EXCLAIMER: This guide was mainly taken from RedBalloonMan's revised glitchless notes NOT A CATEGORY YET. This was just made so that there was a text guide

¤¤General¤¤

Assume you should avoid all battles unless otherwise noted.

If an enemy drops an item and you don't know what to do with it, plan on dropping it at some point so it doesn't force you to rearrange your items later. If you keep it, keep in mind that items won't go where they're expected.

Stutter-stepping: by quickly and lightly tapping the dpad in any given direction, certain enemies can be avoided as their movement is based on your movement frames. For a more detailed look into stutter stepping, follow this link: http://www.speedrun.com/earthbound/thread/vzhza

Any time there is text mash with A and L-trigger as fast as you can. Note that during long text sequences the A+L combination will automatically choose "Yes", while mashing B+Select will automatically choose "No" if those options present themselves.

Despawning: if you walk off and back on screen when you see an enemy you can despawn them. horizontal enemies take about 1/3 of a screen and vertical enemies take about 1/2

¤¤Intro¤¤

Choose one letter character names to minimize the time the game will spend drawing them.

Grab the bat in Tracy's room. Walk underneath the desk to avoid her running into you.

Climb the hill, talk to Pokey, and return home. Say, "Yes," when asked if you'd like to go back to sleep.

Walk downstairs and open the door. Agree to join Pokey, then talk to your mom to change clothes.

Talk to Pokey again to have him join your party. Try to leave the house, then answer the phone.

Leave the house. Proceed to the top of the hill.

there are 3 enemies that can spawn on this hill: Dogs, Crows, and snakes Dogs: despawn entirely Crows: they have a swaying pattern and if they appear to be "stuck" you can run past them snakes: if you feel confident stutterstepping you can stutter past these enemies, otherwise despawn

Talk to Picky at the top of the hill. Answer, "Yes," to the questions asked by Pokey and Buzz-buzz.

Pick up the Bread roll on the way back down the hill. ( we get it now as accidental crow fights can't steal it)

Use Auto fight through the entire Starman Junior battle.

Go into Pokey's house and talk to his dad.

Leave the house, getting the Sound stone from Buzz-buzz on the way. Answer, "Yes," to his first question and, "No," to his second.

¤¤Frank¤¤

Get the Mr. Baseball cap from the hidden treehouse west of the library and equip it immediately.

Pick up the Hamburger from the trash can next to the burger shop then go into the drugstore and withdraw $40 from the ATM. Talk to the shopkeeper on the right, buy the Tee ball bat and equip it, selling back the Cracked bat in the process.

Buy the Baseball cap, equip it, and sell the Mr. Baseball Cap. Buy the cheap bracelet and equip it.

Leave the drugstore and walk down to the arcade, despawning any Sharks along the way.

Fight the Pogo Punk standing south of the arcade entrance. This fight can be a bit scary if Pogo Punk decides to use his strong attack every turn, so dont be afraid to pop a Bread Roll in battle. If you are below 30 HP or so after the fight and didnt use your Bread Roll, use it now. This fight gets you a guaranteed Hamburger drop and sets up Ness to reach level 5 before Frank.

Go into the arcade and fight the Pogo Punk who accosts you on the bottom floor. Ness should have enough HP (if you healed after first Pogo) and offense to auto-fight. Then fight the Yes Man Junior blocking the door. you want to have at least 24 HP before this fight. If you are at or close to full health, auto-fight is your best bet.

Proceed through the door to Frank. Be sure to heal to max health before the fight, whether its a Hamburger or a Lifeup. Frank has a devastating attack where he "Brandishes a knife". This attack, done in succession, will very easily kill you. He has other movesets, but you will more than likely see many brandished knives. With that in mind, the strategy to beating Frank is to alternate attacks and Lifeups/Hamburgers each turn, unless Frank has a "dead" turn (which he will from time to time). If you run out of PP, slam down those Hamburgers. Despite your best efforts, Frank still can easily kill you with two brandished knives if he does enough damage with the first, so dont feel too badly if you die to Frank. If you beat Frank, congration! You get to move onto Frankystein.

Frankystein will alternate turns by attacking and "blowing steam" (which is a dead turn) and he will never hit you for more than 17 on his first attack which will always be turn 2. With that in mind, proceed in fighting the tank using your best judgement. If you get too low on HP (<24) be sure to heal on the turn he blows steam. The tank does have an attack where he will hit for upwards of 35 HP, so be careful.

