Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naK94KJorf0 Working on this, finally. Not too different from the any% route so far, but that'll change. 100% is defined as all dances, all items. This includes the Tinkerbat transformation, which is only available in GBA mode. Specific routing changes that relate to any% include: -Lag reduction via hair whipping. My guess is that it freezes Shantae's sprite and makes it less CPU intensive or something. -Stopping at the edge of a ledge lets Shantae fall 1 frame faster. This can also be used to crouch and jump out of said crouch. Saves a bit of time everywhere. -Two minibosses before the eye boss are killed slightly differently. Saves on lag. -The eye boss can be prevented from spinning if you time your attacks right. Saves a ton of time.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Looking good so far! Keep it up! I'm curious about the money routing. There's a few expensive items to buy; is there enough money along the way that you don't have to specifically stop to grind? Have you figured out how long grinding via the dancing minigame takes? Presumably that would act as a sort of floor -- any money that takes longer to get than you can get by doing the minigame is definitely not worth going out of your way to get. But I'm guessing the minigame is probably a pretty slow way to get cash.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
Derakon wrote:
Looking good so far! Keep it up! I'm curious about the money routing. There's a few expensive items to buy; is there enough money along the way that you don't have to specifically stop to grind? Have you figured out how long grinding via the dancing minigame takes? Presumably that would act as a sort of floor -- any money that takes longer to get than you can get by doing the minigame is definitely not worth going out of your way to get. But I'm guessing the minigame is probably a pretty slow way to get cash.
There's a bit of grinding before I get to Gecko Racing, which is the fastest way to get gems regardless of farming. The amount I get is just to reduce the amount of times I need to Gecko Race by one or two times, which is mostly done en route anyway. Speaking of which: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXcwTnfNT5U
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
So I was messing around doing stuff with the Storm Puff, and I accidentally discovered two glitches that'll save minutes in 100% Link to video The first one exploits the fact that the game doesn't wipe text if Shantae dies when it pops up, the easiest way to do that being with Storm Puffs. This means Shantae can 'walk and talk' in any cutscene that requires direct input from her to initiate. Most notably, if you purchase an item while leaving, the game gets confused and not only ADDS money to Shantae's wallet, but also gives her the item! Needless to say, this completely eliminates the need for Gecko Racing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twp9Waa1yO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUXMSLuLo4 These next tricks exploits the fact that, after using an item in the air, Shantae has a 1 frame window to perform any action, most notably jumping again. This allows you to grab the two squids that would normally require Harpy backtracking to get, saving at least 3 minutes overall. So yeah, 100% just got interesting.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Editor, Skilled player (1404)
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These are some incredible finds, damn.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Nice finds! Does the shopping glitch let you buy items that you don't have enough money for? If not, I guess you could just "buy" cheaper stuff to get enough money to "afford" the more expensive items. :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
Derakon wrote:
Nice finds! Does the shopping glitch let you buy items that you don't have enough money for? If not, I guess you could just "buy" cheaper stuff to get enough money to "afford" the more expensive items. :)
Nah, game doesn't let you buy stuff unless you have the bare minimum amount of money. My theory is that the game adds whatever amount gets 'ticked' down to your total if you interrupt it. For example, buying a 900 gem item creates a long wait where the game ticks your money down by 900. At the very least, this is going to save a lot of time buying the Fighter's Equipment. Edit: Two new applications for this glitch, both of which might even make early caravan possible finally! Link to video Pretty simple, die while talking to the squid, then talk to it again to start the glitch. Means only 1 squid is needed in total. Link to video Game gives you the transformation at the start of the cutscene, so skipping this saves about 15.5 seconds.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Are these why you cancelled your any% submission?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
Derakon wrote:
Are these why you cancelled your any% submission?
Yeah, even if these glitches don't lead to early Caravan they'll at least save 45+ seconds from skipping Genie cutscenes alone.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Editor, Expert player (2313)
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Nice glitches. I don't know this game well but I'm curious what else you will find So this game gives you an ability with which you can kill yourself, even indoors?
