Whoa, it's been nearly a month since I posted any progress!

Unfortunately, I don't really have much to show. Echoing what I said on the other thread, my time is rather filled as of the moment, and it will be a while before I have enough time to get back to running and routing. When I find the time, I'll see if I can write up a few needed changes to my guide and I'll go ahead and post it as a guide for completing first gen as quick as possible.

I'll also try to get that stream up sometime (for real this time), there's not much in it aside from me rambling and disorganized demonstrations, but what do you expect from a person on their first stream? (I'm not that entertaining of a guy anyhow!)

Until then!

Hey, it's been a while!

It'll be a while before I get to working on my guides again as I've currently got a lot going on in my life right now. It'll be a while before my schedule clears up, so it's likely they'll be outdated for a while longer. I may get a Marriage% run done at some point soon (really not that much to it, I'm just low on time currently.)

I'll probably do the Lara/Rosetta as separate runs just to show what they would be just in case someone manages what to find out what determines the results of the cooking glitch. Until I can recreate the effects on the original cartridge, it'll be emulator only and not really fair to those who play on original hardware.

Until then!

Hm. It seems I've found a bit of a snag: the cooking glitch seems to function differently on emulators. I've done some hours of testing and I cannot for the life of me recreate the effects that I listed far above with the cooking glitch on my physical copy of the game. In all cases, I can get the sashimi to appear as usual, and some cases the onion and the second row turnip will come through fine, but the strawberries and tomato (two items I need for my current route) refuse to do anything other than crash my game time and time again.

On the emulator, all of these go through fine. I've tried matching up as many possible variables between the two as I can, (times, people met, tiles tilled, names, etc.,) but nothing seems to change the outcomes. The only thing of note that I can say is that when I do spawn the strawberries and tomatoes, the top screen flickers on the emulator (as well as the season symbol) while it just freezes my physical copy. The only thing I can imagine is that DeSmuMe is stabilizing the ROM and stopping the freezing.

Well, until I figure this out, the Lara/Rosetta runs are pretty much gone. I'll have to go back to routing one of the other bachelorettes now. (I do suppose this explains the crashes on the other utensils as well.)

Wanted to pop on by with some other little things I've found regarding the cooking glitch.

Apparently, the other utensils have different results, but either the game day or the number of utensils affects the rate at which certain spots will crash your game (requiring power off- no reset). With the blender, you can make some sort of medicine in the usual magic spot (level 200 and worth 164,000 gold, no visible effect on use), and one of the spots lets you make a level 94 Turnip. All the other spots either don't work or crash the game. Fun!

The kitchen knife really only makes some kind of juice, either Pineapple or Apple. The frying pan only makes an eggplant in one of its spots, I forget which. Nearly all of their other spots don't function or instant-crashes the game. Curiously, having these utensils does something to the normal kitchen table, rendering most of its spots crashes as well. It would be a lot better if I actually knew what data I was modifying when we do this, but oh well.

I'll try testing if the forge does anything and I'll update my findings here. Though it wouldn't be too useful, it'd be interesting to see what weapons come out as result! (Oh, and I'm getting better at the Carmite entry as well!)

I figure the game treats you as inside a dungeon until the tutorial is completed, probably because of the orc spawn. It's a shame, it might've been really useful to skip the dialogue by just taking hits from the orc until you could manage to pass out. On that note, the only place I could glitch into during the intro was Carmite as well, (which makes sense given that it's trigger is the same as it usually is.)

(Oh, and the screenshot glitches work on the English version as well.)

Given that my route notes are nearly the same as yours at this point, I have to agree that the run really is down to just grouping the enemies up right to get just enough EXP off them to speed up the fight against Grimoire. After we figure out which combination gives us the maximum possible levels, it's just down to precise optimization at that point.

On the off hand, I've done a little work on the Marriage% route, but it's mostly straightforward. It doesn't get any more complicated than glitch in strawberries and tons of money, befriend Jean (Rosetta) or Wesley (Lara) to FP 3, sleeping to the Adventure Contest, and buying stuff from Ivan. For Lara, you just have to make sure you can get access to the third cave (and no passing out) while Rosetta is simply just being able to enter Toros Cave. Everyone else is either just dedicated grinding, and in the case of Mist, just a normal run with a bunch of turnips (and tilling) at the end. I can do a run of it sometime if you think that it'd make a good category.

Back with another quick update!

@enu has again brought the time down even further to the point where we don't even have to get the Carmite Pass anymore. (No more tilling 100 tiles, hurrah!) The strategy for pulling these off really does seem to be just pause buffering and using the screenshot command to move further through the event barriers. From my attempts at it, the Carmite Cave is nearly, if not, frame perfect while Greed Cave is a little less so.

