kamiko yamato any% combo route 1.0.2 Yamato (various grammar changes from 1.0.0 -> 1.0.1) (fixed optimization in labyrinth; various grammar changes from 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2)

05/16/2018 NOTE AND DISCLAIMER In this guide, I assume you have basic-intermediate knowledge of Kamiko speed-runs already, but I do my best to teach you all that I can without slowing down an already lengthy guide. The things I assume that you already know before reading this guide: good movement, boss fight strats, and bridge skip. --- Guide references THESE maps: https://imgur.com/a/RNHjq --- TITLE/ PLACE --- *split (assume all tasks are in order) --- -- Task --- (#) SP count when leaving a point where you just used SP --- (Lvl # - Step #) Footnote, more explained at the end of the guide

ROUTE WITHOUT EXPLANATION *Time start is on selecting "New Game" -- Text mash through the first cutscene (*0)

Level 1: The Forest of Awakening -- Hit switch 1 -- Activate shrine 1 (>=100) (*1-1) -- Push the block, north of shrine 1 (*1-2) -- Hit switch 2 -- Open treasure chest 1 (>=150) (*1-3) -- Place sphere on a pedestal -- Hit switch 3 (*1-4) -- Activate shrine 2 (>=50) (*1-5) -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=50) (*1-6) -- Use key on door -- Activate shrine 3 (>=0) (*1-7) -- Open treasure chest 3 (>=0) (*1-8) -- Place sphere on a pedestal -- Activate shrine 4 (>=0) (*1-9) -- Hit switch 4 -- Enter the boss portal -- Enter the boss room -- Kill lvl 1 boss (200) *Lvl 1 finish screen

Level 2: The Sunken Relics -- Activate shrine 1 (100) (*2-1) -- Hit switch 1 -- Open treasure chest 1 (>=50) (*2-2) -- Hit switch 2 -- Enter portal a -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Enter portal a -- Hit switch 3 (*2-3) -- Activate shrine 2 (>=50) -- Pull lever left of shrine 2 and perform bridge skip/ cross the bridge (*2-4) -- Push the block, right of switch 4, twice (*2-5) -- Hit switch 4 -- Hit switch 5 -- Enter portal b -- Activate shrine 3 (>=50) (*2-6) -- Enter portal b -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=0) (*2-7) -- Hit switch 6 -- Enter portal c -- Enter portal a -- Use key on door -- Grab the secret (*2-8) -- Activate shrine 4 (100) (*2-9) -- Enter the boss portal -- Enter the boss room -- Kill lvl 2 boss (>=100) *Lvl 2 finish screen

Level 3: The Scorching Labyrinth -- Open SP door 1 (>=150) (*3-1) -- Do kill room 1 and perform cutscene skip (*3-2) -- Open treasure chest 1 (>=150) (*3-3) -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Do kill room 2 and perform cutscene skip (*3-4) -- Activate shrine 1 (100) (*3-5) -- Hit switch 1 -- Open SP door 2 (>=120) (*3-6) -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=70) -- Use key on door -- Activate shrine 2 (>=0) (*3-7) -- Push 3 blocks, east of shrine 3 (*3-8) -- Hit switch 2 -- Activate shrine 3 (>=0) -- Hit switch 3 -- Open treasure chest 3 (>=0) (*3-9) -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Activate shrine 4 (>=0) (*3-10) -- Enter the boss portal (*3-11) -- Enter the boss room -- Kill lvl 3 boss (200) *Lvl 3 finish screen

Level 4: Ruins of Yamataikoku -- Clear out a path in the grass in the far northwest (*4-1) -- Flip switch 1 -- Hit switch 2 -- Open treasure chest 1 (150) (*4-2) -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Flip switch 1 -- Enter portal a (*4-3) -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=100) (*4-4) -- Enter portal a -- Use key on door -- Activate shrine 1 (>=0) -- Do kill room 1 and perform cutscene skip; exit south (*4-5) -- Flip switch 3 (*4-6) -- Do kill room 1 and perform cutscene skip; exit northeast -- Push blocks, south of shrine 2 (*4-7) -- Activate shrine 2 (100) -- Do kill room 1 and perform cutscene skip; exit south (*4-8) -- Flip switch 3 -- Open treasure chest 3 (>=150) -- Hit switch 4 (*4-9) -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Hit switch 5 -- Open SP door 1 (>=100) -- Activate shrine 3 (>=0) -- Enter portal b -- Pull lever (*4-10) -- Enter portal b -- Do kill room 2 and perform cutscene skip; grab the secret, exit southeast (*4-11) -- Open SP door 2 (150) -- Activate shrine 4 (>=50) -- Do kill room 2 and perform cutscene skip; exit south (*4-12) -- Enter the boss portal -- Enter the boss room -- Kill lvl 4 boss -- Kill final boss -- Run north and activate final shrine *Time end is on activation of final shrine

