SGDQ 2016: Speedrun Notes for the Restreams

2016-06-07 02:04:18 am

We are Germench! We are Rummel!

Hi everybody,
as usual there will be Restreams for Non-English speaking Twitch-Viewers. And I'd like to ask all the speedrunners with runs at SGDQ to share their speedrun notes with us restreamers? It would make our work much easier. Thank you very much!

Thread title:

dwangoAC

2016-06-08 03:31:16 pm

Keeper of TASBot

What format / location / method would you like notes in? I admit, I'm probably the "special case" here as the SML2 run will require extensive explanation (it's basically me talking in English with crazy things happening on screen). SMB 1+2+3 also requires some very specific commentary so viewers fully understand that it's being done on real hardware with exactly the same sequence of button presses. I can prepare something like cliff notes for you but I was curious where you want me to put it as it could be a somewhat lengthy document. Thanks!

Germench

2016-06-08 04:05:05 pm

We are Germench! We are Rummel!

Hi dwangoAC. Cliffnotes will do. So that our commentators now the basic gist, but still have room to give it their own "spin", so to say.

CardsOfTheHeart

2016-06-08 08:47:49 pm

may use a few too many Kappas

Tetris Attack can be hard to summarize, but I will give it a shot.

-Panels are arranged randomly at the start of each stage.
-Combos - more than three panels in a row. Chains - sets of three or more panels linked together.
-Chains send thick garbage blocks to your opponent, combos send narrow garbage blocks.
-Goal is to stack garbage as fast as you can. A balance of combos and chains is best as making two lines of garbage at once will be faster than one at a time. If you can't send enough combos, you can send larger chains if you need to. Priority one is filling your opponent's stack with garbage.
-Raising your stack can be scary for beginners, but is essential in building combos and chains.
-Combos and chains also stop your stack from rising for a time. This is called "Stop Time." Therefore, your combos and chains can be used offensively and defensively.
-Later stages get faster and faster and start raising their stack more aggressively at the start. You can get away with sending less garbage at times, but it's very luck-based.
-RNG is such that your opponents have the final say in how fast each stage can go. Each stage can last as little as ten seconds (or less) or as long as over a minute.
-Tricks that can add to your chains: (my terminology, not necessarily used by others)
Slide: Slide panels underneath a falling panel to manipulate when the falling panel comes to a rest. Two-frame window.
Catch: Catch a falling panel in mid-air by switching when the panel is in the row above your cursor. Frame-perfect.

As for The Land Before Time:

-Platforming is simple, for the most part. You run twice as fast as you walk and run at the same speed whether you're running, jumping, or bouncing off of most enemies. You can also double-jump. You do not lose a jump for running off the edge of a platform.
-In 1-2, there is a frame-perfect jump that only saves about a second when successful and loses three seconds for every failure. Jumps have to be 16 frames apart and you have no good visual or audio cue to use.
-At the end of 1-2, there is a "hover glitch" that saves three seconds when done optimally by shortcutting to the end of the level. When you leave the Character Select menu, your character is positioned one pixel higher. You can enter the Character Select menu again immediately afterwards to preserve this pixel of height. You can alternate Select and A this way to gain infinite height. Slow, but can be useful for shortcuts. This is the only one that saves time.
-World 1 boss only has a hitbox in its head. You can pass through the rest of its body. If you damage it before its claw attack, it stays vulnerable for the duration of the attack.
-World 2 has a lot of instant-death below its platforms.
-World 2 boss is normally an auto-scroller, but the autoscrolling can be broken by taking a death in the right spot, allowing triggers to be bypassed that affect the autoscrolling on future boss fights. Cera is sacrificed to set up life counts in the next boss.
-World 3 boss can be hit a second time per cycle if you get a high bounce off of it by jumping as you make contact, cutting the time of the fight in half. Also, if you die to the world 3 boss as it moves to the left, the boss warps to the left side of the screen and skips to the next step in its attack cycle. Each warp can save up to five seconds. Dying to it as it moves to the right resets its current step in its attack cycle.
-World 4 boss has a... large... hitbox. With the autoscrolling broken, you can continue to hit its corpse and rack up points.
-Final level has instant-death obstacles, but the sides of the stage are completely safe from them.

Tetris Attack can be hard to summarize, but I will give it a shot.

-Panels are arranged randomly at the start of each stage.
-Combos - more than three panels in a row. Chains - sets of three or more panels linked together.
-Chains send thick garbage blocks to your opponent, combos send narrow garbage blocks.
-Goal is to stack garbage as fast as you can. A balance of combos and chains is best as making two lines of garbage at once will be faster than one at a time. If you can't send enough combos, you can send larger chains if you need to. Priority one is filling your opponent's stack with garbage.
-Raising your stack can be scary for beginners, but is essential in building combos and chains.
-Combos and chains also stop your stack from rising for a time. This is called "Stop Time." Therefore, your combos and chains can be used offensively and defensively.
-Later stages get faster and faster and start raising their stack more aggressively at the start. You can get away with sending less garbage at times, but it's very luck-based.
-RNG is such that your opponents have the final say in how fast each stage can go. Each stage can last as little as ten seconds (or less) or as long as over a minute.
-Tricks that can add to your chains: (my terminology, not necessarily used by others)
Slide: Slide panels underneath a falling panel to manipulate when the falling panel comes to a rest. Two-frame window.
Catch: Catch a falling panel in mid-air by switching when the panel is in the row above your cursor. Frame-perfect.

As for The Land Before Time:

-Platforming is simple, for the most part. You run twice as fast as you walk and run at the same speed whether you're running, jumping, or bouncing off of most enemies. You can also double-jump. You do not lose a jump for running off the edge of a platform.
-In 1-2, there is a frame-perfect jump that only saves about a second when successful and loses three seconds for every failure. Jumps have to be 16 frames apart and you have no good visual or audio cue to use.
-At the end of 1-2, there is a "hover glitch" that saves three seconds when done optimally by shortcutting to the end of the level. When you leave the Character Select menu, your character is positioned one pixel higher. You can enter the Character Select menu again immediately afterwards to preserve this pixel of height. You can alternate Select and A this way to gain infinite height. Slow, but can be useful for shortcuts. This is the only one that saves time.
-World 1 boss only has a hitbox in its head. You can pass through the rest of its body. If you damage it before its claw attack, it stays vulnerable for the duration of the attack.
-World 2 has a lot of instant-death below its platforms.
-World 2 boss is normally an auto-scroller, but the autoscrolling can be broken by taking a death in the right spot, allowing triggers to be bypassed that affect the autoscrolling on future boss fights. Cera is sacrificed to set up life counts in the next boss.
-World 3 boss can be hit a second time per cycle if you get a high bounce off of it by jumping as you make contact, cutting the time of the fight in half. Also, if you die to the world 3 boss as it moves to the left, the boss warps to the left side of the screen and skips to the next step in its attack cycle. Each warp can save up to five seconds. Dying to it as it moves to the right resets its current step in its attack cycle.
-World 4 boss has a... large... hitbox. With the autoscrolling broken, you can continue to hit its corpse and rack up points.
-Final level has instant-death obstacles, but the sides of the stage are completely safe from them.

Vyreck

Edit history:

Vyreck: 2016-06-14 03:40:16 pm

2016-06-14 01:56:28 pm

I'm running Mark of the Ninja.

There's a lot going on here, but i'll try hitting some important ones.

-I can't be detected, I can't kill anyone, I can't go out of bounds
-Jumping cancels every animation early
-lvl 2 I use a 4-framne trick to pass through a laser
-lvl 3 i sequence break the end of the auto-scroller by getting past the blast door early
-lvl 4 6-frame trick to skip an intro cutscene, and i death abuse for the last checkpoint in the level
-lvl 9 i throw an item through the level geometry and trigger the end of the level ~3 minutes early
-lvl 11 i abuse the way triggering multiple tools at once interact and skip a chunk of the level
-lvl 12 i use a glitch to save a teleport until after i'm locked into an auto scroller to then get back outside of the room. (~25s saved)
-lvl 13 ~2:35 auto scroller

Germench

2016-06-15 04:29:03 am

We are Germench! We are Rummel!

Thank you for your notes. They'll be of grat use.

wobs23

Edit history:

wobs23: 2016-06-15 06:17:02 am

2016-06-15 06:16:51 am

Cloudbuilt <3 Coilworks

I'm running Cloudbuilt (Defiance any%)

Jetpack
- You have a total of 100 energy
- The jetpack has two abilities, a vertical jump (33 energy) and a horizontal boost (25 energy)
- Combo I'll use the most is the "Dash Jump Combo" that is simply a dash followed by a jump in quick succession (45 energy)

Basically every trick in the game involves the dash jump combo.

Gun
- Demi's gun has three charge levels (Yellow -> Green -> Blue)
- Each level increases the damage and also the knockback value
- The knockback on the blue shot is used in combination with jumps for a little extra height, and also do break my fall in certain situations or if I make a mistake.

Pathfinder Tricks
- Basically a list of ways we can move along walls vertically and horizontally without using energy, involves using the knockback of the gun with some precise key presses.

Corner Jumping
- This is the most obvious exploit we use, and summarizing it is really hard, so here's a brief explanation video I made a while ago to do it for me Smiley

Catagory Information
- Defiance is the speedrunning focused, insanely hard, DLC released a year or so ago.
- Obviously the goal is to complete the Defiance dlc asap
- You have to beat two a total of 14 normal levels and the five defiance levels to finish the catagory
- I'll be playing all the normal levels first, followed by the Defiance levels in rough order of difficulty

Sorry if this was to wordy, if you need anything clarified let me know Smiley

I'm running Cloudbuilt (Defiance any%)

Jetpack
- You have a total of 100 energy
- The jetpack has two abilities, a vertical jump (33 energy) and a horizontal boost (25 energy)
- Combo I'll use the most is the "Dash Jump Combo" that is simply a dash followed by a jump in quick succession (45 energy)

Basically every trick in the game involves the dash jump combo.

Gun
- Demi's gun has three charge levels (Yellow -> Green -> Blue)
- Each level increases the damage and also the knockback value
- The knockback on the blue shot is used in combination with jumps for a little extra height, and also do break my fall in certain situations or if I make a mistake.

Pathfinder Tricks
- Basically a list of ways we can move along walls vertically and horizontally without using energy, involves using the knockback of the gun with some precise key presses.

Corner Jumping
- This is the most obvious exploit we use, and summarizing it is really hard, so here's a brief explanation video I made a while ago to do it for me :) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTxvFLLvr6o

Catagory Information
- Defiance is the speedrunning focused, insanely hard, DLC released a year or so ago. 
- Obviously the goal is to complete the Defiance dlc asap
- You have to beat two a total of 14 normal levels and the five defiance levels to finish the catagory
- I'll be playing all the normal levels first, followed by the Defiance levels in rough order of difficulty

Sorry if this was to wordy, if you need anything clarified let me know :)

CavemanDCJ

2016-06-15 11:22:19 am

Totally Radical Awesome Game

go right

Progamingwithed

2016-06-15 11:30:12 am

Fallout 3: by quick saving and quick loading you can skip dialog and walk through walls. If you go out of bounds the game teleports you back inbounds to a specific spot. You get extra speed by loading a save at the same time you break your legs (2-5 frames) because the game gets confused and tries to undo a speed loss you don't have

Progamingwithed

2016-06-15 11:34:29 am

Trine 3: in single player you can switch freely between the three characters, in multiplayer each player stays the same character. Pontious the knight can charge and glide. You can do both at once to make jumps that aren't intended. Zoya the thief can swing on rope and tie things up. She also has a bow. Amadeus the wizard can make boxes and move objects. You aren't supposed to be anle to lift players with boxes but you totally still can. Each level has orange "trineangles". The goal of the game is to collect 900/1050 of them and beat the boss (which has a quick kill)

Rezephos

2016-06-15 11:44:31 am

I am running Super Mario World Low%
this is my pb -

general rules
-no powerups (also means no midway points)
--no yoshi
---no star power

other knowledge
-we will go through the 2nd available star warp, because the first one leads to starworld 1, which is not doable small only.

yoshi's island
-nothing of note, i will take it safe in castle 1

donut plains
- in donut plains 1, i will get a shell and use it to do a trick called shell jump to get the secret exit, which will take me to donut secret 1 and save 38ish seconds over normal exit which would take me to an autoscroller.
-shell jump is comprised of a few different parts, and there is no way to define it as an x amount of frames trick. the first step is to jump and tap and hold left for no more than about 3 frames at about the height of my jump. Then, i need to switch back to ----right and throw the shell right after. If everything went perfectly, i will throw the shell and bounce off of it mid air. you can greatly simplify this as it is complicated.
-----donut ghost house room 2 - i will jump twice on the stairs so i can get pspeed before the boo
-------in donut plains 3, i will try to go on the clouds for a safer / easier strat. it is a random jump based off of mario's oscillating horizontal speed. If i miss, i will do the normal strat which has a 1/5 chance of failure if i jump at the right time, due to the same -------speed stuff.
---------in donut plains 4 i will do a very tight jump under a hammer bro, but i will hold jump while falling to lose a bit of speed before i do the jump, making it easier. at the end i will do a little wiggle to move the hammer bro so i can safely get the goalpoint.
----------morton's castle is just platforming, nothing special. will take the spring to skip a cycle.

vanilla dome
-ok, vanilla dome 1 SUCKS.
-i will pick up a buzzy beetle and use it to kill 2 other buzzy beetles in my way. i will always be able to kill the first one. When mario drops the beetle, its subpixel changes to a random number out of a certain set. a few of those numbers will make me die --when i go to kill the next beetle. a few of those numbers will make me leave my beetle behind when i kill the next one. the rest of those numbers will allow me to kill the beetle and continue with mine. After all this "random" nonsense, i will set up a trick to quickly jump off the beetle as it wakes up, and get secret exit
--in vanilla dome 2, ill grab a shell to wall shell jump and skip a vine, then i'll grab the spring board and turn around midair to drop it under mario's feet.

star world
-star world 2,just swim with yoshi
--star world 3, there is a random chance (based off of the internal clock of the game, not truly "random") that when i go to kill the lakitu, he will throw a spiny and my block will go through him. this sucks. i will usually need to kill myself to reset the level as it is hard to recover. if it goes well, lakitu will die and leave his cloud for me to fly up and get secret exit.
----star world 4-
----i will just platform to the end of the level, but then i will set up a trick with shells to activate the keyblock below, then i will do the same again but then scroll mid air to keep the shell loaded, and jump to a certain height so when i fall down, i will land on the shell (i would watch the video to understand haha)

bowser's castle
-in room 2 i will try to jump on the same time that i punch the cage, so i can jump off earlier and bounce across on the koopas.
--the rest is just playing it fast, nothing neat. i will try my best at an optimal bowser kill. i will throw a mecha koopa when bowser stops moving to drop another ball which will cancel said ball. (ball skip Wink

