Submission #8435: JHolleworth's DS Solatorobo: Red the Hunter in 4:49:29.79

• Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8 (melonDS)
• DSi Mode: False
• Use Real BIOS: False
• Firmware Start-Up: Auto Boot
• Aims for fastest time
• Takes damage to save time
• Number of "DAH"s and "SALUT"s: Too many to count

Introduction

Region Choice

Basic Actions/Tech

• Perform a dash by double-tapping B
• Grab and throw small enemies and/or objects/projectiles with A
• Flip and throw bigger enemies into the air by mashing A repeatedly
• Chain up to three hits when catching flipped enemies while airborne, otherwise known as a "Midair Combo"
• Tackle enemies by ramming into them with a dash

How To Train Your Dahak (a.k.a. "Customization")

• Attack: Increases the amount of damage the Dahak inflicts with attacks.
• Defense: Decreases the amount of damage the Dahak takes from attacks.
• Hydraulics: Makes it easier to lift up items and enemies.
• Mobility: Increases the speed of the Dahak's movement.
• Revive: When the life meter hits 0, your life will be restored to the percentage shown. The Revive part will be consumed once you have been revived.

The Hunter Rank System

General Comments

Prologue: Initial Emergence

• Being that this is the start of the game, the prologue bombards you with tutorials that interrupt things such as the combat and most of them can't even be skipped on subsequent playthroughs. It sucks, sure, but one thing that's nice to know about the dialogue is that you can automatically fast-forward through it by holding down R and A together.

• If you hadn't guessed by now, dashing continuously is obviously the fastest form of movement, though you are committed to one of eight possible cardinal directions when you perform a dash.

• During combat, you're going to be seeing me throw enemies into each other a lot since that deals damage to both of them (or in the case of smaller enemies like bugs, all surrounding foes within a small circular radius).

• Captain Grumpf's battle cruiser is the first "auto-scrolling enemy/mini-boss" of many, where you catch the missiles it fires and throw them back at it for "a lotta damage."

• This prologue also teaches the player a couple of nifty things, like how you use heavy boxes to weigh down switches that will activate doors (or you can use the Dahak if there are no boxes nearby, that's also heavy).

Chapter One: Contract With You

• While the unconscious Felineko we rescued from the collapsing Hindenburg is catching some Z's, we're gonna go over to our friendly Quest Broker, Flo, and accept our first quest for three Quest Points: "Battle Rehearsal."

• In "Battle Rehearsal", the Parts Seller, Suzette, will challenge us to a fight against her Suzette Custom Mark 7. It's still got a long way to go as we curb-stomp it with two midair combos. As a reward, we get 500 Rings and a "Hydraulics +1" part that we'll never use in the run, much to her dismay.

• When we've gone back to the Asmodeus to check up on our guest, we gain access to three new quests, one of which is locked behind Hunter Rank Level 2, so we'll need to do the other two first.

• "All Fighters Welcome!" introduces us to the Duel Ship, where we can fight three rounds against other peoples' mechs and earn a little bit of fight money if we win all three rounds in succession. All of the fighters are trivial at best, the only one worth talking about is our third opponent: a Clapper member who boasts that any frontal attack we attempt will bounce off his armour. Luckily for us, he said nothing about grabbing him from behind. ◕‿↼)

• Fans of Tail Concerto should be familiar with what we have to do in "Photograph Retrieval." A bunch of naughty little kittens from the Black Cats Gang have taken one of Barry's photographs and torn it up into four pieces. You'll typically find these kittens hiding inside big crates that shake about, giving away their location. When catching the one kitten outside the warehouse and another three inside, we complete the "How're Things?" photo, the only one that's required in an Any% speedrun.

• After we've earned enough Quest Points to get to Level 2, we can now do "Storage Cleaning." The merchant outside wants us to place three boxes into metal plates on the ground. One particular jump is hard for a human to make without moving the box that's already on the ground first.

• The first boss is a Shade Leader. This is one of those bosses that sadly won't get a chance to do anything that's to be expected on a normal playthrough due to us mashing "A" at 29.91 button presses per second. Normally, it's supposed to spawn a Shade that you can throw back at it for some damage, or throw the energy balls it fires back at its leader to stun it and set it up for a midair combo.

Chapter Two: Raid of the Kurvaz!

• While we're waiting for Elh in Spinon, we'll go ahead and take on the "Friend's Lost Treasure" quest. After heading back over to the port where the Asmodeus is to enter the sewers, as well as turning a valve that shuts off the water so the Dahak can pass, we can encounter our first enemy that we just "nope" away from to the boss since defeating it doesn't trigger anything.

• After defeating a huge red Scatter Mouse for the key that Frito and Amélie lost, we go back to them at the Star Dogs Café to finish the quest.

• When we're given a key from the Mayor and hitch a ride on a gondola to open a water gate, we run into another room that forces us to dismount our Dahak and swim until we find a valve. None of the submerged goodies in the room where the valve was are important, so we lift the right gate open when we get back on the Dahak.

• In the following walkway, I get a P Crystal from a small box. After defeating some Kurvaz guards in the next room, we encounter our next boss: Calua of the Kurvaz Special Ops! He'll start the fight by attempting to slash Red with his axe, but we curb-stomp him like no tomorrow after ramming into him to cancel out that attack.

