Hard - London 2012 Speedrun guide

Hard mode welcome in hell !!

I've made 15-20 complete runs in hard and have just 2 full runs with all gold medals but i can share some advices from what i've learn with that. You have to do your best on every event in hard especially for the finals but i have some tips in some events. There IS more variation in final CPU score so there could have some points i could modify in this guide.

You have triple jump and long jump every time so dont need to restart when you see triple on first screen . The only variation is on springboard diving : you have 3m men or women and 10m men or women. We know men events have one more jump than women so when i see men diving event on first screen i restart. I consider having only one men diving event is ok for a run even if the perfect will be with the 3m and 10m women but the second event appaeared late sometimes and if you have all the gold at that time go for it and complete your run since its very hard to have a complete gold run.

Archery : qualif around 108-110 and final 114-115 for gold 

Swimming : be quick in all events finals are sometiles tight. (Butterfly men especially) 

Springboard diving : for men and women i take all the last programs because buttons combinations are not much difficult and it gives you a good lead that permits some middle water landing. I avoid programs with YB combinations because i failed regularly on it.

Trampoline : i think advanced 2 program gives the best balance between the leaderboard and not difficult combinations. YB combinations are ok here because you just have to spam buttons.

Vault : same as diving i avoid YB combinations. At at time i chose 2 programs between 5 and 7 difficulty level. If i have a bad landing on the first jump i take a more elevate difficulty on the second. Normally two middle landings are ok on finals but one perfect landing is better to be sure on the leaderboard in finals.

25 metres rapid fire : i advice to take your time on the three first rounds in the final and take all the ten than you can because it could be very tight. Take it not too late in the run if you can because after one hour of run the stress make it harder.

Skeet shooting : just try to brake all the discus as fast as you can on secret. You need 22 in finals to be sure. 

100m, 110m hurdles, 200m : a perfect start is essential in finals ! Find your good timing between set and start (it doesnt change) and dont forget you can retry an event if you finish second (bé careful : dont spam A at the end when you want to retry). A loose of 15-20 sec for a retry but if its the only "mistake" you can do a good time.

400 metres : easier than it looks. You need a good start and the real trick is to mash A button during the last 50 metres. You will use your blue rod (stamina) and can do that until the rod disapears without loosing speed (you have to train a little that trick)

High jump : not easy for the m'en you have to do 2m32on qualif and 2m38 in final, CPU often do a 2m36. Women is ier with 2m04 for gold. Advice for men : always put 2m38 even in qualif to train and regularize that hard jump 

Long jump : i saw some CPU doing a 8m70! So 8m60 is ok in qualif but like high jump do your best on qualif and final to regularize big jumps and try after to have a good one on the first touch skip the others and save some seconds

Triple jump : i thought 17m70 was ok but i saw a 18m02 one time by the CPU !! So i look for 18m and then finger crossed ! 17m60 in qualif is enough 

Javelin, discus throws and shot put : do the best in first in qualif and final, avoid the replay if you can to save second but its hard... Focus on a good shot first hen skip the others 

Beach-volley : here it comes... Depending the RNG here a game could cost a lot of time.... My actual strat on hard is to put the ball far on the left up corner to avoid a smash return by the CPU. When they give the ball back anticipate to have the first touch and could have the smash after the pass of your mate. 

K1 kayak : i think there are a lot of possibilities here you need under 100 on final. Personnaly i take all the green gates. For the red , i take the first and the second, i dont carry about the two red gates that are next on each others and take the next alone red on the right. At that time be careful the next green could be surprising. After that , i look my time and when its ok i dont take the last red on the left before arrival (you have to count if 10 sec lose is ok for the gold)

Keirin : my nightmare in hard, very random because you take a lot of pushes by the CPU who seems to have a lot more of stamina than you in final. I try to be 2nd AT the end of the first lap and take the wind of the leader before taking the lead and try to block him and continue pushing A like a robot as soon as i have mid blue rod to contain the CPU who is sprinting behind. The event that have retry the most for the moment

Rowing : you have to learn your good timing here and dont make double push until you dont have 3 blue squares in the rod because it takes 2-2,5 squares and if you dont have it it will be a simple push and could desynchronize you for the next movements. 

Table tennis : not very different strat from easy or medium , try to alternate left and right to open a side with external effects. Sometimes you cant avoid some long rally i think 2m30 on a game is good time here.

Weightlifting : 207 in qualif and 210 in final is enough, no surprise here.

A last advice : take all the athletics than you can first with the first diving . I think all races are the most tricky events. Keep the swimming like having a rest during the run. Also take the keirin and 25m rapid fire as soon as you can , it could avoid frustration to restart a run after 45 minutes and all gold on easier events.