)

tl;dr
-this game is very weird and dumb and difficult to do fast, good luck with commentary guys Smiley

I am running Super Mario World Low% 
this is my pb - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANUha_GXHK0

general rules
-no powerups (also means no midway points)
--no yoshi
---no star power

other knowledge
-we will go through the 2nd available star warp, because the first one leads to starworld 1, which is not doable small only.

yoshi's island 
-nothing of note, i will take it safe in castle 1

donut plains
- in donut plains 1, i will get a shell and use it to do a trick called shell jump to get the secret exit, which will take me to donut secret 1 and save 38ish seconds over normal exit which would take me to an autoscroller.
  -shell jump is comprised of a few different parts, and there is no way to define it as an x amount of frames trick. the first step is to jump and tap and hold left for no more than about 3 frames at about the height of my jump. Then, i need to switch back to              ----right and throw the shell right after. If everything went perfectly, i will throw the shell and bounce off of it mid air. you can greatly simplify this as it is complicated.
-----donut ghost house room 2 - i will jump twice on the stairs so i can get pspeed before the boo 
-------in donut plains 3, i will try to go on the clouds for a safer / easier strat. it is a random jump based off of mario's oscillating horizontal speed. If i miss, i will do the normal strat which has a 1/5 chance of failure if i jump at the right time, due to the same -------speed stuff. 
---------in donut plains 4 i will do a very tight jump under a hammer bro, but i will hold jump while falling to lose a bit of speed before i do the jump, making it easier. at the end i will do a little wiggle to move the hammer bro so i can safely get the goalpoint.
----------morton's castle is just platforming, nothing special. will take the spring to skip a cycle.

vanilla dome
-ok, vanilla dome 1 SUCKS.
-i will pick up a buzzy beetle and use it to kill 2 other buzzy beetles in my way. i will always be able to kill the first one. When mario drops the beetle, its subpixel changes to a random number out of a certain set. a few of those numbers will make me die --when i go to kill the next beetle. a few of those numbers will make me leave my beetle behind when i kill the next one. the rest of those numbers will allow me to kill the beetle and continue with mine. After all this "random" nonsense, i will set up a trick to quickly jump off the beetle as it wakes up, and get secret exit
--in vanilla dome 2, ill grab a shell to wall shell jump and skip a vine, then i'll grab the spring board and turn around midair to drop it under mario's feet.

star world
-star world 2,just swim with yoshi
--star world 3, there is a random chance (based off of the internal clock of the game, not truly "random") that when i go to kill the lakitu, he will throw a spiny and my block will go through him. this sucks. i will usually need to kill myself to reset the level as it is hard to recover. if it goes well, lakitu will die and leave his cloud for me to fly up and get secret exit.
----star world 4-
----i will just platform to the end of the level, but then i will set up a trick with shells to activate the keyblock below, then i will do the same again but then scroll mid air to keep the shell loaded, and jump to a certain height so when i fall down, i will land on the shell (i would watch the video to understand haha)

bowser's castle
-in room 2 i will try to jump on the same time that i punch the cage, so i can jump off earlier and bounce across on the koopas.
--the rest is just playing it fast, nothing neat. i will try my best at an optimal bowser kill. i will throw a mecha koopa when bowser stops moving to drop another ball which will cancel said ball. (ball skip ;) )

tl;dr
-this game is very weird and dumb and difficult to do fast, good luck with commentary guys :) <3

Mr_Shasta

2016-06-15 11:56:10 am

I'm running both Star Fox Assault (Thursday at 7:36am CST) and Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (Friday at 8:37am CST)

Star Fox Assault:
- To speed up on rails sections, I tap the Y button constantly after letting a full boost go to speed up the Arwing's movements. This will make me move a lot faster because I'm given constant boosting properties instead of boosting, stopping, and boosting again.
- The goal of every on rails section for me is to collect every beam upgrade and all the bombs I can get that aren't too slow or out of the way to take out the bosses quickly. Light green beam is regular power, darker green is 2nd most powerful, and blue beams are the most powerful.
- Missions 4 and 7 have autoscrollers in them. These cannot be sped up so that's what they are. The on rails sections in missions 1, 5, and 10 are not autoscrollers. They can be sped up mostly using the boost button. Note the difference.
- Missions 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 have land sections where you take control of Fox McCloud. By default he has a blaster with 3 power settings. A green beam will do more damage to enemies, blue beams go through multiple enemies, and a red beam will go through multiple enemies and break certain parts of the environment like walls.
- These land sections also have Landmaster Tanks on them, but it's only taken advantage of in Mission 2.
- The clip in Mission 4 works by placing your Landmaster at a specific spot and slowly walking then running against the barrier. The game will try to force Fox past the Landmaster if it's next to a building, but because of the shape of the barrier it just forces Fox past it instead, saving close to a minute optimally.
- The death warps in Missions 3 and 9 are weird. We don't know specifically why it does this, but if you die on the 1st frame of the mission update screen appearing in a mission (it's usually after a cutscene), it'll skip that portion of the mission. In the case of mission 3, it skips the dog fight with Star Wolf out in space, and in Mission 9 it skips having to destroy 6 hatchers underneath the Aparoid Homeworld.

Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land:
- This run is glitchless and mostly about good execution and strats more than anything so there's not a whole lot to explain about it other than individual strats.
- A lot of enemy movements in this game are random. They have a few patterns they do but they cycle through them differently every run. Watch out for Waddle Doo, Frog, and miniboss movements primarily. They love running into me with no way for me to react in time.
- The difference between Any% and 100% is in select levels there are these switches that unlock parts of the overworld. Hitting all of them returns a 100% file on the title screen and an end screen after defeating the final boss that shows I got 100%. That end screen is very cute so watch out for that.
- In 1-2, 2-2, and 6-6 I suck up 2 objects or enemies to create a more powerful star and spit it out at a miniboss to instantly kill it. However in 6-6 it's luck based if I get these 2 objects so it's a major choke point in the run.
- In 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-3, and 6-6, there are these rooms I have to go through I call arenas. I have to kill all the enemies in them and then a door opens up and I'm able to advance. In 3-4 however I do a strat at the beginning to keep Hi Jump through it, which saves a butt load of time up until 4-1. Optimally I get it back after killing the 5th enemy (usually the purple guy), so watch for that.
- in 5-6, 7-1, and 7-6, I'll do mixes. They work by sucking up 2 enemies at the same time and it gives you a roulette of powers that start on a certain power and rotate through a set list depending on what 2 enemies you sucked up. In 5-6 I get 2 Wheels and the 1st power in the Roulette is Hammer, which I then quit out of the level and use on the boss of that world. In 7-1 I suck up a Sword and a Stone and the 1st power here is Ball, which is used on 7-2 to take out the minibosses there quickly. In 7-6 I suck up a Waddle Doo and an Umbrella and the 2nd power in that mix gives me Ball. It's used to take out Dedede quickly.
- As for bosses, Whispy Woods is simple, but we use Burning on him because it makes the 2 levels after him faster. Paint Roller is random where he goes but it's only a difference of a second and a half if I don't mess up. It's random whether Mr. Shine (Sun) or Mr. Bright (Moon) allow me to attack one of them first, but personally I always go after Mr. Bright and hope he allows me to attack him. Kracko has a quick kill on him if I get 5 Hi Jumps and 5 Cancels on him in a row, but it's easy to fail. I just hit Heavy Mole with my Hammer, but I need to watch out for his bottom arm, since it can swing widely and hit me if I'm not careful. Meta Knight is a totally random fight. You get a free Sword and fight him, but whether or not he blocks your attacks and whatever attacks or patterns he does are random. King Dedede is also random what pattern he does, but basically if he sucks Kirby in then that means I got bad luck. Nightmare Orb has the same patterns every time so it's all about spamming my Star Rod and hitting him to save time there. And the final boss Nightmare has set patterns so I just have to time my attacks to kill him.

That's about all that needs to be said. Best of luck with the commentary guys :>

I'm running both Star Fox Assault (Thursday at 7:36am CST) and Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (Friday at 8:37am CST)

Star Fox Assault: 
- To speed up on rails sections, I tap the Y button constantly after letting a full boost go to speed up the Arwing's movements. This will make me move a lot faster because I'm given constant boosting properties instead of boosting, stopping, and boosting again. 
- The goal of every on rails section for me is to collect every beam upgrade and all the bombs I can get that aren't too slow or out of the way to take out the bosses quickly. Light green beam is regular power, darker green is 2nd most powerful, and blue beams are the most powerful.
- Missions 4 and 7 have autoscrollers in them. These cannot be sped up so that's what they are. The on rails sections in missions 1, 5, and 10 are not autoscrollers. They can be sped up mostly using the boost button. Note the difference.
- Missions 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 have land sections where you take control of Fox McCloud. By default he has a blaster with 3 power settings. A green beam will do more damage to enemies, blue beams go through multiple enemies, and a red beam will go through multiple enemies and break certain parts of the environment like walls.
- These land sections also have Landmaster Tanks on them, but it's only taken advantage of in Mission 2. 
- The clip in Mission 4 works by placing your Landmaster at a specific spot and slowly walking then running against the barrier. The game will try to force Fox past the Landmaster if it's next to a building, but because of the shape of the barrier it just forces Fox past it instead, saving close to a minute optimally.
- The death warps in Missions 3 and 9 are weird. We don't know specifically why it does this, but if you die on the 1st frame of the mission update screen appearing in a mission (it's usually after a cutscene), it'll skip that portion of the mission. In the case of mission 3, it skips the dog fight with Star Wolf out in space, and in Mission 9 it skips having to destroy 6 hatchers underneath the Aparoid Homeworld.

Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land:
- This run is glitchless and mostly about good execution and strats more than anything so there's not a whole lot to explain about it other than individual strats.
- A lot of enemy movements in this game are random. They have a few patterns they do but they cycle through them differently every run. Watch out for Waddle Doo, Frog, and miniboss movements primarily. They love running into me with no way for me to react in time.
- The difference between Any% and 100% is in select levels there are these switches that unlock parts of the overworld. Hitting all of them returns a 100% file on the title screen and an end screen after defeating the final boss that shows I got 100%. That end screen is very cute so watch out for that.
- In 1-2, 2-2, and 6-6 I suck up 2 objects or enemies to create a more powerful star and spit it out at a miniboss to instantly kill it. However in 6-6 it's luck based if I get these 2 objects so it's a major choke point in the run.
- In 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-3, and 6-6, there are these rooms I have to go through I call arenas. I have to kill all the enemies in them and then a door opens up and I'm able to advance. In 3-4 however I do a strat at the beginning to keep Hi Jump through it, which saves a butt load of time up until 4-1. Optimally I get it back after killing the 5th enemy (usually the purple guy), so watch for that.
- in 5-6, 7-1, and 7-6, I'll do mixes. They work by sucking up 2 enemies at the same time and it gives you a roulette of powers that start on a certain power and rotate through a set list depending on what 2 enemies you sucked up. In 5-6 I get 2 Wheels and the 1st power in the Roulette is Hammer, which I then quit out of the level and use on the boss of that world. In 7-1 I suck up a Sword and a Stone and the 1st power here is Ball, which is used on 7-2 to take out the minibosses there quickly. In 7-6 I suck up a Waddle Doo and an Umbrella and the 2nd power in that mix gives me Ball. It's used to take out Dedede quickly.
- As for bosses, Whispy Woods is simple, but we use Burning on him because it makes the 2 levels after him faster. Paint Roller is random where he goes but it's only a difference of a second and a half if I don't mess up. It's random whether Mr. Shine (Sun) or Mr. Bright (Moon) allow me to attack one of them first, but personally I always go after Mr. Bright and hope he allows me to attack him. Kracko has a quick kill on him if I get 5 Hi Jumps and 5 Cancels on him in a row, but it's easy to fail. I just hit Heavy Mole with my Hammer, but I need to watch out for his bottom arm, since it can swing widely and hit me if I'm not careful. Meta Knight is a totally random fight. You get a free Sword and fight him, but whether or not he blocks your attacks and whatever attacks or patterns he does are random. King Dedede is also random what pattern he does, but basically if he sucks Kirby in then that means I got bad luck. Nightmare Orb has the same patterns every time so it's all about spamming my Star Rod and hitting him to save time there. And the final boss Nightmare has set patterns so I just have to time my attacks to kill him.

That's about all that needs to be said. Best of luck with the commentary guys :>

tonesbalones

2016-06-15 11:57:42 am

FAST Racing NEO

Here are some notes about FAST Racing NEO, a lot of it will be uncharacteristic of racing games so here's how everything works

Basic Gameplay
-We play as the Rochdale Trust car because it accelerates the fastest, has the best handling, and has the best air speed.
-Your car has two colors you can switch with the X button. Blue and Orange. Colors affect the boost panels you see on the floor. i.e. if you go over a blue panel with blue color you get a boost.
-You can strafe side to side without losing your angle, similar to F-Zero, using the trigger buttons.
-In general, being in the air is slower than being on the ground, so you want to avoid boost jumps
-Orbs on the floor give you boost meter. You can boost at any time.
-The game is notorious for horrible rubberbanding AI. You can play races perfectly and still lose to CPU, they have insane speed randomly and catch up even if you use glitches.
-CPU is also kinda random, and can bump into you and ruin everything

Speedrun Strats
-Strafing sideways across the track accelerates faster and turns corners better, so I use it at the start of the track or any time I lose speed. This is called strafe boosting or side-dashing
-The checkpoint system in the game is kinda broken. You don't need to complete the majority of the track have the lap count, causing huge sequence breaks.
-Reverse Lap Glitch (RLG) is a huge glitch used in every map. If you ever see me going backwards, it's because of this glitch. Basically by going backwards at a certain point you trigger the next lap without crossing the finish line
-Sometimes crashes are necessary to activate the glitch, such as in the very first track. Going OoB and crashing hits the necessary checkpoints for RLG to work.

Additional notes
-The game was patched as of May, and all of the glitches used were fixed. If someone were to download the game now they would not be able to do what I am doing. There is no current way to revert the patch.
-There is an online mode and those glitches did work in online matches before they were fixed

Hope this helps!

