Interesting. I've had the one on Starii happen to me once before but I didn't realise how it happened. I guess it only saves around half a second or so for each dialogue but if all dialogue could be skipped like this it would save quite a bit of time.

May I also be added as a mod for Mobility? I also have runs pending. I believe I have enough social links.

Recorded a few Beta Contact runs and two Any% runs today, I feel like I've mostly derusted. Here's my new Beta Contact PB (see other thread about the in-game recording function): I think the main timeloss over the WR is at the end.

I also have an 8:55 Any% which I haven't uploaded yet. It wasn't very good but at least a verifiable sub 9.

Update: video now up and run submitted

Here is the result of a run recorded with this method which I have now submitted:

Tbh it didn't turn out very well. Not sure why the quality is so bad, probably some compression error. Regardless not having audio and the video being trimmed so closely isn't very good. I think its probably best to stick to screen recording normally.

In the desktop version of the game only, when you complete a level, in addition to Space for continue and R for restart there is X to record the run. You have to turn it on in the settings and it's listed as an experimental feature. You choose a codec and it saves a .avi file of the run without audio to the game folder, trimmed closely around the start and end. As far as I can tell it's as accurate as just screen recording the replay or the run itself. It's more convenient to just press a button than to open OBS or whatever, hit record then remux and trim the .flv file. I'm fairly sure it should be allowed but we should clarify first.

How about discord? I know he was active on there around a year ago but no idea since then.

I haven't watched your run yet but if you think sub 8 is possible I'm excited to get back to running this.

Have you considered posting in the request leaderboard moderation thread ( https://www.speedrun.com/the_site/thread/dueac/83 )? Before you do that though, SubOptimal has a Twitch, YouTube and Discord linked and I suggest trying with those first.

Also congrats on the sub 9 :) I haven't recorded any runs but I did get an 8:52 on the 12/6/19: https://imgur.com/keEVKy8

Agreed, the route might be different from Minimum Unlocks but you would still be doing mostly the same things. The only real difference is the possibility of collecting combat-related upgrades to help with taking out enemies to prevent getting hit.

I was just wondering what the actual route is for the Minimum Unlocks run.

So far, the most I've been able to skip is health points in Stage 1, background art and buster ammo in Stage 2 and autofire (and the health recharge if that counts) in Stage 3. Not having health points means the run has to be essentially hitless, which isn't too bad, and not having buster ammo means combat is much slower and more annoying given you can't get hit either. Most of the time I found myself just slowly whittling down the cannons' health so I could have a chance at getting past. I very much doubt that anything else is skippable but I just wanted to make sure.

I feel like it would be a good idea to specify what Minimum Unlocks actually entails (in the rules) before anyone submits any runs.

I don't know how accurate IGT is and I have no idea how we could work that out. I assume it would be reasonably accurate though, based off what I've seen. I'm running the web version so maybe using the standalone instead might be faster? In any case I don't see how load removal would be a bad thing or why we shouldn't do it. There's this tool I know of that I think would work well here: https://github.com/Slush0Puppy/retime If this would be done I would suggest ending the run when the in-game time pops up rather than after an ending is chosen, or even upon talking to lana, as there is no gameplay after this.

I would still be happy running real time whether load times were removed or not though.

At the end of each run there is a message displaying your time in seconds (e.g. "223 seconds!") above the option to enter the credits. I don't know how accurate it is or why it isn't currently used instead of real time. For reference, the current Android WR would be a 4:13 IGT and the PC/Web WR would be a 3:43 IGT. I don't know how it works but I assume timing starts when you spawn into the game and finishes when you finish talking to Lana at the end of the game. I feel like, as with most games, real time isn't very fair and equal. My PC can be slow or laggy sometimes, especially during loading up the game after pressing New Game. I was timing runs using the real time method and my times were sometimes almost a minute slower than the PC/Web WR but were using the same or better strats and only being 5-10 seconds slower in IGT. I think the implementation of in-game time as the standard timing method would make the leaderboards fairer and more equal, remove the need for having a timer on-screen, make timing more accurate and standardised, and open running the game competitively to people like me with slower devices. At least adding a column for IGT but keeping the real time column as the default sorting (for a fair comparison) would still be ok. Can someone explain why in-game time isn't used? Am I missing something? Thanks.

Hi everyone :) I haven't tried properly running this game before (and probably don't plan to) but while playing around, I discovered two things:

After you collect the last orb in the top right, you can retry to go back to the checkpoint just before and save having to go all the way over the top. I estimate it saves 5-10 seconds, making sub-4 pretty doable on PC/Web. I can only find one other place where there is a chance retrying might save time, but I doubt it.

I also found what would nearly be a sequence break but fails at one point and makes it impossible. After you get the first orb that makes you fall slowly but before going to the waterfall caverns, you're able to go up the medium-steepness slopes that you should only be able to use after getting the steel boots (second orb). This effect seems to stop while you're in the caverns, but not anywhere else, which is strange. Because of this, you can go over all of the game between the caverns and the mountains (ika plains with lana and the first room of the mountains). However, you're unable to get past the lowest part of the bridge at the mountains for some reason. Due to this, the sequence break doesn't work and the only route past that is to go back to the caverns. Coming out of the caverns you're forced to go through the plains anyway, so there isn't any point doing that part or any other bit earlier. I feel like I would have noticed this on my casual playthrough a year or two ago, so maybe it was introduced with the update in January? At any rate I'm probably not the first person to notice this.

I found a few other small strats that improve on the PC/Web wr, but nothing notable.

I hope this (at least the last orb timesave) helps if anyone is going to run this again in the future. :)

1:24 is definitely possible, you probably saw I got a 1:25.13 and .14 could be saved. I probably wouldn't be motivated to grind for it unless milliseconds were added though

I think milliseconds should be added to the timings. I don't record runs but I just got this https://imgur.com/a/Uf3D77H ...which would beat the current WR by 0.06s

Update: beat PB by 0.24s https://imgur.com/a/b55deZX

Update again: 1:25.13 achieved, 1:24 is possible and I think I might try recording some runs https://imgur.com/a/biu7FqF