NorwayAssuming the Android version is the same as the iOS version, what you could try is using a Left Zip from a few platforms below to possibly avoid activating the balloon spawning zone early. NOTE: I can't test this myself, so this might not work.
Now on the PC version we can't do Left Zips, but we can do Right Zips. For a demonstration of a Right Zip you can see my 5-1 Time Attack run on PC . I do 2 Right Zips in a row at 6 seconds into the video.
These types of Zips (Left/Right) only work on levels where you're actually touching the true world-edge, that is, there isn't actually a visible wall there to block you off, it's literally just the edge of the map itself stopping you from going further left/right. For a Right Zip, hold Right when jumping up into a solid roof above you, while brushing up against the world edge. For a Left Zip, simply mirror it: Hold Left when jumping into a solid roof above you, while brushing up against the world edge.
If you go the timestamp here , you see me heading right to follow the standard route through the level. In your case you want to head left instead, to a small platform with a chest on it in the upper left corner. Hopefully you'll be able to do a Left Zip up there, which will push you up onto the platform directly below the little platform that snail lives on. Hopefully by skipping directly up here on the left side of the level instead of going the normal route at the right side will stop the balloon from spawning earlier.
There are some minor differences between platforms, but that's mostly regarding glitches. If you're running glitchless whatever platform you upload it as will be fine, just add something like "Platform: Switch", "This run was done on Nintendo Switch", etc. as a comment when uploading a Switch run.
I'm assuming the Switch port will behave similarly to the PC version, so for now it's probably best to upload it as a PC run until Switch is added, and then we can fix it in the future.
In the past when people just ran any% on PC this hasn't been an issue, but considering the fact we actually have people running these categories now I think it would make sense to split them like you said. I'm definitely onboard, but Jumpy will have to take care of that as our moderator.
After some grinding I was able to beat Jumpyluff's WR by 3.45s, video shows the run from checkpoint out audio muted since I was listening to music:
This Zip seems much more precise than the 1-6 one, so it took quite a lot of grinding to finally get it 1st try (or at all lol). The run where I got it was the first run where I decided to slow down a little before jumping into the Zip, which is why I turn left for a split sescond before the jump, though Idk if slowing down actually helps or if I just got lucky. Idk how much time I lost to slowing down, but maybe a sub 35s Fortress is possible in Time Attack with this Zip?
This Zip may not be viable for longer runs like full-game or the Green Hills run, since it requires a lot of grinding for such a small time save. At that point you'll probably have more luck just grinding for good Woody RNG instead.
I think some those could actually save some time with optimized movement.
These look somewhat different to the other ones we've found so far. Either my assumptions about what conditions are necessary for Zips are wrong, or there are more than one way to set up a Zip (which would be nice)
Unlike the 1-6 one this Zip can actually save a couple of seconds:
This will of course not be allowed in glitchless, which is the dominant category right now, but at least now the glitched category for PC actually has a glitch. If I understand the inner working correctly we should be able to find several more of these spots in the future. Could open up for a potential (glitched) sub 44 any% in the future?
I'll do some more testing tomorrow, the clock is 6:38 AM so I should probably go to bed now lmao
Okay I've found a really good one in Green Hills' Fortress stage:
Here's some more screenshots of different layers at that location: https://imgur.com/a/MWtp5dM Interesting observation: At the spot where I jumped into the wall, there is an extension of the background_platforms (that can be interacted with) into the wall in the background layer (which you shouldn't be able to interact with). I'm not sure how to properly explain this, but if you compare the different pictures in that album hopefully you'll understand what I mean. As I've said a couple of times, we shouldn't be able to interact with the background layer, though it is somewhat interesting that there are objects in the background layer right where the zip happens.
