The Malkil glitch is kinda weird. It seems like it uses the second projectile's y value, but it can also use the first one if you have a projectile (fired by Kuros) on screen during the levitation. But we want to save time so we have to fire two projectiles after the dragon fight. The second projectile has to be fired before the first one disappears to modify the right value.

There is a 80 out of 256 pixel window (wrapping at 256 to 0) where the projectile needs to land in vertical direction. If you have a debugger then watch for the value $33E. It needs to be more or equal than 0x00 and less or equal than 0x4F. The projectiles can be fired from the platforms immediately after the dragon dies, but this is really hard to eyeball as the platforms are constantly moving. Easiest way is to fire from the platform on the ground where the gem drops. B+Up, B+Backward and B+Forward+Up shots should all work. You can also fire the projectiles from the platform on the right of the gem, but here only B+Up and B+Forward+Up works.

The levitation needs to be done at the same spot as previously. The only difference in the actual Malkil fight is that you don't have to switch to lvl1 wizard and fire the projectile before levitating.

Hello,

I found two new tricks that might save some time at least on TAS.

1. Clipping You can levitate with the 3rd level wizard through some sharp corners and go inside blocks/walls. I haven't tested yet, but it might also be possible to clip with other classes with very precise jumps. Some people probably were aware of this clip, and I know the TAS runners are aware of some form of clipping, and I think it's this one. They did not find any time saving use for the clip.

However I also found a clip that could be used to skip the knights guild completely. The knight suit is needed to kill the flashing head on the undergrounds, but I found out that you can actually clip through the wall that is next to the wizards guild. The clip is extremely RNG, and might not be viable for non-TAS at all, but TAS should see a notable time improvement.

The clip is done by getting yourself stuck between the wall and one of those flying green head monsters. I think the monsters are not supposed to spawn on this area before passing the flashing head, but if you hug the wall next to the wizards guild they will spawn. I'm still not sure what exactly has to happen that the clip succeeds but jumping seems to raise the odds. Also it looks like the monster needs to attack you from a slight angle below you so you get pushed slightly upwards.

2. Malkil glitch I found a tiny improvement to the Malkil glitch. I played around with a debugger, but this was a long time ago so I can't remember the exact technical details.

Basicly the game keeps track of your projectiles x and y coordinates. There are four (or whatever is the max projectile count) entries. The first entry is the important one, which is the first projectile you fire when there are no projectiles on screen. When the projectile gets destroyed, the game remembers the last x and y values for the projectile, and to activate the Malkil glitch I believe the first projectile's y value needs to be in a certain range.

What this means is that you can actually fire the upwards shot after the dragon fight, which avoids the need to switch to lvl1 wizard in the Malkil fight. Firing the projectile somewhere else might not work as the y value might not land on the needed range, but firing the projectile somewhere else than after the dragon fight would negate the time improvement anyway, so it doesn't matter.

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Also probably not really any new information for the current runners, but lots of people have been asking about the beehive skip. They are usually told that you need to go far enough to the right before jumping to the upper roof (on the building southeast from the beehive), but this is not enough on it's own. You also need to do the jump to the roof very precisely, meaning that you cannot go "over" the roof at all. You have to release the jump key at the earliest point possible, and if you timed it right, the beehive despawns for whatever reason (probably it's got something to do with the camera positioning).

I'll keep you guys posted if I find any new details.