I was looking into the categories and trying to understand what beating this game would be and how the rules match up.

I believe there are 5 shops, so a full run of this game would be shops 0-5, Levels 0-9. Ending would be Shop 59, Hats 00

Right now Any% (Shop 0) is OK, but maybe the 100% category would be Any% (All Shops)? And the rules would change to align to Shop 59, Hats 00?

Example for Any% (All Shops):

-Complete Levels 0-9 of Shops 0-5. -Time starts with the input starting the game (after selecting music on or off). -Time ends when "Shop 59 Hats 0" appears on the screen on Shop 5.

And Example for Any% (Shop 0):

-Complete Levels 0-9 of Shop 0. -Time starts with the input starting the game (after selecting music on or off). -Time ends when "Shop 09 Hats 0" appears on the screen.

What is a reasonable Tone/Health to have going into the Ligar fight assuming Attack & Assail will be used?

For example, ShiningDragoon, you have 1458 Tone, 9 Health, Power Up and Attack & Assail but claim in the 8:10 WR run this is quite risky depending on what Ligar does/avoiding hits.

Being new to the game, I'm trying to find that balance of not farming for too long but also standing a fair chance against Ligar.

Found this post on GameFAQs from The Admiral which has really good information on TGL. Others have since contributed more stats/mechanics.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/587320-the-guardian-legend/64314055

It's an old post yet I found it to be valuable information while learning the speedrun - especially damage stats for bosses (knowing what it is better to take hits from vs. other things).

I saw the TAS run use this code (posted on gamefaqs) and figured it would make sense for the 100 line category to be able to play at a faster speed on level 17 instead of level 9.

Pause the game at any time and press Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, B, B and then press the A Button to increase the level.