Here's everything that's been found so far:
(Copying my entries in the earlier glitch discussion post)
" Yo, just right now I found a new Zip-like glitch on 1-6 after a botched run in Time Attack. "
" I've tried recreating it by jumping into that part of the wall while holding down, but I just get pushed out immediately as you see in the video over when I try it again. Same thing happens when I try to recreate it with the Fire Flower. I've eventually been able to recreate it once. I double jumped into a specific spot in the wall and spammed up and down once I hit the wall. I'm assuming the down input is what actually made me Zip, as that's what triggers the the moving platform zipps and the botched zipping attempts from the video in my previous post. Here's my recreation (hope you enjoy my desktop in the background): "
" My current guess is that this is due to an error from the developers' side when creating this wall. The levels in Bloo Kid 2 are made in a program called "Tiled", where you place small tile blocks to create your world. In this program you work with several layers: A background layer, a collision layer (all the ceilings, walls, blocks, etc. that Bloo interacts with are on this layer), and a foreground layer. Additional layers can also be added if I remember correctly from when I explored the program some years ago.
In a lot of levels you have hidden passages where it appears to us that we walk "through" the collision layer, i.e. something like this at 0:11 to 0:14 in Jumpy's 1-6 WR:
What's really happening here is that the "walls" are actually in the foreground layer (which we don't interact with). These then hide the actual blocks Bloo interacts with, i.e. the "real" floors, walls, and ceilings. What I think may have happened here is that the specific block we jump onto to get this zip is maybe a type of slope piece (collision layer), while the solid wall as it appears to us is actually in the foreground layer. I'll have to install Tiled and check out this stage at a later time to confirm if this is what's going on.
If it turns out that's not the cause of this, this could potentially have large consequences, since it could maybe open up for finding more zipping spots in other levels if we can figure out why it happens at this particular spot. Even if it is a collision layer/foreground layer "mistake", it's still possible there could be similar spots where the devs made the same mistake in other levels. "
So I've now taken a look into how the Collision layer for 1-6 looks in Tiled, and the results are rather interesting: https://imgur.com/KYow5FJ The tiles visible in this screenshot are all the blocks Bloo Kid can collide with, apart from the background platforms right next to that location. As you can see the Collision Layer wall at that location is a solid structure, meaning in theory there shouldn't be anything special about this particular spot to my knowledge at least. Maybe Jumpy could chip in here, since he's probably much better than me on technical stuff like this with all his experience from speedrunning other games.
So I guess now it's time to jump into every wall in the game while holding down and seeing if it causes us to bounce?
I'm gonna make a new forum post for this glitch, I'll copy everything I've posted here so far into that thread.
My current guess is that this is due to an error from the developers' side when creating this wall. The levels in Bloo Kid 2 are made in a program called "Tiled", where you place small tile blocks to create your world. In this program you work with several layers: A background layer, a collision layer (all the ceilings, walls, blocks, etc. that Bloo interacts with are on this layer), and a foreground layer. Additional layers can also be added if I remember correctly from when I explored the program some years ago.
In a lot of levels you have hidden passages where it appears to us that we walk "through" the collision layer, i.e. something like this at 0:11 to 0:14 in Jumpy's 1-6 WR:
What's really happening here is that the "walls" are actually in the foreground layer (which we don't interact with). These then hide the actual blocks Bloo interacts with, i.e. the "real" floors, walls, and ceilings. What I think may have happened here is that the specific block we jump onto to get this zip is maybe a type of slope piece (collision layer), while the solid wall as it appears to us is actually in the foreground layer. I'll have to install Tiled and check out this stage at a later time to confirm if this is what's going on.
If it turns out that's not the cause of this, this could potentially have large consequences, since it could maybe open up for finding more zipping spots in other levels if we can figure out why it happens at this particular spot. Even if it is a collision layer/foreground layer "mistake", it's still possible there could be similar spots where the devs made the same mistake in other levels.
I've tried recreating it by jumping into that part of the wall while holding down, but I just get pushed out immediately as you see in the video over when I try it again. Same thing happens when I try to recreate it with the Fire Flower. I've eventually been able to recreate it once. I double jumped into a specific spot in the wall and spammed up and down once I hit the wall. I'm assuming the down input is what actually made me Zip, as that's what triggers the the moving platform zipps and the botched zipping attempts from the video in my previous post. Here's my recreation (hope you enjoy my desktop in the background):
Yo, just right now I found a new Zip-like glitch on 1-6 after a botched run in Time Attack.
