X-Men Legends (both games)

2014-08-24 04:56:16 pm

dusted off my copy of xml2, and thought i might post a few thoughts here as this thread is for both games in theory.

xml2 is almost a completely different game than xml1. i don't think at any point in the game do characters abilities provide significant shortcuts and the way combos are determined makes bosses into even more button mashing than any kind of semblance of strategy to time your attacks with your teammates. that said, i think criticals may be more important than leadership in xml2, and i want to try a team of gambit, toad, nightcrawler, and scarlet witch to this end as gambit and toad work in tandem similar to wolverine and gambit in xml1 (though gambit switches roles), scarlet witch buffs the chance of critical hits, and nightcrawler can buff his critical strike chance in two ways which i think only he can do among the starting characters. basically toad and gambit are there for movement, nightcrawler and scarlet witch are there for combat (and as mentioned earlier in this thread, inactive characters do not level well).

i haven't tested this team, but i managed a super rusty sub-4 with toad, gambit, magneto, and cyclops (still thinking leadership was good), and it leads me to believe a target of 2:30-2:45 is probably what the goal should be. my only concerns are the sauron and archangel flights, as i don't know if nightcrawler can hit them when they're flying and i would prefer not to have to rely on scarlet witch's and/or gambit's ranged attacks.

obviously this run is new game rather than new game plus. probably on easy mode.

dusted off my copy of xml2, and thought i might post a few thoughts here as this thread is for both games in theory.

xml2 is almost a completely different game than xml1.  i don't think at any point in the game do characters abilities provide significant shortcuts and the way combos are determined makes bosses into even more button mashing than any kind of semblance of strategy to time your attacks with your teammates.  that said, i think criticals may be more important than leadership in xml2, and i want to try a team of gambit, toad, nightcrawler, and scarlet witch to this end as gambit and toad work in tandem similar to wolverine and gambit in xml1 (though gambit switches roles), scarlet witch buffs the chance of critical hits, and nightcrawler can buff his critical strike chance in two ways which i think only he can do among the starting characters.  basically toad and gambit are there for movement, nightcrawler and scarlet witch are there for combat (and as mentioned earlier in this thread, inactive characters do not level well).

i haven't tested this team, but i managed a super rusty sub-4 with toad, gambit, magneto, and cyclops (still thinking leadership was good), and it leads me to believe a target of 2:30-2:45 is probably what the goal should be.  my only concerns are the sauron and archangel flights, as i don't know if nightcrawler can hit them when they're flying and i would prefer not to have to rely on scarlet witch's and/or gambit's ranged attacks.

obviously this run is new game rather than new game plus.  probably on easy mode.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-08-28 01:25:16 am

2014-08-28 01:24:28 am

so the gambit/toad/nightcrawler/scarlet witch team got destroyed by sugarman. definitely think a decent ranged fighter is necessary for sugarman, sauron, and both of archangel's appearances. i managed a time of 3:05:25, really thinking sub-3 is doable, less certain about 2:30. i used a team of gambit/toad/nightcrawler/cyclops (everyone was level 24 going into the apocalypse fight (after leveling up from living monolith) and everyone got two level ups from beating apocalypse (to give you some idea how underleveled everyone is). toad and gambit are near essential imo, but nightcrawler's time savers are somewhat small though he makes the run safer, cyclops may be outclassed by someone else (should probably test bishop and storm, unless i'm missing something, i'm pretty sure cyclops is better than magneto and i'm doubtful jean, iceman, and sunfire will be all that good and gambit/nightcrawler/toad probably save more time together than switching one for a tank would achieve). i also probably gave most of the characters more points in health than they actually need, but i'm kinda overwhelmed by all the possible ways of allotting poiints and obviously even question my team choice.

so the gambit/toad/nightcrawler/scarlet witch team got destroyed by sugarman.  definitely think a decent ranged fighter is necessary for sugarman, sauron, and both of archangel's appearances.  i managed a time of 3:05:25, really thinking sub-3 is doable, less certain about 2:30. i used a team of gambit/toad/nightcrawler/cyclops (everyone was level 24 going into the apocalypse fight (after leveling up from living monolith) and everyone got two level ups from beating apocalypse (to give you some idea how underleveled everyone is).  toad and gambit are near essential imo, but nightcrawler's time savers are somewhat small though he makes the run safer, cyclops may be outclassed by someone else (should probably test bishop and storm, unless i'm missing something, i'm pretty sure cyclops is better than magneto and i'm doubtful jean, iceman, and sunfire will be all that good and gambit/nightcrawler/toad probably save more time together than switching one for a tank would achieve).  i also probably gave most of the characters more points in health than they actually need, but i'm kinda overwhelmed by all the possible ways of allotting poiints and obviously even question my team choice.

wfp

2014-08-29 11:22:52 pm

managed an xml2 run of 2:26:41, thinking sub-2:20 is probably possible. used a team of toad/gambit/nightcrawler bishop. probably going to stick with it. divine blades is insanely good, so nightcrawler will get that and be my primary damage dealer. that said he died in phase one of the apocalypse fight which cost massive time, probably should have given him more health.

in terms of routing, as it hasn't been discussed, there are several portions of the game that can be completely skipped. pretty much every objective pertaining to the cerci on genosha is skippable. i think all you need to do on genosha is kill the cerci who kidnap blink, collect the access codes (including the one you get for defeating grizzly), kill zealot, pay off (or fight) deathstrike, rescue pyro, and defeat abyss. the door to the last room opens super slow but if you flip the switch then trigger the pyro dialogue the door will open during his conversation and you'll be invincible which obviously helps a lot as this is one of the game's more dangerous rooms.

in act two you have to defeat garokk, protect the humidifiers, kill sauron, collect the stones (though you don't need to deactivate the traps, you just can't blink out til the invisible foe does down), use the stones to open the gate, kill omega red, and defeat mikhail. i find that getting the xtraction point near the gate before getting the second stone then blinking from the second stone and xtracting to the gate is fastest, you also hit level 10 around this point and will want to visit forge anyway for the additional health and energy packs you can now carry.

act three is by far the longest act as almost every objective must be met. i find doing the core second is safer as you'll be higher level against sugarman, who can one hit kill everyone in your party making him the most dangerous boss. sequence breaks would be most appreciated here as my time for each act is act 1 at 28 minutes, act two at 22 minutes, act three at a whopping 42 minutes, act four at 21 minutes, and act five at 29 minutes.

act four you can skip bastion and stryfe completely. you don't even have to go to the shield platforms. this obvious glitch may be gamecube only. the only bosses that must be fought are deadpool and archangel.

act five has a glitch if you blink away from the right mirror after flipping the switch but before the objective completes making the area potentially impossible to complete. the level's otherwise very straightforward. i try to activate secretion and energy form before stepping on the platform as gambit in phase two of the apocalypse fight to be crazy fast.

managed an xml2 run of 2:26:41, thinking sub-2:20 is probably possible.  used a team of toad/gambit/nightcrawler bishop.  probably going to stick with it.  divine blades is insanely good, so nightcrawler will get that and be my primary damage dealer.  that said he died in phase one of the apocalypse fight which cost massive time, probably should have given him more health.

in terms of routing, as it hasn't been discussed, there are several portions of the game that can be completely skipped.  pretty much every objective pertaining to the cerci on genosha is skippable.  i think all you need to do on genosha is kill the cerci who kidnap blink, collect the access codes (including the one you get for defeating grizzly), kill zealot, pay off (or fight) deathstrike, rescue pyro, and defeat abyss.  the door to the last room opens super slow but if you flip the switch then trigger the pyro dialogue the door will open during his conversation and you'll be invincible which obviously helps a lot as this is one of the game's more dangerous rooms.

in act two you have to defeat garokk, protect the humidifiers, kill sauron, collect the stones (though you don't need to deactivate the traps, you just can't blink out til the invisible foe does down), use the stones to open the gate, kill omega red, and defeat mikhail.  i find that getting the xtraction point near the gate before getting the second stone then blinking from the second stone and xtracting to the gate is fastest, you also hit level 10 around this point and will want to visit forge anyway for the additional health and energy packs you can now carry.

act three is by far the longest act as almost every objective must be met.  i find doing the core second is safer as you'll be higher level against sugarman, who can one hit kill everyone in your party making him the most dangerous boss.  sequence breaks would be most appreciated here as my time for each act is act 1 at 28 minutes, act two at 22 minutes, act three at a whopping 42 minutes, act four at 21 minutes, and act five at 29 minutes.

act four you can skip bastion and stryfe completely.  you don't even have to go to the shield platforms.  this obvious glitch may be gamecube only.  the only bosses that must be fought are deadpool and archangel.

act five has a glitch if you blink away from the right mirror after flipping the switch but before the objective completes making the area potentially impossible to complete.  the level's otherwise very straightforward.  i try to activate secretion and energy form before stepping on the platform as gambit in phase two of the apocalypse fight to be crazy fast.

wfp

2014-08-30 02:35:31 am

okay, got 2:08:02 in xml2. wondering if sub-2 is doable, and that 1:45 someone claimed to be able to get on another thread is starting to look not completely out of the question. wondering if there's a good shield buff for nightcrawler to speed up the sugarman fight as that segment seems the most likely for potential time savings.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-09-02 01:13:00 am

wfp: 2014-09-02 01:12:13 am

wfp: 2014-09-02 01:11:46 am

2014-09-02 01:08:57 am

1:59:18 in xml2. really need to figure out how to record. think there's a potentially faster route using a character other than bishop for the majority of the game then swapping bishop in before the core and swapping him out before sugarman (as there's a puzzle only bishop can solve in the core that saves about a minute compared to everyone else. he's otherwise slower than most other non-physical-damage-ranged-fighters for the few situations he's necessary, including the sugarman fight). not that i really feel inclined to figure out a faster route (imo xml2 is vastly inferior to xml1), just mentioning if anyone else wants to pick up this game. best segments are 1:57:29, not sure how much that can be pushed but maybe more time could come off. 1:45 still seems unlikely.

wfp

2014-09-02 01:35:47 pm

ugh, totally forgot you can buy level ups from forge. this all but surely means swapping bishop in and out during the core for cyclops/magneto/jean grey/iceman/storm is a better strategy but i have no interest in figuring out which one of those characters is best (juggernaut/wolverine/colossus/rogue obviously suck, and i'm doubtful about scarlet witch and sunfire as well). level ups should then probably go to gambit and toad for the majority of the game, but if nightcrawler can get to level 28 and thus abuse the teleport frenzy glitch (may need to buy a point redistribution as well) that's pretty obviously helpful. i guess i'll need to test some things and see how many tech bits are available when.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-09-12 09:55:39 pm

2014-09-12 09:51:32 pm

okay, i just did a test with iceman and a test with bishop getting plasma blasters/gun mastery instead of bio beam/mutant mastery. plasma blasters seem marginally faster against sugarman but marginally slower in the morlock fight and when destorying apocalypse's statues making them a virtual wash. meanwhile, it may be due to lack of familiarity on which upgrades to get but iceman seemed 30-60 seconds slower than bishop due to the time it takes to swap bishop in/out. this means i'm thinking gambit/nightcrawler/toad/bishop is indeed the best team and one should stick with that team the entire game. the only possible way this is not true is if there's a vantage point from when a ranged character can hit sugarman without being hit by sugarman. this seems most possible with storm but also potentially viable with magneto or jean, but at this point i think cyclops, iceman, sunfire, and scarlet which seem as if they can conclusively be ruled out.

i also looked into buying levels, and it's not worth it. they're always either too expensive or too irrelevant to be worth bothering. that said, skill points seem worth dumping money towards at the end of the game. nightcrawler could certainly take advantage of extra points into critical strike and now it's just a question of when they're worth buying. i think buying them (or trying to) before deadpool, and at the start of act five makes sense as prior to that you'll still need to be collecting tech bits for shaw and probably remain too poor til act 3 which doesn't have bosses that are particularly sped up by an increased critical chance. the only other consideration is maybe a redistribute skills buy for bishop for as noted plasma blasters seems better for sugarman but is otherwise worse.

okay, i just did a test with iceman and a test with bishop getting plasma blasters/gun mastery instead of bio beam/mutant mastery.  plasma blasters seem marginally faster against sugarman but marginally slower in the morlock fight and when destorying apocalypse's statues making them a virtual wash.  meanwhile, it may be due to lack of familiarity on which upgrades to get but iceman seemed 30-60 seconds slower than bishop due to the time it takes to swap bishop in/out.  this means i'm thinking gambit/nightcrawler/toad/bishop is indeed the best team and one should stick with that team the entire game.  the only possible way this is not true is if there's a vantage point from when a ranged character can hit sugarman without being hit by sugarman.  this seems most possible with storm but also potentially viable with magneto or jean, but at this point i think cyclops, iceman, sunfire, and scarlet which seem as if they can conclusively be ruled out.

i also looked into buying levels, and it's not worth it.  they're always either too expensive or too irrelevant to be worth bothering.  that said, skill points seem worth dumping money towards at the end of the game.  nightcrawler could certainly take advantage of extra points into critical strike and now it's just a question of when they're worth buying.  i think buying them (or trying to) before deadpool, and at the start of act five makes sense as prior to that you'll still need to be collecting tech bits for shaw and probably remain too poor til act 3 which doesn't have bosses that are particularly sped up by an increased critical chance.  the only other consideration is maybe a redistribute skills buy for bishop for as noted plasma blasters seems better for sugarman but is otherwise worse.

wfp

2014-09-12 11:01:59 pm

also i ordered a dazzle should get it in 5-8 business days so i'll see if i can attempt recording then.

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2014-09-13 11:45:46 am

2014-09-13 11:41:31 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

I'm curious, why are you using gambit and bishop when you only need one for energy fury. I'm guessing that's why you're using them because energy fury is bugged an insane amount (well so is energy damage in general).

Also in terms of movement, Iceman's slide is really fast and low energy cost, could that work for your run? Or have you already tried it (or is there a faster form of movement I'm not aware of).

Anyway really curious to see a run because these games are super buggy and busted.

BTW, why do you consider Legends 2 inferior to the first game? Buggier? I always found the forced character missions in the first game really annoying (I do not like cyclops at all and the Havok fight really annoyed me).

zastbat

2014-09-13 12:55:17 pm

Lord Of The Beards

Gambit has energy form which gives a 25% movement boost and a pretty large defense boost so he could be using him to just move around levels and try not to take damage but yea other than that I dont know why gambit would be used maybe for energy combat for an early boost to attack strength for normal moves since that is a 50% boost at the first level for gambit.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-09-13 07:19:46 pm

2014-09-13 06:00:17 pm

Quote from mikwuyma:

I'm curious, why are you using gambit and bishop when you only need one for energy fury. I'm guessing that's why you're using them because energy fury is bugged an insane amount (well so is energy damage in general).

Also in terms of movement, Iceman's slide is really fast and low energy cost, could that work for your run? Or have you already tried it (or is there a faster form of movement I'm not aware of).