Chapter Three: The Paladin Clan

• After defeating six Reclaimers that Opera Kranz sends after Red to retrieve the Crystal Stone he found in Spinon, Chocolat puts the Dahak into Flying Mode so we can take out the three control ships that are driving the horde of Reclaimers. You can wait for the ships to shoot missiles and send Reclaimers for you to throw back at them, but a Turbo Spin or two will take them out immediately if you can position yourself just right. Turbo Spins also make up a lot of our movement in Flying Mode.

• When that ordeal is over, Diamundo turns up with a job for us while he fixes the Asmodeus up. He wants us to test a race machine for him in the Air Robo Grand Prix (or GP for short). With three other racers to go up against, it's a three-lap race on Windward Way, a basic figure-eight track with little islands as obstacles. The idea is to hold on to the Shield if anyone decides to use a Jammer on us, and use the turbo boosts we pick up wherever we can without crashing into the walls. My final time is a 02:16.36, about 7 seconds faster than Ruby's 02:23.70 in her current PB.

Hunter Rank Grinding (Level 4)

• The next story advancing quests are both locked behind Hunter Rank Level 4, so it's time for our first dose of grinding Quest Points. "Collecting Tunes" introduces us to hornweeds which give us tune points that we can cash in at the Asmodeus's Cabin so we can listen to our favourite songs whenever we want! Dismounting our Dahak to examine the first two and going back to Iggy at the souvenir shop nets us a respectable five Quest Points.

• "Wonders of the World" puts us back into Flying Mode to find a hidden book on the Davren Islands. The book lies directly west from us, but we can't get it in a straight line as there are no islands for us to land on and refill our boost gauge. So to get around this, I head north while going west a little bit for the first use of boost, south-west for the second, and the island the book is on is just waiting for me after that.

• Three bugs will appear when examining the stone monument, which I take all out with a Turbo Spin and do the same to a huge bug that spawns in the air before it has a chance to touch the ground with full health. This book Quynne wanted us to find logs various things Red does around the world. In fact, as Quynne lets us keep it, it opens the Library section of the Cabin. Not that we care about that, of course, we just wanted the five Quest Points that will shoot us up to Level 3.

• For "Pest Extermination", the merchant from earlier wants us to kill three bugs that are hiding in boxes from him. A Biggant spawns from above after that, which we take out with two midair combos and bring its leg back to the merchant as proof of our job completion. Two more Quest Points earned, and I also get off the Dahak to pick up a P Crystal on the ground.

• "Container Arrangement" introduces us to a... peculiar character called Alman. He wants us to move four boxes around the dock onto the four plates at the top of the dock. This is similar to the Storage Cleaning quest from earlier, so not much to talk about here other than we're rewarded one Quest Point for doing it.

• Going to Spinon for a change, we take on Mamoru's quest "Pamphlet Delivery", where we hand out nine pamphlets out to people around town. Two Quest Points for a harmless task.

• Before taking on round one in "Fan Day", I buy and equip "Attack +4" and "Attack +7" from the worker for a total of 2500 Rings. The first round is against five Scatter Mice which ends as quickly as it starts due to them having so little health.

• The last two rounds involve throwing three insects into each other all while Red boasts to Toffee that he'll win within three minutes and one minute respectively, not knowing that the referee would actually turn it into a self-imposed rule, of course. But really, with finishing times of 2:35.63 and 42.86, they are all too reliant. Three Quest Points, and we're now at a good enough Hunter Level to take on the quests in Vizsla.

Chapter Four: Elh's Phobia

• "Broken Bug Flute" sees us going to retrieve a spare Bug Flute from Dahmon's house because he's let part of it become overgrown with carnivorous plants who try to eat him, as well as a hive of spawning insects.

• "Scarabee Problem" is the other Level 4 quest we have to take on, and also where the chapter name comes from. We speak to the Chief to open up the Eastern Honey Farm, and after feeding some insects to a traplant, we climb up to find the Scarabee, also known as "Aah! Hurry-up-and-squish-it!!!" by Elh.

• The Scarabee can do one of three things: It can shake out two insects from the hive on its neck to throw at it, it can sweep its arms at us which is slow, or it can fire a purple poisonous ball that turns into a gas cloud, which is also slow. By ramming into the Scarabee, we can manipulate it so that it only shakes its hive.

• After the fight and some comical embarrassment at Elh's expense, all we have to do now is go back into the Honey Farm and find seven Scarabee Shells. We kill an insect carrying an orange Honeybead, leave the room, and give it to a Ladyshroom on the other side to hitch a ride on it to where the shells are.

• The last screen where you have to collect three Scarabee Shells had a persistent swarm of little bugs who were willing to cling onto Red if I went down the first vine as early as I could. They don't hurt you or anything, they just slow you down unless you use the stun gun to get them off. After collecting the seven shells we need for Diamundo to fully repair the Asmodeus and leaving the Honey Farm, the chapter ends.

