Any% Tutorial

# Techniques and Strategies

## **Controls**
Running: The numpad, arrow keys, or the square of keys centered on K, or the square of keys centered on D.
Walking/Climbing: Hold the *Shift* key in order to walk slowly or grab a ledge mid-jump/mid-fall.
Attack: Press the *Control* key or 0 on the numpad to pull out your sword and attack with it.
Disengage: Press the down direction to put away your sword.
Alt + A: Reset to your last checkpoint.
Alt + Q: Exit to DOS, closing the game.
Alt + R: Reset the game to the opening cinematic.
Alt + G: Save the game to a save file.
Alt + L: Load a save file. 
Alt + O: Options.

## **Buffered Jumps**
Unlike other releases of this game, the IR version does not allow you to simply hold down a direction and the jump button to continuously jump. You must release and repress the jump key after each jump. You can perform this action while the prince is in the air to ensure you jump is buffered to the first possible frame. 

## **Shift Turnaround**
By holding shift and pressing a direction to turn around, the prince can turn around instantaneously if he takes damage during the turnaround animation.

## **Parry Attacks**
But pressing up while your sword is out you can parry. If you press up and then very shortly after press attack, you get a combination parry + attack, which has advantages in certain combat situations and makes you step forward slightly. 

## **Skipping Ending Cutscenes**
At the end of each level you are forced to listen to a jingle before leaving. Once the prince is no longer on screen, press escape to pause the game, and then space to unpause. You can do this very fast. After unpausing you will find you can now skip the cutscenes by pressing space again.

# The Run

## **Level 1**
When you spawn in level 1, you want to turn to the left and then pull out your sword. Next tap left, put your sword away, and begin running to the left buffering jumps. There are three possibilities for what happens next:
-The first guard will stand too far away for you to swap sides
-The first guard swaps sides with you but immediately hits you.
-The first guard swaps sides with you and does not hit you. 

You will want to continuously reset until you get option 3, as it allows you to skip all but one enemy in this level. Watch the world record run to see where to jump after you escape the first rooftop, as the rest of the jumps in this level are trivial. 

## **Level 2**
Run and jump to the left, buffer a right input to do a turnaround slide to get the prince into position, then turn to face the left. The goal of this puzzle is to sink all the blocks which do not have a symbol on them. Which block has the symbol is random. The ideal outcome is the first block closest to you has the symbol. If so, do a standing jump to the left, and then run all the way to the cave entrance. For all other possibilities, you will have to experiment to find best movement. 

## **Level 3**
You can watch the world record for this level, it is completely trivial. 

## **Level 4**
Another trivial level. Mimic world record.

## **Level 5**
It is important to note if you reset checkpoint inside the room with the magic carpet, your game will crash. The most noteworthy thing in this level is the technique to skip the bridge fight. You want to reset checkpoint, run left, and begin buffering jumps as soon as the prince's feet touch the bridge. 

Be very careful to time your jump correctly back into the carpet room, if you do not hit the switch at the end of the walkway you cannot end the level, and as previously stated resetting checkpoint at this point will crash the game. 

## **Level 6**
This level is the primary reason we use the IR version of the game. The exit door is glitched open as soon as you enter the abandoned city. Simply use it to end the level.

## **Level 7**
This level features some RNG and is one of the hardest levels to do fast. 

Immediately run left and fall into the hole. Run to the end of the walkway, turn around, climb down. Run to the end of the next walkway, turn around, climb down. Buffer a walking step to the right, then a standing jump to the right. In almost all cases this will cause the Medusa head to ignore you. 
Run into the next room until you are standing in front of the first pillars. Pull out your sword and kill the Medusa head. When the heads are coming at you from a distance, you want to time your first hit so that it hits them just as they're coming to a stop in front of you. Additional hits should be delayed by about one full second. Practice fighting the heads to understand the timing. 

Break the ceiling tile, then the ceiling tile after that. Climb into the above room, but buffer a climb down, then another climb up, and then another climb down, and lastly one more climb up. Buffer a *shift turnaround* so that when the head damages you, you turn around instantly. Delay the appropriate amount and kill the head with a single attack. 

