Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PS1) - Guides

FIRE SEED SKIP GUIDE (WRITTEN)

Updated 4 years ago by pr0te

[section=Intro] Over a year has passed since it was discovered by PurpleSunDeryl that we could in fact completely betray Hagrid, and leave his fire seeds behind for good, changing the whole story by never cracking the dragon egg and saving 5+ minutes. Either by carefully climbing the trees and finally jumping through them, or by trespassing the roof of Hagrids hut for a final jump over the fence. Super hype that it's possible, but unfortunately, these methods were all extremely unrealiable because of how precise the ledge grabbing works on the tree geometry. This was pretty much TAS only, but luckily, after many many hours, I've managed to find a consistent setup that will work everytime, given you execute it correctly.

[section=Demonstration video]

[section=Updates] 25 Jan. 2017 STEP 8 wasn't really 100% consistent anyway, so I realised that we should revive the Hagrid's roof route. It's now added and recommended for STEP 8 as it's 100% consistent. I updated the video as well.

13 Dec. 2016 Changed STEP 8 after Nanonym found a more consistent way of doing it.

10 Oct. 2016 I over-engineered STEP 6. It's now easier.

10 Oct. 2016 We now have a fully consistent fire seed skip. I've updated the tutorial and the demonstration video to reflect the newest changes. We no longer have to do the hard curvy jump in the end.

05 Oct. 2016 I've updated STEP 8 with a new d-pad strat that should make it slightly more consistent.

04 Oct. 2016 I've updated STEP 7 for a more consistent setup. Should work 4/5 times or more I think. The video above has been updated too.

04 Oct. 2016 I've realised that STEP 7 can sometimes be a bit random. Random whether you get the grab or not. I find that almost everytime, I still get the skip within the 5 minute margin anyway, but I'm working to make this step more consistent, and you can help too!

[section=Full tutorial] STEP 1 First thing you want to do is run directly to the corner with the acute angle, closest to the wooden gate. When you're in the corner, make sure you press L2 until the camera stops when hitting the wall (trees) and then continue to walk into the corner shortly. Your view should look like this:

STEP 2 Before the camera auto adjusts, press triangle to aim. Move the crosshair to the left until it's exactly at this spot:

Look for the edge of the crosshair to touch the lower right corner of the black pixel, like illustrated below. It's important that the crosshair does not exceed the corner. The black pixel must remain completely to the left of the crosshair border. It may overlap a little, but non of the black pixel should be visible to the right of the crosshair edge. Try to aim for what you see in the picture below.

STEP 3 Press triangle again to stop aiming, and now proceed to holding RIGHT using the d-pad into the acute angle. Harry will slowly walk towards the outer wall. Once you start seeing his leg pass through the wall, press pause.

STEP 4 Since Harry is moving through the outer wall slowly, he will eventually reach the edge of the floor which causes the auto jump mechanic to kick in. Harry will jump, and this jump is the main reason why this skip is possible. We need to press LEFT on the d-pad the last frame right before the jump. To do this, you must pause-buffer and go one frame at a time. You do this by pressing X + START very quickly after eachother. Begin with X and then START super quickly. This will advance the game one frame at a time. Do this until you see Harry bowing down slightly, because he's about to jump. The last frame you see will look like this:

You will only be able to see it for one frame though, so you have to focus on Harry while pause-buffering. NOTE: If you pause-buffer one or two frames too long, the next step usually works anyway.

STEP 5 We're now paused after you saw that frame of Harry being about to jump. All you have to do now, is hold LEFT on the d-pad and unpause. Harry should now jump and grab some geometry in the tree wall. If he doesn't, you probably aimed slightly too much to the left/right in STEP 3, or maybe it has to do with some sub pixel stuff. Just try again.

STEP 6 As soon as you got the grab after STEP 5, you should begin holding X. Shortly after Harry stands up, hold UP, then UP+RIGHT. When you're in the right corner (still holding UP+RIGHT), wait for the camera to stand perfectly still. Press pause while still holding all the buttons. While paused, let go of everything and unpause. This way, we make sure that you let go of all buttons at the exact same time. Right after unpausing, hold R2 until the camera stops. You should now see exactly this:

STEP 7 Press pause, hold DOWN, quickly pause-buffer 1 frame (by pressing X+START VERY quickly after each other. I use my index finger for Start and my middle finger for X), then hold DOWN+LEFT and unpause. Harry should now run out of the trees, jump and grab some geometry further up.

STEP 8 Once you're standing in the trees, only Harry's shoes and the lower part of his cape should be visible. Hold R2 until the camera stops. This is what you see:

For this step, you can either try the fast and risky jump through the trees, climbing above the trees or go to Hagrid's roof. ** I recommend going to Hagrid's roof** as it's 100% consistent.

