- Platform: libTAS Flash (Ruffle). You might need to use fr_FR locale. Ubuntu 22.04
- Command line: --no-gui -g gl <path/to/swf>
- Nightly version of ruffle: Ruffle 0.1.0-nightly (30cc299ed6fd74225420372f8698490532ce8652 2024-06-14)
- libtas version: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/clementgallet/libtas/builds/50045924
- v1861.swf md5: d98ae7bab6c6a07aedaf42cf415f18bc, download at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yT5xfEQmhrE8XJzQCFQVw0Ej29hvWIgb
Anti-Idle: The Game is an Idle Game created by Tukkun and playable exclusively on Kongregate, first released in 2009. The game follows standard idle game rules but also incorporates several elements from other types of games into one game. This is a first ascension tool assisted speedrun, killing the Ascendant as fast as possible, and ascending.
Run commentary
To ascend, I must get to level 9000. So the main strategy behind this run is abusing MindSweeper. At TAS speed, this arcade game can give 1040 insta-progress per second (so the progress bar fills up 1040 times per second). Most of the work in this TAS that's not mindsweeper is either increasing progress bar output or increasing arcade rewards, the rewards you get when you quit an arcade minigame (which make up 18% of the total exp gain in the run.)
At the start I rush all the achievements I can get. Each achivements gives some boost to the progress bar, which is my main method of progression. I can get these while waiting for the tutorial which is scripted. I also enter two codes which give me 250 white coins, enough to buy modules, and an expill. I get two EXP modules, a YC one and FCG cash to feed the pet later on.
At level 4 I unlock auto booster. This can start to give me boost, the meter on the lower right. Boost increases resource gain as well as progress bar speed so it's extremely important. Each level, I can enter the Konami code on the achivement screen, which gives +10% boost. I use this extensively throughout the early game. Boost can also be upgraded with green coins, which I'll do all throughout the TAS.
After I get Garden, I plant a tree and harvest it later, all while doing some konami to get my boost up. Once I harvest it I have enough for BA.
BA is the main "feature" of Anti Idle. The main point in going here now is to finish the newbie tasks, the quests on the bottom. Once completed they give a huge 20% boost to the progress bar. I get as far as I can before I unlock the next feature, the Button. Unfortunately I didn't get rank 12 so I have to go back to finish it.
Button gives much greater exp and resource gain, so I switch to it, doing perfect clicks. Sometimes I switch to an excellent click because the game has an anti cheat which resets your combo after 16 perfects in a row. Each perfect gives 1 purple button, and I buy a yellow boost potion with 250 of them, bringing me up to 1200% boost.
With arcade unlocked, the main part of the run starts. Note I started on a very specific day that gives 200% arcade reward. I also started so that the next day would be a Friday, letting me feed the dragon faster.
First, I have to unlock mindsweeper. To do so, I play Math Master twice. The first time I finish it, I unlock daily rewards, then save and quit, and buy two Pixelated Mystery Boxes (PMBs). These give Battle Arena exp when opened, so I open two and get enough to finish the tutorial, giving me that 20% increase to the progress bar.
The second Math Master run is done to get rating higher as well as to get enough blue coins to buy the arcade pack, which unlocks MindSweeper. Rating is a multiplier on the rewards I get when quitting a game, so doing another quick run like this is worth it. During this second run I also use my EXPill as soon as I unlock it, and switch day when I end the run, activating an hyper day and giving 300% exp to all features (except progress bar).
During the first MindSweeper run, I unlock all the other basic features: pet, career, business, as well as the epic license. I quit early in other to activate these. Pet gives me up to 40% arcade exp, a welcome boost. Career gives supply crates when you level up past 100, which I'll open at the end. Business gives a massive yellow coin boost which will help feeding the dragon. At the end, I farm for white coins in order to buy a Pixel module. This will help me level up quickly in BA at the end.
