[section=The Tweaker] Before anything else... Hold A+B+C when powering on the console. You will hear a jingle before the SEGA logo. This jingle confirms that all of the games debugging settings have been reset to default.

Nightmare Circus has a built in debug mode ("Tweaker") that gives you almost complete control over how the game behaves. The game saves these settings, and always applies them even when the debugger has been turned off.

The only way to ensure that the game is running in its default state is to hold A+B+C on startup and hear the jingle. It makes verification a lot easier if you make a habit of doing this at the start of every run.

[section=Basic Mechanics] This Japanese strategy guide goes into a ridiculous amount of detail about the entire game and how everything works: http://nitta.sakura.ne.jp/brazil/circus/circus.main.html It goes as far as to explain what every single value in the debugger does. If you have a way to read Japanese then it is a very useful resource.

Here, I'm only going to cover the important things for speedrunning.

[big]Top Interface[/big] The red part in the middle represents your C-PSI (HP). Maximum is 8192. The blue part around it represents your I-PSI (MP). Maximum is 4096.

Defeating each boss gives you a container worth an additional 4096 MP. These are represented by up to six icons that appear to the right of your HP and MP gauges.

The blue orbs on the left represent the HP and MP of the current enemy. It's a bit glitchy when dealing with multiple enemies so don't rely on it.

[big]Damage and Healing[/big] Attacks can only deal damage to one enemy at a time, so grouping multiple enemies together is not particularly helpful.

You can convert MP into HP by holding Mode + Up at any time. Diagonal inputs are accepted to you can heal while jumping forwards.

Enemies slowly convert their MP to HP when their HP drops below 512.

Upon death an enemy will drop a collectable soul containing their current MP.

Spirit Warrior mode (Mode + Y) causes all damage dealt and received to affect MP instead of HP. You are forced out of Spirit Warrior mode when you run out of MP.

Most enemies die when they run out of either HP or MP. In the latter case they will not drop a soul.

Some bosses do not die until they run out of both HP and MP. Attacking them when they have no HP results in no damage, meaning your damage output is capped to their healing rate. To avoid this, switch to Spirit Warrior mode and drain all their MP first.

[big]Difficulty Scaling[/big] The difficulty level of the game starts at 1 and increases by 1 every time you complete a stage. The difficulty level multiplies the damage and stun values used by enemy attacks.

• Level 1: 100%
• Level 2: 200%
• Level 3: 280%
• Level 4: 300% <- Last boss / Any%
• Level 5: 300%
• Level 6: 200%
• Level 7: 100% <- Last boss / All Stages So the game gets harder as you progress, but gets easier at the very end depending on how many optional stages you completed.

An odd quirk is that the game also multiplies the damage dealt by your Spirit Warrior Projectile. This gives you a window of a few stages where it is one of the most powerful attacks in the game.

So if no optional stages are completed, the last boss deals triple damage and stuns you with almost every hit. Flame pits are almost guaranteed death. But since your projectile also deals triple damage and stun, you can utilise it to stun the boss to death.

If you complete every optional stage, you are at much lower risk of being killed by the last boss, but you no longer have access to triple-damage projectile and therefore need to rely on other strategies.

[big]Enemy AI[/big] Enemies have their AI deactivated when horizontally scrolled off the screen.

For example in the Ticket Office area you can lure the puppets to one side of the stage, then run to the other. They won't chase you until you go back to the part of the stage where you left them.

This becomes a problem with bosses and other enemies that you are required to kill, as sometimes they run off the screen on their own.

[section=Useful Moves] Moves can deal extra damage based on which part of the animation you hit with. Typically you should space attacks to hit with their most extended point to deal maximum damage. So kicks with the tip of the foot, punches with the fist, etc. You can tell which part of a move is hitting by looking for the impact cloud.

[big]Damage[/big] Kick (Far A) Damage: Close:128 Far:288 The highest DPS of any normal move. Space it to hit with the extended foot.

Spinning elbow (Back + X) Damage: Close:160 Far:320 Slower than the kick, but deals better damage than it when up close. This makes it far more suitable for corner trapping enemies. There is enough leniency in the input to just hold back and mash X.

