Hi all.
I'm looking to improve my speed runs for Claire A scenario. My best finish is 1:10:25 for PS4 at the moment, despite losing lots of time on the boss scenes.
Can anyone offer advice in how I can improve the time, e.g. stair gliding, walking faster around corners, settings to enable in game, etc.?
Any tips would very much be appreciated. Thank you
Thank you Christa. I have been watching Dyldorbaggins and he is super fast. I will try to replicate his movement, etc...
I would make saves at every critical point of the game. I'll list them below, but also keep in mind that you'll want to educate yourself on the dynamic difficulty known as difficulty adjustment, or commonly referred to as DA. It's important to know since you'll want to understand the current routing and why it's used, but it'll help you get into the mindset of limiting what you pick up since the game is forcing you to not do certain actions. DA influences your damage vs enemies along with their damage vs you and how quickly they move. As long as you follow the route of the current WR, or at least the general route, you won't have to worry about DA screwing you over. I just want to make sure that when you make your saves that you're not creating unrealistic scenarios that wouldn't happen in a real run.
So here's the saves I recommend. You can utilize the auto saves in between except for a few that make practicing inconsistent. I'll make note of it at the appropriate section, but you generally do not want to use these for training, or rely on them to determine an outcome, because some auto saves occur during a long sequence of events, or just manipulates enemy positioning that never occurs in an actual run.
Saves: RPD1 (before you open the shutter) - Auto saves here are okay except for two of them. The one at the Fire Escape is bad for timing practice runs, because you can skip the Marvin call by reloading the save. Auto save after the C4 explosion is okay for practicing the medallion puzzle here except you'll have to deal with the zombie that normally never falls once you reload this save.
Secret Room before Birkin 1 (Pipe Birkin)
Operators Room (the section where you find Sherry or the room below Parking Garage) Chief Irons Office (RPD2) - Auto save before Mr X locks zombie positioning for this whole section I believe? It's been awhile, but I know the female zombie on the second floor main hall has the same positioning every time I reloaded. The auto save in the clock tower is awful due to it moving the zombie that's normally in front of the door when you leave, so if you're struggling with that guy you'll have to opt for redoing the whole section from a different save altogether.
Chief Irons Office again before you do the panel puzzle in there (optional if you want to practice the Sherry segment alone)
Chief Irons Office after the Sherry segment to practice the trip to the Orphanage
Sewer Office - It's the room directly across after Sherry gets separated from you again
Monitor Room (1st visit) - after you drop down and get the cutscene with Sherry in the sewers - Only one auto save here is bad and it's after you grab the king and queen plugs. It forces the G-Mutant to be further away than normal every time, so you can't practice this consistently without reloading the entire section. Does let you work on juking the grab at least so there's that.
Monitor Room (2nd visit) - The auto save during the Birkin 2 fight is unreliable and can occur depending on the timing of your drop and crane activation, but you can use it to practice your damage strats + crane timing a few times just to get a feel for whatever route you're using. Ultimately, you'll want to practice the entire section since the timing is different in a single segment.
Labs after dropping off Sherry
Greenhouse Lab - My memory might be off on this as I haven't finished a run in months lol. The first auto save in the green house you'll use a lot to practice the lickers, so don't worry about the ivy that ends up spawning differently after you reload. Can't remember what the auto save before you use the Herbicide is like, but I don't think it altered any of the ivies much, or at all.
Save before G3 and G4 fights respectively
That's pretty much it for saving!
For movement, 7rayd's video still holds up if you want to learn.
Try your best to actually tap the aim button since you want to limit as much of the aiming animation as possible. You'll notice it a lot more on PC runs since mice tend to respond better to tapping inputs vs a controller trigger, but it's still possible to attain good skating on a controller. Most important thing about it is getting the right rhythm for it as he explains since you don't gain anything if you press too slow or fast.
For corner turning, the aim method will probably be the easiest. I have no idea how much it actually benefits since it's still up for debate. I definitely recommend it on the turns going towards stairs at least since you're combining a quick turn + stair skate in one motion. Anyway, aim method is tap Aim + hold direction you want to turn towards. You can also do this with movement alone, but it's easy to mess up due to having to stop then flick in the direction you want to turn very quickly. For analog snap turning, you just briefly let go of forward as you're going towards the corner you want to cut into, then flick left or right depending on where you want to turn.
Probably a less useful tip before I stop this wall of text is having your FOV set all the way to the right. Helps you see everything :D
Thank you Roo. I'm so sorry I have only read your post now. Very informative guide. Cheers :)
