**dont use this shit i wrote this forever ago**

Hi. Maybe you wanna speedrun LISA but don't know too much about it? I'll try to give you some nice tips about how to setup a route, and some stuff you should definitely do during it, along with some strats.

So, basically, let's start with your party. This will be vital, and if you're me, you'll go through 2 versions of it, or if you're Droanux, you'll probably just pick up Birdie eventually. First, do NOT go for any party members at islands or if they take longer than 5 minutes to get. We can narrow down some companions that are required to obtain for completion of the game: Terry, Fardy, Percy, and Buffalo. You'll probably kill Terry the second time he can die (or just any character in 2nd slot, because getting your arm cut off is devastating and requires losing all items later on). Fardy should be used for russian roulette, along with Percy if needed, and Buffalo is obtained in Area 3, which is way later. Not very efficient, and nor is it very safe. I recommend starting with Olan, Rage, and Terry, and skipping Nern because even with instant text, he can take a while.

So, with that out of the way, let me list some of the best companions in my opinion for speedruns: Birdie because he makes boss fights so much easier, Rage and Olan because they're the only two companions you can snag really early, so just take them, and other than that there is a handful of other ones of some use. Terry can actually be useful, but it's recommended you kill him off by the second time he can be killed in order to save your arm, which has a chance of being cut off once again later. Other than that, my personal recommendations are Bo, because he doesn't take too long, is VERY useful for status effects, and is a great support. If efficiency is your main goal, I don't recommend Bo, nor RT then. Stick with Droanux's party, which would be Olan, Rage, and Birdie. I picked my party because I legitimately suck at playing this game, but it's fun to speedrun regardless.

So, some major things you can do throughout the game. In my opinion, stopping by the area Rando's army is in at Area 1 can be useful for firebombs against the hair boss, but using Rage's geyser thing (forgot what it was called, it's geyser something) is a really good fire attack. Brad also has some decent fire attacks, but they don't do any serious damage until Fire Ball 4. RT's fire is INSANE imo, because his Bag of Inferno + drunk = 8,000 damage if you're lucky. He also makes Marty spiders a cakewalk, because it's not as hard to fight them then. Also, make sure to use the TNT or any firebombs or diesel firebombs you have left on the Tsunami gang in Area 3, and other than that, there's nothing that sticks out that I can mention. Droanux is probably tons more knowledgeable about how to setup a good route, although these are some of the stuff he's told me and some of my knowledge.

Now, strats. There's not a lot, but there are some notable ones. First, probably the only and most vital one you will use, is the bicycle rope glitch. Basically, in most RPG Maker games, whenever you're on a mount (or something? I don't know what the item type is specifically called) and get off of something you climb on (in this case, a rope) at about around the same frame you get off, you will have the same movement as the bike, only faster, but without the ability to travel past gaps and you take the same fall damage as if you were walking. It's good, and you will rarely have to get back on the bike to jump over a gap. There's probably three instances where you need to, but other than that you will rely on it if you want good movement. That or there's the dirt bike strat in area 3 I figured out today. Insanely fast, although very hard to maneuver because of the extreme speed.

Other than that, there's the football player/barrel bro/marty spider dodging strat, which is literally just timing. It's not like it's a technique, it's really just dodging. In the bathhouse in area 3, you can actually dodge some of these spiders, of if you're timing is good enough, you can probably jump through the floor quick enough to avoid the spider that would hit you when you come out (haven't tested for myself, so I'm not 100% sure). Other than that, you can run towards a spider and wait for them to go past the original door you were at, jump after they go past it, and go towards the door. You basically skip fighting a 2,000 HP spider that does next to nothing, and is a nuisance.

There's really a lot more, but this is also a lot of it. I'm too tired and need to sleep to write the rest, and I may be missing some stuff, but I'll try to write a bit more tomorrow.

My PC is currently dead but I want to get back into it. Don't know if I'll learn any% but I definitely want to improve any% Pain Mode. I think the route can still be improved a lot and my pb isn't good at all. Good initiative Forzero, I hope there will be more players soon :)

Strats/Route setup guide

scrunky

Jeepitou

LISA: The Painful

sametonbo

Pain Mode (Original)

Normal (Original)

No Buckets

Any%

Any% Glitchless

Any% Glitchless Pain Mode

All Characters

Normal (Definitive)

Pain Mode (Definitive)

Original

Definitive (Normal)

Painless Mode

Definitive (Painless)

Version / Difficulty

Which category for the Speedrun Mod?

The original RPG Maker version or Definitive Edition?

Version

PlayStation 4

Xbox One

Macintosh

Linux

Switch

PlayStation 5

Xbox Series X

Xbox Series S

LISA

Brad's Nightmare

Painful%?

New Marty fight?

Pausing when you're not supposed to

New link for the speedrun mod

New category, 100%

lanbobyonson

Droanux

TehDogge

LucidJackal

MrGofer

AA_WH

hatokani