Anyway really curious to see a run because these games are super buggy and busted.

BTW, why do you consider Legends 2 inferior to the first game? Buggier? I always found the forced character missions in the first game really annoying (I do not like cyclops at all and the Havok fight really annoyed me).

as zastbat mentioned gambit's primarily on the team because of energy form. which gives a 25% movement speed boost +4.5% additional movement speed increase with each additional skill point so that by the end of the game when paired with toad's secretion (13% party movement speed boost +2.25% additional movement speed increase with each additional skill point) makes gambit able to move roughly twice as fast as walking normally, by far the fastest method of travel in the game (xml1 has a similar combination with gambit and wolverine that makes wolverine the fastest character).

bishop is on the team for sapping strike which as near as i can tell is the only move capable of hitting the generator near the start of the second area of the core and solving that puzzle without going around and destroying the control console. this alone saves about a minute. you also need a ranged character for the sugarman fight as he can kill anyone at close quarters faster than you can heal, even on easy, and someone who does non-physical damage for one section in the sewers (theoretically this could be gambit, but he's kinda built just for movement and ultimately should never ever be used in combat). there's also a puzzle in act v that's faster with a ranged character.

i'm not sure what you're talking about with iceman and if you mean xml1 or xml2. in xml1 i very much try to take advantage of ice tracks as much as possible before wolverine's fury becomes feasible, but in xml2 i imagine it's slower than both toad/gambit and nightcrawler's teleport at high levels and still too costly energy-wise/ineffective at low levels but i guess it could put the idea of switching bishop out back into consideration.

i consider xml2 inferior as it's more than an hour shorter, most of the villains are c-listers, less of the narrative is skippable, the characters are more bugged but the stages are less buggy (so there aren't really any massive skips), there's almost no resource management, the shop is harder to access, you don't autoheal at the beginning of each mission, the leveling is more consistent but assumes fighting minions more leaving you super underleveled, the power tree is impossible to keep up with, i could go on. but the biggest downside is how all the major routing decisions are made at the beginning of the game in terms of what team you select and the rest of the route is more or less adjusting/justifying that selection. xml1 you can feasibly work out different strategies for each mission without having to basically start over, xml2 pretty much locks you into a team at the start and strongly discourages deviating from that team so picking the wrong team causes you to have to scrap the majority of your route (and testing all the various characters is a massive headache that i don't enjoy thinking about much more than i already have, and as much as i want to defend bishop as he seems to work and has so far held up in testing, i can't ignore the fact there's definitely a better potential option in a ton of other characters, i just haven't found someone so significantly better to justify using them or swapping bishop in and out (the bugginess of the characters also doesn't help as you can't rely on their listed stats most of the time)). maybe it's personal preference but i just find xml1 more interesting and though i think they really should have included some replay option (either new game+ or being able to select completed missions from the danger room computer and then choosing whatever unlocked characters you have for them (as the magma in new york mission implies should be possible)), i liked the idea of the forced character missions as it encouraged you to experiment with different play styles and figure out your own playstyle. xml1 requires 8 of the 15 characters to be on your team to complete (and 6 of them you default to controlling at least once, plus the arbiter is impossible to complete without switching to iceman or storm of those 8), xml2 your team defaults to magneto, cyclops, storm, and wolverine and it's possible to complete the game just playing as magneto (the default character) and never switching to someone else despite there being a roster of 18 playable characters (including the 3 secret characters). kinda defeats the purpose of the team dynamic selling point, imo.

(the havok fight is actually pretty awesome once you realize how much damage chucking explosive barrels at him causes, you can also just keep performing trip combos on him and he'll never get up except for scripted events but it's way slower).

[quote="mikwuyma"]I'm curious, why are you using gambit and bishop when you only need one for energy fury. I'm guessing that's why you're using them because energy fury is bugged an insane amount (well so is energy damage in general).

Also in terms of movement, Iceman's slide is really fast and low energy cost, could that work for your run? Or have you already tried it (or is there a faster form of movement I'm not aware of).

Anyway really curious to see a run because these games are super buggy and busted.

BTW, why do you consider Legends 2 inferior to the first game? Buggier? I always found the forced character missions in the first game really annoying (I do not like cyclops at all and the Havok fight really annoyed me).[/quote]

as zastbat mentioned gambit's primarily on the team because of energy form.  which gives a 25% movement speed boost +4.5% additional movement speed increase with each additional skill point so that by the end of the game when paired with toad's secretion (13% party movement speed boost +2.25% additional movement speed increase with each additional skill point) makes gambit able to move roughly twice as fast as walking normally, by far the fastest method of travel in the game (xml1 has a similar combination with gambit and wolverine that makes wolverine the fastest character).

bishop is on the team for sapping strike which as near as i can tell is the only move capable of hitting the generator near the start of the second area of the core and solving that puzzle without going around and destroying the control console.  this alone saves about a minute.  you also need a ranged character for the sugarman fight as he can kill anyone at close quarters faster than you can heal, even on easy, and someone who does non-physical damage for one section in the sewers (theoretically this could be gambit, but he's kinda built just for movement and ultimately should never ever be used in combat).  there's also a puzzle in act v that's faster with a ranged character.

i'm not sure what you're talking about with iceman and if you mean xml1 or xml2.  in xml1 i very much try to take advantage of ice tracks as much as possible before wolverine's fury becomes feasible, but in xml2 i imagine it's slower than both toad/gambit and nightcrawler's teleport at high levels and still too costly energy-wise/ineffective at low levels but i guess it could put the idea of switching bishop out back into consideration.

i consider xml2 inferior as it's more than an hour shorter, most of the villains are c-listers, less of the narrative is skippable, the characters are more bugged but the stages are less buggy (so there aren't really any massive skips), there's almost no resource management, the shop is harder to access, you don't autoheal at the beginning of each mission, the leveling is more consistent but assumes fighting minions more leaving you super underleveled, the power tree is impossible to keep up with, i could go on.  but the biggest downside is how all the major routing decisions are made at the beginning of the game in terms of what team you select and the rest of the route is more or less adjusting/justifying that selection.  xml1 you can feasibly work out different strategies for each mission without having to basically start over, xml2 pretty much locks you into a team at the start and strongly discourages deviating from that team so picking the wrong team causes you to have to scrap the majority of your route (and testing all the various characters is a massive headache that i don't enjoy thinking about much more than i already have, and as much as i want to defend bishop as he seems to work and has so far held up in testing, i can't ignore the fact there's definitely a better potential option in a ton of other characters, i just haven't found someone so significantly better to justify using them or swapping bishop in and out (the bugginess of the characters also doesn't help as you can't rely on their listed stats most of the time)).  maybe it's personal preference but i just find xml1 more interesting and though i think they really should have included some replay option (either new game+ or being able to select completed missions from the danger room computer and then choosing whatever unlocked characters you have for them (as the magma in new york mission implies should be possible)), i liked the idea of the forced character missions as it encouraged you to experiment with different play styles and figure out your own playstyle.  xml1 requires 8 of the 15 characters to be on your team to complete (and 6 of them you default to controlling at least once, plus the arbiter is impossible to complete without switching to iceman or storm of those 8), xml2 your team defaults to magneto, cyclops, storm, and wolverine and it's possible to complete the game just playing as magneto (the default character) and never switching to someone else despite there being a roster of 18 playable characters (including the 3 secret characters).  kinda defeats the purpose of the team dynamic selling point, imo.

(the havok fight is actually pretty awesome once you realize how much damage chucking explosive barrels at him causes, you can also just keep performing trip combos on him and he'll never get up except for scripted events but it's way slower).

wfp

2014-09-21 10:51:21 pm

got my dazzle. not sure this video is up to sda submission standards, it looked really grainy before youtube seemed to smooth it out somewhat. probably something to be discussed elsewhere, but yeah, i used amarectv to record and yua to convert to an .avi.

by my timing i ended with a time of 1:54:24 on the following run, but imo this run is not submittable as i think close to an additional five minutes can be saved with better optimization and a few less bad luck incidents. i also really need to analyze what the best movement options are at various points throughout the game. nightcrawler's teleport seems pretty fast but it burns through energy quickly, especially early, and while i love the gambit/toad combo, i haven't really directly compared it to teleport. i also need to look at whether jumping speeds you up, slows you down, or has no impact. generally once i start moving i try to avoid switching characters, particularly if i can't see who i'm changing to, because it's disorienting and there's always a chance someone gets stuck way earlier in the map.

i'm still getting used to incorporating energy fury into the route, but it definitely makes an impact in a few places, so thanks to mike for suggesting it. secretion also offers a significant combat boost so i should use that in boss fights more often instead of just for movement. the major time losses are to optimization, but after some testing i've realized i've totally shortchanged sunfire and think i can save 20 seconds by using him in act one and act two and then swapping him for bishop starting in act three (when i change costumes). sunfire would get all his stat points in focus (as he doesn't encounter anything that has a particularly high chance of killing him) with skill points going to ignite and fire damage.

okay, here's the run:

and here's some notes with timestamps to what i'm talking about:
2:30 generally wolverine is closer to the door there
3:40 if i pick up gear in the prologue i visit beast here and sell it
5:13 toad has a 50% chance of magically dying during this cutscene for no reason which costs a minute and is an instant reset
6:22 while other upgrades happen at specific events in the run, the level 2 upgrade takes place as soon as all four characters reach level 2 which can be as early as here or as late as when i pick up the console at 7:26
8:48 that last teleport only happens because of the ep drain enemy
9:51 that shake is nightcrawler getting hit, like xml1 enemies can attack you during cutscenes (though unlike xml1 this seemingly never has the potential of killing you
10:53 i run forward at the start of the grizzly fight to try to get my team to warp to behind me. this doesn't always work and time is lost if they don't make it
12:29 i probably should give up on the barrel i miss. i just wanted to make a tech bit check (should pay more attention after defeating grizzly). usually want over 1000 by this point, so i'm a little behind but i get lucky later
14:06 the speed station doesn't seem to spawn this run. normally nightcrawler gets it
16:19 this cutscene is skippable if i teleport a little more to the right
18:50 the tech bit count after zealot is very important as if you don't have 2000 by this point you'll need to kill things in the next area to get there instead of just running past
20:50 i go slow through the deathstrike conversation so i don't accidentally fight her, toad must be the one to talk to her
22:20 i should hit level 6 for rescuing pyro which allows me to use secretion and energy form and get to about where i get at 22:34 in this run
22:54 i listen to this dialogue to let the door open
23:16 i wouldn't destroy this stuff here if i had two or more energy packs, which i'd use on nightcrawler against abyss instead of switching characters
24:42 i should not have destroyed anything after phase 1 of abyss and instead just hoped to get lucky from the guys on the blimp
25:51 the bomb lands on bishop and i can't pick it up til he steps from under it, the danger of this happening makes me try to stay close to abyss when fighting guys
27:43 i'm not sure if it's faster to visit forge here or beast at the end of act 1, they seem about equal. i should also buy a skill point for gambit and a skill point for nightcrawler here... oops
31:47 yup, getting stunned during a cutscene is awesome
-it's also worth noting that at this point i'm trying to conserve energy packs as i won't get a chance to visit forge again until after mikhail
37:32 if one of your team is not in the room you can switch to them to get out instead of killing the invisible dragon (but all three are clearly in the room when the door closes here so no reason to switch characters (if i don't see someone i will change to them))
38:46 not sure a similar exploit to above to kill the other invisible dragon, my team tends tobe close by
39:15-40:25 enemies with ep drain in this corridor are extremely costly timewise as gambit can otherwise get another boost off
49:39 while bishop and gambit can both hit this generator, only bishop can seemingly hit the one at 1:00:28
50:01 whoops, should upgrade here instead of at the start of the next area
58:14 sinister iceman is a jerkface, storm can also be annoying but not nearly as bad as iceman
1:00:28 as far as i know sapping strike is the only move that can hit this generator
1:02:15-1:02:22 should nightcrawler die while the rest of the team is in this room, you are locked in and the only way out is a blink portal, for this reason combined with the enemies' penchant for air-juggling you with pop-ups this is my least favorite area of the game
1:05:05 i should upgrade here instead of when i do, but i don't actually lose time to the poor upgrade
1:06:11 now with energy fury (and secretion in future runs) i take on sugarman much more aggressively, but he's obviously still crazy dangerous considering i lose nightcrawler and bishop which probably shouldn't happen in a submit-worthy run
1:10:47 i'm not terribly sure which enemies you need to kill protecting emma
1:11:09 while the cuscene plays you can cast secretion and energy form
1:12:11 only recently discovered nightcrawler can teleport in here
1:13:21 i think you normally have to destroy the mini-cerebro to get past this door
1:14:15 another recent teleport discovery
1:20:15 if you watch the map you'll notice i can move during this cutscene
1:20:38 while energy fury doesn't seem to speed up the holocaust fight it is useful against the stepford cuckoos
1:26:29 grabbing that key without seeing it
1:27:23 you can't use boosts while in the infinite costume, so i try to do it again before changing
1:28:07 i step forward to use the blink portal to make sure i use it instead of going back to the previous area and then losing my blink portal
1:28:19 paying off shaw is the last thing i need tech bits for so from here out i can binge on health energy and skill points, but before this i'm a bit cautious to make sure i have 10k for shaw
1:31:18 i get incredibly lucky gambit ends up on the other side of the wall i teleported through as nightcrawler and doesn't warp to toad like nightcrawler and bishop
1:32:54 nightcrawler shortcut
1:35:14 not that it saves much time but a well placed teleport can skip this dialogue box
1:35:40 getting rng that didn't include a vulnerable to pop up enemy would speed up this fight
1:40:44 one cycle sinister
1:42:59 didn't realize this teleport was possible til recently
1:44:15 i hit this xtraction point for reasons that will be obvious shortly
1:46:55 i have to wait for the "rotate the sun mirror" objective to complete and the "pass the great seal" objective to come up before using the blink portal or else the game won't complete these objectives and i'll be stuck in a game that can't be finished
1:47:20 last time visiting forge
1:48:18 last level up
1:48:29 last upgrade
1:49:27 somehow i don't hit this sunbeam. i think each one i hit reduces living monoliths defense making him take more damage, but i should really test this to make sure cuz if it makes no impact i should just hit one. still one cycle due to energy fury
1:50:00 weird camera angle
1:50:57 apocalypse won't let me on his platform Sad

1:50:58 speed buffs carry over if you step on the platform with them active. should probably activate energy fury too. not sure what the best attack to use on apocalypse is in phase 2
1:54:58 game

got my dazzle.  not sure this video is up to sda submission standards, it looked really grainy before youtube seemed to smooth it out somewhat.  probably something to be discussed elsewhere, but yeah, i used amarectv to record and yua to convert to an .avi.