Punch (Far X) Damage: Close:64 Far:160 Useful when you're too far to hit with spinning elbow, but too close to get maximum damage out of the far kick.

Double kick (B**)** Damage: Close:96+160 Far:192+192 Good damage output, but suffers from being quite slow. Tends to be more reliable at stunlocking multiple enemies.

Upper Cut (Y**)** Damage: Close:32 Far:224-288 The backswing elbow at the start of the animation deals a laughably low amount of damage so make sure you aren't standing directly inside an enemy. This move has a lower damage output than all of the above moves, but it makes you immune to knockback. Very useful when there is a risk of being interrupted.

Donkey kick (Crouch B**)** Damage: Close:96 Far:224 Useful for getting a quick extra hit after crouch sliding (A+B****) through an enemy without killing them.

[big]Mobility[/big] Try to avoid jumping diagonally when standing still. Upward jumps and jumping while moving gives you more height.

Super Upper Cut (Y -> Forward + Y) Damage: 544 On top of being a massively damaging single hit, it also gives you far more height than a normal jump. You have to space it to whiff with the startup or you will only get the damage from the normal Upper Cut.

Backflip (Airborne Up + Back + B**)** Basically a double jump. Very useful for mobility in some stages. Back and B must be pressed at exactly the same time for it to work.

• 1. Jump or perform a Super Upper Cut.
• 2. In the air while still holding Up, roll to Up-Back and press B at exactly the same time.

Since this is difficult to do normally, you may prefer to pause buffer.

• 1. Jump or perform a Super Upper Cut.
• 2. At the peak of the jump, press Start to pause the game.
• 3. Hold Up + Back while paused.
• 4. Press Start to unpause, and on the very next frame press B.

Slide (A+B**)** Damage: Close:192 Far:288 Mainly useful for knocking down the jugglers in the circus. Slide can be performed when either standing or crouching. If performed while standing, you will be forced to stand back up afterwards. This allows you to slightly clip into the ceiling of the Maggot stage tunnels.

[big]Abilities[/big] Spirit Gate (Mode + X) When activated, immediately kills enemies as they spawn in exchange for MP. This is very useful in areas where you are required to defeat a certain number of enemies. The Spirit Gate also has limited effects on some bosses. It can completely despawn the Body Snatcher boss, and prevents Hydra from coming out of the maggot tunnels.

Spirit Warrior (Mode + Y) As described in the basic mechanics section, this makes all of your moves deal damage to MP instead of HP.

Spirit Warrior Projectile (Spirit Warrior Z) Damage is based on the difficulty multiplier, which is based on the number of stages cleared. Depending on the level, this can be the highest damage attack available.

• Level 1: 608
• Level 2: 1232
• Level 3: 1504
• Level 4: 1844 <- Any% Final Boss
• Level 5: 1844
• Level 6: 1232
• Level 7: 608 <- All Stages Final Boss

"Spirit Warrior Projectile Glitch" The projectile normally disappears when you deactivate Spirit Warrior mode, but there is a single frame window before it disappears where it can deal HP damage.

• 1. Enter Spirit Warrior Mode (Mode + Y)
• 2. Press Z.
• 3. Immediately press Mode + Y to switch out of Spirit Warrior mode. It will only be active for a single frame before disappearing, but depending on the difficulty scaling hitting with that frame can deal more damage than almost everything else available to you.

This also causes the enemy to drop an extra soul, meaning you can abuse it to quickly farm MP. If the enemy has no MP, this glitch will not spawn a soul. This means you can also use it as a way to reliably test for whether or not a boss has any MP remaining.

Body Snatch (Circus area boss ability, Mode + A) Allows you to possess an enemy. You disappear and then reappear wherever you move the enemy to. This lets you completely skip the Maggot maze by possessing one of the maggots and moving through the pipes.

Haste This is the ability obtained by defeateing Helter Skelter, the Rides area boss.

Haste: Rush Mode (Mode + A) Speeds up your animations and horizontal movement, but not gravity. Since you recover from air backflips faster, it lets you act much more quickly afterwards. You can chain backflips in the air to fly, or use them in the maggot maze to reach normally unreachable tunnels.

