I'm just a theorycrafting spectator so I apologize if this is a waste of time

Can you drop a worm on the ground and pick up it back up (like OOT bugs), triggering the collection text popup? If so, could you use the worm to item slide through the castle barrier?

It might be useful any% (or just in meme categories)

Congratulations!

Direct video link: Run originally completed 2017-08-29

The run above is probably less optimized than my old 27:22

I was the only runner and had dosbox on slow settings - game was running fine but it had lengthy load times which I didn't realize could be eliminated without messing up gameplay

Another runner (carlito) came in and got a much better time which I soon realized was due to faster dosbox cycles and therefore faster loads

This was my first WR using the new settings and I didn't feel the need to keep grinding the time down as I had done prior to the change

Thanks for verifying my run Can a mod please submit and verify this run as well?

https://www.speedrun.com/secret/run/m79djq5y (carlito's 27:01)

Then I'll delete the old leaderboard

I've promoted NMG and removed the old foamless name

I ran this at SGDQ 2017 and it's one of the only categories to attract wider attention. I think it ought to be a main category alongside our current champs

world first sub2 This was a fairly well optimized run before the super secret tech to skip the roof door key

For those of you passing this sign your way to the top, what lies beyond is a realm of optimization, RNG, and sheer f*cking will May Heinrich bless your runs

Is it actually necessary to beat Hans? I know you can do the explosion glitch ending and if you called on the radio you'll get the cinematic of Carl shooting, but I don't remember if you get "I know you could do it"

There's a cool timed event going on right now, might be worth making a category for. It's a single-player boss run type of event, and when you finish it gives you an in-game time and encourages you to go faster

There's 1 card that carries over between runs and is pretty OP, so either all the top runs are going to use the card (Best Friend Forever) or we would have to have 2 categories. I think given that this is a limited-time event maybe only 1 category is needed.

Here's my 7m19s (in-game time) PB:

Awesome, thanks very much!

Here's a Normal-difficulty Low% run that doesn't play through the final stage over and over (19m50s total time):

Fire Viper appears to be extremely effective on the right hand and generally somewhat weak on the left hand

This is the only right-hand effect I've found thus far in the game, but potentially others exist as well

Test videos:

Stage 3 boss:

Stage 4 boss:

I did it on Normal, not sure what the best way to handle difficulty would be (we don't exactly have a lot of people running any% easy or hard, can't imagine we would have a lot of low% competition on different difficulties)

Can we get low% added, possibly as a miscellaneous category? I worked on it as a challenge and I think it's interesting Here's a run:

Low% has a few major differences from Any%.

Low% does not collect the Level 1 Wind Ring, so to get speed up it must combine the Level 2 Wind Ring with the Level 1 Earth Ring, severely limiting the projectile options early on as compared to Any%.

Additionally, Low% does not collect the health upgrades in any stage, which makes health a more precious resource in the early game as compared to Any%. (Notably skipping the Stage 2 health up)

Finally, Low% skips the Level 3 Earth Ring, and therefore misses out on the "Blade" super-weapon. The Blade is normally used to dispose of the last 8 bosses very easily. Low% must come up with alternative strategies for these bosses.

Hi, I did some math to figure out the optimal strategies in the casino. I posted this in Johncarls' discord, but I figured I'd throw it here as well in case anyone else is interested

Strategies: Red Dog 500 - Bet 500 in Red Dog, mash the draw/deal button (never raise) and hope to win net 3 times Blackjack 500 - Bet 500 in Blackjack, hope to either win 3 times or get a good opportunity to double down and win 2 times Blackjack 750 - Bet 750 in Blackjack, win 2 times. If you lose the first hand, bust intentionally to start over Blackjack 250/500/1250 - Try to hit 1250 in Blackjack then double from there. You get 2 shots at it, betting 250 and then 500 (if you lose the 250). If you lose twice in a row, bust intentionally to zero out and start over

With perfect luck: Red Dog 500 (RD500) is optimal. It's closer to the cash window and each hand can be played much faster (although this game has more draws, with perfect or near-perfect luck that's not a big deal) Blackjack 500 (BJ500) is +10s compared to RD500. Each hand takes a little longer to play, but the main issue is there are more screen transitions to get to and from the table BJ750 is +3s compared to BJ500. Not being able to save time by doubling requires playing an extra hand at a cost of 2.5-3 seconds. BJ1250 is +7s compared to BJ750. While losing hands are faster, actually winning out takes much longer due to having to scroll the bet up to 1250

With average luck: BJ1250 takes 140 seconds and has a 31% chance of success per cash refill. BJ750 takes 190 seconds and has a 21% chance of success per refill BJ500 takes 240 seconds and has a 15% chance of success per refill (probably a little better than this due to opportunities to double down, which are not fully taken into account here) RD500 takes 300 seconds and has a 7% chance of success per refill

Do you know the delay from power-on to difficulty select? I'd like to be able to compare runs vs your test TAS times apples-to-apples

Well done to you kirkq, the route is much improved because of your work

I just submitted a time I can be relatively proud of (sub 2)

I think the optimal strategy is to slightly under-damage your feet and rely on bullets (RTA) or running damage (TAS or RTA, can do it on stairs to inflict a little foot damage) to get the last little bit of damage

I farmed good Heinrich spawns + floor 35 spawns + roof spawns and eventually got one where everything lined up nicely (although I don't know what the variables are for pseudoRNG)

I like the work you're doing here, it looks like you're approaching optimization of all variables for the roof explosion route

BTW TASVideos.org best die hard time is 2:12, I'd encourage you to polish yours and submit there

I clipped through the stairs & adjoining wall with a little help from some enemies