100% Category
8 years ago
United States

Taking ideas for a 100% (or equivalent) category.

All Medals should certainly be required. Should S+ times be required for all levels? It is somewhat inherit since this IS speedrunning. What about all the equipment you can buy in the store?

Dendris likes this
England

I haven't played through the entirety of Blinx yet (I'm at the Forge of Hours round), but here's my 100% category suggestion:

If the Isa's GameFAQs guide to Blinx is at all accurate (see 'VIII - Prizes' section), then the 100% category should mostly be measured by the number of prizes in the player's collection. Requiring all 80 medals and A+/S+ rankings in all levels to get all 14 prizes. We also then have a 14/14 counter to review. Walkthrough link: http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox/561518-blinx-the-time-sweeper/faqs/19690

Then there's two other questions:

  1. Should the player have to get the S+ ranks in all stages and not just A+?
  2. Should buying upgrades to max out Blinx's retry holder to 9, his time holder to 10, and upgrading the sweeper to 10 capacity also be required? My answer to both is 'yes', so we can count 14 prizes, see if all levels satisfy an 'S+ rank' threshold, and Blinx's upgrades all have visible upper limits as well. This would also be significantly different from an 80 medallions run because of likely-many stage replays, so I think they can exist as properly separate categories.

So the 100% category rules I propose: -Unlock all 14 prizes: --'S+ Rank' all stages. --Collect all 80 medallions. -Level up Blinx's retry holder to 9 lives. -Level up Blinx's time holder to 10 effects. -Level up Blinx's sweeper to 10 storage capacity. -Defeat the final boss.

Another topic is purchasing the best sweeper (TS-X7 Supreme), and the last clothing set (Bright Set), for 90,000G and 30,000G respectively. Ignoring the grind to get the gold for these, would they need to bought? Sweepers and clothing sets aren't permanently bought, they replace each other, so that would be a strike against their inclusion in the run, and clothing is merely cosmetic, so I would put it as a definite 'no'. I'm somewhat unsure on the best sweeper because it's technically part of maxing out Blinx's in-game ability, but I still personally lean to 'no'.

ROMaster2 likes this
Massachusetts, USA

Including the final sweeper would mean that a ton of the end of any 100% run would involve grinding for a LOT of gold. Generally, even in a casual run where you buy as little as possible, you don't get more than 20,000 gold by the end of the game, so I'd agree with leaving it out.

I do like the rules you've suggested, though S+ on everything might be a bit hard to do since some stages need a bit more prep than usual to do it (and a bit more grinding for FFs too)

Zulbull, ROMaster2, and Dendris like this
England

@Harmak Yeah, at the time I hadn't actually put any real thought into how much grinding 120,000G takes: e.g. I used a grind spot on 3-1/3-3 that gave ~1,000G, completing the level in ~5 minutes - which comes out at 10 hours of grinding for 120,000G (dull Grind%).

You make a fair point on the A+/S+ dilemma, I said "go with S+" because my mindset was the highest grade on the level times' grading system, thinking "collect" all of the highest grades. But the grades' thresholds ARE technically arbitrary, so saying "there's technically no need to aim for ranks above what's needed for the prizes" isn't unreasonable. How much extra work does it require to get the S+ ranks, though? You'd need to repeat levels anyway because medallions often get in the way of A+. An anecdote for some of the hardest levels (Forge of Hours 2 & 3): I managed to grab all but one medallion between the two levels and still get both S+ ranks during casual play, but I did have a lot of pauses to help me, so it might not be applicable in a run.

If the increase in grind is significant - and I know you'll know far more than I would, so if you say it's too much you're probably right - 100% being A+ instead of S+ would make sense. There could also be a separation for "100% w/S+" or something if anyone was interested down the line - which wouldn't be too different from Medievil's 100% (all Chalices) and Max% (all Chalices + grab all of the Chalices' rewards + the few extra life bottles they ignore in 100%) distinction. (IL runs could just cover S+ ranks anyway without a need for a "100% w/S+")

KumatoraPM and ROMaster2 like this
Massachusetts, USA

IIRC, S+ is only determined by the time it takes to get to the end, so especially in speedrunning, I tend to get a lot of S+ ranks just through optimizing.

As for the grind, I think that the best place to do it is Kerogon 2, since it gives you the pauses you need and generally takes about 1 minute 30 seconds per playthrough for ~1100 G. On the flipside though, you would need to fight the guy for at least an hour and a half to get the money you need, so it still ends up taking a long time.

Finland

Just a note, in the first levels it's a lot harder to score an high ranks than in the later levels.

For example, I think in 8-3, you can get any time at all (such as 9:59) and still receive an A+

Washington, USA

Quick question, should we use the original or the Platinum Hits version or does it matter?

I only ask because there are a few minor differences between the two.

(P.S. I'm new to speed running, so please forgive any stupid questions I may ask)

Edited by the author 7 years ago
KumatoraPM likes this
Finland

Either one. But for most of the different levels, Platinum Hits is faster. (Not a bad question btw)

KumatoraPM and Hexaveo like this
Texas, USA

Just a quick question, what does ranking have to do with 100%? I don't see how that would really matter since getting ranks doesn't really do anything for you. Maybe make a category for All S+ ranks or something like that. I just don't see how getting all S+ (or A+ in this case) would do much for you in a 100% run.

Finland

The ultimate sweeper

Texas, USA

But doesn't getting all medals unlock that without involving ranks?

Finland

True I think you're right, getting an A+ or better in all the levels unlocks the final unlockable video (the game's main developers). Guess it just makes sense that it's part of 100% completion