Gameplay bugs (one which ruins the speed run imo)

There's only been two bugs/glitches (IDK the accurate term) that I've ran into during my speed run attempts. One bug occurs when the cyber ninja (mini-boss) does their dash and I get their dash trail lines all over my screen. There's no big positive nor negative to the gameplay other than the lines obscuring your view. 

The other bug/glitch I've ran into is at the first fight against Katsuro. If you press the skip button on the exact frame the dialogue pops up, the game will bring up the pause menu and when you exit the pause menu, you'll find yourself able to move but can't skip the dialogue. I consider it a run-ender because I dislike having to go through the whole dialogue. (I have not tried if Katsuro has a hitbox during the dialogue. If he does, then that's a pretty substantial time save). 
On the other spectrum of skipping the dialogue on the quickest frame, one of my fastest skipped dialogue is in my 2:57 run on the first dialogue pop up (according to YouTube's frame by frame, I skipped it on the first frame it was present).

How to delete your save data for New game/100% speedruns

On your desktop press the windows key or the search bar on the bottom left of your screen and type in. "Registry Editor" after pressing yes for it to open look at the top of the Registry Editor window and type at the top of the search bar. "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Ludic\Akane" Than right click the Akane folder that pulled up and export it to a different folder. That should make a .reg file and call it whatever you want. Now going back to the Registry Editor you can delete the "Akane" folder and next time you open your game all your save data will be deleted and you can start speedrunning. Now you can double click that .reg file you just made click yes for it to replace your Akane folder and you can start playing where you last left off. That is all guys if you have anymore questions you can find me on discord as Sanimonz#8694 and I will answer them as fast as possible.

How to maximize dragon slash/slayer

Quick ability breakdown:
Dragon slash is a quick dash-slash, able to get you out of corners and bad positions. Dragon slayer covers the whole screen (without gear) and can cover more than what you see (with tactical visor). This can quickly kill the mini-bosses (gunner, tank, and cyber ninja).

Maximizing the abilities:
For dragon slash, try to only use it when there's a line of 4 or more enemies but be careful that you don't finish your dragon slash right in front of an enemy (enemies swing their sword whenever they notice you in front of their target zone so they can catch you in the short end animation of dragon slash if you end RIGHT in front of them). 

For dragon slayer, your only worry is the spawn rate of the enemies (*the following numbers are my experience with spawn rates using the tactical visor*). If your screen is full of enemies, the average count seems to be around 10-16 enemies (other than the first 100 kills due to the spawn rate being so slow that you might only get 8-13 enemies). 
*If you are using dragon slayer at the end of a hundred, be careful about using it too early. If you're too early, some enemies might not have spawned in yet and force you to wait as they walk out of their spawn and enter your screen (if you practice enough, you can remember where exactly the spawn locations are and pre-fire with your gun to hope and hit them off-screen).

Some of the numbers in my dragon slayer paragraph may be a bit off but these are the numbers I recall (it's been about 2 weeks since I've ran Akane speedruns)

Influencing Katsuro's AI (skipping the gun cycle)

Katsuro's AI is random, and at level 3 and above he gains the ability to shoot before every slash.

This is very annoying because the full cycle takes roughly four seconds, and this process can't be stopped by attacking him with the katana (although if done quickly enough, that can be used as a last resort defense in case your mess up your block timing). The worst possible RNG would have him shoot 3 times consecutively, meaning 12 seconds lost, which can easily cost otherwise good runs.

However, it's been discovered one can force him out of the animation early by Dragon-Slashing in his general vicinity, forcing him to initiate a slash attack (including the triple dash slash at max level, so keep your guard up). It's recommended to use block right after exiting the Dragon-Slash because he will immediately dash towards you. This doesn't guarantee he won't use his gun again later in the fight, but it can save time you from getting bogged down with this one attack.

Video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tPcyOkEsM

I'd recommend always leaving at least two adrenaline bars full when entering his fight past 200 kills, to guarantee you have at least one dragon slash available to counter his gun.

RNG Katsuro LVL 3+

Katsuro is the boss you face after every 100 kills, making your hundredth and first kill every hundred. However, after the first 100, his attack options vary. 

From what I recall (it's been 2 weeks since I've attempted any speedrun attempts), at LVL 3/kill 201, he can either slash or go into gun mode (where he stands still and shoots 3 times before resuming his slashes). The most optimal RNG is getting 3 slashes where he freezes and you hit him twice to kill him (like my 2:57 run). The worst RNG could be getting a slash but getting a gun mode after every slash (so it would be slash-gun-slash-gun-slash). 

But the most heavily RNG reliant is Katsuro Max LVL/kill 301. In addition to the previously mentioned two attacks, he now has a triple-dash-slash move. This can be easily dodged by dashing perpendicular to his slash but the problem I run into is how long his dashes will be. There's no way I can explain it through an online guide but it's a lot to do with intuition and feeling. The most optimal RNG is getting the triple dash because he immediately finishes with freezing, allowing you to go for a kill immediately. Less optimal would be 3 slashes without any gun mode in between (similar to my 2:57 run - except I got 1 gun mode prior to 3 slashes). And so on and so on. 

In terms of manipulating Katsuro LVL 3+, I haven't figured out any consistent pattern. Previously I thought it had to do with me standing behind a building/object but I have no consistent evidence about it. If we could RNG manipulate Katsuro LVL 3+, it could lower the speedrun down quite a bit.

Nombre	Autor
Gameplay bugs (one which ruins the speed run imo)	LightningKiddo 3 years ago
How to delete your save data for New game/100% speedruns	Sanimonz 3 years ago
How to maximize dragon slash/slayer	LightningKiddo 3 years ago
Influencing Katsuro's AI (skipping the gun cycle)	gw4yn 2 years ago
RNG Katsuro LVL 3+	LightningKiddo 3 years ago