I'll be in the Angry Dome!
I've been working for a couple weeks on doing a SS run (and considering a segmented run as well, since there's some potential for a route change--but more on that later), and wanted to open this up for some fresh ideas. I couldn't find any past discussion of MMIV on this board, and there isn't a whole lot of other useful info for speedrunning this game out on the internet except for an abandoned TAS that had a lot of really nice tricks in it.
For my route, I'm planning on the following:
For the first half, I'm doing Pharaoh -> Ring -> Toad -> Bright. Pharaoh is the obvious starting point for a number of reasons--his weapon is the most useful for speeding up the other early stages, it takes just as much time to defeat him with the Mega Buster as it does with his weakness (Flash Stopper), and there is almost no time to be saved in-stage with other weapons (the only trick I know of is using Rain Flush to stop the quicksand, and even then it's not a whole lot faster). After that, I'm just following the boss weakness order. Additionally, I'm not planning on collecting any of the BEAT letters in these stages--each letter costs extra time, the special cutscene for unlocking him costs time, and Beat doesn't present enough time-saving opportunities later to make up for either.
One thing that makes a SS run interesting is that after the first four stages, weapon energy no longer refills after each stage. Combined with the lower weapon/energy capacity compared to the NES games, this makes weapon conservation very important for the second half of the game. I think the best way to deal with this is to purchase the weapon refill from Dr. Light's shop (80 P-chips) when you are forced there after the second Ballade fight. It costs some extra time, but I think it's pretty easily worth it. It would be really tough to manage Pharaoh Shot, Ring Boomerang, and Napalm Bomb in particular to get through the last four stages, two Ballade stages, and the Wily stage/boss re-fights depending solely on random drops.
The second half of my boss route is going to differ from the TAS and go Crystal -> Napalm -> Stone -> Charge, which is the game's "intended" boss order in terms of weaknesses. I considered doing Charge Man first to get Rush Jet early, but I strongly believe it would be slower in a SS run. The only places where I could consider using Rush Jet are:
-Crystal Man, using RJ instead of waiting for the rising platform late in the stage. This saves about 1 second, accounting for the two extra weapon switches.
-Napalm Man, performing a slide-jump through the narrow corridor onto RJ to avoid waiting for the first drill to drop down, then using Rush Coil at the fire to get up to the top path. This saves about 11 seconds against my normal way of doing it, but would only be done by me in a segmented run since the slide-jump is frame-precise.
-Napalm Man, using Rush Jet to get to the 'I' WILY letter. This is done in the TAS, but from testing it myself I actually lost about half a second due to the extra weapon change and having to either A) switch back to Flash Stopper, or B) stop and wait for (or get hit by) the Missile later in the stage.
The Charge Man fight is 9 seconds slower for me on average using just the Buster versus using Power Stone, and it makes it a much tougher fight, so it doesn't really come close to being justified in a SS run. In a segmented run, the time lost in the Charge Man fight could be mitigated a little bit, and with the large skip in Napalm Man's stage I do think it would be the fastest way to go for that.
As for things I'm still working on where input would be appreciated:
-Pharaoh Man fight: Is there any way to have him follow a predictable pattern beyond the first two seconds?
-Bright Man's stage: Any quick way to handle the hover platform section? The TAS trick is very nice, but unfortunately not very usable.
-Satellite mini-boss: Is there a trick to getting it to expose its weak point after the first attack versus the second?
-Escape level (after second Ballade fight): What is the best plan for this? I'm currently using the Buster for the first half and Ballade Cracker for the second, but I'm not sure this is best.
-Wily fight, second form: Similar to the Satellite boss, is there any way to manipulate how long he leaves his mouth open for me to attack?
Any other comments, questions, suggestions, or putdowns are more than welcome. This game is way awesome and way underrated, and I think it's long overdue for a good run for SDA.
For my route, I'm planning on the following:
For the first half, I'm doing Pharaoh -> Ring -> Toad -> Bright. Pharaoh is the obvious starting point for a number of reasons--his weapon is the most useful for speeding up the other early stages, it takes just as much time to defeat him with the Mega Buster as it does with his weakness (Flash Stopper), and there is almost no time to be saved in-stage with other weapons (the only trick I know of is using Rain Flush to stop the quicksand, and even then it's not a whole lot faster). After that, I'm just following the boss weakness order. Additionally, I'm not planning on collecting any of the BEAT letters in these stages--each letter costs extra time, the special cutscene for unlocking him costs time, and Beat doesn't present enough time-saving opportunities later to make up for either.
One thing that makes a SS run interesting is that after the first four stages, weapon energy no longer refills after each stage. Combined with the lower weapon/energy capacity compared to the NES games, this makes weapon conservation very important for the second half of the game. I think the best way to deal with this is to purchase the weapon refill from Dr. Light's shop (80 P-chips) when you are forced there after the second Ballade fight. It costs some extra time, but I think it's pretty easily worth it. It would be really tough to manage Pharaoh Shot, Ring Boomerang, and Napalm Bomb in particular to get through the last four stages, two Ballade stages, and the Wily stage/boss re-fights depending solely on random drops.
The second half of my boss route is going to differ from the TAS and go Crystal -> Napalm -> Stone -> Charge, which is the game's "intended" boss order in terms of weaknesses. I considered doing Charge Man first to get Rush Jet early, but I strongly believe it would be slower in a SS run. The only places where I could consider using Rush Jet are:
-Crystal Man, using RJ instead of waiting for the rising platform late in the stage. This saves about 1 second, accounting for the two extra weapon switches.
-Napalm Man, performing a slide-jump through the narrow corridor onto RJ to avoid waiting for the first drill to drop down, then using Rush Coil at the fire to get up to the top path. This saves about 11 seconds against my normal way of doing it, but would only be done by me in a segmented run since the slide-jump is frame-precise.
-Napalm Man, using Rush Jet to get to the 'I' WILY letter. This is done in the TAS, but from testing it myself I actually lost about half a second due to the extra weapon change and having to either A) switch back to Flash Stopper, or B) stop and wait for (or get hit by) the Missile later in the stage.
The Charge Man fight is 9 seconds slower for me on average using just the Buster versus using Power Stone, and it makes it a much tougher fight, so it doesn't really come close to being justified in a SS run. In a segmented run, the time lost in the Charge Man fight could be mitigated a little bit, and with the large skip in Napalm Man's stage I do think it would be the fastest way to go for that.
As for things I'm still working on where input would be appreciated:
-Pharaoh Man fight: Is there any way to have him follow a predictable pattern beyond the first two seconds?
-Bright Man's stage: Any quick way to handle the hover platform section? The TAS trick is very nice, but unfortunately not very usable.
-Satellite mini-boss: Is there a trick to getting it to expose its weak point after the first attack versus the second?
-Escape level (after second Ballade fight): What is the best plan for this? I'm currently using the Buster for the first half and Ballade Cracker for the second, but I'm not sure this is best.
-Wily fight, second form: Similar to the Satellite boss, is there any way to manipulate how long he leaves his mouth open for me to attack?
Any other comments, questions, suggestions, or putdowns are more than welcome. This game is way awesome and way underrated, and I think it's long overdue for a good run for SDA.
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