Haste: Tornado (Mode + B**)** Damage: 544 (every 2 frames) By far the highest DPS in the game. Kills bosses in literally seconds.

In cases where defeating a boss requires you to drain both their HP and MP, start in Spirit Warrior mode to take out their MP first.

[section=Route Summary] The plan in Any% is to dive straight into the final Circus area at the top of the stage select screen and blitz through it.

The plan in All Stages is to get the Haste ability as soon as possible so you can zoom through the rest of the stages. The stage order after obtaining Haste doesn't matter too much.

[section=Starting the Game and RNG Manipulation] The biggest source of randomness is that the Ying Yang Brothers in the Ticket Office stage are hidden behind the panels in the background in a random location. You have to destroy the panels using Spinning Elbow (Back + X) until you find them both.

For speedrun purposes, we need to manipulate the RNG so they always appear in the same place. The method I will describe is not the theoretical fastest, but it is by far the most practical.

The first thing to take note of is that in the stage select area, the RNG is frozen when the amusements sign is flickering (A USEME TS).

By performing a frame perfect start button press on the title screen, you can manipulate the timing of the flickering sign to always happen immediately and give you a more generous window to get the same RNG every time.

• 1. Reset (and hold A+B+C)
• 2. After the SEGA logo fades out, hold Start until the title screen fades in. If done correctly you will gain control of the the menu earlier than normal.
• 3. Begin the game by pressing Start on the first possible frame.
• 4. Upon gaining control in the select area, press Start almost immediately.
• 5. One brother is on the 3rd floor, one tile to the right of center.
• 6. The other brother (green) is on the far right of the 6th floor.

If the first start button press is timed perfectly, then 3 frames after the screen fades in the letters of the amusements sign will flicker (A USEME TS).

If the second press is timed correctly, the sign will say "A USEME TS" during the fade out into the Ticket Office stage. Note that the last frame of the flicker does not work so this is not a 100% reliable indicator.

The locations of each brother are fixed upon entering the stage for the first time. You can leave and come back and they will still be in the same places.

[section=The Ticket Office] You can leave this stage at any time by walking, running or crawling into the right edge of the screen. You can stand at the right edge without leaving as long as you do not do any of those three things. For example, holding Up+Right allows you to jump at the edge of the screen without leaving.

Boss: Ying Yang Brothers (5376HP, 9472MP or 768MP) Their MP behaves somewhat strangely. The exact mechanics behind it aren't clear, but it seems if the green brother is alive when you enter the stage, the MP of both brothers drops to 768 just before they die. If you kill the green brother and then re-enter the stage, the second brother has their full 9472MP, which you can collect from his soul by outdamaging his healing ability.

[big]Any% Strategy[/big] The first thing to do is reveal them. The quickest way up is to ignore the ladders and run to the middle. Using a Backflip (Up+Back+B****) at the peak of your jump gives you enough height to traverse the floors.

The general idea is to reveal both of them in one trip up, then try to fight them one at a time in one of the bottom corners of the screen. Using the left side avoids the issue of accidentally leaving, but it may take longer to lure one of them over there.

After revealing the green brother on the upper-right, try to bait him into jumping off the right edge of the platform and follow him down. Hold block as you land to nullify the fall damage. You want to kill this brother first while hoping the other one doesn't interfere.

Hopefully you will get him stuck between yourself and the edge of the screen. Keep doing Spinning Elbow (Back + X) until he dies. You can hold back and just mash X.

After the green brother dies, wait until his death animation completes (i.e. the blue gunk disappears), then leave the area and come back. If you don't wait until the animation completes then he will respawn, which can be abused to farm spirit containers but is slow and not necessary.

After coming back, move left slightly to bait the second brother down and head back to the right corner. Kill this brother in the same way with Spinning Elbow (Back + X), as it is one of the few moves in the game capable of outdamaging his healing.

If all goes well then the second brother will give you a big MP drop worth about 2 full gauges. If not then you will need to kill some extra morphs in the next stage to farm some MP.

When you enter the tent, wait until you can see vertical poles in the entrance. This takes you to the Body Snatching Act. The other entrance leads you to the Maggot Men Act which you are not yet ready for.