Chapter Five: A Pair of Prisoners

• After talking to two miners near the Asmodeus to get the info we need on the Kurvaz, I buy "Attack +12A" from the Parts Seller for 2800 Rings, but I don't equip it just yet. It's not until I get 3 P Crystals from a box on a minecart ride that I open up a new slot and swap out "Attack +4" for our newly acquired part. I also collect 2 more P Crystals during a second minecart ride.

• Looks like we accidentally crashed an airship, aw shucks. Well, three TNT boxes just barely outside a blue ring, one big kaboom, and a following minecart ride later, we take a lift down back to where I abandoned the drill to grab a big box and weigh down a switch opening up a gateway that leads to another Kurvaz Special Ops member: Gren. And if you were expecting me to say anything about this fight, well... what else were you expecting me to say about the combat portions of a Solatorobo TAS, besides "hehe dahak go dunk"?

Chapter Six: An Alluring Trap

• After Red blows his cover at the first guard who goes down with two Reclaimers and missiles each, a lot of the combat that follows is just Red going Mama Bear for the Mayor of Shetland's kidnapped son Louis, because I don't even wait for the other walkways to fully rise up just to wail on the other Kurvaz in the next room.

• As much as I would've loved to do something about the spike walls that the bomb-hurling Kurvaz hide behind, unfortunately, there's nothing we can really do about them yet. The Engine Room is also a room I'm not too proud of because of the way the pistons move.

• After finding the Sub Engine Room Key (complete with a cutscene that shows which door to use said key on) and pushing a Kurvaz member for information on Louis's whereabouts, we head back to where that door was, and one spike wall later (sigh), we find Louis before a Kurvaz scares him into running back through the ducts. The Kurvaz replacing the robot that attacks with electric dynamo robots and bombs on our way back doesn't die from the third bullet if we get off the Dahak sooner to push the switch for some reason, we have to delay for that.

• After getting scolded by Chocolat for blowing up the engine with Reclaimers and heading to the Ballroom, we get to fight Opera Kranz (or as she'd prefer to be called: Lady Opera). How fast you can make this fight go largely depends on how many of the four flying mines you're able to throw back at her in time before they explode. The average cycle consists of that and Opera firing her laser a couple of times. Since throwing all four mines is no problem in a TAS setting, this ends up being a four-cycle fight.

Hunter Rank Grinding (Level 5)

• Yay, more grinding. Our first side quest in a while is "Temp Miners Wanted!", where we go back to the mine where Red was imprisoned by the Kurvaz earlier to drill some piles of rocks and collect shiny minerals, and also use a few bombs to get what we need. Overkill? Yes, considering they cause earthquakes, but so long as it works, right? Our reward for finding an ultra rare rock called a Glitterock in the third and final chamber? Two Quest Points.

• To Vizsla we go, and Alman wants us to protect his cargo ship in, well... "Protect Cargo Ship." The Clappers' main ship goes down with ten missiles. These missiles can be blocked by the small ship in front of it, so I have to position myself accordingly to avoid that. Three Quest Points for saving Alman's cargo and getting it to Airedale.

• "Recover Belongings," another Alman quest. He wants us to find and collect six red boxes with a yellow star on them. Not much to say other than it's another Flying Mode segment, and I had to plan my way back to Alman after I had gotten all six boxes well since you don't have a whole lot of boost during New Game. One more Quest Point for our troubles.

• Last Alman quest for a while, I promise: "Protect Cargo Again." This time, Alman has equipped his ship with a gun (that needs to be reloaded with 60-round clips) after the last attack. Anyway, the Clappers are back and want some payback. They use the same attacks as last time, only they have two support ships and a lot more health this time around. The quest doesn't immediately end when you take out the main ship this time, you need to defeat eight support ships as well. Two Quest Points when we arrive in Airedale again, and now we can go to Basset.

Chapter Seven: The Door... Opens

• "Hermit Crab Hunting" is just what it sounds like. When we go to the harbour and speak to Collie about it, Chocolat will customise our Dahak so we can go fishing. The Hermit Crab we want appears on the far left. When we've shot our harpoon into it, we have to hold left or right depending on which is indicated whilst mashing "A" to drag the crab closer. It's more RTA viable to get it to flip over after a few seconds and then mash "A" to reel it in since you don't have to risk overheating. The aim is to reduce the distance to 0m, and if the distance reaches 999m or more, the crab will get away.

• After Red leaves Elh to play with the orphans, we obtain a key to the abandoned ship from Director Fraisier. At the end of said abandoned ship is another fishing minigame where we have to catch the Shrine Hermit to get the third Crystal Stone from the shrine on its back.

• The chapter culminates in Red hurrying back to the orphanage which is under attack from Grumpf's Kurvaz ship. I had to move diagonally down while clearing away the second pile of junk on top of the Ship Wreck Tower, otherwise I would've gotten hit by a spinning enemy while lifting it up.

Chapter Eight: Holy Quarter of Betrayal

• "White Flower Bouquet" is just a harmless little flower collecting quest, which Elh manages to turn into something that's nearly a date, complete with dialogue trees for each flower you pick (though each question only affects the lines immediately after it and the quest continues as normal afterward whether your response made Elh happy or not). Only the third dialogue tree has its slightly faster response on the bottom.

