by ShinerCCC.

INTRO Faxanadu is a somewhat fun side-scrolling adventure/platform game for NES similar to Zelda II and Castlevania II. Unlike Castlevania II, you don't move at the speed of an advancing glacier. Unlike Zelda II, acceleration to full walk speed takes much longer and you don't have control of your jump arc once you're airborne. Combat mostly involves zoning enemies with a long sword, mashing B to rapidfire magic in boss's faces, and being horribly weak while you're stuck with the dagger.

The speedrun has an infinite skill ceiling due to a frame-sensitive trick. We're still a long ways off from the TAS, at least 4 minutes actually. The route is very flexible and has numerous branches for safety, similar to Zelda 1. Still interested? Read on!

First of all, you're probably better off watching my tutorial vids on YouTube: part 1: part 2+3: part 4:

PASSWORDS FOR PRACTICE ON CONSOLE:

Forepaw w/ 2 springs activated, Joker key + Wing Boots + Aspirant rank: wWIYADkQAAJ6

Victim w/ Black Onyx + 3 King Keys + Wing Boots: bnwsEnsQIAEeUrw

Conflate w/ Magical Rod + Battle Suit: (and Ring of Dwarf so you don't have to waste time) 830uUnsQIjAMr3g

CONTROLS: B: stab your sword. A: Jump Up+B: use equipped magic. Down+B: use an item. Start: instantly pause the game on the next frame. Select: opens the menu.

BASIC PHYSICS AND TIPS:

• It takes 96 frames of walking in a direction to reach full walking speed. You can turn around in 1 frame and keep walk speed, as long as your dpad doesn't go to neutral. Getting hit, attacking on the ground, landing a hit with your sword while airborne and going through certain doors all cause your walk speed to return to 0.
• You only need to press A when the arrow appears to advance dialogue, no need to mash.
• When jumping to reach a ladder, wait until your jump reaches peak height before you start climbing. Jumping is faster than climbing.
• Wing Boots controls: hold A to glide while moving left or right (fall slowly while gaining walk speed), hold Up + A to ascend (but this keeps your walk speed at minimum).
• You climb ladders faster while you have Wing Boots active. (I think pressing Down+A to 'powerglide' down is the same speed) In case that's not fast enough for your tastes, while Wing Boots are active, you can also do "ladder resets" at will to ascend ladders very quickly. (see below).
• Damage boost mechanics: enemies will push you in the direction they were moving. Even if they appear to be still, you will get pushed in the direction they're facing. However, damage boosting while at full walk speed is a net loss of 10 frames.
• Scrolling the screen from left to right is slower than entering a screen from above or below, or through a doorway. This is important because of the next point...
• Certain screens in Faxanadu contain hidden items that appear every 4th visit, usually after defeating all enemies. Every "hidden item" screen advances this counter by 1, so you can visit any hidden item screen to increment the counter.
• You can skip optional dialogue by pressing B. In a speedrun, this includes every "Thank you for shopping." text after buying something, and every time a Guru tries to give you a password. You can't skip their rank-up dialogue though.

DAMAGE VALUES: Hand Dagger: 5 Deluge: 6 (9 after Magical Rod) Long Sword: 10

ADVANCED TECHNIQUES:

• INTRO SKIP: You can jump over the invisible box that triggers the intro dialogue, this saves about 12 seconds. Jump left to build up full walk speed, then you can jump over it. This box is aligned with the square and discoloured portion of the destroyed wall in the background.

• RNG MANIPULATION: This game has almost no RNG influence whatsoever, but you can influence it if the A button is held while the game calls the RNG function. The main application for this is the Monodora (hopping skull) enemies in the early game; generally they hop toward you, but you can influence if they go left or right first by holding A

• WING BOOTS PAUSING: similar to the Energy Zone skip in Contra speedruns. Faxanadu has a global timer that runs even while the game is paused. Every 64 frames, the game tries to decrement 1 from temporary items (Wing Boots, Ointment, Glove). If the game is paused during that critical frame, it won't subtract from the Wing Boots timer (the "T: 00" in the HUD). The minimum amount of time that can be lost each time you do this is 3 frames (it takes 1 frame for the game to notice the pause each time). This is an essential strategy for saving time; the better you are at doing this, the better route you can take. The current WR route demands being so good at this that you can skip an entire pair of Wing Boots.

Touching a screen transition dials this timer to 0. This means that instead of using a metronome and setting it for 225 BPM (it will desync as soon as you leave any screen), specific visual cues can be used on almost every screen. The exceptions are entering towns and through doors, the timer keeps going during these.

Ideally, you want to use this to keep Wing Boots active until you need to death warp, to avoid the "The power of the Wing Boots is gone." dialogue box.

