120 Cards Guide (RNG Manip Route)

## Preliminaries

This category focuses on obtaining all 120 cards one can get with a single cartridge, without having 113% on the in-game percentage counter. The idea to go fast in this category is to do most of the "slower" minigames only once and buy the cards you would get for beating those minigames 3 times in a later shop.

What is new about this route is that we now have ways to manipulate the RNG which, in turn, eliminates all the randomness from all of Moneybag's shops. The way it works is explained here, but in a nutshell restarting or soft resetting (= A + B + Start + Select) always sets the RNG value to 1, and only a few things in the game advance the RNG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74pKwPclgqE

Normally to fully complete the game you have to complete every level three times, and on each of those visits the level increases in difficulty. Between world 4 and world 5 the game will check if you met this criterion and if not you cannot enter the final world. **However** we will make use of the limbo giltch and the resulting warps to bypass this barrier (see video below)

- For the limbo glitch to activate you enter the Party Mode screen, change the world tab (with L or R) and hold 'A' right after that. If done correctly you should load into a limbo version of the overworld, right at the portal which leads to the previous world. So if this guide says something like "Enter limbo world 3" it means to activate the limbo glitch on the Fire Mountains (= world 3) tab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzhTEoFXK0

The other main movement techniques for the overworld are

1. the "menu warp" (which refers to quitting out to the save slot menu and going back in, this will spawn you at the beginning of the respective overworld). Be aware that menu warping also refills your HP
2. the "light menu warp" (quit out to the story mode screen—and *not* to the save slot screen—and go back in to spawn in at your last checkpoint). The light menu warp is useful if you're about to die because it will spawn you at the checkpoint without losing 10 gems.
3. skipping post-level cutscenes with START (i.e. the same button that opens the menu)

## The Run

Right in the main menu, hold L+R to enter cheats:

- V4N1LL4 (Stone Riptoc card)
- S0YB34N (O Sheep card)
- V1S10NS (100 gems)
- T4P10C4 (200 gems)

Be aware that a number behind a level name in this guide (e.g., "*Level: Tech Tug (3)*") tells you how often to beat the level in question before moving on.

### World 1 (first half)

- Go right collect the green gem on your way to *Level: Castle Cruisin' (1)*

- Continue on, enter the shop and buy all 4 cards (if you held right the whole time, the fastest combination of cards to buy is slot: 2, 1, 1, 2)

- Further to the right is *Level: Fall in, roll out (1)*. After that advance to the second half of Dragon Castles

### World 1 (second half)

- Stay on top and play *Level: Rumble on the Ramparts (1)*

- Drop down to the right and go on to *Level: Altitude Adjustment (1)*

- Below the platform you are currently on you will find a purple gem. Collect it and go right to the next shop

- *Level: Castle Chaos* (top right of the map)

- Menu warp and go to the World 2 Portal

- *Boss Fight: Crash*. After beating Crash go back to world 1---we will collect the non-red overworld gems to get the resulting trading cards early but, more importantly, in order to get money. Here's also where we do our first [**RNG manipulation**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQxBwhmQWkA)

- After you spawned into World 2, soft reset

- Enter the portal to get back to world one. For what follows it is important that you *only* use your flame breath when this guide tells you to (else the RNG value is not what it should be)

- Go to the right to the shop. There are two pits right before the shop. When jumping over each pit, flame once while you're in the air

- Directly enter the shop. If you did things correctly you will get the following rewards (in this order):

- *TNT crate* (pull with strength 4 = right side of light green), *Bouncy crate* (strength 2), *10 gems* (strength 1; no problem if you miss this one), *Wood crate* (strength 3), Nitro crate (pull with strength 5 = left side of yellow). The current RNG manip **ends here**

- Exit shop & use the elevator to the right. Follow the path top left to collect 3 green gems

- Go further left and double-jump up the left pillar. Go left while collecting 3 more green gems. To the top left is a blue gem and below it is another blue gem. 

- Menu warp and go top right. Where the purple gem is go top left to get 3 green gems.

- Then follow the top right path. Collecting the purple gem, two green gems, and finally the blue gem gives you the world card.

- Menu warp to get back to World 1 (first half)

### World 1 (first half, 2nd time)

- Go left and up the pillar (above the shop). One yellow gem is there, another yellow gem is on the pillar to the left

- Go the top right path and collect the three yellow gems there.

- Menu warp to spawn at the beginning of world 1. Get the two green gems above the first stone-throwing riptoc

- Next to Bianca do a flame-extended double jump ([setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9pF9vWF62A)) to get to the purple gem platform early. Get the lower gems to the right (green & purple) and go up the elevator

- To the left and to the right is a blue gem, respectively. These should give you the world card. Be careful up there because getting hit by either of the upper Riptocs will kick you back and make you fall down. Now it is time to set up the first limbo warp

- Exit the game and enter the party mode. Change the tab to the Arctic Cliffs and mash 'A'. This will spawn you into world 2 limbo. Enter the portal to Dragon Castles and exit the party mode again. Directly entering the story mode spawns you at the world portal. Enter it to get back to world 2

