Yesterday, Paul and I came up with strats for Femme Fatale & Return Home

The new Femme Fatale strat which I came up with can be seen in the video below

What you need to do is use Wolverine's regular attacks to reduce Wink's shield so that you put her in danger where you can use the finisher on her, before she has a chance to do any of her teleport cycles where she teleports up onto the platform. This saves a lot of time, at least a minute

Wink can only begin her cycles after taking a certain amount of damage. You want to avoid using super attacks or any attacks that launch Wink which will cause her to take damage to her overall health so you need to repeat the first 2 hits of Wolverine's normal attacks and only using his supers when she's blocking your regular attacks to break through her block

The new Return Home strat, which Paul came up with, features a glitch that I've known about for years but only happened to me once or twice and I could never figure out how to replicate it. The glitch occurs after destroying the first Turlin engine which will result in the mission finishing without needing to destroy the 2nd Turlin engine.

The strat starts with you needing to remove the armour from the orb by performing 5 standing projectile attacks from the very beginning of the mission. This can be done as long as you don't move at the start of the mission, and is a glitch I figured out a while ago but wasn't a fast way to complete the mission normally. Then, fly over to the orb and perform a flying attack to remove the armour without destroying the orb. And then to trigger the glitch, you need to fly a certain distance above the orb and position yourself properly to perform a drop kick to destroy the orb which should complete the mission.

Paul posted multiple videos of him testing the glitch (I've also tested the glitch & it works for me too) Watch the 3rd video to see the strat

Finally, here is a video of me doing strats for Elektra's 4th & 5th missions for the All Character Missions category. These are strats that I came up with years ago but since I never did a run in this category I never showed them

Paul, StarFalco and I all discussed these new strats in the discord but for anyone else thinking of doing runs, these are strats that you should know about and learn before doing any runs

Lol

Could just call it "World Grand Prix" because that's what you'd be doing. All the rank c, b and a races, then the world grand prix and then the president race

Items that could be given to you at the start of a NG+ run include

• Skilling objects (To get skills required for jobs - for 100%)
• Power Specials (To defeat villains for Any% or maybe completing other goals for 100%)
• Furniture (To improve mood or to sell for money)
• Walls (which could be used to block non-playable Urbz from certain parts of the districts) These objects would be put on the ground in the first apartment and/or the first district of the run by one of the pre-existing Urbz & could be picked up by the new playable Urb that you play as during the run

Items that could be put into the districts for NG+ runs include

• Grill - for making sausages - the best way to improve your hunger (afaik)
• Shower - most districts lack showers or sufficient hygiene requirements
• Chairs to boost your energy quickly
• Better toilets - Certain toilets improve your bladder better than others
• Fun objects - Certain objects improve your fun better than others
• Extra doors - to stop other Urbz from getting in your way

This game has been a favourite of mine since I was young & I have a certain amount of nostalgia for it. I've just completed the game again today & I've watched a few speedruns of this game but while I was playing, I thought of a couple of possible ideas for different categories. These are:

NG+ Any% and 100%

• As you know, you can have 4 playable Urbz in a single saved game. You could have New Game+ categories if you have a category where 1-3 Urbz have already played through the game. You can set up the game so that your urb has a bunch of items already at the start of the game (Power Socials, furniture that can be used or sold etc.). Items can also be put into the districts & items in the districts can be moved around which can make player movement more optimised in all the different districts.
• NG+ Any% would require you to unlock Darius Penthouse with this NG+ setup
• NG+ 100% would require you to complete all the goals with the NG+ setup

Urbz Fanatic!

