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I've lost interest in the 7th Saga speed run because of the fact that it now already has an excellent speed runner who's much better than me anyways working on it (and hopefully gonna change his mind about not contributing it to SDA).

Anyways, I've now set my sights on Dragon Warrior II.  I'm going to try to update everyday about what I've been doing to test out ways to play through this quickly.  Any tips or suggestions?
Thread title:  
Alright, I think I've got my initial few segments pinned down pretty well.  Before we begin, here is a map of every enemy domain in this game....

http://www.woodus.com/den/gallery/graphics/dw2nes/maps_overworld/dw2nes_monster_map.pdf

So far, I plan for them to go down as follows...

Segment 1

Choose Ruto as the main characters name.  Get chest with Copper Sword and 50 Gold, and buy a single Herb, manipulating the shop keeper to give you a lottery ticket on your first try.  Go to Cannock Castle while running away from all encounters.  Save the game.

Segment 2

Buy another Herb and manipulate the shop keeper into giving you another lottery ticket.  Go to the Spring of Bravery, again avoiding all fights.  Talk to the old man, get the chest of the Herb near the old man to have enough money to buy another Herb on Segment 3.  Death warp to Cannock, and save your game.

Segment 3

Buy another Herb and manipulate the shop keeper into giving you another lottery ticket.  Meet up with Glynn (Prince of Cannock), and start grinding in Zone 3.  Stop grinding the moment Glynn learns the Fireball spell (Level 3).  Go through the cave to Hamlin, again running away from all random encounters.

Segments 4-6

Get the Gold Card and two Wizard Wands, sell one of the Wizard Wand and buy a Broad Sword and Full Plate Armor for Hero.  Save.

Segment 7

Manipulate another Lottery Ticket, and then go get the Mirror of Ra, running away from whatever isn't a quick fight.  Walk back to Hamlin, and get Elani (Princess of Moonbrooke) back into your party, then grind in enemy zone E until Elani learns Infernos (Level 4).  Give her a Wizard Wand, and use it so that she can contribute to killing enemies to, even at Level 1.
Future plans will involve getting the Water Flying Clothes to both Glynn and Elani because of their 50% resistance to elemental attacks (including the "fierce scorching" that Malroth delivers), and I'm not going to go on any trips to Tantegal. 

Also, I've already decided on where I'm going to grind before entering into the Caves of Rhone.  I'm going to either be using the hills of Osterfair when I can due to its high experience monsters and how easy it is to kill Metal Slimes when you're properly equipped (you need just need a bit over 102 attack to properly one shot a Metal Slime), or I'm going to dedicate segments to getting a fast Metal Babble kill in the areas they are most prosperous.  I'm probably going with the Metal Babble option due to the fact that I need a Dragon Potion off of one of them anyways, but the Hills of Osterfair will be used if for some reason, it doesn't work outl.

Also, somewhere along the way, I'm going to need to manipulate a Dragon Potion off of a Metal Babble.  Thankfully, I've heard that the drop rate off of him isn't too bad, although the Babble himself is really hard to kill.

I plan on posting a few test videos of the first three segments tomorrow.  Any questions?
Highly Evolved
Man, I thought I'd be the only Dragon Warrior runner on site.  Now we've got a DWIV run in verification, Shiner has/d interest in the original and now I'm not the only one crazy enough to attempt a DWII run.

Good luck.  You'll definitely need it with this game.
Alright.  Also, when I post the videos of my test playthrough, can you please give them a once over to make sure they're good Darkwing?
I have a question about segment 3, why level up till the fire spell? Is it required, or does it make bosses easier? And if so, do you really not cross enough enemies before you need to use it? Staying in one area to level up seems more of a waste then just encountering enemies along the way. I don't know about this game though, so your way could be more efficient, and if it is then it works Tongue
I get the Fireball spell because not only is it extremely powerful AND cheap (20-25 damage, enough to one shot most enemies 2 areas after the one you get Glynn in), but because Glynn's damage is absolutely terrible until then (though to be fair, Ruto's offense isn't much better at Level 1).

Also, most of the early game monsters give very little experience and Gold, AND are durable and deadly to your Hero when he's on his own, which is why I run until I get Glynn.  As for why I choose to run again until Hamlin, it's because in terms of Experience, the enemies in Hamlin are not much harder to kill, and they're far more profitable in terms of experience, and even gold. 

Seriously though, it's insulting how little Gold and Experience most of the monsters give you until Hamlin, especially given how they're not much weaker at all.
Alright, I'm gonna be uploading Segment 1 soon.  I discovered that Antidote Herbs would be cheaper to buy than Herbs, but I went with an Herb anyways just because that's what I instincts told me.  That's ok though, even had I known in advance, I still would've bought an Herb anyways just as a failsafe for Ruto.
And to reiterate why I ran away from all those enemies, they just take too long to kill with just Ruto, I need to keep my HP up to make it to the old man in the Spring of Bravery (of course, it probably would've helped to have not forgotten to equip my Leather Armor), and they give terrible Gold and Experience.  I only get 1-2 experience and gold from most enemies, not very helpful when they take a long time to kill to begin with (even had I not forgotten to equip the Copper Sword), and when I already need to get 12 experience just to get to Level 2.

