Hi! I want to get into speedrunning this game, but I have not (yet) acquired XC2. I was wondering whether not having the 100k starting cash creates a bottleneck at some specific point during the game, or whether it just let's you speed up the first couple of chapters with the early armour/weapon advantage?

In any case, if it's necessary, it might not be a bad idea to get XC2 in the end anyway; is it possible to start practice without it?

Basically, from what I'm gathering, the XC2 money is not very necessary for 1.1.1 and lower but cuts some time out on trading and on collectable RNG, while for version 1.1.2 it helps a bit more because you can abuse it more. (I'm not totally sure though, so I'll let anyone correct me if I'm wrong.)

Thank you both for the answers, and Leon for the detailed answer :) This helps out a ton, thanks. I'll look into what is more convenient/easier.

As a side note, I do plan on running 1.1.2, since I can't find very solid documentation on how to downgrade (I'm not sure what you're allowed to discuss here either). Are there any resources you'd recommend, or should I just stick with 1.1.2?

The only "intended" way of downgrading is factory resetting your console and using a physical cartridge of the game. However, there is/are (an)other "less intended" way(s), but you'll have to wait for someone else more knowledgeable to respond, or to ask on Discord, not really an expert on the subject ^^'

If you are to downgrade, you would either have to homebrew (don't know the specifics) or factory reset the switch and use a physical copy. If you want to do normal, pre-1.1.2 is recommended as it saves a lot of grinding. As for casual difficulty, 1.1.2 is pretty well routed and no grinding is required to beat the game. Same goes for NG+ categories since they do not use Tephra skip.

Thanks!! I'll check out some things. Thanks for helping me on my way!