though, so you just got to practice. Try to use the ingame sound.
- Try to use buttons and doors without your weapons out. Over the course of the game you have to use a lot of objects, so you save a bit of time by skipping those animations before/after interacting.
- When entering the cutscene for Godoug's lower courtyard, you can save about a second by getting a good long jump right into the doorframe. In order to do this quickly you would want to perform a setup jump, in which you already turn towards the door. It is not that easy so you will often loose more time instead saving some
- When killing the two bats in the sewers (T1) consider taking them out AFTER you pressed the button, skipping one at first is easy - two requires you to be really fast & accurate
- When pulling the two levers in the Castle gardens it is always possible to jump to the second one without spending time on barrels or enemies. You can do each time with one clean jump.
- When going through the dungeons (T1) you can skip destroying the barrels on the last platforming part. Just try to hit the platforms on the right next to the barrels. Practice makes you very fast
- When climbing up the platforms in the monastery, try to get as far as possible by just running. You can actually skip the first 2-3 jumps.
- Also you can reach the monastery elevator without using the last platform. Just do a longjump over it from the small platform in front of it.
- In the labs of T2 when meeting Rajoth the first time, you can save some time with early movement. You can actually control Hype before he's fully on screen after Godoug talks to you. Also when you press the second button in the cages you can jump out of it almost immediately.
- When leaving the circus after getting the jewel you can save about 5-7 seconds by dying as soon as you enter the arena again. Just jump to your death when arriving from the backside and wait for the game to spawn you on the entrance side of the room. There's only this one respawn point.
- The secret roof are has a jump that allows you to get from the platform of the first ladder directly into the opening in the castle wall. It is pretty hard to set up (especially with boots) so I would not recommend using it, as of now.
- Also when accessing the roof castle opening in the usual way, you can just run over there instead of jumping. Additionally if you do that you have a chance to directly run into the exit-trigger on the other side, since you just have to hit the hole here.
- When entering the stone circle area without boots you can do two quick jumps to get over the tree trunk, instead of running beneath it. I'm not sure if it saves time at all. But it feels like it and is fun.
- When pressing the last button in the stone circle puzzle make sure you immediately input a jump backwards. That way you will be standing on the middle platform when the cutscene ends and you can get to the torches quicker.
- In the Lost City you can get through the swingsword passage without getting hit. Be sure to be standing right in the middle of the corridor before the first blade swings in front of you and start running all the way up just right after the first blade is past the middle.
- When going down the belltower in T3 don't walk the last stairs to the ground floor. Instead go into the first floor area and jump down.
- When unlocking the upper pipe for the Magicians' Almanac try to just take out the guard on the top and activate the unlocked pipe, before jumping down to defeat the other two guards
- When entering T4 on the city square there's a gate that's supposed to be closed, but is for some reason open for a while when you enter the area by time travel. You can just run through and skip the city square and his guards.
- When passing the second small city gate in T4 make sure to turn around before you pass the next trigger. If you activate it while facing backwards the enemy spawns are more in your favor if you want to defeat them quickly. So before you run past the part of the corridor where the wooden fence is on the left, be sure to turn around and move backwards.
- In the dungeons of T4 you can get through the platforming really quickly with the boots. The first part can be done with only one or no jump at all. For the second platforming part you can actually just run straight forward over the first two platforms and then jump off before you get onto the big one.
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Glitches, Bugs & other Research
- There is a way to get Granslak stuck into the ground. It will make him shorter, which allows you to fight him from the ground and also him to not able to hit you with his mace (he aims below you when glitched). It is probably caused by some weird collision with the upper gallery maybe in combination with forced movement or changing hitbox when attacking. (But honestly I have no clue) Sarick got it first and I tried to recreate it since, though getting it randomly not able to reproduce it in a consistent way. Sarick's glitch was however REALLY fast and if we could get Granslak glitched in that speed we could skip walking up the stairs which would save some seconds.
- When you are in the T4 dungeons the game will freeze if you move to quickly into the cells after unlocking them. You will have to slow down about a splitsecond by either jumping towards the npcs or just taking your sword out once you're inside the cell. Avoidable run-killer.
- There's a bug that locks Hype in an infinite falling animation. You can test it on the left wall on top of the tree tunnel (forest) or on top of the throne in T3. The game still works, but you won't be able to get out of the loop. Also works with infinite jumping below very small ceilings. Pretty speedrun irrelevant.
