IndonesiaJust recently played this game and I had fun watching the speedrun. So while the game is still fresh in my head, I played around the game and found some strats. Though I'm sure the strats below can be optimised. (doubt I'll actually do a run soon, if ever)
One note about the Default Team glitch. If there's no save/load done, then the game will force you to go back to tutorial after finishing the level. To fix this, simply make a save during a level, go to main menu, and press Continue. Don't need to replay the victory screen like what was done on the 1:09 run.
Because of this, I think the benefits of using the Default Team glitch multiple times in a single run outweighs the timelosses from the additional menuing required to set up the glitch. If I tried to route this run, I'll use the glitch multiple times.
Thread to highlight interesting glitches/exploits. Most of these are probably not useful for the speedrun.
List of differences between versions that we're aware of. Anyone feel free to make posts here cause I doubt I'm aware of everything or if I'll be tracking them all the time.
1.0.4:
- Cat skip is available (Deathwarp out of the pet shop to skip cat phase and ignore the cat errands. After 1.0.4, this will softlock the game since it's required to complete the cat errands)
- No pacifist route to skip three penultimate bosses.
- Suicide button is unavailable yet before 1.0.5
- 969 code for the prison errand doesn't work yet before 1.0.5
1.0.5:
- Shorter ragdoll jumps compared to 1.0.6 and beyond.
- Can't get ammo by QSQL on rampages.
- The rampage on the residential rooftop provides a sniper drop right next to it, while in 1.0.6+ the rampage will give you sniper directly. (I haven't actually checked if this sniper drop is available on Monday 1.0.5)
1.0.6:
- Longer ragdoll jumps compared to 1.0.5 or before
- Some rampages gives weapons, which you can QSQL to get it permanently.
- Bosses healths are nerfed in general.
- Police uniform is available inside the police station (useful for the clothes warp glitch)
- Some rampages were missing and can't be completed.
1.0.7:
- Additional VX spawns on various places.
- Jumping to the river will kill you. This is a bit useful during the cat phase, where you can deathwarp using the river after pissing on dog's bowl.
- The river barrier will also instakill you when doing Dam box flying skip. The barrier isn't present around the east part of the Dam map. The barrier can also be avoided by turning on ragdoll while falling (so it won't kill you), and QSQL once you got below the barrier.
- Red racer on Fix Race might be faster, but also more likely to collide into walls.
Anyone feel free to post locations of Vitamin X here.
Vitamin X will boosts your speed by 20%, and lasts for 1 minute. So that's about 12 seconds saved on a 1 minute of full walking.
It can also be bought on the Specialty Shop for $125, starting on Tuesday.
The effect will disappear when a cutscene starts.
Thought I'll document these AI behaviours here. Note that these AI behaviours are from the recent Galakrond patch, which might change when future PvE contents are made.
---2021 update: These behaviours doesn't apply anymore. Corrupting Mist + Taunt isn't a reliable combo anymore---
Doomsayer vs Depth Charge AI's reaction:
AI knows how to play around Doomsayer. They'll kill the Doomsayer if they have >=7 damage on board. And if they don't, they'll have their minions attack your face. They won't be putting any new minions on the board, knowing that it'll get killed by the Doomsayer.
They don't do this against Depth Charge though. If they have <5 damage on board, they'll still play new minions even if it have <=5 health, not knowing the Depth Charge will kill it immediately. The existing minions will also attempt to damage Depth Charge, probably because they still consider Depth Charge a high-priority target to damage (which saves your hero's health).
I've seen few bosses who acts differently with Doomsayer though, where they might still play minions even with a Doomsayer on board.
- Sun Raider Phaerix: Don't know why, but if you have Doomsayer on early game (such as turn 2), he'll still play his minions into the Doomsayer. At first I thought he wants to trigger the deathrattle of his 5/5 Tolvir Hoplite (deal 5 damage to both heroes), but I've seen him wasting his Wild Pyromancers too.
- Rafaam and Galakrond: The AI in Rafaam phase is probably coded to play Invoke cards whenever possible, so he'll still play his Invoke minions and summon his Imps even with Doomsayer alive.
- Avalanchan: Happened on my recent attempts, where the AI wasted his Water Elemental and Frost Elementals with Doomsayer on board. Maybe they made the AI prioritise in playing these minions, for story flavours?
Corrupting Mist your Taunt, and AI's minions won't hit your face:
Here's how AI usually behave when their minions got hit by Corrupting Mist:
- They're likely to trade against your non-corrupted minions, probably thinking that's the most valuable move since their minions will be gone next turn.
- They will not trade on your corrupted minions, knowing it'll die next turn anyway
Behaviour number 2 also applies if your taunt gets corrupted, they won't bother trade against your taunt. This ensures your face won't be hit, even if it's just a small taunt against lots of AI minions.
