(Unordered) GH's Strats

These are this list of strats that i found during a run (in alphabetical order)

#Auto Attack
During certain points of run (bridge explosion in third cave; for example) it's best to just automate your attack via battle menu to save time.

#Box Clip
(Shoutout to **Dori**!) If you do menu interaction while entering a certain area, Lavender sprite will turn into box sprite while still interacting with the area. In some cases, doing the same mechanics, will lead you into certain response, such as backwarp (which costs time) or area warp.

As an example of strats uses, Dori shows the box clip while Baker cutscene still on set, resulting a cutscene bypass which saves time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11J-AWWhAmM

#Consistent Strongling's Skip
 (Shoutout to **Mugwumpey**!) Refer to the guideline: https://www.speedrun.com/grimmshollow/guide/h2gle

#Chinese Versioning
Grimm's Hollow in chinese version contains a lot of weird bugs and glitch that gives us a big advantage. Not only that, the chinese language were faster than any other language that exist in the game. 

For setting up the version, refer to the guideline: https://www.speedrun.com/grimmshollow/guide/hw3rc

#Cutscene Skips
During the run, you can skips a certain cutscenes by mashing the X button on-point. For example, before the Cave 2 cutscene (the ones where Lavender touches the Spirit Energy) starts, mash the X button in-movement to skip the cutscene buffer. If you do this perfectly, the cutscene will never happen and you can progress the story normally.

(Shoutout to **Mugwumpey** for additional notes!) For Cave 2 in-depth guide, check out this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/grimmshollow/guide/ecl8y

#Die, Please
During the run, it's best to know which section are you into. If you're on "Finding Timmy" section & want to get more Spirit Essence for upgrading your skills, it's best to go deeper & have a low amount of health, and let more powerful ghost "kills" you in a way, so that you can spawn back directly in front of the first cave. Don't do this strats during "Second Cave" section, cause you will be spawn in your bedroom and cost you more time to going back to the cave. Also, you can't do this strats during "Third Cave" section, cause you will be spawn in the same place where you encountered the ghost & the ghost will be despawned.

#Fast Cutscene
(Shoutout to **Dori**!) During the run, you can make the cutscene a bit faster by pressing SHIFT during cutscene (/ any text conversation?). This happens due to game engine that's been used for the game.

#Flee Away (inconsistent)
During fight sequence, you can escape the encounter after doing the first attack. However, this strats were inconsistent & only works if the ghost isn't facing your way after escaping the first encounter. If you fail this strats a couple of times, it's best to just "Kill the Ghost" all the time.

#Four Elements (essential for Any% run)
During the run, your main priority is to upgrade any skills as optimal as possible. For speedrun purpose, it's best to just focus on these four skills (/ upgrade): Attack, Defence, Movement, Special Attack. In high priority order: Attack > Movement > Special Attack > Defence.

#Ghost Skips
In some particular places (second cave, in waterfall; for example), you can skip the ghost encounter easily by bypassing the ghost cycle. This can be done by passing the ghost directly on the side of the ghost, and move to any direction as quick as possible (there's a frame of time where ghost will notice you if you're in front / back of them for certain amount of frames).

#Menu In-Conversation
(Shoutout for **Dori**!; needs more research) In some particular cutscene (during Timmy's conversation after entering Grimm's house; for example), you can do menu interaction while cutscene continues. This effect might give you a different results in terms of execution. For example, if you do this strats while entering boss lane, you might get a softlock (via black screen).

#One Blocks Away
There's a frame perfect moment where you can get encountered by the ghost by only one blocks away. This can be done by going in front of the ghost the moment they starts coming towards you. This strats saves you a few milliseconds (due to fast encounter).

#Only Scythe & Pierce (optimal?)
During fight sequence, it's best to only use 2 types of attack to minimize the time frame of choosing your next move. Using your Scythe (normal attack) and Pierce (special attack) were essential, not only due to excellent attack positions (/placements; in your menu), it's also has a better damage points per upgrades.

#Parasite Cave 2 Skip
(Shoutout to **Zoleph**!) You can skip the mandatory parasite battle by forcing the character to go out of bounds. For in-depth explanation & video version of it, check out this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/grimmshollow/guide/srepn

Additional note: **Mugwumpey** provide us a good example around the use of out of bounds, so check out this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/grimmshollow/guide/jyv2v

#Perfect Normal Attack
During the first stage of fight, it's best to get a perfect (hit the middle one) normal attack. Not only the attack gives you 15 mana points (can be used for special attack), there's a higher chance of killing the enemy during that stage.

