Hi, i'm Marcherfu/BeerMoney (usually BeerMoney but sometimes i use Marcherfu, like in forums) and i'm a silent IGT runner of tLoS:TEN GBA in Any% Easy (after all, there is no speedrun of this game actually so the difficulty don't mean anything at all..), a REALLY different game than his PS2 counterpart ! (you should look at the TAS in 25:57.76, it's quite interesting to see how it's different than the PS2 version) I'm running on a real GBA and i actually have a IGT of 24:55 (can still take some seconds, in RTA i think it's probably something like 29-30 minutes cause you need to count the last boss that isn't counted and some other things) and today i'm gonna tell you all the strategies to kill every bosses !
We're gonna speak about the game with a simple route : a route where you don't take anything that isn't forced to take ! The only one upgrade that can be skipped is an upgrade that require huge RNG to be skipped. (skipped only once and it was by accident !) So my Any% route is really close to the Low%.
Maximizing Damages
First, let's introduce all the Elemental Breaths at Lv1 and the reflection behind our choices : The Fire Breath - The first breath you got, you got it really early, around 2 or 3 min IGT. It throw a single flame bomb that deal moderate dmg and can cancel some attacks depending of the enemy. The Earth Breath - One of the most broken breaths in the game ! You got it really early too, only few IGT mins after fire. It throw a rock that explode and make earth spikes in his way, giving you another way to make the enemy in the air and doing another combo ! The Ice Breath - A breath that do moderate damage, sadly it comes too late to be really usefull. (during Fellmuth Arena, around 14 IGT mins i think) The Lightning Breath - The other broken breath in the game with the Earth one ! This one is the later breath you got but whatever : he's broken like the Earth one ! You got it at the end of Fellmuth Arena but for the few time you have to deal with it (around 5-6 IGT mins), he's very usefull. All it do is throwing a Lightning in your way, grabbing the first enemy it hit and pull it to you while also moving him in the air so you can do another combo and it work coupled with Earth Breath for a 3-Aerial combo ! (rarely used in run cause not that much faster on the moments after you got it but it's still good to know that !)
Why just explaining Lv1 of breaths ? Cause in that game, you can't take time to grind some EXP for elemental breaths cause it require too much amounts of EXP to make profits, so you need to use a breath that still have something that make it strong at level 1 : giving another aerial combo after the usual one. That's why there is only two breaths to take in consideration to maximize the dmg output : the Lightning Breath and/or the Earth Breath. In speedrun i don't recommend you to lose some precious seconds due to go on abilities and off the Fire and Ice Breaths to switch up between Earth and Lightning Breaths only (and switching from earth to lightning without the Fire&Ice on off is pretty annoying) but, why not ? The run isn't developed that much so there is still possibilities about this option ! But i don't use it personally, if you're like me i recommend you the Earth Breath more than the Lightning at Lv1 but it's more a question of opinion too i think. (already did some runs where i used Lightning after got it and didn't got bad runs at all) The basic combo you do is usually : -Do the maximum number of attacks (on ground) -At the attack that should gonna be a Horn Attack, pressing up to make it an air projection -Jump -Do the maximum number of attacks (on air) -Earth Breath before the monster hit the ground or Lightning Breath just after the end of your aerial combo -Jump -Do the maximum number of attacks (on air) -Lightning Breath just after the end of your aerial combo or Earth Breath before the monster hit the ground if you use the two breaths, depending on what was the first breath you did : if you did Earth first then do Lightning and vice-versa.
Well, now that we know all the basics to deal a lot of dmg without having any upgrade of the game, let's deal with the bosses strategies !
Boss Strategies
Fire Temple Boss - This huge monster looks quite strong at first view but is the easiest boss in the game ! The strategy here is to hit him to move him on the right and when he's at the max on the right you can trap him by being between him and the door and do aerial combos on the right freely, thanks to his hitbox !
Earth Temple Boss - The strategy is very simple ! You need to go on one of the platforms, jump to reach the top of the room and just do a charge right/down on him, you should beat him with that by repeating it around 5/6 times and it's a very safe strategy since you keep your energy full for the end of the Ancient Grove. (which is very easy but could be faster with some energy to earth breath and pass through giants)
Naga - His shield can look annoying but is saving you some time if you break it, just combo him with Earth Breath and when he block you have the choice of waiting or combo the shield, sometimes using Earth Breath on him while he's on shield stance can cancel his shield, but not every time ! If you hit the shield, at a moment you break it and gain red and green gems, if you broke it you can do a little bit more dmg on your combos due to having a little bit more magic. But take care cause if you got hit by his shield attack you literally gonna fly through the room and lose something like 5 seconds ! At the end of the fight you need to get EVERY EXP Gem the fastest possible cause it trigger the cutscene only when you got them all ! It's the only time where you have to focus on taking EXP Gem. To do it the fastest possible i do a dodge back from where Naga was, jumping while the dodge and double-jumping into the first (and higher) platform, use charge attack to go from the higher platform to the lower platform and stop instantly and do another dodge into charge attack and you normally got all of them.
