Could always go with similar timing rules as the full game. The prologue is the same sort of "fix boat then sail away" premise except you only need to get the plant and not fix everything else. For my run I just started time at selecting new game and then ended at final fade to black after choosing to sail away.

I did find where the game devs had done a run. They started the timer as the loading screen image thing was disappearing and ended when the final decision to sail away was selected. They also smartly started the fire while waiting for the axolotl dude at the end so I gotta try that in a run now. Dev run down below:

Or, something like time starts as the save icon (captain's face) starts to or completely disappears and time ends at final fade to black after choosing to sail away would also be pretty easy for timing purposes, too. Probably doesn't matter too much, tbh

Would there be any interest in adding the prologue as a category? I suppose it's technically another game by itself (and only available on pc, I think?) but might be just as easy to keep the prologue and main game all together?

Edit: it's a short run but still pretty fun. My best attempt so far

Made a spreadsheet to help facilitate finding drinks once they start asking for 2, 3, and especially 4 beverage quality options in challenge mode.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PXHF-XKhxl1sTb32oXhwzOC--6V_AzoroFT0RsJsBes/edit?usp=sharing

So once you get into the part where they ask for drinks by name or by beverage quality, you can either :

1. Type the full drink name (not case sensitive)
2. If given 1 beverage quality option, look to the right in the table that has combinations that work
3. If give 2-4 beverage quality options, type them in the black box respective to the WARM/COOL/SWEET/BITTER quality they're asking about (not case sensitive)

• When typing these in, if they ask for plain warm/cool/sweet/bitter, just type the first letter of the word (so w for warm, c for cool, etc.)
• If they ask for "not _____", just type n in the corresponding quality
• If they ask for "less _____", just type l (it's an L) in the corresponding quality
• If they ask for "extra _____", just type e in the corresponding quality

Based on some awesome work done by Steam user BOT MrPAPAPABLO ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2590997397 ) who included a spreadsheet with a ton of drinks & beverage qualities and also this handy web page for plugging-and-chugging those beverage qualities ( https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?url=https://coffee-guru-js.vercel.app/index.html ).

I know the rules technically say 'play game' is the start of the run but I'm assuming if we want to start with 'endless' instead that'd be fine, too? Since either game option allows for achievement earning progress to be made.

The all achievements category sounds like it could be fun but I'd personally want to get the challenge mode related stuff out of the way sooner rather than later.

Whenever Hitfilm decides it wants to work and export the video, I'll add it here. Maybe having 6 playthroughs going at the same time is a bit much. Until then, the time differences for the first three loads are looking like :

Initial load xbox series x - fastest ps5 - 6.3/6.4 seconds slower switch - 2.3 seconds slower ps4 - 8.7 seconds slower

Second load after cutscene xbox series x - fastest ps5 - 15.5/15.6 seconds slower switch - 19.3/19.5 seconds slower ps4 - 20.3 seconds slower

Load going into sewer xbox series x - fastest ps5 - 11.4/11.9 seconds slower switch - 9.2 seconds slower ps4 - 14.8 seconds slower

I was seeing a lot of variation in load times comparing between xbox/playstation/switch. Just the first three load screens alone load could vary from slowest to fastest by up to 20 seconds per load. So over a full run, assuming the rest follow suit, that'd be a huge difference.

From what I could tell it was looking like xbox (series x was the playthrough I was looking at) loaded fastest, followed by ps5/switch (surprisingly, switch loaded relatively quickly), then ps4 coming in last. I'd assume xboxone would be close to ps4 maybe?

I'll try and throw a quick comparisons video together. That's interesting about the N. American & European console/version differences.

Was curious if there was a reason for the split? Also was wondering why loads are left in for console if they're accounted for in PC?

Ok, did a run and went back and tried to time all the autosave lag spots. I counted at least 58 during my run. Most lasted just a tiny bit over 2 seconds though I had one that lasted 5 seconds.

The total of all the actual loading screens was 2:10. The total of all the autosave lag time lost where I couldn't move during those 58 spots was 2:13.

4:23 lost to lag and loads on ps4. Curious if xbox handles the game any better.

I don't know if anyone else has played on PS4 but the game lags for a couple of seconds at basically every autosave and/or area transition.

I'll try and do a run to show what it looks like. Maybe try and see if they are consistent time losses and how many lag spots happen in a run just for curiosity's sake.

