Hey, so there is a few reasons why there is not a 100% run on the leaderboard as of right now. 1. The "100%" run that was originally on the board was found to have somethings missing from the run making it not 100%, for example Roc's H2H "Life Goes On" wasn't complete. 2. You are correct that the rules are outdated, and quite recently the definition of 100% has been redefined. Currently there doesn't exist an 'No DLC 100%' category and a 'DLC 100%' category separation as people mostly seem interested in DLC. As far as what the routes would look like and looking for help, I highly encourage you to join the Xenoblade Speedrun discord as it has been quite active with the XC2 100% routing and discussions. We all are eager to talk and help anyone that joins!

The reason for no NG+ Glitchless category is because almost all the runs on the NG+ board use the Zombie Jump glitch. Only exception being Gedrith's run, which was done before Zombie Jump Glitch was discovered.

This runner sucks

Also going to point out with 1.1.2, that quite simply put you are going to need the 100k as one can imagine not being Lv50 makes things drastically different. And as a result of this we need to buy way more gear/equipment to survive the early-game bosses to compensate for not being over leveled, and that’s on Casual, where enemies deal 50% the damage they would on Normal Mode.

Going to elaborate on what Xenoplayed said a little bit more with what I know. With the assumption you plan to run on Patch 1.0/1.1 (the patch withthe lv50 trick) without the 100k and are going to learn off the current WR that does utilize it.

In Chapter 1, you will have to take on a 1-2 minute sidequest from Dionysus in the Residential District for Light Shoes(as it is a free slotted gear you can obtain early) to equip a Quick Step Gem from Collectables.

At the Refugee Camp and Ether Mines Shops(in Ch.4&5 respectively) I would suggest not purchasing the weapons for Reyn as I believe they aren’t high priority and you should hold off until Alcamoth to trade for a slotted weapon(Sacred Driver). I can’t say how much time you lose from not getting those weapons but you definitely won't have trouble with bosses in between Mechon M71 - Leone Telethia.

At the Nopon Camp Shop in Valak Mountain, you should be fine with skipping the weapon for Dunban too

I mainly say all this as not having the 100k means that you’ll have to be a little bit tighter with your money route up until you hit Sword Valley(about the halfway point of the run), because we want to buy some certain Leggings called Engineer Belt. This has Earth Cloak gem attached which reduces enemy aggro detection making it so we can skip some fights we otherwise would have to fight since you can’t activate buttons or etc. while aggroed.From there you can freely follow TJ’s shopping route as the next shopping done is after a farming session and you would have plenty to sell to be loaded with money.

TL;DR Yes you can run the game fine without the 100k but will need to do some shopping tweaks to the current WR route to accommodate.

Hopefully I didn’t forget anything and that this paints the picture better. Ultimately I think you don’t have to worry about the money unless you plan to get a competitive time.

Looking at the board there is only one USA runner that has a time about 40 minutes slower than most JP runners. Outside of turbo controller being used, is this because the quality of play maybe better on the JP board, or are there any regional exclusive tricks or glitches that make JP runs faster than the US/EUR version?

Is there a discord for this series yet?

From what I remember, Classic Camera is slower because you have to watch the character attacking forward and returning to place, but with Free-Form if you stand in front of the enemy you can cancel this. But if I'm not mistaken I believe I was told over the course of the run it's only 30 seconds loss?(Someone more knowledgeable can correct me)

The voucher would probably make an Infinity run doable,assuming you get past the first fight lol.