by my timing i ended with a time of 1:54:24 on the following run, but imo this run is not submittable as i think close to an additional five minutes can be saved with better optimization and a few less bad luck incidents.  i also really need to analyze what the best movement options are at various points throughout the game.  nightcrawler's teleport seems pretty fast but it burns through energy quickly, especially early, and while i love the gambit/toad combo, i haven't really directly compared it to teleport.  i also need to look at whether jumping speeds you up, slows you down, or has no impact.  generally once i start moving i try to avoid switching characters, particularly if i can't see who i'm changing to, because it's disorienting and there's always a chance someone gets stuck way earlier in the map.

i'm still getting used to incorporating energy fury into the route, but it definitely makes an impact in a few places, so thanks to mike for suggesting it.  secretion also offers a significant combat boost so i should use that in boss fights more often instead of just for movement.  the major time losses are to optimization, but after some testing i've realized i've totally shortchanged sunfire and think i can save 20 seconds by using him in act one and act two and then swapping him for bishop starting in act three (when i change costumes).  sunfire would get all his stat points in focus (as he doesn't encounter anything that has a particularly high chance of killing him) with skill points going to ignite and fire damage.

okay, here's the run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRGJ0hE6HP4

and here's some notes with timestamps to what i'm talking about:
2:30	generally wolverine is closer to the door there
3:40	if i pick up gear in the prologue i visit beast here and sell it
5:13	toad has a 50% chance of magically dying during this cutscene for no reason which costs a minute and is an instant reset
6:22	while other upgrades happen at specific events in the run, the level 2 upgrade takes place as soon as all four characters reach level 2 which can be as early as here or as late as when i pick up the console at 7:26
8:48	that last teleport only happens because of the ep drain enemy
9:51	that shake is nightcrawler getting hit, like xml1 enemies can attack you during cutscenes (though unlike xml1 this seemingly never has the potential of killing you
10:53	i run forward at the start of the grizzly fight to try to get my team to warp to behind me.  this doesn't always work and time is lost if they don't make it
12:29	i probably should give up on the barrel i miss.  i just wanted to make a tech bit check (should pay more attention after defeating grizzly).  usually want over 1000 by this point, so i'm a little behind but i get lucky later
14:06	the speed station doesn't seem to spawn this run.  normally nightcrawler gets it
16:19	this cutscene is skippable if i teleport a little more to the right
18:50	the tech bit count after zealot is very important as if you don't have 2000 by this point you'll need to kill things in the next area to get there instead of just running past
20:50	i go slow through the deathstrike conversation so i don't accidentally fight her, toad must be the one to talk to her
22:20	i should hit level 6 for rescuing pyro which allows me to use secretion and energy form and get to about where i get at 22:34 in this run
22:54	i listen to this dialogue to let the door open
23:16	i wouldn't destroy this stuff here if i had two or more energy packs, which i'd use on nightcrawler against abyss instead of switching characters
24:42	i should not have destroyed anything after phase 1 of abyss and instead just hoped to get lucky from the guys on the blimp
25:51	the bomb lands on bishop and i can't pick it up til he steps from under it, the danger of this happening makes me try to stay close to abyss when fighting guys
27:43	i'm not sure if it's faster to visit forge here or beast at the end of act 1, they seem about equal.  i should also buy a skill point for gambit and a skill point for nightcrawler here... oops
31:47	yup, getting stunned during a cutscene is awesome
-it's also worth noting that at this point i'm trying to conserve energy packs as i won't get a chance to visit forge again until after mikhail
37:32	if one of your team is not in the room you can switch to them to get out instead of killing the invisible dragon (but all three are clearly in the room when the door closes here so no reason to switch characters (if i don't see someone i will change to them))
38:46	not sure a similar exploit to above to kill the other invisible dragon, my team tends tobe close by
39:15-40:25	enemies with ep drain in this corridor are extremely costly timewise as gambit can otherwise get another boost off
49:39	while bishop and gambit can both hit this generator, only bishop can seemingly hit the one at 1:00:28
50:01	whoops, should upgrade here instead of at the start of the next area
58:14	sinister iceman is a jerkface, storm can also be annoying but not nearly as bad as iceman
1:00:28	as far as i know sapping strike is the only move that can hit this generator
1:02:15-1:02:22	should nightcrawler die while the rest of the team is in this room, you are locked in and the only way out is a blink portal, for this reason combined with the enemies' penchant for air-juggling you with pop-ups this is my least favorite area of the game
1:05:05	i should upgrade here instead of when i do, but i don't actually lose time to the poor upgrade
1:06:11	now with energy fury (and secretion in future runs) i take on sugarman much more aggressively, but he's obviously still crazy dangerous considering i lose nightcrawler and bishop which probably shouldn't happen in a submit-worthy run
1:10:47	i'm not terribly sure which enemies you need to kill protecting emma
1:11:09	while the cuscene plays you can cast secretion and energy form
1:12:11	only recently discovered nightcrawler can teleport in here
1:13:21	i think you normally have to destroy the mini-cerebro to get past this door
1:14:15	another recent teleport discovery
1:20:15	if you watch the map you'll notice i can move during this cutscene
1:20:38	while energy fury doesn't seem to speed up the holocaust fight it is useful against the stepford cuckoos
1:26:29	grabbing that key without seeing it
1:27:23	you can't use boosts while in the infinite costume, so i try to do it again before changing
1:28:07 i step forward to use the blink portal to make sure i use it instead of going back to the previous area and then losing my blink portal
1:28:19	paying off shaw is the last thing i need tech bits for so from here out i can binge on health energy and skill points, but before this i'm a bit cautious to make sure i have 10k for shaw
1:31:18	i get incredibly lucky gambit ends up on the other side of the wall i teleported through as nightcrawler and doesn't warp to toad like nightcrawler and bishop
1:32:54	nightcrawler shortcut
1:35:14	not that it saves much time but a well placed teleport can skip this dialogue box
1:35:40	getting rng that didn't include a vulnerable to pop up enemy would speed up this fight
1:40:44	one cycle sinister
1:42:59	didn't realize this teleport was possible til recently
1:44:15	i hit this xtraction point for reasons that will be obvious shortly
1:46:55	i have to wait for the "rotate the sun mirror" objective to complete and the "pass the great seal" objective to come up before using the blink portal or else the game won't complete these objectives and i'll be stuck in a game that can't be finished
1:47:20	last time visiting forge
1:48:18	last level up
1:48:29	last upgrade
1:49:27	somehow i don't hit this sunbeam.  i think each one i hit reduces living monoliths defense making him take more damage, but i should really test this to make sure cuz if it makes no impact i should just hit one.  still one cycle due to energy fury
1:50:00	weird camera angle
1:50:57	apocalypse won't let me on his platform :(
1:50:58	speed buffs carry over if you step on the platform with them active.  should probably activate energy fury too.  not sure what the best attack to use on apocalypse is in phase 2
1:54:58 game

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-09-29 02:55:37 am

wfp: 2014-09-29 02:37:13 am

2014-09-29 02:36:22 am

found some new shortcuts that probably save well over ten minutes in xml2. basically the game allows you to spawn from a blink portal on the other side of walls you're not supposed to be able to go through (and won't let you teleport through early as nightcrawler). the placement can be a bit tricky, especially with guys attacking you, but the savings are pretty obvious.

this one allows you to skip most of the factory, though you lose two level ups which i'll discuss below:

this next shortcut saves maybe a minute. i have not tested if alternatively one could get into sugarman's room early using this glitch, but with the cool down time on blink portals you can only do one of the two, and i think this saves more time and potentially using the glitch to get into sugarman's room would have issues with the cooldown clock on the next portal:

this one i had the most difficulty placing (though the one on the core is hardly automatic at this point either). you still need the mind artifact to access holocaust but you can skip picking up the other four, 2 of which are now particularly out of the way to get:

as mentioned you miss out on two levels doing this which isn't all too significant anywhere except for the sugarman fight. if using sunfire early, bishop will be at level 13 at sugarman as opposed to level 14 and thus one level short of energy fury. sapping strike is still important so there's no reason not to swap bishop in, and energy fury still becomes useful later but the sugarman fight is back to being ridiculously dangerous. alternatively if bishop is in the party the whole time, he will have energy fury but sauron drops from a guaranteed 2 cycle and possible 1 cycle to a likely 3 cycle. i think sunfire for acts 1 and 2 and bishop for the rest is still best, but sugarman is back into run killer territory so changes may need to be made if divine blades plus secretion proves too ineffective/unreliable.

i'll also maybe look into messing with gambit so he can use energy fury in place of bishop for the sugarman fight (as gambit should be level 14). there's supposedly a glitch that allows you to set two boosts to one character, which would be great as i have no use for his throw card move and i'd rather not switch energy form in and out. the only real downside is the loss of a skill point which, if my current run is any indication, i'll be able to buy back. unfortunately in my limited attempts testing this glitch, i haven't gotten it to work.

i'm doubtful there are any other locked doors that can be skipped/be worth the time it takes to skip. the entrance to omega red's area and to living monolith's area seem flush with the door, leading me to believe the exit doesn't appear unless the door is opened. i don't believe the game allows you to use blink portals during boss fights, meaning this glitch could not be used to get to abyss's airship early or get to beast during the mikhail fight. and the only other locked door i can think of is the sewer fight after deadpool which is too close to the blink portal before deadpool and a good fight is shorter than the pre-deadpool portal savings.

found some new shortcuts that probably save well over ten minutes in xml2.  basically the game allows you to spawn from a blink portal on the other side of walls you're not supposed to be able to go through (and won't let you teleport through early as nightcrawler).  the placement can be a bit tricky, especially with guys attacking you, but the savings are pretty obvious.

this one allows you to skip most of the factory, though you lose two level ups which i'll discuss below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voPMW0EyZao

this next shortcut saves maybe a minute.  i have not tested if alternatively one could get into sugarman's room early using this glitch, but with the cool down time on blink portals you can only do one of the two, and i think this saves more time and potentially using the glitch to get into sugarman's room would have issues with the cooldown clock on the next portal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKcy8zFx8tI

this one i had the most difficulty placing (though the one on the core is hardly automatic at this point either).  you still need the mind artifact to access holocaust but you can skip picking up the other four, 2 of which are now particularly out of the way to get:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN63mcu9R6I

as mentioned you miss out on two levels doing this which isn't all too significant anywhere except for the sugarman fight.  if using sunfire early, bishop will be at level 13 at sugarman as opposed to level 14 and thus one level short of energy fury.  sapping strike is still important so there's no reason not to swap bishop in, and energy fury still becomes useful later but the sugarman fight is back to being ridiculously dangerous.  alternatively if bishop is in the party the whole time, he will have energy fury but sauron drops from a guaranteed 2 cycle and possible 1 cycle to a likely 3 cycle.  i think sunfire for acts 1 and 2 and bishop for the rest is still best, but sugarman is back into run killer territory so changes may need to be made if divine blades plus secretion proves too ineffective/unreliable.

i'll also maybe look into messing with gambit so he can use energy fury in place of bishop for the sugarman fight (as gambit should be level 14).  there's supposedly a glitch that allows you to set two boosts to one character, which would be great as i have no use for his throw card move and i'd rather not switch energy form in and out.  the only real downside is the loss of a skill point which, if my current run is any indication, i'll be able to buy back.  unfortunately in my limited attempts testing this glitch, i haven't gotten it to work.

i'm doubtful there are any other locked doors that can be skipped/be worth the time it takes to skip.  the entrance to omega red's area and to living monolith's area seem flush with the door, leading me to believe the exit doesn't appear unless the door is opened.  i don't believe the game allows you to use blink portals during boss fights, meaning this glitch could not be used to get to abyss's airship early or get to beast during the mikhail fight.  and the only other locked door i can think of is the sewer fight after deadpool which is too close to the blink portal before deadpool and a good fight is shorter than the pre-deadpool portal savings.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-09-30 12:47:35 am

2014-09-30 12:42:31 am

got a run in xml2 which of course died to apocalypse, but as i was fifteen minutes ahead getting there, i think the new route saves approximately that much time (though there are a couple execution mistakes in my pb that may lose some of this time -- also of note, i decided to indeed give gambit energy fury for the sugarman fight using the assign more than one boost glitch and certainly didn't regret the decision). according to my gold splits sub 1:35 is possible, and maybe that can be pushed even further. i think i'll probably be done with this game if i get anything in the 1:37 range though as i already was getting a little sick of this game and the new shortcut strategies are making me enjoy it even less.

wfp

2014-10-02 01:40:51 am

you lose out on a bunch of xp and any savings doing this are marginal, but you can blink portal through the door that opens for rescuing pyro in act one. by sda timing the savings doing this are possibly worth it as most of the time loss is to load screens but real time this hardly seems worth it at all, though i'll be incorporating it into the route for now to test if the xp loss is significant.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-10-05 09:38:59 pm

2014-10-05 03:26:51 pm

1:35:58

this run could realistically be improved by 2-3 minutes so i'm not sure it's submittable, but i'm done with this game at least for now. obvious route changes are that i no longer smash barrels in the prologue and kill stuff on genosha. nightcrawler's divine blades seem like a relatively fast method of travel until i get teleport and taking stuff out in this manner doesn't appear to lose time while running through the prologue itself saves ten seconds.

i don't think the pyro skip saves any time real time, though it probably does using sda timing as it's the difference between an unskippable cutscene and some dialogue vs. two load screens which both take about the same amount of time. the loss of xp is unfortunate but not huge especially with the earlier genosha kills.

the mikhail fight's a little slow due to unlucky rng with enemy ai, but the run's pretty much perfect up til the portal skip in the core (though the factory skip could maybe be a second or two faster as well). i lose time on the portal skips in the core and the skip in madri temple for sure as ideally they should be placed without killing the enemies in the room but i wanted to play these safe so i didn't have to reset the run. the biggest time loss is probably in losing nightcrawler to sugarman, which is obviously a bad fight, but there are also obvious errors in talking to prof x twice at the end of act iii and talking to forge twice at the end of act v. the holocaust and deadpool fights also go badly (though my splits claim i save a second on deadpool), and the fights leading up to archangel aren't great, partially due to unlucky rng on one requiring a combo before being killed. apocalypse could maybe be improved but sinister and living monolith go pretty great, though i'm never quite sure where to cut the recording off after finishing the run.

kinda busy these days (another reason i wanted to get this run over with so i didn't have to worry about rusting), so it probably won't be until november at the earliest to go back back to this or xml1. as stated before i prefer xml1 anyway, so i don't know how likely i'll be going back to xml2 anyway.

