I found a new OOB route from Lost Mountaintop to Forgotten Ruins which saves about 15-16 seconds compared to the old route with Rezoons' recent strategy when both are executed well (Up Down Junction dialogue pops up at 0:51-0:52 with the new strat, and I used to get 1:07-1:08 with the old strat).

The new strat doesn't get the health pickup in Forgotten Ruins. You could still get it, but I don't think the extra damage boosting makes up for the time loss (except for in all collectibles of course).

The following is a video of me doing a 1:32 pickup of the gun with the new OOB. At least 3 seconds can be saved (mostly in Forgotten Ruins). The new part is from 0:20 to 0:45 in-game time. I also added a small optimization in Jumping Over where when I make the 1:01 shot I don't land on the platform to the right before making an extra small jump, but instead just shoots to the left and makes sure to land before the shot hits.

Binding shooting to the scroll wheel would make the final fight faster. I think that's the only thing it will affect, but who knows. I don't think we have any rule against it and as long as it's just a simple rebind (no fancy repeaters or delay timers) it seems like it should be allowed, however no one seems to be doing it. The only real points against it I can see are 1) it can't be done directly from the in-game menus. 2) button mashing boss is a part of the game and we shouldn't try to change that.

I therefore wanted to bring it up and see if there is consensus on whether this should be allowed or not. In any case we should have a clear rule one way or the other. Personally I'm for it as I don't think a direct rebind counts as an external tool just like changing monitor brightness or using a split timer is fine even if they offer something that is not directly available from the in-game menus. However I will be happy to go along with the majority opinion or with any pre-existing rule I'm unaware of.

The following is a video of what the boss fight looked like for me after a few tries:

There seems to be a hard limit of a shot per frame or something like that. And at that shooting speed movement doesn't work properly.

In the first space sequence where we try to kill ourselves we have 10HP and take 3dmg for every ship we hit, so we usually have to hit 4 ships. I've noticed that when I miss the 3rd ship I still sometime die from the 4th ship and I had no idea why. It turns out that I take 2dmg from a near miss with the 3rd ship. See the following video:

It seems that when we're close to spaceships we take 1-3dmg the first frame, so often when they die they actually die over the course of 1-2 frames but we don't notice this as there is no animation for partial damage and 2 frames is not very long.

I don't know the specifics of how this works, or whether it really matters but since we're trying to understand the game I wanted to share.

I've been playing around a bit with damage boosting for an all collectibles run. Grigori's Tower + The Guard is the only place where I've had success getting any significant time saves using damage boosts. The following is a comparison video of various strategies I've been playing around with.

I really like the first example, but it uses all our health and is a little hard.

In Grigori's Tower I differentiate between 3 approaches: Approach 1: Do double damage boost like I do in example 1. Approach 2: Yolo, try to shoot a teleport shot under the ghost first and then force the ghost down after hitting the second ledge. This is the fastest strat in any% IGT, but requires quite precise timing at first and is easy to mess up. Doesn't require any extra hp though. This is shown in example 2 and 3 in my video. Approach 3: Cautious. Wait for the ghost to pass first and then go up by teleport shooting the ledges. I do this in example 4.

In The Guard I differentiate between 2 approaches: Approach A: Do damage boost off the brute. I do this in example 1 and 2. Approach B: Kill the brute like in any% IGT except we shoot 2 shots every jump since we have upgraded Gauss gun. I do this in example 3 and 4.

Using this numbering the examples in my video are: Example 1 (11.94): Approach 1A Example 2 (12.98): Approach 2A Example 3 (14.90): Approach 2B Example 4 (15.90): Approach 3B

My timing shows the following: Approach 1 saves 1 second compared to approach 2. Approach 2 saves 1 second compared to approach 3. Approach A saves 2 seconds compared to approach B.

In terms of HP requirements: Approach 1 requires 2 extra HP. Approach 2/3 requires no extra HP. Approach A requires 1 extra HP. Approach B requires no extra HP.

So if you go for approach 1A you need the full 4HP.

I generally think approach 1 is easier than approach 2 (with some practice of course) so I would always choose approach 1 or 3 for Grigori's Tower.