• After getting the Rosario for clearing that quest, we're free to head towards the Holy Quarter of Samoyede. After finding two icons (well, take one at the entrance and find the other inside the quarter, at least) and placing them on top of pedestals, Beluga comes in to stop Elh from performing the Rite of Forfeit and this leads to his boss battle. Beluga managing to escape Red's grab the first time will just happen no matter how fast you can button mash without any Hydraulic boosts, but we can still curb-stomp him before we're supposed to throw some missiles back to stun him.

Chapter Nine: Hero, and Fool

• We're introduced to another new enemy type on our way to save Elh from the Kurvaz: A boiler robot who fires a burst of flame at Red, which then causes the heat on its body to subside, allowing you to grab and lift him up.

• Optimising the succeeding room(s) where you have to get two lanterns and place them on pedestals (a la the icons from Chapter Eight a few minutes earlier) was kinda tricky because of the flamethrowers in the way of the doors. The Kurvaz guarding the lanterns were no big deal since you don't even have to fight them.

• Getting the second warping soldier to spawn at the end of the stairs where I wanted him to was also pretty tricky, any amount of frames slower than what is shown in the TAS and he would teleport on the stairs where Red wouldn't be able to grab him due to height discrepancies.

• After that, we find ourselves doing the lantern thing again. The two lanterns where we took out the warping soldier are green, and there's one red lantern that we need to put onto the moving platform so we can take it into the next room (along with the Dahak since Red can only use control panels when he's outside of it). None of the Kurvaz here are really doing much to slow us down, so we can continue along our way.

• The fight with two warping soldiers at once was also a pain to optimise. I really wanted to get it done in a one-cycle if I could, and thankfully, it was indeed possible.

• The boss, or rather, bosses for this chapter are all three members of the Kurvaz Special Ops at once. We get to fight Opera Kranz again while Calua and Gren provide backup as well as our only means of attack. Calua will fire missiles at Red to throw back at Opera, and Gren will jump in and try to deliver a physical attack, which gives us a opportunity to throw him at Opera. The order is random each time, some fights you get Gren first, other fights you get Calua first, but it doesn't really matter since they both seem to deal the same amount of damage. The order I got during this fight was: Gren, Calua, Gren, Gren, Calua.

Final Chapter: Final Solution

• There's nothing too noteworthy to say about Lares's insides aside from a couple of obnoxious poison gas spewers, so let's move on to the final boss: Bruno, who's fused himself with Lares and transformed into one formidable foe.

• It's not easy to get a truly optimal fight with this guy. If you throw the energy balls he fires from his mouth back at him too fast, there's a good chance Red will target one of the laser-firing faces instead of Bruno, and they're pretty much pointless to go for since they don't stay down indefinitely, so two or three out of four is pretty much the best I can do. I was lucky enough to get one cycle near the end where I was able to throw all three medium-sized energy balls back at him though, so that's something.

• There's still a little more game to go through after Bruno is defeated, though most of it is just lifting up some defensive shutters that are protecting Lares. After making it to the core and blasting at it with a Power Cell (no, not the ones from Jak & Daxter) to take Lares offline, the game is pretty much over.

Opening to Part Two / Hunter Rank Grinding (Level 6)

• Or is it...?! Yeah, turns out those end credits were just for Part One. If you save your game and then reload from the "now set at dusk" main menu, you get launched right into Part Two! Well, sort of. See, because we ended Part One at Hunter Rank 5, that means we've still got some work to do before we can go to Pharaoh, starting with...

• "That Peculiar Ship", where Galvan wants Red to fish for a certain hermit crab to go inside the ship on its back. I'm fairly proud of the movement here, especially when I only clear some of the junk blocking a door near the end. Two Quest Points for finding the ship's flight log.

• "Pirate Hunting" introduces us to the Howlers, a group of sky pirates who are making off with the Airedale Merchant's entire warehouse. You can't grab them until they've left themselves vulnerable after an attack, so I opt to throw them at each other and delay lifting them up while waiting for the next Howlers to spawn. As for the ship that has the warehouse, nine bomb throws is all it takes to defeat it... along the warehouse too for two more Quest Points. Good job, Red.

• "Rookie Discipline" is another Alman quest where the first part is basically a repeat of "Container Arrangement" where you place four boxes on top of plates. The second part is just a four-throw fight with the slacker who we just put that display on for. One Quest Point for that.

• Last, we have a Spinon quest called "Big Fishies." The fights against the titular big fishies are basic, really. Just going to where Pufferfishes will jump across the water, catching them, and throwing them at the big fishies. Rinse and repeat until they're defeated. You can only throw one Pufferfish at the big fishies at a time when they jump out of the water, as shown against the third one who the guard calls Mary. Two more Quest Points, and now we're almost at Level 6 with one Quest Point left. One of the quests awaiting us in Pharaoh isn't locked behind Level 6, so we're free to go now and actually begin Part Two.

Part Two, Chapter One: Rondo of Black and White

• "Machinery Repairs" requires us to fix five damaged machines and kill all rats we find in the station. Much like most things Red can interact with, he has to dismount his Dahak to repair the machines, but you have to be careful not to go near them when they're sparking with electricity. One Quest Point for fixing the machinery, killing the rats and heading back to the Controller, which shoots us up to Hunter Rank Level 6.