• LADDER RESET: if the Faxanadude gets hit while on a ladder, the game will use damage boost mechanics to push him off it in a neutral, standing position. However, if he gets pushed toward a wall, he will remain standing on the ladder, and be able to jump and resume climbing it. Jumping is faster than climbing! If you know you're going to get hit while on a ladder, let go of Up/Down just before you get hit, then press A to jump after you get hit. Don't hold Up for too long or Faxanadude will immediately resume climbing after getting hit.

You can do ladder resets at will if you have Wing Boots active. To do it, you have to fly up to the ladder, so that it's behind Faxanadude. Since you're flying up toward the ladder, you're already pressing Up and A on the controller. Step by step, it's pretty easy:

1. Keep holding A
2. Release Up
3. Let go of A and press it again. Faxanadude is in a standing state, this is just doing a jump.
4. Once you've ascended quickly by jumping, press Up again to briefly fly and let go of it as soon as you can, while still holding A or else you'll grab the ladder and start climbing. This sets a new "ground" position for Faxanadude to stand on. Then repeat this motion. Basically you keep A held down as much as possible, only letting go of it to jump, and press Up in short taps. Remember to not press Up unless you're still holding down A. It sounds tricky to learn but once you get it, it's pretty easy.

Finally, here's some indepth knowledge from Invariel, who made the most recent two TASes, all the memory addresses you might want to look at with memory watch are in here. http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/NES/Faxanadu.html

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Here are three routes you can follow in point form. The Easy route is more verbose, Medium and Hard assume you already know what to do to beat the game.

EASY ROUTE

• walk right twice, die
• talk to Guru, receive Ring of Elf
• walk all the way left, talk to King, get 1500 Golds
• time to go shopping. walk right to the screen with the cigarette guy
• buy one of everything: Hand Dagger, Red Potion, Elixir, Deluge
• sell Red Potion
• buy: 3 Key J
• now you have exactly 0 Golds. Go back and talk to the king again, he gives you 1500 more
• equip Hand Dagger, Deluge, Key J
• leave
• equip Key J
• pass through Apolune, enter Tower
• go right onto second screen, revisit this screen until your 4th visit
• kill all enemies, get Mattock. equip Mattock
• leave, go right
• use Mattock on orange wall
• climb up and visit Forepaw. Make sure you have 2800+ Golds
• buy Wing Boots
• talk to Guru to set new respawn point here.
• leave Forepaw to the right. climb up, jump right and fall down
• go one more screen right, use Wing Boots, fly up
• revive 1st spring
• fly up and left, equip Key J, enter Tower
• jump then fly up. either take the hit from blue grasshopper, or spend 1 Deluge to push it away.
• kill all bees, get Wing Boots. climb up ladder, revisit this screen 3 times.
• on 4th visit, kill all bees again for more Wing Boots
• do 4 more visits, get one more Wing Boots
• enter door, get Key Jo
• activate Wing Boots to fly over wyvern, or walk through it if you have too much health
• die, revive in Forepaw
• walk right, climb up, equip Key Jo
• revisit this screen twice; on 3rd visit, kill spooky ghosts and get Ointment
• jump down, enter Joker spring
• kill 3 wyverns, 4 if able. They have 75 HP, so jump inside them and shoot either 2 or 1 Deluges (depends on how quickly you press B ). You can do it in 4 jumps, and volleys of 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 Deluges will kill them (they have 75 HP, this does 22 + 22 + 16 + 16 = 76 damage). NOTE: push the first wyvern to the right, turns out that's faster, the tutorial video is obsolete in this regard
• talk to the spring guy TWICE to revive the 3rd spring then get Ring of Ruby
• kill one more wyvern on the way out, ointment will run out
• go left and around to climb up and go back to Forepaw
• buy Long Sword, buy Key Q
• climb up to fountain, walk into capstone to push rock away
• climb ladder, enter door
• go to Mascon, buy meat
• exit down. go down, then all the way right, going up when you have to, until you reach a red building with three doors.
  • enter the door on the right. This room is known as Bird Hospital.
  • this room uses "indoor town" rules and puts your weapon away. You have to kill this bird by shooting it with Deluge 5 times. Kill it and receive Wing Boots.
  • revisit this room 3 times, because door/vertical transitions are faster than left/right; this will save time later
  • you need 4500 Golds by the time you reach Victim, so farm the orange guys for 150 each during each revisit if you need to.
• fly to Victim
• talk to Guru
• buy 3 Key K
• better hope Wing Boots are still active when you leave town! fly through the ceiling, it's a huge shortcut
• go left. on the screen with 2 blue grasshoppers and a ladder, kill them and receive Wing Boots
• go more left, equip Key K, enter Tower
• go right until 2 pinecone enemy screen
• revisit this screen 3 times, kill pinecones to get ointment, climb up ladders and walk through wyvern
• go right, fall down the rightmost hole
• fight Black Onyx boss, let it jump over you, mash Up+B to keep it pinned against right wall with Deluge
• get Black Onyx, death warp back to Victim
• use Wing Boots and take ceiling shortcut again, but go right this time
• go in left door, talk to guy, get Key A
• use Key A on other door, go right
• kill single Markman (mace guy) on screen with ladder, get ointment hidden behind rightmost root curtain
• try to keep Wing Boots active so you can fly over the poison at the top of the next ladder. This is known as The Impossible Poison Jump for a reason. It's possible but really really hard. Practice this section, you can clear the poison without any Wing Boots pausing.
• go to Conflate, talk to Guru (press B to skip his dialogue)
• go up ladder, use Key K
• go right, then down after you're back in red section and can't go right any more
• go right, climb ladder, get Magical Rod, go back down
• get Wing Boots on 2nd visit
• kill Battle Suit boss, death warp back to Conflate
• talk to Guru after respawning, get Ring of Dworf
• use Key K
• revisit screen with 2 birds 2 more times, get ointment
• go all the way right again, but this time go up
• enter Daybreak, you can buy meat/Red Potion here if you need it -- this next section is fairly dangerous, no shame in topping up health here
• go all the way right, enter Dwarf kingdom
• go left, drop down, go right into Dartmoor
• talk to Guru (he's the first building on the left, press Up quickly!), press B to skip dialogue
• go down ladder, use Wing Boots to go to Dwarf Fortress
• kill King Grieve
• go down, get Demon's Ring
• death warp back to Dartmoor
• you can use Wing Boots as soon as you're outside
• go to Evil One's fortress
• go right, right, get ointment, go up, and you're at its room
• mash B while flying in its face, GG

