This run is an improvement of 12400 frames over my published 100% run. The improvement comes from new tricks, different strategies and fewer mistakes.
Game Objectives
- Full Completion
- Heavy Glitch Abuse
- Uses Death to Save Time
Emulator Settings
- Emulator: PCSX-RR v0.1.3
- Bios: SCPH1001.bin
- Graphics: P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver 1.4 (Abe's Games Fix enabled)
- Sound: TAS Sound Plugin 0.2 (any other causes a desync)
- Controller 1 e 2: Segu Direct Pad Pro Driver 0.4
- CD ROM: TAS ISO Plugin 0.2
New tricks found, new runs done. Not always in this order, but still. For a game as huge as this one, it’s natural that new tricks appear once in a while, but that Sligfantry guy found too many of them; DDG, Backward Jump, Stop & Turn and the combination of them. Well, let’s talk about these new tricks then.
Glitches and Oddities
Stop & Turn
When coming out from rolling stance, Abe will walk two steps before a complete stop. But if you turn around at the right moment he will stand, stop and turn at once. Useful to climb ledges on the opposite direction, but combine it with the next trick and you have a huge time saver.
Auto Turn Delay
Some actions like climb ledges or mounting Elum will automatically turn Abe around if he is facing the wrong direction. If you run as soon as he turns, that action will be delayed until he turns around again. Be careful not to jump though as it cancels the glitch.
Backward Jump
This is a combination of the Auto Turn Delay and the Stop & Turn tricks; do the Auto Turn Delay from bellow a ledge, roll toward a wall and perform the Stop & Turn. Abe will pass through any wall of the game with this trick. But some walls are too large for him to pass with this trick and he will get stuck inside. If that happens, go back to the previous screen and he will be able to walk through the wall. In Scrabanian Temple you’ll see me setting this trick up from above a ledge, but there are few of those “special” ledges in the game.
Diagonal Fall
Like the Backward Jump, you must combine the Auto Turn Delay with the Stop & Turn trick; set up the Auto Turn Delay from bellow a ledge, roll and do the Stop & Turn. Abe will fall diagonally, eventually advancing to the next screen as he falls. But he won’t pass through walls with this trick.
Death Delay Glitch
Also known as DDG, this trick can be set up in two ways; with an explosion or while attacked by bees. But the result is the same; a dead Abe that can perform actions as if he’s still alive. To set this up you must stop and jump twice. Running jumps won’t do. If you are using an explosion, Abe must hit the ground before the second jump as soon as the explosion occurs. The set up with bees is trickier as you have no visual cue. In a TAS that’s no problem at all, but playing in real time you can pay attention to his voice; when it becomes really high pitched, jump.
Invisible Abe
After setting up the DDG, entering any well will resurrect Abe again. But if he’s still invisible by a explosion he will have the better of these two worlds; he is immune to all sorts of things that otherwise would kill an alive Abe, like Slig shots, explosions, traps and animals. He can also stand things a dead Abe is unable to, like surviving high falls or bumping into walls. Advancing to the next stage cancels the trick though.
Bullet-Proof Mudokons
Mudokons can survive explosions as long as they’re working and not on screen. This made some rescues a lot faster as I don’t need to put them out of a grenade or land mine’s range.
Infinite Pick Up
Crouch and hold the square button near a grenade, rock or meat then turn around before Abe completes the animation, turn around again and he will pick up as many items as he wants, but he can't use the extra items in some areas nor carry them to other stages.
Screen Boundary
Turn around while running before Abe reaches the next screen then stop. He is safe to chant as long as there's no Slogs, Scrabs or Chant Droids nearby. You can also jump when he is two steps away from the screen boundary.
Ghostly Elum
You must do the Auto Turn Delay trick on Elum near a flying mine, order bomb or grenade for this to work, but do this on the wrong frame and you'll have just an invisible Elum which won't move.
Walk Through Walls
While riding Elum, hold the R1 button and run towards a wall, when you are about to bump release the R1 button to walk through the wall.