For the medusa head after the room with the snakes and blade trap, you can face to the left up against the wall, and pull out your sword just as the enemy attacks in order to glitch them in between you and the wall. Then you can kill them with a single attack. This is very difficult as the timing is very tight. Watch some runs and practice in order to understand the timing. If it fails you can always just fight the head. 

## **Level 8**
As soon as you enter this level, save the game, close the game, open the game, load your save. This allows you to skip a lengthy cutscene that can crash the game. **Important Note:** If you accidentally skip the intro cinematic your timer will restart and the run will be invalid.

When you arrive at the closed gate after the medusa heads, buffer your attack button to pull out your sword. Take two steps forward while holding the sword to clip through the door. 

Per world record, you can skip the final medusa room by doing very careful movement involving a *shift turnaround* that has very tight timing. If this is too difficult, you can instead run straight to the final room and fight the three medusa heads. 

## **Level 9**
Mostly trivial level. 

For the second to last jump, you can pull out your sword and do a *shift turnaround* to avoid the falling floor. The timing on this is tight however, and you may want to simply fall with the floor but grab the ledge and climb back up instead. 

## **Level 10**
Because you skipped the ending cutscene for level 9, this level does not load graphics. You can infer all the inputs from watching runs, but they are as follows: Tap right. Run right and buffer three jumps. Climb up. Jump when the pillar is in front of the prince. Jump again just after the screen transition. Grab the ledge while falling and climb up. Take a walking step to the right. Standing jump to the right. Climb up. Run and jump after the prince has taken 4 steps. Grab the ledge while falling, then drop down. Run to the left slightly. Use the exit door.

## **Level 11**
This is by far the longest level. Dying can lose entire minutes. Practice a lot.

After the checkpoint, you climb up, press the switch to open the gate, and do a running jump to get to the gate quickly. Run left into the next room and stop just in front of the pillars. Turn around and run back to the right. When the prince runs into the gate he will stop, then he will take one more step to get even closer to the gate. Pull out your sword just after the birdman's second attack and you will end up on the left side of him, with him facing away from you. If you manage this, you can put your sword away and continue, he can't hurt you anymore. If you don't get the timing just right, you will have to fight him. Birdmen parry your attacks a lot. You'll want to do repeating *parry attacks* in order to go back and forth with them. Sometimes just after an exchange you can sneak one or two normal attacks to deal extra damage. 

For the birdman after you find the closed exit door, you want to running jump into the room. He will hit you causing your sword to be drawn immediately. You then want to do strings of parry attacks to push him onto the roller trap. Sometimes he will try to trade places with you. Be careful of this, if you kill him and his body is laying on the floor switch, the doorway back to the exit door will be forever closed. 

## **Level 12**
Trivial level. Follow world record.

## **Level 13**
Reset checkpoint after you get the checkpoint. Time your button press so that you start holding left as the music starts playing. Place your first jump as the prince is in front of the left hand side of the middle pillar on this screen. Place your second jump as the prince is in front of the right hand side of the wall carving. Buffer two jumps and then run without jumping until you get to the final candle holder before the gap. Place your jump in front of that candle holder and grab the ledge on the other side. Stand up and buffer three running jumps to the left. This will knock a guard to his death. Jump to the fire platform, climb up on it, jump back, climb up, and run and jump your way back to the health potion. Then run and place your jump so it is as late as possible to not fall in the gap. Then buffer jumps until you are in front of the exit door. 

## **Level 14**
Here a glitch is abused to use the fire with one fewer health upgrades than is normally needed. Go right and climb down. After landing, pull out your sword, then put it away. Then turn around repeatedly until the cutscene triggers. After the cutscene you will find you are on fire. Run to the right and kill the center clone, and the top left clone. Just after killing the top left clone, *shift turnaround* with your sword out in order to cause the other clones to go away. Climb up and go to the right. Now simply buffer the same inputs as world record and you will kill the boss 100% of the time.

Any% Tutorial - 2021 Update

This guide is meant to be used as a supplement to the [previous guide](https://www.speedrun.com/pop2/guide/5s6yf) by Samabam, please refer to it first if you haven't and I will not go through the controls and some techniques mentioned there, the main purpose of this guide is to discuss the new route and more specifically the new wall clipping glitch that lets you clip horizontally through walls of any depth helping us break the intended sequence in various levels.