• Urbz Fanatic is the level you achieve once you reach 999 Reputation (100 relationship status with every non-playable Urb + the 3 player Urbz). There could be a speedrun for getting to 999 Reputation

What do you guys think about these category ideas? I realize this isn't a popular speedrun game with only a handful of people who have run the game but I think these could be very interesting categories. I'm thinking about speedrunning the game but it might be a while before I decide to do so. And if these categories are accepted, I'll likely do a run in them

Ok well in that case, the 11 categories would be

• Thing - Complete the first 3 Thing missions
• Wolverine - Complete the first 3 Wolverine missions
• Elektra - Complete the first 3 Elektra missions
• Daredevil - Complete the first 3 Daredevil missions
• Storm - Complete the first 3 Storm missions
• Venom - Complete the first 3 Venom missions
• Spider-man - Complete the first 3 Spider-man missions
• Human Torch - Complete the first 3 Human Torch missions
• Iron Man - Complete the first 3 Iron Man missions
• Magneto - Complete all 3 Magneto missions
• Paragon - Complete the last 3 Paragon missions

Completing all 5 missions wouldn't be ideal because there's a sacrifice mission after the first 3 missions for most characters

@f1 @Jumpyluff Do you guys think a level leaderboard for each Character section rather than each mission might be better? Like, rather than each individual mission having its own category, there would be a single category for Thing (finishing all 5 of his missions as fast as possible; or the first 3 of his missions as you would in Any%) and every other character

So rather than 62 individual leaderboards, there would be 11 (all 10 marvel characters + Paragon)?

I just think there's a lot of runners who like running short categories or single levels/missions. But I think the IL leaderboard would also be helpful for people practicing for Any% or the All Character Missions categories. It's handy to see the fastest each mission has been done and how it was performed and I think an IL leaderboard would be good for that.

Maybe it's unneccessary but I think it could be good for the community and I don't really see any downside. It's not going to clutter the leaderboard since it's its own leaderboard. I honestly think this game and the runners would benefit from it but idk, maybe it's just me

If you have 4 save points at 4 different parts of the game and you have 4 missions to choose from for each save file, then that's 16 missions you have available to you. Then there's another potential 16 missions you can access just by completing 1 mission. That's 32 missions that you can easily get to either by loading a save or by loading a save and completing 1 mission. It's not that hard to get to any point in the game if you have 4 saves at different points in the game. It would be better if you could just choose any mission to replay after completing the game but it doesn't take that much effort to get to a specific mission if you have the 4 saved files.

I get having concerns about the idea but I don't think any of the currently active members of the community are against having a level leaderboard; myself and Jumpyluff seem fine with the idea. I don't think Weapon Lord or StarFalco64 would have a problem with a level leaderboard, in fact maybe they'd submit some runs for some of the missions

The missions are generally very short for this game and a lot of speed games are well known for having short missions where people try to get the times as low as possible and a lot of runners like short runs like these. I think this game would benefit from a level leaderboard

Oh, I should note that for boss fight missions where you ring out your opponent, you can't quit out of the mission once you ring out your opponent so you would have to reload your save for these missions after each completion

I wouldn't be too hard on f1. Idk about his moderation of other games but he's the only moderator of the game and there hasn't been that much demand for changes for this game. But yeah, I want to make changes to this game so more people might want to speedrun and/or join the community cause I think this is an underrated game and a fun game to run. It's a game that not many people know a lot about

Also thanks for your input

Well I've been playing the game quite a lot recently but I haven't felt like doing complete Any% runs. I've been playing a lot of the missions though just for fun, but trying to do them quickly and using the speedrun strats. And I think a level leaderboard would make the game a lot more accessible for new runners

I get that there won't be much demand for a level board at first because there aren't many runners for the game but I think it might help get some more runners get into the game. The missions are mostly very short ranging from seconds to a small number of minutes (with a couple exceptions which are quite long) so I think there could be good competition for many missions in trying to get the lowest possible times.

Also, it's worth noting that you can quit out of a mission after the Victory screen appears so you don't have to reload the save file after each completed attempt at a mission.

You can start the game over from a completed file and then play until you get to whatever mission(s) you want to play. But yeah, you'd ideally want to have your save file right before the mission.

You can have 4 different save files in the game. The mission select screen allows you to practice 4 missions from one save file. Most of the missions are short, especially with some of the speedrun strats we have. I have my save files at 4 different points in the game. To get to any mission I'd want to practice, it wouldn't take me any more than 15 minutes of gameplay and I would make a new save file right before the mission I'd want to run.

Hey, I was thinking that a level leaderboard would be beneficial for this game. This leaderboard would include every mission in the game.