1:35:58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWtVoNEYLs0

this run could realistically be improved by 2-3 minutes so i'm not sure it's submittable, but i'm done with this game at least for now.  obvious route changes are that i no longer smash barrels in the prologue and kill stuff on genosha.  nightcrawler's divine blades seem like a relatively fast method of travel until i get teleport and taking stuff out in this manner doesn't appear to lose time while running through the prologue itself saves ten seconds.

i don't think the pyro skip saves any time real time, though it probably does using sda timing as it's the difference between an unskippable cutscene and some dialogue vs. two load screens which both take about the same amount of time.  the loss of xp is unfortunate but not huge especially with the earlier genosha kills.

the mikhail fight's a little slow due to unlucky rng with enemy ai, but the run's pretty much perfect up til the portal skip in the core (though the factory skip could maybe be a second or two faster as well).  i lose time on the portal skips in the core and the skip in madri temple for sure as ideally they should be placed without killing the enemies in the room but i wanted to play these safe so i didn't have to reset the run.  the biggest time loss is probably in losing nightcrawler to sugarman, which is obviously a bad fight, but there are also obvious errors in talking to prof x twice at the end of act iii and talking to forge twice at the end of act v.  the holocaust and deadpool fights also go badly (though my splits claim i save a second on deadpool), and the fights leading up to archangel aren't great, partially due to unlucky rng on one requiring a combo before being killed.  apocalypse could maybe be improved but sinister and living monolith go pretty great, though i'm never quite sure where to cut the recording off after finishing the run.

kinda busy these days (another reason i wanted to get this run over with so i didn't have to worry about rusting), so it probably won't be until november at the earliest to go back back to this or xml1.  as stated before i prefer xml1 anyway, so i don't know how likely i'll be going back to xml2 anyway.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-10-06 02:28:47 am

wfp: 2014-10-06 12:02:30 am

wfp: 2014-10-06 12:01:57 am

wfp: 2014-10-06 12:01:13 am

wfp: 2014-10-05 11:41:50 pm

wfp: 2014-10-05 11:40:52 pm

wfp: 2014-10-05 11:40:41 pm

wfp: 2014-10-05 11:40:40 pm

2014-10-05 04:55:01 pm

hmm... wondering if it's faster to portal from grizzly then xtract to the next area or if that affects triggering the area opening (edit: tested, exit still appears). it would probably save less than ten seconds either way, but is another question of sda timing vs. real time.

edit: so i did some testing and there are a couple skips i've missed with nightcrawler though to get them i have to put additional points into teleport. this will cost nightcrawler in combat effectiveness so it's difficult to calculate how much of an effect getting these shortcuts have (i'm not sure you get xp from rescuing emma either, and you would miss out on that as well). the shortcuts are in the hall of knowledge with 4 points in teleport you can teleport from the area where the consumption artifact is located (potentially worth picking up just for the xp) to past emma and theoretically the exit of the area (this test was done on a file where emma had already been saved so i don't know if the game lets you continue on without rescuing her or worse kills her causing a game over (update: it doesn't, emma can be skipped though i don't think it's worth it)). the other shortcut is in madri cloisters and requires two points in teleport allowing you to skip a loop of the spiral, it's the place where two corners are relatively close on the minimap the one you jump from has a destructable angel statue if that helps. overall its hard to calculate how much time, if any, is ultimately saved from these shortcuts as nightcrawler will sacrifice a lot of his combat effectiveness getting them. i'm just mentioning them for people contemplating running this as i am done with actually running this game for the foreseeable future.

on the note of testing, i've now confirmed that, in addition to bishop's sapping strike, rogue's power theft and storm's lightning strike can deactivate the generator in core security. i still think bishop's the best of these three options, but again in terms of routing the game, storm isn't terrible (though rogue is probably the worst character in the game) and might be a better option than bishop early or sunfire late if one wanted to limit themselves to one team the entire game on like a hard mode run or something.

if anyone wants videos of this i can post them, but hopefully the description makes sense.

hmm... wondering if it's faster to portal from grizzly then xtract to the next area or if that affects triggering the area opening (edit: tested, exit still appears).  it would probably save less than ten seconds either way, but is another question of sda timing vs. real time.

edit: so i did some testing and there are a couple skips i've missed with nightcrawler though to get them i have to put additional points into teleport.  this will cost nightcrawler in combat effectiveness so it's difficult to calculate how much of an effect getting these shortcuts have (i'm not sure you get xp from rescuing emma either, and you would miss out on that as well).  the shortcuts are in the hall of knowledge with 4 points in teleport you can teleport from the area where the consumption artifact is located (potentially worth picking up just for the xp) to past emma and theoretically the exit of the area (this test was done on a file where emma had already been saved so i don't know if the game lets you continue on without rescuing her or worse kills her causing a game over (update: it doesn't, emma can be skipped though i don't think it's worth it)).  the other shortcut is in madri cloisters and requires two points in teleport allowing you to skip a loop of the spiral, it's the place where two corners are relatively close on the minimap the one you jump from has a destructable angel statue if that helps.  overall its hard to calculate how much time, if any, is ultimately saved from these shortcuts as nightcrawler will sacrifice a lot of his combat effectiveness getting them.  i'm just mentioning them for people contemplating running this as i am done with actually running this game for the foreseeable future.

on the note of testing, i've now confirmed that, in addition to bishop's sapping strike, rogue's power theft and storm's lightning strike can deactivate the generator in core security.  i still think bishop's the best of these three options, but again in terms of routing the game, storm isn't terrible (though rogue is probably the worst character in the game) and might be a better option than bishop early or sunfire late if one wanted to limit themselves to one team the entire game on like a hard mode run or something.

if anyone wants videos of this i can post them, but hopefully the description makes sense.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-10-06 02:31:37 am

2014-10-06 02:27:35 am

okay, did a run with storm and upgrading nightcrawler's teleport. storm sucks compared to sunfire/bishop so won't be using her (gambit's energy fury also seems way worse than bishop's energy fury). also i think any savings the new upgraded teleport generates (which looked to be about 30-40 seconds) are lost in egypt. so i'm standing by the old route, but anyone's free to play around with this.

i think a hard mode run would likely want to take some of this in consideration as deadpool gives you a second character who can teleport. hard mode runs would also likely upgrade nightcrawler completely different to take advantage of the brokenness of master of chaos and then need to consider other high level moves that i don't get access to until too late, like for example enhancing storm's lightning damage or figuring out if prof x's clairvoyance or bishop's power trip give a significant enough movement speed boost for when you're in town to warrant allotting points to them.

one route change i did discover though is that if you buy a level advance at level 21 in egypt, you get enough xp from opening the door to living monolith to get up from 0xp to enough for level 23. so this is obviously better than a skill point but likely doesn't save much time.

okay, did a run with storm and upgrading nightcrawler's teleport.  storm sucks compared to sunfire/bishop so won't be using her (gambit's energy fury also seems way worse than bishop's energy fury).  also i think any savings the new upgraded teleport generates (which looked to be about 30-40 seconds) are lost in egypt.  so i'm standing by the old route, but anyone's free to play around with this.

i think a hard mode run would likely want to take some of this in consideration as deadpool gives you a second character who can teleport.  hard mode runs would also likely upgrade nightcrawler completely different to take advantage of the brokenness of master of chaos and then need to consider other high level moves that i don't get access to until too late, like for example enhancing storm's lightning damage or figuring out if prof x's clairvoyance or bishop's power trip give a significant enough movement speed boost for when you're in town to warrant allotting points to them.

one route change i did discover though is that if you buy a level advance at level 21 in egypt, you get enough xp from opening the door to living monolith to get up from 0xp to enough for level 23.  so this is obviously better than a skill point but likely doesn't save much time.

zastbat

2014-10-07 01:29:33 pm

Lord Of The Beards

For hard mode you would most likely run Iron man/Bishop/Nightcrawler/insert whoever here

Iron man is incredibly glitched motion amplifier does a damage increase on all of his attacks instead of just his melee like it is supposed to causing him to be destructive. Also leveling nightcrawler so his teleport frenzy take no mp would probably happen so it can be spammed if needed also yea master of chaos lol. Bishop would be good for buffing nightcrawler/anything else. For the last slot on hard mode I would just take whoever you need for the mission.

As for gambit's energy fury being worse it should be exactly the same if the stats in game are correct (with this game it may not be). Also not sure if you know this but secretion stacks with energy fury and makes the glitched moves a bit stronger.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-10-08 01:24:06 am

wfp: 2014-10-07 08:04:31 pm

wfp: 2014-10-07 03:20:21 pm

wfp: 2014-10-07 03:18:24 pm

wfp: 2014-10-07 03:17:51 pm

wfp: 2014-10-07 03:14:54 pm

2014-10-07 03:14:44 pm

i've done some limited testing for hard mode and feel you probably want nightcrawler/gambit/toad and then it's kinda up to debate whether there's a significant advantage to having deadpool so you can mostly ignore nightcrawler's teleport and let deadpool fill that role, whether sunfire or storm prove useful (or any other character really) for the sauron fight, generator in the core, and/or the sewers north fight, whether professor x's clairvoyance or bishop's power trip is significantly useful (and for that matter if bishop's energy fury is redundant with gambit's (i know they don't stack, but having two characters capable of casting has advantages)), or if there's another character i haven't thought of (i'll get to iron man in a moment).

overall for hard mode, i'm fairly confident gambit and toad remain essential for movement (plus each have a great damage boost) and nightcrawler for damage (plus teleporting has its uses too). iron man i feel is likely completely redundant with nightcrawler, there's relatively little fighting in the game so you only really need one damage dealer and between divine blades and master of chaos, nightcrawler does an insane amount of damage (in testing, despite the zero ep cost, teleport flurry did too little damage to be worthwhile). the big change from easy though is that nightcrawler would be built entirely differently as in order for master of chaos to be effective you have to dump a ton of stat points into strike for nightcrawler which will affect his energy and health levels, potentially to a significant degree. furthermore this makes most boss strats very rng dependent making sure you have enough xtreme tokens to take them down (the mikhail, holocaust, and apocalypse fights looking particularly problematic because of how many phases they entail and nightcrawler isn't great for groups, maybe deadpool and the sinister clones as well would also prove challenging, but most other bosses will die instantly to one or two master of chaos xtremes even on hard).

meanwhile i have begun trying to stack secretion and energy fury in boss fights (as the latest run does). because it's both a movement and combat damage boost, secretion is probably the most useful move in the game in terms of speedrunning and if there was a way to get toad to just be constantly autocasting it it'd be extremely useful as other than talking to lady deathstrike you don't actually really use him for much else save some early fights when everyone has low max ep and your damage boosts haven't broken the game yet.

edit: these hard mode strats kinda assume new game rather than new game plus as new game plus wouldn't have to worry about nightcrawler's stat points.

i've done some limited testing for hard mode and feel you probably want nightcrawler/gambit/toad and then it's kinda up to debate whether there's a significant advantage to having deadpool so you can mostly ignore nightcrawler's teleport and let deadpool fill that role, whether sunfire or storm prove useful (or any other character really) for the sauron fight, generator in the core, and/or the sewers north fight, whether professor x's clairvoyance or bishop's power trip is significantly useful (and for that matter if bishop's energy fury is redundant with gambit's (i know they don't stack, but having two characters capable of casting has advantages)), or if there's another character i haven't thought of (i'll get to iron man in a moment).

overall for hard mode, i'm fairly confident gambit and toad remain essential for movement (plus each have a great damage boost) and nightcrawler for damage (plus teleporting has its uses too).  iron man i feel is likely completely redundant with nightcrawler, there's relatively little fighting in the game so you only really need one damage dealer and between divine blades and master of chaos, nightcrawler does an insane amount of damage (in testing, despite the zero ep cost, teleport flurry did too little damage to be worthwhile).  the big change from easy though is that nightcrawler would be built entirely differently as in order for master of chaos to be effective you have to dump a ton of stat points into strike for nightcrawler which will affect his energy and health levels, potentially to a significant degree.  furthermore this makes most boss strats very rng dependent making sure you have enough xtreme tokens to take them down (the mikhail, holocaust, and apocalypse fights looking particularly problematic because of how many phases they entail and nightcrawler isn't great for groups, maybe deadpool and the sinister clones as well would also prove challenging, but most other bosses will die instantly to one or two master of chaos xtremes even on hard).

meanwhile i have begun trying to stack secretion and energy fury in boss fights (as the latest run does).  because it's both a movement and combat damage boost, secretion is probably the most useful move in the game in terms of speedrunning and if there was a way to get toad to just be constantly autocasting it it'd be extremely useful as other than talking to lady deathstrike you don't actually really use him for much else save some early fights when everyone has low max ep and your damage boosts haven't broken the game yet.

edit: these hard mode strats kinda assume new game rather than new game plus as new game plus wouldn't have to worry about nightcrawler's stat points.

wfp

2014-10-08 12:55:26 am

i think the issue i was having with gambit's energy fury is that it cancels if the ai casts energy form, which is kinda significant as boss fights tend to consist of mashing the call for help button to increase the likelihood of combos which in turn causes the ai to use any and all powers equiped to them. but if this is the case it's manageable now that i know what's happening, mostly it just means not pressing call for help until bishop gets energy fury (which only really affects the sugarman fight).

wfp

2014-12-10 09:06:07 am

so here's a run of x-men legends 1. it's roughly ten minutes slower than my pb and the rust is very visible, but with the exception of four mistakes it shows the route. don't know when i'll get a chance to get more runs. ideally i'd want sub-3, but i'd probably settle for anything in the 3:05 range considering some of the rng elements.

the four major mistakes route-wise are nightcrawler's death on the arbiter, missing a shortcut in sewers 2, leveling up wolverine's critical strike before his sharpness, and the gear i wear to the final battle (wolverine and nightcrawler should switch)

more notes below for anyone who cares:

NEW YORK 1
-i break barrels here to try to get full health and energy before mystique
-ideally i also want a basic power enhancer and a basic nanofiber armor plus 2000 tech bits (including the cost of reselling equipment)
-3:46 i use an energy pack here as one fell out of bounds and so long as you're not maxed, you automatically pick up tech bits, energy, and health packs when they fall out of bounds right before they despawn
-5:03 there are other examples but you get more damage from knocking enemies into each other than straight punching them, making me use knockback combos and attempt to cluster enemies in a line during this fight
-6:33 wolverine's death to blob is intentional, one of the two intentional deaths in the run
-i'm generally more concerned with breaking the barrels in the area than fighting blob, ideally i'd have a basic power enhancer for this fight
-boss areas have higher drop probabilities than other areas and as mentioned i need 2000 equipment/tech bits
-ideally i'd complete new york with 2000 tech bits (including gear), a basic power enhancer that won't be resold, a basic nanofiber armor that won't be resold, full energy and full health, less than 2000 tech bits is a reset, everything else i can live with
-11:28 i'm intentionally slow skipping most cutscenes as spamming the button can crash the game

-12:01 you can skip talking to forge in a segmented run, but not in a single segment run

