Up to this point I had deemed that the Twin Knife was unavoidable until I stopped to think why exactly I came to this conclusion in the first place and drawing a blank. One thing led to another and I decided it was time to put a theory to the test.

Here is the end result:

I'm proud to say that a new route has been born; the Twin Knife is now able to be skipped. That's right! The Shuriken can now be carried all the way to the Mace in Ghost Ship.

The twitch VOD you see above covers the challenges I faced in the discovery of this route but I do gloss over at least one thing in it so here's a rundown in written form of what has changed in this route as well as other new strats found during this test. Keep in mind that skipping Twin Knife only really saves about 15-17 seconds in Atlena ideally. So any moment where one would have to stop due to Shuriken's low damage from then on in the route till the Mace in Ghost Ship is a loss of said 15-17 seconds advantage.

Atlena:

Because I normally acquire the Twin Knife at the end of this dungeon in my route Atlena pretty much doesn't change at all. The room with the two blue ghosts right next to the Twin Knife room is only slightly slower with Shuriken when done properly.

I used to think the single green slime that holds the last orb I grab was also a small time loss but since Quagmire must be started with the damage spell anyway this room now draws even by switching back to damage prior to it since we have to wait for the slime to approach anyway to safely grab the orb.

The big adjustment that you as the player will have to make in this dungeon with this route is Pincha. A guide covering this boss has a video where I kill Pincha with Shuriken. It can be found here.

http://www.speedrun.com/Equinox/guide/7athc

Quagmire:

This is where the majority of the complications of this route change come into play. Right from the get go after getting the blue key and the white key, you need to kill the green slime to unlock the door that leads to the boss room. This is handled the same way as it would be handled if you had Twin Knife only you need to land a damage spell and two hits right after instead of just one if you had twin knife. It's possible to do this while still going fast but the timing is a lot trickier.

To make matters even worse, you have to stop and kill the blue tornado in the next room (losing you time). This is unavoidable as you need the pink potion to replenish the magic you depleted. This room is another one where you lose a little bit of time over the previous route. Thankfully the green tornado in the room after can be manipulated to move in a way that makes him easy to avoid. The rest of the beginning area and the green side is unchanged.

Yellow side is pretty much the same as the other route. The small room with the lone slime that has to be killed for the orb is slightly slower but the difference is very minor. The room with the green and blue slimes is also slightly changed on the return trip. Now we walk around the blue slime to save 1 full circle of magic. We lose some time doing this but it's important we do this due to a certain room in white side later on.

Blue side doesn't change at all. In fact the only thing I discovered here is a new and faster way of doing that one room with the blue ghost and the pink potion which can be done regardless of your weapon.

White side is also handled the same way from past routes with the exception being the room with the 2 blue ghosts. Describing how to go through this room fast the first time around is difficult but I do get a few solid attempts in the VOD where I do this room optimally. On the return trip this same room needs Slow spell to be activated prior to entering it. This is why we save the one circle of magic from yellow side. It's also worth noting that you should pop the Slow quite a bit before entering the room or else the room after (with the white and blue ghost) will slow you down.

Afralona:

With proper use of Zap Spell no enemies should be killed with a weapon making this dungeon 100% unchanged from the previous route.

Ghost Ship:

Like Afralona, the same holds true for this dungeon with the exception of one room. The room with 3 red knights, 3 closing gates and a whole lot of spikes. In the VOD above I save my game with the Save Spell in preparation for this room.

So here is what I do for this room. As soon as I enter I pop the Zap Spell as soon as I think I can. Then I jump to keep moving and then I move Glendaal slightly closer to the spikes. Then I continue to move towards the apple that should at this moment be up in the air from the now dead knight. When the apple gets pretty close to bouncing off the ground the first time I jump and then item jump off the apple (while it is still airborne) and over the spike. If you land the item jump successfully keep holding down and do not let go until you know you landed. It's going to take a lot of practice much like it did for me here in the VOD.

¤This strat is the fastest strat for this room whether or not you have Twin Knife/Sword. The only difference between the different routes is that with Twin Knife/Sword you have the option to do a safer and more consistent strat, but with Shuriken your only option is the item jump over the spike or you're guaranteed to lose time on the 3rd steel gate from the older route due to weapon damage being too low to kill the first knight in the room.