Detailed DuckTales speedrun walkthrough.

https://youtu.be/hTmSnaTe3SI?list=PLj411-RNfaUishbLusIeDbABTuZaEHMVz

DuckTales Any% (Difficult) Guide

1. General tips:
- Saving and loading on NES emulators let you practice tricky spots efficiently.
- Jumping down pits is the fastest, rather than just walking off ledges.
- Watch the few fastest runs over and over.
- Stage order is as you wish, but keeping the RNG and hard tricks first is recommended. Most common route is: Moon first, then either Amazon and Transylvania in any order, depending if you care the most about Magica RNG or the helicopter skip and then finishing off with Mines, followed by Himalayas.

2a. Bosses (General):
- If hit boss while pogoing downward (and no horizontal movement), you don't take damage. 
- After boss takes damage, they flash and are invincible for a period of time. If you make no horizontal movement after hitting them, you don't take damage while they flash.

2b. Moon Rat (The Moon)
- Pogo while entering boss room, if rat runs right you get a quick hit in.
- If rat jumps up while flashing, do a high pogo jump without horizontal movement--you will pass through him and deal damage on the way down. 

2c. Magica De Spell (Transylvania)
- You can hit her flying form at all three fly heights--even the highest one! As long as you make contact while pogoing downwards without horizontal movement (see 2a.), you deal damage without taking damage.
- If she is flying at the middle height, try to pogo on the horizontal edge of her hitbox (you'll find it with practice).

2d. Terra Firmie King (African Mines) 
- After entering boss room, hold left and then do a short pogo jump to deal damage before his first roll cycle.
- The fastest way of doing this boss is getting a quick first hit, then hit #2, #3 and #4 should be as LATE as possible. This shortens his animation and can save up to 30 frames (0.5 seconds) compared to hitting him really early. Last hit should be done as early as possible.

2e. Snow Monster (Himalayas)
- Quick kill strats: (Hits #1,2,4, and 5 are done by vertically pogoing so that you are traveling downwards while boss jumps down on you).
Hit #1: boss descending from first jump
#2: boss descending from second jump
#3: boss standing on left side of screen/snowballs falling (Note: there are two snowball patterns, you can hit the boss during both, but one you will be forced to take damage)
#4: boss descending from third jump
#5: boss descending from fourth jump (He should be jumping towards right side)

2f. Incan Sentinel (The Amazon). 
Hit #1: descending from first jump.
#2: after first hit, move to right of screen, do a short pogo into a high pogo. This will hit boss in either RNG pattern (stays on ground or jumps). After hit #2, land on boss' left side, move left.
#3-5: Keep doing small pogos into a big pogo and react to the fact he jumps or not. If he does jump, stall your horizontal movement and hit him on the way down.

2g. Dracula Duck (Final Boss). 
- Two hits per dracula appearance. If appears too far away, take damage quickly, pogo while you're invincible, then time second pogo so you hit again before he  	disappears (doing the shortest possible pogo hop between hits is a good way to time it). If you land on a bat after first hit, you can keep pogoing without landing first and still get the second hit easily.
- Press select to heal yourself (costs $3,000,000)
- After he is defeated, time a pogo so you end up as far up on the rope as possible before textbox appears.

3. Movement 
- Pogo: Don't pogo to maximum height all the time. Practice doing pogo jumps of various heights. 
- Climb: practice dismounting vines/ropes on earliest possible frame, you might be surprised how low you can successfully dismount!

4. Stages
4a. The Moon
Moon skip (thank you Nudua and pld!): 
- Do a low jump to clip between the two squids. Once you're comfortable making the jump, practice spawning the penguin midair (let go of right and immediately tap left, then quickly hold right agin). 
- If you're having trouble pogo-clipping under the barrier, adjust where you land so you land on the exact corner between the ground and the barrier. 