Finally, even if I had fought the enemies with Ruto, I STILL would've had to grind for the exact same length of time before going to Hamlin because I need Glynn to learn Fireball before going anyways. 
I'm a big Dragon Warrior fan.  I'll watch the runs you post for sure.
And there we go!  I've now recorded Segments 1, 2, and 3.  All I need to do now is convert 3, upload it to Youtube, and I'll be ready to post Segments 1, 2, and 3 here!
Alright guys, I've finished recording Segments 1, 2, and 3!  Here they are!

Segment 1:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Highly Evolved
Only looked at Segment 1 so far.  Here's what I've got.

Have you been able to figure out the flee rate?  That would be important for decided when and when not to run.

If the flee rate is relatively low, than fighting, even in this segment, might be more prudent.  What can you one hit kill (with the Copper Sword equipped) on the way to the castle?  It took two tries to run from an Iron Ant and Slime.  Could you have one hit killed each?
I already studied that, and almost everything usually takes two hits to kill, even with the Copper Sword, as you'll see when I start grinding in Segment 3.  Also, I think I just got unlucky, because I'm normally able to flee much more easily than that.  And no, I haven't been able to find the formula for it.

Anyways, I've changed my mind about how I'm going to handle Segment 4.  It just occurred to me that I could just buy a Warpwing and just warp back to Hamlin.  Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to buy a Warpwing and get a Lottery Ticket at the same time, so it looks like I'm going to have to visit Hamlin and fight everything on the way there until I have enough money.  Which is fine, I can easily kill things in two rounds anyway now that Glynn has the Fireball spell.  It also means I'm going to have to take a stay at the Inn.  Oh well, at least that means less frustration in getting to the Mirror of Ra, right?
Yo, I've just uploaded Part 4!

Segment 4:
So, I now have to figure out how I'm going to get a Gold Card and a Wizard Wand from the Slots in the next two segments.  So, I'm now going to open a poll on how many days you guys think it's going to take for me to lose my mind trying to do so...

a) 1 day
b) 2 days
c) 3 days
d) 4 days
e) 5 days
f) 6 days
g) 7 days
h) Later than 7 days
i) Not at all, I'm actually going to be able to figure it out.
Yes, a worthless avatar riding my posts.
I vote h.
100% runs=great to watch
Just chiming in to say good luck and to hang in there as this, like all DW games, shall be fine indeed to see on SDA's front page.  8)
Ill have faith *for once* and say i
Just chiming in to say good luck and to hang in there as this, like all DW games, shall be fine indeed to see on SDA's front page.

Yeah, I'll say, but, if you want a run of this game on your site, someone else is going to have to perform once I figure out how to do it.  All this is being done on a VirtueNES, and even though I'm not doing anything to cheat, I don't believe it's going to be allowed on this sight.  Not unless Mike decides to make a seperate section, or make a distinct label, for runs he knows were done on an emulator.

That being said though, I'm definetly going to strive for whatever I can do, and if I can find a sight to host this run, I'll post it there for all to see!
Yes, a worthless avatar riding my posts.
I'll double check your strategies on the GBC version of Dragon Warrior I & II, which will easily be faster due to faster combat, movement speed and dialogue scrolling. I could scrounge up a Super Game Boy out here to do the run but I doubt I will have time.
Great.  I'm not sure the slots are gonna work the same way in the GBC version, but we'll see, won't we?
I've got some bad news guys.  I've been talking to AxeMan, the one who made the tool assisted run of Dragon Warrior II, and it turns out, the game is literally designed to be unfair in the slots game, so much so that he actually had to get 3 Moons just because it would've taken him too much time to force the game into giving him any higher prize.  He says that the game does this by...

1) Having the times the slots stop be inconsistent (I've noticed this to).
2) Slightly hastening or delaying when the slot stops just so you won't get three Sun or Star Crests in a row.

On that note, he advises that if it's money I'm aiming to get (which it is), I'm better off just farming Wizard Wands.  It's too bad, I actually wanted that Gold Card, but it doesn't sound like I have much of a choice.  So, that's my new goal, to farm as many Wizard Wands as I can!  That's something that shouldn't be too difficult either, I've already managed to do it once today!
IMO, for a test run, I'd just hack it somehow (via save state states or hacking the .sav file if you know how) to give you a Wizard Wand.  It would save a lot of time, especially if you don't know if this path is going to work.  You can get on with the rest and then practice the lottery later.
Also, some questions:
1) Why the name Ruto?  Any reason to pick a particular name?
2) Do you know what the encounter rates are for the various tiles?