FOOTNOTES, IN-DEPTH ROUTE EXPLANATION (*0) Mashing ‘Y’ then ‘A’ with two fingers/ hands is the most efficient method I’ve found here. You can mash the text box as soon as the frame after it appears, so you can mash as fast as your own technical limits will let you. Using any language that isn’t English saves you on 2 text boxes the entire game, and since mashing works through text boxes and not the text itself, this helps, too.

(*1-1) Hugging the inner-most walls is probably the best way to go on the way to the first shrine. You want to keep your movement as tight as possible while rounding corners, and it’s important to conserve most of your health here, since you may need it to damage boost later. I recommend killing the purple mushrooms near the shrine only if absolutely necessary, but if you think you have any chance of making it without attacking OR getting hit, run straight through. (*1-2) On the way to the block, you can damage boost if you’re off-cycle with the retracting spikes, but you really want to try to lose as little health as possible for combo-route, so try not to go lower than two health. You can use single attacks to knock enemies out of your way if you don’t need them for your combo. Before you reach the switch, you should start your combo by killing some bee and pink enemies, since they’re the lowest health enemy in that part of the map. Your combo should be at 7 or 8 around this point. (*1-3) Before you grab the chest, you want to hit more bee enemies. There are a lot of them and will give you a good amount of SP since your combo should still be going. Getting your combo to 14 before grabbing the chest will ensure you don’t have to grind for SP later on, since all of these bee enemies are in one place. Also, if you don’t clear them out, they’re tricky to get around when you’re delivering the sphere to the pedestal. (*1-4) On the way to the third switch, you should hit at least one pink enemy by the second shrine to start up a combo. It won’t waste a lot of your time to throw out one attack, you start to lose time if you attack and have no kind of profit. Also, the grass guarding the third switch can be taken care of with: two of Yamato’s swings (have to be dashing), one full arrow combo with Uzume (need to be centered and standing slightly back at the first bush) and one shield toss with Hinome. These methods will save you about a second rather than take care of each bush individually. (*1-5) Before you activate the second shrine, hit the rest of those pink enemies surrounding it, just to preserve that combo you started before. Your combo should be at 3 now. (*1-6) On your way up to grab the second treasure chest, hit some bee, orange mushroom and pink enemies. They are all pretty clumped together (unless you get a really bad spawn where they’re far apart, which is unlikely in this area) and it’s easy to get your combo up. Before grabbing the chest, you should net a 9 or more combo (remember that this combo was continued from the pink enemies at shrine 2). (*1-7) Around now you should be at about 50 or so SP, so you need to get a 10 or 11 combo before you reach the shrine. In the pocket area below the shrine and in the area that the shrine is located, there are clumps of 1 health enemies that are guaranteed to have spawns that make comboing easy. If you are low on SP after you activate shrine 3, don’t worry. (*1-8) Your combo should still be going! Your combo before you activated shrine 3 was 10 or 11, assuming all went well. So, now you need to go back to that narrow area where there are still some 1 health enemies left. Because your combo is already so high, reaching 50 SP for treasure chest 3 should be easy. Also, remember you can take out 2 tiles of grass easily with any character. Yamato needs just one dash swing, Uzume needs a two-arrow combo and Hinome just needs a shield toss. (*1-9) After placing the second sphere at the pedestal, just run north and kill all the enemies in your path, which should be: a group of 4 (3 purple and 1 red mushroom) and a large group of 7 (1 bird, 5 purple and 1 red mushroom). This might seem slow, but Uzume is the only character that might perform better by getting the secret here (we’ll talk more in-depth about secrets later). Yamato and Himome both can get an 11 combo here very easily, putting you at your 100 SP for shrine 4. There are some retracting spikes at the very northeastern side of the map you’ll run into if you’re not careful, by the way. Weave up and around the second tile of spikes and go down between the third and fourth tiles. Only hit enemies here if they’re absolutely in your way.