- When you try to get to Senekal in the monastery of T3 without turning the bridge you can walk around in the air next to a wall. The non-turned bridge part has an invisible ledge on it's side that you can get onto by jumping. You can't really get anywhere from there, but it was the closest we got to OOB before the Lady Skip.
- There might be differences in cutscene speed in different languages. MothBallFamicon is able to skip incredibly fast through his dialogue in the french language version of the game. We should look into this when we get to further optimization
- There's a bug that does not unlock your camera when exiting the cutscene right before the Rajoth fight. It makes the whole fight much harder, because you can't see Rajoth in a lot of positions and you depth-perception gets trolled. It seems to be random, but if you get it consistently consider re-installing the game
- When you are in the T4 dungeons the game will freeze if you move to quickly into the cells after unlocking them. You will have to slow down about a splitsecond by either jumping towards the npcs or just taking your sword out once you're inside the cell. Avoidable run-killer.
- There's a bug that locks Hype in an infinite falling animation. You can test it on the left wall on top of the tree tunnel (forest) or on top of the throne in T3. The game still works, but you won't be able to get out of the loop. Also works with infinite jumping below very small ceilings. Pretty speedrun irrelevant.
- When you try to get to Senekal in the monastery of T3 without turning the bridge you can walk around in the air next to a wall. The non-turned bridge part has an invisible ledge on it's side that you can get onto by jumping. You can't really get anywhere from there, but it was the closest we got to OOB before the Lady Skip.
- There might be differences in cutscene speed in different languages. MothBallFamicon is able to skip incredibly fast through his dialogue in the french language version of the game. We should look into this when we get to further optimization
- There's a bug that does not unlock your camera when exiting the cutscene right before the Rajoth fight. It makes the whole fight much harder, because you can't see Rajoth in a lot of positions and you depth-perception gets trolled. It seems to be random, but if you get it consistently consider re-installing the game
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Mechanics Study
- While jumping up a sloped wall you actually gain height. No idea how to use it in a run, but you can use it to get on top of the tree tunnel in the forest
- There's a second way to perform double slashes. The usual would require you to sprint forward while attacking. But you can actually get it on the spot by jumping and performing a delayed slash. You will land after it and be able to immediately slash again. Couldn't think of a use for this so far, since it has a kind of setup time with the jump before and also most enemies have invulnerability timers that prevent them from being hit too often in a short period of time
- Using the Inventory only has a sort-of time pausing effect. If and enemy or projectile was about to hit you before the 'pause' you will be hit immediately after 'unpausing' messing with projectile speed and enemy attack cooldowns. On a different note Sarick was able to dodge the hammer attack of Senekal by 'pausing' at a correct time. Wasn't able to reproduce - but we should look into it.
- there seems to be a very-very-very small speedboost when exiting a sloped floor to an even one. It's hard to notice but it seems there
- There is some kind of bunnyhopping. You can shorten the landing of a longjump by immediate inputting a second jump. This means you can chain longjumps very quickly, allowing you to get through some platforming parts faster. (Good example: The platforming after exiting the trophy room can be done in ONE chain of longjumps)
- Hype shoots his arrows from a position that's relatively right of his body's center. It is possible to shoot an enemy that is slightly visible on the right side behind an object, while this object blocking all his arrows. So you have the option to take out archers with arrows in some places while being 100% safe. This is relevant to kill the second archer when ringing the monastery bell in T3
- You can cancel the sheathing / unsheathing animations of your weapons when you start them in the moment of running of an edge. You will be able to take out or put away your sword/crossbow in the blink of an eye. This can turn useful when fighting the sewer-bats in T1.
- You can pull of an 'hover' move in certain corners. By air-slashing in corners that are very narrow you can extend your air-time for a bit, leaving you hovering in the air. You find these corners by trying to slowly jumping towards them. If you see a land&fall animation in the air, you can try to hover in it.
- Using magic gives you an invulnerability window - where you will not take damage from enemy attacks / spells
- Using javelin and trinity spells will change your position. Casting a tri-spell will push you forward. Casting a jav will move you all so slightly forward and then push you backwards.