After defeating Frankystein, go into the arcade then back out to talk to Frank for a free full heal.

¤¤Giant Step¤¤

Go into City Hall and talk to the mayor to get the Key to the Shack (Mash A+L to automatically accept). Leave City Hall and proceed to the drugstore ATM to withdraw $140. Then head to the Burger Shop next door and fill your inventory with Hamburgers. You should have ~$50 left over which you will need after Giant Step.

Walk up to the entertainer's shack and use the Key to the shack on the door to enter. Proceed into Giant Step.

Here you will encounter your first and only level grind in the run. Your best source of easy experience points are Attack Slugs which spawn in packs of 4. Despawn enemies on the bottom floor until you get slug packs. Avoid fighting Rowdy Mice and Black Antoids as best you can (Antoids will not spawn on the first floor). Typical rule of thumb here is to fight 16 slugs on the bottom floor then proceed to floors 2 and 3 where you will do your best to fight another 6-8 slugs. Keep a keen eye on enemy spawn patterns after the first floor as Antoids and slugs both have the same enemy sprite (a black dot). Antoids will always be in packs of 2, slugs packs of 4-6. This is also the first area of the game where proper stutter stepping will be a huge payoff, as all enemies in Giant Step can be stuttered. The whole idea of this level grind is to hit level 8, which should be easily attained if you fought 21-22 slugs. Level 8 is a big level in terms of the early-game, as it gives you Rockin Alpha and your first decent boost to the offense stat.

Once you have achieved level 8, proceed outside towards Titanic Ant and Lifeup to max HP. Once outside you will have a guaranteed butterfly spawn (if you dont see a butterfly, move towards the tree to your right and back towards the left until you spawn a butterfly). Use the butterfly to max out your PP. At this point it is very important to check your offense stat. 24 or more offense will allow to one-shot Antoids without a battle sequence. Anything less than 24 and you'll be forced to stutter step past Antoids or fight them the old fashioned way which can be a problem heading into Titanic Ant.

Proceed through the door and avoid fighting packs of 2-3 Antoids by despawning using the door (note all spawns here on out are Antoids). If you have 24 or more offense simply kill single Antoids with your auto-kill. Grab the Hamburger in the present to the right and proceed through the next door. This next room can be tricky as Antoids almost always spawn. Auto-kill or stutter past single Antoids. Despawn using the door for packs of 2-3 Antoids and proceed to Titanic Ant's room. Same deal before the rope, you will likely see either 1 or 2 Antoids. Sometimes a second Antoid will ninja-spawn under a dark pixel even though it only looks like 1 is there, so keep a close eye on spawns before you decide to move. Climb the ropes and if you have taken ANY damage, heal to max HP using Hamburgers before talking to Ant. Avoid using PP for healing here as they are vital in the upcoming fight.

Titanic Ant is an extremely difficult fight in the speedrun even for very experienced runners, so stay on your toes. Ant has 235 HP so it will serve you well to keep track of the damage you are doing throughout the fight. Titanic Ant has many devastating movesets that can throw a huge monkey wrench in your plans, including stealing your PP, putting up a physical shield, and hitting you for critical damage seemingly out of nowhere. First turn Rockin as the Antoids can cast Lifeup on Titanic Ant. Rockin will kill the Antoids and usually do heavy damage to TA. If you took any damage from Titanic Ant turn one use a Hamburger turn 2 to heal. The idea here is to not use Lifeup because Ant can magnet your PP away causing you to not have enough PP for a second Rockin. Turn 3 cast your second Rockin (unless Ant cast magnet the first two turns, in which case gg). If you have taken heavy damage and still have 5 PP, Lifeup turn 4 or use a Hamburger. From here on out its Bashtown and pray for the best. Generally speaking anytime you are below 50 health, HEAL. This is what all your Hamburgers are for. Continue to bash and heal until you either win or youre out of healing items and auto-fighting. Ant can and will kill you very easily, so don't be surprised if he does (feel bad though because its a massive time loss to die here). If you survived the fight, proceed through the door to Giant Step and record your first melody.

Proceed out of the sanctuary (note all enemies will now run away from you). Mash B-Select while talking to the cop outside. Check your inventory for Hamburgers on your way out. Sometimes you will have 5 left over which is plenty for the upcoming section. If you do not have 4-5 burgers, go back to the burger shop and use your remaining money to get more. Typically 5-6 burgers is very safe for the cop fights. If you do not have enough money for burgers, go back the drug store ATM and withdraw more and proceed to the Police Station.

