Didn't realize the category actually existed yet, I thought we were just in a limbo here.

This really is a tough category to nail down right now. Without the ability to see and input seeds, we can't verify if anyone has hit all the hidden paths that exist in a run for encounters, so you can't reasonably make it a rule to hit all those. So then how much of those paths do you cut out of the requirements, because the ones that are hidden behind entirely solid walls obviously don't count here, but then there's some Follow The Winds that are a touch off the main path but aren't hidden at all, it's just a matter of if they spawn in that run or not (there's a specific one or two in the 2nd biome I can think of immediately that are just on a very tiny couple-dash-length path off the chunk).

If we're going even slightly in the spirit of what ateatree, Oz, and I initially crafted, you would absolutely be taking all challenge doors, breaking all tanks, and purposefully picking the fight > healing ship as that is an encounter. Skipping the encounter choice at a fork feels like purposefully ignoring the point of taking all encounters, or at least that is what we had discussed when crafting what we have done for several marathons now, time-save be damned. But that's if anyone else wanted to do what we do (which at this point is effectively the only way I play the game at this point).

So if I'm really thinking on how we've discussed things as a trio to nail our rules down and what would need to be adjusted to fit the boards at current, I think it just gets adjusted to All Visible Encounters or something of that sort, even if the name doesn't exactly encompass the full rule-scope. Spitballed rules:

• You must kill every enemy on the main path of the run
• You must fight all optional Challenges (Eperin upgrade)
• You must fight optional elite enemy arenas (the ones that spawn directly next to the main path nowadays)
• You must fight all optional combat gates
• -At any forked path that offers a combat gate or a healing ship option, you must take the combat gate. If all options are combat gates, pick whichever gate you prefer
• You must break all tanks in the 4th biome as they potentially spawn enemies
• Optional path Follow the Winds are not required
• Custom memory decks are allowed
• All biome choices are allowed
• Probably have to have a rule that requires the Variant Bait upgrade to even the playing field, else the optimal choice is to specifically not buy it

I think that's about the only way to translate it over in a way that works and I'm all for it personally

Oz, ateatree, and I defined 'All Encounters' as

• Fighting every enemy in a given biome
• Taking as many optional gates for fights/rewards as possible (if there's a junction with 1 gate and one free path forward, you take the gate, if there's 2+ you just take whichever gate you prefer)

This ends up requiring us to look for as many hidden paths as possible, as there could be enemies hiding behind wind funnels or in little nooks, but realistically speaking, there's no true way to track this on anything unseeded. Some of the hidden paths I've found don't seem to have literally any indication that they're spawned in, especially one I found tonight that had me dashing through the corner of a completely solid wall to find a chest.

If something akin to this came into being as a new category, it'd likely have to be reworked to not require seeking out side paths as encounters but does require gates, if y'all wanted to stick to the core idea of what we were going for.

We just really wanted to run the game in a way that shows off what the devs are cooking, even in early access, vs the current categories blasting past anything that doesn't force them to stop. Plus doing the run with a full squad allows for even more synergy and cooperation that lets builds go a bit crazier than they would in single player.

Especially curious to see what comes out of the update from Sudden Death to Revenge, because the December update is gonna be super interesting for us to adapt to. We really hope it comes out before we're a week or two out from AGDQ

Edit: Blessed be the beta branch opening up today, Revenge already feels so much better and matches the idea of the cinematic reveal. Gonna experiment a ton with all the new stuff that's been added, hoping it all makes the run next month that much better.