FAST Racing NEO

Here are some notes about FAST Racing NEO, a lot of it will be uncharacteristic of racing games so here's how everything works

Basic Gameplay
-We play as the Rochdale Trust car because it accelerates the fastest, has the best handling, and has the best air speed.
-Your car has two colors you can switch with the X button. Blue and Orange. Colors affect the boost panels you see on the floor. i.e. if you go over a blue panel with blue color you get a boost.
-You can strafe side to side without losing your angle, similar to F-Zero, using the trigger buttons.
-In general, being in the air is slower than being on the ground, so you want to avoid boost jumps
-Orbs on the floor give you boost meter. You can boost at any time.
-The game is notorious for horrible rubberbanding AI. You can play races perfectly and still lose to CPU, they have insane speed randomly and catch up even if you use glitches.
-CPU is also kinda random, and can bump into you and ruin everything

Speedrun Strats
-Strafing sideways across the track accelerates faster and turns corners better, so I use it at the start of the track or any time I lose speed. This is called strafe boosting or side-dashing
-The checkpoint system in the game is kinda broken. You don't need to complete the majority of the track have the lap count, causing huge sequence breaks.
-Reverse Lap Glitch (RLG) is a huge glitch used in every map. If you ever see me going backwards, it's because of this glitch. Basically by going backwards at a certain point you trigger the next lap without crossing the finish line
-Sometimes crashes are necessary to activate the glitch, such as in the very first track. Going OoB and crashing hits the necessary checkpoints for RLG to work.

Additional notes
-The game was patched as of May, and all of the glitches used were fixed. If someone were to download the game now they would not be able to do what I am doing. There is no current way to revert the patch.
-There is an online mode and those glitches did work in online matches before they were fixed

Hope this helps!

Straevaras

Edit history:

Straevaras: 2016-06-15 12:20:03 pm

2016-06-15 12:19:19 pm

Space for Rent

I am running ActRaiser Professional! Mode

Here are some notes, a little verbose but take what you need from them.

Notes about the game and category
- This is the NTSC North American version
- All three localizations of the game have significant differences in them
- Professional! Mode:
- Gives you 5 lives (you can only die 4 times)
- You must complete all the platforming stages from the game and the boss rush at the end.
- You are given a full health bar
- All monsters now take at least two hits to kill (most only take one in the regular game)
- All monsters (and bosses) deal two damage, some spikes that aren't instant kill do only one damage.
- There is no magic in this mode

Specific stage notes:
- Fillmore Act 1: Straightforward stage, I'll be getting behind the Centaur to do damage faster, looking for a 249 or 250 timer at the end of the level
- Fillmore Act 2:
- First stage you'll see me back boost in, turning around quickly and jumping backwards into an enemy so I keep going in that direction.
- In the second room you'll also see me wall jump for the first time, a glitch which involves a damage boost to get slightly stuck in the wall and be able to continuously jump up it.
- Health management in this stage can be an issue sometimes, at the top of the walljump climb in the second room. Boss is the Minotaur.
- Bloodpool Act 1: Straightfoward stage, there are a couple of close jumps so I have to be careful with them, expect a one-round Manticore killed either on the top (good) or middle platform (average). Bottom platform kill is slow.
- Bloodpool Act 2:
- Health Management in this stage is very important.
- In the second room I'll take damage from the spikes on the ceiling to take only one damage as compared to taking two off the imp guy. Then I'll immediately try to get the quick elevator cycle. If I miss it, that's a 2 second time loss.
- Next room involves using slash jumps, which is a trick to extend your jump distance by slashing at a certain point in mid-air, to skip some of the platforms over spikes and pits.
- I then enter a water section, where I'm either jumping through the water or using invulnerability frames to move through it (since invulnerability frames allow you to move through the water at normal speed).
- Next I try to do another walljump glitch to skip the elevators by taking damage off the red gel. This is difficult to do, so it won't be a surprise if I miss it.
- In the last room I'll pick up the apple at the top-left of the room, unless I happen to have a lot of left over health.
- The Zeppelin Wolf is the worst RNG boss in the game, spawning either on the floor or any of the platform. Ideally I want him to spawn on the lowest platforms, I can skip his second phase (when he transforms into a werewolf) if I kill him before he teleports away after dropping below half health.
- Kasandora Act 1:
- Mostly Straightforward stage. One back boost is used in the first part of the level.
- It is RNG when the balls of flame drop the smaller flames.
- The second part of the level requires a lot of slash jumps to make it to the ledges.
- Health management is also very important here, and I may kill and wait on some enemies if I'm too low. Typically I am almost dead when I reach the Apple before the boss
- The Dagoba is straightforward, expecting to deal 6-8 hits per round (9 if I time it perfectly).
- Kasandora Act 2:
- I shouldn't take any damage the first room if executed properly, if I do it's not a big deal.
- This is the first level I make extensive use of the double slash, where I slash right before I land and immediately slash again when I do, forcing me into a crouched position to do a second slash.
- In the second room I will attempt a difficult 2-frame jump, where I will try to land on the very edge of spikes in the middle. If I fail 3 times in a row, I will take the intended way around.
- After that jump, I will attempt another walljump glitch. This one is also hard, and if I fail it the first time I may decide not to try again.
- The third room I have to move quickly to make the elevator cycle. If I get hit too many times I won't make it and have to wait for the elevator to come back down.
- Pharaoh is an easy boss to kill, I can put myself in the corner in a way I don't take direct damage from him.
- Aitos Act 1:
- Somewhat of an autoscroller, the first part of this stage is fairly straightforward. It is possible with a perfect (insane) jump to make it across the volcano and save ~10 seconds, but I won't be attempting that.
- Birds are jerks.
- You don't get the sword upgrade in Professional! mode, so I have to kill the Serpent manually. Expecting a 173-176 kill timer.
- Aitos Act 2:
- This stage is awful, and really easy to die. I will be taking a LOT of damage in the first room (a total of 8 hits if done correctly).
- I need to stage one hit in the second room, then slash jump to make the over side.
- The third room I need to watch my health, until I get the apple right before the boss.
- The Fire Wheel is easy, as I mostly face tank him.
- Marahna Act 1:
- Mostly straightforward stage. I'll perform another walljump glitch to skip some of the stage.
- Note that to progress to the next room you only need to touch the edge of the screen rather than go through a specific door, which is why getting above the level works.
- Health management in the second room is important. I need to be able to take three hits from Rafflasher.
- I'll be using Rafflasher's vine to do a walljump glitch to get behind rafflasher and deal damage much faster to him. I have three chances to get this.
- Marahna Act 2:
- Mostly straightforward again. This stage has 2 diverging paths, I'll take the left path.
- Jumping over the square bit can be dangerous, as if I fall down it will either be a huge time loss or death.
- Expecting a 277 timer entering the last door to the boss, Kalia.
- I will stand below Kalia to get him to drop down so I can hit him. I'll be able to hit him 6 times or 7 times if I can take a hit myself.
- When Kalia fires orbs is RNG.
- Northwall Act 1:
- Straightforward, trying to jump early to avoid birds in the first part.
- Second room is where eyes will spawn for the first time. Spawning locations are entirely RNG dependent.
- I need to manage my health in the last room so I have at least 2 hits available for the boss.
- Merman Fly is an easy boss, only needing to take one hit from (keeping two just in case).
- Northwall Act 2:
- Eye RNG is the devil.
- I will attempt another walljump glitch up the left side of the tree. If successful this saves time and health by skipping a small part of the stage.
- My goal is to have as little health as possible when I reach the top of the first part of the tree.
- I will take an intentional death in the second part of the tree to refill health for the Artic Wyvern.
- I prefer swoops or dives as I can deal damage faster that way.
- Boss Rush:
- Most boss strategies are the same, the bosses are sped up.
- Fire Wheel is use a different strat to avoid all damage from him.
- I can only hit Kalia 3 times or 4 times if I take a hit. I want to be as low health as possible upon killing Kalia.
- Another intentional death is taken at the Artic Wyvern.
- Tanzra:
- Stage 1 is easy, mostly avoiding meteor damage and standing in the right place to avoid orb damage. Will only take 2 rounds.
- Stage 2 ideally I will kill Tanzra in three rounds. This is dependent on if I can properly kill his popcorn shots as they come out of his mouth. If done poorly Stage 2 will take 4 rounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n21-EEipM8I

I am running ActRaiser Professional! Mode

Here are some notes, a little verbose but take what you need from them.

Notes about the game and category
 - This is the NTSC North American version
 - All three localizations of the game have significant differences in them
 - Professional! Mode:
    - Gives you 5 lives (you can only die 4 times)
    - You must complete all the platforming stages from the game and the boss rush at the end.
    - You are given a full health bar
    - All monsters now take at least two hits to kill (most only take one in the regular game)
    - All monsters (and bosses) deal two damage, some spikes that aren't instant kill do only one damage.
    - There is no magic in this mode

Specific stage notes:
 - Fillmore Act 1: Straightforward stage, I'll be getting behind the Centaur to do damage faster, looking for a 249 or 250 timer at the end of the level
 - Fillmore Act 2:
    - First stage you'll see me back boost in, turning around quickly and jumping backwards into an enemy so I keep going in that direction. 
    - In the second room you'll also see me wall jump for the first time, a glitch which involves a damage boost to get slightly stuck in the wall and be able to continuously jump up it.
    - Health management in this stage can be an issue sometimes, at the top of the walljump climb in the second room.  Boss is the Minotaur.
 - Bloodpool Act 1: Straightfoward stage, there are a couple of close jumps so I have to be careful with them, expect a one-round Manticore killed either on the top (good) or middle platform (average).  Bottom platform kill is slow.
 - Bloodpool Act 2: 
    - Health Management in this stage is very important.  
    - In the second room I'll take damage from the spikes on the ceiling to take only one damage as compared to taking two off the imp guy.  Then I'll immediately try to get the quick elevator cycle.  If I miss it, that's a 2 second time loss.
    - Next room involves using slash jumps, which is a trick to extend your jump distance by slashing at a certain point in mid-air, to skip some of the platforms over spikes and pits.
    - I then enter a water section, where I'm either jumping through the water or using invulnerability frames to move through it (since invulnerability frames allow you to move through the water at normal speed).
    - Next I try to do another walljump glitch to skip the elevators by taking damage off the red gel.  This is difficult to do, so it won't be a surprise if I miss it.
    - In the last room I'll pick up the apple at the top-left of the room, unless I happen to have a lot of left over health.
    - The Zeppelin Wolf is the worst RNG boss in the game, spawning either on the floor or any of the platform.  Ideally I want him to spawn on the lowest platforms, I can skip his second phase (when he transforms into a werewolf) if I kill him before he teleports away after dropping below half health.
 - Kasandora Act 1: 
    - Mostly Straightforward stage.  One back boost is used in the first part of the level.
    - It is RNG when the balls of flame drop the smaller flames.
    - The second part of the level requires a lot of slash jumps to make it to the ledges.
    - Health management is also very important here, and I may kill and wait on some enemies if I'm too low.  Typically I am almost dead when I reach the Apple before the boss
    - The Dagoba is straightforward, expecting to deal 6-8 hits per round (9 if I time it perfectly).
 - Kasandora Act 2:
    - I shouldn't take any damage the first room if executed properly, if I do it's not a big deal.
    - This is the first level I make extensive use of the double slash, where I slash right before I land and immediately slash again when I do, forcing me into a crouched position to do a second slash.
    - In the second room I will attempt a difficult 2-frame jump, where I will try to land on the very edge of spikes in the middle.  If I fail 3 times in a row, I will take the intended way around.
    - After that jump, I will attempt another walljump glitch.  This one is also hard, and if I fail it the first time I may decide not to try again.
    - The third room I have to move quickly to make the elevator cycle.  If I get hit too many times I won't make it and have to wait for the elevator to come back down.
    - Pharaoh is an easy boss to kill, I can put myself in the corner in a way I don't take direct damage from him.
  - Aitos Act 1:
    - Somewhat of an autoscroller, the first part of this stage is fairly straightforward.  It is possible with a perfect (insane) jump to make it across the volcano and save ~10 seconds, but I won't be attempting that.
    - Birds are jerks.
    - You don't get the sword upgrade in Professional! mode, so I have to kill the Serpent manually.  Expecting a 173-176 kill timer.
  - Aitos Act 2:
    - This stage is awful, and really easy to die.  I will be taking a LOT of damage in the first room (a total of 8 hits if done correctly).
    - I need to stage one hit in the second room, then slash jump to make the over side.
    - The third room I need to watch my health, until I get the apple right before the boss.
    - The Fire Wheel is easy, as I mostly face tank him.
  - Marahna Act 1: 
    - Mostly straightforward stage.  I'll perform another walljump glitch to skip some of the stage.
    - Note that to progress to the next room you only need to touch the edge of the screen rather than go through a specific door, which is why getting above the level works.
    - Health management in the second room is important.  I need to be able to take three hits from Rafflasher.
    - I'll be using Rafflasher's vine to do a walljump glitch to get behind rafflasher and deal damage much faster to him.  I have three chances to get this.
  - Marahna Act 2:
    - Mostly straightforward again.  This stage has 2 diverging paths, I'll take the left path.
    - Jumping over the square bit can be dangerous, as if I fall down it will either be a huge time loss or death.
    - Expecting a 277 timer entering the last door to the boss, Kalia.
    - I will stand below Kalia to get him to drop down so I can hit him.  I'll be able to hit him 6 times or 7 times if I can take a hit myself.
    - When Kalia fires orbs is RNG.
  - Northwall Act 1:
    - Straightforward, trying to jump early to avoid birds in the first part.
    - Second room is where eyes will spawn for the first time.  Spawning locations are entirely RNG dependent.
    - I need to manage my health in the last room so I have at least 2 hits available for the boss.
    - Merman Fly is an easy boss, only needing to take one hit from (keeping two just in case).
  - Northwall Act 2:
    - Eye RNG is the devil.
    - I will attempt another walljump glitch up the left side of the tree.  If successful this saves time and health by skipping a small part of the stage.
    - My goal is to have as little health as possible when I reach the top of the first part of the tree.
    - I will take an intentional death in the second part of the tree to refill health for the Artic Wyvern.
    - I prefer swoops or dives as I can deal damage faster that way.
  - Boss Rush:
    - Most boss strategies are the same, the bosses are sped up.
    - Fire Wheel is use a different strat to avoid all damage from him.
    - I can only hit Kalia 3 times or 4 times if I take a hit.  I want to be as low health as possible upon killing Kalia.
    - Another intentional death is taken at the Artic Wyvern.
  - Tanzra:
    - Stage 1 is easy, mostly avoiding meteor damage and standing in the right place to avoid orb damage.  Will only take 2 rounds.
    - Stage 2 ideally I will kill Tanzra in three rounds.  This is dependent on if I can properly kill his popcorn shots as they come out of his mouth.  If done poorly Stage 2 will take 4 rounds.

glasnonck

2016-06-15 12:48:16 pm

I'm running Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Any%. This run takes advantage of a few glitches to skip dialogue and to make the player character more powerful.

Save Buffer:
- Quick saving into a cutscene (CS) or conversation and then quick loading will generally skip it.
- Skipping the CS can sometimes be done by using a force power instead of quick loading, making the trick easier.