I did discover that you can screenshot buffer your way into Carmite Cave even while Mist's tutorial is still active. I didn't test the full repercussions of doing it, but time won't move until you go back to the farm and do it. That could possibly save a fraction of time (that's what we're down to now), but it's still incredibly difficult.

I'll try to have the new guide up in the next few days. I'm still mostly working on RF2 and a run for an entirely new game.

Time for a new update!

So @enu has just completely cut the time for this game, just like they did with Frontier. Apparently, you can both skip Carmite and Toros, as well as get the invincibility glitch (as @DezertPenguin8 noted before) with the screenshot function. I guess it's time to start practicing frame perfect strats? Maybe there's just an easy way to do these? I suppose I'll get to figuring it out and update the guide with the new route.

I guess its time for me to start running RF1 again.

(On the usual side note, I'd be trying to stream, but I've been way too tired lately to get around to it. I don't drink caffeine anymore, so it's kinda difficult for me to stay awake that late. Apologies!)

After looking around some, I'd say it seems as long as it exists as a series, it can have a series board. I mean, Two Worlds has a series board and the second game only has one run. I don't think they have to be canonically related either, given Link's Crossbow Training is part of the LoZ series, (but that at least further establishes it as a series, I'd think). I infer the only problem would be just coming up with an easily searched name for the series. I think as long as they are roughly related, they'd be fine. I guess just name it after Ether One as long as players of The Occupation can easily know that the two games are connected?

As to changing series names, no idea. Since they'd have to change the URL, I'd imagine it would just take fixing a few links and some text- not really any more difficult than what they do in the series changes thread. (I've never worked in large databases, so I could be wrong.)

...I'm really just taking educated guesses here. I searched as well, and also found very little similar to this situation.

Some notes on the above, from experience (I run DS and GBA*): 3DS capture cards are currently quite expensive, ($250+, not including the cost of a 3DS,) primarily due to an upset in the amount of producers. There is one somewhere in Europe, I think, and I know most are in Japan, but the reviews for those tend to discouragingly mixed. It seems like you've just gotta get lucky if you don't want to shell out $300 and wait a month or two for shipping. (They also only install, and won't sell the card separate even if you wanted to DIY.)

I personally use a self-installed DS card from the 3dsCapture site, since the maker is in the US (less shipping and wait), and has the best reputation from what I can find regarding the makers. His DS cards, which are intended for use in an original model DS (no idea if it works in the DSi model sets), will cost you only about $60 if you have the skill to install it. (It's not easy, and you'll need some stuff to cut plastic with.) The guy who makes these is supposedly working on a new set of 3DS cards, but news about it is sparse.

Video-wise, it looks quite nice even if the program for it is old and sometimes freezes if the window is left out of focus for an extended period of time. Since it's an intercept between the screen and the computer itself, it's unaffected by any dead pixels on the screen. It records GBA games fine from experience, and the DS static noise has never really been a problem for me- just mix your audio carefully and you should never hear it. On this note, it doesn't capture audio at all. You'll have to record the output from the DS headphone jack, which isn't too hard to do. (Mine ended up being a strange setup that uses, of all things, an RCA splitter to get microphone input, since my computer doesn't have a microphone jack. Ordered the thing by accident, and I was darned if I wasn't going to make it work.)

I didn't intend for this to sound like a promotion for Loopy's cards, just came out that way. The market for 3/DS capture cards are pretty much as exposed as you could get to scammers, and I've already seen lots of fishy-looking deals when I was looking for a 3DS card a long time back. I'm a frugal person and I really dislike overspending or getting cheated, (thus the odd RCA setup.)

If you've got any more questions about the cards or their installation, feel free to ask.

Back with another set of announcements! (Just trying to keep an update going roughly every week or so.)

Routing Rune Factory 2 so much got me to thinking about doing a Marriage% run for RF1, so I've been writing up the routes for all the bachelorettes (and subsequently neglecting the Any% any version guide). They all mimic the majority of the standard run (most up to Toros Cave), while bringing back the dearly missed nearly 2 month wait for the Adventure Contest. (I mean, I suppose you could chop 2000 wood, but I haven't even got around to considering if that would be faster.)

I believe Rosetta or Lara will end up being the fastest, using the Cooking Glitch to produce all money and Strawberries needed. The only run I think that will tie between languages would be Mei, and that's just because you'll have to do a lot of fishing anyhow (I've theorized that fishing would be the fastest way to make money on the US/PAL version).

On the other side of things, I will try to get a stream in this weekend considering I missed it last Sunday. RF2 was nice to do, but unless I feel like trying to demonstrate what I have for the 2nd Gen, I'll probably just run RF1 or maybe something else. (I've got some other games I'd love to show off sometime, just got to get around to them.)

