- K4E is done after Tricky gets Flame in DarkIce Mines.
( also possible with a strategy like DIME )
- Get Rocket Boost in GrubTub Well after K4E.
- Go to DarkIce Mines again.

I have confirmed that K4E can skip acquisition/installation of SpellStone 3, and defeat Andross.
Walled City 2 did not open when used with K3E. I may have made a mistake, but I'm not sure.

@BvqRzxi5BvqRzxi5 would it be faster to skip Spellstone 1 or to skip Spellstone 3 in this case since skipping DIM saves 20+ minutes while I haven't timed how much of a time save you'd get for skipping Wall City 1. Also did you do K3E in combination of K4E? If so, maybe we'd have to place them in order (K3 -> K4)?

Oh yeah, I forgot we need Flame to death warp.

SS1 skip actually ends up with soft-lock in 3 places:
- The 1st SpellStone gate won't open with SS3 unless opened with SS1 before
- The 2nd SpellStone gate won't open unless the torch color puzzle was solved before obtaining SS3 (puzzle will be inactive later).
- The kill door after the 2nd gate will just be a solid invisible wall unless solved earlier before getting SS3.

Right now it let's us skip buying Firefly Lantern, GrubTub Well, SnowHorn Trials, and obtaining SS3. That's why I also want to find Freeze Blast skip.

With Freeze Blast skip we can finally skip Volcano Point, MM Pass Key, Blow Horn, and SS1.

EDIT: I guess if we never get SS3, the puzzles should still be doable later. BvqR's strategy of returning to DIM later will work then.

One possible route (I left out Bafomdad pickups / bag):
- <Start route as normal>
- Buy 5x Fuel Cells
- DIME
- Create RESW file at DIM
- Get Flame
- Fly back to ThornTail
- K4 early with underwater walking (Doing it now is a good idea so that we can pick up Fuel Cells)
- ESW to DIM
- Fly back to ThornTail
- Get Rocket Boost, Mana Upgrade
<Do K3 early. After ESW, finish DIM>
<Continue Route as normal, skipping SnowHorn Trials and SS3>

Also it may be possible to finish DIM after placing SS4. I'll test the route for soft-locks and see if K4 before K3 works.

I also don't know how much time these will save...
It seems that the release of Krazoa Spirit needs to be done in order, but the acquisition of Spirit does not need to be done in order.
WarpStone led Fox who owns both Krazoa Spirits 3 and 4 to Krasoa Palace 3.

I forgot to post the video for this

Not useful here, but maybe somewhere else it can be used

Edit: I tried to use this in Cape Claw without Tricky. Kill enemy on ramp, and pick up Mana crystal. Unfortunately, a recovery is not possible. Fox will stay voided out.

I said Walled City 2 wouldn't open if used K4E and K3E.
It may simply be a K3E issue.

@BvqRzxi5BvqRzxi5 I'm assuming that you've also placed Spellstone 4 before visiting Wall City?

Yes.
Has anyone seen Walled City 2 after K3E?

I'm pretty sure someone mention some dependencies with K3E in a really old post? I'll have to see if I can find that. Worst case scenario if you place K3 the game might update a flag that expects you to defeat Red Eye King?

I'm sorry. English is not my native language, so it may not make sense.

In other words, when you place or get the K3 spirit, the game might be forcing us to fight the Red Eye King.

Edit: Looks like I was wrong, and it wasn't Walled City #2.

I have done Walled City #2 after K3 early (but have not tried K4 early). On that file I did Walled City #1. It might be what Dark-X-Rane said -- maybe we need to either:
- Have flown to Walled City #1
- Have obtained SS3

I was messing around with ESW (with previously created savefiles) and i found out that cloudrunner forretres is unable to flown in if you didnt flown first to dark ice mines, i asume that happen too with walled city & dragon rock

Yeah I've tested that one, flight progression triggers work as such:
- Must have flown to the previous zone
- The first flight MUST start from Dinosaur Planet (For example, unlocking CRF and doing an ESW to DIM means you have to fly to Dinosaur Planet and then CRF)
- Later flights can start from anywhere. The K3 early ESW route flies from DIM to Walled City #2 after an ESW.

I was able to fly to Walled City after the K3E and SS4 placement, but it was still Walled City 1.

As you say, we can't fly to Dragon Rock without opening Walled City. On the K4E route, it opens Walled City by the power of King EarthWalker and Portal, and then riding ArWing, but it does not have to actually go to Walled City 1. Immediately return to Dinosaur Planet to release Krazoa Spirit 4. I went to Walled City after placing SpellStone4(without K3E), it was Walled City 2.

It seems warping to Ice Mountain disables "Staff Energy Gem", "PukPuk Eggs", and "Dumbledang Pods" discovery.

I'm disappointed because this makes it harder to trigger item discovery for glitches.

Edit: Yep, looks like the K3 route soft-locks as BvqR discovered. See the K3 thread for details.