• In "Freight Inspection," the Controller encourages us to check the train on the lower platform first. I grab and break a small box containing a P Crystal before going inside. We meet Diamundo at the end of the train, who wants us to backtrack two carriages to get a repair kit for him. After that, we can see what's going on with the train on the upper platform.

• A very shady merchant is standing outside the upper train, who sics a boiler robot on us. I'm proud of being able to take it down with two combos without having to wait for its flame attack a second time. After examining the locked insect cage inside the train first, we head to the back to convince the nervous-looking pilot to hand us the key. We see the big insect spawn smaller ones as it was supposed to during "Wonders of the World" before we rudely one-shotted it as it just spawned in the air, but with some careful positioning, the smaller insect doesn't turn out to be much of a bother.

• One brief swimming segment later, we find a suspicious hunter mentioning something about "goods", before attacking us. The two barrels in the freezer carriage damage their robot when they're thrown at it, so that plus one midair combo is enough to defeat it after the electrical discharge goes away. Two more hunters who spin and leap at Red come afterwards, where my plan of attack is to wait until they're dizzy and throw one of them at the other. After we discover that there's a bomb in this train, Red backs out immediately to let the inspection team deal with it. One Quest Point and a trip back to the Main Terminal.

• The bosses we encounter at the station after clearing both quests are Nero and Blanck. Blanck fires balls of energy at Red which we throw back at him, and Nero attacks by causing black energy to shoot out of the ground, which we can simply avoid by moving away from where the first bolt will form. The fight automatically ends when half of their health is depleted, which takes four energy balls from Blanck. After that, they both knock Red unconscious and put his Dahak out of commission.

Part Two, Chapter Two: Fragments of Time

• "Test Simulation" is... well, a simulation where we have to defend Elh from a swarm of bugs. The aim here is to "kill two birds with one stone" as much as possible, including the ones that come out from holes in the wall on both sides. "Simulation Lv. 1" is just the Nero and Blanck fight we did earlier.

• "Simulation Lv. 2" puts us in a wrecked Airedale where we're greeted by an angry Kurvaz soldier, as well as an angry Suzette and her worker. Awaiting us at the end is Beluga, who fights us exactly as he did in Chapter Eight and regenerates his health twice: Once after dealing a small chunk of damage to him, and again after taking his health down to half.

• "Simulation Lv. 3" features no combat at all. Instead, Red finds himself in a strange world where he confronts himself, before heading forward to find a memory of the orphanage he was in. After some shocking truths come to light, Red returns to the Asmodeus when the simulation ends.

Part Two, Chapter Three: Like Mother and Child

• Since Red's Dahak is still out of action, this chapter has nothing worth talking about movement-wise. While playing a game of hide-and-seek with the Basset orphans, I find a P Crystal inside a chest where we find Albert. After we win hide-and-seek, Arzane goes missing, so we have to go inside the abandoned ship to the right of the Asmodeus to look for him.

• When we find Arzane at the end of the ship (and by extension, Nero finds Red too), Elh drops by and delivers the repaired Dahak in the nick of time. The improved Dahak Mk2 comes with some new moves that be performed by holding down any direction on the D-Pad during a throw. When on the ground, Red can perform a Giant Swing which can also damage enemies who are within the swing's vicinity. And when airborne, Red can perform a Hyper Driver, a piledriver which can also damage nearby enemies.

• When we get the Dahak Mk2, Red is also able to go into Trance at will by pressing L and R simultaneously when the Trance meter is full. During Trance, Red can also fire Spark Javelins by holding the A button and releasing when the meter is full, which is our ideal damage output for enemies that are far away whenever Trance is available to us. This state only lasts for about 14 seconds and can only be built up again by fighting enemies, with comboing them be the most efficient way to build up Trance.

• The Nero fight was... I'll be honest, kind of a fail on my part. Turns out the Attack boosts I had on me at the time weren't enough to defeat her with a full bar of Trance. If I had waited and thrown at least one javelin into her, then this fight would've gone quicker than it actually did.

Part Two, Chapter Four: Aiming for Earth

• Before heading over to Mau, I take a quick trip to the Golden Roar and buy the Dahak Mk2 "Type R" fuselage from the Mechanic for 6000 Rings, which gives a +10 point boost to our Mobility and grants us the Hyper Dash, which is basically a more manoeuvrable dash that doesn't keep us locked in one direction. I also pay a quick visit to the Parts Seller in Pharaoh and buy "Rare Attack 4" (a +36 point boost to Attack) from him for 8000 Rings, which I'll equip on later in Mau. I also collect a P Crystal outside the shop, bringing me to the five I need to unlock another slot for when we equip our newly acquired part.

• When we land in Mau, the first thing we have to do is gather information from the citizens. We also find Ozir here, the village elder, who will insist that Red completes the training. Thankfully, we don't really need to, as our next quest "Message Delivery" is from someone currently undergoing the training. All we have to do is deliver a letter from Cerise to Raisin inside the training ground.