Back when I was still trying to run Sword Master, my left thumb would start giving me major exhaustion pains halfway through just from the sheer amount of movement and diagonals I'd have to use. I'm not sure if it would increase stamina or power, but I used to slowly press each finger against one another with variable pressure (particularly the thumbs). After a few reps I'd slowly ball my hands into fists a few times with the thumbs alternately on the inside and the outside. I'm not sure if it actually helped, but the placebo effect might. To be fair, I couldn't run Sword Master more than once a day because my hands would be so exhausted.

As for hypertapping, I usually use my index finger and rapidly shake my whole arm while angling the controller away from me. I don't usually have to do any high-speed mashing in my runs, so my method might be slower. I may try it with the middle finger sometime to see if it works any better for me.

That's all I've got, though. I'm sure someone here has a secret method for improving mashing.

If you're into puzzle games, especially from the NES era, try checking out Mendel Palace. It's a fun but difficult mix of action and puzzles, all based around flipping tiles. The run for it is around 23 minutes, but its focused around a whole lot of memorization. It's actually made by Game Freak, y'know, before they did Pokemon. The run stays at high intensity the whole time, so I'd say it counts as serious, but it is rather obscure so don't expect to immediately pull in tons of people with it.

I recommend it often just because I like to see people run the game. I tried running it in the past considering its place as one of my childhood favorites, but intensity + the NES controller wasn't a good match for me as a runner.

Back with an actually short update! Since the RF2 stream last Sunday, I've had my hands a bit full with other stuff, so I haven't got around to even thinking about RF1 or RF2. I'm still around, just held back some. The guide for Any Version still needs some revisions in regards to recent finds and I'll be getting to that. My focus is still on RF2 for now, but I'll keep on trying to make improvements on this route, (I've been thinking about trying to apply RNG manipulation).

Aside from that, just wanted to give another thanks to @DezertPenguin8 for hosting me during that stream! It was a great surprise and really made the stream for me. I'm not the most vocally excited person around (can't even yell that loud,) so I just wanted to make sure you know I did appreciate that. I hope I was entertaining enough for your viewers!

I'm still here! I haven't released an update here in a while, but I've been busy with both RF1 and other life things. If anyone has been interested in running this game, I did do a casual speedrun stream of it recently, intending to cover just the first generation. It was past midnight, (the only I time I can stream,) so I rambled quite a bit and made some mistakes in executing my routing...but at least I showed off some of it.

The route's still stuck in 2nd gen, mostly with me realizing that I will have to build the workshop, but I've started to work up some reliable tactics. There's just a whole lot to juggle in a short time compared to the earlier part of the routing.

I will put up the stream on my Youtube and I may do it again sometime soon, so if you're interested in any part of it, drop on by sometime!

I'm back again to note that I've added a new guide, one specifically for the JP version! I moved the Cooking Glitch guide there as it would make more sense than sitting it next to a run based on the US version. It should explain most questions about the run and highlights every part of the route I used for the WR.

On that note, I recently got my physical cartridge JP copy of the game, so I can now run that on original hardware again. As to the run, I've given it a few more shots, but the best one (would have been about a tie to my current run) was ended pretty short by abysmal luck in Toros Cave. Out of every single rock in the dungeon, I only got two Iron. RNG has become a major factor aside from boss behavior, it seems. I've discovered that if you can get a total of 7 iron, make the Tinplate Watering Can and use that against the shifts, it does about 50-60 damage on a level two charge. I don't know if it would save any time given that you'll need to wait at least another ~3 minutes, but it's something.

But, yeah, until we find a way to nullify the need of either Carmite Cave or the Wolf, the run's still probably upper 40's with best possible RNG and perfect execution. If we could only somehow glitch in key items...

On to other news! I'd like to hand out an overdue welcome to @enu, who's been burning through Frontier's times and did a recent run for RF1! I'm watching to see how far you push this game, fellow runner!

Following that, @DezertPenguin8, I'd like to know when you plan on streaming the RF series again. I just barely missed you last time, and I'd have loved to see it live. (I woke up early just a few minutes after you'd started. If I had checked my computer before going back to sleep, I would've seen ya!)

Also following that, I'll be preparing to see if I can do a test run of RF2 live (just the 1st Gen) either Sunday or Monday. Just gotta sort out some issues I'm having getting the stream to function. I'll probably put a post in the thread I made there if I get it working.

Another short update covering some new things I've found:

With the need to reach 0:00 on the clock, it has become much harder to lose time on tilling the 100 squares for the pass. In most of my runs, I'm done with tilling and collecting items for selling by only 11:00. I spend the extra time laying out branches to chop later.

Sleeping in the bed at least once is required to have the De Sainte Coquille family appear. This is necessary for the axe, but not for the glove (Tabatha is waiting around there anyways.)