# **Some more Techniques**

## **Wall Clipping:**

The first part of the all the clips go like this - hug the wall so the prince is as close as possible to it, turn around to face away from it and wait for the prince to finish his animation. When he is perfectly still, you can turn back and run into the wall, clipping into it. Hereafter in this guide I will refer to this position as the '**clipping position**'. Every wall behaves slightly differently so we have specific setup for each of them.

## **Sword Clipping:**

After clipping into a wall, (either by running or jumping into it from clipping position), you can turn back take out your swords, the prince will be stuck in the wall with his swords out, dancing back and forth. This state is very useful in a lot of clips as we will see throughout the run.

# **The Run**

## **Level 1:**

This level is extremely important to do exactly the same way everytime if you want the RNG manipulation to work consistently. The first neo-strategy of the run is right at the start, as soon as you spawn, takeout your swords, Do a sword turnaround to the right and then immediately to the left again and putaway your swords. Now start running towards the left and keep buffering jumps and you should be able to clear all the guards in the first section, and you will bump into the guard in the middle. Hold down the sword button a bit earlier and you can get a quick kill of him, and hold the down key during the sword animation to put away the swords quickly. Do a standing jump to the left and immediately buffer climbing up and you will automatically clear the next guard in pursuit of you. Rest of the level is trivial, follow the World Record run.

## **Level 2:**

After spawning turn left and buffer a running jump. After stopping, take out the swords and immediately put it away. This is important because if you delay putting it away, the prince will be in a slightly different position from where the strategy may not work. If you did the RNG manipulation right (here is a [separate guide](https://www.speedrun.com/pop2/guide/r8o7z) just for it), you should always get this tile position which is the most optimal one:


![](/static/blob/yzrvkge4.gif)



But if you do not bother losing 0.75 seconds every 4 out of 5 attempts and decide to not go for RNG manipulation, you can also deal with any other pattern like so:

https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/qzp3qrn3.gif
https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/5e1oq4z0.gif
https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/oeo960eg.gif
https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/3ekkw9ex.gif

## **Level 3:**

After the end of the previous level, you can skip the fade-in and fade-out of the copy protection screen by mashing spacebar and enter. After spawning in caves, run right and switch to holding left at the very last moment. You can check my visual cue for it:

![](/static/blob/7e94dyn1.webp)


After that you have to hold down+right keys to get off the step, and then release and hold again for the next step. If you had held left too early in the previous step you might have do an extra 'bunny hop' in one of the steps. After getting all the way down, buffer 3 running jumps to the right. You will land on a button that opens a door. Turn left and then immediately turn back right and do 2 buffered jumps. This is to wait for the door to open. After the jumps, wait a bit a press left to slide down a bit faster. Again turn left and slide down.

Turn left and run off the platform. Do a running jump to the left, he will bump into the door. Bump into it once again with a standing jump, turn right and then immediately back left and start crouching. This way you can squeeze into the opening door as early as possible. Do a couple of bunny hops and then hold shift to drink the potion quickly, this will be used throughout the run, drinking the potion by manually crouching turns out to be faster in many situations. Then jump left past the lava to reach the wall. Here is the first wall clip in the run. Get into *clipping position* and do a sword clip by running into the wall. One his swords are out, put them away and wait for the room transition. As soon as you see the room transition, hold down+left, the prince will pop out of the wall with a lot of momentum. Make sure to let go of down+left at this point and quickly grab the ledge and climb up. From there the path to the exit is straight forward, follow movement in the WR run.

## **Level 4:**

This level is pretty straightforward till you reach the exit door switch. Get into clipping position at the wall to the right. Instead of turning around and running into the wall, turn and do a standing jump. This is a special kind of clip which actually warps to the left. Hold left after jumping and he should pop out of a rock a couple of screens to the left, reach the exit from that point to finish the level.

## **Level 5:**

Follow WR till the part where you reach the platform where we do the big clip. After you get into the *clipping position*, do a sword clip by *jumping* into the wall. One the prince's swords are out, hold right key. You will hear some sword clings. After 4 clings, you will see the room transition. Immediately after the room transition, tap the sword button once and the prince will pop out of the wall with great speed, clearing the gap and landing in the platform with the big potion. After the clip the run to the end of the level is pretty straightforward, follow WR movement for minor details.