I think this would make the game a lot of accessible for speedrunning for those who don't want to run the entire game. Ideally, the timer would start after the loading screen or when you gain control of your character, in order to account for differences between loading times. The timer would stop on the Victory screen

These are all the missions in the game. The leaderboard would be split up into categories for each character mission set. Their would also be a category for the Sacrifice missions (missions where you defeat a marvel character as an Imperfect character)

Thing

• The Invasion
• It's On Now!
• Catch This!
• Clobber em all!
• Broken Things

Wolverine

• Street Fight
• House Party
• Femme Fatale
• Claws of Fury
• To Defy A Goddess

Elektra

• Death From Afar
• Top of the World
• Daredevil!
• Silent Death
• Assassin's Blades

Daredevil

• Redemption
• Scorched Earth
• Electric Man
• Take Them Down
• Lovers' Quarrel

Storm

• Return Home
• House Call
• Earthquake
• Fight to Survive
• Wrath of the Elements

Spiderman

• Spiderman!
• Airlift
• Deadly Venom
• Warped Evil
• Fragile Life

Venom

• The Pit
• Seek and Devour
• Fatal Heat
• Wanton Destruction
• Rise and Fall

Human Torch

• Field Trip to Hell
• Torchbearer
• Old Friends
• Cleansing Flame
• Blazing Speed

Iron Man

• Scuttle
• Call of Heroes
• The Eternal Soldier
• Hot Iron
• All or Nothing

Magneto

• Master of Magnetism
• Death Incarnate
• Poisoned Steel

Paragon

• Beta Test
• Mayas Dilemma
• Duel of Masters
• Paragon's Revenge
• Meet Your Maker

Sacrifice Missions

• Last Stand (Fault Zone vs Thing)
• Casualties of War (Brigade vs Wolverine)
• Deadlier Than Males (Wink vs Elektra)
• Death By Fire (Solara vs Daredevil)
• Rage of the Beast (Altered Wolverine vs Storm)
• High Voltage (Johnny Ohm vs Spiderman)
• Lethal Toxin (Hazmat vs Venom)
• Along Came A Spider (Altered Spiderman vs Human Torch)
• Clash of Steel (Niles Van Roekel vs Iron Man)

What do you guys think?

@f1 Hey, I have a new PB for 9 Lives category which would be WR if the load times were removed because Jaypin's new WR has faster load times than mine. I think it's a good idea to revisit the idea @WeaponLord had to start time on CLASH rather than starting on level selection in order to remove load times. Or just start time as soon as loading stops

I don't think there's really a need to know IGT for previous existing runs. If you look at my recent run, I have the IGT on the title, in the video description and shown at the end of the run. But if runners forget to show it at the end of their run, it's not a problem if RTA is still considered the main method of timing

Besides, if StarFalco and WeaponLord beat their PBs at some point and show their IGT in the video, then the IGT of their previous runs will be irrelevant anyway

The loading differences are actually quite considerable. Like, for an Any% run, I think my load times are about 5 minutes longer than Star Falco's load times throughout the entire run. It puts certain runners at a big disadvantage

I'm not necessarily saying the IGT timer is an improvement because it doesn't include seconds and that's not ideal, but I think it should at the very least be a variable, even if it's not the main variable. It's not really much extra "work" you have to do. All you have to do is check your IGT at the end of the run by saving your game and then checking the IGT on the save/load menu. All the ending cutscenes and the credits are skippable so you can basically go from the last mission to the save menu immediately. Imo IGT and RTA timers are equal

Thanks! I'm really happy with how the run went! Still improvable but a great run!

Star Falco responded on discord

"Hey it's not letting me log in atm but I sign off on it I think it's a good idea However I have no clue what my IGT was in my previous run. I'm gonna be running again probably but for now that'll be a setback for me I don't like that it doesn't count seconds, but I've ran games where the IGT was the primary timer and it also didn't count seconds. So I'm not gonna let that hold me up. I say go for it."

I just got WR in the Any% category with an RTA time of 1:13:05 and IGT of 1:01!