I think we should remove the cheats category and consider the Any% run to be 'no cheats'.

The cheat requires button presses and has to be input each and every battle, which takes time. If this was done on every level it might overall save a rather small amount of time in menus, but I don't see it being different enough to warrant a separate category, at no point does a good run die and the credit savings don't really open up any better or earlier options.

If we'd like another category just to have one, instead of cheats we should consider challenge categories. No missiles or 'light' mechs only would both be options, though the latter would be quite hard.

Hey MaximBlue,

This game was a fave of mine back in the day and I'm looking forward to running it now that I just found out that "speed running" is a thing.

I watched your WR run and it looks great. A few things if you don't mind me chiming in. I'm 99% sure there is no difference in damage between grounded and flying. I remember counting the exact number of missiles I could fire off and then bounce to the next target, like you were doing. I dont think theres a damage difference between small and medium, just a range difference. Next, I know you can always get more money for a general contract if you increase twice, then the house will offer some where in the middle. I know it wont agree to anything for a boss fight contract but for the others, i think you can squeeze out some more money.

Challenge categories would be very interesting and VERY hard. No missiles, low armor, weight restrictions... I remember heat management being a demon when trying to balance armor and P-Cannons on lava worlds. I'm going to spend a few weeks to get set up to record and see if it all comes back to me. Looking to getting back into something I haven't even thought of in years.

I'm sure that a sub 60 mins is possible.

Yes I reached the same conclusions with my testing. I believe missiles all do the same damage, so unfortunately LRHM's are quite useless. I discovered the 'range bonus' to the MR / LR missiles is done by increasing their max flight time, so they have one advantage in that if they miss they continue to home and find targets for longer, which is evident with MRHM's also. MRHM's are advantageous in the early game for cross the map kills, but once you're jumpjetting they aren't as necessary. I have a few route adjustments that should put me sub 60 min on a decent run, particularly with better luck on the RNG missions.

Money has never been an issue for my runs so I don't bother wasting time negotiating contracts (it's a very small increase to income, a lot comes from just killing mechs instead of the mission pay).

Technically my No Cheats run is also the Cheats run WR, so while I don't think it should be a category, I might do one run using cheats just to go on that board so long as it continues to exist. I have some ideas that would make no cheats faster for sure but not significantly so. It'd still be basically the same route just less menuing to the garage, which is kind of lame.

No missile runs would be very very difficult and take much longer / require a lot of planning. There would be multiple ways to go about it but particle cannons would be the way. My high risk 'default mech till Ragnarok' strat probably would not work on Wolf or the other bosses, you'd likely have to buy an intermediary mech before that fight and it's not so far in so it'd be hard to afford anything decent. I think you can outrange them with PC's but you'd need enough speed to be able to keep them at a distance. I'd also need to test whether the fastest strategy is 'legging' or not. It often was back when I played MW3 online through Mplayer / Gamespy forever ago :D

In any case, it'd be cool to see more people running this. If you need any advice or help, feel free to ask!

Agree 100%.

As far as legging. I know its the fastest in PC because the aiming / hit registration is much more accurate (comparatively). I want to say that moving the target reticle in the SNES locks on to a hit box and usually defaults to the torso... and you end up seeing alot of shots get soaked up by the arms or, the leg hit boxes over lap and you end up splitting the damage instead of being able to chop one off super quick and then out maneuver.

I'm wondering if theres an RNG manipulation that can force first mech item drops on those missions.

I'll get some runs in and let you know.

good luck.