Can anyone tell me why PC takes the West Office instead of the Library after grabbing the Spade Key? I've tested both routes and they are around the same time reaching the waiting room without grabbing the Lion Medallion. Also, the times for reaching the Secret Room were faster taking the Library. Both routes were tested with no missed shots, no sloppy movement, and good medallion grabs. All the PC players and random drop ins tell me the West Office is faster but I can't wrap my head around it being they back track for the Lion Medallion. Just wondering if there is a explaination as to why the PC route is preferred by most. Please don't reply with just "It's faster".
Edit: Category Leon/Claire A
I have taken pc route on console with good shots and no sloppy movement good medallion puzzling aswell and as soon as I do the normal route (I watched a fellow console player do) it seems like it was a better time
Well the marvin call, the ladder. Activating the library zombies early can change the outcome when exiting unicorn medal room. More risky. Using the library skip with the rocket launcher on ng+ leads to losing time behind the original route so in new game standard it could not save time theoretically. Helicopter crashes at 4:45 for original and 4:56 for the library route. Just my speculations.
iirc west wing isn't necessarily cus it's faster, it's more so to be able to discard the key asap during rpd1 for inventory management since you only go there once an thats after picking the spade key
I use the library route, and I always get better times with it in the first RPD part. This may be to me being worse than PC players at going down the stairs or shooting those zombies on the stairs while coming back. Also, I do think that this route may jeopardize the current strategy of shooting the ground outside of the library to avoid using a flash when you have to push the shelves (but this strat isn't failure proof even if you take the west wing route).
However, I don't think that not being able to discard the Spade Key makes any difference, since you simply put it in the chest with the Club Key. It takes up one extra space in your inventory for some time but it's not that long (I use the pre-alligator chest) and to my knowledge even PC players do not have a full inventory while navigating the RPD.
I managed to get my sum of best to 56:11 in 60 fps using library route after spade key, I've switched to the route most people do over the past day or so, and I'm already back down to 56:11 sum of best after having to clear the necessary splits. Plus, I got a 9:12 secret room split, when using library route my best was a 9:22 secret room split. Not really substantial evidence, but in my case I'm finding west office route about 10 seconds faster.
I suppose when I get bored enough I'll show the time differences with a comparison video. I've found taking the Library route to be faster. By how much I'm not 100% certain. But I do know by taking the West Office you're backtracking for the Lion Medallion at the most. I was just curious if the PC players had their reasons for avoiding the Library
I don't use it twice. I use it only once to put away the Spade and Club Key. The T-bar and all the other useless stuff goes with me to the end. But maybe this isn't doable on PC since you guys get the shotgun and all the knifes.
Library route is better for Claire since she doesn't have much of a need for the broken floor and running on caution kind of offsets it over time. The biggest downside to this route, however, is that you start to introduce randomness with the zombies in here as you backtrack for the medals which can screw you over during the medallion pickups and exit. Also, the library zombies all reset by the time you start pushing the shelves during RPD2 so the sound distraction strat still works regardless of what route you take.
Pros:
- More direct route for the Lion Medal
- Saves you a few handgun bullets from having to stagger zombies on the way back
- Less stairs to traverse on in general
Cons:
- Marvin call slows you down
- Library zombies can spawn under the broken floor, near the stairs as you go to the maiden statue, follow you into the storage room, and near the ladder when you're leaving to place the medals in the main hall
I know a sub 9 minute secret room can be done, but you really need the best library outcome and your puzzle solving has to be on point for it to shine. The best I've managed since doing this route was 9:04-9:13 times which is better than my times going the usual route. But, considering how many times I've been shit on going the library route, I'm probably just going to end up going back to the old one to avoid getting blocked lol.
Here it is. May surprise some of you.
I think I'm just going to take the stairs instead of breaking the floor during the call lol. Thank you!
@OneCoolMan very interesting, thanks for that. Wonder if the 1 second time save is worth the zombie rng in library + not being able to discard spade key.
I would have cut the medallions out of the video but then someone else would have stated it was missing the medallions, haha. Both medallions were pretty even from what I could tell. Either way it would have been pretty much the same. Remember, the rng in these runs are pretty well balanced and helps with a clean path to the Secret Room. It won't always be like this. To see how close these times are I may give thought to doing the West Office and then after Marvin go up the left stairs to grab the Lion Medallion. Seems like that could be the fastest way possible. No sense in back tracking for it.
in my testing, it saves 10 seconds on RPD 1 as claire, but you need to open the west office door and discard the spade key still, so it saves like 4 seconds, but adds a shit ton of RNG to the library. i often didn't get a run going for 4 hours. For leon though, pretty sure its slower overall