¤¤Captain Strong¤¤

Talk to Captain Strong (left NPC) and mash A+L to accept his challenge. The cops here only have two movesets, a bash and a "crushing chop". The crushing chop can hit you for upwards of 35HP so be careful anytime they start to hit you with those in succession.

Bash the cops and use burgers to recover HP. Generally you want to be healing anytime you drop below 50-60HP. Use Lifeup if Ness goes below 30HP. Try your best to save 20PP for Captain Strong throughout your fights with the 4 Cops. There's really not too much to go into about the Cops other than that, except for Cop #4. The idea with Cop 4 is to set yourself up with as much HP as you can after the battle is over, since you'll be going up against Captain Strong next and won't have another good opportunity to heal. With that in mind, the general strategy is to alternate attacking and healing (similar to Frank). Turn 1 attack, turn 2 heal, rinse and repeat.

Captain Strong will usually either have a dead turn, or attack you all-out with a high chance for crit damage. If you were able to save 20PP go ahead and cast Rockin turn 1. Depending on what Strong does turn 1 determines your move for turn 2. If he attacked you, heal with a Hamburger or Lifeup. If he had a dead turn, cast another Rockin. If any of this fails try your best to bash it out and stay on top of healing. In most situations, 2 Rockins will kill Captain Strong.

¤¤Twoson¤¤

Leave the Police Station and head southwest. Unlike in glitchless DON'T stop by the small shack along the way and grab an Exit Mouse. Grab the Hamburger in the present just south of the shack, unless you have three or more left. Continue onto Twoson doing your best to avoid fighting Mushrooms. These Mushrooms have a relatively small aggro radius compared to most other enemies, so practice getting a feel for their movement (in offline practice of course!).

Once in Twoson, head into the Department Store. Withdraw $500 from the ATM (If you bought Hamburgers earlier, withdraw enough cash to get up to at least $500) and save the game by calling your Dad. This will set you up for a deathwarp later in the route.

Leave the Department Store and head southeast to Apple Kid's House, avoiding various enemies that will spawn. Note that you dont need to fight Everdred for the story to advance, so its recommended you do not fight him. Talk to Apple Kid and give him any healing item you have, usually a Hamburger. Agree to fund his endeavors and leave the house, where a mouse will give you a totally rad 90s phone.

Head slightly northeast and east towards Peaceful Rest Valley. Throughout your walk to the Pencil Eraser be sure to grab 2 butterflies along the way. You will likely be very low on HP/PP after Captain Strong and butterflies spawn at a high rate in this area. Lifeup to max health after getting your first butterfly.

Get close enough to the pencil statue that it loads on screen (), then walk back to Twoson. This should trigger the phone call from Apple Kid when you get back. Talk to Apple Kid in the southwest corner of Burglin Park. Head back towards PRV and use the Pencil Eraser on the Iron Pencil. Peaceful Rest Valley is a very volatile area of the game with some of the highest concentrations of enemy spawn tiles so stay on top of your movement and pay close attention to the edges of your screen. If you do happen to get into any fights in PRV, use Rockin and refill your PP with butterflies.

Make your way through PRV and head into Happy Happy Village. Once there, stop into the drugstore on the top-right part of town. If you have leftover Cookies or Bread rolls, drop them now. Talk to the shopkeep on the right and buy/equip Ness' bat (selling his previous one) and a Holmes Hat (selling the Baseball Cap). Talk to the shopkeep on the left and buy 1-2 Croissants. The amount of Croissants you want depends on how many Hamburgers you have leftover from Onett. Typically 2 Hamburgers and 1 Croissant will be enough. Be sure to leave at least one slot open in your inventory for an upcoming item. You will be tempted to safety save at this point in the run but it is not recommended as it will overwrite the save we have for an upcoming deathwarp.

Walk through the tunnel to the left of the drugstore. Try not to move too hastily upon entering this cave, as Cultists have a high tendency to spawn here. You cannot run away from Cultists even if it's a green swirl and these guys love calling for help so do your best to not fight any Cultists that you don't have to. Once the path is clear, head towards the cabin Paula is held captive in. Talk to Paula, take the Franklin Badge, then head back outside.

You will be forced into a fight with 2 Cultists and an RPGJerkBird. Cast Rockin on both your turns and bash the crow if he happens to survive. This should kill both Cultists unless a Rockin misses. After the fight heal with an item and head back into Happy Happy Village.