This also has applications to any% IGT. If in Jumping Over you do the jump over the map, then you can pick up an Alien Artifact in Outpost Cache with under 1s time loss. This will allow you do do Approach B in The Guard though which saves 2s overall compared to upgraded Gauss gun, but we only have normal Gauss gun so it saves even more time. This triggers an additional dialogue box when picking up the Alien Artifact, but for IGT runs that is irrelevant.

I just thought I'd share my findings and open up for any discussions of damage boosting as it seems very unexplored at present.

EDIT: I completely forgot to include some stuff on how to actually do these damage boosts. Given how underused they are I imagine many people don't actually know how they work.

Orientation: Once you take damage you are paralyzed for some time and you usually face towards the monster you hit which is the wrong way. If you turn around after shooting the teleport shot, but before hitting the monster, then you will face the correct way when getting boosted into the air.

Height: A normal damage boost does not boost you very high at all, but it counts as a teleport so if you stand on a platform when the teleport hits then the game treats you as standing on a platform for the first 7 frames (at 60FPS) after hitting the teleport shot. This means that if you press jump shortly AFTER you take damage you will get boosted much higher into the air, and if you face the right way you will be able to shoot a teleport shot near the highest point even if you can't control yourself yet.

So for the ghost dmg boost where you are to the left of the ghost (just reverse everything if you're on the right) you do the following:

1. Shoot teleport shot to the right towards the ghost.
2. Hold the left direction key, and make sure to be on a platform by the time the shot hits.
3. Once the shot hits after 3-7 frames press jump
4. When you're high in the air press teleport shot.

For the brute dmg boost you do the following:

1. Shoot the teleport shot above the brute so that you touch it, but the damage boost will take you out of range of the brute. This just means as high as possible in The Guard, but even if you don't attain maximum height it will probably work out.
2. Land on the little platform and wait a little, ideally stand by the right side of the platform.
3. As the teleport shot is about to hit hold the left direction key. If you are facing the wrong way in the air you were too slow. If you fall off the platform before being teleported you were too quick.
4. Once the shot hits after 3-7 frames press jump
5. When you're high in the air press teleport shot.

There is a small variation on this mechanic which I think is useless but I might as well share. If you shoot a ghost, and as soon as you teleport into it you shoot another teleport shot you will get teleported into it again, but because of the upwards speed from your first damage boost you will get a high damage boost as if you had jumped. This could be useful if for some reason you didn't have time to land on a platform. I think it's impossible to turn around with this variation though which makes it useless as far as I can see.

EDIT: I just noticed that the 17.98 standard strat time was mistimed, ignore that particular time, but the point still stands. It should be 18.78.

Since we're now moving on to using real-time for some categories and it seems that is here to stay for at least any% there is a dialogue box in Alien Outpost that we can skip by going OOB in Jumping Over and never actually entering Alien Outpost. This saves 2 seconds when done correctly. The following is a summary of my times with these strats compared to standard strats (timed with external timer):

Standard strats: 18.60 19.25 18.78 (updated from 17.98 earlier which was incorrectly timed)

OOB strats: 16.71 16.23 17.52

OOB strats failing and doing backup strats: 20.28 17.30 20.79

All are timed from I enter Jumping Over until I stand on the rightmost destructible platform in Junkyard Exit. The following is my comparison video where I get these times:

The strats are pretty self-explanatory I think even if they take some practice to get good at.

The OOB strats are nothing new; I first saw the OOB strat used in timbouton's pacifist run, but I've never seen anyone else do the jump from Outpost Cache to Junkyard Exit (which is required for the strat to make sense). To get the fast version of the OOB strats can be a little hard, but with a 3 minute any% category I think it makes sense to consider them. The hardest thing is the jump from Outpost Cache to Junkyard Exit, when you exit the platform you have to jump 2-4 frames after you've left the platform to get the required height (similar to green beam jump, but easier to time and with only 1 try).

The only reason this strat makes sense is because we skip the dialogue box in Alien Outpost. With IGT runs OOB strats and standard strats are almost identical in time (well executed OOB strats might still be slightly faster, but only slightly and considerably harder).

The following is based on the OTS steam speedrunning community post

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OTSRuns/discussions/0/535152511359381492/

by rezoons.

If you spend a lot of time in the starting area the game will break. Rezoons says it usually happens when music loops so maybe it has something to do with that (I had music turned off so can't confirm that).