I think under 1h25 is pretty good and under 1h20 will be very quick that's my goal now :) 

Good luck and enjoy (if you can 😈)







Medium - London 2012 Speedrun Guide

https://pastebin.com/2wLjVpRP has the guide also but might be easier to read for some.

Medium speedrun requires you to obtain 20 gold medals. For the most part you will get the same events everytime, but some variations do exist. This guide will cover what the variations are, and what events you should try to get to obtain the best times. This guide assumes you will be doing the podium skip and spamming A to skip past seeing scoreboards. So the guide will also go into details on what I do for each event to win the gold. The final scores and times for the AI can vary, so I make sure to get a score that will always win, and that will be what I put into this guide.

My 52:09 run can be found here if you are wanting to see an event completed https://youtu.be/cFWjS2mxWAk
Leaderboard is here 

https://www.speedrun.com/london_2012/full_game#All_gold_medals_-_Medium1
OVERALL EVENT BREAKDOWN

14 of the events will always be the same
⦁	Long Jump 
	⦁	NOTE: When you start the run if you see TRIPLE JUMP back out and restart until you get long jump
⦁	Javelin
⦁	K1 Kayak 
⦁	Archery (Men or Women) (No difference in time)
⦁	High Jump (Men or Women) (No difference in time)
⦁	Weightlifting
⦁	Trampoline
⦁	Discus
⦁	Keirin
⦁	100M dash
⦁	200M dash
⦁	Table Tennis
⦁	Skeet Shooting
⦁	25m Rapid Pistol

4 will be swimming (varies by events and men or women swimming)
⦁	100M Freestyle (Women or Men) (Men is faster by roughly 12 seconds)
⦁	I seem to always get 100M freestyle to be women when it get 110M hurdles

⦁	50M Freestyle (Women or Men) (No real difference in time)

⦁	Last 2 will be either 100M Backstroke (Men or Women), 100M Butterfly (Men or Women), or 100M Breaststroke (Men or Women)
	⦁	I seem to usually get breaststroke, then varies between butterfly and 	backstroke when I get 110M hurdles
	⦁	Backstroke and Butterfly take the same time to complete, so no time loss if you get backstroke or butterfly over the other

1 event will be Diving (varies by springboard or platform, and by men or women)
⦁	Women diving is only 5 rounds, Men diving is 6 rounds, so need to get women diving to save roughly 30 seconds overall.

1 events will be a track (varies by 110M Hurdles or 400M (Men or Women)
⦁	Need to get 110M Hurdles to save roughly 1 minute overall vs getting 400M dash

I have done a lot of testing and seem to be really no good way to predict if you will get the best event RNG with 110M hurdles and Women diving. If going for record seeing 400M is an instant reset since it loses roughly 1 minute over the 2 rounds. I was also resetting if I saw mens diving since it loses 30 seconds over the 2 rounds. 

INDIVIDUAL EVENT BREAKDOWN

LONG JUMP: If you see Triple Jump when starting a run you will have to backout and start a new campaign until you get long jump. Simply get full power pressing A, and then try to jump at 45 degree directly on the board. Long jump can be hard to win if you are not good at landing directly on the board and hitting a good angle.
⦁	Qualifying need 8.15 or higher
⦁	Gold need 8.40 or higher (see AI get 8.39) but I usually aim for 8.50 or higher

JAVELIN: Hold the throw button while you are pressing A to run down the track, and then aim to get 35-40 degrees. After the first throw simply run to the end and dont throw for the next 5 attempts.
⦁	Qualifying and Gold just use method above and make sure you are over 83

K1 KAYAK: Holding A or spamming A uses your sprint bar. Right and Left triggers will help you turn through the backward gate. I tend to do the first backwards gate, and then if needed I will do the very last backwards gate too. For gold you can technically only do 1 backwards gate, but if you hit a gate (+2 seconds penalty) or go slower in a spot or too then you will have to do the last backwards gate to make sure you get gold.
⦁	Qualifying can skip all backwards gate and will still qualify easily
⦁	Gold need to be sub 94 to make sure to get gold, CPU can get a low 94, but usually gets upper 94

ARCHERY: Men or Women is fine and take the same time to complete. Make sure you are holding down on the stick to buffer pulling back at all times during the event. General tip is a wind of 2 pointing straight up means you can aim dead at the center at get a bullseye. So with a zero wind you need to aim above the bulleye to actual hit it. Use this logic and try to apply it to different wind values to figure out where you need to aim. You should take almost no time aiming and get very use to knowing exactly where you need to go with every wind value. You also dont need straight 10s to win, just try to hit 9 everytime instead or aiming to hit 10.
⦁	Qualifying get over 100
⦁	Gold get over 105

HIGH JUMP: Men or Women is fine but I find it easier to complete the jump on women vs men. This event is strange since you have to hit a 60 degree angle. The game will often times give me 90 degree angles even when I am not aiming that high. Almost seems best to try to hit 45 degree like long jump, but go just bearly higher than that. You will want to jump while on the triangle or even a little bit past the triangle on the ground. After you complete the first jump, you will pick the next height up, and then jump under the bar for the last 3 attempts to finish the event.
⦁	Women set first jump to 2.00 to win 
⦁	Men set first jump to 2.32 to win 
⦁	After your first completed jump you can check the scoreboard if you picked a lower height, and if you are in first place and not tied with anyone then you won the event, but still have to complete your last round so pick any height and fail 3 times.