- There's a second way to perform double slashes. The usual would require you to sprint forward while attacking. But you can actually get it on the spot by jumping and performing a delayed slash. You will land after it and be able to immediately slash again. Couldn't think of a use for this so far, since it has a kind of setup time with the jump before and also most enemies have invulnerability timers that prevent them from being hit too often in a short period of time
- Using the Inventory only has a sort-of time pausing effect. If and enemy or projectile was about to hit you before the 'pause' you will be hit immediately after 'unpausing' messing with projectile speed and enemy attack cooldowns. On a different note Sarick was able to dodge the hammer attack of Senekal by 'pausing' at a correct time. Wasn't able to reproduce - but we should look into it.
- there seems to be a very-very-very small speedboost when exiting a sloped floor to an even one. It's hard to notice but it seems there
- There is some kind of bunnyhopping. You can shorten the landing of a longjump by immediate inputting a second jump. This means you can chain longjumps very quickly, allowing you to get through some platforming parts faster. (Good example: The platforming after exiting the trophy room can be done in ONE chain of longjumps)
- Hype shoots his arrows from a position that's relatively right of his body's center. It is possible to shoot an enemy that is slightly visible on the right side behind an object, while this object blocking all his arrows. So you have the option to take out archers with arrows in some places while being 100% safe. This is relevant to kill the second archer when ringing the monastery bell in T3
- You can cancel the sheathing / unsheathing animations of your weapons when you start them in the moment of running of an edge. You will be able to take out or put away your sword/crossbow in the blink of an eye. This can turn useful when fighting the sewer-bats in T1.
- You can pull of an 'hover' move in certain corners. By air-slashing in corners that are very narrow you can extend your air-time for a bit, leaving you hovering in the air. You find these corners by trying to slowly jumping towards them. If you see a land&fall animation in the air, you can try to hover in it.
- Using magic gives you an invulnerability window - where you will not take damage from enemy attacks / spells
- Using javelin and trinity spells will change your position. Casting a tri-spell will push you forward. Casting a jav will move you all so slightly forward and then push you backwards.
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Stats, Items & Magic
This is an important topic but hard to be precise about without actually reading the games code.
Hype's Stats by Jewels
0 - 100 HP / 100 MP
1 - 150 HP / 200 MP
2 - 200 HP / 300 MP
3 - 300 HP / 400 MP
4 - 500 HP / 500 MP
Collecting a Jewel will always put Hype's HP/MP to 100%.
Replenishing Items
Green Herb + 50 MP
Yellow Herb + 100 MP
Blue Potion + 50 HP
Red Potion + 100 HP
Purple Potion + 250 HP / 250 MP
Spells
Element - Type - MPcost
Fire - Jav - 20
Fire - Tri - 70
Fire - Ring - 40
Fire - Drake - 140
Ice - Jav - 50
Ice - Tri - 30
Ice - Ring - 70
Ice - Drake - 100
Elec - Jav - 70
Elec - Tri - 50
Elec - Ring - 30
Elec - Drake - 100
I have no numbers on damage values yet. These are actually a lot harder to calculate.
Hype's Stats by Jewels
0 - 100 HP / 100 MP
1 - 150 HP / 200 MP
2 - 200 HP / 300 MP
3 - 300 HP / 400 MP
4 - 500 HP / 500 MP
Collecting a Jewel will always put Hype's HP/MP to 100%.
Replenishing Items
Green Herb + 50 MP
Yellow Herb + 100 MP
Blue Potion + 50 HP
Red Potion + 100 HP
Purple Potion + 250 HP / 250 MP
Spells
Element - Type - MPcost
Fire - Jav - 20
Fire - Tri - 70
Fire - Ring - 40
Fire - Drake - 140
Ice - Jav - 50
Ice - Tri - 30
Ice - Ring - 70
Ice - Drake - 100
Elec - Jav - 70
Elec - Tri - 50
Elec - Ring - 30
Elec - Drake - 100
I have no numbers on damage values yet. These are actually a lot harder to calculate.
I will try to keep the information updated. (Last Update: 10-08-2014 // Updated Times: 19-07-2015)
Happy running everybody!
/Findus
NOTE:
I only updated the Runner's section. Some pieces of information on stuff I found is missing, but overall nothing that makes a difference time-wise. I will add the missing information and generally look into overhauling this post/write-up when I start running the game again.
I have no idea when I'll find the motivation to jump back into it right now though.
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