It's no secret that Sonny 2 speedrunning isn't nearly as active as Sonny speedrunning. There are probably multiple reasons for this, but speaking for myself personally, the sheer length of a run, the complex item management, the RNG and the amount of practice required all serve to dissuade me from attempting to speedrun Sonny 2, and I doubt I'm alone in that. With that being said, on a discussion regarding new categories for the original Sonny game, I discussed the possibility of IL categories:

'On a related note, would IL categories be viable? Instead of worrying about beating the entire game as quickly as possible, you could choose just to focus on one zone. This might open up new possibilities in Sonny speedrunning as well as be a less 'grindy' category overall. From a feasibility standpoint, you could simply just turn off autosave and save at the beginning of a particular zone in order to attempt multiple runs on the same savefile.

Of course, the question then becomes what limits should be placed on Zones Two, Three and Four. Zone One is fine as everyone starts on equal ground, but that won't be the case for later zones. Even a rule such as 'sell all your items' won't work as RNG means that different players will have different amounts of money. I suppose you could discard all your items instead, but that doesn't change the fact that the amount of money you get from each battle varies slightly.

Honestly, now that I think about it, IL categories would only really work for Zone One, and that'd probably be the most boring zone to attempt to speedrun on its own as it's already pretty optimised. Interestingly enough, it might actually be a great idea for Sonny 2 as I believe the amount of money you gain from each fight is fixed in that game, and perhaps I should give these ruminations on that game's forums. Given how time-consuming Sonny 2 speedruns are, IL categories are almost necessary to get people involved.'

Thinking about it, however, I feel as if IL categories would make more sense in Sonny 2 than in Sonny 1. For one, if I'm not mistaken, the amount of gold you have at the start of each zone should be the same for each run provided that you discard items rather than selling them and provided that you don't train. The same will of course go for skills and attributes, which should remain the same for each run barring any training fights (or respeccing in some runs and not in others). This will hopefully ensure that no-one has an unfair advantage for a particular zone.

Secondly, an IL category for Sonny 2 would obviously be far quicker to speedrun than Any% (No Major Glitches). Thirdly, since you don't have to consider reaching a particular zone at a particular pace or consider how quickly you'll be able to complete subsequent zones, new strategies might end up being viable (for example, perhaps the psychological or hydraulic classes are more suitable for finishing a particular zone quickly than the biological class is?).

What do you guys think about this idea? I personally feel that it could be quite exciting, but perhaps there are issues with IL categories that I've overlooked.

Hey y'all. While I've been attempting to reclaim the Any% world record, I've been doing some routing on the side as a backup plan. Unfortunately, I have absolutely zero experience routing, so it hasn't gone well so far. 😅

I've thought up of a strategy that might have potential, but it leads to a slower Zone One and before I continue to Zone Two, I want to make sure that it's actually viable. I know which build I want to try out; it's just a matter of finding the right balance of stats to save time.

Luckily, the wiki is an invaluable resource for this. It lists precisely how each move scales with each stat and it also provides info on each enemy, so in theory, calculating what stats are needed (and thus what items and crits are needed) to beat each enemy as quickly as possible should be trivial.

There's just one problem: This doesn't work in practice. Attacks can do more or less damage depending on the enemy's level. This wouldn't be an issue if I knew how to take the enemy's level into account, but the trouble is that for all the excellent info which the wiki contains, it doesn't seem to give any formulae that factors in the enemy's level as far as I can see. It lists the level of each enemy, but not how that affects how much damage they take.

tbh, I don't really feel like routing through the entire game using trial-and-error alone (there are far too many stat and item combinations for that; I could be using that time to try to beat the record!), so plotting a route mathematically is the only available option from my perspective. Provided that I can work out exactly what stats are needed for each battle, that should be doable.

That's why I'm here. Most of you will have far more experience with routing than I do, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for going through the process more efficiently? More specifically, how does one go about accounting for the enemy levels when trying to think up a strategy? Even if that particular problem can't be fixed, are there other ways to streamline the process?

I was going to post a topic about this closer to Dec 31st, but a recent Armor Games announcement has forced my hand.

https://armorgames.com/news/the-future-of-flash-on-armor-games

tl;dr: Some games on AG will still work using Ruffle (no download required), and those that don't will be temporarily disabled on Jan 12th until they can be made to work without needing third-party software (e.g. Newgrounds Player)

I know that a couple of us have expressed concerns that the Sonny games will be unplayable following Dec 31st, but if this initiative succeeds, that doesn't have to be the case. The best-case scenario is that both games work on Ruffle and will continue to be playable on Jan 1st.

The middle-case scenario is that the games will be unplayable via Ruffle throughout January, but will eventually be made to work at some point. In this case, speedrunning should be able to continue.

The worst-case scenario is that the Sonny games don't work at all using Ruffle, which will no doubt hinder speedruns. HOWEVER, that doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom. Being able to go to a website and click on the game's icon to open it within the browser without any need for special software will no longer be possible if this scenario comes to pass, but there are a couple of alternatives.

Firstly, the Newgrounds Player. It can run downloaded Flash files (I've actually used it to run a Sonny 2 mod which a wiki user published earlier this year), as well as Flash games on Newgrounds. The only catch is that you have to install it, but once you do, provided that you're using Newgrounds to run the game, Sonny should still be playable simply by opening its Newgrounds page. Sonny 2 should also be playable, though the Hydraulic class may be locked (I haven't tested it out yet).

Secondly, if things get really desperate, there's BlueMaxima's Flashpoint. This is basically a massive archive of many, MANY Flash games, which includes the two Sonny games. I haven't tested it yet, so I can't confirm if it works. The downside is that you have to open the game within the Flashpoint program instead of being able to do so via your web browser, and once again, the Hydraulic class may be locked (though I'll have to check this).

Obviously, I hope that the games will still be playable on Armor Games. This will not only ensure that nothing will have to change on the player's end but it should also mean that the Hydraulic class is still playable on Sonny 2. Nonetheless, it seems to me that Sonny speedrunning doesn't have to end after Dec 31st. which is obviously great news.