### World 2 (first half)

- Go right and up to get to *Level: Blizzard Balls (1)*

- From the elevator to the left do a flame-extended double jump ([setup video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCWf1_mjEOc)) to get to the blue gem. After collecting said gem light menu warp to spawn back at Blizzard Balls

- Fall down the first gap to the right and walk to the very right side of the map while collecting the two green gems on your way---headbutt the ice platform with A+R, collect the gem and hold jump right after to get back onto solid ground. If you fall down quickly light menu warp to the portal and repeat

- Eventually you will get to *Level: Arctic Attack (1)*

- From the portal go top right and fall down to collect one green and two yellow gems. This should give you the world card. After that menu warp to get back to the world 2 portal

- Go right and down to play *Level: Snow Steps (1)*

- Continue right to the shop. Buy all 9 cards (Basket, Black Sheep, Crystallized Dragon 1, Crystallized Dragon 2, Crystallized Dragon 3, Dragon Egg, Dragonfly, Talisman, Vase). 

- Soft reset your console; it's time for [more RNG manipulation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzBPesiirZ8) (=only flame when this guide tells you to!)

### World 2 (second half)

- Limbo warp to spawn at the world portal which connects world 2 and world 3

- Double jump to the right where the Arctic Riptoc is and fall down holding left to enter *Level: Tread Lightly (1)*

- Afterwards fall straight down, all the way to the bottom. A bit to the left is *Level: Ice Chopper (1)*

- Go further left to the shop. Before you enter do a double jump from where Moneybag stands to the right to collect a blue gem. Then enter the shop; if you did everything correctly you will get the following rewards:

- *Aku aku crate* (middle vase), 46 gems (middle vase), *Mystery crate* (left vase), *Spring crate* (right vase), *Iron box* (middle vase)

- You should now have at least 265 gems. If you don't you can play the vase shuffle game two more times, there will be 48 and 46 gems, respectively (both times in the left vase)

- Exit the shop and limbo warp and enter the world 2 portal

- *Boss: Crush & Gulp*. The pattern of Gulp's ice balls is 1-4-2-3-2. The optimal route goes: 1-2-3 (Headbutts) 2-1-4 (Flame). It is also documented and shown off in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvL3Quj0LJI).

### World 3 (first half)

- Go to the top left as soon as possible to do *Level: Fire Fight (1)*

- Continue on right (be sure to collect the blue and the two green gems next to the level) and enter the shop to set a checkpoint

- Exit the shop & go up left the stairs. Move further up & left to collect the two yellow gems (and the blue one on your path). After that light menu warp to respawn at the shop

- In the shop buy all 10 cards (Ember, Fire Riptoc, Frozen Riptoc, Gnorc, Ice Riptoc, Riptoc, Sheila, Sorceress, Sparx, Zoe)

- Go up left and let the stairs lead you to *Level: Ring of Fire (1)*

- Go to the right (using the upper platforms feat. two yellow gems) until you get to *Level: Turn up the Heat (1)*

- Get the purple gem to the right (world card) and soft reset. [RNG manip time!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp_Ho3mqrqs)

- Limbo warp into (for example) world 2, enter the portal to the previous world, exit party mode, enter story mode. You should now be at the portal in world 3-2

### World 3 (second half)

- Go straight right and collect the five yellow gems on your way as well as the green gem. Fall down the pit and get the two blue gems

- Light menu warp back to the portal. Go to where the yellow gem was, then go straight left to the mystery shop (make sure to collect the 2 green gems on your way). If you did everything correctly you should only get gems and cards with the following pattern, **starting with 139 gems**

- Do the following sequence (here "R" is short for "play the mystery game and pick the RIGHT vase". Similarly, "L" is left and "M" is middle):  R R L M L R

- Exit the shop, and jump flame once

- Do the following sequence: R M M M L L R M

- Exit the shop, and jump flame once

- Do the following sequence: M L M M L L M M L

- Go to the edge directly left and flame 3 times

- Do the following sequence: M R R

- Go to the edge directly left and flame 6 times

- Do the following sequence: L L R R. You should now have at least 900 gems. This ends the current RNG manip

- Exit the shop, go all the way left and enter *Level: Pull of Lava (3)*

- Get the two purple gems next to the level, limbo warp back to the end portal

- Fall down to the left. Enter *Level: Hot Wings (1)*

- Limbo warp and enter the world portal

- *Boss: Nina*

### World 4 (first half)

- *Level: Riptocs and Rockets (1)*

- Go to the right, enter the shop and buy all 8 cards (Falling Ice Shards, Floor Spikes, Level Portal, Moneybags Shop, Blinky Dig, Hunter Bow, Rocket and Club, Sgt. Byrd Rocket)

- Exit the shop and go right. **Pass** Treetop Flight (**do not enter!**) and fall down the right of the level into the secret corridor. Following this path all the way up and around---get the three green gems on your way---gets you to

- *Level: Falling to Pieces (1)*

- Go left, get the purple gem, and enter

- *Level: Treetop Flight (1)*. Go up left to get all colored gems. After you got the blue one next to Crash you should get the world card

- Exit to the main menu so your progress is saved. **Then** soft reset; [time for RNG manip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ycJ_jviTI)

