Metroidvanias are God Tier
@DeliciousPi Don't you still have to talk to the 4 sages to beat the game? I distinctly remember (Atleast in the original) that if you didn't talk to all 4 of them the final ankh wouldn't spawn. Also I think that the early flail is something worth getting. Not only would it save time on bosses but I think that it might end up being faster to enter the tower that way (Need confirmation though). A little thing though about single segment runs which have something luck based late in the run, try and do the luck based trick and if it fails then you have an alternative route that is still fast just not optimal.