I believe that buying the Steel Sword/Windsword from Leo on the same visit you get the upgraded Axe will make faster work of Grimoire than the Battle Axe, suggesting you have enough levels. Getting enough level-ups is where my current run didn't do so well.

Regarding My Guides: I'm currently rewriting my guide into two different ones, one that functions on any version (the old route), and the JP version only route (current competitive route). I'll have them up in not too long, given that I'll just be splitting up the old guide and writing a few new parts. I'll also include the raw text notes I used for my recent run, (it can still reach sub-50 with a tad more optimization and less goofs).

I'll probably be heading off to working on RF2 for the next while or so. I burnt myself out pretty hard trying to get the world record, but I'll still be checking in here to update my guides and discuss new routes.

Usually, if the category doesn't exist, then you should contact the moderators for the game and request them to add it. If you send them a nicely worded message about why it should be added, then they probably will.

For future reference, the Speedrunning section is for general conversation and questions about speedrunning. At least, this post should be in the forums for Enter the Gungeon: https://www.speedrun.com/Enter_the_Gungeon/forum

LiveSplit works normally by the use of hotkeys to make the program start, stop, reset, and more. The "Global Hotkeys" function can be helpful if you ever decide to go down this path.

If you want it to work automatically, you'll need an Autosplitter. It's basically a script custom tailored for the game that knows when to move the splits along. Information can be found about them here: https://github.com/LiveSplit/LiveSplit/blob/master/Documentation/Auto-Splitters.md

If you're running popular games, check around first as someone likely might have made one for it. It can save you a whole lot of trouble.

Speedrunning's always done this for me in short intervals, even when I was doing it casually and still being an anonymous lurker on the site. I find myself most exhausted when I botch more than a few runs in a row, but I suppose most of that is because the games I run have longish periods of low intensity tasks. One of them that I'm currently routing mostly equivocates to the starting 2-3 hours being nothing but a general routine with some breaks in between.

I was recently burned out pretty hard on my main game thanks to the hour long runs with long periods of monotony and high risk intensity sections, but another runner brought a new glitch to light that makes a big change to the run and I was immediately hooked right back into it. I suppose the burnout is just natural, since nobody likes listening to the same music forever or making the same thing forever. Breaks really do help in this respect. If you want to get back into it right now, I'd suggest looking for some games you've heard of in the past and you thought were neat, but you never had a chance to try them. Pick one of those up, play it through if it's fun, and see if you'd like to run those.

In general, Timmiluvs hit the nail on the head. Speedrunning should be fun, if it's not, take a break from the idea for a while.

As a last note: I may be an odd case here, but I find just routing games and writing up guides to help others run games to be one of the most enjoyable parts. When I get tired of running my main game, I just go back to routing on the other one or I just play some of the other games I keep around that I'd never consider speedrunning. (I aspired to be a teacher, so maybe this is just part of that.) Speedrunning also gives me another reason to play games that I love, but have little reason to go back to.

Back with another update!

I've made a run with the new route notes, and given how it got 2nd place with all of my mistakes, it just shows how much faster this new route is. I'll be trying to run it some more and push that time lower on the emulator while I wait on getting my JP copy of the game (got lucky and found one in the states at a bargain).

I'll be working on doing a rewrite of the guide specifically for the JP version as having the Battle Axe and War Hammer makes the gameplay so much more different. On this note, I found that bothering to get the hammer from Leo is unnecessary and my belief that you had to be at mining level 2 to obtain Iron was founded only on bad luck in testing on my part. Also, the medicine bottles are unnecessary, but they really can help when it comes to fighting the Greater Daemon.

When you buy the War Hammer, use it to smash rocks in Toros Cave only. Unless it was bad luck again, I could not for the life of me obtain a piece of Iron from the Carmite Caves. Use the Battle Axe to make short work of everything and chop branches along the way (every 10 means one less stump to chop later). Also, the Battle Axe charge seems to do well against shifts, but I still haven't tested a run with the watering can.

Also, I finally made that video for the Cooking Glitch! I narrated it (with captions in case my accent/drawl is too thick) and it covers the secondary method I mentioned that makes 8 glitch sashimi at a time. It's on my YT and I put a link to it in the Any% Guide for easy reference. I think I've covered everything there seems to be worth noting about it here and in the video, but if there's any more questions about it, I can probably answer. (I didn't note it well in the video, but the item in the first slot of the inventory only helps for visualization.)

(Final, off topic note. I may try streaming at some point soon, though it'll need to be late midnight, UTC-4 timezone where I'm at. I may do some of the stuff regarding RF1 or I might show off some of the routing I've been working on for RF2, it just depends on what people want to see.)