- Enter world 4 limbo, enter fire mountains portal. Go to the right until you collected the 5 yellow gems. Then exit party mode, enter story mode. You should now be at the portal in world 4-2. *Note* that these gems correlate to gems in 4-2 so you will get the world card later on without physically collecting all gems in 4-2

### World 4 (second half)

- Go straight right (collect the yellow gem on your way) and enter the shop 

- Get the four Crash cards: *Crystal* (pull with strength 4 = right side of light green), *Clear gem* (strength 3), *Wumpa fruit* (strength 4), *Checkpoint crate* (strength 2)

- A bit further right is *Level: Dragon Assault (1)*

- Fall down to the left, collect the green gem on your way and eventually enter *Level: Riptoc Repellent (1)*

- Jump and flutter to the left to collect the green gem below the portal:

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

- Limbo warp and to enter *Boss: Cortex*. You can land the first hit despite his shield and save 9 seconds, [cf. this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utySaVcwvKo)

### World 5

After defeating Cortex you will spawn in the room where the game checks if you're allowed to enter world 5. At this point you should have at least 414 gems. If you don't, you can always play Portal Rush in W5 to replenish your gems

- Soft reset: [RNG manip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_eyi4S2KZ0)

- Enter W1 limbo and exit during the sheep's turnaround animation

- Go to limbo (any tab in party mode works) and enter the portal where you spawn. Exit party mode, enter story mode. You are now at the Tech Park boss portal

- Go left and stop at the edge right before the shop. Flame 6 times

- Play the vase shuffle game. You should get *Spyro Pose 1* (right vase), *Spyro Pose 3* (left vase), and 89 gems (left vase)

- Exit the shop, jump flame twice. Be careful that your flames do not hit the platform to the right

- Enter the shop. You should get 195 gems (left vase), *Spyro Pose 2* (middle vase), *Spyro Pose 4* (middle vase), and *Spyro Pose 5* (left vase). You now have all yellow cards; current RNG manip ends here

- Go top right and enter *Level: Tech Deflect (3)*

- Below you to the right there are two yellow gems, then walk off to the left to collect a purple gem. Menu warp to get to the entry portal of Tech Park

- Drop down right and collect the green gem to the left. Then go right from there

- *Level: Tech Tug (3)*. Long double jump to the top left (not free but also not too hard). This lands you at 

- *Level: Gravity Well (3)*. Go to the top left of the world and play

- *Minigame: Portal Rush (Tech Park)*. Beating this minigame gives you 100 gems each. Do this until you have at least 624 gems

- Go right and play *Level: Space Shoot (3)*. Double jump to the right, collect the blue and the green gem. This gives you the world card. To the right is

- *Level: Sky Walker*. This level is a bit difficult to learn. To assist, here are videos showing a damageless [first pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_eSL5fxH8) / [second pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR02yDFa58E) / [third pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se4i5QE6sjY)

- Take the platform stairs up to the top right to get to

- *Boss: Ripto & Cortex*. After defeating them, as soon as the cutscene plays you can soft reset. Time for the final [RNG manip](https://youtu.be/qAkF_Sks_Xo)

- Enter world 4 limbo, go right to the shop and enter

- Look at the cards exactly 4 times

- Go to limbo (any tab in party mode works) and enter the portal where you spawn. Exit party mode, enter story mode. You are now at the Tech Park boss portal

- Go left and stop at the edge right before the shop. Flame 17 times. Then enter the shop; you should now have at least 773 gems

- If you did everything correctly you should now get the following rewards: *Gnasty Gnorc* (left vase), *Lava Fountain* (right vase), 132 gems (left vase), *Grendor* (middle vase), *Crash Crate* (left vase), *Slot Box* (right vase), 195 gems (right vase), *Steel Crate* (left vase), *Firefly* (middle vase), *! Box* (left vase), *Freeze Crate* (middle vase)

- Menu warp and enter the portal back to world 4. Now it is time for the:

## Backtrack

- Fall down to the right and continue right to *Level: Gem Hop* (collect 100 gems in one sitting to win). This level is unlocked by collecting all unique gems in Tech Park—it does not require beating any level in Tech Park, let alone the final boss! This info is of importance if this run is done by more than 2 players, because the optimal route is different then.

- After beating Gem Hop (collect 100 gems in one sitting to win), to the left you find *Level: Sheep Chase*

- Menu warp and go left to World 4-1

- Menu warp & enter the portal to world 3. Go all the way right to play *Level: Sheep Shakedown*

- Menu warp twice and enter the portal to world 2

- Go to the Arctic Riptoc on the right and fall straight down again, all the way to the bottom. The elevator above the icy surface to the left takes you to

- *Level: Sheep Shearin'*

- Menu warp twice and enter World 1. The **second** level to the right is *Level: Death from Behind*

- Time ends as soon as you collected the 120th and final card

Any% Guide

## Preliminaries

Normally to fully complete the game you have to complete every level three times, and on each of those visits the level increases in difficulty. Between world 4 and world 5 the game will check if you met this criterion and if not you cannot enter the final world. **However** we will make use of the limbo giltch and the resulting warps to bypass this barrier (see video below)

