Sharing some research I did, I found that it's possible to get Sandals (and seemingly every item including uniques) from the very first barrels of the game.
Therefore, there is a strategy you can use where you start the game, break the closest set of barrels, and if you don't get a Sandal or a 2H weapon (As recommended in the speedrunning guide as the most important item drops), then you simple quit and try again.
When I tested it, I got a sandal after maybe 10 tries. This is confirmed. Considering this is a 10% speed boost, this alone would be good.
I didn't get a 2H weapon in my limited tests, but by ram hacking and trying 64 different item drops in order, I found one 2H weapon. It seems there are 640 possible drops before it cycles back around. My drop table notes are here https://pastebin.com/g2E7xDGG .
This means if you break 4 barrels, you should see (on average) every item once every 160 tries, including every unique item. However, I might have misunderstood something about how the RNG works. It's possible that there might be something that prevents you from getting a 2H weapon dropped before you reach a certain level, perhaps.. I'm not sure. I didn't see evidence of that, but others who are more familiar with the game may have noticed something like that.
Currently afaik, no runs have tried using this technique, so you should consider this as a possible route to a new gold record ;)
Hey I saw a video about clipping in this game, which mentioned clipping through the gate in Cookie Race.
I got the clip on my second try (throw block at the gate from 1 step away, while walking towards the gate). This cuts the level in half, more or less.
I don't understand the any% run in this game. There isn't any ending or credits... This doesn't seem like it completes the game at all.
I would think that any% would need to unlock the ranch and get the foal, which as far as I can tell, is the ending of the game...
I'm vaguely curious...
Since the game has to load various voice clips, are there benefits to playing the game with a specific language/version?
What about the character choice? Are they just cosmetic?
The SNES version seems to have better sound, but I think it's actually slower to run. Anyone know?
Huh? The current WR actually picks the wrong culprit, so they didn't actually finish. Shouldn't that run be disqualified?
I made a demo of a TAS for the PS1 version. Unfortunately, most of the game is "hold right" so a TAS doesn't have a lot of opportunity to show off crazy stunts... anyway so I canceled the project and just uploaded this demo instead.
For the curious, I tested the vine glitch. You want to perform that glitch as low as possible to get the maximum speed boost as shown in the video.
The summary is: You can get infinite money before the 23 minute mark. Any run other than any% should use follow this opening. You will instantly save time on all currently published runs that need money.
Basically, all current best runs are doing it wrong. Anyone who wants to use these techniques, you are guaranteed first place ;)
