Top Hunter Roddy & Cathy : Basics & Routing

Hello hello! If you're reading this, then you wanted to learn a bit of Top Hunter speedrunning and that's great at least if you're having fun!
I will try to make a guide for someone who played or never played the game, yes? Yes! It will be an overall guide, so if you want to search deep within the code of the game, feel free to do so!

/!\GUIDE IS NOT COMPLETE, I AM STILL WRITING THIS



MOST OF ALL AND BEFORE EVERYTHING : GET THE POWER UP!

Ok it's stilly, you don't know the game and I tell you to get the power up. It is a ball with a star on it and says "POWER".
You MUST get it, it improves your damage (useful for bosses), can allows you to oneshoot big ennemies, shorten mini bosses fight and makes your special moves cool, and you will be gold-shiny. Oh and you can destroy boulders so, yup!

So it will be useful if you know the places where you can get powerups ;)

Be aware : when you beat a boss/mini-boss, you don't keep the power up on the next level!



ENNEMIES : WHAT DO I MUST KNOW?

Ok so overall, there is several type of ennemies.
There are the little one that you can grap on the first time and oneshoot even if you don't have a powerup.
There are the middle one that you must smash first, then you can grap/kill them (if you have a powerup you can oneshoot them)
Then, there are the mini-bosses (But it's sh¤t specific, get the power up and tap A rapidly, you will hokuto hyakuretsu ken to their deaths)



MOVEMENT & ATTACK BASIC : WHAT DO WE DO ?

We're going to talk about the stuff that runner loves... MOVEMENT SPEED... But before that, you might want to know that your character has special move. Yes, yes. You can find the list here : http://www.gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Arcade/commands/Commands_Top_Hunter_-_Roddy_-_Cathy_-_1994_-_SNK_Corporation.htm (But one move doesn't appear : after you jumped, you can hold down-forward + A to do one divepunch)

You see, the character has sort of a hadouken movement like, it fires a projectile. I don't really use half of this movelist, in some rare occasion some move are useful - The last boss by exemple, can burn you if you're too close, so the hadouken move is useful.
Overall, there is one move you will use : the slide (down, down-forward, forward + B), it has the fastest movement speed and smash the ennemies on your way.

If you're close to a stun ennemy, your personnage will throw them on the ground, it makes you loose time (animation is pretty long), grabbing them can give you an extra projectile to launch at the face of your opponents (but watch out, they will escape after a short time).

There are two plane : one in the front & one in the back, you can switch between them by pressing C (and according to the level design, if there is nothing to stop you from doing so), knowing where to switch plane for an optimum time will be very useful!


LEVEL ORDER : DOES IT MATTER ?

When you start the game, you have to choose between 4 level : Forest, Ice, Wind, Fire.
Each level has 2 stages, what I call 1-1 and 2-1 on my split. Except for the last level which has only one stage.

The order doesn't impact the levels themselves : if you do Ice before Forest, it doesn't have an impact on it...
... But it has an impact on the 2 boss fights. The more level you have done, the more life boss will have.
If you do Ice before Forest, the boss on Forest will have more HP (And the boss on the first stage too, and have some item like robot to kick your ¤ss)

So, order doesn't really matter, you should choose them depending on your difficulties to fight a boss (My nemesis is the Fire boss, so I should do him first, because he will have low life)

But be aware : it does change the levels a little. So if you want to go in a particular route, practice it.



BOSSES & MINI-BOSSES : SOME HINT, PLEASE?!

I won't talk about two player. Sorry :(, but I will talk about 1p and level specific :)

FIRST STAGE BOSS :
Depending on how many levels you have done, he will get better HP & A vehicle. But the way to beat him is the same : SMASH HIM IN THE CORNER AND DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!

FOREST 
-First Stage Little henchmen ship
Get the power up then do the Zo'ou Ken move, the projectile will hit the hitbox of the ship and it will crash down, time save :)
-Second stage Pirate
There is a hook, grap it and try to lure the boss into the trap : if he is hit by the rock, he will get oneshoot, time save ! (But if you don't get it, he has quite a lot of life)
-Second Stage statues
Same thing, pull the lever, get them crushed by the rock! If you miss it, you can do it again.
-Forest Boss
Zo'ou Ken move hurts him, but it is slow when you're alone and doesn't do that much damage if you don't have a powerup. You can grab the bomb he's lauching & the ball on his vehicle.

ICE
-First Stage Yetis
Yetis, smash them. Don't let them live. Don't let them run. Smash A. SMASH THEM.
-First stage big Yetis
If you have a powerup, it's Zo'ou ken, if you don't.... Well. Smash A rapidly.
-Ice Boss
Well it implies a bit of RNG, the boss can spawn in 6 location : 3 on the first plane & 3 on the second. The thing is : she will throws a bunch of snowball around her. The only way you can be safe is : either you do Zo'ou ken, or she is on the first plane left, if you're between her & the border of the screen, you can smash her safely.

Wind
-First stage ship
The roll jump move seems to do a lot of damage, but you can do the Ryuga (SHORYUUUKEN) if you have a powerup!
-Second stage Henchmen on ropes
Roll jump allows you to hit them when they're coming, and at the top of the jump you can do the down-forward move when you're falling to hit the other ropes. Aey! 
-Second stage Pirate
You can't throw him a big rock, if you have a powerup, Smash A rapidly, and do a Zo'ou Ken, it will do the trick!
-Wind Boss
Roll jump can hurt him, but he will move when you will be falling, so... it's hard to determine a real speedy way, might do some research!

Fire
-First stage Pirate
Smash A rapidly with a power up :)
-Second stARGH WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BIG MONKEY
CRUSH HIM UNDER THE ROCK! DO IT! IT'S MOVING RIGHT INTO US! DO IT! HAAAAARGH! (No really, this f¤cker can touch you from really far away)
-Fire Boss 
If you can hit the head with a Zo'ou Ken, it will fall and you CAN SMASH IT!

Klapton's Ship
-Henchmen ship
If you can grab an henchmen before the ship arrives, you can launch him on the ship hitbox and do one damage, then you can grab his gun and shoot one time and poof, ship is gone!
-That guy with the shield
It's tricky, you don't have that much time when he's throwing his mace... But if you have a powerup, do a zo'ou ken, oneshoot!
-Henchmen robot
You can go behind it and Smash A, it's a bit tricky & his punch can hit you, but if timed right you can jump on his head & do damage

Last 5 bosses :
Best scenario is : you have the power up.
Worst scenario : you don't :(
The Zo'ou ken still do great damage if you have the power up.

Forest Boss : same thing that the first time, zo'ou ken & throw his ballz in his face :)
Ice Boss : powered up zo'ou ken should do the trick, it will take more time if you don't have the powerup.
Wind Boss : Powered up zo'ou ken. If you don't, you can take the bomb that are falling and throw it in his face!
Fire Boss : ZO'OU KEN! ZO'OU KEN! ZO'OU KEN!

Klapton's mechanical Dragon :
Okay, only the head can be damaged, you have to grab the balls of his neck and throw him in its head.

Captain Klapton :
THERE HE IS!
Okay, hyakuretsu his face. If you hit him enough, he will be stun... And you can throw his face in the ground, he will stand up, smash him one time, he will be stun, then repeat!
It's not the fastest way, but it's the safest... BEcause this boss can kill you very easily!

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Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy

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