Tamed Slogs
There are some Slogs that will attack even the Sligs. But fortunately for Abe, if a Slog kills a Slig after he says "here boy", they will become Abe's best friends.
Stage by Stage
This run is all about rescuing Abe’s friends and I think it’s best to comment it Mudokon by Mudokon instead of Stage by Stage. I also promised to write details of what I’m doing while Abe is invisible, but a Lua script is worth a thousand words and antd is working on one at the moment.
RuptureFarms
Mudokons # 1, 2 and 3
This game is chock-full of secrets; the first one is on the very first screen. To avoid making mincemeat out of the Mudokons, Abe must talk to them and exit the area when the grinders are at a certain height.
Mudokons # 4 and 5
Before the second secret area, Abe must pull a lever to disable an electric wall. To complete RuptureFarms with the new tricks I’ll need nine grenades, so, better pick them all from this Boom Machine. Any noise like a grenade exploding or a Slig shouting scatters the Bird Portal, also Abe would drop all of his grenades if he chants near a Chant Droid, or maybe not...
Mudokons # 6 and 7
There are lots of land mines blocking the entrance of the third secret area, but a Backward Jump will put me right inside that area saving lots of time. It would save some time if the Mudokons could land near the Bird Portal, but it's too high and they can't stand the fall.
Mudokon # 8
There's a Mudokon above the second secret area, but since I'm not going to come back here, best bring him with me on the way to the fourth secret area. That Chant Droid must be eliminated for Abe to chant and keep his grenades.
Mudokons # 9 and 10
There's a Slig sleeping near a lift and Abe must kill him to rescue the two remaining Mudokons in this area. The grenade must be thrown from a specific spot or the game would hang.
Mudokons # 11 and 12
These two Mudokons are pretty straight forward to rescue; talk, run and chant, simple as that. Even a one legged Slog would have no problem doing the job, but the next ones are not so easy...
Mudokons # 13, 14 and 15
Okay, that one legged Slog would have a lot of trouble rescuing the Mudokons on the fifth secret area; two Sligs to kill, a land mine and a Chant Droid to destroy while avoiding to scatter the Bird Portal may be a little too much for him.
Mudokon # 16
Here we have an electric wall to disable, two Sligs to take care of and a bomb to defuse. Not as hard as the previous rescue and not as easy as the one before that. Well, you can say it was an average one.
Mudokons # 17, 18 and 19
I said it was not possible to avoid all the Sligs in this area on my previous run. Well, you don’t need to avoid them if they’re dead.
Mudokons # 20 to 25
Without those pesky Sligs to worry about, Abe just need to avoid some grinders to rescue six more Mudokons before he leaves this area.
Mudokons # 26, 27 and 28
There are three easy Mudokons to rescue if you know where the sixth secret area is. Abe will die if he falls from those trapdoors while he is walking or running, but if he is rolling he will safely land on the ground below. The flying grenade at the end of RuptureFarms costs 20 frames, but I think it's a nice touch, so, I left it in.
StockYard Escape
Mudokon # 29
On the second screen there's a Mudokon in the shadows below who will soon be eaten by the Scrab if Abe don't act fast. Well, not so fast this time.
Mudokons # 30 and 31
The strategy to rescue the Mudokons on the seventh secret area was improved a little bit; now the Scrab jumps to its death leaving me alone.
Mudokons # 32 and 33
In his real time run, Samlaptop killed the lower Slig in this area. It would be a shame having a slower strategy on a TAS. I was also wrong about the upper Slig; he is not possessed when Abe opens the Bird Portal.
Mudokons # 34 to 37
There's two ways to get into the ninth secret area, the other one is slower and puts Abe on a bad location. While Abe is running the Mudokons do the same, even in the background, and it was used to make them reach the Bird Portal while avoiding a land mine.
Mudokon # 38
Abe can jump over three land mines with easy, but the Bird Portal that leads to the tenth secret area doesn't work until he blows at least one of them, odd. The Screen Boundary is a really useful glitch, and it saved quite some time on this rescue.
