IN-PROGRESS *This route is based off RepentMF’s “Any% (any character, Combo Route) Speedrun Guide” as of 05/16/2018

01/20/2019 - Routes for worlds 1 and 2 posted

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 (>=75) (1-3) -- Place sphere on a pedestal -- Hit switch 3 (1-4) -- Activate shrine 2 (>=50) (1-5) -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=150) (1-6) -- Use key on door -- Activate shrine 3 (>=50) (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) -- Open treasure chest 1 (>=50) (2-2) -- Hit switch 1 -- Hit switch 2 -- Enter portal a -- Place sphere on pedestal -- Enter portal a -- Hit switch 3 (2-3) -- Activate shrine 2 (>=25) -- 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 (>=100) (2-6) -- Enter portal b -- Open treasure chest 2 (>=100) (2-7) -- Hit switch 6 -- Enter portal c -- Enter portal a -- Use key on door -- Activate shrine 4 (>=0) (2-8) -- Grab the secret (2-9) -- Enter the boss portal -- Enter the boss room -- Kill lvl 2 boss (>=75) (2-10) Lvl 2 finish screen

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 better to damage boost than use an attack, so run straight through to the shrine, trying to avoid any hits. (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 use 1 shield toss, and 1 dagger if positions are good. Your combo should be at 7 or 8 around this point. (1-3) COMBO CONTINUE: With Hinome, you can continue your combo through your orb carry. To do this, throw your shield right before opening the chest. If the shield hits an enemy on the way back and the orb clean is carry, you have the opportunity to extend your combo, as seen here: (1-4) On the way to the third switch, you should hit just enough enemies to keep your combo going. If you failed the combo continue, just make sure you have enough for the shrine, and any combo you start be sure to keep extending. Also, the grass guarding the third switch can be taken care of with one shield toss. (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. (1-6) On your way up to grab the second treasure chest, hit some mushroom and pink enemies (may need bees if you have low SP/combo). 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 get to 200 SP (remember that this combo was continued from at shrine 2). (1-7) Around now you should be at about 150 or so SP, so you need no combo before you reach the shrine. Each clump of grass can be taken out with one shield toss, and those should be the only attacks needed. (1-8) You should have 50 SP for treasure chest 3. If you’re short, the enemies past the door are the most on the way, and there are clumps in each area if you need a bigger combo. Also, remember you can take out 2 tiles of grass easily with a shield toss or dagger lunge. (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). One shield toss for each group should take all of them out and put the combo at 11. If you need more combo (11 gets you 66 SP, you need 100 SP for shrine 4), 1-health enemies will spawn along the path with the retracting spikes at the very northeastern side of the map, as well as a group of 5 enemies just before the bushes by the shrine. Attack these enemies only if you need the combo or don’t want to take damage.

(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) The tree right after the first shrine makes the movement a bit awkward if you go for the switch first, so you want to avoid that, which you can as Hinome. Go low and throw the shield to take out the grass by the switch and use the dagger to clear out grass by the chest. Then go and hit the switch while holding the orb. (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 blue enemies on your way to get some extra SP. 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. Take out enough bushes for bridge skip and kill all of them to start a combo and keep them gone for now (ideally do all this in one shield toss). Next, a group of 8 (5 ghosts, 2 orange jellies and 1 frog) will appear. Go down and hit the switch, keeping the combo going. Kill all the enemies that can quickly be killed. This should put you at more than 100 SP. (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 close to 200 SP before you reach shrine 3. (2-6) Getting the rest of this combo filled up is easy because there’s a group of 3 ghosts be the blocks and 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 get a good shield toss after the portal so you’ll have around 200 SP for shrine 3 and treasure chest 2. (2-7) After shrine 3, you should have a 10+ combo and close to 100 SP. You want to get to 150 SP on this combo in 1-2 shield tosses, and the best groups for this are right by the portal. 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) Open the door with the key and go straight to shrine 4. (2-9) 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. (2-10) This route is based off of using Hinome’s special attack in the level 2 boss, so make sure you use your special during phase 2 of the fight.