(*2-1) You should already be at or close to 200 SP when you start the stage, so there’s no need to hit enemies unless they’re in your way or unless you’re in danger. Just try to weave around enemies until you reach the first shrine. (*2-2) You probably will have to kill a couple of enemies here, because they’re so clumped together and you need room to carry the sphere. That’s alright, because you’re a little low on SP, so killing one or two enemies isn’t so bad. Also, all treasure chests can be opened while you’re standing diagonally from the treasure chest. This only saves a small bit of time but it means you have to walk less and that saves time! (*2-3) You only have about 60-70 SP right now, and you’ll need at least 100 when you get to shrine 2. Hit some of the green jellies and blue enemies on your way to get some extra SP if you’re Yamato. On the bridge that heads north to where the boss portal will appear, hug the left wall to keep the 2 spawns of enemies from appearing on the bridge. When you get to shrine 2’s general area, there will be a lot of enemies. The first spawn is a group of 3 ghosts. Killing all of them should start a combo and keep them gone for now. Next, a group of 8 (5 ghosts, 2 orange jellies and 1 frog) will appear. Kill all but 2 of them. Usually it’s good to kill the tankier enemies first in these situations, so leave some ghosts or jellies. This should put you to 100 or more SP. Now go hit the third switch! (As an aside, if you don’t know how to do bridge skip, you should probably knock out the tiles of grass leading to the eastern bridge before continuing.) (*2-4) Kill the remaining frogs and green jellies before you pull the lever. This will ensure that you have a clean bridge skip/ bridge crossing (barring any slow-down from the Switch). (*2-5) On your way to the block to the right of switch 4, there are several ghost enemies. Kill around 4-5 of them so you can start your combo and build your way up to, what should be, 150 SP before you reach shrine 3. (*2-6) Getting the rest of this combo filled up is easy because there’s a group of 8 (5 ghosts, 2 green jellies and 1 frog) right before portal b. Kill 7 of them so the spawn won’t come back completely and so you’ll have around 150 SP for shrine 3 and treasure chest 2. (*2-7) On your way back towards treasure chest 2, you should have a relatively easy time passing by enemies, since you killed that spawn of 8 and some of the ghosts in the northeastern corner of the map. Open treasure chest 2 and continue to switch 6. (*2-8) Secrets are hidden consumables in Kamiko that refill all of your life and SP to max. The secret in this level is located in a pillar to the right of the door you used the key on. Cut the tile of grass in front of the pillar and grab the secret! We don’t always use secrets, because sometimes our combos can be faster and incorporated into our movement better than the secret can. (*2-9) Weave around the enemies that spawn in front of the shrine. There are relatively few of them and shouldn’t have clumped spawns.

(*3-1) You should enter the level 3 with about 100 or so SP, so reaching 200 before the first SP door shouldn’t be difficult. There are green fire and red enemies that are 1 health that can make for a good combo. (*3-2) In level 3, kill rooms are introduced. The name explains the concept, so it shouldn’t be difficult to understand. The kill rooms go pretty fast, and for this one the trick is just to kill all of the enemies with running swings (for Yamato) or special attacks (for Uzume and Hinome; in this case, make you’re your combo is up high, or you won’t get your SP you used for your special attack back). There is a cutscene at the end of these kill rooms, however, that takes around 1.5 seconds. To skip this cutscene, you can pause the game while the last enemy is dying and then un-pause about 12-15 frames later. (*3-3) Before you open treasure chest 1, kill the four fire enemies. This will make navigating to the pedestal easier and will refill your SP if you still have your combo from the first kill room. (*3-4) For this kill room, every character will want to use their special attack. Charge it up before entering the room so you can have better positioning and don’t have to wait until it’s done charging once you’re in the room to use it. (*3-5) Leaving kill room 2, you can keep your SP up by hitting a single enemy before it runs out. You can do this all the way to the first shrine. (IF you weren't able to keep your combo, grab the secret instead of doing step 3-6. This only loses you a little bit of time and will be faster than having to build a combo from scratch) This way, you can keep up a combo for when you’re leaving the first shrine and crossing back over the bridge (it’s imperative that you can cross the northern bridge to shrine 1 without taking damage, so practice running through the fire balls; there’s an audial cue you can use to get better at not getting hit, but there are other cues, too). (*3-6) Now that you’re on your way to the second SP door, you should have about 120 SP. That is, if you were able to keep up your combo on the way to/ on the way back from shrine 1. When you reach SP door 2, you want to have a little upwards of 170 SP. (*3-7) You should be able to kill some 1 health enemies in this area to fill up the rest of your SP meter. You need 100 and should have had around 70 when you brought the key to the door. You’ll have to start a new combo here, but that shouldn’t mean much because there should be a total of 6-7 red enemies near shrine 3. (*3-8) There are plenty of enemies for you to gain combo from on the way to the 3 blocks at the top of the map. A combo of 14 should do the trick. Pushing the blocks should go: top block, destroy the breakable blocks, right block, left block. This will ensure your movement stays clean and your time spent in this section stays low. (*3-9) In the northeastern side of the map, there are around 11 1 health enemies, which should be enough to net you your 50 SP needed for treasure chest 3. (*3-10) To reach the hundred you need, depending on how much you have at this point (between 0 and 40 probably), you need anywhere from a 11 to a 14 combo. Usually, we try to kill low health enemies for quick SP gathering, but since there are a lot of enemies and because the blue fire enemies are the only ones in plenty with more than 1 health, any enemy goes! So long as you make it to 100 SP, you can include any enemy in your combo here. (*3-11) Heading from shrine 4 back to the boss portal, you should take the northern path, where you came from. It may be tempting to try and use the path that contains kill room 2, but because you likely don’t have your special attack, it can be a gamble to go that route. It would likely be the faster of the two if you can consistently clear the kill room quickly, but in general it is faster to go the northern route.