HAARP - cyclops, storm, wolverine, iceman (default team) - of the six available characters jean and rogue don't offer anything the other four can do -(beast can also be available here if you talk to him in the danger room before the mission, but he isn't worth getting for this mission imo)
-11:41 i'd prefer to have not sold one of the basic nanofiber armors but basic power enhancers are the only unsellable equipment
-the basic muscle accelerator is way too valuable to skip. it increases movement speed by 10% making you move faster than enemies instead of -the same speed which improves your chances of survival as well as allowing you to just move 10% faster in general. hence the need for 2000 tech bits
-14:05 get my basic nanofiber armor back
-14:16 notice the call for help. this is so i can make sure storm is nearby for an upcoming shortcut.
-14:19 if wolverine doesn't die to blob he levels up before here. the level up here is way more valuable though for its healing properties
-14:25 level up - storm gets a skill point in flight
-14:36 flight shortcut.
-15:40 kind of a tricky jump. it's possible the skill point would be better going to someone other than wolverine, but unlikely
-16:18 usually the haarp soldiers blow this up with a grenade themselves but i don't get so lucky this run
-16:48 this cutscene is triggered by any character standing on the lowground when the last transformer is destroyed. occassionally no x-men will be on the lowground however and you'll have to run back
-17:07 i take a wide birth here to avoid getting hit
-17:18 if i don't run to this corner my team probably burns to death in the fire. i leave since i see storm, iceman, and cyclops on the other side of the fire
-the tank area counts as a boss area, hence my destroying boxes
-17:59 level up. everyone gets two stat points in body. wolverine gets a skill point in brutal slash (2 are unspent). cyclops gets a skill point in optic beam and a skill point in accuracy. iceman gets a skill point in ice tracks and a skill point in cold smash. storm gets a skill point in lightning strike. in this un iceman and wolverine each get a nanofiber armor (iceman takes priority) and the basic muscle accelerator shifts to iceman. if a basic power enhancer is available cyclops would get it and it'd be switched to wolverine sometime between killing the key guard and fighting pyro
-19:06 i lose massive amounts of time against this guy without a basic power enhancer. i should have rest not having one yet by the time i got to him
-22:00 i've gotten pyro to spawn under the floor and instantly fall to his death, but never been able to replicate the glitch since
-23:14 storm's death is not intentional and kinda sucks but i only really need two of the x-men to survive the fight (getting to the elevator without a second character is near impossible). wolverine and iceman will always get revived at the next checkpoint should they die whereas cyclops and storm will be replaced by rogue and if necessary jean.
-24:21 i'm spamming the throw button as i open this door
-24:37 rogue added to team and level up. (this would normally happen right before toad and causes a mistake by not happening there). everyone gets a stat point in body (rogue gets 2). cyclops gets a point in leadership (storm would get a point in leadership were she alive and at level 4). wolverine finally gets the basic power enhancer he should already have gotten before pyro.
-the ice tunnels are one of the hardest areas in the run and source of many deaths.
-26:55 toad is arguably the glitchiest boss
-27:28 i intentionally leave one of these guards alive so more don't spawn (always the same one too as he's the hardest to kill though it's important to keep him separated from toad so toad doesn't gain physical resistance which is why you see me run to odd parts of the map and call for help)
-28:01 toad occasionally struggles to jump onto this jet

-29:11 by not leveling up before toad i forgot to unequip the basic muscle accelerator from iceman so i could give it to magma here. she gets all stat points in body. a skill point in burning rage and a skill point in lava tracks.
-30:16 i give serious thought to buying a basic muscle accelerator before deciding against it

DANGER ROOM
-you can land an infinite combo by pressing BAABBAABB... etc.
-32:11 level up. magma gets all stat points in body. a skill point in burning rage and a skill point in critical strike
-33:55 you can move as soon as you cancel professor x's dialogue before the camera's in the room
-35:05 getting magma to level 7 is important as it means the rest of your team will be level 5

SEWERS 1 - nightcrawler, jubilee, rogue, wolverine (nightcrawler's shadow blend is the easiest way to avoid damage and bottlenecks at doorways. wolverine is the best at destroying the pumps and rogue is the best available backup should he die. jubilee is mainly cannon fodder, but the ai's use of photo flash seems to slightly reduce the potential for bottlenecks at doorways)
-35:44 level up. nightcrawler gets five stat points in focus while everyone else maxes out there stat points in body. nightcrawler gets two skill points in teleport flurry and two in shadow blend. rogue gets five skill points in flight. jubilee gets two skill points in photo flash. wolverine gets one skill point in brutal slash and two in feral rage. nightcrawler gets a basic muscle accelerator (note you do not need to unequip this from magma until she officially joins the team). wolverine gets a basic nanofiber armor if available (should likewise be transferred just before the toad fight if only one is available). nightcrawler gets a basic nanofiber armor cuz i have two (wolverine takes priority).
-36:45 kill these guys and level up here if not yet at level 5
-36:50 most uses of shadow blend happen at very specific locations
-37:36 shadow blend
-38:30 i run far into the room to make sure wolverine can clear the bottleneck
-38:44 wolverine can two hit these pumps only with a basic power enhancer, even with the gear it takes rogue three of her southern strike (or whatever it's called).
-38:47 shadow blend
-39:44 shadow blend
-39:59 shadow blend
-40:13 again the corner is to get wolverine through the bottleneck
-40:20 shadow blend
-40:32 shadow blend
-42:16 shadow blend
-42:40 this wall really shouldn't let you do this
-42:55 shadow blend
-43:10 shadow blend
-43:28 team change. cyclops, iceman, and storm replace nightcrawler, rogue, and jubilee. in theory the level could be completed by cyclops, storm, wolverine, and nightcrawler but nightcrawler's health is so low he'd die almost instantly to marrow and cyclops and storm would take damage you don't want them to in the level (this already happens with wolverine, but he's so good on the pumps not putting him on the team seems foolish). iceman isn't particularly necessary but his slow beam is one of the easier moves to combo off of as it slows marrow. cyclops and storm are near mandatory for leadership and wolverine is still the best damage dealer. everyone maxes out stat points in body. cyclops gets a skill point in optic beam and one in point blank shot. iceman gets a skill point each in cold smash, critical strike, and point blank shot. storm gets a skill point each in lightning strike, leadership, and flight. storm gets a nanofiber armor as i have an extra one by this point in the game if you don't have a basic nanofiber armor you must buy one from forge or you'll either die or lose too much time to marrow. wolverine should have a basic nanofiber armor and basic power enhancer against marrow (both should already be equiped).
-combos do 1.5x the damage compared to regular attacks
-45:48 storm's death is not intentional. this is a bad marrow fight.
-46:05 iceman's and cyclops' deaths are not intentional. this is a real bad marrow fight. she should be dead by now. i have no choice but to chuck stuff at her as she'll kill me at close quarters. ideally you want to kill her using primarily wolverine combos making it imperative you connect with them, have a lot of energy packs, and get more to drop. most likely you'll be out of health and energy packs by the end of the fight
-46:55 i'm out of stuff to throw

ARBITER - gambit, jubilee, cyclops, storm (gambit can destroy the sentinel launchers in one combo without any energy which is useful considering how many things drain energy. storm has some use hitting flying shortcuts. cyclops and jubilee are cannon fodder speciffically chosen for their lower health compared to everyone else)
-47:30 level up. gambit gets all stat points in body. two skill points each in kinetic boost and kinetic strike plus a skill point in staff master. gambit gets a basic muscle accelerator and a basic nanofiber armor
-48:21 gambit can kill these launchers with a single trip combo
-49:23 woohoo! bonus basic muscle accelerator (this means i don't need to switch out the gear for magma as much)
-49:42 so much faster than stairs
-50:00 you can jump from this silly camera angle
-50:30 horrible bottleneck which causes storm's death and prevents a couple shortcuts
-51:21 gambit can destroy these launchers with a single stun combo
-51:25 i'd normally fly up to the balcony as storm
-53:23 while technically flying up to this balcony is faster, all that time will be lost switching back to gambit so i generally don't do it even if storm was alive
-54:20 it's very possible everyone but gambit may be dead by now
-54:35 very necessary to max out health as this upcoming section is the hardest in the game
-54:47 team change and level up. new team is iceman, wolverine, rogue, beast (iceman is necessary as a bridge builder in the next part everyone else is cannon fodder chosen for their high health though there is a bit that's faster utilizing rogue's flight). beast should gets his stat points maxed out in body. iceman gets a basic muscle accelerator and a basic nanofiber armor. wolverine should get a basic nanofiber armor too if any's available.
-55:54 there are only supposed to be two crewmen per area, but i have seen a glitch were more seem to appear, but again i don't know how to replicate this to potentially allowing me to shorten this section
-57:16 rogue shortcut
-57:34 rogue's death is intentional as is her spot on the directional pad so that i'll get control of iceman when she dies
-58:07 wolverine's death is not intentional and somewhat unfortunate as this area is more difficult the less characters you have
-58:17 fade outs like the one here (and every time jean braces a wall) are what make this level so difficult as you lose control of your character during them but the enemy does not, leaving you completely vulnerable, hence extra guys to take damage during these parts being prefered
-59:23 team change. iceman, nightcrawler, whoever has the most health (in this instance gambit and cyclops (think jubilee would have actually been better). iceman is still necessary for bridges, and nightcrawler has uses with shadow blend and teleport. the other two are cannon fodder). nightcrawler gets nanofiber armor if available.
-59:54 shadow blend, need to do it before hitting the energy drainer. the reasons for doing this should be obvious.
-1:01:06 you want to call for people near the exit door to prevent the bottleneck
-1:01:18 gambit's death is not intentional
-1:02:03 nightcrawler's death is a HUGE mistake that costs probably a minute. normally he should teleport past the electric fence at 1:03:07 which is annoying as you need to kill the guard there first and i've yet to figure out a way to kill him particularly effectively (i may want to rethink the other two members of the team as expendable and pick characters particularly good at killing him, probably cyclops and storm).
-1:02:18 iceman would normally remove his basic muscle accelerator here

-1:03:42 level up. magma gets all stat points in body, two skill points in lava fissure, and a skill point in critical strike. she also gets a basic muscle accelerator.
-1:04:06 i think i may have been supposed to sell stuff to forge

NEW YORK 2
-eh, by this point i think i shouldn't actually be breaking as much stuff as i do.
-the goal of the blob fight is to get him to attack cyclops and just infinite combo him

NUKE PLANT - wolverine, magma, rogue, nightcrawler (magma has two levels on the other bridge building options, wolverine has feral rage, nightcrawler's shadow blend still proves useful, and rogue has the most skill points in flight)
-wolverine gets the basic muscle accelerator only cuz i have two otherwise it'd stick with magma, iceman doesn't need the basic nanofiber armor anymore
-1:10:57 feral rage. my feral rage usage is not nearly as mapped out as my shadow blend usage so i won't point it out in most instances unless it is a particularly timely situation which it is here.
-1:12:39 rogue shortcut
-1:12:56 stepping past that box triggers the acolytes to attack so, i wait til the electric bridge can be crossed
-1:13:07 rogue shortcut
-1:13:27 rogue shortcuts like crazy in this area
-1:14:08 changing characters regroups the team and due to the team loving to take damage on electrified bridges i keep jean and storm out of the team as i need them for a puzzle at the end of the mission (hence why i don't use a team of storm, jean, wolverine, and nightcrawler even though it should work). from the look of it i should maybe keep nightcrawler off the team too and switch him in here. hmm
jean also levels up here. she gets all stat points in body. two skill points in psionic strike, one skill point in telekinetic combat, one skill point in flight, and one skill point in critical strike. storm gets a basic power enhancer cuz i have an extra
-1:14:54 shadow blend, it's still possible to move even when the camera gets weird
-1:15:32 feral rage
-1:15:56 nightcrawler gets a basic muscle accelerator
-1:16:16 shadow blend
-1:16:44 shadow blend
-1:16:58 shadow blend
-1:17:28 shadow blend
-1:17:52 wolverine gets a basic muscle accelerator
-1:18:09 feral rage
-1:18:20 wolverine removes basic muscle accelerator, this may be slower than it's worth
-1:18:28 storm can hit both weld points from the same side

-1:18:48 can still move while scene is black though without being able to see anything is tricky, if magma didn't already have a basic muscle accelerator she'd get one here
-1:19:12 i obviously flub this dialogue tree

MUIR ISLAND
-1:19:28 i should probably go right first actually
-1:19:37 you don't actually have to flip this console at this point and it'd be faster to go to the window first

-1:21:30 screwing up the elevator is great
-1:22:08 magma would not remove her basic acceleraor here if i only had one

GRSO RAID - wolverine, iceman, cyclops, storm (cyclops and storm are great for leadership and wolverine's the best damage dealer, iceman's just along for the ride as a default character, an argument can be made for emma as you get access to xtremes earlier if she's on the team but ultimately you don't need a fourth character for this mission so just sticking with iceman makes the most sense)
notice how quickly i level up, proof that until this point 'm severly underlevelled but it all evens out from here
-1:22:11 wolverine gets basic power enhancer
-1:22:52 never seen this glitch before with the guard just up and disappearing, a lot of the wandering around and killing drones (which i normally ignore) here is done in the hope he shows up again
-1:26:54 he's back after costing me 2-3 minutes
-1:27:01 level up. this is screwed up cuz i killed a bunch of drones i normally don't and had to contend with the guy who disappeared. generally i level up after killing the 9th grso just dealing with wolverine's stats and again on the tenth focusing on everyone including the additional upgrade wolverine gets. i'll need to run this again to get exactly what i get but it all ends up here (sorry).
-i probably shouldn't bother with iceman at all. wolverine gets points in focus, toughness, mutant mastery, brutal slash, and feral rage. storm gets points in body, leadership, toughness, mutant mastery, and lightning strike. cyclops gets points in body, optic beam, toughness, mutant mastery, accuracy, point blank shot.