(Just adding to what Connor already said)
Yeah the rules has a list of "known" cheats/glitches that are not allowed for glitchless, but honestly speaking none of us know how most of them work except for slope float. That list was put together by Cycryl who used to run the game a long time ago, but afaik he's deleted his account (his old forum posts just say "user 21640" now, and his time is gone). Last time I spoke to him was several years ago after I had just started running myself.
Long time ago I briefly mentioned how slope float works to Jumpyluff and he mentioned that Cycryl had explained it to him earlier, so maybe Jumpy knows how some of the other ones work. We should probably look to remake that list in the future, and add some proper guides for how they work (I might do that actually).
Besides Slope Float and Checkpoint Exploit, I know on handheld-platforms at least (I think it's patched for PC) the Shell Riding glitch involves snail shells. If you're in a corridor with a low ceiling and jump on a snail shell, you'll be pushed into the ceiling and pop up on the top of that ceiling object. For example I know you can do this with the first snail in 5-5, the one where you have to use a snail to smack down two yellowish blocks that block the way. AFAIK there's no situation where this glitch can be used to save time in an any% run, but maybe it could be used in 100%/blue stars for a miniscule time save. (I think this glitch is what Ceiling Clipping glitch on that list refers to, since last time I talked to Cycryl about known glitches he mentioned Shell Riding, not Ceiling Clipping. However, this could be what he meant with Zipping, since I have no clue what that glitch is supposed to be. In that case maybe Zipping just falls under Ceiling Clipping as a method of clipping).
Platform Clipping I assume refers to a supposed glitch involving moving platforms, more specifically ones moving vertically. According to what Cycryl said to me ones, all you had to do was stand on a rising platform, and once Bloo hits the ceiling the platform will push him up through the ceiling, similar to how the Shell Riding glitch works. Personally I've never gotten this to work on any platform, so I think this one's patched on all available platforms, and I think it can be removed from the list altogether.
Menu Duplicating: No clue, sounds pretty whack. Would really like to know what this is though, since any form of glitchy menu could have big potential for game-breaking glitches, which would be neat.
Zipping: As mentioned earlier I have no clue what this could refer to. If I had to guess I would assume it simply refers to how Bloo Kid travels super-fast when he clips, i.e. how he "zips" to the top of the screen/ceiling. Basically I don't think it's an actual glitch of its own, but probably a communicational error when Cycryl discussed glitches with Jumpy years ago.
Now that you mention it, the start menu can actually be quite slow sometimes for seemingly no reason. I swear sometimes I've gained control of BK nearly half a second slower, and considering how I'm button mashing the Enter-key that should mean slow inputs aren't to blame. So could be most of the time loss is in the menus when it lags (which adds up to quite a lot for all the small bits of menuing and scene transitions between stages and worlds)? I'm assuming most devs don't bother coding in frame-skips when the menu lags as they do with in-game lag, so that could be why we see time loss due to lag in normal runs while we don't really see them in Time Attack
I've noticed it sometimes myself, but mostly from grinding Time Attack mode. I'm not sure if it actually affects times or not. If I remember correctly I've had it in any% runs where it seemingly didn't affect my time. I know some games just skip frames instead when it starts lagging to cancel out any time gain/loss, but idk how they've dealt with it in this game. I do think some of my Time Attack PRs have had some lag in them, so: Maybe it skips frames when it starts lagging cancelling out the time loss? Maybe it just doesn't affect the in-game timer for Time Attack? The time loss you're seeing in runs could also be due to it being harder to control and getting precise timings for jumps etc., and not the game having actually "slowed" down.
If you do have some footage of you running in a straight line with lag we could compare it frame by frame to someone running that same distance without lag, and see if one of them gains anything.
