Nice work, as per usual. That room where you avoid the second bat is amazing, the best I could do is just force it to miss me and hit a corner with luck. As for your questions, I’ll answer them as best as I can.
1) I’m not completely certain on whether turning off the Information Display saves time or not. I want to say yes, but you’d probably be able to answer this better than me. The idea is this: if you turn it off, then whenever an enemy (or you) casts a spell or performs a special attack that initiates the ‘charge’ animation (which is the game loading maybe), the name of the attack will be missing at the bottom of the screen. I’ve tested this and I swear it seems like the spells/special attacks are more quick (the ‘charge’ animation is faster), but obviously more thorough testing is necessary. Note that this would only be useful if an enemy were to even get it off in the first place, something I’m beginning to doubt in a TAS. More on this later. Turning off the Timing Display does nothing except remove the exclamation point above Ashley Riot’s head when chaining attacks or using a defense ability, so I doubt turning it off saves any time. It’s only useful as a frame of reference normally.
2) Getting the Magnolia Frau is something Moooh from SDA suggested to me awhile back. After playing around with it, I’ve come to agree with this suggestion. The weapon properties aren’t important: it’s the chaining speed associated with the animation itself. In my speedrun, I go with the Fandango because a) I prefer chaining with 1-h swords/maces and b) with Raging Ache it doesn’t matter what you use since your damage output isn’t dependent on weapon str, type, affinity, or anything like that as Acheron86 has already described. After some testing, I’ve confirmed that staffs chain the quickest out of all weapon animations (you should confirm this to be absolutely certain; after staves 1-h swords/daggers/1-h maces are best probably with crossbows being the worst most likely). You’ll waste time equipping it, but in the long run, it’ll be worth equipping this staff since it’s along the way anyway and early (although you wouldn’t equip it until after the Wyvern battle in Abandoned Mines B1 since its tail is weak to edged weapon types i.e. Fandango; the Fire Elemental afterward isn’t so weak to base damage from edged weapons though so Raging Ache will be ‘necessary’ by then probably). Staffs have a range value of 2 as opposed to 3 for 1-h swords, but this shouldn’t pose a problem in a TAS I expect. Alternating between Raging Ache and Heavy Shot should be the norm obviously as it’s fastest and Heavy Shot does chip in dmg.
3) As mentioned already, Faerie Wings increase your movement speed as well as jumping distance. This enables you to skip box puzzles in certain areas. In my run, I mistakenly use a 2nd Faerie Wing on the last box puzzle when it should probably be used at the Temple of Kiltia instead right before Kali. In the Snowfly Forest, you normally encounter 3 Ichthious enemies that drop this item (with a 4th one paired with the last one although you’d have to wait for it to approach you). It’s beneficial to kill these normally since they have a water-based attack that’s unblockable that early in the game in a speedrun as well as the Faerie Wing drops, of course. Maybe the 3rd Faerie Wing could be used in Town Center East so that it’ll be easier to minimize the amount of enemy casting.
4) Acheron86 pretty much explained it thoroughly: the number of chains successfully performed minus 1 equals the Battle Points you receive. If you need 5 BPs for your next ability and you perform a chain of 20 hits, none of the extra BPs carry over to the next chain ability. You’ll need to unlock three chain abilities before Raging Ache becomes available (so it’ll be the 4th Chain Ability you unlock): 20, 34, 18, and finally 23 are the magic numbers. Also, I’ve unlocked a chain ability after killing a bat so 1-1=0 but it still went through? Not EVERY time but it’s happened to me before so there are exceptions I guess.
5) Whether Impact Guard is necessary or not is the big question imo. As a conventional runner, my inclination is to say Yes, but you’ve demonstrated some crazy maneuvers in some of the more annoying parts of the entire game imho. Even if you have to Impact Guard in some instances, there is still the question of whether you can manipulate a miss out of the attack which is both faster and will save your skin.
There are rooms where it’s nearly impossible to get by without getting hit, I’ll list some examples but there’s more I bet.
Later in the Catacombs, after you defeat the Lizards you’ll need to place a box across a room to reach a ledge; in that room, there will be a Hellhound and Skeleton waiting around and I seriously doubt you’ll be able to get by without getting hit (Hellhound uses special attack flame breath which is unblockable at this stage but you CAN manipulate a physical hit instead). You’ll need to kill them and collect some BPs incidentally maybe, adding to your 2nd battle ability count hopefully. Dullahan can be killed in about 7 chains for sure assuming all or most of your chains connect (critical hit as base damage of course), but extending this chaining as much as necessary so that you learn your 1st chain ability from the Ghost might be more efficient. You’ll need Raging Ache by the Fire Elemental in the Abandoned Mines B1 for sure as your Fandango won’t penetrate his defenses and switching up to Magnolia Frau will be necessary since your sword will be ‘useless’ in terms of base damage dealt.