Map CS Skip:
- At the end of each planet, a CS plays.
- If we open the map and choose to "Return to Ebon Hawk" we can skip these scenes.

Menu Glitch (not really a named trick):
- Opening the menu when a popup menu also appears allows us to both operate the open menu and use some in game keybindings since the game is no longer paused.
- This is used for the Fake Level Up as well as the Krayt Dragon Skip.

Fake Level Up (FLU):
- Performing a menu glitch with the character menu allows us to change the party leader during a level up.
- This allows us to easily perform a fake level up. This trick lets us replace any level with a higher level.
- The attribute, skills, feats, and powers gained during the final level up are maintained with some restrictions.
- The other benefits (hp, fp, saving throws, etc) of the higher level are lost.

Krayt Dragon Skip:
- Performing a menu glitch with the options menu lets us enter a CS and then save the game.
- The CS we enter causes the Krayt Dragon to start moving.
- Because our other party member is positioned in front of the dragon, it can only go so far forward.
- This gives us enough space to squeeze by its hitbox on the right side.

I'm running Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Any%. This run takes advantage of a few glitches to skip dialogue and to make the player character more powerful.

Save Buffer:
- Quick saving into a cutscene (CS) or conversation and then quick loading will generally skip it.
- Skipping the CS can sometimes be done by using a force power instead of quick loading, making the trick easier.

Map CS Skip:
- At the end of each planet, a CS plays.
- If we open the map and choose to "Return to Ebon Hawk" we can skip these scenes.

Menu Glitch (not really a named trick):
- Opening the menu when a popup menu also appears allows us to both operate the open menu and use some in game keybindings since the game is no longer paused.
- This is used for the Fake Level Up as well as the Krayt Dragon Skip.

Fake Level Up (FLU):
- Performing a menu glitch with the character menu allows us to change the party leader during a level up.
- This allows us to easily perform a fake level up. This trick lets us replace any level with a higher level.
- The attribute, skills, feats, and powers gained during the final level up are maintained with some restrictions.
- The other benefits (hp, fp, saving throws, etc) of the higher level are lost.

Krayt Dragon Skip:
- Performing a menu glitch with the options menu lets us enter a CS and then save the game.
- The CS we enter causes the Krayt Dragon to start moving.
- Because our other party member is positioned in front of the dragon, it can only go so far forward.
- This gives us enough space to squeeze by its hitbox on the right side.

Omnigamer

2016-06-15 01:30:11 pm

All the things

I'm running Skyblazer and Hagane. Best bet for notes is to go off of my SDA runs that include commentary:

BubblesDelFuego

2016-06-15 01:47:01 pm

That's "Mr." Speedrunner, to you

Here's an FAQ for everything in Fallout 4. I try to list the tricks on there in the order in which they appear in the run. http://pastebin.com/UJWjTNwk

Germench

2016-06-15 02:55:22 pm

We are Germench! We are Rummel!

Thanks for all these notes so far. This is all really helpful.

RabidJellyfish

2016-06-15 03:16:16 pm

I'm running LittleBigPlanet. Basics tricks (I do these throughout the run):

Right Corner Jump (RCJ) - An important feature of sackboy is that he basically has a gyroscope attached to him; when he falls over, the physics engine applies forces to push him back upright. The RCJ abuses this force to gain some extra height. To do an RCJ, stand on the edge of a right corner, run off, and quickly jump. Running off the ledge makes sackboy fall over slightly, and the jump force combines with the gyroscope force to gain some extra height.

Left Corner Jump (LCJ) - If you stand in front of or behind a left corner at the correct spot, then do a double jump, you get a really high jump.

Banana Jump - I only do a couple of these in the run. This also abuses sackboy's gyroscope to get some extra height. When you jump into a corner at the base of a ledge, sackboy falls over a bit, so if you quickly reverse your direction and jump, you'll get extra height.

Race Gate Skip - Again, uses sackboy's gyroscope to gain some extra jumping force. You can jump into the base of a race start gate, trip over it, get a high jump, and clear the race gate without having to wait 3 seconds for it to open. This is a really precise trick, though, so I probably won't get it in the run.

Slope Jumping - Slope jumping is a method of gaining horizontal speed on downward slopes. When sackboy lands on a slope, he falls forward a bit, but instead of jumping while the gyroscope force is being applied, you can jump while he's tripping to maintain some of that extra forward speed. With good timing you can build up some nice speed downhill. I use this throughout the run.

Bunny Hopping - Jumping continuously means less time on the ground, which means less friction. Therefore, when I get lots of speed, I'll bunny hop to try to maintain it for as long as possible.

Major points in the run:

Introduction skip - The run starts out in a 2 and 1/2 minute long introduction levels, and when you finish it, you're sent to the pod, which is the game's central hub/level select. However, if you lose all your lives in this game, you get the option to either retry to the level, or give up and return to the pod. So, in the introduction, I switch my controller number a bunch of times to spawn/despawn new players, which also causes me to lose check point lives and game over, giving me the option to return straight to the pod instead of completing the introduction. This lets me skip the introduction in ~50 seconds instead of 2 and 1/2 minutes.

Cutscene skips - After the intro, there are a few cutscenes that are skipped using controller switching/menu magic. The other 2 cutscenes in the game are skippable as well by opening the start menu while a new level badge is unlocking, selecting "Videos and Voice-overs", and selecting one to override the cutscene dialog and cut it short.

Meerkat Kingdom skip - In the level Meerkat Kingdom, I can position myself perfectly to squeeze myself through a hole in the wall behind me, then run essentially out of bounds past a huge chunk of the level, saving about 2 minutes.

Boom Town skip - This level sucks, because it has a really difficult skip in it that saves about a minute and skips the most stressful, dangerous part of the level... but I only get one try. The way the skip works is that I run to the right to hit a trigger, run back to the left and grab a scorpion that's moving up and down, swing it to the right as it's moving up, jump off it, and essentially use a background event as an elevator to get out of bounds. (It'll make more sense in the actual run - I'll probably just explain each jump and grab as I do them)

Serpent Shrine boss skip - I skip the boss fight at the end of the level by waiting for him to throw a timed explosive, doing an LCJ off it to jump over the wall, then jump over the boss and onto its back. Then I can just use it to lift me up to the ceiling, allowing me to jump out of bounds and to the end of the level.

Subway skip - This is probably the hardest skip in the game - so hard that I actually wrote an app for my phone to make it slightly easier. To do this skip, I chain together two LCJ's (one off a cardboard box, another off the lady's elbow) to land on a swinging light. Then I time the swing of the light to get an RCJ up to the block above, jump, and land in such a way that I can do a slope jump off and out of bounds. That's the hard part; however, right after this, there's a blind drop I have to make onto some trains down below. Because of the train's cycles, I have a 1 in 5 chance of not landing on a train and just dying, forcing me to start the level over. This was annoying, so I wrote an app on my phone that basically acts as a traffic light and times the cycles, telling me when it's safe to make the drop and when it isn't. But yeah, this skip is very hard but saves about a minute if done perfectly.

Dancer's Court skip - I can use the movement of a snake in this level to launch me out of bounds, then do a couple jumps to the scoreboard, skipping over half the level.

Bunker skip - Here I knock over a guy, jump up onto him, and do an RCJ off his hair to get out of bounds, skip the hardest part of the level, and save 30 seconds.

Collector's lair skip - I do an LCJ off of a lever and skip about 20 seconds of the level

Those are all the major skips I'll be doing; unfortunately the game has a crap ton of smaller, more chaotic tricks, so there's probably too much to explain here/a lot of stuff that I'm just going to have to choose to explain if/when I get it. All the tricks we know of are documented in this video series, so if you get the time, you can watch them (I understand if not): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSx6AAsHna_RfnlWu61ndeZ5HQ0i83Mpr

I'm running LittleBigPlanet. Basics tricks (I do these throughout the run):

[i]Right Corner Jump (RCJ)[/i] - An important feature of sackboy is that he basically has a gyroscope attached to him; when he falls over, the physics engine applies forces to push him back upright. The RCJ abuses this force to gain some extra height. To do an RCJ, stand on the edge of a right corner, run off, and quickly jump. Running off the ledge makes sackboy fall over slightly, and the jump force combines with the gyroscope force to gain some extra height.

[i]Left Corner Jump (LCJ)[/i] - If you stand in front of or behind a left corner at the correct spot, then do a double jump, you get a really high jump.

[i]Banana Jump[/i] - I only do a couple of these in the run. This also abuses sackboy's gyroscope to get some extra height. When you jump into a corner at the base of a ledge, sackboy falls over a bit, so if you quickly reverse your direction and jump, you'll get extra height.

[i]Race Gate Skip[/i] - Again, uses sackboy's gyroscope to gain some extra jumping force. You can jump into the base of a race start gate, trip over it, get a high jump, and clear the race gate without having to wait 3 seconds for it to open. This is a really precise trick, though, so I probably won't get it in the run.

[i]Slope Jumping[/i] - Slope jumping is a method of gaining horizontal speed on downward slopes. When sackboy lands on a slope, he falls forward a bit, but instead of jumping while the gyroscope force is being applied, you can jump while he's tripping to maintain some of that extra forward speed. With good timing you can build up some nice speed downhill. I use this throughout the run.

[i]Bunny Hopping[/i] - Jumping continuously means less time on the ground, which means less friction. Therefore, when I get lots of speed, I'll bunny hop to try to maintain it for as long as possible.

Major points in the run:

[i]Introduction skip[/i] - The run starts out in a 2 and 1/2 minute long introduction levels, and when you finish it, you're sent to the pod, which is the game's central hub/level select. However, if you lose all your lives in this game, you get the option to either retry to the level, or give up and return to the pod. So, in the introduction, I switch my controller number a bunch of times to spawn/despawn new players, which also causes me to lose check point lives and game over, giving me the option to return straight to the pod instead of completing the introduction. This lets me skip the introduction in ~50 seconds instead of 2 and 1/2 minutes.

[i]Cutscene skips[/i] - After the intro, there are a few cutscenes that are skipped using controller switching/menu magic. The other 2 cutscenes in the game are skippable as well by opening the start menu while a new level badge is unlocking, selecting "Videos and Voice-overs", and selecting one to override the cutscene dialog and cut it short.

[i]Meerkat Kingdom skip[/i] - In the level Meerkat Kingdom, I can position myself perfectly to squeeze myself through a hole in the wall behind me, then run essentially out of bounds past a huge chunk of the level, saving about 2 minutes.

[i]Boom Town skip[/i] - This level sucks, because it has a really difficult skip in it that saves about a minute and skips the most stressful, dangerous part of the level... but I only get one try. The way the skip works is that I run to the right to hit a trigger, run back to the left and grab a scorpion that's moving up and down, swing it to the right as it's moving up, jump off it, and essentially use a background event as an elevator to get out of bounds. (It'll make more sense in the actual run - I'll probably just explain each jump and grab as I do them)

[i]Serpent Shrine boss skip[/i] - I skip the boss fight at the end of the level by waiting for him to throw a timed explosive, doing an LCJ off it to jump over the wall, then jump over the boss and onto its back. Then I can just use it to lift me up to the ceiling, allowing me to jump out of bounds and to the end of the level.

[i]Subway skip[/i] - This is probably the hardest skip in the game - so hard that I actually wrote an app for my phone to make it slightly easier. To do this skip, I chain together two LCJ's (one off a cardboard box, another off the lady's elbow) to land on a swinging light. Then I time the swing of the light to get an RCJ up to the block above, jump, and land in such a way that I can do a slope jump off and out of bounds. That's the hard part; however, right after this, there's a blind drop I have to make onto some trains down below. Because of the train's cycles, I have a 1 in 5 chance of not landing on a train and just dying, forcing me to start the level over. This was annoying, so I wrote an app on my phone that basically acts as a traffic light and times the cycles, telling me when it's safe to make the drop and when it isn't. But yeah, this skip is very hard but saves about a minute if done perfectly.

[i]Dancer's Court skip[/i] - I can use the movement of a snake in this level to launch me out of bounds, then do a couple jumps to the scoreboard, skipping over half the level.

[i]Bunker skip[/i] - Here I knock over a guy, jump up onto him, and do an RCJ off his hair to get out of bounds, skip the hardest part of the level, and save 30 seconds.

[i]Collector's lair skip[/i] - I do an LCJ off of a lever and skip about 20 seconds of the level

Those are all the major skips I'll be doing; unfortunately the game has a crap ton of smaller, more chaotic tricks, so there's probably too much to explain here/a lot of stuff that I'm just going to have to choose to explain if/when I get it. All the tricks we know of are documented in this video series, so if you get the time, you can watch them (I understand if not): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSx6AAsHna_RfnlWu61ndeZ5HQ0i83Mpr

Dangerless

2016-06-15 03:41:59 pm

Excellent!

General basics for Wario World ~ http://pastebin.com/aWiQQG0p

SpootyBiscuit

Edit history:

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SpootyBiscuit: 2016-06-15 09:49:29 pm

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SpootyBiscuit: 2016-06-15 08:50:28 pm

2016-06-15 08:49:28 pm

Crypt of the Necrodancer is kinda hard to summarize - as a roguelike, what we would explain during the run is going to be wildly unpredictable, because we have no guarantees as to what exactly would be happening/what items we'd be finding/what bosses we're fighting. I'll do my best to cover the basics:

Basic mechanics:
- Crypt of the NecroDancer is a rhythm-based roguelike dungeon crawler. Each turn in-game lasts a single musical beat.
- Controls are the arrow keys. Whether or not pressing a direction results in movement or attack (or both) depends on the range of the held weapon.
- The game has 4 zones. Each zone consists of 3 normal floors (each with increasing tempo and enemy toughness) and a boss floor.
- The boss for each floor is randomly selected (other than Zone 4, which is always the same for Cadence, Melody, and Aria). The later a given boss appears, the more difficult it becomes.

Zone 1:
- Basic cave level. Contains the most basic of enemies and hazards.
- Since this is the easiest zone with the slowest songs, the typical goal here is to progress as quickly as possible with minimal shopping and item hunting.
- Floor exits are located to the southeast on average, but trapdoors are generally ideal. These skip to the next floor, but force the player into a small arena fight if they hadn't yet killed the floor's mini-boss.
- The order of the bosses for the first 3 zones is randomized - they can be one of Coral Riff, Death Metal, Deep Blues, or King Conga. (more details on each individual fight later)
- Getting a Flawless Victory (no damage, no missed beats) is very important on the first boss, especially if still on the basic dagger (to get a better weapon).

Zone 2:
- Contains some new enemies and upgraded versions of zone 1 enemies.
- Very frequently contains lots of bombs, which are important for the final boss, so we'll likely be looking for them here.
- Exit is generally in the opposite direction from the open paths in the starting room (e.g. paths leading south and west means the exit is most likely northeast).