-1:30:08 you have to open this door twice before it opens for some reason
-1:30:21 magma would remove her basic muscle accelerator here if i only had one

ASTRAL PLANE 1
-1:30:41 prof x gets basic muscle accelerator, he automatially gives it back when once he's no longer on the team
-1:31:55 along with the hammer of nimrod, shadowcat's touch is one of two marginally useful unique items
-1:33:07 should xavier fall off these moving platforms it's game over, so i take these a little cautious and kill things as i wait
-1:34:27 i use the weaker punches so the astral wardens don't fly across the room
-1:35:26 level up. jean gets all stat points in body, and skill points in psionic strike, psionic fury, telekinetic combat (x2), toughness (x3), flight, critical strike (x2). she also gets the astral stone. emma is ignored
-1:36:02 turning back and killing this stuff now is better than with illyana

WEAPON X
-1:37:38 cyclops gets the basic muscle accelerator
-1:38:17 i don't know if the xp i detour for is worth it
-1:38:37 level up after the xp is collected. cyclops gets all stat points in body, and skill points in optic blast (x2), toughness, and leadership
-1:39:37 havok is ridiculously vulnerable to thrown explosives
-1:41:15 level up. wolverine gets all stat points in focus, skill points in toughness, mutant mastery, berserker rage (x3), and eviscerate (x3). cyclops gets all stat points in body, skill points in optic beam and mutant mastery. cyclops gets basic power enhancer. wolvering gets basic muscle accelerator.
-1:41:52 spamming throw as door opens
-1:42:32 no idea why i go in this room
-1:43:34 spamming throw
-1:43:39 this guy sucks. need to attack him so i don't get hit by the energy drainer/knock him towards it. probably the last major potential run killer of the run
-1:45:09 oh good, another wrong turn Sad

SENTINEL RAID - nightcrawler, wolverine, cyclops, storm (with the hammer of nimrod nightcrawler is arguably the most effective sentinel killer (especially against so many), wolverine's still the highest damage dealer, and cyclops' and storm's leadership boost damage considerably
1:47:02 level up. nightcrawler and wolverine get all stat points in focus. storm and cyclops get all stat points in body. storm gets three skill points in chain lightning, two in cyclone fury, one in toughness, one in mutant mastery, and one in leadership. nightcrawler gets four skill points in teleport flurry, and three each in sucker punch, critical strike, toughness, and mutant mastery. cyclops gets a skill point in leadership. wolverine gets a skill point in berserker rage.
-1:48:17 buy hammer of nimrod to be equipped to nightcrawler (cost 4500)

SEWERS 2/LAUNCH BASE - jean, wolverine, gambit, nightcrawler (wolverine's berserker fury plus gambit's kinetic amplification make wolverine the fastest character in the game, jean as utility as a flier and avalanche is vulnerable to mental attacks, nightcrawler hits several shortcuts with teleport)
-1:50:29 level up. gambit and jean get all stat points in body. wolverine and nightcrawler get all stat points in focus. wolverine gets a skill point in eviscerate. gambit gets two skill points in kinetic boost, four in kinetic amplification, one in kinetic strike, three in staff master, three in toughness, and three in mutant mastery. jean gets two skill points in psionic fury, one skill point in telekinetic combat, two in flight, and one in critical strike. nightcrawler gets a skill point in sucker punch. gambit gets shadowcat's touch if available and wolverine gets the basic muscle accelerator if there's only one.
-1:51:58 horrible dialogue tree
-1:52:30 first instance of stacking wolverine and gambit's boosts this gives a movement speed bonus (of 55% including the basic muscle accelerator which will grow to 90% by the end of the run).
-1:52:50 i can teleport up to that bridge and think i make a 30 second mistake by not doing so
-1:54:41 shadow blend followed by nightcrawler shortcut. you have to make sure nightcrawler hits someone or your team will separate, preventing you from advancing to the next area
-1:55:55 waiting for nightcrawler so he can teleport past the gate and get to the next area earlier than we should be able to
-1:56:02 nightcrawler shortcut
-1:56:40 bottleneck
-1:56:56 guy falls through floor
-1:57:02 shadow blend (the goal is to get the two guards in this area not to follow you to the gate so you can teleport through it instead of attacking them, of course this time they both die, making the point moot)
-1:57:05 nightcrawler shortcut skipping healer
-1:57:39 flight shortcut, characters have a tendency to die in this area for no reason. i need to figure out which directional location makes gambit least likely to die as the more characters against avalanche the better, with gambit being the best out of gambit, wolverine, and nightcrawler.
-1:58:34 i listen to more of this dialogue than i normally would because the camera glitches if i don't which makes the fight slightly more difficult

NEW YORK RIOTS - wolverine, nightcrawler, cyclops, storm (same logic as the sentinel raid, though gambit is a potential option here as well may need to reconsider)
-2:01:09 level up. storm gets a stat point in body and a skill point in leadership.
-2:02:08 i desperately need to get two xtremes over the course of this level and the next and drops are easier to collect here
-2:03:12 at level 20 i can buy the muscle accelerator (which i think i will in future runs)
-2:03:45 getting the civilians into the ambulances sucks. only one can enter at a time after the objective notification has faded completely from the screen
-2:07:58 don't actually need to kill the platform to advance
-2:13:28 killing the sentinel that spawns when you approach bishop with teleport flurry as nightcrawler causes nightcrawler to fall out of bounds to his death which is why i kill him with storm.
-2:14:10 there's a stat or skill point down those stairs that i don't think is worth collecting

SEWERS 3 - wolverine, gambit, storm, cyclops (wolverine and gambit for movement, storm and cyclops to reap the xp a bridge builder may be faster than the bit i do flying with storm)
-2:14:39 level up. wolverine gets all stat points in focus while gambit, cyclops, and storm get all stat points in body. gambit gets three skill points in kinetic fury. cyclops gets three skill points in optic blast, and two in point blank shot. storm gets three skill points in chain lightning and two in flight. wolverine get two in unstoppable rage, two in eviscerate, and one in critical strike (think this last point should maybe go to sharpness).
-2:15:53 as you can hear, i can cast boosts while it's still black
-2:18:08 level up. gambit gets 2 skill points in kinetic mastery
-2:20:32 i just fly over this with storm for now, but building a bridge may be better
-2:21:24 changing the team regroups it, so i swap out gambit for nightcrawler (starting with a bridge builder would change who's swapped)
-2:22:00 i'm killing stuff in the hopes of getting an extreme token
-2:22:08 wolverine gets the skill point, again not sure this is best but considering he's the only character who struggles to max out his relevant stats in seems to make sense
-2:22:22 level up. everyone gets all stat points in focus. storm gets a skill point each in flight and leadership and has one left over. wolverine gets a skill point in unstoppable rage and three in critical strike (which again i think should be sharpness). cyclops gets a skill point each in leadership, point blank shot, and accuracy. nightcrawler gets four skill points in teleport frenzy, one in sucker punch, and two in critical strike (not sure if the one in acrobatics is particularly useful, may want to go for blindside blitz instead).
-2:23:31 i can take out two of marrow's lieutenants each time she dies provided i have enough xtremes (hence why i wanted two before the fight), this allows for a three cycle marrow fight (i should test to see if faster is possible but especially in single segment i doubt it)
-2:24:32 horrible dialogue tree

JUGGERNAUT - wolverine, cyclops, iceman, storm (default team, may want to test to see if he can be one-cycled with a different team though)
-2:25:30 just look how low his health is
-2:25:44 juggernaut obviously glitches here, had he chased forge like he's supposed to i would have been able to kill him quicker as he'd turn off his invulnerability instead of my needing to wait til it timed out
-2:26:47 ...and dead, fun minute waiting that out

-2:26:58 last dialogue tree of the game, hooray!

ASTRAL PLANE 2 - psylocke, gambit, wolverine, storm (psylocke has an interesting glitch wherein if you use psychic hammer in a combo the combo can potentially kill any enemy that can turn itself invulnerable, the enemy must be hit first while invulnerable and then second when not invulnerable, though hard to pull off it works on dark avalanche, dark blob, and dark pyro. gambit and wolverine are there for movement. storm for leadership and chain lighting having aoe as well as being easier to execute combos with her)
-2:27:35 level up. gambit gets two stat points in body. psylocke gets twenty-six stat points in body and one stat point in focus. psylocke gets -four skill points in psychic slash, six in psychic hammer, three in psionic strike, three in psionic fury, five in blade master, three in toughness, and three in mutant mastery. (gambit should probably get stuff too)
-2:29:33 someone gets lost. Sad

-2:31:10 i don't think i manage the glitch on blob but he's the easiest boss so not a major issue
-2:32:30 one of the few intentional preplanned uses of stacking gambit and wolverine's boosts
-2:34:52 obviously don't manage it on avalanche either, my chain lightnings are too early
-2:36:41 there it is on pyro, skipping two additional cycles
-2:37:41 running forward spamming chain lightning and call for help while everyone's clustered should kill everyone but the energy resistant cyclops clone, who is easily dispatched by psylocke

-SENTINEL FACTORY - gambit, wolverine, cyclops, storm (movement boosts and leadership, plus flight for storm)
-2:38:28 level up. gambit gets three stat points in body everyone else gets a stat point in focus. cyclops gets a skill point in accuracy. gambit gets a skill point in kinetic mastery, one in staff master, and two in critical strike (not sure where these go in astral plane 2 had i remembered). wolverine gets a skill point in critical strike (which should be sharpness).
-2:39:50 no idea why i run in a circle like that
-2:40:22 another preplanned boost use
-2:41:03 tank hit while fading to black
-2:42:32 gotta get past him before he lights the fire
-2:42:57 smashing doors is often faster than opening them
-2:44:05 where the hell am i going?
-2:44:29 gotta cross the bridge before it's destroyed
-2:44:49 switching characters to exit more easily
-2:45:37 that should have been cast way earlier, like when i entered the area
-2:45:39 storm shortcut
-2:47:10 this is why i debate that nightcrawler is best against sentinels
-2:50:39 if i had sharpness i'd be able to break this wall
-2:53:24 if i had sharpness i could break these pillars
-2:55:00 storm shortcut instead of bridge building
-2:57:55 if i had sharpness i'd take out one of the launchers while fading to black and kill all of them as wolverine
-2:58:36 storm shortcut

ASTRAL PLANE 3 - gambit, wolverine, jean, and colossus (i need gambit and wolverine for movement and jean to flip a couple switches, the fourth slot can be whoever so i make it colossus just so every character appears in the run, because unlike every other character i have no use for him ever)
-2:58:59 level up. gambit gets five stat points in body and wolverine gets five stat points in focus. wolverine gets two skill points in legend slash, one in unstoppable rage, and two in sharpness (which should be critical strike). gambit gets one skill point in kinetic mastery and three in critical strike. jean and colossus can be ignored.
-3:00:26 jean switch
-3:00:34 this should be the last time i visit forge. ideally i want three super power enhancers and a super muscle accelerator. i think i don't need any other gear but the hammer of nimrod and/or shadowcat's touch are worth retaining as well as the best available nanofiber armor
-3:01:22 wolverine gets super muscle accelerator
-3:02:27 ridiculously risky jump. had jean fallen off the platform it's game over. i should have waited
-3:02:32 jean switch
-3:02:36 it's faster to wait for the team regrouped notification to appear and then press the exit button than spamming the button
-3:03:45 level up. astral gladiator gets a super power enhancer, 23 stat points in strike and 24 stat points in body
-3:04:15 though i'm terrible keeping up with it, i try to keep defense legend on xavier as much as possible
-3:04:19 until shadow king splits into three i find regular melee attacks are most effective
-3:04:25 i try to use psychic maelstroms on shadow king's minions
-3:05:14 once shadow king splits in three i spam psychic maelstrom until i'm out of xtremes then more or less use blast legend until shadow king dies, trying to keep everything clustered

ASTEROID M
-3:06:54 visit healer for the last time (not really worth it)
-3:07:18 level up. asteroid m forces you to start with a team of iceman, storm, wolverine, and emma which despite having two of my preferred characters is pretty terrible. emma also can't be switched out til i get to the lower decks. so for now i replace iceman with gambit for movement while retaining the other three members (there's a flight shortcut for storm anyway). gambit gets a stat point in body while wolverine and storm max out their stat points in focus. wolverine gets two skill points in sharpness (which should be critical strike). storm gets two skill points in lightning legend and a super power enhancer. i think gambit should get skill points here too, but emma can be completely ignored.
-3:08:20 getting lost
-3:09:06 finally make the jump after 40 seconds. *sigh*
-3:09:15 more getting lost
-3:10:58 change to storm to reach door (if she's on low ground she can fly)
-3:11:19 level up. swap in nightcrawler for emma. he gets eight stat points in focus. two skill points in teleport frenzy. two skill points in legend frenzy. not sure about the four in acrobatics, blindside blitz and leap of faith are probably better. i'm not sure if the hammer of nimrod applies to master mold, but i should have kept that equipped to nightcrawler instead of switching.
-3:13:16 nightcrawler shortcut
-3:13:19 shadow blend
-3:13:35 nightcrawler shortcut skipping magneto altogether (the psylocke glitch does also apply to him, making it a quick fight regardless)
-3:13:40 unlike every other mission in the game, in asteroid m you can exit the area regardless if your team is separated.
-3:14:11 oh look at me getting lost again
-3:14:32 should actually probably switch to storm here
-3:15:44 obviously not the easiest jump. storm is worth considering here as well
-3:16:18 level up. last level up. gambit is switched out for cyclops. everyone gets all stat points in focus. cyclops gets two skill points in legend blast, two in optic rage, and one in accuracy. wolverine gets one skill point each in sharpness (should be critical strike) and expertise. not sure about nightcrawler he can probably be ignored like storm. nightcrawler should get the hammer of nimrod and everyone else should get super power enhancers if they don't have this equipment already (i screw this up).
-3:19:32 it's entirely possible to kill master mold before he turns invincible which saves 2 minutes but is difficult to pull off
-3:21:08 game!

i should also note that the arbiter is particularly hard because enemies can move during certain cutscenes (and inflict damage) while you can not, this includes every time a leak springs in the boat or an electric fence is shut down, which happens in very dangerous places here. the game is also odd about how damage is administered. basically if you get hit the game determines an amount of time that if anything touches you you take damage, leading to taking damage just by grazing walls after being punched.

so here's a run of x-men legends 1.  it's roughly ten minutes slower than my pb and the rust is very visible, but with the exception of four mistakes it shows the route.  don't know when i'll get a chance to get more runs.  ideally i'd want sub-3, but i'd probably settle for anything in the 3:05 range considering some of the rng elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aton5O6_KYI

the four major mistakes route-wise are nightcrawler's death on the arbiter, missing a shortcut in sewers 2, leveling up wolverine's critical strike before his sharpness, and the gear i wear to the final battle (wolverine and nightcrawler should switch)

more notes below for anyone who cares:

NEW YORK 1
-i break barrels here to try to get full health and energy before mystique
-ideally i also want a basic power enhancer and a basic nanofiber armor plus 2000 tech bits (including the cost of reselling equipment)
-3:46 i use an energy pack here as one fell out of bounds and so long as you're not maxed, you automatically pick up tech bits, energy, and health packs when they fall out of bounds right before they despawn
-5:03 there are other examples but you get more damage from knocking enemies into each other than straight punching them, making me use knockback combos and attempt to cluster enemies in a line during this fight
-6:33 wolverine's death to blob is intentional, one of the two intentional deaths in the run
-i'm generally more concerned with breaking the barrels in the area than fighting blob, ideally i'd have a basic power enhancer for this fight
-boss areas have higher drop probabilities than other areas and as mentioned i need 2000 equipment/tech bits
-ideally i'd complete new york with 2000 tech bits (including gear), a basic power enhancer that won't be resold, a basic nanofiber armor that won't be resold, full energy and full health, less than 2000 tech bits is a reset, everything else i can live with
-11:28 i'm intentionally slow skipping most cutscenes as spamming the button can crash the game

-12:01 you can skip talking to forge in a segmented run, but not in a single segment run

