Submission #5355: Tremane's GB Mega Man IV in 34:55.45

Game objectives

• Emulator : Bizhawk 1.11.4
• Aims for fastest time
• Heavy luck manipulation
• Takes damage to save time
• Uses no password

Comments

• About the game:

1. Pressing UP on the D-Pad immediately ends a slide ( it also removes a Lagframe sometimes,often used in spots Megaman has to wait and Lag appears, e.g. Bossfights, or Midbosses ).
2. shooting e.g. to the right locks megaman to the direction for several frames, which means you can´t slide to the left or turn around, to avoid this you have to jump. If you´re wondering why you want to turn around after you were shooting it´s really simple, normally Megaman has a 9 Frame cooldown after he has done a shot but turning around on the first frame possible and going back to the other side enables him to shoot earlier ( see the Big Metcannon fights on Wily Space Ship for an example - Megaman looks like he´s firing a machine gun :^D ).
3. Rush Jet movement is fixed.
4. In boss battles where I use the Buster, I alternate charged and non-charged shots, on Game Boy the boss invulnerability time is so short (30 frames) and the charge-up time is so long (90 frames) that it actually saves time to fire a small shot after every large shot!
5. It is worth mentioning that after each Boss fight, the player has to stand in the middle! Boss bubbles don't have to leave the screen to activate the Get Weapon animation earlier.
6. Knockback from the full charged Bustershot can be used a shortcut in Crystalman stage.
7. Using the japanese Rom gives us: faster gamestart (~255frames) , magically less lag in some areas and even though it doesn´t matter that much faster textboxes.

Improvement by Stage:

Pharao:

• lots of small improvements ( subpixel, Lagmanagement )
• better Bossfight

Ring:

• magically saved 1 frame in the stage loading \&(´ω´)
• better refill management, Lag and Subpixel optimizations

Toad:

• just Lagmanagement and Subpixel

Bright:

• 1 more Rushcoil in the Spike section
• better Bossfight ( -> better charging of Pharao )

Satellite / Ballade:

• usage of the Shot-cooldown-Trick to charge up Pharao earlier
• better fight against Ballade

Charge:

• better Lagmanagement in the Stage
• better Bossfight ( using two full charged shots in the beginning of the Fight )

Crystal:

• magically saved 10 frame in the stage loading \&(´ω´)
• used the Knockback from the full charged buster to avoid a Diamond Joe \&(´ω´)
• skipping one pillar
• found out that you can get hit by two Crystalshots at the same time for double the damage ( 6 indstead of 3 ) therefore it´s faster to get 2 refills and get rid of the Lag in the whole fight by getting hit by only 1 Crystalshot and collect the rest afterwards.

Napalm:

• Lots of Lagmanagement and Subpixel

Stoneman:

• Lagmanagement and Subpixel
• better way to pickup the Letter in the Stage
• lost 2 Frames in the fight due to Lag :(

Ballade #2 & Escape:

• less Lagframes in the Ballade Fight
• major improvement in the Lagsection figured out that you can skip some bombs, because the explosion hitbox moves in a circle, enables me to shortcut a little. Also less weapon changing!

Runway & Cranefight:

• better Pharao refill spot -> less Lag

Wily Eye #1:

• way better Lag + Rushjet management
• the Wily Eye fight is strange you´re able to move for 2-5 frames and get locked after that before the fight starts - it´s enough to make a slide closer to the Wily Eye, still saved a bunch of Lagframes in this fight

Wily Eye #2:

• better Route to the fight, less Lag, better movement
• figured out I could hit both Eyes cause they do not share the same invincible counter

Refights:

• since I refilled Ringboomerang before the #2 Wily Eye I just needed to refill Pharao shot for the refights, luckily Napalman Fight is in the Top-Right and he´s weak to Pharao.
• I went clockwise and figured out that the global timer for the teleport out of a room is fixed after the Boss is dead, so I get hit on purpose to avoid Lag from the Refill pallet since it doesn´t stop the timer.

Wily 1/2/3:

• removed some Lagframes here and there :)

Improvement Table

• - resambles Frames gained

• Mothrayas
• Nach
• will_wc