Mudokon # 39 and 40
These Mudokons are normally rescued in two separate areas, but the new Backward Jump trick made it possible to go from one secret area to the other saving lots of time.
Monsaic Lines
Abe activated an Auto Turn Delay glitch at the end of StockYard Escape, and it will save quite some time here. There's some Mudokons here too, but they're free and need no rescue, some of them will shoot Abe with his slingshots unless he play Simon Sez and copy their whistles, or will they?
Scrabania
There's lots of interesting glitches involving Elum, two of them saved a lot of time here; the Ghostly Elum can safely walk over land mines, and the Walk Through Walls avoided a long sequence of events. Another huge time saver here was the Invisible Abe, Samlaptop’s suggestion.
Mudokons # 41 and 42
Disable the UXB, possess the Slig, tame the Slogs, possess and kill another Slig and chant to free your fellow Mudokons, that's it for the fourteenth secret area.
Scrabanian Temple
Empty Doors
Only the two lower right doors have Mudokons in it, on the rest of them Abe just needs to pull a lever to light the flint locks, learn the bell songs and possess the bells. But with new tricks comes new strategies and these doors are done slightly faster now.
Mudokons # 43, 44 and 45
Same strategy to lure the Scrab into falling to its death as used on Mudokons # 30 and 31.
Mudokon # 46
Optimization sure saves some time on any run, but glitches saves even more. The Auto Turn Delay is one of the most useful glitches of the game and without it the sixteenth secret area would take twice as long to complete.
Scrabanian Nests
Lots of Scrabs, pits, lifts, levers and dramatic background music makes this one of the most complex stages in the game.
Paramonia
There are lots of interesting glitches involving Elum, two of them saved a lot of time here; the Ghostly Elum can safely walk over land mines, and the Walk Through Walls avoided a long sequence of events. Another stage full of free Mudokons, better leave some of them alone. Another huge time saver here was the Invisible Abe.
Paramonian Temple
Empty Doors
Only the first lower right door have Mudokons in it, on the rest of them Abe just needs to pull a lever to light the flint locks, learn the bell songs and possess the bells. The DDG broke some events saving lots of time here. Did you notice that Abe won’t let the Paramite eat his last piece of meat? That is done to avoid a glitch on the rocks of StockyardReturn; if it eats it up, Abe will not be able to collect rocks there.
Mudokons # 47, 48 and 49
The trick here is to feed the Paramites so they will leave Abe alone long enough to rescue his fellow Mudokons.
Paramonian Nests
The Infinite Pick Up glitch saved quite some time on the previous doors, but here it's useless; no matter how many items Abe has, they just disappear when he enters this door.
StockYard Return
Hey, looks like the security system has been upgraded since the last time Abe passed through, fortunately there's no Mudokons to rescue here. Again, the strategy from Samlaptop’s real time run saved quite some time in this stage.
RuptureFarms 2
Mudokon # 50
In the any% run this is the only Mudokon that must be rescued, a pretty easy one to boot.
Zulag 1
Mudokons # 51 to 54
There's only one Bird Portal in this area, so all the Mudokons must be brought here from wherever they are to be rescued. The DDG made task a lot easier and faster this time.
Mudokons # 55 and 56
New tricks, new strategies that is pretty obvious. But now those rescues are a little too dangerous for a dead Abe to perform, a lot faster than the previous strategy though.
Mudokons # 57, 58 and 59
The Shrykull power acquired from the previous Bird Portal will help Abe in the process of rescuing these three Modokons, the rest is just like the Mudokons # 13, 14 and 15 with the added complication of another Slig. Even when I was doing the previous run I knew it is possible to talk to Sligs and lure them to their death, but only now this strategy worked.
Mudokons # 60 and 61
Set up the DDG and then kill Abe after those two rescues is still faster than if I had to possess that Slig as in the previous run.
Mudokons # 62 and 63
They are where the Mudokon # 8 was in Abe's first time through, but now instead of a land mine and a Chant Droid, there are four Sligs and that chasing Slog to deal with.