HAARP - cyclops, storm, wolverine, iceman (default team) - of the six available characters jean and rogue don't offer anything the other four can do -(beast can also be available here if you talk to him in the danger room before the mission, but he isn't worth getting for this mission imo)
-11:41 i'd prefer to have not sold one of the basic nanofiber armors but basic power enhancers are the only unsellable equipment
-the basic muscle accelerator is way too valuable to skip. it increases movement speed by 10% making you move faster than enemies instead of -the same speed which improves your chances of survival as well as allowing you to just move 10% faster in general.  hence the need for 2000 tech bits
-14:05 get my basic nanofiber armor back 
-14:16 notice the call for help.  this is so i can make sure storm is nearby for an upcoming shortcut.
-14:19 if wolverine doesn't die to blob he levels up before here.  the level up here is way more valuable though for its healing properties
-14:25 level up - storm gets a skill point in flight
-14:36 flight shortcut.
-15:40 kind of a tricky jump.  it's possible the skill point would be better going to someone other than wolverine, but unlikely
-16:18 usually the haarp soldiers blow this up with a grenade themselves but i don't get so lucky this run
-16:48 this cutscene is triggered by any character standing on the lowground when the last transformer is destroyed.  occassionally no x-men will be on the lowground however and you'll have to run back
-17:07 i take a wide birth here to avoid getting hit
-17:18 if i don't run to this corner my team probably burns to death in the fire.  i leave since i see storm, iceman, and cyclops on the other side of the fire
-the tank area counts as a boss area, hence my destroying boxes
-17:59 level up.  everyone gets two stat points in body.  wolverine gets a skill point in brutal slash (2 are unspent).  cyclops gets a skill point in optic beam and a skill point in accuracy.  iceman gets a skill point in ice tracks and a skill point in cold smash.  storm gets a skill point in lightning strike.  in this un iceman and wolverine each get a nanofiber armor (iceman takes priority) and the basic muscle accelerator shifts to iceman.  if a basic power enhancer is available cyclops would get it and it'd be switched to wolverine sometime between killing the key guard and fighting pyro
-19:06 i lose massive amounts of time against this guy without a basic power enhancer.  i should have rest not having one yet by the time i got to him
-22:00 i've gotten pyro to spawn under the floor and instantly fall to his death, but never been able to replicate the glitch since
-23:14 storm's death is not intentional and kinda sucks but i only really need two of the x-men to survive the fight (getting to the elevator without a second character is near impossible).  wolverine and iceman will always get revived at the next checkpoint should they die whereas cyclops and storm will be replaced by rogue and if necessary jean.
-24:21 i'm spamming the throw button as i open this door
-24:37 rogue added to team and level up. (this would normally happen right before toad and causes a mistake by not happening there).  everyone gets a stat point in body (rogue gets 2).  cyclops gets a point in leadership (storm would get a point in leadership were she alive and at level 4).  wolverine finally gets the basic power enhancer he should already have gotten before pyro.
-the ice tunnels are one of the hardest areas in the run and source of many deaths.
-26:55 toad is arguably the glitchiest boss
-27:28 i intentionally leave one of these guards alive so more don't spawn (always the same one too as he's the hardest to kill though it's important to keep him separated from toad so toad doesn't gain physical resistance which is why you see me run to odd parts of the map and call for help)
-28:01 toad occasionally struggles to jump onto this jet

-29:11 by not leveling up before toad i forgot to unequip the basic muscle accelerator from iceman so i could give it to magma here.  she gets all stat points in body.  a skill point in burning rage and a skill point in lava tracks.
-30:16 i give serious thought to buying a basic muscle accelerator before deciding against it

DANGER ROOM
-you can land an infinite combo by pressing BAABBAABB... etc.
-32:11 level up. magma gets all stat points in body.  a skill point in burning rage and a skill point in critical strike
-33:55 you can move as soon as you cancel professor x's dialogue before the camera's in the room
-35:05 getting magma to level 7 is important as it means the rest of your team will be level 5

SEWERS 1 - nightcrawler, jubilee, rogue, wolverine (nightcrawler's shadow blend is the easiest way to avoid damage and bottlenecks at doorways.  wolverine is the best at destroying the pumps and rogue is the best available backup should he die.  jubilee is mainly cannon fodder, but the ai's use of photo flash seems to slightly reduce the potential for bottlenecks at doorways)
-35:44 level up.  nightcrawler gets five stat points in focus while everyone else maxes out there stat points in body.  nightcrawler gets two skill points in teleport flurry and two in shadow blend.  rogue gets five skill points in flight.  jubilee gets two skill points in photo flash.  wolverine gets one skill point in brutal slash and two in feral rage.  nightcrawler gets a basic muscle accelerator (note you do not need to unequip this from magma until she officially joins the team).  wolverine gets a basic nanofiber armor if available (should likewise be transferred just before the toad fight if only one is available).  nightcrawler gets a basic nanofiber armor cuz i have two (wolverine takes priority).
-36:45 kill these guys and level up here if not yet at level 5
-36:50 most uses of shadow blend happen at very specific locations
-37:36 shadow blend
-38:30 i run far into the room to make sure wolverine can clear the bottleneck
-38:44 wolverine can two hit these pumps only with a basic power enhancer, even with the gear it takes rogue three of her southern strike (or whatever it's called).
-38:47 shadow blend
-39:44 shadow blend
-39:59 shadow blend
-40:13 again the corner is to get wolverine through the bottleneck
-40:20 shadow blend
-40:32 shadow blend
-42:16 shadow blend
-42:40 this wall really shouldn't let you do this
-42:55 shadow blend
-43:10 shadow blend
-43:28 team change.  cyclops, iceman, and storm replace nightcrawler, rogue, and jubilee.  in theory the level could be completed by cyclops, storm, wolverine, and nightcrawler but nightcrawler's health is so low he'd die almost instantly to marrow and cyclops and storm would take damage you don't want them to in the level (this already happens with wolverine, but he's so good on the pumps not putting him on the team seems foolish).  iceman isn't particularly necessary but his slow beam is one of the easier moves to combo off of as it slows marrow.  cyclops and storm are near mandatory for leadership and wolverine is still the best damage dealer.  everyone maxes out stat points in body.  cyclops gets a skill point in optic beam and one in point blank shot.  iceman gets a skill point each in cold smash, critical strike, and point blank shot.  storm gets a skill point each in lightning strike, leadership, and flight.  storm gets a nanofiber armor as i have an extra one by this point in the game if you don't have a basic nanofiber armor you must buy one from forge or you'll either die or lose too much time to marrow.  wolverine should have a basic nanofiber armor and basic power enhancer against marrow (both should already be equiped).
-combos do 1.5x the damage compared to regular attacks
-45:48 storm's death is not intentional.  this is a bad marrow fight.
-46:05 iceman's and cyclops' deaths are not intentional.  this is a real bad marrow fight.  she should be dead by now.  i have no choice but to chuck stuff at her as she'll kill me at close quarters.  ideally you want to kill her using primarily wolverine combos making it imperative you connect with them, have a lot of energy packs, and get more to drop.  most likely you'll be out of health and energy packs by the end of the fight
-46:55 i'm out of stuff to throw

ARBITER - gambit, jubilee, cyclops, storm (gambit can destroy the sentinel launchers in one combo without any energy which is useful considering how many things drain energy.  storm has some use hitting flying shortcuts.  cyclops and jubilee are cannon fodder speciffically chosen for their lower health compared to everyone else)
-47:30 level up. gambit gets all stat points in body.  two skill points each in kinetic boost and kinetic strike plus a skill point in staff master.  gambit gets a basic muscle accelerator and a basic nanofiber armor
-48:21 gambit can kill these launchers with a single trip combo
-49:23 woohoo! bonus basic muscle accelerator (this means i don't need to switch out the gear for magma as much)
-49:42 so much faster than stairs
-50:00 you can jump from this silly camera angle
-50:30 horrible bottleneck which causes storm's death and prevents a couple shortcuts
-51:21 gambit can destroy these launchers with a single stun combo
-51:25 i'd normally fly up to the balcony as storm
-53:23 while technically flying up to this balcony is faster, all that time will be lost switching back to gambit so i generally don't do it even if storm was alive
-54:20 it's very possible everyone but gambit may be dead by now
-54:35 very necessary to max out health as this upcoming section is the hardest in the game
-54:47 team change and level up.  new team is iceman, wolverine, rogue, beast (iceman is necessary as a bridge builder in the next part everyone else is cannon fodder chosen for their high health though there is a bit that's faster utilizing rogue's flight).  beast should gets his stat points maxed out in body.  iceman gets a basic muscle accelerator and a basic nanofiber armor.  wolverine should get a basic nanofiber armor too if any's available.
-55:54 there are only supposed to be two crewmen per area, but i have seen a glitch were more seem to appear, but again i don't know how to replicate this to potentially allowing me to shorten this section
-57:16 rogue shortcut
-57:34 rogue's death is intentional as is her spot on the directional pad so that i'll get control of iceman when she dies
-58:07 wolverine's death is not intentional and somewhat unfortunate as this area is more difficult the less characters you have
-58:17 fade outs like the one here (and every time jean braces a wall) are what make this level so difficult as you lose control of your character during them but the enemy does not, leaving you completely vulnerable, hence extra guys to take damage during these parts being prefered
-59:23 team change.  iceman, nightcrawler, whoever has the most health (in this instance gambit and cyclops (think jubilee would have actually been better).  iceman is still necessary for bridges, and nightcrawler has uses with shadow blend and teleport.  the other two are cannon fodder).  nightcrawler gets nanofiber armor if available.
-59:54 shadow blend, need to do it before hitting the energy drainer.  the reasons for doing this should be obvious.
-1:01:06 you want to call for people near the exit door to prevent the bottleneck
-1:01:18 gambit's death is not intentional
-1:02:03 nightcrawler's death is a HUGE mistake that costs probably a minute.  normally he should teleport past the electric fence at 1:03:07 which is annoying as you need to kill the guard there first and i've yet to figure out a way to kill him particularly effectively (i may want to rethink the other two members of the team as expendable and pick characters particularly good at killing him, probably cyclops and storm).
-1:02:18 iceman would normally remove his basic muscle accelerator here

-1:03:42 level up. magma gets all stat points in body, two skill points in lava fissure, and a skill point in critical strike.  she also gets a basic muscle accelerator.
-1:04:06 i think i may have been supposed to sell stuff to forge

NEW YORK 2
-eh, by this point i think i shouldn't actually be breaking as much stuff as i do.
-the goal of the blob fight is to get him to attack cyclops and just infinite combo him

NUKE PLANT - wolverine, magma, rogue, nightcrawler (magma has two levels on the other bridge building options, wolverine has feral rage, nightcrawler's shadow blend still proves useful, and rogue has the most skill points in flight)
-wolverine gets the basic muscle accelerator only cuz i have two otherwise it'd stick with magma, iceman doesn't need the basic nanofiber armor anymore
-1:10:57 feral rage.  my feral rage usage is not nearly as mapped out as my shadow blend usage so i won't point it out in most instances unless it is a particularly timely situation which it is here.
-1:12:39 rogue shortcut
-1:12:56 stepping past that box triggers the acolytes to attack so, i wait til the electric bridge can be crossed
-1:13:07 rogue shortcut
-1:13:27 rogue shortcuts like crazy in this area
-1:14:08 changing characters regroups the team and due to the team loving to take damage on electrified bridges i keep jean and storm out of the team as i need them for a puzzle at the end of the mission (hence why i don't use a team of storm, jean, wolverine, and nightcrawler even though it should work).  from the look of it i should maybe keep nightcrawler off the team too and switch him in here.  hmm
jean also levels up here.  she gets all stat points in body.  two skill points in psionic strike, one skill point in telekinetic combat, one skill point in flight, and one skill point in critical strike.  storm gets a basic power enhancer cuz i have an extra
-1:14:54 shadow blend, it's still possible to move even when the camera gets weird
-1:15:32 feral rage
-1:15:56 nightcrawler gets a basic muscle accelerator
-1:16:16 shadow blend
-1:16:44 shadow blend
-1:16:58 shadow blend
-1:17:28 shadow blend
-1:17:52 wolverine gets a basic muscle accelerator
-1:18:09 feral rage
-1:18:20 wolverine removes basic muscle accelerator, this may be slower than it's worth
-1:18:28 storm can hit both weld points from the same side

-1:18:48 can still move while scene is black though without being able to see anything is tricky, if magma didn't already have a basic muscle accelerator she'd get one here
-1:19:12 i obviously flub this dialogue tree

MUIR ISLAND
-1:19:28 i should probably go right first actually
-1:19:37 you don't actually have to flip this console at this point and it'd be faster to go to the window first

-1:21:30 screwing up the elevator is great
-1:22:08 magma would not remove her basic acceleraor here if i only had one

GRSO RAID - wolverine, iceman, cyclops, storm (cyclops and storm are great for leadership and wolverine's the best damage dealer, iceman's just along for the ride as a default character, an argument can be made for emma as you get access to xtremes earlier if she's on the team but ultimately you don't need a fourth character for this mission so just sticking with iceman makes the most sense)
notice how quickly i level up, proof that until this point 'm severly underlevelled but it all evens out from here
-1:22:11 wolverine gets basic power enhancer
-1:22:52 never seen this glitch before with the guard just up and disappearing, a lot of the wandering around and killing drones (which i normally ignore) here is done in the hope he shows up again
-1:26:54 he's back after costing me 2-3 minutes
-1:27:01 level up.  this is screwed up cuz i killed a bunch of drones i normally don't and had to contend with the guy who disappeared.  generally i level up after killing the 9th grso just dealing with wolverine's stats and again on the tenth focusing on everyone including the additional upgrade wolverine gets.  i'll need to run this again to get exactly what i get but it all ends up here (sorry).
-i probably shouldn't bother with iceman at all.  wolverine gets points in focus, toughness, mutant mastery, brutal slash, and feral rage.  storm gets points in body, leadership, toughness, mutant mastery, and lightning strike.  cyclops gets points in body, optic beam, toughness, mutant mastery, accuracy, point blank shot.