To help better compare runs between one another and to prevent hardware from being an unfair advantage or disadvantage, a 'time without loads' column is in the works to be added to the leaderboards. This will help account for parts of the game that are out of the runner's control.

There are load screens that take the player between the main hub and each individual level/chapter in the game and can vary in length from just a few to many seconds. Over a full run, especially in all challenge runs, these add up. The screens usually have the destination name and/or level number and look like this:

A video showing load screens can be seen here (includes PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox Series S)

Previous runs are in the process of being manually re-timed and once they have all been re-timed, the leaderboard will be updated. While runners are welcome to, calculating load screen times won't be required to submit runs. A mod will calculate them (or check if the runner has calculated them) during the verification process.

Collection of runs and their times without load screens can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h41atC9ktOgJ9BhzgT4Uwo-LDg9QOyGqiH6ftKrGlDc/edit?usp=sharing

Spreadsheet used for calculating the load times: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IB9_DmRKnXrMpeRoH6VEeSb3p-fvusfcN4YXjQvtSLA/edit?usp=sharing

What would a glitchless run entail? Are we talking no zoops (for co-op)? No infinite wall jumps? No neo-climbing? Would it be just a more limited NMS run?

On a somewhat related note, solo runs have been split up into any%, NMS, & RMS categories to mirror the co-op rules. This way, NMS stays in bounds and RMS allows for out of bounds, with the general definition of "in bounds" still being any place you can get to with autograb on and without using unnatural techniques like infinite wall jumps and neo-climbing.

Some examples of out of bounds stuff: climbing up and over black webbing, climbing up and over invisible walls, climbing up the wall to skip the fire maze in Ch 5, climbing up the left wall in the steam pipe room in Ch 5 to skip the cutscene before dropping down through the grate.

Solo and co-op RMS levels added.

As far as I can tell, you need to start the quick swapping before breaching the red circle around the enemies. You get a few seconds to run before needing to swap back and forth again. If you pick up artifacts or open chests, should do a swap right before interacting with the item/chest otherwise enemies might engage in combat.

You can pick up scraps, weapon parts, & items, open chests, and interact with story progressing or area leaving prompts. If there was a way to get past House of Bones and the Sealed Gate without the requirement of a fight, then you could probably beat the whole game without fighting anyone.

No worries. Hoping to get some better runs at some point, anyway.

Yeah, I had noticed one of the trophies (100% old skool) was about collecting all of the artifacts and even if it was just that, it sounded like fun. Been having fun playing and learning the any% runs so was just curious about other options to spice things up. Thanks for the response.

So what all would a 100% run include?

Yeah, I think a visual autosplitter would be pretty simple to put together, especially for this game how it shows 'loading' every time.

Going back and manually adding up the 'loading' screens afterward would also be pretty quick and easy to do, albeit a small bit less accurate depending on the timer situation in VODs and VOD quality.

I'm pretty much in the same camp as Droogie. I'd be down for merging everything if we wanted to take load times into account to make comparing runs "apples to apples" across all platforms (assuming there are no other differences besides loading times. How much are load time differences, btw?).

Otherwise, it seems a fair option to leave things as is. That being said, if someone runs on PS4 HDD and someone else on SSD, that can of worms could potentially be opened within the same platform category (seen this conundrum in quite a few games. Some take load times into account while others leave as is with hardware advantages unfortunately being part of the leaderboard).

My vote is for whatever keeps things the most fair so that hardware accessibility or limitations don't deter new runners and don't put current runners at a disadvantage. I understand some solutions (like load time removing as an example) are sometimes easier said than done and don't always work for every game. That being said, I only ran/run this game somewhat casually so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

Solo gameplay comparing normal gameplay vs. "neo-climbing" at various spots throughout the run :

NMS co-op gameplay comparing normal gameplay to zoop cancels and partner swings at various spots throughout the run : Playlist found here ( https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuRMtWadfMWGyfHYxuYJYLH5GPgedPGea )

I think there used to be a video in the old discord of someone with keyboard input display showing their setup that was supposed to be somewhat consistent? We never had replicable success with their method (or any method so far, like Lou said). Not sure but maybe that video is around somewhere on youtube or something.

If there ever is a way to consistently launch straight upward while keeping the skateboard between the two yarnys, you can jump and create your own speed (kind of like a SM64 blj). Still no good setup for that outcome either though.

Solo clip doing the same thing