- For the limbo glitch to activate you enter the Party Mode screen, change the world tab (with L or R) and hold 'A' right after that. If done correctly you should load into a limbo version of the overworld, right at the portal which leads to the previous world. So if this guide says something like "Enter limbo world 3" it means to activate the limbo glitch on the Fire Mountains (= world 3) tab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzhTEoFXK0

The other main movement techniques for the overworld are 
 1. the "menu warp" (which refers to quitting out to the save slot menu and going back in, this will spawn you at the beginning of the respective overworld). Be aware that menu warping also refills your HP
 2. the "light menu warp" (quit out to the story mode screen—and *not* to the save slot screen—and go back in to spawn in at your last checkpoint). The light menu warp is useful if you're about to die because it will spawn you at the checkpoint without losing 10 gems.
 3. skipping post-level cutscenes with START (i.e. the same button that opens the menu)

With the limbo glitch the gem route becomes non-trivial. This guide will tell you which overworld gems to get and what to do in certain situations if you're short on gems (e.g., to unlock a mini-game portal). Either way you should try to collect *all* the gems which are directly on your path

Big thanks to Lovebot, CDRomatron and 7eraser7 for "playtesting" this guide and improving it gradually!

## The Run

Be aware that mentioning a level in this guide means you have to beat it only once! If you only want to see the route to take on the overworld, check the following video:

https://youtu.be/Q9yOiVOHv6s

### World 1 (first half)

- Collect at least 10 gems on your way to *Level: Castle Cruisin'*

- *Level: Fall in, roll out*. After that advance to the second half of Dragon Castles

### World 1 (second half)

- *Level: Rumble on the Ramparts*. Drop down to the right and go to

- *Level: Altitude Adjustment*

- *Level: Castle Chaos* (top right of the map). 

- Menu Warp and go to the World 2 Portal

- *Boss Fight: Crash*. Assuming you did not die in the overworld so far you should enter the boss with at least 50 gems

### World 2 (first half)

- Go right and fall down to get to *Level: Snow Steps*

- Menu warp (to spawn at the World 2 portal), go up and take the elevator to enter *Level: Blizzard Balls*

- Hold right to get to the mid layer. Eventually you will end up at *Level: Arctic Attack*. Now it is time to set up the first limbo warp

- Exit the game and enter the party mode. Change the tab to the Arctic Cliffs and mash 'A'. This will spawn you into world 2 limbo

- Enter the portal to Dragon Castles and exit the party mode again. Entering the story mode should spawn you at the world portal (connecting world 2 and world 3). Note that this is a light warp so when exiting the party mode enter the story mode right away and do **not** go to the save slot screen (this would spawn you at the start of the world again)

### World 2 (second half)

- Go to the right where the Arctic Riptoc is and fall down left to enter *Level: Tread Lightly*

- Afterwards fall straight down, all the way to the bottom. A bit to the left is *Level: Ice Chopper*

- Menu warp and go to the World 3 Portal (top left), make sure to collect the yellow gem on your way there. When starting the boss you should have at least 30 gems

- *Boss: Crush & Gulp*. The pattern of Gulp's ice balls is 1-4-2-3-2. The optimal route goes: 1-2-3 (Headbutts) 2-1-4 (Flame). It is also documented and shown off in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvL3Quj0LJI).

### World 3 (first half)

- Go to the top left as soon as possible to do *Level: Fire Fight*

- Continue on right (be sure to collect the blue and the two green gems next to the level) and jump up left after the wooden bridge

- *Level: Ring of Fire*

- Go to the top right (using the upper platforms feat. two yellow gems) until you get to *Level: Turn up the Heat*. You don't need the purple gem to the right

- Limbo warp into (for example) world 2, enter the portal to the previous world, exit party mode, enter story mode. You should now be at the portal in world 3-2

### World 3 (second half)

- Go all the way left (make sure to collect the 2 green gems on your way) and enter *Level: Pull of Lava*

- Fall down to the right—collecting the purple gem to the right of the portal, but not the left one—and eventually enter *Level: Hot Wings*

- Go right until the Flamethrower guy, then go up left using the upper platforms. Be sure to collect the **five** yellow gems on your way to the world portal. You should enter the portal with roughly 95 gems 

- *Boss: Nina*

### World 4 (first half)

- *Level: Riptocs and Rockets*

- Go to the right while collecting the 12 mid-air red gems and enter *Level: Treetop Flight*

- Go right, collect the purple gem and do *Level: Falling to Pieces*. Now another limbo warp is coming up!