Now skip to the section: Body Snatching Act.

[big]All Stages Strategy[/big] There are several things you need to do on this stage, but you don't necessarily need to do them all in one trip. My preferred order is as follows:

• 1. Ticket Office: Reveal both brothers as per Any%. Leave without killing them.
• 2. Rides Area: Obtain Haste
• 3. Amusements Area
• 4. Ticket Office: Kill both brothers and leave.
• 5. Roller Coaster: Farm MP on the boss
• 6. Ticket Office: Enter the tent

The main reason for revealing the brothers on the first trip is because getting up there in a reasonable amount of time is somewhat difficult. Getting it out of the way early means if you mess up it's an early reset instead of a late one.

The second trip is after you have obtained the Haste ability from the Rides Area. Upon entering you just need to walk towards the middle and then back to the corner to lure the brothers down. Activate Haste Tornado (Mode + B****) to obliterate them in seconds.

The reason for killing them before heading to the Roller Coaster area is because the boss of that stage can be used to completely fill up your MP, including the spirit containers just obtained in this stage. This means you don't need to rely on the Ying Yang Brothers' finciky MP drops.

[section=(Optional) Rides Area] The main reason to do this area first is to obtain the Haste ability, which is one of the most broken abilities in the game.

[big]Twin Wheels[/big] The flaming dudes only fall when you're in the lower half of the stage, so the first priority is to get up high. Immediately jump to the right and block (C) to protect yourself from getting knocked down.

Once up high, stand near the edge of the platform facing inwards and mash Upper Cut (Y****). This move not only kills the Roadies in two hits, but protects you from knockback. I don't think I need to elaborate on why that's important.

The goal here is to get as much MP as you can before the fire goes out. You can tell when the fire has stopped when your HP stops flashing, but ideally you want to head down slightly earlier to make for a quicker exit. Timing it by listening the music kinda works.

[big]Wall of Death[/big] Immediately walk left. Jump over the pit and do a late backflip to land directly on the switch that stops the ride. If you mess up the backflip then you fall to your death and start the game over. The time save is worth the risk.

[big]Dodgems Rink[/big] You have to kill 26 Roadies before the boss spawns. Use projectiles to kill them in one hit. If an enemy spawns in a conveneint enough location, walk up close and hit them with the Projectile Glitch to restore some MP.

Boss: Helter Skelter (HP:12288, MP:14336) Stand on the dodgem and either block (C) or mash Upper Cut (Y****) or another move that protects you from knockback. Ideally you want to lure him into trying to pilot the dodgem. This gets his AI stuck in a loop of grabbing it every time you hit him, letting you Kick (A) him to death.

Alternatively, hit him with projectiles to stun him. Kick (A) him until he recovers and then throw another projectile.

After defeating the boss, make sure to press Z to grab the Haste ability. That's what we came here for.

[section=(Optional) Amusements Area] [big]House of Fun[/big] First things first. Activate Haste Rush Mode (Mode + A).

The quickest route to the end is as follows:

• 1. Run 3 screens to the right.
• 2. Climb the ladder on the left side of the screen to the next floor (Green).
• 3. Keep climbing to the top floor (Red).
• 4. Go left two screens. Rotate the room by pressing down near the center of the screen. Watch the direction the door in the background goes and go that way.
• 5. In the next room, rotate it once.
• 6. If you see a door in the background then walk right. If not then walk left.
• 7. Keep walking in that direction to reach the next area.

In some cases you may need to hold against the edge of the screen for several seconds to trigger the transition to the next screen. Do not second guess yourself. Hump the screen edge until it works.

[big]Hall of Mirrors[/big] Hold up to keep jumping and move left or right to try entering every single mirror along the way. After finding the first one your controls will be flipped. Keep going in the same visual direction.

[big]Kaleidoscope[/big] Boss: Doppelganger (HP:1024, MP 1024) You can't damage the boss until all of the crystals in the room have been destroyed. There are four of them with each having 512 HP.