(*4-1) The Ruins are all about preparation and being careful. You should clear out some of the spawn in between switch 1 and where portal b should be. It’s best to clear out all but 2-3 of the white enemies. There’s some grass south of the first shrine that needs clearing out because we won’t get the chance to later on in the level. You also want to kill one of each of the blue and green enemies if you can. If you kill all 4 enemies, that’s okay, too. It just means they’ll respawn later and you’ll need to look out for them during later steps. (*4-2) You already should have 200 SP from level 3 boss, so you don’t need to worry about comboing correctly right now. Kill the tall horned enemy and the blue ninja enemy in the southwestern corner, south of the first treasure chest. This way you’ll have less to deal with when you’re bringing the first sphere to the pedestal. (*4-3) On the way to this portal, you’ll want to do some more clearing just to be safe. Optimally, a spawn should be cut down to 1 enemy each. However, this is inefficient and will take forever. So instead, just kill 1 health enemies that are in a spawn with 2 or more enemies left. This will ensure that all the enemies don’t respawn later as well as give you more room to move and dodge potential threats when carrying the key to the door. (*4-4) You can input down immediately after inputting the button to open a treasure chest. This will save you a small amount of time by positioning you closer to portal a before the cutscene for opening the treasure chest is over. You can do this with any treasure chest, but it’s easiest and most useful when it’s a straight shot back to wherever you are running (ie: running in a straight line back to portal a). (*4-5) For this area and pre-shrine preparation, you should be keeping up your combo by killing all enemies in a kill room closely together and picking off single enemies outside of kill rooms. (*4-6) Like before, you’ll want to clear out unwanted or dangerous enemies in a spawn. Right before switch 3, there is a spawn of 3 enemies (3 white enemies and 1 tall horned enemy). Make sure you kill either the tall horned enemy, as they’re the most likely to stop you in your tracks or make you drop an item, or the 3 white enemies, since there are a lot of them in a concentrated area. (*4-7) Right after the barrier controlled by switch 3 (the northeast exit of kill room 1) you can hug the left-most wall to avoid a spawn of 2 green ninja enemies. SP gathering is unimportant right now since you should have 200 SP from the kill room fights. (*4-8) You should be starting up a new combo during this last kill room fight, to carry on all the way to treasure chest 3. (*4-9) On the way to switch 4, you need to watch out for the spawn of 2 blue and 1 red ninja enemies. You can walk straight through their positioning, so long as you know that they will circle around you and you need to circle around them in the same path (ie: if they move counter-clockwise, you should move counter-clockwise to avoid them). (*4-10) Step 4 of this section can also be applied to the lever after entering portal b. This will save about a quarter of a second but it is more of just a move to look cool. (*4-11) In kill room 2, you can use your special attack to kill most of the enemies. On the last enemy’s death, use the cutscene skip like normal, but while the skip is occurring you can grab the secret (found in this level in the third pillar from the left in the kill room) and move while holding the secret, to save even more time. (*4-12) On the way from shrine 4 and during kill room 2 this time, you should be extra careful and conserve as much health as possible. The final boss isn’t very hard, but too many runs have been lost in kill room 2 and level 4 boss. Good luck! Congrats for making it this far!