#Respawn Range
(essential for True Ending; only works in Third Cave(?)) In certain area (third cave, white lane; for example), you can respawn the ghost consistently if you're two areas away from the ghost. This strats saves you more time rather than getting out of cave and going back in for respawning the ghost.

#YOLO Health
(risky yet rewarding; essential for Any% run) During the run, there's literally no reason to upgrade your health (other than safe strats, of course..). So it's better to just focus on any other upgrade that's available (optimally: Attack & Movement). To make this strats less risky, you can tackle this by upgrading your Defence, yet focusing too much on upgrading your Defence slows your run & it's best to do this strats riskier for a better result.

On a side note, eating a food to rejuvinate your health were slow as well, so spare your health while you can!

[Normal] Any% Notes and Tips Compilation

Here is a link to an ever-growing document detailing all the optimal jargon found for the Normal Any% Run. While not containing a route yet, the information should give any runner a concrete idea of what to do. Anyone who uses this link is an editor, so feel free to toss your own insight on to the pile. Just please adhere to the document format! 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R9ClIruYmUWRLgybltKaeNXuXStH3UkLuTTmtGwAjq8/edit

Happy Running!

Consistent Setup For Avoiding the First Strongling in Cave 3

Rummaging through the runs on the leaderboard, I see that the avoidable fight with the Strongling early on in cave 3 is almost always tanked, and when it is dodged, it is not done in a terribly efficient manner. After about 20 minutes of trial and error, I found a consistent setup for avoiding the encounter. While it is a little tricky, when you have the button presses down, that 15 second fight will be shaved right off. 

Explaining it in a speedrun.com guide with no way to insert videos/images is difficult, so here is a link to a more easily-digestible video I've made:

https://youtu.be/jcHg0xV7Ick

Nonetheless, I will do my best to describe the skip through text as well. 

Upon entering the second room in cave 3, you are met with a Strongling who isn't immediately aggressive, but will chase you down once you get about two tiles away. To consistently avoid him, first get within his ~2 tile range of aggression (usually by standing on the rightmost bridge tile) and immediately run back to the top left corner of the room, and stand on the tile left of the doorway. Wait for the Strongling to arrive at the tile just right of you (he will be in front of the doorway) and then move downwards ASAP. Once you've moved two tiles down, and are perpendicular to the bridge, make a mad dash for the exit on the right. The timing is really tight, but the Strongling will always move the same way if you go to the tile left of the doorway through which you came in on. Good luck!

Consistent Spirit Psychology Sequence Skip™

Here is another guide I made to help you nail another tricky skip, the Baker cutscene in cave 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpDVjSxR0rY
Happy running.

Extremely Useful Out of Bounds Glitch discovered by Zoleph | Video Guide Edition

After securing Zoleph's blessing, I have adapted the original google doc into a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-0lKV-bhw&feature=youtu.be
Happy running!

Forced Parasite battle skip

This is a guide to skipping the so called forced Parasite battle saving around 20 - 30 seconds.
Here is the google doc
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tfh4nvNW2LFgXmJbymvMfZcLfmzKsbYTH6q2l0pDm_M

GH's Spirit Energy Mapping

For optimizing the run (especially for Any% run), i decided to make a Spirit Energy (SE) Mapping sheet for showing the number of SE that can be gathered throughout the run. By mapping the SE, runners can optimize the SE distribution during skill leveling, and also knowing the value of each encounter / scattered SE that runners can found during the run.

Hope this'll help your run! :)

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y3PMU6t676VcCgnVWOxqtmzEZ2guAyH8aiDgrsO5siw/edit?usp=sharing

How To Convert The Game To Chinese Version

This guide follows the setup for Steam release of the game. At the moment, the Chinese version of the game doesn't exist on third-party release (such as itch.io), so i'll be adding that later on.

https://hackmd.io/@manztellen/ghchineseversion

Nome	Autore
(Unordered) GH's Strats	mxnz 4 years ago
[Normal] Any% Notes and Tips Compilation	Mugwumpey 4 years ago
Consistent Setup For Avoiding the First Strongling in Cave 3	Mugwumpey 4 years ago
Consistent Spirit Psychology Sequence Skip™	Mugwumpey 4 years ago
Extremely Useful Out of Bounds Glitch discovered by Zoleph \| Video Guide Edition	Mugwumpey 4 years ago
Forced Parasite battle skip	Winterries 4 years ago
GH's Spirit Energy Mapping	mxnz 5 years ago
How To Convert The Game To Chinese Version	mxnz 4 years ago