[section=Introduction]

[big]What is All Skills NMG?[/big]

All Skills No Major Glitches is a relatively short (around an hour long) and easy category, recommended for beginners. The aim of the category is to collect all the game's "skills" (which the community has defined as all movement abilities, spells and nail arts) and then beat the game by defeating the Hollow Knight. "No Major Glitches" means that the run is generally limited to using the game's mechanics as intended: no floats, no Out of Bounds, no skipping important bosses etc. However, this doesn't mean the category has no skips or tricks of its own as you'll see.

[big]Why should I run it?[/big]

All Skills NMG is a very appropriate choice for new runners for a number of reasons:

• It's relatively short, just over an hour long after some practice.
• Collecting all the skills means having powerful upgraded spells for all the boss fights. This makes it one of the easiest categories to complete a run in.
• It visits a lot of different areas of the game and fights bosses that are only otherwise seen in the very long 1xx% completion categories.

[big]What do I need?[/big]

Firstly, the main route is heavily dependant on a glitch that only exists on patch 1.2.2.1 of the game. If you're on PC, follow this guide to downpatch your game to the correct version. If you're on Console or you simply don't want to downpatch, you can run the Current Patch route instead.

1.2.2.1 and Current Patch have separate routes and leaderboards. Even though 1.2.2.1 is faster and more competitive, Current Patch is still enjoyable and a good starter category.

Second, if you want to submit your runs to the leaderboard you'll need to record them. I recommend OBS; it's easy to use and configure and relatively light on system resources. If you're on PC you can follow this guide to set up LiveSplit and the autosplitter. Using LiveSplit and the autosplitter is not absolutely required, however without it your runs will be timed RTA (real-time) instead. RTA is the timing method used for Console runs because unlike on PC, loads are the same length between different runners on the same Console.

If you have all of the above set-up you can start running. Although, I'd recommend reading through the entire guide and watching a full run first.

[big]Game Settings[/big]

"What input method should I use?" is a question that's often asked by new runners. The answer is simply whatever you're comfortable with. There are top runners of this game who use keyboard and a variety of different controllers. One recommendation I have if you're using a controller, rebind "Quick Cast" to one of your face buttons. It's one of the most used controls besides Jump and Attack and it's important you can time your presses quickly and accurately.

For graphics settings, on PC it's very important to turn vsync off. Low fps in this game doesn't prevent you from doing any tricks, but it will lead to fairly regular dropped inputs. Vsync only exacerbates this problem by adding input lag. If you have low fps even with vsync off, set particle effects to low and reduce the size of the game window to 1600x900 or possibly even 1280x720.

Finally, the fastest language for this game is Chinese. You can find it very easily by moving two places left from English. As well as having fewer characters, Chinese text also allows you to scroll through it faster for unknown reasons. English is totally fine for your first runs, but you want to be using Chinese if you're looking for competitive times.

[section=1.2.2.1 Route]

Detailed Route Notes

[big]1: Vengeful Spirit & Mothwing Cloak[/big]

[big]2: Mantis Claw & Shaman Stone[/big]

[section=Current Patch Route]

Detailed Route Notes

[big]1: Vengeful Spirit & Mothwing Cloak[/big]

[big]2: Mantis Claw & Shaman Stone[/big]

[section=The rest of this guide is under contruction]

Explosion pogo

Mantis pogo

Shade skip

Gorgeous husk kill

Early spire

Lever skip

Skurry toll glitch

Crystal peak damage tank cycle

Isma's skips

Broken vessel shortcut