Sometime last year I tried the TAS route for funsies and it’s definitely not possible with human input haha.

I have confirmed that there is a static route Jason takes, with 3 possible spawn points, but ultimately all end up the same route, and if I remember right, only certain sections of the route that you can run into Jason. I was working on a video explaining just what that path is, but then got distracted from finishing the editing and I don’t know if I backed up the Final Cut Pro project. I might try to release it at some point, but it’s mostly moot now because the current WR route is the fastest and Jason will always go that route. But I suppose it’s worth noting just in case anyone manages to play around with seeds enough to figure out that there’s a faster route that someone can maybe hit a sub 2:50.

I’ve always found Crissy to be more preferable than Laura. The fast throws shave enough frames overall, plus Crissy I think has a higher jump, which for me is a preference for avoiding zombies on days 2 and 3 so I don’t lose too much health ahead of fights against Jason and possibly lose a run to his RNG.

That was one thing I found interesting in learning what sort of seed setups were possible a few years ago is that of those 3 routes Jason spawns in, it is indeed 50% in 1, 25% at another, and 25% in the 3rd.

The chance of spawning the perfect seed is I think 3 or 4 possible frames of a 256 frame roll, and none of those frames are in segment. Getting the seed is frame perfect at the screen just before the map. And since it’s long been confirmed that the RNG begins at a random value on console, you pretty much just have to power cycle any time you don’t get the correct seed. No visual timer. I even tried to create a click track before I submitted my first console run and that’s what made me start this thread. Results were varied.

I do remember finding that resets push the RNG value back a certain number of frames, which is why it seemed to me like power cycling was possibly a better option than resetting - as if you get a bad seed your odds of continuing to get bad seeds might be higher. I imagine a few of you guys who have snagged sub 3s that I haven’t put the time into doing have had your own results that create the better preference there.

That was one thing I found interesting in learning what sort of seed setups were possible a few years ago is that of those 3 routes Jason spawns in, it is indeed 50% in 1, 25% at another, and 25% in the 3rd.

The chance of spawning the perfect seed is I think 3 or 4 possible frames of a 256 frame roll, and none of those frames are in segment. Getting the seed is frame perfect at the screen just before the map. And since it’s long been confirmed that the RNG begins at a random value on console, you pretty much just have to power cycle any time you don’t get the correct seed. No visual timer. I even tried to create a click track before I submitted my first console run and that’s what made me start this thread. Results were varied.

I do remember finding that resets push the RNG value back a certain number of frames, which is why it seemed to me like power cycling was possibly a better option than resetting - as if you get a bad seed your odds of continuing to get bad seeds might be higher. I imagine a few of you guys who have snagged sub 3s that I haven’t put the time into doing have had your own results that create the better preference there.

I had spent a good chunk of time analyzing the 256 possible seeds, most of which are indeed duplicates. The current route actually only has I think 2-3 entries in the programming, so nailing that seed would theoretically have to be frame perfect. But Lazarus_DS made a great point that basically the global timer on console is likely programmed to start the RNG at a random value even on a hard reset. I had a click track I built that I was able to get the correct route seed about 25% of the time, but when I tried to use that click track on console, I almost never got it. The one bane of speedrunning this game is that dumb random RNG value. So every time I just hard boot and quickly mash start, jump over to Mark and hope it's the right seed. Can spend 20 minutes before I actually get a playable seed. It's a bummer.

You really do gotta mash fast, but you have to time it right and RNG is definitely no one's friend in this game. In my route when you start getting onto Day 2 and 3, you have to be careful to hit your 6th shot in each fight sequence and fire the 7th when you know you can land at least 2 more before Jason's off the screen, because he starts bolting on the 7th hit. On the 2nd and 3rd Days if you don't kill him on the 3rd fight sequence, the run is basically done. It gets stupid frustrating.

That run is way good. I think despite combination of best segments suggesting it can get down to 2:48, I don't think you could reasonably get more than 1 second shaved off that before this route has been maxed out.

I also don't think there's feasibly a better route. I spent a ton of time analyzing the data on the different seed combinations programmed into the game. I'm gonna try to start practicing again and up my PB, but I think this WR is going to be set for a very long time. GGWP!

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the RNG works to be able to more easily spawn the correct map seed necessary to get the most time effective runs on any category in this game.

I had figured out at first that the value that triggers which seed is based on when you push start on the 3rd intro screen/the credits screen, not the 1st/hockey mask one. Then I went through each individual value in FCEUX, made a spreadsheet, and charted out which value placed the counselors in which cabins, kept testing to make sure that the placement could be recreated from scratch with the right value. Power cycling was seemingly the best way to properly manipulate this, as it would put the values right back at 00, whereas resets would jump the value backwards a varying, inconsistent number. I gotta hand it to the devs, they did not want this RNG to be easily manipulated by the player.

But now I'm realizing that there's much more to this RNG than I originally thought. I built a metronome value that would get me as close to frame perfect 3rd intro start as I could with minimal resets - in theory. All of this on emulator. But put into console, the RNG acts way differently. If I power cycle and use my metronome, I should expect that I get a map seed that is either exactly where it should be, or at least close to it as far as my chart went.

Then I started noticing that SOMETIMES when I would power cycle, it would sometimes give me a map seed that was nowhere close to where my metronome should place me on the chart, or worse yet, a map seed that isn't even on my chart.

I wonder if the game has multiple preset lists of map seeds set for multiple 256 value cycles of RNG, and on console it randomly pulls one list up and you can't manipulate which one it does pull up.

Also wonder if there are actually multiple versions/builds of this game made and no one's ever realized it. The biggest RNG factor of running this game is undoubtedly for map seed. Right now I'm just quickly doing soft resets and hoping for the best until it actually potentially gives me the map seed I want (Mark NW Lake Road cabin + Paul at far South Main Road cabin immediately attacked by Jason) - but sometimes what I think may be that map seed (I don't stop to check in advance, it wastes time from a potential PB run), it might be a map seed where Jason starts at the Cave Road, or a map seed where Jason starts at the NE Main Road cabin and I don't know until I get to the far South cabin and find no one there.

This RNG feels pretty unique in a way that makes this game hard to run for any sort of records.

There are a lot of things I've come to learn about the RNG in this game. One of which is that it's the 3rd intro screen (the credits screen) that determines which map seed you end up getting. Another is that power cycling helps reset the RNG back to 0, while soft resets jump the RNG around to a different value.

But I'm having a hard time getting optimal RNG on console too. The seed I'm requiring forced me to create a click track to get it since it's obviously frame perfect. Using the click track while practicing over emulator helped me get the correct seed about 40% of the time. Over console however it's more like 7%. The console somehow rolls the RNG differently than FCEUX does, and I'm still figuring out how to crack the mystery of how so myself and others can manipulate it to our advantage.

You technically "can" run into him between the two cabins where there's the cave entrance, but it's a section that's very finicky. I really want to study the RNG more and figure out just how his position changes on the map work.

The only time Laura is ideal to give a weapon to is if you're either on the last few health points of Jason on Day 1 and come across her in a cabin Jason's in, or if you find her in a cabin Jason's in any time on Day 2. Whatever will give you faster access the following day(s) to catch up to him and beat him quicker.

Hey there! I'm finally going to make the effort to start taking running seriously, and would like to request a username change to "dvstinjames" - as I'm a bit too old for the whole edgy christ blasphemy thing in a username. Thanks admins!