AI might still use spells to damage the corrupted taunts, but they will still not trade if the taunt doesn't die from the spell.
This behaviour also applies on your Doomsayer or Depth Charge. You can use Corrupting Mist on them and AI will ignore it, allowing their effect to trigger next turn.
Demo video of this behaviour: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXWOmxjUKMo
If you pause at the frame right before a cutscene start, you can actually walk during cutscenes.
Using this before the Alpha Wolf fight allows you to go to The Needle straightaway, progressing the story without beating the wolves.
Although, I can't perform this consistently.
Even if we can, I don't think it'll be faster for Any%. You'll have less exp for your future fights. Biggest problem of that is probably the fact that you'll be level 16 instead of 17 before the Leroux Soldiers fight, which means you don't have Aria's Early Protection that makes the Soldiers fight consistent. (Haven't really tested this though)
2021 Update: Recent poll on HS Discord voted to allow Deck Trackers, so this post is obsolete.
Original post:
About three weeks ago, the people at Discord Channel had some discussion about deck trackers, and majority of people decided to ban it for speedruns.
However, I forgot to actually edit the rules (lol). A recent submitted run used a deck tracker, and it won't be considered invalid since the rules aren't set yet.
So, from now on, third party apps such as deck trackers are banned.
Thank you for your understanding, and good luck on the runs :)
So, because they're so close with each other, I feel like I need to download the videos and properly check their timing by the milliseconds.
Driward's run: Frame where he hits Play button: 1.534 Frame where HP turns 0: 14:10.534 So the final time is exactly 14:09.00
Torlk's run: Frame where he hits Play button: 15.617 Frame where HP turns 0: 14:25.032 So final time is 14:09.415, which will be shown as a draw with Driward's run since milliseconds arent shown in the leaderboards.
Congrats to both runner for the crazy times though. Let's see how quick will this record be broken (if ever)!
-
Use High settings instead of Low or Medium. Low/Med settings locks the game into 30 FPS and have slower animation compared to High.
-
When the enemy plays a card or hero power, click on the card/hero power that is being played. This will make the enemy's move to start earlier, which saves up a lot of time during the whole run. This trick also applies whenever a secret is triggered or a Passive card shows up on the first turn.
-
If Gnosh the Greatworm uses his hero power to destroy a Poisonous minion, he will instantly die. It's possible for a Rogue to kill him on turn 1 by playing a Pit Snake.
-
Against Ixlid, a Priest can use Potion of Madness to steal Ixlid's spore and instakill Ixlid. Even better if you managed to add the spore in your deck for future bosses (using Amulet of Domination or Magic Mirror).
-
For Shaman, Unstable Evolution + Khadgar's Scrying Orb (1-mana Spell cost reduction) means unlimited Evolve
Feel free to add any other tricks here. Also thanks to Whammerist and Zypher for the tips above.
Post any ideas about the Lich King strats here. I'm separating it from the other discussion thread to make it more organized.
Post any ideas about the adventure speedrun strategies here. (Probably gonna make a different thread for the "Lich King, All Classes" category later)
-
Use High settings instead of Low or Medium. Low/Med settings locks the game into 30 FPS and have slower animation compared to High.
-
When the enemy plays a card or hero power, click on the card/hero power that is being played. This will make the enemy's move to start earlier, which saves up a lot of time during the whole run. This trick also applies whenever a secret is triggered or Yogg-saron's effect is being played.
Specific Tips for Karazhan:
- On 'Free Medivh!' match, there are two dialogues that can be skipped if you have seen it during the same game session. The first one takes place on the beginning of the match. The second one takes place after you beat Nazra.
So, before starting your attempt, make sure to beat Nazra which will save several seconds on your run. (Note that the other dialogues for this adventure can't be skipped)
-
Use High settings instead of Low or Medium. Low/Med settings locks the game into 30 FPS and have slower animation compared to High.
-
When the enemy plays a card or hero power, click on the card/hero power that is being played. This will make the enemy's move to start earlier, which saves up a lot of time during the whole run.
-
Use High settings instead of Low or Medium. Low/Med settings locks the game into 30 FPS and have slower animation compared to High.
-
When the enemy plays a card or hero power, click on the card/hero power that is being played. This will make the enemy's move to start earlier, which saves up a lot of time during the whole run. This trick also applies whenever a secret is triggered or Yogg-saron's effect is being played.
Specific Tips for BRM:
-
On 'Ragnaros the Firelord' match, the starting dialogue by Majordomo will be skipped if you have played the boss during the same game session. So, before starting your attempt, make sure to see the dialogue first which will save few seconds on your run.
-
On 'Lord Victor Nefarius' match the cards given by Ragnaros will came up faster if you skip his dialogue box by double-clicking it.
-
There's a way to skip a dialogue in 'Dark Iron Arena' match that could save several seconds. Details here: http://www.speedrun.com/blkrockmnt/thread/hykvl