Zone 3:
- Zone 3 contains enemies with much more complex movement, so large enemy swarms are common. The difficulty of the game usually picks up considerably here.
- Hotcoals and ice are very common floor hazards here. Hotcoals cause damage if the player remains stationary on them, while ice causes the player to slide until blocked or reaching a non-ice tile.
- Boots to protect from one (or both) of the floor hazards are very helpful. Explorer's Boots protect from hotcoals, Lead Boots protect from ice, Winged Boots protect from both.
- Map layouts are very difficult to interpret and trapdoors are very rare, so racers could gain or lose a lot of time on their opponent based on how long it takes to find the exit.

Zone 4:
- Contains the most technically complex enemies in the game.
- Digging a wall also affects the tiles adjacent to it, which can lead to large numbers of enemies flooding through the hole quickly.
- Every floor is a giant square, with the player starting in one corner and the exit in the opposite. Trapdoors will not appear.
- Ooze is an extremely dangerous floor hazard that causes the "shrunk" status, preventing attacking or digging and doubling damage intake. Explorers', Lead, and Winged boots will all protect from this.

There's also a donation war for an additional race on a different character. The vast majority of the game rules remain the same with one or two exceptions. They're as follows:

- Melody is forced to use the Golden lute as her weapon. The Golden Lute deals 1 damage to all surrounding enemies, but only when she moves. Damage boosting items and weapons will not appear. Her Zone 4 boss is a modified NecroDancer fight.
- Bolt moves at double tempo and starts with a spear. Their Zone 4 boss is the last remaining of the normal four (Coral Riff, Deep Blues, Death Metal, King Conga).
- Dorian starts with a bunch of equipment (pickaxe, boots of leaping, platemail, ring of might, compass), but is forced to keep the boots active (moving with them inactive causes damage). His Zone 4 boss is the last of the normal four.
- Bard has no rhythm mechanic and moves as quickly as the player provides input. His Zone 4 boss is the last of the normal four.

Boss Details

Coral Riff
- Generally the easiest fight regardless of zone. Each successive zone grants +1 HP to two additional tentacles and the head. This buff is usually inconsequential.
- The pace of the first phase depends on the held weapon. Throwable weapons can be thrown at the head to instantly skip to phase 2. Wide weapons allow the player to walk up to the head and attack it, ignoring its evasion attempts. Long weapons will generally force the player to do the first phase "as intended" by attacking the tentacles as they approach the player.
- Once in phase 2, Coral Riff's head can be damaged. In the case of a thrown weapon, this is usually done with a bomb. Otherwise, he can be attacked normally.

Death Metal
- Death Metal has the fastest song in the game. Each successive zone changes the enemies in the arena, as well as what types of enemies he summons mid-fight.
- DM's actions depend on his HP. At mid-level HP he attempts to summon minions, and at low HP he will shoot fireballs.
- Death Metal 1 is often considered one of the most dangerous versions, due to the player generally being under-equipped and his ability to rapidly flood the screen with skeletons in his summon phase. Therefore, quickly bursting him down into the fireball phase (usually using a bomb) is important.

Deep Blues
- Deep Blues has the smallest arena with the highest enemy density. Successive versions grant +1 HP to assorted pieces, though this buff is generally inconsequential.
- High damage throwable weapons (3+ for DB1/2 or 5+ for DB3) allow the fight to be ended instantly by throwing at the King.
- Rapiers allow for a conditional quick-kill where the player simply walks up the center towards the king.
- Otherwise, the player can either kill all the pieces and then the King, or push towards the back corner and attack him directly (usually with a bomb to one-shot him).

King Conga
- King Conga has an irregular rhythm with every 8th beat removed. This makes movement through his fight slow - it's generally preferred not to see him at all, as he's usually the slowest boss to fight.
- King Conga is invulnerable while either his throne or the conga lines are alive. The player can either kill the conga lines or destroy his throne (either with a bomb or high level shovel) to make him vulnerable.

Dead Ringer
- The first of the zone 4 bosses. All 4 bells must be rung (each one summoning a respective mini-boss) to move into phase 2. At this point, he has to be lured into charging the gong at the top of the arena.
- Alternative, faster methods to reach phase 2 include using an earthquake scroll (destroying the bells) or attacking Dead Ringer directly. Attacking Dead Ringer requires a Dagger of Phasing or an attack that does at least 10 damage in one shot.

The NecroDancer
- Final boss for Cadence. Both characters are bound to the same controls. Both characters must survive the fight.
- The first phase involves button puzzles, in which both characters have to be manipulated to stand on buttons simultaneously, triggering bombs to destroy the stage. If the player has enough bombs, a Blood Shovel, or a Ring of Phasing with 1 bomb, phase 1 can be skipped entirely by destroying the stage directly.
- A bug with the shield spell (if we have it) allows it to last much longer than intended by casting it just before the transition into the phase 2 song.
- If enough enemies are left on the stage, The NecroDancer will be unable to summon additional minions in phase 2 due to spawn limits.
- In phase 2, the NecroDancer will attempt to flee from the player if they get close, normally forcing the player to either corner him or wait for him to stop and cast a spell. However, his AI can be exploited, causing him to move barely within reach of attack before he can retreat again.

Item Glossary

Weapons:
- Weapons can be 6 materials.
-- Iron/Leather weapons deal 1 damage.
-- Gold weapons deal 1 damage, but deal infinite damage the beat after the player collects any gold.
-- Blood weapons deal 1 damage, but deal infinite damage if the player is at 0.5 HP. Every 10 kills regenerate 0.5 HP for the player.
-- Titanium weapons deal 2 damage.
-- Obsidian weapons deal damage based on the coin multiplier (1-3 damage).
-- Glass weapons deal 4 damage, but break if the player takes any damage. The resulting glass shard is equal to the starting iron dagger.

- Weapons can be multiple different types.
-- Daggers can only attack adjacent tiles. Can be thrown.
--- Dagger of Frost is a special weapon that deals 1 piercing damage and freezes an enemy for 3 beats. Deals infinite damage when attacking a frozen enemy. Melts into a normal dagger if hit by fire-based attacks or bombs.
--- Dagger of Phasing is a special weapon that deals 2 phasing damage. This ignores almost all defensive enemy properties and always deals direct damage (except against the NecroDancer). It also allows the player to attack from inside walls if used with the Ring of Phasing.
--- Jeweled Dagger is the only 5 damage weapon in the game.
-- Spears can attack an enemy two tiles away. Can be thrown.
-- Longswords attack two tiles forward simultaneously.
-- Broadswords attack three tiles in a horizontal line in front of the player simultaneously.
-- Flails attack five tiles in a U-shape surrounding the player simultaneously, pushing back any enemies hit. Normally very strong, but difficult to use in zone 4 against Blademasters.
-- Rapiers can attack an enemy two tiles away. Upon doing so, a double-damage lunge attack is done, moving the player towards the enemy. Considered one of the best speedrunning weapons in the game.
-- Cat-o-nine-tails can attack one enemy in a 5-tile U-shape surrounding the player. If the direction pressed is open, the player moves while attacking. Considered one of the best speedrunning weapons in the game.
-- Crossbows can attack four tiles away and deals piercing damage, ignoring most defensive enemy properties. Needs to be reloaded after 3 shots. When left unloaded, is identical to a dagger (no piercing damage).
-- Whips can attack one enemy out of a 5-tile horizontal line in front of the player. Considered the worst weapon due to its tendency to get the player "stuck" on distant enemies.
-- Bows can attack one enemy up to three tiles away. Generally considered a poor speedrunning weapon, as it results in attacking enemies one could otherwise safely ignore.
-- Guns are extremely rare. Both guns deal piercing damage and have a recoil effect when firing, pushing the player back one tile (unless Lead Boots or Heavy Plate are equipped).
--- Rifle shoots 3-damage bullets in a straight line. Acts as a basic dagger when not loaded.
--- Blunderbuss shoots a 2-damage conical spray of bullets. Acts as a titanium dagger when not loaded.

Armor:
- Most armor simply reduces incoming damage by a certain amount, depending on the strength of the armor. Incoming damage can not be reduced to zero.
-- Leather Armor reduces damage by 0.5
-- Chainmail reduces damage by 1
-- Plate Mail reduces damage by 1.5
-- Heavy Plate reduces damage by 2. It also prevents the movement effects of skeleton mages, bounce traps, and gun recoil.
-- Obsidian Armor depends upon the coin multiplier, reducing damage anywhere from 0.5 up to 1.5.
- Glass armor completely prevents damage from one attack, breaking in the process.
- Karate Gi doubles damage taken and received.

Headgear:
- Blast helm gives 3 bombs, grants immunity to explosive damage, and makes player bombs detonate instantly. Generally considered one of the best headgear in the game.
- Circlet of Telepathy reveals all enemy positions, which is helpful for finding the exit. It also reveals the normally randomly-spawning wraiths and ghasts, which can make them swarm the player aggressively.
- Crown of Greed can only be obtained by killing the shopkeeper, and doubles gold pickups. While useless in a speedrun, players might kill the shopkeeper for it to replace an unwanted Glass Jaw.
- Crown of Thorns deal 0.5 damage on pickup, and provide 0.5 HP regen every 10 kills.
- Crown of Teleportation prevents incoming damage for one hit and teleports the player to the shop, breaking in the process. This can be sometimes be exploited to quickly get closer to the exit.
- Glass Jaw doubles the player's damage output, but makes all incoming damage lethal.
- Helm reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Miner's Cap automatically digs nearby walls as the player moves. Considered a very strong speedrunning item, but can result in large enemy swarms.
- Monocle reveals all items. It also reveals wraiths and ghasts, like the Circlet of Telepathy.
- Sunglasses increase damage output by 1, but turn enemy sprites into silhouettes.

Footwear:
- Ballet Shoes prevents the coin multiplier loss from missing beats or performing invalid actions. Good with Obsidian equipment, which are strongest with a maxed multiplier.
- Boots of Leaping allow the player to move two tiles. They can be toggled on and off, though this shares the same key combination as weapon reloading and throwing, making them awkward to use with these weapons.
- Boots of Lunging allow the player to move four tiles. Enemies in the player's path will be pushed back and damaged. Extremely rare and generally considered unwieldly, these probably won't be seen in the run.
- Boots of Pain deal 1.5 damage to the player on pickup, but deal 3 damage in the direction of movement whenever the player moves. Bad with weapons with long range.
- Boots of Strength increase damage output by 1.
- Explorer's Boots protect from water, tar, hotcoals, and ooze.
- Hargreaves reduce incoming damage by 0.5.
- Lead Boots protect from ice, wind spells, gun recoil, bounce traps, spike traps, and ooze.
- Winged Boots protect from all floor hazards. While great for safety, they prevent the use of trapdoors.

Rings
- Ring of Becoming causes the player to die in one hit, but becomes the powerful Ring of Wonder if transmuted.
- Ring of Charisma cuts shop prices in half. Generally worthless.
- Ring of Courage increases damage output by 1. Whenever a weapon attack kills an enemy, the player becomes invincible for the current beat and moves forward one tile. One of the best speed items in the game.
- Ring of Gold provides additional gold from enemies and automatically collects all gold on the ground whenever the player moves. Generally worthless.
- Ring of Luck changes items found, usually to better ones. Also prevents bats from attacking the player (unless all their other movement options are blocked).
- Ring of Mana powers up spells and drastically reduces the number of kills required to recharge them. Ridiculously overpowered with freeze and shield spells.
- Ring of Might increases damage output by 1.
- Ring of Peace provides an empty heart container, as well as reduces enemy counts and weakens mini-bosses for future floors. Very strong speed item, especially if found early.
- Ring of Phasing allows the player to walk through walls. While the player is phased into a wall, most enemies will stop moving, and vision radius will reduce to 1 (unless holding a torch). Very strong speed item, especially for Zone 4.
- Ring of Protection reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Ring of Regeneration heals the player 1 HP at the start of every floor.
- Ring of Shadows allows the player to steal from shops, but reduces their vision radius drastically.
- Ring of Shielding prevents damage from one attack, casting a Greater Shield spell and breaking in the process.
- Ring of War increases damage output by 1. Whenever the player attacks, damaged enemies are knocked back a tile.
- Ring of Wonder increases damage output by 2, heals the player 1 HP at the start of every floor, provides additional gold from enemy kills, grants an additional heart container, reduces incoming damage by 0.5, reduces the number of kills required to recharge spells, and cuts shop prices in half. Can only be obtained by transmuting the Ring of Becoming.

Shovels:
- Basic/Iron Shovel can only dig basic dirt walls.
- Titanium Shovel can dig rock walls.
- Obsidian Shovel's dig strength is based on the coin multiplier. At max multiplier, it will dig everything except gold walls and the Necrodancer's stage.
- Pickaxe can dig any wall except gold or the Necrodancer's stage. Stronger walls take multiple hits.
- Glass Shovel can dig any wall, but breaks upon taking damage or digging a gold wall or the Necrodancer's stage. The resulting glass shard is equivalent to the basic shovel. Can be used to help skip NecroDancer phase 1.
- Blood Shovel can dig any wall. Walls stronger than dirt cost 0.5 HP to dig, and will dig a large area surrounding the tile. The best shovel, as it allows NecroDancer phase 1 to be skipped entirely (provided the player has enough HP).

Torches:
- Torch increases vision by 1.
- Bright Torch increases vision by 2.
- Luminous Torch increases vision by 3.
- Glass Torch increases vision by 3 and reveals all enemies, but breaks upon taking damage.
- Infernal Torch increases vision by 1. Upon digging a wall with a torch mounted, the player shoots an 8 damage horizontal fireball.
- Torch of Foresight increases vision by 1 and reveals all traps. Good for finding trapdoors.

Charms:
- Frost Charm prevents incoming damage on one hit, casting a Greater Freeze spell and breaking in the process.
- Gluttony Charm grants additional heart containers upon "overeating" (using a food item that heals more HP than is missing).
- Lucky Charm changes the items found and prevents bats from attacking the player. Can only be found by summoning and killing a leprechaun with a pile of 50+ gold.
- Nazar Charm prevents Wraiths and Ghasts from randomly spawning.
- Protection Charm reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Risk Charm increases damage output by 2 if the player is at 0.5 HP.
- Strength Charm increases damage output by 1.

Spells:
- Bomb behaves identically to a normal bomb.
- Fireball shoots a 3 damage horizontal fireball.
- Freeze freezes nearby enemies for 8 beats.
- Heal restores 0.5 HP. Players can cast it even when it's not charged by casting it as they hit the exit stairs, as the exit stairs provide immunity against the blood cost.
- Shield prevents damage for 8 beats.
- Transmute changes randomly changes nearby items.