You have to crawl under the crystals to pass by them even after they have been destroyed, which makes it awkward to travel around the stage normally. So instead, immediately activate Haste Tornado (Mode + B****) and hold left or right to fly across the stage and smash all of them.

Then just wait until the first Doppelganger spawns. Spirit Warrior Projectile deals 1232 damage at this point, so hit him with one to completely drain his MP and stun him, then walk up to him and use the Projectile Glitch to kill him in one hit.

Don't take too long, as the boss will periodically create extra copies of itself, which you will then also need to defeat.

[section=(Optional) Roller Coaster Area] [big]Roller Coaster[/big] Activate Haste Rush Mode (Mode + A) and run right. At the bottom of the slope you should end up on the lower path. Keep heading right and deactivate Rush Mode just before you leave the screen.

Let go of everything during the screen transition and you should stop at the perfect range to press A and kick the lever in front of you. Once done, go back to the previous screen.

Activate Haste Rush Mode again and run all the way back to the left where you started the stage. You need to jump onto one of the roller coaster cars and this is the easiest place to do so. Once on board, hold block to avoid getting knocked off it.

This car will take you to the next screen and then down where you hit the lever.

[big]Work Yard[/big] Boss: Chainsaw (HP:5376 MP:9472) Once again, activate Haste Rush Mode and run to the left. Either stay on the ground and tank the damage, or use backflips to give yourself enough height to jump over the junk being thrown at you.

Upon reaching Chainsaw he will be unable to move until he deactivates his special ability. Hit him with the Projectile Glitch before he has time to move, which will not only stun him but give you a very decent amount of MP.

One soul from the boss refills around 2 MP gauges. If you still have 2 or more empty containers, hit him with the Projectile Glitch a second time. This makes sure that the soul he drops upon his death is enough to completely fill up your MP.

When done farming MP, stand to the right of him and activate Haste Tornado (Mode + B****) to hit him towards the left edge of the screen. Follow him into the corner to stunlock him to death in about a second.

[section=Body Snatching Act] This stage is accessed by going to the Ticket Office stage and entering the tent while there are vertical poles visible inside of the entrance.

You have to defeat all 36 enemies on the stage to progress, but they behave quite strangely in terms of how you need to defeat them:

• They have very low HP, which means they usually die in one hit.
• They only die after being knocked down by a strong enough attack.
• They cannot be knocked down while they are performing an action.
• After being knocked down, they wait for about 10 seconds before dying or standing back up.
• If they have no MP or were Spirit Gated, they always die.
• If they have no HP, they only die if you are not in Spirit Warrior mode.
• If you use Spirit Gate while in Spirit Warrior mode, they die without waiting.

The Morphs randomly get possessed by the Body Snatcher boss. They are harder to kill in this state due to borrowing HP and MP stats from the boss.

The normal way to defeat the enemies here is to wait until they perform an attack and then punish the recovery, or alternatively manipulate them into standing still so you can pick them off. This can be very awkward to pull off against certain types of enemy, so a much better plan is to farm MP while using the Spirit Gate (Mode + X) to kill as many of them as you can.

The layout of the stage is roughly as follows: ------|------BAR-----|---POLE---|--------ROPE--------|------- (start)-|-SEESAW-|--------RING--------|-TRAMPOLINE-|-(start)

Two different enemy types can spawn at a time depending on where in the level you are standing. One type that typically traverses the top of the level and one at the bottom.

[big]Enemies[/big] Trampoline Morph (HP:32, MP:2048) (8 total, 2 limit) The easiest way to score a knockdown is to stand facing them at a distance, and use an Upper Cut (Y****) to hit them as they descend from their jump. It's also worth learning the positioning for hitting and killing them with the Projectile Glitch as a quick way of farming MP.

Pole Morph (HP:16, MP:1024) (6 total, 2 limit) As long as you're on the ground they'll just sit around waiting to be punched. A well spaced spinning backfist (Back + X) is a guaranteed kill. Since Pole Morphs mostly just sit around doing nothing, they are also very easy to farm for MP using the Spirit Projectile Glitch.

