Submission #10430: 0xwas's N64 Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards "all shards" in 1:02:45.383

Nintendo 64
(Submitted: Kirby 64 - The Crystal Shards)
all shards
(Submitted: 100%)
(Submitted: Kirby 64 - The Crystal Shards (USA).z64 USA)
BizHawk 2.11
225923
60
38712
PowerOn
6cea2d46b929a3bb347b060a77fccc83526fb855
TAS Timing
Submitted by 0xwas on 5/9/2026 10:21 PM
Submission Comments
00:41.617 frames saved over previous run. I'd originally made a run in 2019 but didn't submit due to lack of optimization. While I was leaving speedrun scene, new boss fight strat, rng manipulation and other small timesavers were invented. Those led good amount of time save and broke 1:03 barrier.

RNG manipulation

That page lists what events affect RNG. If you want to know handy way to manipulate, the answer is no. All you can is waiting for certain kirby's animation that changes RNG or external cause such as an enemy, loading other map.

Physic data (Just horizontal speed)

StateTerminal speedAcceleration rate (per frame) Deceleration rate (per frame)
Walking5.00.675 0.4 on ground, 0.225 in mid-air
Dashing6.00.8Same as Walking
Floating2.50.1750.225, 0.175 with directional input
Single fire10.50.50.5 while doing directional input oppositely
Double fire10.00.5Fixed to 10 while the ability is active, no way to deactivate it manually
Curling8.975- (Terminal speed is fastest, can't go higher)0.025
Pitch6.01.60.225 in mid-air
Deceleration rate (for walking/dashing) assumes your speed is higher than terminal and not doing directional input. If you do, the speed is instantly reset to terminal next frame. I'm not listing irreverent data for this run. Pitch is a bird you can use via stone+cutter ability combo, which is used in 3-2.
You should usually avoid moving on both upward or downward slopes, they slow down your speed (except one instance I'll explain later). Touching wall kills all your horizontal speed except you are in underwater or riding DDD.

Tricks

Bunny hopping

Once your speed goes below terminal speed, you hold d-pad for a frame then release it. You can stay over terminal speed for a while. As I showed, speed decay is weaker in mid-air than on ground. Best way to keep high speed when kirby doesn't have high mobility ability is jump and staying mid-air. But only requirement for this trick is being in mid-air, jump is just a way to do it. This trick works for Pitch too.

Cancelling lift up

You can lift up an ability you held as an star object or lift up an enemy. But it halts your movement for a short time so not ideal for speed. But it can be cancelled by getting hit or transitioning right after doing the action.

Comparison with old TAS

I will add them later but I'm not mentioning small improvements that are just keeping better speed since it's unnoticeable unless you watch with speed value.
StageThis run6454MDelta by stageTotalNote
1-15198520244
1-213644136611317Better middle boss fight.
1-320697207665269
1-Boss235232363846115Better first phase. Reduced travel distance between enemies.
2-1336343382354169Better middle boss fight and mixing abilities.
2-2422864254186255
2-35158951988144399
2-457652580587406
2-Boss638186423814420
3-1719447240339459
3-28351384143171630
3-39351494413269899Better boss fight and much faster ascending part with Pitch. I had to get the card at the goal for pitch in next stage but it's still faster than not doing so.
3-410230410327976975
3-Boss106302107241-36939Only place where I lost the time. It's always faster to defeat them near the bottom but I got bad RNG.
4-1114143115159771018
4-2126172127235471063
4-3134649135795831146
4-41472401485551691315
4-Boss15103815235631318
5-1162961164318391357
5-21722091737391731530Better ability mix.
5-3182113183680371567
5-4194372196006671634
5-Boss19845420009791643
6-1203010204691381681
6-2210128211832231704
6-321697221867601704
6-Boss2218932237061091813
Movie end2259232284206842497I was able to carry fire from 6-Boss thanks to new strat. But I gained nearly 500 frames from shooting section somehow.

The boat (3-2), minecart (4-2) and sled (5-1)

They are special vehicles you can ride in said stages. Those are affected by slopes like kirby too so jumping is fastest. But you start losing speed gradually if staying midair too long. That's why you see short hops for 4-2 and 5-1 specifically.
Boat's physic works partly different from two. While it's affected by slopes too but its max speed is varied depends on the angle of slope. The river map is consisted by various angle of slops and they give 5 different speeds as far as I noticed (10.0, 9.0, 8.5, 8.2 and 8.0). Big jumping can help to delay speed decay if you need to go through a slope which gives worse speed from faster one. This speed change doesn't happen for the minecart or the sled.

Special thanks

NiaHoshino and DarkRiolu27: For finding workable RNG from 3-1 through 3-Boss.
Curtissimo: For finding a way to carry fire from 6-Boss. For some reason, RNG manipulation couldn't have the boss transform fire form last like it's hardcoded.
WaddleDX: For sharing a list of all possible RNG variance at picnic minigame. It helped me to route the RNG from 4-Boss through 5-3.

Challenger: Claiming for judging.
Challenger: Moviefile updated with an 92-frame improvement because the author contacted me about finding some new improvements to the three latest main bosses.
Challenger: Great improvements and clever RNG manipulation!

McBobX: Processing...
Last Edited by McBobX 6 hours ago
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