Usable Items:
- Food items are Apple, Cheese, Drumstick, and Ham. When used, they restore 1-4 HP respectively. The player is invulnerable on the beat food is consumed.
- Holy Water deals 5 damage to surrounding tiles, and restores 1 HP for each enemy hit.
- War Drum doubles weapon damage for the next beat. If used 5+ times consecutively, it triples it instead.
- Blood Drum provides infinite damage and digging power for the next beat, at the cost of 0.5 HP.
- Heart Transplant removes the rhythm mechanic for 20 seconds, allowing the player to move as quickly as they want.

- Earthquake Scroll damages ground-based enemies and destroys random walls. Usually only used against bosses.
- Enchant Weapon Scroll changes the current weapon to another random weapon of the same type.
- Fear Scroll causes all enemies to flee from the player. Usually only used as a desperation move against swarms, though it can be used to quickly finish the last phase of Melody's NecroDancer fight.
- Fireball Scroll launches a horizontal 8 damage fireball.
- Freeze Scroll freezes all enemies on the map for 15 beats.
- Gigantism Scroll doubles damage output, reduces damage taken by 50%, and increases dig power for 50 beats.
- Need Scroll has various effects, depending on current conditions. The most common uses are for a Potion (given if the player is at 0.5 HP) and a Glass Rapier (given if the player has no weapon).
- Riches Scroll grants 50 gold, affected by the coin multiplier. Almost always useless in a speedrun setting.
- Shield Scroll provides immunity to damage for 20 beats.
- Transmute Scroll randomly changes all items on the current floor.

Misc.
- Holster allows the player to carry an extra weapon.
- Backpack allows the player to carry an extra usable item.
- Pack of Holding allows the player to carry infinite usable items.
- Compass points towards the floor's exit.
- Map grants a full map of every floor.
- Coupon grants a free item at any shop.
- Potion acts as an extra life, automatically restoring the player to full HP when they take lethal damage. Can only be found in hidden potion rooms or from Scroll of Need.

Basic mechanics:
- Crypt of the NecroDancer is a rhythm-based roguelike dungeon crawler. Each turn in-game lasts a single musical beat.
- Controls are the arrow keys. Whether or not pressing a direction results in movement or attack (or both) depends on the range of the held weapon.
- The game has 4 zones. Each zone consists of 3 normal floors (each with increasing tempo and enemy toughness) and a boss floor.
- The boss for each floor is randomly selected (other than Zone 4, which is always the same for Cadence, Melody, and Aria). The later a given boss appears, the more difficult it becomes.

Zone 1:
- Basic cave level. Contains the most basic of enemies and hazards.
- Since this is the easiest zone with the slowest songs, the typical goal here is to progress as quickly as possible with minimal shopping and item hunting.
- Floor exits are located to the southeast on average, but trapdoors are generally ideal. These skip to the next floor, but force the player into a small arena fight if they hadn't yet killed the floor's mini-boss.
- The order of the bosses for the first 3 zones is randomized - they can be one of Coral Riff, Death Metal, Deep Blues, or King Conga. (more details on each individual fight later) 
- Getting a Flawless Victory (no damage, no missed beats) is very important on the first boss, especially if still on the basic dagger (to get a better weapon).

Zone 2:
- Contains some new enemies and upgraded versions of zone 1 enemies.
- Very frequently contains lots of bombs, which are important for the final boss, so we'll likely be looking for them here.
- Exit is generally in the opposite direction from the open paths in the starting room (e.g. paths leading south and west means the exit is most likely northeast).

Zone 3:
- Zone 3 contains enemies with much more complex movement, so large enemy swarms are common. The difficulty of the game usually picks up considerably here.
- Hotcoals and ice are very common floor hazards here. Hotcoals cause damage if the player remains stationary on them, while ice causes the player to slide until blocked or reaching a non-ice tile.
- Boots to protect from one (or both) of the floor hazards are very helpful. Explorer's Boots protect from hotcoals, Lead Boots protect from ice, Winged Boots protect from both.
- Map layouts are very difficult to interpret and trapdoors are very rare, so racers could gain or lose a lot of time on their opponent based on how long it takes to find the exit.

Zone 4:
- Contains the most technically complex enemies in the game.
- Digging a wall also affects the tiles adjacent to it, which can lead to large numbers of enemies flooding through the hole quickly.
- Every floor is a giant square, with the player starting in one corner and the exit in the opposite. Trapdoors will not appear.
- Ooze is an extremely dangerous floor hazard that causes the "shrunk" status, preventing attacking or digging and doubling damage intake. Explorers', Lead, and Winged boots will all protect from this.

There's also a donation war for an additional race on a different character. The vast majority of the game rules remain the same with one or two exceptions. They're as follows:

- Melody is forced to use the Golden lute as her weapon. The Golden Lute deals 1 damage to all surrounding enemies, but only when she moves. Damage boosting items and weapons will not appear. Her Zone 4 boss is a modified NecroDancer fight.
- Bolt moves at double tempo and starts with a spear. Their Zone 4 boss is the last remaining of the normal four (Coral Riff, Deep Blues, Death Metal, King Conga).
- Dorian starts with a bunch of equipment (pickaxe, boots of leaping, platemail, ring of might, compass), but is forced to keep the boots active (moving with them inactive causes damage). His Zone 4 boss is the last of the normal four.
- Bard has no rhythm mechanic and moves as quickly as the player provides input. His Zone 4 boss is the last of the normal four.

Boss Details
[hidden]Coral Riff
- Generally the easiest fight regardless of zone. Each successive zone grants +1 HP to two additional tentacles and the head. This buff is usually inconsequential.
- The pace of the first phase depends on the held weapon. Throwable weapons can be thrown at the head to instantly skip to phase 2. Wide weapons allow the player to walk up to the head and attack it, ignoring its evasion attempts. Long weapons will generally force the player to do the first phase "as intended" by attacking the tentacles as they approach the player.
- Once in phase 2, Coral Riff's head can be damaged. In the case of a thrown weapon, this is usually done with a bomb. Otherwise, he can be attacked normally.

Death Metal
- Death Metal has the fastest song in the game. Each successive zone changes the enemies in the arena, as well as what types of enemies he summons mid-fight.
- DM's actions depend on his HP. At mid-level HP he attempts to summon minions, and at low HP he will shoot fireballs.
- Death Metal 1 is often considered one of the most dangerous versions, due to the player generally being under-equipped and his ability to rapidly flood the screen with skeletons in his summon phase. Therefore, quickly bursting him down into the fireball phase (usually using a bomb) is important.

Deep Blues
- Deep Blues has the smallest arena with the highest enemy density. Successive versions grant +1 HP to assorted pieces, though this buff is generally inconsequential.
- High damage throwable weapons (3+ for DB1/2 or 5+ for DB3) allow the fight to be ended instantly by throwing at the King.
- Rapiers allow for a conditional quick-kill where the player simply walks up the center towards the king.
- Otherwise, the player can either kill all the pieces and then the King, or push towards the back corner and attack him directly (usually with a bomb to one-shot him).

King Conga
- King Conga has an irregular rhythm with every 8th beat removed. This makes movement through his fight slow - it's generally preferred not to see him at all, as he's usually the slowest boss to fight.
- King Conga is invulnerable while either his throne or the conga lines are alive. The player can either kill the conga lines or destroy his throne (either with a bomb or high level shovel) to make him vulnerable.

Dead Ringer
- The first of the zone 4 bosses. All 4 bells must be rung (each one summoning a respective mini-boss) to move into phase 2. At this point, he has to be lured into charging the gong at the top of the arena.
- Alternative, faster methods to reach phase 2 include using an earthquake scroll (destroying the bells) or attacking Dead Ringer directly. Attacking Dead Ringer requires a Dagger of Phasing or an attack that does at least 10 damage in one shot.

The NecroDancer
- Final boss for Cadence. Both characters are bound to the same controls. Both characters must survive the fight.
- The first phase involves button puzzles, in which both characters have to be manipulated to stand on buttons simultaneously, triggering bombs to destroy the stage. If the player has enough bombs, a Blood Shovel, or a Ring of Phasing with 1 bomb, phase 1 can be skipped entirely by destroying the stage directly.
- A bug with the shield spell (if we have it) allows it to last much longer than intended by casting it just before the transition into the phase 2 song.
- If enough enemies are left on the stage, The NecroDancer will be unable to summon additional minions in phase 2 due to spawn limits.
- In phase 2, the NecroDancer will attempt to flee from the player if they get close, normally forcing the player to either corner him or wait for him to stop and cast a spell. However, his AI can be exploited, causing him to move barely within reach of attack before he can retreat again.[/hidden]

Item Glossary
[hidden]
Weapons:
- Weapons can be 6 materials.
-- Iron/Leather weapons deal 1 damage.
-- Gold weapons deal 1 damage, but deal infinite damage the beat after the player collects any gold.
-- Blood weapons deal 1 damage, but deal infinite damage if the player is at 0.5 HP. Every 10 kills regenerate 0.5 HP for the player.
-- Titanium weapons deal 2 damage.
-- Obsidian weapons deal damage based on the coin multiplier (1-3 damage).
-- Glass weapons deal 4 damage, but break if the player takes any damage. The resulting glass shard is equal to the starting iron dagger.

- Weapons can be multiple different types.
-- Daggers can only attack adjacent tiles. Can be thrown. 
--- Dagger of Frost is a special weapon that deals 1 piercing damage and freezes an enemy for 3 beats. Deals infinite damage when attacking a frozen enemy. Melts into a normal dagger if hit by fire-based attacks or bombs.
--- Dagger of Phasing is a special weapon that deals 2 phasing damage. This ignores almost all defensive enemy properties and always deals direct damage (except against the NecroDancer). It also allows the player to attack from inside walls if used with the Ring of Phasing.
--- Jeweled Dagger is the only 5 damage weapon in the game.
-- Spears can attack an enemy two tiles away. Can be thrown.
-- Longswords attack two tiles forward simultaneously.
-- Broadswords attack three tiles in a horizontal line in front of the player simultaneously.
-- Flails attack five tiles in a U-shape surrounding the player simultaneously, pushing back any enemies hit. Normally very strong, but difficult to use in zone 4 against Blademasters.
-- Rapiers can attack an enemy two tiles away. Upon doing so, a double-damage lunge attack is done, moving the player towards the enemy. Considered one of the best speedrunning weapons in the game.
-- Cat-o-nine-tails can attack one enemy in a 5-tile U-shape surrounding the player. If the direction pressed is open, the player moves while attacking. Considered one of the best speedrunning weapons in the game.
-- Crossbows can attack four tiles away and deals piercing damage, ignoring most defensive enemy properties. Needs to be reloaded after 3 shots. When left unloaded, is identical to a dagger (no piercing damage).
-- Whips can attack one enemy out of a 5-tile horizontal line in front of the player. Considered the worst weapon due to its tendency to get the player "stuck" on distant enemies.
-- Bows can attack one enemy up to three tiles away. Generally considered a poor speedrunning weapon, as it results in attacking enemies one could otherwise safely ignore.
-- Guns are extremely rare. Both guns deal piercing damage and have a recoil effect when firing, pushing the player back one tile (unless Lead Boots or Heavy Plate are equipped).
--- Rifle shoots 3-damage bullets in a straight line. Acts as a basic dagger when not loaded.
--- Blunderbuss shoots a 2-damage conical spray of bullets. Acts as a titanium dagger when not loaded.

Armor:
- Most armor simply reduces incoming damage by a certain amount, depending on the strength of the armor. Incoming damage can not be reduced to zero.
-- Leather Armor reduces damage by 0.5
-- Chainmail reduces damage by 1
-- Plate Mail reduces damage by 1.5
-- Heavy Plate reduces damage by 2. It also prevents the movement effects of skeleton mages, bounce traps, and gun recoil.
-- Obsidian Armor depends upon the coin multiplier, reducing damage anywhere from 0.5 up to 1.5.
- Glass armor completely prevents damage from one attack, breaking in the process.
- Karate Gi doubles damage taken and received.

Headgear:
- Blast helm gives 3 bombs, grants immunity to explosive damage, and makes player bombs detonate instantly. Generally considered one of the best headgear in the game.
- Circlet of Telepathy reveals all enemy positions, which is helpful for finding the exit. It also reveals the normally randomly-spawning wraiths and ghasts, which can make them swarm the player aggressively.
- Crown of Greed can only be obtained by killing the shopkeeper, and doubles gold pickups. While useless in a speedrun, players might kill the shopkeeper for it to replace an unwanted Glass Jaw.
- Crown of Thorns deal 0.5 damage on pickup, and provide 0.5 HP regen every 10 kills.
- Crown of Teleportation prevents incoming damage for one hit and teleports the player to the shop, breaking in the process. This can be sometimes be exploited to quickly get closer to the exit.
- Glass Jaw doubles the player's damage output, but makes all incoming damage lethal.
- Helm reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Miner's Cap automatically digs nearby walls as the player moves. Considered a very strong speedrunning item, but can result in large enemy swarms.
- Monocle reveals all items. It also reveals wraiths and ghasts, like the Circlet of Telepathy.
- Sunglasses increase damage output by 1, but turn enemy sprites into silhouettes.

Footwear:
- Ballet Shoes prevents the coin multiplier loss from missing beats or performing invalid actions. Good with Obsidian equipment, which are strongest with a maxed multiplier.
- Boots of Leaping allow the player to move two tiles. They can be toggled on and off, though this shares the same key combination as weapon reloading and throwing, making them awkward to use with these weapons.
- Boots of Lunging allow the player to move four tiles. Enemies in the player's path will be pushed back and damaged. Extremely rare and generally considered unwieldly, these probably won't be seen in the run.
- Boots of Pain deal 1.5 damage to the player on pickup, but deal 3 damage in the direction of movement whenever the player moves. Bad with weapons with long range.
- Boots of Strength increase damage output by 1.
- Explorer's Boots protect from water, tar, hotcoals, and ooze.
- Hargreaves reduce incoming damage by 0.5.
- Lead Boots protect from ice, wind spells, gun recoil, bounce traps, spike traps, and ooze.
- Winged Boots protect from all floor hazards. While great for safety, they prevent the use of trapdoors.

