Low% has been the Noita speedrun black sheep for a while. Usually, you'd associate it with some kind of limited completion using the least resources possible/least bosses/enemies slain etc. but in Noita Low% entails limiting yourself to not using long-form teleports such as teleportitis or circle of displacement.
This dissociation causes it to be a weird inborn child of Any% and Teleportless, where you're allowed some freedom of any%, yet still using the strategies of Teleportless, which all this ends up as just a clone of Teleportless, as that is the current meta, while also not retaining any 'Lowness' of limited completion.
So far, in the random seed variant, there has been a kind of gentleman's agreement of using an 'intended' completion - here it's Long Distance Cast + Small Teleport Bolt combo - while this wasn't what the low% meant - at least there was uniqueness to it. On the seeded variant, howerver, it's Angry Ghost Black Hole [teleportless meta]
So my question is, what do you think should be done about the category? A mild rule change? Renaming? Both? Or would you like to see a complete overhaul? Or more drastic yet, should the category be straight up removed?
I think low% doesn't really make sense in Noita, maybe it could mean a pacifist speedrun, but that should just be named Pacifist.
I do think more categories = good though, so could rename it to "Restricted Teleport" or "Limited Teleport" or something. Should also add no black/white hole rule imo, or it's just the same as any%/teleportless.
Would also be really nice to have a teleportless+ category! As in no black/white hole. Maybe with a different name ("Vanilla"/"Basic").
I think having a bit more information would help the community decide. What does a normal % completion look like in the any% seeded or random runs i.e; How many spells were discovered, unique enemies killed and perks collected if someone were to start from a completely blank save file. If the low% were to be reworked to align more with the name then the overall goal should be to have a very low % completion on the file at the speed runs completion. This might look like not casting sparkbolt or bombs in the first few zones, skipping kolmi and digging straight to the work with the salt to avoid racking up extra % points on the file by killing him , but also leaving room for creative solutions using the resources given to the runner in their chosen or random seed. Would there be anything that can really trump angry ghost and blackholes? probably not but if the cut off for low% is lower than what would be required to make that work then the runner would inevitably have to find another path to completing their run as fast as possible in the low% category context.
I'd vote for removal of the category, a rework (+rename) or replacing it with something like pacifist.
A teleport bolt-based speedrun category is really interesting in theory, and poses a different kind of challenge compared to long-form teleports or angry ghost black hole, but that would have to be clearly stipulated in the rules (which it isn't now), and a clear distinction between low% and teleportless would have to be made. The issue with this is that the setup would pretty much just be long distance cast and short teleport, which is really niche and I doubt the category would see a lot of activity.
Finally, I don't think a "traditional" low% category makes sense for noita, because any% is already incredibly barebones.
No wand category? Yep, you would restart until you find Lukki, personal plasma, telecinetic kick. But you wouldn't be able to dig anymore. And I think teleportites perk has to be prohibited. So if you recall that in 11, 33 category you just restart until you find short tely bolt blackholes etc it doesn't sound so boring.
I think the idea of going down and trying to fight your way through enemies is interesting if you have no teleport/blackhole, but then you'll just get creative with it, teleport will become recoil, and black hole a matter eater always cast. And what's the difference, it's just rarer. No wands sounds interesting, but it's the perks which will start carrying you, perks and flasks. Minimize it to outright hobo run, and... i don't know what we're ending up with anymore. Hobo% anyone? Do you want to get to kolmi with 0 everything and just hope what kolmi will kys by randomly deciding to dash to the nearest falling platform?
On second hand, the low% could be, finish the game with your starting loadout. How about that? (inb4 the pacifist chest will drop a Gamma/Alpha and a black hole with a repulsion perk in the same Holly Mountain) Maybe even:
True low% - finish the game with your starting loadout, no perks, no wand editing, can't pick up items/wands/flasks.
You must kill kolmi with your pee shooter. Hardcore, challenging, and can be done even by slow players if they are patient enough (and good at dodging). You may get bad wands, but if you are skillful with kicks, you can just defeat enemies with it, people have done no wands challenge before, although perks was carrying those runs.
This of course can be diluted into restricted low%, like same thing, but you can edit your wands, but can't use greek letters if got lucky etc.
