Hello, I have been curious about the route for doing a New Game All Stages run for a while, and hearing varying responses from a couple moderators, I'd wonder if there could be a little clarification. :)

I'd originally assumed that it was completing 8-4 warpless 8 times and then doing the letter worlds warpless after the 8th warpless completion. However I did hear that you could just do any% 7 times and the 8th run would be warpless 8-4 + a-d warpless (essentially All Stages). Depsite the rules saying "The warpless playthrough can be any of the 8 8-4 playthroughs.", I'm a bit confused.

Sorry if it seems obvious but I'd like to know the most optimal route that is permitted.

Thanks in advance :D

do warpless (beat 9-4) 1 time and any% 7 times and then the letter worlds, doing warpless first puts most reset points early in the run

No, that is New Game Both Endings. I am talking about New Game All Stages which is a different category that includes the game being completed Warpless, not just Any% the whole time.

Not necessarily. On FDS you'd have to game over in 9-1 (after already beating world 9 once), and go back to the title screen to play letter worlds. This is because world 9 loops infinitely until you die on FDS. On All-Stars you can go straight to world A from world 9 without dying or anything.

It is my understanding that you need to beat 8-4 8 times (this satisfies the "new game" aspect of the category to unlock the letter worlds from a hypothetical "new" game. The All Stages aspect means at least one of your 8 completions of 8-4 must include a warpless run... that warpless run is the only way to reach W9, and after beating 9-4, as you already know, the world loops back to 9-1 and Game Over is required to get back to the title screen. At this point in time, you have satisfied the "All Stages" requirement (excluding the letter worlds). From there, you would hold A and press START on the title screen to begin your warpless playthrough of A-D... sartisfying all requirements of the category.

I guess the confusion is in the phrasing of the first line of text in the rules? "Beat 8-4 8 times, beat 9-4 and then beat D-4." but i feel that is completely cleared up with: "The warpless playthrough can be any of the 8 8-4 playthroughs."

That sounds good. I was just a little stumped because with the title 'All Stages', I had assumed that you had to do all completions as warpless runs, and thought that an any% run would invalidate the attempt. Seems like everything is cleared up now though, thanks. 👍