Mudokons # 64 and 65
Abe can also kind of talk to Sligs, say "hello" on the right frame and they will walk straight forward or answer you, this way Abe can rescue these two Mudokons with less effort.
Mudokons # 66 to 69
Some times when Abe chants, a Slig will start to turn fast left and right, when it happens Abe can safely stand beside him. Here, the Backward Jump was used with a different purpose; since I can’t use grenades acquired with the Infinite Pick Up glitch on the next screen, it was thrown from here to kill the Sligs there.
Mudokons # 70 and 71
Abe can't tame this Slog as it will not attack the Slig, so, it's best to get it out of Abe's way while the Slig is possessed. Have you noticed some Sligs screaming when Abe chants, even when there's no Sligs nearby?
Mudokons # 72, 73 and 74
Finally some easy Mudokons to rescue after so many complex ones, Abe doesn't even need to talk to them, just chant to leave this area.
Zulag 2
Mudokons # 75 and 76
Set up the DDG here was not planned, but I couldn’t set it before with those damn grenades hanging the game whenever I tried to use them. Fortunately, it ended up being faster.
Mudokons # 77, 78 and 79
There's a Mudokon trapped by an electric wall, to open it, a Slig must talk to a voice lock. Abe is already dead this time, so I don’t need to worry about possessing the Slig right in front of him.
Mudokons # 80 and 81
They're on the same door as the last three ones, but Abe must use the Shrykull power acquired from the previous Bird Portal to rescue them. No Slig possession this time, sorry.
Mudokons # 82 and 83
I was worried about overusing the new tricks in this run, but the strategy using the DDG here was borrowed from Samlaptop’s real time run, so blame him.
Zulag 3
Mudokon # 84
This stage is a little tricky if Abe is still alive, but a dead Abe does not need to worry about flying mines. Falling from high ledges is another story though.
Mudokons # 85 and 86
Abe should have used the Shrykull power to reach those two Mudokons, but land mines are no problem for a dead Abe. On my way back to the next rescues, pay a close attention to that Silg on the lift.
Mudokons # 87 to 90
Ten grenades are not enough to complete RuptureFarms 2, but Abe can't grab them all from the same Boom Machine or the game hangs. This seems to be the best place to pick up some more. Oh, and that’s why I wasted my last grenade setting up the DDG.
Mudokon # 91
The Shrykull power acquired by a dead Abe can be used only on the same area; going to another area cancels the effect. A dead Abe doesn’t need it here anyway.
Mudokons # 92 and 93
Those guys are really well guarded; seven Sligs, one Slog and an electric wall controlled by a voice lock, what a waste.
Zulag 4
Mudokons # 94, 95 and 96
It was exactly here in this stage that I first saw a guy doing the Tamed Slogs glitch, a really helpful glitch if I'd say so myself. Not this time around though.
Mudokons # 97 and 98
Too bad the Shrykull power can’t be used on stages other than the ones you acquired it. The new strategy is not so slow though.
Board Room
Modokon # 99!
That's the last Mudokon to rescue, obviously. Too bad Abe can't chant to rain Shrykull power all over the RuptureFarms executive board, the game hangs when he tries to do so, too much abuse I guess.
Special Thanks
Samlaptop, his real time runs, even though on a different platform, gave me lots of new strategies to use on my run. He also promptly answered my questions on the forum and offered lots of time saving ideas, thank you man. Sligfantry; he is the man responsible for finding the new tricks in this run, I can’t thank you enough. antd; he’s working on a Lua script which will help not only my next any% run, but also real time runners on their tests. He also encoded my cancelled any% run, but I didn’t have the chance to thank him there, thank you very much.
Possible Improvements
Right at the start of the submission text I said this run has fewer mistakes, and it is true. But not knowing a trick can’t be considered a mistake methinks. Anyways, the Mudokon # 8 can be rescued slightly faster if you enter the fourth secret area using the Backward Jump on the wall behind the Bird portal of Mudokons # 9 and 10. I found that out when I was testing the strategy for RuptureFarms 2, that’s why it’s not in this run.
Suggested Screenshot
[dead link removed]
feos: Accepting this improvement.
