Ok, so I was the second person to hold the record for the harmony medal back in mid 2019. It was a 41:29.

A week ago, I came back here and was surprised to see the WR being as low as 22 minutes. Back when I was playing it, anything under 35 was completely out of the question, so surely, a lot of crucial game mechanics must have been changed. What are these, exactly? I know that the text has become a lot more skippable, but I don't see anything else as obvious.

Dripple and Eaglit are clearly the two most viable Loomians for this badge (snocub can't do jack squat past the first theatre, fevine gets mauled by everything, vambat and emibt have ineffective movepools and stats, and weevolt doesn't have any advantages over anything).

There are a lot of pros and cons with both of these 'viable' loomians.

With dripple: You can finish the first battle quicker (usually), as it have a higher melee attack stat for it's normal move. Its' stab move (Spray) is less effective against neutral targets than Eaglit's Shine. Duskit is much more dangerous as it can hit with Startle. It can get pinned by any Gekow's Static Shock, but it can use super effective water moves against them too, making is arguably better for Route 3 and the first Theatre. It is very slow and is usually out-sped, however, this is compensated with a better overall defense.

With Eaglit: The first battle will be slower (you in fact have a chance of downright losing). Its' stab move, Shine, is better against neutral targets than Dripple's Spray. Duskit is mostly a cakewalk as Startle has no effect on it (unfortunately Final Ruse WILL kill it if used on it's final turn). It gets walled by Geklow, and many turns have to be wasted on clearing them out, meaning that many potions have to be used on the First Theatre. It is faster and more offensively powerful than Dripple.

So why is the run suddenly harder?

Well, for one the Battle Theatre will be very hard for both loomians (because of the Geklow there), and can end perfectly good runs.

Two, the Antsee and Sludgling trainers are likely to hand status effects to your loomians with Mystery Toxins. While Sleep can be shrugged off with luck, either paralysis or poison will very likely spell the end of your run. Sure, you could ignore both of these trainers, and it is probably the safer option, but doing so could put your Loomian one or even two levels below their normal level, which is not ideal for the First Theatre.

The good news is that, after the Harmony Medal, the run gets a lot easier. Assuming your Dripple or Eaglit isn't severely underleveled.

So which starter is objectively better for the second medal? Or is Snocub still usuable in any way?

Say, if someone managed to figure out how to use RC (Right-Click) functions to skip levels, would they be verified in the current categories? Or would any% categories be created?

I see that no-one has attempted this category before, and I think it would be nice to have a go at it. However, since the CPU of my computer was manufactured in 2007, and the hard drive was built even earlier than that, I don't think I'll be able to record the whole thing in one go. Would it be allowed for me to record the section for each duck (as in maxing out a duck at a time), submit the first section, and then link the other sections in the description?