Rings
- Ring of Becoming causes the player to die in one hit, but becomes the powerful Ring of Wonder if transmuted.
- Ring of Charisma cuts shop prices in half. Generally worthless.
- Ring of Courage increases damage output by 1. Whenever a weapon attack kills an enemy, the player becomes invincible for the current beat and moves forward one tile. One of the best speed items in the game.
- Ring of Gold provides additional gold from enemies and automatically collects all gold on the ground whenever the player moves. Generally worthless.
- Ring of Luck changes items found, [i]usually[/i] to better ones. Also prevents bats from attacking the player (unless all their other movement options are blocked).
- Ring of Mana powers up spells and drastically reduces the number of kills required to recharge them. Ridiculously overpowered with freeze and shield spells.
- Ring of Might increases damage output by 1.
- Ring of Peace provides an empty heart container, as well as reduces enemy counts and weakens mini-bosses for future floors. Very strong speed item, especially if found early.
- Ring of Phasing allows the player to walk through walls. While the player is phased into a wall, most enemies will stop moving, and vision radius will reduce to 1 (unless holding a torch). Very strong speed item, especially for Zone 4.
- Ring of Protection reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Ring of Regeneration heals the player 1 HP at the start of every floor.
- Ring of Shadows allows the player to steal from shops, but reduces their vision radius drastically.
- Ring of Shielding prevents damage from one attack, casting a Greater Shield spell and breaking in the process.
- Ring of War increases damage output by 1. Whenever the player attacks, damaged enemies are knocked back a tile.
- Ring of Wonder increases damage output by 2, heals the player 1 HP at the start of every floor, provides additional gold from enemy kills, grants an additional heart container, reduces incoming damage by 0.5, reduces the number of kills required to recharge spells, and cuts shop prices in half. Can only be obtained by transmuting the Ring of Becoming.

Shovels:
- Basic/Iron Shovel can only dig basic dirt walls.
- Titanium Shovel can dig rock walls.
- Obsidian Shovel's dig strength is based on the coin multiplier. At max multiplier, it will dig everything except gold walls and the Necrodancer's stage.
- Pickaxe can dig any wall except gold or the Necrodancer's stage. Stronger walls take multiple hits.
- Glass Shovel can dig any wall, but breaks upon taking damage or digging a gold wall or the Necrodancer's stage. The resulting glass shard is equivalent to the basic shovel. Can be used to help skip NecroDancer phase 1.
- Blood Shovel can dig any wall. Walls stronger than dirt cost 0.5 HP to dig, and will dig a large area surrounding the tile. The best shovel, as it allows NecroDancer phase 1 to be skipped entirely (provided the player has enough HP).

Torches:
- Torch increases vision by 1.
- Bright Torch increases vision by 2.
- Luminous Torch increases vision by 3.
- Glass Torch increases vision by 3 and reveals all enemies, but breaks upon taking damage.
- Infernal Torch increases vision by 1. Upon digging a wall with a torch mounted, the player shoots an 8 damage horizontal fireball.
- Torch of Foresight increases vision by 1 and reveals all traps. Good for finding trapdoors.

Charms:
- Frost Charm prevents incoming damage on one hit, casting a Greater Freeze spell and breaking in the process.
- Gluttony Charm grants additional heart containers upon "overeating" (using a food item that heals more HP than is missing).
- Lucky Charm changes the items found and prevents bats from attacking the player. Can only be found by summoning and killing a leprechaun with a pile of 50+ gold.
- Nazar Charm prevents Wraiths and Ghasts from randomly spawning.
- Protection Charm reduces incoming damage by 0.5.
- Risk Charm increases damage output by 2 if the player is at 0.5 HP.
- Strength Charm increases damage output by 1.

Spells:
- Bomb behaves identically to a normal bomb.
- Fireball shoots a 3 damage horizontal fireball.
- Freeze freezes nearby enemies for 8 beats.
- Heal restores 0.5 HP. Players can cast it even when it's not charged by casting it as they hit the exit stairs, as the exit stairs provide immunity against the blood cost.
- Shield prevents damage for 8 beats.
- Transmute changes randomly changes nearby items.

Usable Items:
- Food items are Apple, Cheese, Drumstick, and Ham. When used, they restore 1-4 HP respectively. The player is invulnerable on the beat food is consumed.
- Holy Water deals 5 damage to surrounding tiles, and restores 1 HP for each enemy hit.
- War Drum doubles weapon damage for the next beat. If used 5+ times consecutively, it triples it instead.
- Blood Drum provides infinite damage and digging power for the next beat, at the cost of 0.5 HP.
- Heart Transplant removes the rhythm mechanic for 20 seconds, allowing the player to move as quickly as they want.

- Earthquake Scroll damages ground-based enemies and destroys random walls. Usually only used against bosses.
- Enchant Weapon Scroll changes the current weapon to another random weapon of the same type.
- Fear Scroll causes all enemies to flee from the player. Usually only used as a desperation move against swarms, though it can be used to quickly finish the last phase of Melody's NecroDancer fight.
- Fireball Scroll launches a horizontal 8 damage fireball.
- Freeze Scroll freezes all enemies on the map for 15 beats.
- Gigantism Scroll doubles damage output, reduces damage taken by 50%, and increases dig power for 50 beats.
- Need Scroll has various effects, depending on current conditions. The most common uses are for a Potion (given if the player is at 0.5 HP) and a Glass Rapier (given if the player has no weapon).
- Riches Scroll grants 50 gold, affected by the coin multiplier. Almost always useless in a speedrun setting.
- Shield Scroll provides immunity to damage for 20 beats.
- Transmute Scroll randomly changes all items on the current floor.

Misc.
- Holster allows the player to carry an extra weapon.
- Backpack allows the player to carry an extra usable item.
- Pack of Holding allows the player to carry infinite usable items.
- Compass points towards the floor's exit.
- Map grants a full map of every floor.
- Coupon grants a free item at any shop.
- Potion acts as an extra life, automatically restoring the player to full HP when they take lethal damage. Can only be found in hidden potion rooms or from Scroll of Need.
[/hidden]

eBloodyCandy

Edit history:

eBloodyCandy: 2016-06-15 11:51:39 pm

2016-06-15 11:51:19 pm

Drip... Drop...

PrincessProto, TrUShade, and myself will be racing Kirby's Dream Land.

Lag Reduction
All of you that run this game or have even played it casually notice a tremendous amount of lag.. especially on Float Islands or if you're doing All Items for some reason, Castle Lololo. This game is like many Game Boy games where performance suffers when there are a lot of sprites on the screen (sprite overload). Basic gamer instincts wants us to kill all the Waddle Dees and Poppy Bro Jrs, but think before killing your next Kirby Victim...

When you destroy an enemy you create up to 4-6 EXTRA sprites on the screen. If you're in a laggy section of the game or on a screen with a number of enemies killing one is going to cause a significant amount of lag. One of the great things with Dream Land is that you can swallow nearly instantly upon inhaling an enemy. With that said there are times where you will need to make an exception and exhale to progress faster.

Holding Up on the DPad vs Holding A to hover with Kirby. Surprising enough there is a difference, but it very faint. Holding Up on the DPad actually causes additional lag in the game (who knows why), but the lag that is gained is extremely minimal and will probably at most (this has not been tested) save ~1 second. This information is courtesy of Mugg1991

Despawning enemies is a thing in this game, but there is no true answer as to how to do it with the exception of 1 in Bubbly Clouds (founded by eBloodyCandy). Despawning enemies can obviously be your friend because of the reduced sprites on the screen which equals less lag and 1 less obstacle in the way. I have seen first hand and through various other runs enemies despawning in Green Greens, Float Islands, Bubbly Clouds, and Mt. Dedede. I don't think we're aware of consistent ways of despawning with the exception of despawning a enemy in the room before Kracko Jr. on Extra Mode. The set up is very simple and saves you about 2 -3 seconds in the long run because of jump timings and lag. When entering the room before Kracko Jr. inhale the Waddle Dee, jump to the next platform and exhale left while up against the wall. This will kill an enemy and while exhaling hold up on the dpad to start your hover. Only go as high as the next floor and exhale your wind to kil the next enemy. Progress through that floor until you get to the 3rd tier. There you will 1 less enemy in the way in the bottom corner for your first jump.

Saving some frames in Mt. Dedede with cutting the sound after each boss battle is a thing and it's one of the easiest things you can do to save a few frames. After every boss kill you will hear an explosion and some blowing up animations. Fun to watch, but takes away from going fast! After landing the final hit on a boss refight go into a hover state and start hovering by hold A or holding up. This will cancel the explosion sound effect and cut the explosion animation time down, allowing you to get to the next boss faster.

Door Tech
Brief trick previously known to optimize time and save around 4 seconds through a run. If you exhale with a puff or star automatically when enter a door you'll take an extra few miliseconds to enter. If you exhale manually then enter you don't lose this time. Remember to breathe! Discovered by ZeGuesst

Poppy Bro Sr. Bomb Strats
The first Mini-Boss of the game is in the first 30 seconds of the run and Poppy has 3 attacks, slow bomb, fast bomb, and dance. There are optimal spots on the board to stand to manipulate Poppy's next attack. You will see the runners stand close to Poppy at a certain spot (which is frame/pixel perfect) to try and trigger a fast bomb attack. A slow bomb 3rd attack loses 2 seconds, and a dance third attack loses ~4 seconds.

TAS Spit/Instant Actions
If you inhale an enemy from afar there will be a notably long delay where you can't jump or inhale again. If you swallow your inhaled object or enemy and then inhale something from a close distance (or from below / above) you will have the object inhaled and the delay is skipped! You can instantly spit your star, swallow the object or jump. This is very useful for bosses and also allows for some neat tricks (using all three bomb drops of Kracko or using both stars from Dedede's stamp). The effect of this glitch is canceled if you float or inhale normally. Discovered by Mugg1991

PrincessProto, TrUShade, and myself will be racing Kirby's Dream Land.

[size="18"][b]Lag Reduction[/b][/size]
All of you that run this game or have even played it casually notice a tremendous amount of lag.. especially on Float Islands or if you're doing All Items for some reason, Castle Lololo. This game is like many Game Boy games where performance suffers when there are a lot of sprites on the screen (sprite overload). Basic gamer instincts wants us to kill all the Waddle Dees and Poppy Bro Jrs, but think before killing your next Kirby Victim...

When you destroy an enemy you create up to 4-6 EXTRA sprites on the screen. If you're in a laggy section of the game or on a screen with a number of enemies killing one is going to cause a significant amount of lag. One of the great things with Dream Land is that you can swallow nearly instantly upon inhaling an enemy. With that said there are times where you will need to make an exception and exhale to progress faster.

Holding Up on the DPad vs Holding A to hover with Kirby. Surprising enough there is a difference, but it very faint. Holding Up on the DPad actually causes additional lag in the game (who knows why), but the lag that is gained is extremely minimal and will probably at most (this has not been tested) save ~1 second. This information is courtesy of Mugg1991

Despawning enemies is a thing in this game, but there is no true answer as to how to do it with the exception of 1 in Bubbly Clouds (founded by eBloodyCandy). Despawning enemies can obviously be your friend because of the reduced sprites on the screen which equals less lag and 1 less obstacle in the way. I have seen first hand and through various other runs enemies despawning in Green Greens, Float Islands, Bubbly Clouds, and Mt. Dedede. I don't think we're aware of consistent ways of despawning with the exception of despawning a enemy in the room before Kracko Jr. on Extra Mode. The set up is very simple and saves you about 2 -3 seconds in the long run because of jump timings and lag. When entering the room before Kracko Jr. inhale the Waddle Dee, jump to the next platform and exhale left while up against the wall. This will kill an enemy and while exhaling hold up on the dpad to start your hover. Only go as high as the next floor and exhale your wind to kil the next enemy. Progress through that floor until you get to the 3rd tier. There you will 1 less enemy in the way in the bottom corner for your first jump.

Saving some frames in Mt. Dedede with cutting the sound after each boss battle is a thing and it's one of the easiest things you can do to save a few frames. After every boss kill you will hear an explosion and some blowing up animations. Fun to watch, but takes away from going fast! After landing the final hit on a boss refight go into a hover state and start hovering by hold A or holding up. This will cancel the explosion sound effect and cut the explosion animation time down, allowing you to get to the next boss faster.

[size="18"][b]Door Tech[/b][/size]
Brief trick previously known to optimize time and save around 4 seconds through a run. If you exhale with a puff or star automatically when enter a door you'll take an extra few miliseconds to enter. If you exhale manually then enter you don't lose this time. Remember to breathe! Discovered by ZeGuesst

[size="18"][b]Poppy Bro Sr. Bomb Strats[/b][/size]
The first Mini-Boss of the game is in the first 30 seconds of the run and Poppy has 3 attacks, slow bomb, fast bomb, and dance.  There are optimal spots on the board to stand to manipulate Poppy's next attack.  You will see the runners stand close to Poppy at a certain spot (which is frame/pixel perfect) to try and trigger a fast bomb attack.  A slow bomb 3rd attack loses 2 seconds, and a dance third attack loses ~4 seconds.

[size="18"][b]TAS Spit/Instant Actions[/b][/size]
If you inhale an enemy from afar there will be a notably long delay where you can't jump or inhale again. If you swallow your inhaled object or enemy and then inhale something from a close distance (or from below / above) you will have the object inhaled and the delay is skipped! You can instantly spit your star, swallow the object or jump. This is very useful for bosses and also allows for some neat tricks (using all three bomb drops of Kracko or using both stars from Dedede's stamp). The effect of this glitch is canceled if you float or inhale normally. Discovered by Mugg1991

Seckswrecks

Edit history:

Seckswrecks: 2016-06-18 10:58:38 pm

2016-06-18 10:58:14 pm

Just Horsing Around

http://pastebin.com/RbfMWxcy

RogueLink

Edit history:

RogueLink: 2016-06-19 03:17:50 pm

2016-06-19 03:14:41 pm

Gargoyle's Quest 2 Notes

Full Run With Commentary:

General Notes:
A lot of the game involves lag mitigation. The more enemies on screen, the more likely the game is to lag.

When moving off a platform it is faster to walk off the edge and hover than it is to jump off the platform.

Spamming your attack on bosses doesn't usually help since the bosses have invulnerability frames. You want to attack in a steady rhythm instead.

Training Level, Town Level, and Boss - Nagus
A good example of basic movement.

In the town you want to kill the ghouls and the bats as soon as they appear.
If multiple ghouls are on screen at the same time the game lags significantly.

The first big time save is from a pillar covered in spikes. You are able to damage boost up the pillar, fly over it, and land on a safe spot on the last spike.

The boss is fairly straight forward, but has a lot of randomness.
Ideally the boss will stand on the right side of the screen and sit still.

Simple Bridge and Moving Platform Bridge
After leaving town with the jump upgrade there is a bridge you need to cross. Just try to survive, fairly simple.

After crossing this bridge you need to get the password in the first town that you see. This allows for a death warp that saves several minutes.

From the town head east and follow the mountains north. Talking to the Ghoul before the bridge will give you a health upgrade. This gives us a total of 4 health. We will have 4 health until the end of the game.

Next is the moving platform bridge. The idea with this level is to keep moving as jump as soon as you are on the edge of the platforms. This will allow the platforms to spawn ahead of you early. It is also important to keep an eye on the attacks from these platforms to prevent them from knocking you into the instant kill floor.