- Enter world 4 limbo, enter fire mountains portal. Go to the right until you collected the 5 yellow gems. Then exit party mode, enter story mode. You should now be at the portal in world 4-2

### World 4 (second half)

- Go to the right (collect the yellow gem to the right above the plant) and fall down the first hanging platform to land at *Level: Riptoc Repellent*

- Go all the way to the right and take the elevator up to *Level: Dragon Assault*

- Go left again to enter the boss. Before doing so you should have at least 100 gems

- *Boss: Cortex*. You can land the first hit despite his shield and save 9 seconds, [cf. this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utySaVcwvKo)

### World 5

After defeating Cortex you will spawn in the room where the game checks if you're allowed to enter world 5

- Go to limbo (any tab in party mode works) and enter the portal where you spawn. Exit party mode, enter story mode. You are now at the Tech Park boss portal

- Fall down to the left and enter *Level: Tech Deflect*

- After completing the level you should have **at least** 140 gems. If you for some reason are short on gems you can drop down to the right of the level for two yellow gems, and walk off to the left to get another purple gem. If you got any of those gems light menu warp to spawn back at *Tech Deflect*. If you are still short on gems do not worry, we will fix this in a second

- From the shop follow the lowest path to the left to get to *Level: Tech Tug*. After completing the level you should have **at least** 101 gems. If you do *not* have 101 gems then play Tech Tug until you do

- From tech tug, long double jump flutter to the top left (not free but also not too hard). This lands you at 

- *Level: Gravity Well*. Top left platform, from there to the top right

- *Level: Space Shoot*. If you did everything correctly you will exit this level with at least 23 gems.  Double jump to the right, collect the blue and the green gem. Portal to the right is

- *Level: Sky Walker*

- Take the platform stairs up to the top right to get to *Boss: Ripto & Cortex*. Timing ends as soon as Cortex & Ripto flew off into space

Documentation of all Cards obtainable in Shops & TAS IL WRs

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i3bjCIyyLfX9dM4tSnclouvCNtlJWc3VrNVCQ8hssoc/edit#gid=41618703

Language Textbox Differences

Motivated by Pete's [Crash Fusion guide](https://www.speedrun.com/crashfusion/guides/e1u1d) I did the same textbox counting for Spyro Fusion. Since you cannot skip cutscenes in this game, you will have to mash through all the text instead. Unsurprisingly, different languages result in a different amount of textboxes throughout the game, making some languages *technically* faster than others. Here is an overview for the amount of textboxes per language:

![](/static/blob/qnyg80dn.png)

There is a difference between the total number of textboxes and the number of textboxes encountered in the speedrun (same amount for all categories) because 1. The cutscene that appears after beating the first minigame can be skipped by pressing Start (except in NTSC-U), and 2. you can just soft reset during the ending cutscene in order to skip the credits.

That being said, naturally, Japanese is technically the fastest with around 30 textboxes less than any of the European languages. Unlike with Crash Fusion, Spyro's fastest PAL language for speedrunning is **English**, followed by French (with just one more textbox). German has the most textboxes all around. Of course, realistically speaking, this will never really factor into the final time of a full run but it's nice to have this documented.

Spyro 200 Cards Route

## Preliminaries

To fully complete the game you have to complete every level three times, and on each of those visits the level increases in difficulty. 

For the world routes, unless specified further one gets from point A to B on the direct path (e.g., by just going right). Also "menu warp" refers to quitting out to the save slot menu and going back in—this will spawn you at the beginning of the respective overworld.

Big thanks to Lovebot, CDRomatron and 7eraser7 for "playtesting" this guide and improving it gradually!

## The Run I - Spyro Fusion

Right in the main menu, hold L+R to enter cheats:

- V4N1LL4 (Stone Riptoc card)
- S0YB34N (O Sheep card)
There are also two gem cheats which are only needed as a backup (if you run out of gems in the Tech Park shop):
- V1S10NS (100 gems)
- T4P10C4 (200 gems)

Be aware that the gems are capped at 999 in this game, and given that later shops cost 100 gems per game that cap is not too generous. So be mindful of your money!

### World 1 (first half)

- *Level: Castle Cruisin'*

- *Shop:* Buy all 4 Cards (Green Gem, Purple Gem, Yellow Gem, Blue Gem)

- *Level: Fall in, roll out*

### World 1 (second half)

- *Level: Rumble on the Ramparts*. Drop down to the right and go to

- *Level: Altitude Adjustment*

- *Level: Castle Chaos* (top right of the map). You can SKIP the shop inbetween as it only contains Crash cards

- MENU WARP and go to the World 2 Portal

- *Boss Fight: Crash*

### World 2 (first half)

- *Level: Snow Steps*

- *Shop:* Buy all 4 Cards (Dragon Egg, Crystallized Dragon 2, Crystallized Dragon 3, Talisman). Up the elevator to the right is

- *Level: Arctic Attack*. MENU WARP after completing this stage and double jump up at the first gap to get to:

- *Level: Blizzard Balls*

### World 2 (second half)

- Go to the top right where the Arctic Riptoc is and fall down left

- *Level: Tread Lightly*. Fall down straight all the way to the bottom, then go to the left

- *Level: Ice Chopper*

- MENU WARP and go to the World 3 Portal (top left)

- *Boss: Crush & Gulp*. The pattern of Gulp's ice balls is 1-4-2-3-2. The optimal route goes: 1-2-3 (Headbutts) 2-1-4 (Flame). It is also documented and shown off in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvL3Quj0LJI).

**From here on** you have to care about the unique colored gems. If those are **not** on the direct path, they will be specified further!