• We are briefly stopped by a Ritual Master when we enter the Training Ground, who first asks if we're here to train (obviously, we are) and if Elh is a boy (she's gonna have a word with Red later on for this, I bet). Both correct options are on the top, we just get kicked out if we say otherwise.

• When we confront two warping Kurvaz soldiers, I open up a slot and take out "Attack +7" for "Rare Attack 4". After that brief encounter, we meet Chuck, Steven's rival. When we go back to Steven, he raises a platform in determination to beat his rival, allowing us to proceed north.

• After riskily dashing around some spiked logs and across a bridge with punching training dummies and swinging axes, we meet Raisin which results in a reunion between him and Cerise. For that, we obtain a Talisman to show to Ozir as proof of our "training" as well as a Quest Point.

• If you're really quick enough, you don't even need to do anything about the birds guarding the murals that give details on something called the Divine Flute. After examining both murals, I go back into the "Type S" fuselage for the upcoming boss battle against the first guardian of the Divine Flute.

• Because there weren't many forced opportunities for me to build up Trance during this chapter, I have to resort to throwing the four eggs that the guardian lays at it. They also hatch if left around for too long, but you don't get to see that. Regardless, this ends up being a two-cycle fight without Trance and we now have the first piece of the Divine Flute.

Hunter Rank Grinding (Level 7)

• "Mixed Combat Showdown!" is a Duel Ship quest we fight against monsters rather than the traditional robos. In the first round against a giant roach, Cyan wants us to perform a midair combo, which we've already done plenty of times throughout the run, but in case you've forgot, a midair combo involves lifting an enemy up and catching it in the air for a throw three times. The second round against three large Scatter Mice has a one-minute time limit associated with it, but with Hyper Drivers making up most of my damage output around the enemies, I'm able to finish it with 53.91 seconds left.

• The third round involves not taking any damage at all from the giant Scatter Mouse otherwise we lose. Normally, you're supposed to dodge the rocks it throws at you and then throw the broken fragments at it to inflict damage, but we're obviously not about the intended method of beating certain enemies. After that, Cyan himself jumps into the ring, who's basically all talk and no bite. Two Quest Points for toughing through it, and I also go back to "Type R" for faster and smoother movement.

• "Bodyguard Duty" introduces us to superstar singer Cocona. She wants us to protect her from a stalker (who turns out to be Barry wanting to give a watch back to Cocona but he's too shy to talk to her himself), but she also throws in errands that she could just do herself like getting Miracle Juice and Grasso-Juice drinks from vending machines, and checking her record sales on Fashion Street. Two more Quest Points for being her personal bodyguard.

• "Pharaoh Trivia Contest" is just that; a trivia contest. Not much to say other than a single incorrect answer will get you eliminated, and you get two more Quest Points for winning. For those curious, the questions and answers were:

• "What's Truly Important" is the box that Dade wants us to retrieve from the Davren Islands. Get it? After treading carefully with Dade's ex Vanille for information, finding a map and key in her house, and following said map to a vault, we find the box which turns out to be a bunch of cheesy love poems. Dade and Vanille reunite, we get two Quest Points, our Hunter Rank shoots up to Level 7, and we're now off to Vizsla to see where the next Divine Flute piece is.

Part Two, Chapter Five: Friends

• Looks like the Village Chief has a "Scarabee Problem Again", and it's located in the East Cave. Giving honeybeads to some Ladyshrooms, we ride one to where we found those Scarabee Shells before, and another to a new room where we have to feed insects to a traplant, which leads to a mid-boss battle with the Scarabee itself. If you haven't noticed by now, I'll using the "Type S" fuselage for boss battles and encounters where Hyper Drivers are the most efficient attack to use, and "Type R" for general movement.

• After the Scarabee lunges at Red twice and we retaliate with two midair combos to nearly deplete all of its health, Frantz steps in to stop us from killing it. Why is that? Because he and the Scarabee are good friends. And even though we didn't kill it, we still clear the quest and are rewarded with one Quest Point.

• When we go deep into the back of the Chief's house, we're soon met with what looks like a dead end, which is our call to backtrack and speak to the Chief, and then Frantz, who'll agree to come with us and summon his Scarabee so we can ride deeper into the cave, taking us to the whirlzone where we throw down with the second Divine Flute guardian.

• I go into Trance when the guardian dives into the water and reappears on the bottom-right corner of the arena, and then throw two Spark Javelins at it. Three more when it moves to the top-left corner, and a final two when it moves to the top-right corner. That's basically how all fights with Trance go provided I have a full bar to use at a good time.

Hunter Rank Grinding (Level 8)

• "Aid In The Search" is a quest in Spinon posted by Flo herself. The first half of it is just Amélie playing detective and going around accusing everyone in Flo's house until Red finally finds a lead in the form of those naughty Black Cats kittens, who go hiding in the sewers to kick off the second half of the quest which just screams Tail Concerto. Catching the kittens can be pretty finicky at times, and you can't catch them while in a battle with rats, so I want to put an immediate end to the ones that I can't avoid. After getting all the missing items back and having a brief chat with some familiar faces (Alicia, Stare and Flare), we get two Quest Points for solving the case.