You can see that the game breaks because the smoke from you spaceship disappears and your FPS will drop by exactly 20% (30 -> 24 or 60 -> 48 as measured by steam). At that point level transitions and loading seems to not work so you can go off screen and do stuff without the new level loading. I'm not sure what exactly happens off screen, but if you go left from starting area you can hit the boss fight trigger.

Video of me doing it and getting a 5:16 time:

Technically I suppose this is NG any% WR, but in my opinion we should make a new main category which excludes this glitch as it removes any fun from the game except for the initial run to the gun. Would love to hear what others think though and how we should handle this.

I'm interested in establishing an "All collectibles%" category for this game. It seems megadrive at least is also interested. If anyone else is interested or has any thoughts on the category I would love to hear from you.

I would suggest that it would mean completing the game while collecting: Gun + Gun Upgrade, 11 Abandoned Cores, and 3 Ancient Artifacts

This would not include the ship gun upgrade given by the traitor as a reward for collecting all 11 abandoned cores. My reasoning for this is that it's not actually something you physically collect, but something you're given. I'd be open to including it though as it has very little effect on anything but the final spaceship fight.

I've done a quick run to show my route and to set a baseline for the category. It has a time of 11:10 (ingame time) and can be found here:

Plenty of mistakes in the run, but overall I think it shows the route well.

Some notes on the route: The run is very similar to the any% run except you do the route to the alien city twice and on the second run you pick up all collectibles. My route is pretty self-explanatory from the video. One thing to note is that I do a deathwarp after picking up the advanced gun and to do this I want as little health as possible so I postpone picking up Ancient Artifacts whenever reasonable. With 2 HP the way to do it is:

1. Teleport to the brick
2. Destroy brick
3. Wait there to take hit from monster which boosts you down to where the gun is
4. Pick up the gun and lose the last health on the monster.

In Grigori's Tower and The Guard I think there might be some potential for using damage boosts to ascend quicker (mainly using the ghosts). We have 4HP and the ghosts seem to be in great position to damage boost us up. I haven't worked this out yet.

In the run I pick up (timestamps are IGT where I pick them up):

11 Abandoned cores (AC): 1: Alien City: Weird Island (2:12) 2: A New Hope (2:25) 3: Lost Mountaintop (2:52) 4. Secret Cliff (3:17) 5: Chomper's Hill (4:02) 6: Alien Outpost (4:42) 7: Underground Secret (4:56) 8: Floating Island (5:25) 9: Crumbling Sector (7:28) 10: Basement (8:40) 11: The Traitor (9:07)

3 Ancient Artifacts: 1: City Tunnel (2:22) 2: Forgotten Ruins (3:54) 3: Outpost Cache (4:37)

Advanced Gun: Oh My God You Are Stubborn (3:28)

Screenshots of these collectibles: https://imgur.com/a/sw5nK

Some notes on the different collectibles and why I do them how I do them; in order of pickup (AC = Abandoned Core, AA = Ancient Artifact, AdvGun = Gun upgrade): AC1: Could be taken on either visit to Alien City. AA1: Done after first visit to Alien City as it gives easy deathwarp to Crash Site and picking it up after second visit costs some time. AC2: AC3: AC4: AdvGun: Note that you can do deathwarp here. Ideally you should only have 2 hp points, lose one on the way to the pickup and use the damage boost to fall down, and then kill yourself on the way out. AA2: Pick up after AdvGun for easier deathwarp. AC5: Could be taken on first run to Alien City. AA3: Pick up after AdvGun for easier deathwarp. AC6: I think this should be taken after AA3, but I'm not 100% sure that's the quickest way. Alternatively when you first go through here you can use the blue beams to get it without losing much time, and then you can go straight forward after picking up AA3. However this leaves the question of whether to get AA3 or AC6 on first run to Alien City. If you get AA3 first, then deathwarp at Advanced Gun will be slower, but if you get AC6 first then you have to go down under Junkyard for AC7 after AA3 which loses some time compared to going straight from Outpost Cache to Junkyard Exit without travelling through Junkyard. AC7: AC8: Could be taken on first run to Alien City. AC9: AC10: The cycles seem to work out better if you take this on the way back from the Guard Alien. I messed up the cycles after by doing safe strats, but if timed right it should only miss 1 cycle on the elevator to get the powerup compared to optimal Any% elevator ride. AC11: I almost forgot this. Easy to get if you remember it though.