## **Level 6:**

This level is simply running to the end, and the main reason why IR version of the game is used. But I just wanted to mention that it is possible to do a running jump instead of just running but it is not recommended at all as the left input gets buffered in a weird way and can easily lose you time in the next screen.

## **Level 7:**

Get to the part where do the first wallclip as shown in the WR and get into clipping position. We do a running jump into the wall. After the room transition. Hold the left key for a bit, he should pop out of the wall. Hold right only when he is idle, and grab the edge. One very important thing you have to note is the position of the medusa head as you fall. You have to use different strategies for different positions it takes.
Here is an image guide for what strategy to for which position:


![](/static/blob/ynlwmle6.png)

- Green - This is the best RNG you can hope for (other than a very rare instance of the medusa being left of you immediately), I call this the "overhead pattern". If you get this, after climbing up, take out your swords and do a sword turnaround to face left, get hit by the medusa once and then wait for a second and strike it, it should be dead. Put away your sword and continue.
- Yellow - This is the second best RNG, but really close to being a run killer as well. After climbing up, climb down immediately and climb back up. Now the head should be to your left. Hold Shift+Left anticipating its attack, this will cause the shift turnaround mentioned in the previous guide. Once again wait for a bit and hit it to finish it off.
- Orange - This is the worst RNG where the run can still continue. After climbing up, take your swords out. Let the medusa approach really close to you and then press left to fall off, grab and climb up again. Now you should be in a position to do the above mentioned strat.
- Red - This is worst RNG, and there is no way to get up as the medusa keeps blocking your path. As much scary as it sounds, luckily I found a very low chance of this happening. If it happens, the only option is to reset the level. If you want to take it safe, you can wait for the medusa to go far enough and then only drop down after the clip. Then again you would have wasted time and would most likely get the 'orange' pattern, but I would recommend beginners to do exactly that.

The next part of the level worth talking about is the room where we do the final clip. First of all, when you climb up into the room, you will be pursued by a medusa. Immediately run towards the left and hold right before bonking into the wall. After the medusa strikes you, it would be between the prince and the wall. Immediately take two steps back and strike it to finish it off. Climb up and get to the clipping position. Just like the previous clip, jump into the wall and turn around. After half a second, do a left tap and then a immediate right tap. Repeat his twice with the 0.5 second delay and he will be out of the wall. Wait for him to stop moving and then buffer a running jump to the left, this conveniently skips a sword trap and reaches the exit of the level.

## **Level 8:**

Save and Load the game to avoid a known crash at the middle of this level. After loading, do a running jump to the left at the start of the level and keep running to the edge. Press the down key just as you are about to fall off and then chain bunny hops to get down the steps just like you did at the start of level 2. Again if you miss the timing you will just have to do some extra hops. After getting down, do a running jump towards the tunnel and get into *clipping position*. Do a sword clip with jump into the wall and immediately put your swords away (this is important for having correct position). After that start holding left and tap the down key when prince reaches the point as shown in the visual cue:

![](/static/blob/rnqj5wej.png)

He will automatically do some bunny hops to clear the trap and start running left. Start buffering jumps as soon as you start running and go all the way till the gate. If your position was right, you will automatically clip into the gate as long as you are holding left. Put your swords away and run towards the new sword and if you are doing the crouch grab strat like me, make sure that you do it late enough. If you do it early you will be in a wrong position for the strat that follows after the cutscene.

Skip the cutscene and buffer a jump to the left (important to buffer). Keep running until you are past the pillar in the next room.


![](/static/blob/7z3dpqed.webp)



Buffer three jumps from that point and keep running till this point.


