This is very consistent if you spin first, then mash jump. If you jump before your spin, you wont get the height. This allows for a new skip in the water bonus level, periculo, and faster tower climb!

Yep just left click will place the box down

I think skipless / non-skipless should not be the sub categories especially ill-defined as they are. I propose just three categories with no sub categories:

Any% - Beat the game as fast as possible. No restrictions. Can prep a file with death glitch All levels - Beat both levels and enter the credits 100% - Beat both levels collecting all collectables and enter the credits

Note the above is no longer up-to-date and is more of a museum piece than anything else. Check out Museus' work in the Guides section instead

So you nailed most of the differences. Calls are unlocked run 6, Hammers are unlocked run 4, story rooms require first seeing each of their respective biome bosses (and thus are not available first run). Chaos and Hermes are also not available and you cannot see wells of charon except at the midbiome rooms. As you mentioned, there are only 4 gods available (athena, artemis, ares and dionysus)

The numeric values of the enemies are identical, you are just much weaker without any upgrades.

The dominant strategy is to take try and force Merciful End. Generally you start athena dash and pray for ares and athena as soon as possible. You need Ares attack + Athena Special and then you are eligible for the duo boon. Next priority is impending doom from ares and defensive boons / the legendary from Athena. Artemis cast will enable Deadly Reversal for the ultimate high roll, but if you don't have Merciful End yet, this may not be desirable as it can reduce your ME chances.

Note that even top runners struggle to clear the game and the number of non-ME first run clears within our community can probably be counted on one hand (and ME clears on two). In other words, this run is very hard and ME is one of the few ways to really get enough damage. You can grind it out on a worse build, but it will be exponentially harder and longer.

Aside from that, just work on your sword mechanics. Watch Vorime's run for some great examples of high skill swordplay, but remember you can play safer than him as he is speedrunning. He has gone over some sword mechanic tips on a few of his streams, so definitely stop by there for advice etc.

Lastly, feel free to join our discord in the sidebar. We have a fresh file channel that is super supportive and helpful, and even if you view this more of a challenge run than a speedrun, we will root for you all the same :D

Nice write up, but: "Broke-ass runners throw the frog at the pipe - avoid this at all costs." I feel attacked

Current rough notes for alternate elysium route. Starts at well in first combat room in elysium and is routed through Styx https://pastebin.com/KVzrtqGX

This doc will hopefully evolve over time and stay up to date: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sCiEI0iOIByhKGSWTe-D-lLH6KBuQls8LnOtevMwDI4/edit?usp=sharing

Huge thanks to Vorime for theorycrafting a lot of the current run and suggesting we make this resource