If you want pacifist or no gold% it's need to be restricted like a true hitless, reminder, we can just angry ghost black hole into the winning hole with a sampo under 3 minutes with almost nothing on us.
Wandless% can be a thing, since it doesn't take anything from meta, although it will be just perk% in reality, on the plus side, the casual noita player will enjoy it, since it will provide a somewhat challenge for playing the game with no wands (and winning it with invisibility+telekinesis).
On second hand, the low% could be, finish the game with your starting loadout. How about that? (inb4 the pacifist chest will drop a Gamma/Alpha and a black hole with a repulsion perk in the same Holly Mountain) Maybe even: True low% - finish the game with your starting loadout, no perks, no wand editing, can't pick up items/wands/flasks.
This or no wand% sounds very interesting imo. HP, by starting loadout, do you simply mean you have to only use the starter wands but you can tinker the wands? For that to be different from any% there would have to be some rule against circle of displacement.
which is really niche and I doubt the category would see a lot of activity
Good point, probably best to just remove that ruleset.
I think the idea of going down and trying to fight your way through enemies is interesting if you have no teleport/blackhole, but then you'll just get creative with it, teleport will become recoil, and black hole a matter eater always cast.
I just think we need a category that feels like basic Noita where you actually go down the main path😭What about no digging (or no brickwork-tier digging, idk), no teleport, no recoil for "Vanilla" or something? Recoil rules are harder, banning all recoil spells would be annoying. Maybe ban recoil wands that are clearly intended to move you forward, I assume it's a bit annoying to police/judge though. Or scratch that part and name the category "Recoil"🤣 At least it's a breath of fresh air.
Or maybe at least True Hitless rules without the hitless part - go down main path without tp. Angry ghost might still need a ban idk. There will always be something "best" to restart for but the rules could be adjusted if something really stands out to the point where someone watching can barely tell it's the same game lol (like teleportitis/angry hole strats in any% and others). Would be nice to have one category newer people can relate to.
True low% - finish the game with your starting loadout, no perks, no wand editing, can't pick up items/wands/flasks.
Seems cool and painful haha, would have to decide what to do about acid potion start. Could have 2 categories, acid and acceleratium - maybe acid banned in the "true version". And if acid is allowed, should always start with acid mod be allowed?
Or just one version with acid banned. Unless acid on Kolmi is slower, then ignore this part.
Seems cool and painful haha, would have to decide what to do about acid potion start. Could have 2 categories, acid and acceleratium - maybe acid banned in the "true version". And if acid is allowed, should always start with acid mod be allowed?
Good point, acid starts would have to be addressed. Seeing as flask pickups don't count for any sort of %-completion afaik, I wouldn't be opposed to permitting flask pickups for "true low%" (assuming long-form teleports are forbidden, it wouldn't be allowed to use teleportatium anyways). I wouldn't want to see an acid start mod in this category though, I personally feel like acceleratium is as far as seed-filtering should go in Noita.
Since the majority have more or less agreed on the decision, low% is going to get deleted.
Any meaningful change to the existing ruleset would also mean addressing the submissions, as any new run competing against the old runs would be in an unfavorable position due to the nature of any changes (any change we make will only make the category slower). This kind of ties our hands in 'changing' the category per say. But this means a new category would be created instead.
For one, I've noticed a lot of differing submissions, but among them the idea of a Pacifist speedrun happened to be mentioned the a few more times than others.
Personally, I'm not opposed, but as hardpossession already foresaw, the top meta would be just another angry ghost black hole, which if not specifically banned, we discussed on avoiding as I think there's an oversaturation with that among many categories, and banning the top tier strategy just because it is strong is not exactly what I think should be done.
In spirit of limited completion, there's been a few 'vanilla' type restriction ideas, with starter wands or not using digging etc.
But for those ideas, they're way too split to come to an unanimous decision on making that a category right away, so any discussion on new categories would have to be renewed again in the future. Preferably not here, rather in a new post concerning a specific vision of a ruleset.
Good move getting rid of the low% category. It never really made sense as a category and I never understood how it differed from teleportless.
With that said, I could easily imagine a specific type of low% category that would make much more sense compared to the old one. Starting on a zero progress save file and getting a win with as little progress as possible, so that would include spells, enemies, and perks. That immediately sounds way more interesting compare to the previous low% rules.
Either way I think it's the right move.