WEIGHTLIFTING: Hold the up arrow and tap the up dpad to scroll up fast and pick 205+, after the lift fast scroll up to 225 for attempt 2 and 3. Tap A once to quickly get timed out on attempt 2 and 3. Do the same for both qualifying and gold.

TRAMPOLINE: Spam A when entering the event and it will pick the routine for you. The trick is not to wait for the indicator to appear. Simply spam press whatever button they want you to do. Once you hit the A, B, X, Y button spam the down stick (DO NOTWAIT TO TIME THE DOWN STICK). You should finish with 45 seconds left on the clock and will qualify and win gold doing this.

DISCUS: Get at least 2 of the 3 power circles and throw it like normal. Need to get over 65 to be sure to win. This requires getting the good throw animation most of the time or you will be cutting it really close. After a good throw do fast wind ups and then throw it into the net. Make sure you are buffering the stick to start the throw when pressing A to clear the scoreboards.

KEIRIN: Simple, spam A, use wind draft to get by them, once in front use your bike to block people from passing. I try to refill stamina on the curves, then sprint on the straightaways.

100M and 200M DASH: You dont need perfect starts to win and dont even need a sub 10 100M to win or a sub 20 200M. Try to time the start to be quick of course, but dont risk false starts. Spam A, make sure the bar is full, easy win. 

TABLE TENNIS: You will learn to hate this event lol. The trick is to do your sereve to either the left or right side. Once they return you try to hit it to the otherside and they wont be able to reach it. BIG TIP is to hit the ball way sooner than you think. If you wait for the ball to get to your player before you hit it, the AI will almost always return it. If you time your hit so its almost right when it crosses the net you will be able to hit it faster than the AI tends to react. If you get stuck in a long rally and notice the AI is way far away from the table, then you have to use backspin (ball turns blue) so its slow and they get closer to the table, then you can hit it past them. When the AI is serving if he hits it to your right, return it left, if he hits it to your left, return it to the right. Table Tennis takes a lot of practice to get good at. You will wiff a lot at first until you get the timing down on the early hits. Also remember if he does a yellow fast hit vs blue slow hit your timing will vary. Good luck haha.

SKEET SHOOTING: No trick really, just do some practice to learn where you need to aim to take down the targets. You only need like 15 or higher to win for sure, so you can even miss a good bit.

25M RAPID PISTOL: THIS EVENT IS TRICK FOR SOME PEOPLE! You really need to get a minimum of 47 per round to make sure you get gold. Make sure to buffer and hold up on the aim stick before each round starts. Goal is to hold it straight up, and shoot once it lands on the first ten. After you hit the first target, you will hold the stick in a diagonal down left position and it will almost automatcially go to the next 4 targets with very little stick movement. Takes some practice but once you get it down this event if hard to lose.

110M HURDLES: Biggest tip I can give is dont spam A while jumping, and once you land dont spam A very fast at all, just a few light presses will keep your bar green. You generally want a decent start in this event or you risk losing if you hit a hurdle. When you first start that is when you spam A fast to fill up your green bar. After the first hurdle jump DONT SPAM A, just a few taps inbetween jumps. Generally need to get 13.1 or lower to win for sure.

DIVING: Both women Platform and Springboard are 5 rounds and almost the same time to complete. For the first 4rounds select the dive that is one down. For round 5 you can just pick the easiest dive if you didnt mess up at all. TIPS: Make sure your knees are bent fully or the springboard is very low before you first jump, this will give you a better jump height and a better score. This event is fairly easy and you can even win sometimes with totally failing a dive.

SWIMMING: Swimming is pretty straight foreward to win. Just make sure when you are doing the strokes that you get a green circle when doing the stroke. If you see red, or no green circle, then you need to change your timing slightly.
⦁	Breaststroke when you see both of your hand appear in front of your head
⦁	Butterfly once your head goes underwater
⦁	Freestyle and Backstroke right when you see your hand entering or hitting the water

Name	Author
Hard - London 2012 Speedrun guide	JixSawNirGravax 7 months ago
Medium - London 2012 Speedrun Guide	chillmagic420 2 years ago