MEDIUM ROUTE:

• die
• talk to guru, talk to king, buy one of everything, sell red potion, buy three Key J, talk to king again
• go get Mattock
• make sure you have 2800 golds going into Forepaw
• buy Wing Boots, talk to Guru
• fly to Sky Spring, then into Tower
• get two pairs of Wing Boots, or three if you want to fly through next section of tower/can't Wing Boots pause
• get Joker Key, activate 2nd spring, death warp
• buy Key Q after respawn
• get ointment on third visit, kill four wyverns in Joker Spring
• buy Long Sword
• can buy meat in Mascon
• go to bird hospital, boots appear in 1st visit
• farm guys outside and re-enter hospital 3 times. Leave with 4200 golds at minimum, you need 4500 by the time you go shopping.
• use Wing Boots and fly to Victim
• talk to Guru, buy 3 Key K, leave and fly through ceiling
• kill blue hoppers for extra Wing Boots on the way
• go upstairs, fight wyvern, drop down at end of next screen
• get Black Onyx, die
• use Wing Boots, fly to Conflate, talk to guru
• get Magical Rod, then Wing Boots on 2nd visit
• get Battle Suit, die
• skip ointment if you can
• proceed to Dartmoor, talk to guru
• fly to King Grieve, get Dragon Slayer
• get Demon's Ring, die
• fly to endgame

HARD ROUTE:

• die
• talk to guru, talk to king, buy Hand Dagger + Elixir + Deluge, buy three Key J
• go get Mattock
• farm until 2800+ golds outside Forepaw
• buy Wing Boots, talk to Guru
• fly to Sky Spring, then into Tower
• get one Wing Boots
• get Joker Key, activate 2nd spring. Pause to avoid Wing Boots expiration dialogue before dying.
• buy Key Q after respawn
• get ointment on third visit, kill five wyverns in Joker Spring
• buy Long Sword
• activate Wing Boots after red house, fly to Victim with lots of pausing. This is called the "ultimate flight plan" route, have to sprinkle in about 70% success rate pauses for about 30 screens
• talk to Guru, buy 3 Key K, leave and fly through ceiling
• kill blue hoppers for extra Wing Boots on the way
• go upstairs, fly over wyvern, drop down at end of next screen
• get Black Onyx, die
• use Wing Boots, fly to Conflate, talk to guru
• get Magical Rod, then Wing Boots on 1st visit
• get Battle Suit, die
• get Wing Boots two screens outside of Conflate
• proceed to Dartmoor, talk to guru
• fly to King Grieve, get Dragon Slayer. Pause to avoid Wing Boots expiration dialogue.
• get Demon's Ring, die
• fly to endgame

If you're just starting out then 34:xx is a good goal. Sub 30 is a big milestone in this game, but it's possible without doing Wing Boots extensions or 1king route. Adjust your route to what you're comfortable with and go for the slickest run you can!