### World 3 (first half)

- Go to the top left as soon as possible

- *Level: Fire Fight*

- *Shop:* Buy all 5 cards (Fire Riptoc, Frozen Riptoc, Gnorc, Ice Riptoc, Ember). Go to the left and up the yellow-ish stairs

- *Level: Ring of Fire*

- Go to the top left to collect the two yellow gems (and the blue one on your path). After that, quit Level and go right back in (NOT menu warp!)—this respawns you at Ring of Fire. Go to the right (using the upper platforms feat. two yellow gems) until you get to the purple gem (WORLD CARD)

- *Level: Turn up the Heat*. Go left, drop down, go right to leave this area

### World 3 (second half)

- *Level: Hot Wings*. Go right until the Flamethrower guy, then go up left using the upper platforms (You can SKIP the shop inbetween as it only contains Crash cards)

- *Level: Pull of Lava*

- *Boss: Nina*

### World 4 (first half)

- *Level: Riptocs and Rockets*

- *Shop:* Buy all 4 cards (Moneybags Shop, Floor Spikes, Falling Ice Shards, Level Portal)

- *Level: Treetop Flight*

- Go up left to get all colored gems. After you got the blue one next to Crash, Quit Level and go right back in (NOT menu warp!) This respawns you at Treetop Flight Portal.

- After loading back in, jump right and collect the purple gem. Then fall down to directly the left and land in the secret corridor. Follow the path until you collected the third green gem (WORLD CARD). Going up fully and falling down left gets you to

- *Level: Falling to Pieces*. Then go right to leave this part of the world.

### World 4 (second half)

- Do a long double jump to the upper right platform (two blue gems) and drop down left (purple gem). ALTERNATIVE if the jump is too difficult: get the purple gem and then go around to get the other two

- Then just go right. Don't miss the green gem above the two piranha plants on your way

- *Level: Riptoc Repellent*

- *Level: Dragon Assault*

- Go left and collect the two yellow gems next to the world portal (WORLD CARD). You can SKIP the shop inbetween as it only contains Crash cards

- *Boss: Cortex*

### World 5

Route based on [this video](https://youtu.be/oJ7ZoAghtVM)

- Drop down right and collect the green gem. Then go right from there

- *Level: Tech Tug*. Long double jump to the top left (not free but also not too hard). This lands you at 

- *Level: Gravity Well*. Top left platform, from there to the top right

- *Level: Space Shoot*. Double jump to the right, collect the blue and the green gem. Portal to the right is

- *Level: Sky Walker*. This level is a bit difficult to learn. To assist, here are videos showing a damageless [first pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_eSL5fxH8) / [second pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR02yDFa58E) / [third pass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se4i5QE6sjY).

- Double jump flutter to the right; under the scientist is

- *Level: Tech Deflect*

- Below you to the right there are two yellow gems, then walk off to the left to collect a purple gem (WORLD CARD). Then limbo warp to

- *Boss: Ripto & Cortex*. As soon as the cutscene after beating the boss starts playing, SOFT RESET (A+B+Start+Select) the game to skip the credits. This also allows us to do some [RNG manipulation](https://youtu.be/74pKwPclgqE?t=90)

- Enter W1 limbo and exit during the sheep's turnaround animation

- Go to limbo (any tab in party mode works) and enter the portal where you spawn. Exit party mode, enter story mode. You are now at the Tech Park boss portal

- Go left and stop at the edge right before the shop. Flame once

- Play the vase shuffle game and get *Grendor* (left vase).

- Exit the shop, jump flame once. Be careful that your flames do not hit the platform to the right

- Enter the shop. You should get *Gnasty Gnorc* (right vase), *Firefly* (middle vase), *Lava Fountain* (right vase) in this order

- Exit the shop and MENU WARP to end up at the world 5 entry portal. Enter it to get to world 4. Now it is time for the:

## Backtrack

- In Wumpa Jungle, drop down to the right and get to

- *Level: Gem Hop* (collect 100 gems in one sitting to win). This level is unlocked by collecting all unique gems in Tech Park—it does not require beating any level in Tech Park, let alone the final boss! This info is of importance if this run is done by more than 2 players, because the optimal route is different then.

- After beating Gem Hop, to the left you find

- *Level: Sheep Chase*

- MENU WARP TWICE and enter World 3 (Fire mountains). Going to the right gets you to

- *Level: Sheep Shakedown*

- Get the green gem (top right) and fall down to the left for two blue gems (WORLD CARD)

- MENU WARP TWICE and enter the portal to World 2 (Arctic Cliffs)

- Go to the Arctic Riptoc on the right and fall straight down again, all the way to the bottom. The elevator above the icy surface to the left takes you to

- *Level: Sheep Shearin'*

- MENU WARP TWICE (you need neither of the cards in World 1 or 2. One is redundant and the other three will be obtained by the Crash player) and enter World 1. The second level to the right

- *Level: Death from Behind*

## The Run II - Trading 

When going into trading you should have 95 (or, if you by chance got Firefly in Tech Park shop, 96) cards in your savefile. If you want to make sure you have everything you need, you are allowed to not have:
 - Firefly (Blue #21)
 - Castle Talisman (Green #1)
 - Arctic Talisman (Green #2)
 - ! Sheep (Orange #6)
 - Spit (Orange #12)
Additionally, [here](http://www.darkspyro.net/fusion/cards/) is a list of all Fusion Cards and how to get them.