Hagrid's roof To go to Hagrid's roof, you can either pause-buffer the following steps or do them without. Doing them without is a 5 frame window (quite big). What you need to do is press PAUSE. Now pause-buffer 3 frames of holding DOWN+RIGHT. Now simply hold LEFT and unpause. Harry will grab some tree geometry. WHILE Harry is climbing this ledge, use L2 to aim the camera so that you can easily steer Harry towards Hagrid's roof. Here's a good angle:

For the most part, after aiming roughly for Hagrid's roof with L2, you can just hold DOWN and Harry will land there. Just practice that a little. If you want 100000% consistency, then, instead of holding L2 as he climbs the last ledge, hold R2 all the way until the camera stops. Now simply hold LEFT and Harry will land on Hagrid's roof.

Now, when you're on top of Hagrid's hut, what you need to do is drop down right next to the chimney on the LEFT side. There's a small platform that you can stand on. From there, just aim the camera at the fence and jump right over it. You'll have to steer Harry a little mid-air, but it's not tight or anything. Simply practice a little and it'll be no problem.

Over the trees Credit goes to Nanonym for finding this pause-buffer method

(This is the newest strat and not currently in the video above) Now press pause. Now hold DOWN+RIGHT and pause-buffer 3 frames of this input. Then, hold Left and unpause. Harry should grab the trees. When Harry starts grabbing the trees, hold L2, and when the camera stops, hold UP. This should give you the last grab. From here, simply jump back in bounds.

Fast but risky method

D-pad strat This one should be the most consistent, but still requires practice. You're essentially, kind of, doing the same we do with analog, but on d-pad it's easier to make quicker precise changes in direction. What you want to do, is start by holding UP for a very short period of time, then smoothly move your thumb down to DOWN+LEFT. I've written down some inputs on frames just to give you a better idea of what you're supposed to do. These are not precise, but something you can aim for: Frames: 1: Up 2: Up 3: Left 4: Left+Down 5: Left+Down 6: Left+Down 7: Left+Down 8: Up

Analog strat Here comes the last and hardest part. I recommend making a save state here so you can practice and program the inputs into your muscle memory. First hold R2 to make sure the camera stops there. What you must do now, is move the analog stick in the following pattern:

If you look into it, you can see that the analog goes up to begin with, but only for a short while. It quickly goes over to moving left, then down and up again in a curvy motion. This jump has to be practiced.

[section=Short tutorial] So the thought behind having a short tutorial is two things. Experienced players might not need a full in-depth tutorial, only the bones. Also, if you've learned this but left the game for some time and want to come back, it's easier to just read this short tutorial instead.

STEP 1 Get into the acute angle, hold L2 until the camera stops, then move a little more into the acute angle. Your view should look like this:

STEP 2 Aim your crosshair directly as shown below. The right edge of the crosshair must be very close to the lower right corner of the black pixel, but not overlap too much.

STEP 3 Cancel the aim and start walking into the acute angle by pressing RIGHT on the d-pad.

STEP 4 Pause-buffer until right before Harry jumps. Last frame you see should be Harry bowing down slightly, like so:

NOTE: This is not actually frame perfect, so if you pause-buffer one or two frames too long, the next step usually works anyway.

STEP 5 Hold LEFT and unpause. Harry should now grab some geometry in the trees above him.

STEP 6 Hold X as Harry is about to stand up. Hold UP, then UP+RIGHT to move Harry into the right corner. Now wait for the camera to stand completely still (still holding UP+RIGHT), then press pause. Release all buttons and unpause. Right after unpausing, hold R2.

STEP 7 Press pause. Hold DOWN and pause-buffer 1 single frame. Now hold DOWN+LEFT and unpause. Harry should grab the tree geometry.

STEP 8 Hagrid's hut Hold R2 until the camera stops. Either pause-buffer or go without (5 frame window). Pause-buffer 3 frames of DOWN+RIGHT. Now hold LEFT and unpause. Harry now gets a grab on some tree geometry. While he climbs, use L2 to aim the camera so that you have an easy angle for Hagrid's roof. Here's an example:

When you have about this angle, just hold DOWN and you'll jump to Hagrid's roof. For 10000% consistency, use R2 instead as he jumps until the camera stops, and then just hold LEFT to land on the roof.

Next, drop down to the LEFT of his chimney, there's a small platform you can stand on. From there, aim the camera at the fence and jump right over it. You'll have to steer Harry a little mid-air, but it should be easy after a little practice.

Over the trees Credit goes to Nanonym for finding this pause-buffer method

Begin by holding R2 until the camera stops, then press pause. Now hold DOWN+RIGHT and pause-buffer 3 frames of this input. Then, hold Left and unpause. Harry should grab the trees. When Harry starts grabbing the trees, hold L2, and when the camera stops, hold UP. This should give you the last grab. From here, simply jump back in bounds.

Fast but risky method Saves about 15 seconds over the consistent method. D-pad strat This one should be most consistent. Start by holding UP for a very short amount of time (2 frames or so), then move your thumb smoothly to DOWN+LEFT. Some unprecise inputs to give you an idea of what to aim for: Frames: 1: Up 2: Up 3: Left 4: Left+Down 5: Left+Down 6: Left+Down 7: Left+Down 8: Up