4b. The Himalayas
- To despawn first goat, briefly stop or turn left while jumping above the treasure chest before the goat.
- To avoid second goat, jump onto left-most part of its platform, immediately do a maximum height jump and pogo off its head.
- Walk under last goat to save a few frames.
- When going down the four-step staircase the spider hovers over, (I'm counting step 1 as the top ice platform and step 4 as the bottom stair), the quickest way down is to walk left over the edge of the second and fourth steps (no jumps)...this will bounce you quickly to the bottom and let you pogo efficiently over the stacked blocks.
- Maximize your time walking on the ice (i.e., minimize jumping), as you move faster walking on it than you do jumping.

4c. The Amazon
- [Very Advanced] When traveling up the first rope, you can briefly let go and pogo on the bee to save frames.
- Helicopter skip (one method) Walk to the far left side of the platform (but no so far left that you can't pogo). Slight pause. Lowest possible pogo jump, then high pogo jump while holding left. Tap 'up' to catch the helicopter rope and immediately release 'up' to let go quickly.

4d. The mines
- When entering the mirror of transylvania to grab the key, you can save time by being in an upwards motion into the mirror, this enables you to pogo when entering key-room. Minor save.
- When traveling into the final room of the mines before the boss. Do a fast pause before the bat to avoid him.

Last update: December 28th 2015 (Minor additions)
Cheers :)

DuckTales rat manipulation by Zhrakula

Zhrakula with current PB of 7:08.260 (2nd place) made a video about the Rat manipulation in DuckTales. It's in Russian, but I've made English subtitles, so everyone could understand it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h0eKKlj0l0

Easier Moon Skip setup (w/inputs on screen and 50% speed)

The key is going for the whole setup while pressing B all the time, then take intentional damage, then down+A while into the green wall (still pressing B ).

https://youtu.be/Yt6_eSi2ZJA

Easy Amazon Strat for Easy Difficulty

I had difficulty learning the Amazon when learning the game, so I came up with a nooby-strat route that makes it ezpz.  Costs maybe 0.5sec I'm estimating vs. optimal strat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPvuFNQTs4A

Goat and hockeyguy D-spawn

Joecurr's Easy Rat Manip Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIfiqUY7IfU

Maps for all Zones

Just wanted to throw these out there for anyone wanting to use them for 100% runs or new to the game.

The Amazon
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:DuckTales_-_NES_-_Map_-_The_Amazon.png

Transylvania
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:DuckTales_-_NES_-_Map_-_Transylavnia.png

African Mines
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:DuckTales_-_NES_-_Map_-_African_Mines.png

The Himalayas
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:DuckTales_-_NES_-_Map_-_The_Himalayas.png

The Moon
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:DuckTales_-_NES_-_Map_-_The_Moon.png

Moon Skip: Marathon / Race Friendly Setups

Below I present some setups for the Moon Skip that are more consistent for newer runners or for marathons and races.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlaa0We0qd8

New moon skip setup (found by nudua)

Since there are still a bunch of people doing the old setup for the moon skip (maybe because they have missed it and there are just a few runners doing it) I would like to leave nudua's setup/video here so everyone can see how it's done. It saves roughly about 1 second compared to the old setup. 


http://nudua.com/files/dt-new-moon-skip.mp4

Name	Author
Detailed DuckTales speedrun walkthrough.	Purjo 10 years ago
DuckTales Any% (Difficult) Guide	Rheu 10 years ago
DuckTales rat manipulation by Zhrakula	ANGEL_UNDEAD 4 years ago
Easier Moon Skip setup (w/inputs on screen and 50% speed)	garadas21 8 years ago
Easy Amazon Strat for Easy Difficulty	Fitzentoaster 8 years ago
Goat and hockeyguy D-spawn	Hemmy86 7 years ago
Joecurr's Easy Rat Manip Tutorial	joecurr 1 year ago
Maps for all Zones	Sideswipe 6 years ago
Moon Skip: Marathon / Race Friendly Setups	qbradq 9 years ago
New moon skip setup (found by nudua)	pld 11 years ago
Rat manipulation TUT	Hemmy86 7 years ago