Overview
For the... 3(?) people still playing Trine 5, I figured I'd create a thread for documenting strats and general knowledge, for whomever might find it useful besides myself.
Wind Burst Leap Exploit
The most-used abilities by a large margin are Amadeus' Wind Burst Leap (WBL) which (for version 1.02 and older) allows something like 3 to 7 additional boosts by spamming jump, Pontius' charge, and box/plank jumping to a lesser extent. Those three things combined can skip a majority of height and distance-based parts that would otherwise require a slower method, whether solving a puzzle or levitating objects.
In order to make sure you get this by the first grand checkpoint in The Astral Academy Gardens, you'll need 6 upgrade points (150 XP). There's roughly 188 XP by that checkpoint, so not all of it needs to be collected -- ideally, only that which doesn't require going too far out of your way.
General Strats
There's also a way to skip the segment in The Astral Academy Gardens when you're trapped in the cage, which you can find here.
Unfortunately, some of the best strats that worked for 4, most notably object charge, do not work in 5, as when you launch an object with charge or wind burst and then immediately grapple it with Zoya, the object is just stopped by her rope rather than getting pulled along with it. However, box/plank jumping is still doable, and when combined with the WBL exploit, is extremely powerful.
Invincibility Frames
After you die and resurrect, you're invincible for something like 3 seconds. It's possible to use this to run through spikes, electrified water, and the like.
Zoya's roll also makes her invincible during the animation, so triggering that right before getting hit will cancel any damage you would have received.
Movement
In terms of general movement, Pontius' charge is (as usual) generally the fastest, at least in bursts. There's also shield sliding when you have a lot of relatively flat ground to cover, and Zoya's roll, which can be used to save time while Pontius' charge is in cooldown. Switching between charge and roll is a good deal faster than either on its own, which are both faster than just running. However, if there are rings around, a well-timed swing can be one of the fastest movement methods, as can Amadeus's ball spin, but only if it's worth the ~3s it takes to charge. In my experience, there aren't many decent places to use it that charging wouldn't cover.
While not as universally effective as WBL, and likely of extremely limited use in speedrunning, if you have enough points for both Kiteshield (5) and Kick & Wall Jump (2), you can often get to ledges just out of reach by wall jumping, then immediately switching to Pontius and gliding to reach the ledge. I'm not sure where this would ever come in handy, but I've used it a number of times as a casual player, for whatever it's worth.
Topics to cover:
Fight/enemy strategies (the ones you can't skip, at least)
- Dungeons and Sewer Rats fight skip 1 and 2
- Tallest Tower gate guardian skip
Boss strategies
A more in-depth explanation of object jumping and other movement tactics
Puzzle fast solves/cheesing
- Autumn Woods box puzzle
Specific skips and exploits
- Astral Academy Gardens Fight Skip
- Dungeons and Sewer Rats - Zoya wall clip
- Dungeons and Sewer Rats - Fight skip with spiked ball and Wind Burst
- The Bastion of Hope flying exploit
Autosplitter progress
If you've read this far, thanks for bearing with me, and hopefully a little life can be breathed back into this game.
I'm terribly new to speedrunning, but I love Trine, and I'd love to attempt some single-segments. However, they don't appear to be set up — clearly it isn't the most popular game here.
Also, would it be possible to add a NG+ category?
Thanks!