-1:30:08 you have to open this door twice before it opens for some reason
-1:30:21 magma would remove her basic muscle accelerator here if i only had one

ASTRAL PLANE 1
-1:30:41 prof x gets basic muscle accelerator, he automatially gives it back when once he's no longer on the team
-1:31:55 along with the hammer of nimrod, shadowcat's touch is one of two marginally useful unique items
-1:33:07 should xavier fall off these moving platforms it's game over, so i take these a little cautious and kill things as i wait
-1:34:27 i use the weaker punches so the astral wardens don't fly across the room
-1:35:26 level up.  jean gets all stat points in body, and skill points in psionic strike, psionic fury, telekinetic combat (x2), toughness (x3), flight, critical strike (x2).  she also gets the astral stone.  emma is ignored
-1:36:02 turning back and killing this stuff now is better than with illyana

WEAPON X
-1:37:38 cyclops gets the basic muscle accelerator
-1:38:17 i don't know if the xp i detour for is worth it
-1:38:37 level up after the xp is collected.  cyclops gets all stat points in body, and skill points in optic blast (x2), toughness, and leadership
-1:39:37 havok is ridiculously vulnerable to thrown explosives
-1:41:15 level up. wolverine gets all stat points in focus, skill points in toughness, mutant mastery, berserker rage (x3), and eviscerate (x3). cyclops gets all stat points in body, skill points in optic beam and mutant mastery.  cyclops gets basic power enhancer.  wolvering gets basic muscle accelerator.
-1:41:52 spamming throw as door opens
-1:42:32 no idea why i go in this room
-1:43:34 spamming throw
-1:43:39 this guy sucks.  need to attack him so i don't get hit by the energy drainer/knock him towards it.  probably the last major potential run killer of the run
-1:45:09 oh good, another wrong turn :(

SENTINEL RAID - nightcrawler, wolverine, cyclops, storm (with the hammer of nimrod nightcrawler is arguably the most effective sentinel killer (especially against so many), wolverine's still the highest damage dealer, and cyclops' and storm's leadership boost damage considerably
1:47:02 level up.  nightcrawler and wolverine get all stat points in focus.  storm and cyclops get all stat points in body.  storm gets three skill points in chain lightning, two in cyclone fury, one in toughness, one in mutant mastery, and one in leadership.  nightcrawler gets four skill points in teleport flurry, and three each in sucker punch, critical strike, toughness, and mutant mastery.  cyclops gets a skill point in leadership.  wolverine gets a skill point in berserker rage.
-1:48:17 buy hammer of nimrod to be equipped to nightcrawler (cost 4500)

SEWERS 2/LAUNCH BASE - jean, wolverine, gambit, nightcrawler (wolverine's berserker fury plus gambit's kinetic amplification make wolverine the fastest character in the game, jean as utility as a flier and avalanche is vulnerable to mental attacks, nightcrawler hits several shortcuts with teleport)
-1:50:29 level up.  gambit and jean get all stat points in body.  wolverine and nightcrawler get all stat points in focus.  wolverine gets a skill point in eviscerate.  gambit gets two skill points in kinetic boost, four in kinetic amplification,  one in kinetic strike, three in staff master, three in toughness, and three in mutant mastery.  jean gets two skill points in psionic fury, one skill point in telekinetic combat, two in flight, and one in critical strike.  nightcrawler gets a skill point in sucker punch.  gambit gets shadowcat's touch if available and wolverine gets the basic muscle accelerator if there's only one.
-1:51:58 horrible dialogue tree
-1:52:30 first instance of stacking wolverine and gambit's boosts this gives a movement speed bonus (of 55% including the basic muscle accelerator which will grow to 90% by the end of the run).
-1:52:50 i can teleport up to that bridge and think i make a 30 second mistake by not doing so
-1:54:41 shadow blend followed by nightcrawler shortcut.  you have to make sure nightcrawler hits someone or your team will separate, preventing you from advancing to the next area
-1:55:55 waiting for nightcrawler so he can teleport past the gate and get to the next area earlier than we should be able to
-1:56:02 nightcrawler shortcut
-1:56:40 bottleneck
-1:56:56 guy falls through floor
-1:57:02 shadow blend (the goal is to get the two guards in this area not to follow you to the gate so you can teleport through it instead of attacking them, of course this time they both die, making the point moot)
-1:57:05 nightcrawler shortcut skipping healer
-1:57:39 flight shortcut, characters have a tendency to die in this area for no reason.  i need to figure out which directional location makes gambit least likely to die as the more characters against avalanche the better, with gambit being the best out of gambit, wolverine, and nightcrawler.
-1:58:34 i listen to more of this dialogue than i normally would because the camera glitches if i don't which makes the fight slightly more difficult

NEW YORK RIOTS - wolverine, nightcrawler, cyclops, storm (same logic as the sentinel raid, though gambit is a potential option here as well may need to reconsider)
-2:01:09 level up. storm gets a stat point in body and a skill point in leadership.
-2:02:08 i desperately need to get two xtremes over the course of this level and the next and drops are easier to collect here
-2:03:12 at level 20 i can buy the muscle accelerator (which i think i will in future runs)
-2:03:45 getting the civilians into the ambulances sucks.  only one can enter at a time after the objective notification has faded completely from the screen
-2:07:58 don't actually need to kill the platform to advance
-2:13:28 killing the sentinel that spawns when you approach bishop with teleport flurry as nightcrawler causes nightcrawler to fall out of bounds to his death which is why i kill him with storm.
-2:14:10 there's a stat or skill point down those stairs that i don't think is worth collecting

SEWERS 3 - wolverine, gambit, storm, cyclops (wolverine and gambit for movement, storm and cyclops to reap the xp a bridge builder may be faster than the bit i do flying with storm)
-2:14:39 level up. wolverine gets all stat points in focus while gambit, cyclops, and storm get all stat points in body.  gambit gets three skill points in kinetic fury.  cyclops gets three skill points in optic blast, and two in point blank shot.  storm gets three skill points in chain lightning and two in flight.  wolverine get two in unstoppable rage, two in eviscerate, and one in critical strike (think this last point should maybe go to sharpness).
-2:15:53 as you can hear, i can cast boosts while it's still black
-2:18:08 level up. gambit gets 2 skill points in kinetic mastery
-2:20:32 i just fly over this with storm for now, but building a bridge may be better
-2:21:24 changing the team regroups it, so i swap out gambit for nightcrawler (starting with a bridge builder would change who's swapped)
-2:22:00 i'm killing stuff in the hopes of getting an extreme token
-2:22:08 wolverine gets the skill point, again not sure this is best but considering he's the only character who struggles to max out his relevant stats in seems to make sense
-2:22:22 level up.  everyone gets all stat points in focus.  storm gets a skill point each in flight and leadership and has one left over.  wolverine gets a skill point in unstoppable rage and three in critical strike (which again i think should be sharpness).  cyclops gets a skill point each in leadership, point blank shot, and accuracy.  nightcrawler gets four skill points in teleport frenzy, one in sucker punch, and two in critical strike (not sure if the one in acrobatics is particularly useful, may want to go for blindside blitz instead).
-2:23:31 i can take out two of marrow's lieutenants each time she dies provided i have enough xtremes (hence why i wanted two before the fight), this allows for a three cycle marrow fight (i should test to see if faster is possible but especially in single segment i doubt it)
-2:24:32 horrible dialogue tree

JUGGERNAUT - wolverine, cyclops, iceman, storm (default team, may want to test to see if he can be one-cycled with a different team though)
-2:25:30 just look how low his health is
-2:25:44 juggernaut obviously glitches here, had he chased forge like he's supposed to i would have been able to kill him quicker as he'd turn off his invulnerability instead of my needing to wait til it timed out
-2:26:47 ...and dead, fun minute waiting that out

-2:26:58 last dialogue tree of the game, hooray!

ASTRAL PLANE 2 - psylocke, gambit, wolverine, storm (psylocke has an interesting glitch wherein if you use psychic hammer in a combo the combo can potentially kill any enemy that can turn itself invulnerable, the enemy must be hit first while invulnerable and then second when not invulnerable, though hard to pull off it works on dark avalanche, dark blob, and dark pyro.  gambit and wolverine are there for movement.  storm for leadership and chain lighting having aoe as well as being easier to execute combos with her)
-2:27:35 level up.  gambit gets two stat points in body.  psylocke gets twenty-six stat points in body and one stat point in focus.  psylocke gets -four skill points in psychic slash, six in psychic hammer, three in psionic strike, three in psionic fury, five in blade master, three in toughness, and three in mutant mastery.  (gambit should probably get stuff too)
-2:29:33 someone gets lost.  :(
-2:31:10 i don't think i manage the glitch on blob but he's the easiest boss so not a major issue
-2:32:30 one of the few intentional preplanned uses of stacking gambit and wolverine's boosts
-2:34:52 obviously don't manage it on avalanche either, my chain lightnings are too early
-2:36:41 there it is on pyro, skipping two additional cycles
-2:37:41 running forward spamming chain lightning and call for help while everyone's clustered should kill everyone but the energy resistant cyclops clone, who is easily dispatched by psylocke

-SENTINEL FACTORY - gambit, wolverine, cyclops, storm (movement boosts and leadership, plus flight for storm)
-2:38:28 level up. gambit gets three stat points in body everyone else gets a stat point in focus.  cyclops gets a skill point in accuracy.  gambit gets a skill point in kinetic mastery, one in staff master, and two in critical strike (not sure where these go in astral plane 2 had i remembered).  wolverine gets a skill point in critical strike (which should be sharpness).
-2:39:50 no idea why i run in a circle like that
-2:40:22 another preplanned boost use
-2:41:03 tank hit while fading to black
-2:42:32 gotta get past him before he lights the fire
-2:42:57 smashing doors is often faster than opening them
-2:44:05 where the hell am i going?
-2:44:29 gotta cross the bridge before it's destroyed
-2:44:49 switching characters to exit more easily
-2:45:37 that should have been cast way earlier, like when i entered the area
-2:45:39 storm shortcut
-2:47:10 this is why i debate that nightcrawler is best against sentinels
-2:50:39 if i had sharpness i'd be able to break this wall
-2:53:24 if i had sharpness i could break these pillars
-2:55:00 storm shortcut instead of bridge building
-2:57:55 if i had sharpness i'd take out one of the launchers while fading to black and kill all of them as wolverine
-2:58:36 storm shortcut

ASTRAL PLANE 3 - gambit, wolverine, jean, and colossus (i need gambit and wolverine for movement and jean to flip a couple switches, the fourth slot can be whoever so i make it colossus just so every character appears in the run, because unlike every other character i have no use for him ever)
-2:58:59 level up. gambit gets five stat points in body and wolverine gets five stat points in focus.  wolverine gets two skill points in legend slash, one in unstoppable rage, and two in sharpness (which should be critical strike).  gambit gets one skill point in kinetic mastery and three in critical strike.  jean and colossus can be ignored.
-3:00:26 jean switch
-3:00:34 this should be the last time i visit forge.  ideally i want three super power enhancers and a super muscle accelerator.  i think i don't need any other gear but the hammer of nimrod and/or shadowcat's touch are worth retaining as well as the best available nanofiber armor
-3:01:22 wolverine gets super muscle accelerator
-3:02:27 ridiculously risky jump.  had jean fallen off the platform it's game over.  i should have waited
-3:02:32 jean switch
-3:02:36 it's faster to wait for the team regrouped notification to appear and then press the exit button than spamming the button
-3:03:45 level up. astral gladiator gets a super power enhancer, 23 stat points in strike and 24 stat points in body
-3:04:15 though i'm terrible keeping up with it, i try to keep defense legend on xavier as much as possible
-3:04:19 until shadow king splits into three i find regular melee attacks are most effective
-3:04:25 i try to use psychic maelstroms on shadow king's minions
-3:05:14 once shadow king splits in three i spam psychic maelstrom until i'm out of xtremes then more or less use blast legend until shadow king dies, trying to keep everything clustered

ASTEROID M
-3:06:54 visit healer for the last time (not really worth it)
-3:07:18 level up.  asteroid m forces you to start with a team of iceman, storm, wolverine, and emma which despite having two of my preferred characters is pretty terrible.  emma also can't be switched out til i get to the lower decks.  so for now i replace iceman with gambit for movement while retaining the other three members (there's a flight shortcut for storm anyway).  gambit gets a stat point in body while wolverine and storm max out their stat points in focus.  wolverine gets two skill points in sharpness (which should be critical strike).  storm gets two skill points in lightning legend and a super power enhancer.  i think gambit should get skill points here too, but emma can be completely ignored.
-3:08:20 getting lost
-3:09:06 finally make the jump after 40 seconds. *sigh*
-3:09:15 more getting lost
-3:10:58 change to storm to reach door (if she's on low ground she can fly)
-3:11:19 level up.  swap in nightcrawler for emma.  he gets eight stat points in focus.  two skill points in teleport frenzy.  two skill points in legend frenzy.  not sure about the four in acrobatics, blindside blitz and leap of faith are probably better.  i'm not sure if the hammer of nimrod applies to master mold, but i should have kept that equipped to nightcrawler instead of switching.
-3:13:16 nightcrawler shortcut
-3:13:19 shadow blend
-3:13:35 nightcrawler shortcut skipping magneto altogether (the psylocke glitch does also apply to him, making it a quick fight regardless)
-3:13:40 unlike every other mission in the game, in asteroid m you can exit the area regardless if your team is separated.
-3:14:11 oh look at me getting lost again
-3:14:32 should actually probably switch to storm here
-3:15:44 obviously not the easiest jump.  storm is worth considering here as well
-3:16:18 level up.  last level up.  gambit is switched out for cyclops.  everyone gets all stat points in focus.  cyclops gets two skill points in legend blast, two in optic rage, and one in accuracy.  wolverine gets one skill point each in sharpness (should be critical strike) and expertise.  not sure about nightcrawler he can probably be ignored like storm.  nightcrawler should get the hammer of nimrod and everyone else should get super power enhancers if they don't have this equipment already (i screw this up).
-3:19:32 it's entirely possible to kill master mold before he turns invincible which saves 2 minutes but is difficult to pull off
-3:21:08 game!

i should also note that the arbiter is particularly hard because enemies can move during certain cutscenes (and inflict damage) while you can not, this includes every time a leak springs in the boat or an electric fence is shut down, which happens in very dangerous places here.  the game is also odd about how damage is administered.  basically if you get hit the game determines an amount of time that if anything touches you you take damage, leading to taking damage just by grazing walls after being punched.

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2014-12-12 02:30:21 pm

2014-12-12 02:25:11 pm

so did some testing on astral 2 (wanted to see if i could teleport out of the boss areas, which i now know you can't) and discovered the combo glitch is not specific to psylocke. this means i'll probably replace her with cyclops on the team then put her on astral 3 and colossus on grso or maybe juggernaut just so all 15 characters make an appearance.

wfp

2014-12-13 05:00:07 pm

got a 3:03:33. will upload a higher quality version with sound probably some time next week, but here it is on twitch for now:

http://www.twitch.tv/wfp9/c/5676640

wfp

Edit history:

wfp: 2015-01-02 08:44:21 am

2015-01-01 07:09:20 pm

finally cracked the 3 hour mark on xml1 with a time of 2:57:47 (though the now irrelevant 3:03:33 should now be up as well if people want to watch that). still don't think this run is submittable. i really need to practice my menus and the second half of the game. i also want to experiment leveling iceman differently to see if i give more points to freeze blast it makes any impact on the first marrow and juggernaut fights. most of the mistakes are obvious movement things (especially astral 3 where i completely forgot about one of the rooms and end up getting lost), slow menus, and for some reason i max out cyclops' accuracy skill before point blank shot.

probably won't be able to do runs again in earnest until february. maybe actually manage something submittable then.