If you see a butterfly in HH, grab it. Head into the big blue house in the middle of HH and make your way towards the next mandatory Cultist fight. Bash this guy dead unless he successfully calls for help, in which case cast Rockin.

Make your way through the laggy room towards Carpainter. If Ness is below 24HP at this point heal with an item. Carpainter is an interesting case as he is the first major boss we fight with scripted movesets. What this means is he will always do the same sequence of turns in a loop. With this information it allows us to take a unique approach to the fight.

The Carpainter Loop is as follows: T1: Lightning, T2: Lifeup, T3: Attack, T4: Lightning, T5: Shield, T6: Lifeup, repeat. The Lightning attack has a 25% chance to reflect back and deal damage to Carpainter. Its possible to one-cycle him turn 1 off his own Lightning though somewhat rare. Typically Ness' turn order will go as follows: T1: Attack, T2: Attack, T3: Rockin, T4: Heal, repeat. Ideally you want to have as little HP as possible after taking out Carpainter.

After defeating Carpainter take the Key to the Cabin (drop any items if you need to make room) and start heading back out. On your way, grab the Skip Sandwich in the present in the upper-right corner of the big room. Go back to the cabin and use the key to rescue Paula. Once Paula is in your party, give Ness' Holmes Hat and Cheap Bracelet to Paula but do not equip them, then drop the Teddy Bear.

At this point there are a few different options to consider depending on how well one has done so far. In any case, a death here will land you back in Twoson which is why we saved way back when. Here are a few scenarios you will find yourself in.

Ness has less than 70HP - Deathwarp (most likely scenario): Head into Lilliput Steps and get yourself red swirled by the first mole you see. Have Ness use his ATM Card on the mole and Paula bash. Ideally mole will kill both kids. Try not to attack with Ness as he is likely to kill the mole. Once you have died, select "Yes" to continue from your last save.

Ness has more than 70HP - Deathwarp: Head back towards PRV and despawn the first area outside the cave until you get a UFO and a Flying Robo spawn. Try to get red swirled by them and have Ness use his ATM Card and Paula Bash. UFOs do heavy amounts of damage and will speed up the deathwarp if Ness has high HP.

Ness has more than 70HP - No Deathwarp: It is possible to simply walk back through PRV to Twoson. The benefit to this is having an extra Teddy Bear (in which case you would not drop Paula's) and not having to revive Paula. There is a bridge that becomes fixed after killing Carpainter so it makes the walk a bit faster this time around. This route is also helpful if you accidentally saved anywhere after Twoson or never saved at all (which would send you back to Onett).

¤¤Threed¤¤

If you deathwarped back to Twoson, withdraw as much money as you can from the ATM and revive Paula at the Hospital in the northeast part of town. On your way to Polestar be sure to talk to the "Luigi" Runaway 5 member to get the Backstage Pass. Proceed to Polestar and head into the 2nd room where you will be stopped by Paula's father, then leave. Note there is a Teddy Bear in the top room of Polestar that you can grab for extra safety in Threed Tunnel.

After leaving Polestar you will be prompted to head to Burglin Park. Go there and talk to Everdred, grab the Wad of Bills, and proceed to Chaos Theater. There is a photo trigger right outside the entrance to the theater that you can avoid by approaching the door directly from the right while bumping against the right side of the building.

Once inside use the Backstage Pass on the lady blocking your way into the theater and head inside. Talk to the fangirl on the left-most side of the room to go backstage, then immediately leave to start the Runaway 5 show. This is your first decent sized break in the run so enjoy it.

After the show head back out to the right, then to the Manager's Office in the left door of the lobby. Go behind his desk and use the Wad of Bills on him. After the cutscene head back outside Chaos Theater, avoiding the photo trigger again by holding right for a moment, then down, then left. Talk to "Mario" Runaway 5 guy and hop inside the bus.

Once you have reached Threed, head to to the northwest part of town and through the graveyard. The graveyard in Threed can be very volatile so try your best to despawn enemies or get them caught on gravestones. Get close to the zombies north of the graveyard (make sure they turn around and stare at you) to trigger the next event. Head back out through the graveyard and towards the Hotel. If Paula is dead for whatever reason at this point, no worries, she'll revive once you get ambushed.

Follow the nice lady outside the Hotel inside. Once you wake up inside the jail, try to open the door to start Winters cutscene.

¤¤Jeff's Adventures in Winters¤¤

Once Tony joins head to the bottom floor and into the left door, talk to Maxwell, then go back out and into the right door, use the key on the bottom right locker (it won't work) then go back and talk to Maxwell to get the Bad Key Machine.