![](/static/blob/qny7qwnp.webp)

After you let go of left input, hold shift+right as the medusa approaches to do a shift turnaround, make sure immediately let go right as soon as the medusa strikes to avoid buffering another right input. After this take two steps back and strike the medusa. From here there are 2 possibilities. a.) the medusa gets stunned. If this happens, take a step back put your sword away and run to the left. b.) the medusa doesn't gets stunned. Wait for a second and land a second strike which will kill it, again take a step back and then put away your sword and run to the left.
Jump immediately after the room transition and buffer an up input to exit the level.
If you fail any part of this, you can reset checkpoint but you will be in a different position compared to normally where you would be after the cutscene. To get to the correct position, do the following - After resetting checkpoint, you can take a careful step to the left, standing jump towards the right then a crouch left. And you should be back in position.

## **Level 9:**

This level is purely movement based, just follow WR. I will mention that at the start you need to follow the exact jump pattern to get rid of the medusa, otherwise it will follow you to the next screen.

## **Level 10:**

Start running to the right and start buffering jumps about halfway through to the edge of the screen, you don't have to worry about how precise you have to be as the game aligns to a kind of grid when you jump. There are two possibilities. a.) You jump through him. In this case climb and hold the shift key such that he is hanging. Wait a bit before pressing the up key again to climb up, otherwise he just kills you. b.) You kind of do a left turn and then back right to get away from him. In this case just go and climb up and he wont be able to catch you at all. This variant loses a bit of time. After climbing up, start running and jump when your head is part the pillar and stop. Start running again and buffer a jump. If you do it correctly, you would have landed on top of a single tile. Do a standing jump to the right and you will grab a platform that leads directly to exit. Follow the WR for this part and also for the previous parts if my wording isn't clear.

## **Level 11:**

This is by far the longest level in the run and needs a lot of practice. The wall clips in this level are pretty straightforward especially if you have already learnt the precious clips. For the most part I will just say check the WR, but I will explain the parts where you deal with the guards and stuff.

After the checkpoint, you will have a section where you have to face a bunch of guards. To avoid them, run towards the left and stop right before the screen transition. If you accidentally hit the next screen, you have to reset the checkpoint to try again. Turn right and take out your swords (Note: Do not do a sword turnaround here as it messes up a trick later). Start moving towards the left with the swords out. As soon as the sword is not visible in the screen, immediately tap the sword button and put it away. Now you can just climb up without the guard bothering you. And next we will see how to deal with the next guard.

Jump to the right here and buffer a turnaround and jump back.


![](/static/blob/4zj1j2zk.png)



Let him stop and do a standing jump to clear the gap and buffer climbing up.
Starting running to the left and turn around at this exact point and immediately let go of directional inputs.


![](/static/blob/3nvo5yem.png)



Buffer sword input. If you did everything right, this will cause the prince to go in the door while at the same time causing the enemy to fall off and die, similar to the strat right at the start of the run. Please check the WR's input viewer at the final part where we jump through various traps and practice it elaborately with DOSBox-X savestates.

## **Level 12:**

Jump your way through to the right wall at the start, and do a relatively simple clip (jump + turnaround should make it, if not one more right+left tap definitely should). Then after getting down going right for a bit, you can do another clip by doing a jumping sword clip. After his swords are out, wait for a it to start wiggling and then put it away, and prince should be automatically out of the wall. From here its a straightfoward path to the end of the level.

## **Level 13:**

The start of this level is pretty precise. Run to the right and do a turnaround at this point.


![](/static/blob/dz471rz6.png)



Let go of inputs immediately and start running to left again. Let go of left at this point.


![](/static/blob/wzxd65er.webp)



Wait for half a second and buffer a jump to the left. Start buffering jumps when you reach this point.


![](/static/blob/rz20gge0.png)



After you clear the gap, stop buffering jumps and keep running to the left, let go of left input at this point.


![](/static/blob/pzm5rxek.png)



Do a crouch and buffer a jump to the left, if you did everything right, it should clear the guard. Take a careful step the the left and then do a standing jump and continue. When you reach the part where you clear a large gap to reach a closing door, do not grab the edge but rather let him fall and then buffer a climb up. Counter-intuitively this makes it possible to make it through. Run to the next room and reset checkpoint. From here you can follow the previous guide or the WR run.