A general tip for trading: hold Start when you confirm your selection of cards to complete the trade faster (because the game allows the input to be buffered). Also you can trade up to 5 (but at least one) card per trade session.

Now all that is left is to trade your 95 Spyro cards (Firefly **not** included) to the Crash player. This happens in 95/5=19 trade sessions.

Strat Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7kNUIjkDcmhw857QAAhAKzR0QP6_qM7

Useful RAM values & percentage count

This guide details how/where key game items are stored in RAM and how to change them — at the time of writing this I am playing the PAL version of Spyro Fusion on Bizhawk 2.8 (mGBA core). As a result of this RAM search I was also able to decipher this game's percentage system, cf. the end of this guide.

Also, abbreviations that will be used throughout this guide are: HEX (a number in [hexadecimal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal)), DEC (a number in the standard decimal system), and BIN (a number in binary).

# RAM

First, to access and change the RAM values mentioned down below open the Bizhawk hex editor

![](/static/blob/yzrogq4z.png)

and change the memory domain to Combined WRAM:

![](/static/blob/5ngdqxjn.png)

Aside from the current RNG value which — [like in Crash Fusion](https://www.speedrun.com/crashfusion/guides/dtbcq) — is located at 0x000000 in Combined WRAM, all values mentioned down below can be found at 0x006AF· through 0x006C6·, as well as  or 0x00CA··.
For more on how the RNG works in this game refer to the [RNG knowledge base](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cPZoy77qpaf7RFG-waPCpLBi-RKMyCd5QY4E_Iw64X8/edit#heading=h.rs8xkwuahxs5).

# Findings

Everything I was able to identify in these memory regions is documented in this **[spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1osuVq3hbbBO1EOq2CPRXVWrHEiNDz688MAonv7a8hHU/edit?gid=0#gid=0)**. The rest of this section will contain explanations and further information complementing the spreadsheet in question.

## Gems & Sparx

The gem count is a plain 4-bit value in RAM, located at 0x00608:

![](/static/blob/4zjw191e.png)

While this can be changed at will (and the game will display any value you enter), if you give yourself more than 999 gems, changing the gems count in-game in any way will set it back to the game's maximum value 000003E7 (=999 in DEC).

Also, your current amount of Sparx health (0, 1, 2, 3) is stored in 0x006AFC. While freezing the value does not keep Sparx health stable throughout taking damage, setting the value to 80000000 (2147483648 in DEC) and freezing essentially amounts to invulnerability.

## Level & boss completion

The way the game keeps track of how often levels have been completed is that each level corresponds to a 4-byte region in RAM. The corresponding value encodes one of five possible states the level is in:

- If the value is 00000000, then the level has not been unlocked yet
- If the value is 00000001, then the level has been unlocked but not yet completed
- If the value is 00000002, the level has been completed once
- If the value is 00000004, then the level has been completed three times. 
- If the value is *anything but* the ones previously listed, then the level has been completed twice. In this case the game will set the value to 00000003, although *any* value other than the listed ones seems to have the same effect

The value of the boss level bytes is set to 00000001 as soon as all levels of a world have been beaten. However, setting this value to 1 manually does not activate the world portal. Also, once a boss is beaten—which sets the value to 2—portal rush, gem rush, and the next world's tab (if applicable) are set to 1 meaning they are also accessible through the party tab.

Finally, the five 4-byte values between "tab unlocked in party mode" and the first level seem to not correspond to anything that is saved; at least changing the values, saving, and loading again does not lead to a permanent change.

## Gem Hop

Aside from the bytes at 0x006C24 which controls whether Gem Hop is unlocked, there are three other 4-byte values relevant to this minigame. They all count the amount of gems collected in Gem Hop since last starting the minigame, but they have different functions:

- 0x01AE58: If this count exceeds 50, then only half-size platforms are spawned on the *left* side of the screen
- 0x01814C: If this count exceeds 50, then only half-size platforms are spawned on the *right* side of the screen
- 0x019334: Ends the minigame if the value stores here equals (or exceeds) 100

## Cutscenes & unique gems

The bytes 0x006CA4 through 0x006CB4 track which cutscenes have played already; the corresponding byte is 0 if the cutscene has not played yet, and 1 if it has.

![](/static/blob/rz250roz.png)

The unique gems in each world are kept track of at 0x00CA14 through 0x00CA27. Each half of each world corresponds to a 2-byte region where collection of non-red gems is tracked.

![](/static/blob/xz05p2mn.png)

### Changing RAM: binary & hexadecimal

Let us take a quick detour to understand how we can change these RAM values to our liking by means of an example.

> Let's say we already collected all unique gems in world 2-1, meaning byte 0x00CA18 consists of the bits 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1. When checking the RAM (and the data size in the options is set to 1-byte), the value of byte 0x00CA18 reads 3F, because 00111111 in binary is 3F in hexadecimal (as verified, e.g., via [a binary-hex-conversion website](https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/binary-to-hex.html)). Now assume we want to spawn in the top left blue gem again; we have to set the third bit of that byte to 0. As written in the top row, this Bit 3 has HEX value 20, so we subtract 20 from the current value (3F) which yields 1F. Inserting this new value into byte 0x00CA18 lets the game know that the card corresponding to the third bit has not been collected yet. Alternatively, we could of course turn a 1 from the initial bitstring into a 0 and do the BIN-HEX-conversion again. *NB:* We still have to make the game adopt this change to the save file in order for the gem to actually re-spawn. This will be detailed down below.

