You'd need 89 permute 2 or 7832 times for all of sand kingdom, or 15664 times for both average and optimal. I think you could manually prune a lot of these, though you won't be guaranteed correctness. You don't have to search through 89! though, closer to 2^89 using TSP algorithms (still a huge number...).

Another problem you might have to deal with is connecting paths not being independent. Think about how the bird flies around sand kingdom. The time it takes to travel to the bird changes based on your path so far. You also have to consider coin collecting, which can alter the time between moons later on (e.g. you collect coins between moon 1-2, and skip it between 4-5, which reduces the time between 4-5).

Even assuming complete independence, timing almost 8000 moon routes sounds incredibly tedious.

You can see the rules if you go to the category leaderboard and click "View Rules":

Collect every Mission Moon from every kingdom Collect 999 Moons total Buy every souvenir Buy every costume Buy every hat Capture all 52 enemies Fill out the entire music list (82 songs)

After fulfilling all requirements, go to the Mushroom Kingdom and activate the secret ending at the top of the castle.

Timing begins when selecting "Start" on a new file and ends when you activate the secret ending cutscene at the top of Peach's Castle.

The exclusive First Moon Skip on version 1.0.0 is banned.

Video proof is required for runs that have a time of 17:00:00 or better.

Use of Amiibo, 2P, and Assist Mode is banned.

Which Zuma? I see a bunch when I google Zuma Online

Shits on the runners, asks for leaderboards to be reformatted. Obvious troll

I didn't say that the timing method I used is what the game used. I'm saying I have found a timing that ended up being exactly equal to what the in game timer shows. It's good evidence that's how the game is timing. I was trying to provide some "data" as you put it:

"Changing over to IGT with no data on whether or not it was viable was also dumb"

On the other hand, you're using the argument that you have a hunch the IGT "likely" works off system cycles which makes it inaccurate. Do you have more evidence? I'm not on either side of this argument. I'm not an enemy here, just trying to provide some data.

I do think it's funny the IGT shows 4 hours for a run that was 1:25 IGT. THAT would be a good reason why IGT is not accurate. Not some hunch on how you THINK it works. It could also be the way you started the adventure mode, who knows. We need "data" as you put it.

Hey, I'm new to this game but I just did some timing that may help with the IGT vs RTA discussion.

I looked at both of these runs, pulled each stage completion time and put them together in a spreadsheet. I believe the game starts the level time when the balls come out of the chute and ends when the last ball is cleared (clearly). If you take any level and time it manually, you get should get the given level time. I'm not sure how the game rounds, it could be the standard convention (X.5 or greater rounds up, else round down), or it always takes the ceiling (a 30.1 rounds to 31). I timed the bosses in a similar manner, but the level ends when the boss takes the last hit (or the last flame goes out in Zhaka Mu 1).

Using this timing method, I found that the first run you gave exactly matches the given IGT. The second run is off by 13 seconds. However, in your second run, you use a new file which gives you a cut scene that lasts about 13 seconds, so the difference may be because of the new file start.

Here's a google doc link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NCU71II50j9xXzSZhX12F1n8BrNHrkAQ2kgL9BYgDqs/edit?usp=sharing

Hope this helps.