If you have any doubts feel free to ask in the #pop2 channel of the discord, or to me (gmp_) in DMs or in the YouTube comments of my run. I hope this guide was helpful to you learning the run in some way :)

How to Play the Game

# Setting up DOSBox

1. Download and install [DOSBox](https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1). At the time of writing the autosplitter supports **v0.74-3**
2. Create a folder named *dos* in the root of your C drive, or any other drive you wish to use. 
3. Venture to the installation folder, default: C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74-3
4. Run the *DOSBox 0.74-3 Options* batch file - it will open a Notepad window. 
5. At the very bottom of the file, in the *autoexec* section, add the following lines (while substituting for the correct drive letter if not using C):

*mount c c:\dos*
*c:*

6. Search the file for a line containing '*cycles=*', and change the value so that the line says '*cycles=20000*' and save the file.
7. 20000 is the minimum cycle value allowed by the rules. You can experiment with other numbers or use '*cycles=max*' to run the game as fast as the emulator can handle.
8. See also the section below for additional tips.

## Additional DOSBox settings

1. If DOSBox is too loud, add a line **mixer master 10** to the autoexec section mentioned in point 5 above.
2. If game runs too slow or too fast, you can change the cycles value in the DOSBox configuration to a higher value. You can also change cycles mid-game by pressing **Ctrl+F12** (to increase cycles by 500) or **Ctrl+F11** (to decrease cycles by 10%).
3. Change the *aspect=false* line to *aspect=true* in configuration (or add this line if it doesn't exist) to correct the window to proper 4:3 aspect ratio.

# Setting up Prince of Persia 2

1. [Download](https://www.popuw.com/download2.html) version IR (Initial Release).
2. Unzip the files to a folder inside your *dos* folder named *pop2*.
3. Copy the *PRINCE.exe* file from the *crack* folder and paste it in the main *pop2* folder, replacing the old PRINCE.exe

# Running the game

1. Start DOSbox
2. Type **cd pop2** and press Enter
3. Type **prince** and press Enter

IR Version Level Layouts

All levels can be found in this [zip](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nsUQlEMbpX7nOOaD3tbDS1ieRQvleKdb/view?usp=sharing) file.

## Credits:
[Sean Hennessy](http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanhennessy/pop2/princeofpersia2.htm).

## His comments:
In the spirit of the [Prince of Persia](http://home.zonnet.nl/class-pc/prince_of_persia/maps.htm) level maps, I decided to do level maps for Prince of Persia 2.
These screens were captured from the PC version of the game, running on Windows XP in a virtual PC. I used Jasc PaintSho Pro 7 on the host PC to capture the images. The thumbs link to full-size images.

I have capped every screen you can run to, climb to, jump to or fall into. Most screens are captured more or less as they are when you see them first, with loose tiles unfallen and potions undrunk. Sometimes the loose tiles are already fallen in the image - either because the screen is inaccessible without dropping some tiles, or because the map is more legible like that. In the ruined city levels I've revealed all the tunnels. Occasionally this required merging two images from the same screen, so as to include a floating head at the same time as a tunnel - in reality you have to deal with the floating head before revealing the tunnel.

I have aligned the screens as accurately as I could but there are inevitable discontinuities. Loose tiles are a particular problem, so you'll see a lower screen with tiles fallen and the one above it with the same tiles in tact, or vice versa. It looks funny, but actually conveys useful information.

In other places the screens themselves just don't match. The mountain background at the extreme left of level 9 is an example. The screens ARE in the right order, but the mountains just don't form a smoothe continuous image. Not noticeable when you play, but annoying in the maps. Another example is the house you drop off at the quayside at level one - the one you drop off doesn't quite match the one you land beside. Hence the funny offset windows.

There are a few special screens that don't fit in well with their surroundings, like the rope bridge scene in the caverns where you fight the skeleton, or the sword room in the ruined city. These are shown in place, although they don't make much sense visually.

Where there are potions, I've tried to capture them "fizzing" so you can see the colour and judge their type. In some places I forgot. Let the drinker beware!

Once you reach level 10 (The Birdman Fortress), "shadow mode" becomes available. In this mode you can walk through closed gates and pass over flip-flop controls without activating them. This makes a couple more rooms accessible, although there's nothing of interest in any of them. These rooms are shown in these caps.

