I like doing ILs but after finding the exploit...it would be dumb not to do it sadly lol. I hate a lot of unskipable dialogue in games at points and not being able to do shit in a game at points but I think that comes down to the games I normally run tho.

I need Luffy and Ace but all I need for them is to get all S ranks on the islands and that shit is a choreeeee

I managed to confirm a theory of mine yesterday - there is a tiny window between a boss powering up into phase 3 and activating their hero ability. One in which they can be hit. I confirmed it on smoker (using smoker) in Loguetown (I think I managed it on Don Krieg, too). I think it only saves a couple of seconds, but it could be worth it. If I’m fast enough, I might be able to snag Kuro with a Sky Walk or an SST, assuming it’ll take him in one.

I’m going to try and record an “experimental” run sometime this week. I’ve been messing with Fujitora and Smoker to see if they actually produce faster results on some levels, and this seems like a good way to find out. I’m also in need of a backup plan if I can’t get the SUPER skip on post-Enies lobby consistently with Sanji. Fujitora is my safety net there, although he sacrifices a little time to the 3-phase Franky and Garp fights. Nothing quite compares to Sanji’s SSST.

I wish you luck on the runs! The phase is really hard to hit honestly and I am only done it like twice by accident lol. I suggest practicing with Sanji on the level cause I can do the skip decently with him

Thanks ^_^ I managed to get the skip with Sanji consistently now, although it takes a couple of lv1 supers to clear enemies out on time, and to delay the start of Frank's advance.

How did I not notice that destroying the cloud barriers with Wyper makes the strawhats’ retreat about a minute faster??? Also, I gave Took off Sanji’s battlefield charisma in favour of The power to percieve one’s true form. I think I’ve taken Sanji off all stages that would require him to enter Kizuna rush. This should also make Enel and Kizaru a little faster.

Edit: Oh boy, Fujitora's SSST draws in pacifistas in Sabaody Archipelago. I managed to get them into the zone before Law had even stopped talking!

Edit(2): Hold that thought, I’m going to see if I can get this to work consistently first. Sabaody was/is one of the places where you can lose minutes, and in some cases, a run to bad pacifista AI. If there’s a way to eliminate that randomness, I’ll take it.

Finally. Now that the sub 3:50:00 is there, I'm going to start maxing out some more characters to see if there's any hidden gems. TS Frank currently has my attention, since his R1 seems rather powerful and reaches quite a distance.

Also, after the run, I decided to take Ivankov into Impel down,, and lo and behold, not having to wait for them at the start chops off about 50 seconds or so.

I saw the time, great job on the run :) I think leveling up the other characters are going to be key for a lot of the levels from what I have noticed and yes...Iva saves time in Impel the one time I used him there for the hell of it. I think it was for a mission? I cannot remember but I think it was one of the logs

Thanks :) I thought I was going to take a break from NG+ to try and submit a NG run, but it looks like there's still a ways to go before i'm satisfied.

Yeah, Ivankov is needed for one of the legend mode missions. You need to use them to save crocodile.

Some run notes:

A couple of things I noticed just before/during the run is that the massive explosion from Fujitora's R1 stops time for a moment, or, at the very least, stops moving allies. I think it grabbed my attention in the Return to Sabaody where in either this run or the last, I was about a minute off mark, which is strange, since it's a largely scripted stage. I'm looking at replacements for that level. It all comes down to Sentomaru. Fujitora still seems to be the fastest option for Water 7, which I wouldn't have a problem with if trying to fight Blueno with him wasn't hellish.

No matter how fast I make it, I still hate Arlong Park. Or rather, I hate using Usopp on Arlong Park. If he wasn't 30 seconds faster hitting the switch at the start, i'd be happy to use literally anyone else XD Other than that, I think I have all of chapter 1 pretty consistent.

Drum Island is an important stage. I managed to skip the lapahn opening the shortcut, which requires capturing two territories and taking down Wapol VERY quickly, and I skipped the long conversation with Wapol at the end of the stage. This is done by getting him to his final HP barrier before the second cutscene, so he starts to power up right as you skip it.

Skypiea was great. Destroying the extra two cloud barriers paid off, and I managed to take out Enel's final HP bar before he activated his hero power. There might be more time to save if there's a way to stop the strawhat retreat messages being staggered behind Enel's retreat/reappearance messages.

I'm still always worried about hitting the SUPER skip, no matter how many times it works. I tried to make it a little easier by standing facing the north exit of the base when I launched the Kizuna finisher in the hopes it would hit some of the enemies outside it. I don't think it did anything, but it made me feel better at least XD One day i'm going to lose a great run to missing the skip and it will crush me.

I managed to skip collecting Robin during Thriller Bark by shooting the Zombie captain from far away enough, and entering the base with Moria from the east entrance. The final Moria fight was always a problem, since a lv1 super doesn't take out the final segment and Moria likes to punish you at any distance. I used Ace's R1 to put him in oneshot range, then finished him with a lv1.

Marineford 1 is always bad. Although Jimbei powered straight past the zombie captains, so there's that :)

So apparently Oars’ arms have hitboxes regardless of what’s happening. I was able to damage him in his normal standing position by aiming Franky’s R1 at his arms. No more waiting for him to bring his fist down :)

Edit: I just re-read the NG+ Rules, and it says the timer stops once You defeat Doflamingo. I’ve been hitting time on the Dressrosa results screen. Should I time runs on the cut to black from now on? It cuts the run time by about 5-7 seconds, so it’s nothing big in the grand scheme of things, and most games hit time on final boss hit anyway.

When I first created that rule I imagined people would want to hit the split as soon as the lanky fella died so they could get it off their minds!

Truly though just hit it and time the split whenever you're comfortable and we'll adjust accordingly!

Marine 1 is such a shit level and there aRE a lot of skips you can do for text which makes the run more annoying cause I am a perfectionist to the max

I think you hit the nail on the head. I’ve felt the urge to time as Doffy goes down, and the cut to black is a very clear and satisfying visual aid. I’ll give it a shot in my next run. Thanks :)

Once you resign yourself to the fact that Jozu is going to be your biggest time loss, it makes it easier to carry on. Even then, liberal use of Whitebeard’s assist attack after a TTT goes a long way :) If there are any text skips I’m missing, I’d be grateful to hear them.

Marineford 1 has been bugging me to no end, so I’ve been workshopping ways around the escorts. I’ve managed to get a relatively clean jozu 1 and 3 using well timed lv2 supers, albeit inconsistently.

Jimbei, on the other hand... by activating his hero power as soon as it becomes available (accomplished through taking out the base captains and enemies at the top of the map) staggers Moria’s appearance and allows Jimbei to waltz right past that section.

Usopp has further solidified his position as fastest Arlong Park character due to the fact that you can destroy Nami’s switch after she opens the gate, skipping the cutaway animation of her destroying it, and her celebratory dialogue after she does so.

Edit: Okay, the Jimbei escort is solved. In addition to the Moria strat, defeating doflamingo once he shows up turns all of the pirate captains into allies, clearing the path entirely. I think this pushes the split to sub 14:00. I’m not sure Jozu will be entirely consistent, but it sure removes a lot of the AI related time loss.