Strife speedrunning

Disclaimer: This is a quite old document. I wrote it when i started running this game, and was never finished. It contains plenty of useful information about the outdated Chocolate Strife. However, this guide just documents the basic guidelines for speedrunning, and are to be taken with a grain of salt.

1. Validity of Source Ports

A run is considered valid only if it’s run on:
	Original game running on DOSBox
	ChocolateStrife¤
	The Original Strife: Veteran Edition¤¤ (named SVE from here on)

Runs done in any other source ports (like ZDoom) will be considered invalid, the same way it's considered invalid in Doom. This is due to compatibility issues and mechanics, like increased jumping height and different weapon/AI behavior (rocket jumping?); Strife has its own modern Source Ports. Use them.

¤ However, be wary of demo recording while on ChocolateStrife: It’s broken. Everytime you quicksave/quickload and sometimes when talking to NPCs, the game will turn you around 20° to the right, which, apart from being a nuisance and randomly disengaging dialogues, isn’t recorded into the demo. This causes a serious sync problem, and if it happens early in the run, all you will have is a mercenary jumping around and staring into walls. NPC dialogue/actions will also not be recorded. This means you won’t receive the Crossbow from Rowan at the very beginning. As of v2.0 of ChocolateStrife, this is still broken (and probably won't ever be fixed).
¤¤ SVE has no demo support.

2. Timing

The run starts in the first frame of the transition between the menu and the actual game (i.e. the moment you press "Enter" after you set your save slot). The run ends when the screen freezes and you lose the control of your character after defeating The Entity.

Runs can be measured either in RTA (Real-time Attack) or IGT (In-game Time). Pressing the "show mission" key will show your IGT.  Use RTA for measuring your performance, or keep the “Show mission” tab open during the end.

3. Categories

While the categories can follow the usual SDA standards, Strife is a Doom Engine game, so they’d rather be classified using such guidelines (Difficulty-Objective). Strife also has two routes (three as of SVE), which drastically change the course of the game. Example of those categories would be like:

+Training-Speed Trust Oracle
	Also known as any% bad ending
	The shortest route. You skip two zones, and a bunch of upgrades, which means you can't run Max on this route.
+Training-Speed Trust Macil
	Also known as any% good ending
	The "true" route, where you save the universe and stuff. The entirety of the game is seen, and you get to procriate at the end. The only route where you can actually get 100% of the pickups.
+Training-Max¤
	SpeedDemosArchive, long long ago, defined the 100% criteria for Strife as a run with "100% stats and all weapons collected"[1]. This means all upgrades (actually received upgrades, the vouchers in the inventory don't count) and weapons (including the flamethrower) collected.
+Bloodbath-Speed Trust no one
	"Demonstration" campaign shipped with SVE. Fast and deadly.

¤ SVE introduced the talismans of power, feel free to add a new category!

4. Known (alive) runners/enthusiasts (feel free to correct me!)

Altazimuth
Cubeface21
psdAD79
Rorkien

5. References

[1]		100% Definitions - SDA Knowledge Base - https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/100%25_Definitions

rorkien

Strife

Skuttie

Veteran Edition

ZDoom

MS-DOS

Version

Second guard half-skip in Cubeface's 18m11s Any% Bad Ending

Is ZDoom version allowed?

Rocket jumping in Veteran Edition

Castle deathwarp thingy

So, i found this out...

Prison Skip on ZDoom?

Cubeface

AD_79

Chronus

Mageikk

FRCTL

RoundManHiggins