• "Waterway Wipeout" just has us picking up trash that's polluting the Water Gate and putting it in a garbage can that we carry around. What else can I say other than we have to turn the valve to drain the water again and reveal even more trash for some reason? One Quest Point for a task that's just as basic as it sounds.

• "Reinforcing Patrol" introduces us to two more familiar faces from Tail Concerto: Waffle and Panta! The Black Cats Gang is at the end of an air current, and we need to race to it before they escape. The track we're having a friendly race with Waffle and Panta on is similar to that of Fleet Graveyard in the Air Robo GP mode. My boost optimisation could be somewhat improved considering the amount of debris there is on the track, but I finish it in 1:37.16. We get two Quest Points, as well as five P Crystals for beating Waffle and Panta, but P Crystals are kinda irrelevant to collect at this point in the run.

• We need to commence an emergency rescue operation for this "Cave-In Accident" in Shetland! They'll basically be three miners standing in certain parts of the cave waiting to be rescued, which we simply do by talking to them. After rescuing the miners, a rescue worker we meet along the way gives us a drill to clear out a pile of rocks with, which then leads into a pretty lengthy minecart ride where we save Louis and another miner at the end, who are being harassed by a mole. The boss who rudely interrupts us on our way back to the rescue monster is a giant mole like the big Scatter Mouse we saw in the "no damage" challenge from "Mixed Combat Showdown!", who is defeated with three midair combos. Two Quest Points for saving those miners' lives.

• Taking the Basset orphans "To Samoyede", they rope us into a second round of hide-and-seek by heading into the forest. Not really the best idea. Biscotte is hiding on top of a tree where we also find an icon to clear the mist at the forest entrance and also find Albert. Beyond the entrance, Charlotte is hiding under the patch of grass on the left, and Arzane is hiding under another patch of grass on the right after we go up the stairs. I also throw some birds into each other on my way to Biscotte to finally fill up my Trance meter again. Two Quest Points, and now that our Hunter Rank is at Level 8, that's the last time we'll need to do numerous side quests.

Part Two, Chapter Six: Messenger from Earth

• Kouglof won't tell us where the whirlzone is as it's his secret fishing spot, so we have to take on the "Fish Tank Fishing" quest to earn his trust, where we're instructed to collect the sky fish on each of the three floors in the tank and put them into a bucket. I opt to bring the bucket with me to any nearby fish as they can escape from your grasp if you're not quick enough. I catch three small fish on Floor 1, one big fish and four small fish on Floor 2, and then three big fish and one small fish on Floor 3. After we clear this quest, the next time we talk to Kouglof, he takes us to his secret fishing spot where the whirlzone is.

• Because the fishing spot is set up like the Davren Islands, we have to fly to the whirlzone ourselves. The whirlzone is on an island with massive coral on it, which located in the south-west. So after Turbo Spinning a lot in that direction, we've already found it in about 21 seconds.

• Blanck fights much like Nero, with the purple bolts that'll explode a moment after he's done firing them on the island that Red's standing on. Thanks to our increased Attack power since the Nero fight, it's much easier to defeat him with a single bar of Trance where we fire off eleven Spark Javelins at him, unlike before where we fell just shy of being able to do that with Nero.

Part Two, Chapter Seven: Guardians of the Stars

• A lot of the navigation in the Futzu Tower boils down to messing around with mysterious Tetris blocks called "light pillars" which forms bridges when placed onto a mount. It gets fairly puzzle-like the further you get into the tower, especially if you're trying to get every last P Crystal you can find, but it's nothing too tricky in my opinion.

• Yurlungur wants us to examine the data banks regarding Hyper Information Convergence Juno when we're first introduced to L-shaped pillars. After viewing both banks, then we're allowed to proceed forward. I also take the L-piece I put on the left mount into the next room with me, as we need it to make the second bridge needed to complete the puzzle. I go into the "Type S" fuselage just for a brief battle against five light ball-looking Shades because given the way that they come in, Hyper Drivers just wipe the floor with them.

• We're not allowed to take the elevator where we find a save point yet because Yurlungur advises that we go through the door opposite us first. My piece route in the following room is about as optimal as it can get, with the second line piece being used to obtain an L-piece that will form a bridge that... actually leads us to the exit. After learning what "CODA" is and the horrifying story behind it, we head back to the elevator we're now allowed to take, and we meet Baion, Nero and Blanck in the Terminal Room, who leave and sic a Giant Shade on us. Boss fight time. :)

• Turns out spamming Spark Javelins against the Giant Shade is faster than Hyper Driving it into the ground repeatedly, so as soon as my Trance meter is full, I go into it ASAP. The chapter doesn't end after we defeat the Giant Shade, we have to take out two Guard Units so we can download both segments of the "Re-CODA" program from the terminals in the other rooms. After we've done that, we automatically head to Yurlungur again and then the chapter ends.