Ice Boss Temple - At the start you need to hit him with a Fire Breath attack cause otherwise he gonna hit you and make you losing more time than you're already losing with this stupid ice on ground ! After that all you need is to cancel his attacks by attacking before him then dodge his counter attack, it's quite hard first but when you have the timing it's easy. Fire Breath is used cause the Earth Breath don't gonna deal a lot of dmg due to the fact he's flying and also due to his fire weakness. Moving while in jump is better than moving while you're on ground of course but take care of don't being hit ! There is no strategy like Fire Temple Boss but you can block him a little bit on the right of the room to gain a little bit of time at the end.
Advisor 1 - The Advisor is probably the third easiest boss when you know how predictable he is ! All you need to do first is don't let him run by doing a basic combo on him, dodging to where he's projected then turning back and you're in front of him and can do another combo ! It's always the same ! The only way for him to get out of that is when you combo him near of a wall, he gonna wall jumping out of your combo near of the end, giving him some time to replace just few steps behind you, perfect for a dodge-in !
Skabb - Skabb is a very easy boss (probably the second easiest boss) but with a RNG part that can make you losing time a lot ! At the start rush him and go the closest possible to him : you gonna be under his gun so he can't hit you with it. He have three moves that are used randomly : -His parrot use the cannon : it's what you want and it's what it gonna do most of the time. -He use his gun : it's useless and just make you losing time ! It's quite common and a decent Skabb do it 1-2 times. -He use his sword : it's the most rarely thing you gonna have, i only had it once but it also can be forced if you hit him while he's invulnerable so take care of that cause it's probably the most time losing move he have, and the rarest. When the parrot use the cannon, wait until you see where it shoot before moving cause if you move earlier the shoot gonna needing to move more away than usual. Earth Breath is really really great on this boss, don't forget to do some aerial attacks to kill the flying parrots while dealing damages to Skabb, cause they're really annoying and can be a huge time loss. (on a failed run i already got a parrot that hit me and make me loss my 2-cycle on the boss !)
Lightning Temple Boss - A quite easy boss, when the fight start just go back with a dodge, wait, jump on the platform then go to the right by jumping over him, usually when he gonna rush you after that it's at the same moment he go on the middle of the room and enter in his vulnerable state, while in this state there is huge waves of Elemental Spirits that spawn but keep calm and don't care about them; focus on the boss, use basic combos but there is a little trick : Earth Breath is, of course used but used while holding up cause the small rock you throw in the air gonna add some more dmgs and make you able to nearly 1-cycle him ! If you 1-cycle him, GG WP you're a monster (never did that); but if you don't while he's again in his invulnerability state just clean the spirits with aerial attacks while dodging the boss. It's really an easy boss when you know how to deal with him.
Advisor 2 - Probably the most annoying Advisor version. The room is less bigger than the first one and have two platforms where he love to go ! The strategy is the same than the first Advisor but it's a little bit trickier due to the level layout cause he had more tendencies to jump around and it's a little bit harder to trap him in an infinite loop.
Advisor 3 - The last Advisor version and the last boss on IGT runs. (cause there is no way to save after killing the final boss and there is now way to see the time) Imo he's quite easier than Advisor 2 but quite harder than the first Advisor. Just take care of him like usual and you're ready to the final boss !
Gaul - Probably the most difficult and annoying boss of the speedrun. You need to take care after he got the HP regeneration phase cause he gonna do jumps that deal dmg and make some rocks falling and even in easy he's hurting a lot for a player with a non-upgraded life bar like in this run ! (cause the only two upgrades on bars you got are 2 magic upgrades !) Using Lightning Breath is a really good option on this boss cause it help you when he's on is "jumping" phase, dealing dmg to him at distance and help you starting combos without needing to abuse of the invulnerability frames, cause it's way too dangerous to abuse of them in this boss cause if you die you restart at the entrance and need to do all the cutscene again !
After that, just defeat those stupids monkeys with your overpowered Dark Spyro and you're done with the bosses and the game !
Thanks for reading that guide, it's the first speedrun guide i do at all and on the first game i really speedrun, hope you enjoy it and makes you want to run this game cause it's quite sad to see this game isn't runned. (I can't submit a run myself cause i don't have all the material to do it unfortunately and also cause i don't have my own computer cause he "died" approximately a year ago, when i was still bad and around 40m IGT) If you have any questions about this guide or even the run of this game or the game itself; here's my discord : BeerMoney#1185 and good luck on your runs !
Changelog 14/09/2017 : Better strat discovered for Earth Temple Boss !