After the City Walls, in Abandoned Mines B1 at the beginning with the Stirges (but taking dmg there may be necessary anyway for Raging Ache power). Ward MIGHT be necessary later but that Defense Ability is already in your inventory after the Minotaur battle so you won’t have to ‘level up’ for it. Also, absorbing magical spells most likely won’t be necessary either. On the flip side, you may have to develop the Paralysis Pulse and Dulling Impact chain abilities. If you’re going to avoid magical attacks later in the game by manipulating physical attacks out of certain enemies (i.e. Quicksilvers in Undercity East), then you’ll need the aforementioned chain abilities. Here’s why: those enemies carry silver weapons, thus their attacks are Light based, making Impact Guard ‘miss’ every time and resulting in death (only Absorb Damage can sustain their attacks but there’s no way it will be unlocked by then). Thus, you may need to use Paralysis Pulse/Dulling impact to both shut them up and paralyze them considering there’s no way you will have unlocked Absorb Magic in time to survive their Drain Heart attacks (they also do a Drain MP attack but you’ll need your MP’s to teleport by that time). There’s a specific Crimson Blade in the area right after the Kesch Bridge with a silver axe that may need the same strategy as well in Town Center East right before the section with the Quicksilvers (he casts either an Earth-based spell called Vulcan Lance or an Air-based spell called Lightning Bolt, each requiring separate Defense Abilities although Lightning Bolt is more likely). Dulling Impact can be recalled as the second chain ability unlocked but Paralysis Pulse will be unlocked as the 2nd chain ability after Raging Ache (thanx to Valendian for these tips).
6) In terms of MPs (someone should double-check), eventually you’ll need 71 to teleport from Rue Lejour to the Sunless Way in order to collect a sigil (‘key’ to unlock a door) from a chest nearby. You’ll then need 75 to teleport from the Sunless Way to the Kesch Bridge. After that you’ll need 75 to teleport from the Kesch Bridge back to the Sunless Way. After the Minotaur you will face: Dullahan, Golem, Dragon, Duane, Wyvern, Fire Elemental, Ogre, Giant Crab, Earth Dragon, Grissom/Dark Crusader, Dark Elemental, Air Dragon, Lich, and finally the Nightstalker before teleportation is necessary. These are ‘real’ bosses that give a stat roulette wheel after beating them. So, you’ll need to manipulate a total of +25 MP from these bosses in order to have the max MP necessary to make the teleportation trips. So assuming you can manipulate MP +2 from Dullahan onwards, you’ll have enough MPs to teleport sufficiently before Nightstalker so one more str manipulation may be in order just for kicks. Note, however, that after the first teleportation to the Sunless Way there will be no way for you to have regened your MPs back to max in time so using a mana item once will be necessary. You may need to use another mana item before going back to the Sunless Way in the end as I’m not sure if you’ll be able to fully naturally replenish your MPs in time for the final teleport. Thankfully, you’ll have some Mana Tonics and Roots in your inventory by then so you won’t need to manipulate a Bulb from an enemy for a third use.
OK, hopefully that addresses your questions somewhat.
Looking into pure str on weapon drops it may help in some instances (i.e. City Walls after the Grissom battle against the Lizards), Raging Ache may make manipulating drops unnecessary. Picking up items costs time as well as equipping and changing them when they become nearly useless. For one, a boss needs to be weak to whatever weapon type you’re using (blunt, edged, piercing) and also you’ll need to build up enough Phantom Points for the weapon to be effective in the first place (a full PP bar adds more damage to base attacks and is built up after repeated use of a weapon, whether it’s multiple chaining or just pure ‘1 hit attacks’ I’m not sure). It also seems a lot of bosses need to be Degenerated/Tarnished in order for the appropriate weapon type/affinity to have any effectiveness in the first place. Obviously, exploiting a boss’s weakness requires you to equip the appropriate gem or casting the right Enchanter spell (assuming you have the right grimoire item, in some cases requiring you to go out of your way to obtain them) which may expend more time than straight up Raging Ache abuse. I’ll check out their weaknesses and see if it’s worth going the edged/blunt/piercing weapon drop route. If you’re going to read any FAQ on this game then I suggest Beamup’s Battle Mechanics Guide on gamefaqs (Acheron86 linked to this earlier). With that said, I’m fairly certain you’ll be sticking with the Magnolia Frau the whole game as farming for weapons and equipping them will cost more time than it’s worth most likely as each boss has a different weakness most of the time. The main thing right now is to figure out where you’re going to get your BPs and where you’re going to take damage.
"Reinforcements? I AM the reinforcements."