Seesaw Morph (HP:16, MP:2048) (6 total, 2 limit) Ring Morph (HP:80, MP:2048) (4 total, 1 limit) Bar Morph (HP:512, MP:1024) (8 total, 1 limit) Rope Morph (HP:80, MP:2048) (4 total, 1 limit) I'll keep it short. Just Spirit Gate every single one of them. I'll cover the timings in the strategy section below.

Boss: Body Snatcher (HP:3072, MP:16384) For as long as there are any morphs still alive, the boss will randomly take possession of one of them. Its features randomly change and it starts making silly noises when hit.

A possessed morph will switch between normal and snatcher forms. Activating the Spirit Gate prevents it from turning back into the snatcher, allowing you to kill it normally. This costs some MP so it's usually better to just leave the area and come back.

While you can damage the Body Snatcher, you can't actually kill it until there is only one enemy left. This takes long enough that you're better off just despawning the last enemy with the Spirit Gate (Mode + X). No bodies to possess means no Body Snatcher.

[big]Any% Strategy[/big] The overall goal is to strike a balance between using the Spirit Gate with Spirit Warrior active to kill things quickly while using the Projectile Glitch to keep your MP topped up.

Trampoline Area If you do not have MP, walk left and kill the first two Trampoline Morphs. Aim to hit them with an Upper Cut (Y****) as they descend from a jump for an easy one hit kill. After waiting for them to die and collect their souls, jump to the floor beside the trampolines to despawn the Ring Morph above. Now you have some MP and can proceed with the main strat.

Walk below the trampolines. Before jumping up, activate the Spirit Gate (Mode + X) to catch the Ring Morph. Now aim to kill both Trampoline Morphs with the Projectile Glitch for the extra souls. You need to time it so they jump and land on top of it before hitting the floor.

Then wait until they die to collect two more souls. For the second one, stand slightly to the side and activate Spirit Warrior (Mode + Y) the moment you see it start to disappear. This causes all subsequent enemies caught by the Spirit Gate to disappear a lot faster. Wait until its soul is at jump height before collecting it to top up your MP after the Gate eats a few more enemies.

Seesaw Area With Spirit Gate and Spirit Warrior both still active, run right and stop just before the first seesaw to start spawning both Seesaw and Bar Morphs. Don't walk as far the seesaws or a Morph might drop onto your head, damaging your precious MP.

After the third big dip in your MP and having lost about 1.5 gauges, all of the Seesaw Morphs are gone so run to the right. Stop just after the pole on the right edge of the Seesaw area to start spawning Ring Morphs. Now you need to wait here until all the Ring Morphs and Bar Morphs are gone. You will be left with just a tiny amount of MP when done.

Pole Area You need to farm some MP for the next stage, so deactivate Spirit Gate and Spirit Warrior and walk right to the poles. After the Pole Morphs have spawned, activate Spirit Gate (Mode + X) again.

Knock down both Pole Morphs with the Projectile Glitch. If one doesn't get knocked down then it is probably possessed, so follow up with a Spinning Elbow (Back + X) for a guaranteed knockdown.

Immediately as the second Pole Morph disappears, activate Spirit Warrior (Mode + Y). This causes all subsequent enemies caught by the Spirit Gate to disappear a lot faster.

When the Spirit Gate eats the last enemy, the ability cloud will appear right next to you. Absorb it for the Body Snatch ability, as you need this for the next stage.

[big]All Stages Strategy[/big] Having more MP at your disposal makes things much simpler.

• 1. Activate both Spirit Gate (Mode + X) and Spirit Warrior (Mode + Y).
• 2. Walk left and jump up to the Trampolines. Hang around until the Trampoline Morphs are gone.
• 3. Head left again and hang around the poles until the Pole Morphs are gone.
• 4. Left again. Wait in between the areas for a moment to make sure all the Ring Morphs are dead.
• 5. Enter the Seesaw area. When all the Seesaw and Bar Morphs are dead, the stage ends.

You do not need the Body Snatch ability in a 100% run, as Haste makes the final boss die significantly faster.

[section=Maggot Men Act] The knife board has a pattern that progressively moves inwards

• Knife 1. Miss
• Knife 2. Edge (damages you if your head or feet are facing it)
• Knife 3. Feet
• Knife 4. Feet, Neck, Arms
• Knife 5. Neck, Arms
• Knife 6. Arms
• Knife 7. Forced damage
• Knife 8. Miss Then it loops back to Knife 1.