Part Two, Chapter Eight: A Call of Fangs

• Red wants to help out the townspeople in Pharaoh first, and as all emergency reports go to the Quest Broker Flo, our first job here is "Rescue from Rubble", where Mamoru and a Rescue Worker want us to save four citizens who are trapped in areas beyond some rubble. The first one is standing out in the open beyond said rubble, the second is in a train below, the third is in another train after eliminating a few Shades, and the fourth is outside the train where we rescued the third citizen. When we come back to Mamoru after rescuing all the citizens, our next emergency job is...

• "Bomb Retrieval", where a Howler and Kurvaz member need us to retrieve a high grade explosive from deep within the facility. I take the box at the beginning of the facility with me to weigh down a switch that opens a door to where said explosive is. After that, it's all a matter of taking it back outside. Two easy jobs back-to-back, really.

• After helping out all the people we can, Nero and Blanck finally appear in Pharaoh and synchronise their robos to form the Cassandra Cross. This fight is entirely dependent on the cannon available to us, you cannot fight it in any other way. With 21 bullets left on a full clip, two of those being used to shoot down some missiles that they fire, it takes 37 bullets to defeat the Cassandra Cross, plus a heart-breaking bit where you're forced to lift a part out of it, "killing" Nero and Blanck. (CC2 aren't fond of permanent character deaths, hence the air quotes)

Part Two, Chapter Nine: Silence of the Dragons

• Lemures is very similar to Lares structure and enemy-wise. Pretty much the only thing exclusive to Lemures is some rooms where acid is constantly rising and receding. We just speed on through these rooms, even if the acid hurts us a bit. If anything, the knockback from the acid usually helps. In the case of an encounter where the risen acid prevents me from grabbing a jellyfish, I just go into Trance and one-shot it with a Spark Javelin, then the cutscene for when the door opens automatically takes me out of Trance so that I don't waste that's left of it.

• Lemures' core is a two-phase fight. The first phase involves us taking out all five of the security system's lights. In order of attack, the security system will fire purple energy balls which go straight for Red (blue lights), dark shade bolts which zig zag around before trying to hit Red (grey lights), and then a laser beam (yellow lights). All but the last one can be caught and thrown back at the lights. After all five lights are gone, the second phase begins.

• This phase is also the only fight where you get to see most of the boss's attacks because I'm saving my Trance for the final boss. The core starts by creating a Shade which tries to crush Red, but can be thrown at the core twice if successfully dodged. After that, it spawns a second Shade which flies around and fires energy balls which are repeatedly caught and thrown at the core. Black whirlpools are also created which suck you towards them and slow you down if you walk on them. When the core's health gets really low, it creates a giant whirlpool where the centre explodes after a few seconds. The only answer for that is to dash away to avoid the blast. The fight is won by throwing two crushing Shades twice, and ten energy balls from the flying Shades.

Part Two, Final Chapter: He Who Laughs Last

• This Panzer Dragoon-esque segment where Red is going around shooting at Shades is basically an auto-scroller. Not a whole lot you can do to make it go any faster, but at least it's short.

• The penultimate final boss (or rather, the first phase of the final boss) is a white shell that Baion is located within. Not much to say other than it's defeated in about 32 regular shots (spamming those is generally faster than using charged shots).

• Remember when I said I was saving up my Trance for the final boss? Yeah, Baion's fight is very lengthy without it, so I just get up in his face and spam Spark Javelins at him until my Trance runs out, then sneak in a cheeky little asteroid throw to avoid triggering some dialogue between Red and Baion during the fight. After a bit of post-fight dialogue, the core pops out, we enter the Re-CODA program, and we can basically sit back and watch the ending play out.

• Although RTA timing ends when the Part Two credits begin scrolling, TAS timing doesn't end until we get to "The End" screen and "A" is pressed on the earliest frame it allows to play the post-credits epilogue. This is because the final input should always automatically lead to the game's completion in a TAS. While the game is by all means "complete" when we activate Re-CODA and fast-forward the last bit of dialogue to let the ending play out, I wanted to include the epilogue out of respect. Not just for the rules regarding post-credits inputs, but also for the time I had spent with this project as a whole.

Potential Improvements

• The Part One climax against Bruno could be better if the stars align.

• The Nero fight in Part Two, Chapter Three could be taken down to a one-cycle if I hadn't gone into Trance so soon.

• Constantly switching between Dahak Mk2 Type R for general movement and Type S for boss fights may be unnecessary outside of specific battles where Hyper Drivers are optimal, especially when you take in the time required to switch between fuselages.

• Boost usage during the race with Waffle and Panta could be more refined, I guess.

• There are five other quests to take on by the time we get to Part Two, Chapter Six. "Cave-In Accident" is the longest quest taken on in this TAS, so perhaps I could swap that one out for a significantly shorter quest(s) as long as I can still fully fill up my Trance meter (Chapter Six doesn't have any combat until the Blanck fight).

• The time-consuming giant whirlpool attack that Lemures can be avoided since it only does it at low health.

Suggested Screenshots

Special Thanks To...

• rubymaws for laying out a lot of the groundwork to make a Full Game route possible

• My Twitter followers for supporting me with this TAS ever since I started uploading small little snippets

• CyberConnect2 for making a beautiful game that's still beloved by its small but passionate and dedicated fanbase to this day

Solatorobo - Sorekara Coda e (Japan) (NDSi Enhanced).nds
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