Jungle - Boss Death Balloon
From the bridge move North East to the Jungle.
At the beginning of the jungle you want to jump as late as possible to make it more likely to land on the first and second moving platforms.

For the fourth moving platform, you want to land on the shooting enemy facing to the right. This will damage boost you to the right. While you still have invulnerability frame, jump into the left side of the moving platform and you will clip onto the top of it. This should leave you with 3 heath, if performed correctly.

Next continue through the jungle until you reach a chasm that automatically pushes firebrand up when he flies. Use all but one health to damage boost up the left side to safe time. At the top of the chasm, die jumping up into the second spike on the left side. This will kill firebrand, but warp him to the top of the platform and restore his health.

From here continue left being very careful with your health. In order to get the quick kill on the boss you must have at least 3 health.
To quick kill the boss jump over the spikes and hit the boss twice. Jump up and Land on the right side of the platform. Attack in a fairly quick rhythm instead of mashing. If performed correctly the Boss will hit you twice and not move before it dies.

Super Jump and Desert Palace - Boss Sand Frog:
Head to the far left from the jungle into the cave. Navigate through the cave and go into the hut. Talk to the person in the hut and use the item they gave you (the second in your inventory) while standing on the special tile. After finishing this dialog make sure to talk to the person a second time to receive a Wing upgrade. You cannot progress without this upgrade.

Exit the cave to the east and follow the mountains. If the ghoul doesn't let you past, you didn't collect the jump upgrade.
The next jump is the tightest jump in the game. Jump at the last possible second and manage your stamina on your way across instead of just holding the button to hover.

At the start of the Sand Palace switch your weapon to the brick breaker. this allows you to destroy some of the walls in this level.
Fall all the way down to the bottom of the pit, do not break the blocks half-way down the pit. This is an alternate slower route.
Not too many fancy tricks this level, just make sure to keep at eye out for enemies that spawn off screen.

When you enter the boss room fly immediately to grab the platform in front of you and jump into the air so that you are the same height as sand frog.
Jump slightly to the left, allowing you to attack sand frog as it flies towards you. After the initial attack Sand Frog will fall to the moving platform below. If you hover slightly over the ground and move under him as he jumps, he tends to keep jumping. If he shoots the mini-frogs jump in the air so that they launch off screen and away from you.

Next Bridge, Fake King Boss, and Twin Guardians Boss
Once exiting the level, head back to the bridge to the west and die in the pit until you game over.
This will warp you to where we got the password earlier.
Go to the king in the center of this town and use the gremlin stick that you just received on him (Fourth Item)

Exit the down and head west, talk to the ghoul in front of the bridge to gain access to the bridge.
This level is fairly straight forward. Switch to the tornado ability to make temporary platforms to get over all of the large gaps or to travel up the level.

Speak to the King in the center of the next town. Spam B to immediately say "No" to his question. He will then attack you.

As soon as the fight starts jump so that the top of firebrands head is lined up with the top of the platform in the middle of the screen. The fake kill will stop right in front of firebrand. When the king starts moving again, jump over it and land on the platform on the other side to continue the attack. Keep attacking until the king runs into you, then get a few more hits to finish it.

Next leave the town and head north east. With this level be sure to use your tornado to kill the bees and ascend quickly. After the tall climb with spikes on both sides. Make sure to stay as close to the ceiling as possible. This will prevent enemies from spawning which will prevent lag.

On the boss just try to survive. They randomly move fast or slow. You want to keep the guardians about half a screen away to prevent the quick movement from reaching you.

Once the boss is dead talk to the real king for an upgrade, then exit.

Mantis Boss, Simple Bridge, Mirror Maze, Doppelganger Boss
Next head west and talk to the Mantis to fight them and open up the next bridge. Fire two shots at the mantis about a quarter of a second apart.
Land on the right side of the platform with your feet only a few pixels under the platform. If positioned correctly all of the attacks will go over your head.

Next head up into the bridge. This level is fairly straight forward.

The next level is the mirror maze. Each mirror will take you to a different door.
For accurate routing, check out one of my runs.
Tornado is used to quickly climb as well as to defeat all of the enemies in the level.
In the room with the closing pillars, it is possible to slide between them if positioned correctly. You can also damage boost through them to save a little bit of time.

The doppelganger boss is fairly straight forward. On set intervals the boss will charge you. You want to position yourself so that your head is lined up with the bosses head. Then when the boss charges, you can stop hovering and dodge the attack. Do not attack the boss when it looks like you. this will deal damage to yourself.

Final Death Warp and Goza Boss
One the plot dialog has finished, talk to the character in the lower right corner of the room to get a password. This will be used for the last death warp.

Go due south, following the mountains as they move east. Enter the third cave that you see to progress. Work your way through this level to get to the next town.

Once in town, enter the doors to the top right and top left. The characters within will give you a new attack and a Wing Upgrade. Once you have these two upgrades, exit the town and get a game over on the previous level. This will warp you to the password. Talk to the man in the center of the room to get a jump upgrade and the final item.

Leave the town and use the final item (2nd Row 2nd Column) on the barrier.

Head to the castle for the next level.

The level is fairly straight forward. You want to switch to your new weapon. this will kill all enemies in the area in two hits.
Try to avoid killing the ghosts with the lanterns. These will cause the screen to turn black for several seconds.

For the boss jump forward, then up onto the highest block. Stand on the far left side of the block.
If positioned correctly the boss will not break the block below your feet and you will only need to dodge the red orbs. Attack the boss with a Rhythm using the claw weapon

Final Level
Before the level you get an upgrade for everything.
After flying over the first set of green slimes, switch to the tornado. Jump on into the spikes on the ceiling, facing to the left.
This will damage boost you to the right and allow you to briefly walk over the instant kill spikes.

When you see a bottle with a face, collect it to get a full health restore and a health upgrade.
Most of the level is fairly direct. The attacks of the skeletons with heads on the wall are a lot larger than they appear, so be careful avoiding their attacks.

For the final fight jump onto the upper left side of the moving platform so that Firebrands feet are in the air off the platform.
Sit in that position until you are hit by one of the white orbs.
While damage boosting, jump over the two red attacks and position yourself in front of the bosses face or horn.
Attack in a quick rhythm without spamming to make sure all your hits work.
If done correctly the boss with die before the red attacks get to you.

Next finish talking to the boss again, walk forward and talk to the king.

Time is when the king stops talking.

[size="18"][b]Gargoyle's Quest 2 Notes[/b][/size]

[size="16"][b]Full Run With Commentary:[/b][/size]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O07J7jNjjo

[size="16"][b]General Notes:[/b][/size]
A lot of the game involves lag mitigation. The more enemies on screen, the more likely the game is to lag.

When moving off a platform it is faster to walk off the edge and hover than it is to jump off the platform.

Spamming your attack on bosses doesn't usually help since the bosses have invulnerability frames. You want to attack in a steady rhythm instead.

[size="16"][b]Training Level, Town Level, and Boss - Nagus[/b][/size]
A good example of basic movement.

In the town you want to kill the ghouls and the bats as soon as they appear.
If multiple ghouls are on screen at the same time the game lags significantly.

The first big time save is from a pillar covered in spikes. You are able to damage boost up the pillar, fly over it, and land on a safe spot on the last spike.

The boss is fairly straight forward, but has a lot of randomness. 
Ideally the boss will stand on the right side of the screen and sit still.

[size="16"][b]Simple Bridge and Moving Platform Bridge[/b][/size]
After leaving town with the jump upgrade there is a bridge you need to cross. Just try to survive, fairly simple.

After crossing this bridge you need to get the password in the first town that you see. This allows for a death warp that saves several minutes.

From the town head east and follow the mountains north. Talking to the Ghoul before the bridge will give you a health upgrade. This gives us a total of 4 health. We will have 4 health until the end of the game.

Next is the moving platform bridge. The idea with this level is to keep moving as jump as soon as you are on the edge of the platforms. This will allow the platforms to spawn ahead of you early. It is also important to keep an eye on the attacks from these platforms to prevent them from knocking you into the instant kill floor.

[size="16"][b]Jungle - Boss Death Balloon[/b][/size]
From the bridge move North East to the Jungle.
At the beginning of the jungle you want to jump as late as possible to make it more likely to land on the first and second moving platforms.

For the fourth moving platform, you want to land on the shooting enemy facing to the right. This will damage boost you to the right. While you still have invulnerability frame, jump into the left side of the moving platform and you will clip onto the top of it. This should leave you with 3 heath, if performed correctly.

Next continue through the jungle until you reach a chasm that automatically pushes firebrand up when he flies. Use all but one health to damage boost up the left side to safe time. At the top of the chasm, die jumping up into the second spike on the left side. This will kill firebrand, but warp him to the top of the platform and restore his health.

From here continue left being very careful with your health. In order to get the quick kill on the boss you must have at least 3 health. 
To quick kill the boss jump over the spikes and hit the boss twice. Jump up and Land on the right side of the platform. Attack in a fairly quick rhythm instead of mashing. If performed correctly the Boss will hit you twice and not move before it dies.

[size="16"][b]Super Jump and Desert Palace - Boss Sand Frog:[/b][/size]
Head to the far left from the jungle into the cave. Navigate through the cave and go into the hut. Talk to the person in the hut and use the item they gave you (the second in your inventory) while standing on the special tile. After finishing this dialog make sure to talk to the person a second time to receive a Wing upgrade. You cannot progress without this upgrade.

Exit the cave to the east and follow the mountains. If the ghoul doesn't let you past, you didn't collect the jump upgrade. 
The next jump is the tightest jump in the game. Jump at the last possible second and manage your stamina on your way across instead of just holding the button to hover.

At the start of the Sand Palace switch your weapon to the brick breaker. this allows you to destroy some of the walls in this level. 
Fall all the way down to the bottom of the pit, do not break the blocks half-way down the pit. This is an alternate slower route. 
Not too many fancy tricks this level, just make sure to keep at eye out for enemies that spawn off screen.

When you enter the boss room fly immediately to grab the platform in front of you and jump into the air so that you are the same height as sand frog.
Jump slightly to the left, allowing you to attack sand frog as it flies towards you. After the initial attack Sand Frog will fall to the moving platform below. If you hover slightly over the ground and move under him as he jumps, he tends to keep jumping. If he shoots the mini-frogs jump in the air so that they launch off screen and away from you.

[size="16"][b]Next Bridge, Fake King Boss, and Twin Guardians Boss[/b][/size]
Once exiting the level, head back to the bridge to the west and die in the pit until you game over.  
This will warp you to where we got the password earlier.
Go to the king in the center of this town and use the gremlin stick that you just received on him (Fourth Item)

Exit the down and head west, talk to the ghoul in front of the bridge to gain access to the bridge.
This level is fairly straight forward. Switch to the tornado ability to make temporary platforms to get over all of the large gaps or to travel up the level.

Speak to the King in the center of the next town. Spam B to immediately say "No" to his question. He will then attack you.

As soon as the fight starts jump so that the top of firebrands head is lined up with the top of the platform in the middle of the screen. The fake kill will stop right in front of firebrand. When the king starts moving again, jump over it and land on the platform on the other side to continue the attack. Keep attacking until the king runs into you, then get a few more hits to finish it.

Next leave the town and head north east. With this level be sure to use your tornado to kill the bees and ascend quickly. After the tall climb with spikes on both sides. Make sure to stay as close to the ceiling as possible. This will prevent enemies from spawning which will prevent lag.

On the boss just try to survive. They randomly move fast or slow. You want to keep the guardians about half a screen away to prevent the quick movement from reaching you.

Once the boss is dead talk to the real king for an upgrade, then exit.

[size="16"][b]Mantis Boss, Simple Bridge, Mirror Maze, Doppelganger Boss[/b][/size]
Next head west and talk to the Mantis to fight them and open up the next bridge. Fire two shots at the mantis about a quarter of a second apart. 
Land on the right side of the platform with your feet only a few pixels under the platform. If positioned correctly all of the attacks will go over your head.

Next head up into the bridge. This level is fairly straight forward.

The next level is the mirror maze. Each mirror will take you to a different door.
For accurate routing, check out one of my runs.
Tornado is used to quickly climb as well as to defeat all of the enemies in the level.
In the room with the closing pillars, it is possible to slide between them if positioned correctly. You can also damage boost through them to save a little bit of time.

The doppelganger boss is fairly straight forward. On set intervals the boss will charge you. You want to position yourself so that your head is lined up with the bosses head. Then when the boss charges, you can stop hovering and dodge the attack. Do not attack the boss when it looks like you. this will deal damage to yourself.

[size="16"][b]Final Death Warp and Goza Boss[/b][/size]
One the plot dialog has finished, talk to the character in the lower right corner of the room to get a password. This will be used for the last death warp.

Go due south, following the mountains as they move east. Enter the third cave that you see to progress. Work your way through this level to get to the next town.

Once in town, enter the doors to the top right and top left. The characters within will give you a new attack and a Wing Upgrade. Once you have these two upgrades, exit the town and get a game over on the previous level. This will warp you to the password. Talk to the man in the center of the room to get a jump upgrade and the final item.

Leave the town and use the final item (2nd Row 2nd Column) on the barrier.

Head to the castle for the next level.

The level is fairly straight forward. You want to switch to your new weapon. this will kill all enemies in the area in two hits.
Try to avoid killing the ghosts with the lanterns. These will cause the screen to turn black for several seconds.

For the boss jump forward, then up onto the highest block. Stand on the far left side of the block.
If positioned correctly the boss will not break the block below your feet and you will only need to dodge the red orbs. Attack the boss with a Rhythm using the claw weapon

[size="16"][b]Final Level[/b][/size]
Before the level you get an upgrade for everything. 
After flying over the first set of green slimes, switch to the tornado. Jump on into the spikes on the ceiling, facing to the left. 
This will damage boost you to the right and allow you to briefly walk over the instant kill spikes.

When you see a bottle with a face, collect it to get a full health restore and a health upgrade.
Most of the level is fairly direct. The attacks of the skeletons with heads on the wall are a lot larger than they appear, so be careful avoiding their attacks.

For the final fight jump onto the upper left side of the moving platform so that Firebrands feet are in the air off the platform.
Sit in that position until you are hit by one of the white orbs.
While damage boosting, jump over the two red attacks and position yourself in front of the bosses face or horn.
Attack in a quick rhythm without spamming to make sure all your hits work. 
If done correctly the boss with die before the red attacks get to you.

Next  finish talking to the boss again, walk forward and talk to the king.

Time is when the king stops talking.

abiscuit

2016-06-21 10:19:23 pm

New Super Mario Bros Any% Notes - http://pastebin.com/GDzdMTga

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