On the first cycle, prioritise freeing the following to maximise the chance of a 2-cycle escape.

• Knife 3: Foot
• Knife 4: Neck if you freed the foot, otherwise Foot.
• Knife 5: Neck or Arm
• Knife 6. Arm

After that just aim for whatever seems to makes sense at the time. For the last target try to end while rotating in the direction that leaves you upright the soonest.

Boss: Hydra (HP:4096, MP:8192) [big]Any% Strategy[/big] When free. Walk left. Hold against the wall. Keep trying to activate Body Snatch (Mode+A) until it works. You can now control a maggot to the top of the stage. Deactivate the ability to go straight to the boss. Try to stand in an area without too many maggots below you as they tend to get in the way.

Spamming projectiles (Spirit Mode Z) is the fastest way to kill him with our current resources. 6 hits will completely drain his MP. After that use the Projectile Glitch until he dies.

Alternatively if he flips upside down you can stunlock him with Kick (A). This can take a while if you don't drain his MP first.

Another method of stunlocking him is to clip into the corner of the floor beside the hole with a well placed jump. From there mash A to kick upwards from relative safety.

[big]All Stages Strategy[/big] You should have the Haste ability now. If not then you screwed up. Using Haste adds a bit more work in making your way through the maze, but being able to Tornado the bosses saves more time than you lose.

After freeing yourself, activate Haste Rush Mode (Mode + A) and go down to where the paths start to branch. Follow the stage to the right, climbing up at every opportunity. Rush Mode does not speed up your climbing, so deactivate it to save MP.

After a particularly long climb there will be a gap in the roof on the upper left. Use Rush Mode in combination with a backflip to climb up it to the boss. Try to stand in an area without too many maggots below you as they tend to get in the way.

Haste Tornado (Mode + B****) is all you need. Start off in Spirit Warrior Mode (Mode + Y) to drain his MP, then switch back to finish him off.

Make sure you save at least a tiny amount of MP for the final boss. It doesn't matter how much as long as you have some.

[section=The Jester] Boss: The Jester (HP:20480, MP:20480) He always spawns behind you. Immediately run right to get close to the exit door, and turn around the moment he appears.

[big]Any% Strategy[/big] Hit him with a Projectile to stun him. Take that opportunity to walk up and hit him with the Projectile Glitch to max out your MP.

From here you need to hit him with a mix of normal Projectile and the Projectile Glitch. You need 12 of each to kill him, ending with a Projectile Glitch. Try to keep track of how many you've hit with so you know which you should be using at any given time.

Give priority to the Hadoken Glitch at the beginning of the fight, but don't do too many of them in a row or the spawned souls will lag the game. The main reason to start in this way is because it's very easy to stun the boss in his initial form compared to his other forms.

The Ying Yang Brother transformation in particular is very difficult to control at the close range required to reliably hit him with the Projectile Glitch, but at a distance you can get him stuck throwing fans and from there hit him with the standard projectile.

Against his Doppelganger form, alternate between Projectile and Kick (A). The projectile stuns him and the kick knocks him down, fairly reliably setting you up to stun him with another projectile.

Against all other forms just spam projectiles at a distance and glitched ones when he gets close.

[big]All Stages Strategy[/big] The difficulty scaling makes your projectiles deal less damage than Any%, so act quickly after stunning him with one.

Start by hitting him with a projectile (Spirit Mode Z) to stun him. If you're low on MP, use the Projectile Glitch instead so you can fill up your MP.

Still in Spirit Warrior Mode, actvate Haste Tornado (Mode + B****) and spin on top of him for 2-3 seconds to drain his MP, then deactivate Spirit Mode to obliterate his HP in about the same amount of time.

[big]Ending[/big] When the final boss is defeated, Raven will automatically walk towards the door in the background. Try to end the fight reasonably close to it so that he does not have to walk very far.

While you are not in control of Raven at this point, you can still pause the game. The run is not over until the screen fades to black for the credits.

[section=Appendix: Move List]