Go back into the right door and use the BKM on the bottom-left-most locker and the upper-right-most locker getting you a Pop Gun and a Holmes Hat, equip these items. Head outside towards the gate and hop over once Tony presents the opportunity. Next, go into the drugstore and talk to the woman to the left of the counter and agree to pay her $1. Talk to the Bubble Monkey and he will join your party. Leave the drugstore and make your way south through Winters to the tent area doing your best to avoid any fights. Rest in the left-most tent then head back outside. Moving towards the Tessie trigger on the peninsula, be sure to walk above the right-most tent as there is a photo trigger directly below it. There is a way to avoid this photo trigger with more advanced movement (see picture or your watch favorite EB runner). Be sure to allow Bubble Monkey to catch up to you before triggering the Tessie cutscene.

After getting off Tessie, go directly diagonal down-left until you reach the wall and then down-right to the treeline. This is a very important movement that will automatically despawn a Gruff Goat at the entrance to Brick Road. Enter Brick Road and take the bottom path of the choices that are given to you and fight the first present you see. Note that it is impossible to green swirl or be red swirled by enemies in Brick Road.

In this present you will engage with (oddly enough) one of the hardest enemies in the speedrun, the Worthless Protoplasm. The reason this fight is so difficult is because Jeff hasn't gained any levels at this point (as long as you saved time by not fighting anything in WInters) and the Protoplasm will either attack, call for help, or make itself "feel strange". Feeling strange isnt so bad, but Protoplasm's attacks will hit you hard and two Protoplasm's are going to hit twice as hard. With all this in mind there are a couple tactics one can use to survive this harrowing battle. First off all, you will die often to this fight and a death isnt the worst thing in the world as Jeff respawns right outside Tessie drop-off, so if Protoplasm opens the battle with several attacks do your best to not use your one healing item (the Boiled Egg).

Use the boiled egg after this fight if you took damage

See if you can sneak past the Mad Duck. None of the enemies in here can ambush you, so don't worry about that. If Jeff is low on health, pick up the Croissant from the gift box near the Mad Duck and eat it.

Try to skip the second Worthless Protoplasm, but don't worry too much if you don't.

To set up the skip, walk along the top edge of the path, then, when the Protoplasm starts moving toward you, walk straight down so you're on the row below it and continue going to the left. You will go past the Protoplasm if Bubble Monkey doesn't get caught

Ignore Brick Road and proceed into the cave.

Pond cave is full of enemy spawns that all can be stutter stepped away from. over all the passages are too narrow to safely stutter pass them so try to use stutter steps when despawning to reduce the length of ground you have to walk from enemies chasing you. All the enemies here can be stutter stepped around except for the mushrooms.

Only get the Hamburger (from the gift box in the first room) if Jeff is critically low on HP and you're worried about getting into fights in the cave (eat it immediately if you do get it).

Pick up the Bottle rocket from the gift box near the crystals in the last room.

Use the Pak of bubble gum near the rope in the last room to climb up. Try to get Bubble Monkey next to Jeff when you do this since Bubble Monkey flies very slowly.

Go into the lab and talk to Dr. Andonuts. Say, "No," to the first question (the one about the donut). The answer to the second question (about Stonehenge) doesn't matter.

Enter the Sky Runner and mash A until the Sky Runner lifts off.

The first Sky Runner cutscene takes a little over 2 minutes and requires no inputs once the Sky Runner has lifted off, so this is a good time for a quick break.

¤¤Mini Barf¤¤ Agree to let Jeff join the party.

Use the Bad key machine on the door to leave the prison.

Go out the northeast corner of the graveyard.

Get the Teddy bear from the garbage can.

This makes the Threed tunnel safer. If you are going for a top-tier time, you might want to skip this for now and pick it up before Shrooom! instead.

Cut back southwest, past the (real) circus tent and then go south to reach Boogey Tent.

Have Ness use Rockin and Jeff fire his Big bottle rocket. If you got in fights earlier and Paula knows Psi Fire α, have her use that; otherwise, have her use freeze for the chance to solidify. If you don't win on the first turn, have Ness use Rockin again, Paula either use Fire or freeze again, and Jeff fire his Bottle rocket. If that still doesn't do it, have Ness use Rockin (or heal people) and Paula pray. Pick up the Jar of Fly Honey.

SPLIT.

Congrats. you finished your boogey% run.

Things I won't do: Fix all the typo errors. Things I might do: Create a video for this