## Cards

Trading cards are being kept track of twice: once for whether the player currently owns this cards, and once for whether a card has been owned at some point and then, e.g., been traded away (in this case the card is greyed out). The corresponding memory regions are 0x00F0AC - 0x00F0C4 and 0x00F0D8 - 0x00F0F0, respectively:

![](/static/blob/dz48kkke.png)

The requirement to get the card animation in the main menu which signifies that you got all 200 cards is that none of these card bit has a 0 in *both* these memory regions at the same time. In other words, if you have or at some point had every card that's enough.

card screen is triggered only once the second memory region (0x00CA68 - 0x00CA80 is complete, i.e., is equal to FF FF FF FF ...)

## Missing stuff

While this concludes everything I managed to find and identify, there are some things that have eluded my grasp:

- Checkpoint: Spyro's current checkpoint somehow kept track in 0x006AF0 onwards. 0x006AF0 somehow keeps track of which area/level the player spawns in upon a map change. I was able to warp to different levels by changing and freezing the value but I couldn't figure out how this whole memory region works exactly. Also, changing 0x006AF4 to 0 and changing worlds spawns Spyro into the start of world, value 1 corresponds to the boss portal, etc. Actually there are values which seem to not correspond to any level, those seem to send the player to coordinates (0,0), resulting in a softlock. But that's all I was able to find out so far.
- Coordinates: I didn't even look for Spyro's x- and y-coordinates in RAM. If it's anything like in Crash Fusion, the coordinates won't be stored in a fixed RAM location anyway which makes manipulating them a lot harder.

Now there are two things we still have to address:

# How to make RAM changes permanent

If we change something in RAM, how do we force the game to make these changes permanent, i.e., transfer these changes to our save file? Luckily, this game saves quite often so all we have to do is force the game into this state, *without* it loading the current save into RAM before that. With this in mind, the game saves whenever you:

- *exit* (not enter!) a level, shop, or boss fight, either by completing it or simply by quitting out via the menu
- change the overworld you're currently in, either by changing which half of a world you're in, or which world you're in altogether
- collect an overworld gem
- actually, exiting from the overworld to the main menu seems to also save the game.

# Percentage count

Finally, throughout this little project I was able to figure out how percentage works in this game:

- Beating a level for the first, second, and third time gives 1% each, so 25 levels completed three times amounts to **75%** completion
- Defeating a boss gives 5%, that is, 5 bosses give **25%** combined.

So far we tracked 100% of completion, so the final 13% have to come from trading cards, more specifically, from 13 very specific cards (owning them gives 1% each). These cards are:

- Firefly (Blue, from W5 Vase Shuffle)
- Castle Talisman (Green, from W1-1 all unique gems)
- Arctic Talisman (Green, from W2-1 all unique gems)
- Fire Talisman (Green, from W3-1 all unique gems)
- Jungle Talisman (Green, from W4-1 all unique gems)
- Tech Talisman (Green, from W5 all unique gems. Unlocks the level "Gem Hop")
- S Sheep (Orange, from W2 Sheep)
- P Sheep (Orange, from W1 Sheep)
- Y Sheep (Orange, from W3 Sheep)
- R Sheep (Orange, from W4 Sheep)
- Spit (Orange, from W1-2 all unique gems)
- Agent 9 (Red, from W4-2 all unique gems)
- Moneybags (Red, from W3-2 all unique gems)

In total this yields the well-known max percentage of 113%. Interestingly, this means that one could theoretically have a 0% save file with 187 cards.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/xzd4l1vz.png)

The last thing I want to share is a "minimal 100% RAM string", that is, the smallest possible string which, when inserted at 0x006B28 — just copy-paste works in HEX editor — yields a save with 100% completion & all party mode tabs unlocked:

```
0400000004000000040000000400000004000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000400000004000000040000000400000004000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000400000004000000040000000400000004000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000400000004000000040000000400000004000000000000000000000002000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020000000400000004000000040000000400000004000000000000000000000002000000
```

So if you start a new game and paste this string into RAM you will have a 100% file where absolutely nothing else is done: all barriers are intact and all cutscenes & non-red overworld gems are where they're supposed to be. Analogously, if you don't want any cutscenes or info textboxes, insert the following string at 0x006CA4:

```
0101010001010000010101010101010101000000
```

الاسم	المؤلف
120 Cards Guide (RNG Manip Route)	toca 1 year ago
Any% Guide	toca 5 years ago
Documentation of all Cards obtainable in Shops & TAS IL WRs	toca 5 years ago
Language Textbox Differences	toca 8 months ago
Spyro 200 Cards Route	toca 5 years ago
Strat Playlist	toca 5 years ago
Useful RAM values & percentage count	toca 8 months ago