The second MindSweeper run focuses on levelling up Epic Skills with yellow coins. I level up Double Progress, which will give me more insta-progress from the progress bar, the coin epic skill, giving me more income, and the module master letting me proc modules more easily for more pixels.
Once I quit, I feed the dragon, buy some more boost, and go into the final mindsweeper grind. I quit so that I get enough exp to get level 9000 straight away, then I redeem business and open the supply crates. I feed dragon 1000 times to get the sword needed to ascend, which is required to beat the Ascendant.
The other main puzzle starts here: how do I beat the Ascendant in the Battle Arena with an extremely underleveled character? First, I level him up as much as possible with my pixels. I opened supply crates earlier one, which give battle arena exp, so I get some battle arena ranks from that.
Then, I go dump my currency on mystery boxes. I buy more PMB, which give arena exp, to leevel up, and buy six Apocalypse crate. Each crate has a 1/334 chance to give me the armor I want, the Knightmare armor, and I have to get five of them. So a bunch of RNG manipulation is required. I also get a weapon finalizer for the sword.
Finally, I switch oranges bonuses on Knightmare to Attack, get some skills, turn on mana power, and Ascendant goes down quick and I finish this run in around 15 minutes.
eien86: Claiming for judging.
eien86: I fail to sync, so asking for additional information that can help sync
eien86: Replacing movie with a cropped one provided by the author
eien86: Welp, this was a hard one to judge. Let's analyze all factors:
- Game choice. The game binary (v1861.swf) is an official release provided directly by Tukkun, its author. The fact that it is provided in a Google Drive is not ideal, since this link can become stale at any moment. Nevertheless, it's a perfectly acceptable distribution.
- Category choice. Here the author goes for 'First Ascension', a special event that occurs when the player achieves level 9001 (obvious Dragon Ball Z reference). Given the game continues forever after this event (i.e., it is possible to have infinite ascensions), the chosen end point is perfectly acceptable and would qualify for a 'Standard' category.
- Use of in-game codes. The author uses special input codes, one of which is a homage to the classic Konami code, which enhances level-up rewards. Although the community accepts this for RTA speedruns and the game author considers this an easter egg, it does contain many of the main ingredients of a cheat code. That is, (a) it is secret, (b) it is enabled via an unnatural sequence of inputs, and (c) provides an advantage compared to a casual player. The use of cheats is further betrayed by the clearly visible 'Cheater' moniker, a tongue-in-cheek accusation from the author themselves, which is displayed during the run. Seeing this, an average TASVideos viewer would be confused why we started accepting cheated runs for the standard category. For these reasons, we cannot consider their use part of a 'Standard' run, but instead, a 'Alternative' run where the use of in-game codes is clearly marked.
- Optimization. The run is visibly optimized. That is, for an untrained eye (myself), it looks like things are going as fast as possible. However, Spikestuff has identified that the code inputs can be done in fewer frames than it is in the movie, but it isn't clear whether this can lead to a faster overall time.
- Entertainment. Given this movie has an alternative goal, it is a matter of entertainment factor whether it can be categorized as such, or stored in Playground. The opinions are divided here, with split votes (majority YES). Some users manifested that their unfamiliarity with the game and the quickly shifting menus make it for a terrible experience. But I think I can understand the enjoyment of seeing a game where you are supposed to spend hundreds of hours being beaten so fast. One can see the collective knowledge of the community and the effort of the TASer behind this movie and I think that's valuable. The game's community members will surely know how to appreciate this movie.
- Sync. Several staff (including myself) tried very hard to get this to sync without any success. Surprisingly, only the author (France) and user McBobX (Morocco) were able to sync. It wasn't until fsvgm777 had a stroke of genius and connected the dots: the desync happened because the aforementioned users had a different keyboard layout (AZERTY). After changing her own layout, fsvgm777 was able to make the movie sync.
- Photosensitivity. A warning needs to be displayed do to the flashing produced by the quick changing menu screens.
Accepting to Alternative 'uses in-game codes'
fsvgm777: Processing.