Making these maps has been interesting. First of all, it has given me a whole new appreciation of Jordan Mechner's ingenuity in devising such satisfying puzzles. It has allowed me to see quicker ways of completing the levels. Mostly though, it has just satisfied my curiosity. When you're playing the game, it can be difficult to visualise the big picture. Well, here it is!

So far as I know, the levels are complete, but it may be that there are secrets I don't know. There are many intriguing unopenable doors and unreachable platforms, so if you know how to get past these obstacles, [do let me know!](mailto:nohoval.turrets@gmail.com?subject=Prince%20Of%20Persia%202%20level%20maps%20-%20comments)

Finally I would like to thank Jordan Mechner for writing such an intriguing and beguiling game, that still keeps me amused after all these years.

RNG Manipulation guide

1.) Download [this file](https://www.speedrun.com/pop2/resources/7nkvl)

2.) Open the program (recommended in Administrator mode). Click "Browse" and select DOSBox from your installation folder.

![](/static/blob/7n6lkonq.webp)



3.) Set the Date to "19/10/2021" and time to "20:32:00". This is not the only time that works nor may work consistently across different machines as loading times may be different. Experiment a bit by adjusting a few seconds back and forth, you should find a time where it works consistently for you.

4.) Now in DOSBox, you have to add the "prince" command to launch the game to the list of batch commands at the end of options.bat file, so that there is no human input time involved in launching the game and thus offsetting the time and hence the seed that is initialized.

![](/static/blob/rnqjo4ej.png)



5.) For the RNG manip to work perfectly, you need to execute level 1 in a very precise manner everytime. If you do it differently compared to WR, you might want to look for a completely different time which works for you.

6.) Once you find a seed that works for you, you can track if you are on par with it using various cues. First of all, the music, or rather which part of the music plays at the start is RNG dependent. And then when you kill the guard in the middle of the level, whether he falls down the cliff or falls in place is RNG dependent. You can recognize the pattern you get in your desired seed and reset early if you realize if you are not in the desired seed.

7.) If you do everything right, you can consistently get the symbol tile in level 2 to be the second one from the left (5th from the right). It is not realistically possible to manipulate the RNG beyond this point, luckily there aren't many RNG dependent strategies in the run anyways.

Setting Up LiveSplit

# Installation
1. Install LiveSplit [here](http://livesplit.github.io/downloads/)

# Activating the autosplitter
2. Right click anywhere in LiveSplit and choose **Edit Splits**

https://i.imgur.com/Gfn4QAk.png

3.) Ensure the Game Name matches the below image exactly. Underneath the **Attemps** box ensure that the **Activate** button is clicked. 

https://i.imgur.com/CKjIQ0F.png

4.) The script starts, splits, and resets. You can enable or disable any of these functions by clicking the Settings button seen in the above image.

https://i.imgur.com/oxznuZB.png

**An important note:** When you restart the game mid-run, if you accidentally enter level 1 instead of going to the load game screen, the timer will reset and your run will be invalidated. 

# Displaying both Real Time and Game Time in LiveSplit
5. Right click in LiveSplit and choose **Edit Layout**

https://i.imgur.com/QSN0VXZ.png

6. Click on the **+** button and choose **Timer**

https://i.imgur.com/h2CWAvj.png

7. Click **Layout Settings** in the bottom left. 

https://i.imgur.com/SyDrZli.png

8. For one of your Timers, choose "Game Time"

https://i.imgur.com/xJGWtnr.png

9. For the other Timer, choose "Real Time"

https://i.imgur.com/8S7es9V.png

10. Right click in LiveSplit and choose **Compare Against** and **Game Time**

https://i.imgur.com/q8Y98TT.png

11. To comply with the rules you must display both of these timers.

# Additional notes
* The name of each split is unimportant.
* If making your own splits, you need to ensure you have the number of splits the script is expecting, OR you can disable the *Split* action in point 4. above - you will have to split manually in this case.

Имя	Автор
Any% Tutorial	Samabam 3 years ago
Any% Tutorial - 2021 Update	GMP 2 years ago
How to Play the Game	Samabam 3 years ago
IR Version Level Layouts	GMP 2 years ago
RNG Manipulation guide	GMP 2 years ago
Setting Up LiveSplit	Samabam 3 years ago