Beginner’s Q&A

Read on Google Docs

Answering and providing insight for commonly asked questions about speedrunning RUTM, as well as sharing obscure information/resources

Credits to: Schneeheide, Ladnok, and Catcatcatcatnip for their work posted here! :D

(Last updated: June 9th, 2024)

1. What platform is best?

PS4/PS5, XBO/XBS, and PC are all equal in terms of functionality/performance, but the PC version is the best, with access to many conveniences like practice saves, auto-splits, debug tools, etc. Greatly improving the QoL when learning, practicing, and running the game overall.

The NSW version, while functionally comparable with its console counterparts, tends to suffer from slow down when many particles are present, usually during boss fights and when using the more visually busy items in the game. Fortunately, the graphics option from the PC version made it over, setting it to “Low” can reduce the amount of slow down in some segments or eliminate them completely.

2. What version is best?

The most up-to-date version, v1.07.

In short, your max charge arrows are stronger, but your NPC interactions are slower, making it not immediately the fastest version in some categories, however, workarounds for the slow NPC interactions exist, and can be used to speed them up, letting the max charge arrow buff truly shine!

With this in mind though, it should be noted that the overall speedrun doesn’t deviate much at all with these two aspects at play, meaning you can just ignore these aspects, and any speedrun or guide you may use as reference will hardly differ from your own.

Most resources on speedrun.com work or have been updated to work on v1.07 as well.

If you want to learn more about v1.07, and how to make it faster, check the forum post below:

v1.07 Q&A + Extras (Speedrun.com Thread)

By Googler

3. Keyboard or Controller?

Whatever you prefer, both have been used in high-level speedruns.

With that said, it’s best to make sure whatever you decide to use doesn’t suffer from ghosting (limited number of inputs happening at once) or high latency (slow response time) and that you’re comfortable pressing/holding buttons in various ways, like charging arrows + attacking, Roll-Jumping, or mashing.

4. What Category/Difficulty is best?

In terms of most popular/competitive, Any% on Easy/Normal Difficulty. Besides that, the category and difficulty you play on is ultimately up to you.

Each category offers a unique experience from each other, even more so with the more you know about movement, bosses, items, etc.

Each difficulty has two factors to keep in mind, Kaho’s starting HP and Hard/Insane’s additional enemies. The latter of which has most of its new enemies in the first area (Sacred Ordalia Grove), with the other new enemies scattered across the map, and much easier to ignore. Overall, you are limiting how many mistakes can be made either by error or just bad luck, before bigger consequences are suffered.

5. Route Types? (Legacy, No Major Skips, Unrestricted)

Each speedrun on RUTM’s speedrun.com leaderboard specifies which “Route Type” is used. While this is used to indicate the path taken to finish the game, it also indicates the amount of skips they are allowed to use to finish the game faster, like glitching through geometry to skip locked doors/geometry/bosses, or abusing load zones. Below are slightly detailed explanations with the glitch’s name in parenthesis

More information about these “skips” here:

Transformation Delay into Zipping or Clipping (Google Doc)

by Schneeheide

Legacy: No skips allowed. You cannot glitch through geometry (Transform Delay) to skip locked doors/other geometry/bosses, or abuse load zones. (Screen Transition Delay)
No Major Skips (NMS): Some skips allowed. You may glitch through geometry (Transform Delay) to skip locked doors and/or bosses, but you cannot glitch through geometry to reach/skip areas/rooms/bosses blocked off by other geometry, or abuse load zones. (Screen Transition Delay)
Unrestricted (UNR): All skips allowed, you may glitch through geometry (Transform Delay) to reach/skip anything, and abuse load zones. (Screen Transition Delay)

6. RNG?

(Random Number Generation (RNG) is a term used for when a game randomly chooses certain aspects of a subject, like its position, actions, speed, etc.)

Every boss in RUTM has a pool of attacks/actions they use RNG to choose with, on top of this, some bosses may favor certain attacks/actions if they are close/far enough from you.

Some enemies also use RNG to adjust their attacks/actions, like how high an Imp jumps, where a Medusa Head spawns, and how far a Bakman throws their bomb.

Because of this, at least some amount of bad RNG is almost inevitable in a speedrun, and the time loss from a single instance of bad RNG can vary from a second to several seconds. Bad RNG will never put you in an impossible situation though.

With this in mind, high-level speedruns aren’t 100% fair, but a generally unlucky Any% run could still be finished in under 30 minutes, or, much less depending on how much you know and with well enough execution.

As a personal recommendation when you are just starting out, it is best to avoid resetting runs from bad RNG. Reloading the save file? Definitely, but play them to the end as much as you can, so you are able to thoroughly exercise what you have learned and practiced prior, and to take notes. Learning the game will be much easier and enjoyable this way.

7. Where do I start?

Start by learning the route and bosses first, learn some simple and safe movement strategies only if needed, then add and refine everything else little by little.

Following along a speedrun of your category & difficulty as you play can give a good visual of the run’s route and boss fights, speedruns that are lower on the leaderboard can be especially good reference for the safer, more essential strategies to learn early on. Leave precise movement and risky boss strats from high-level speedruns for later.

As you are learning, occasionally take a break and play up to the point you have learned up to, so you can solidify what you have learned so far. If you happen to forget something, you can rest assured that simply acknowledging it is a step towards improvement.

Overall, keep the learning process simple and enjoyable. RUTM can be a tedious and unforgiving game if you push it enough, especially so from the jump, which can quickly make it an unpredictable hassle to learn.

Besides this, there are many resources made by the community to help everyone out, as well as the community discord server, be sure to check those out as well!