Editor, Expert player (2015)
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MUGG wrote:
Nice glitches. I don't know this game well but I'm curious what else you will find So this game gives you an ability with which you can kill yourself, even indoors?
Yeah, Storm Puffs are the only item Shantae can get that allows this to happen, and they're right next to where she starts the game, lol. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL9ZkRqgMLo Skips transforming into monkey. Time doesn't pass in caves so this saves 4-5 seconds. Double edit: Turns out you can glitch out the shop by just taking damage, unlike other cutscenes! This'll make 100% routing much easier, haha.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
Coming soon. Edit: EIGHT FRAMES TO SPARE
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
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I plan to watch and rewatch, even if the end result becomes just glitchy gibberish with constant zelda-ish low-health beeps.
No.
Post subject: Spiderless any%
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1199
Link to video Here's a compilation of alternate methods to do things that require spider. The boss could probably be faster. 1) Do a 12 item potion hop to the boss door. 2) Do a 4 item potion hop in Mount Pointy. 3) Jump twice in monkey form to get it to start pushing you through the blocks again. 4) Attack and manipulate. Estimated to save over a minute in any%, including setup times.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
That boss fight was silly. So the any% can now completely avoid getting spiderform? Nice. That one was always kind of boring.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Post subject: Re: Spiderless any%
Editor, Skilled player (1404)
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arandomgameTASer wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TE2-GzokLM 4) Attack and manipulate.
I for one approve of Shantae headbanging to the music.
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
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Derakon wrote:
That boss fight was silly. So the any% can now completely avoid getting spiderform? Nice. That one was always kind of boring.
Boss fight can probably be improved with flash bolts or something. What's important is the fact it CAN be done. Spider form can be completely avoided, but it's going to require a pretty nasty gem reroute to do it optimally.
scrimpeh wrote:
I for one approve of Shantae headbanging to the music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmiL0MnHhEk
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Post subject: 100% TAS improvements (Route's done!)
Editor, Expert player (2015)
Joined: 8/25/2013
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After doing a bit of number crunching, here's a list of timesaves that all these new glitches and route improvements will amount to if/when I do a new 100% run:
  • ~6 minutes removing gecko racing in its entirety. Note this doesn't account for how much longer/shorter shopping will be.
  • ~20-30 seconds doing cutscene walks on the warp squids. This coincidentally means I'll end the game with like 68 squids, and also doesn't account for time saved doing warps later in the run instead of deathwarps.
  • ~5:40 getting the fifth Dribble Fountain, Golem Mine, and Cackle Mound squids early instead of waiting until harpy cleanup to do it. Note this means 3 Heart Containers will be relegated to Harpy cleanup to save time doing potion hops.
  • ~15 seconds utilizing the Fighter's Gear equipment to save time. From what I know so far, the up-kick can save 3-4 seconds on the first boss and magnet miniboss, and the dash+spinjump can skip a transformation + small cutscene in Golem Mine. Potentially more timesaves to be found, but I'll need to experiment first.
  • ~5 seconds climbing the Tinkertank in Monkey Form instead of Harpy Form, as was done in my cancelled any% submission.
  • ~100 frames running/from Oasis and the Golem Mine by doing the invincibility glitch on cacti to skip jumps/damage animations.
  • ~1 minute from genie cutscene skips.
  • ~24 seconds from alternate 5th squid strats
  • ~7 seconds from reverse squidball room
  • ~80 seconds grabbing the Waterfall Firefly en route to Monkey's Claw instead of during Harpy cleanup. This was the last item needed to cut down on the Harpy's Talon section of harp cleanup, so it saves extra.
  • ~3 seconds staying in base form instead of transforming in the Twin Mint cave.
  • ~14 seconds grabbing the cliffside Firefly after getting Tinkerbat instead of before.
  • ~27 seconds grabbing the outside Twinkle Palace Firefly AFTER Twinkle Palace instead of before. This combined with the faster cliffside Firefly should make this very barely possible.
  • ~6 seconds grabbing the Archer's Forest Firefly before Twinkle Palace, which requires a 1 item hop to get back up to TP. Related to that.....
  • ~85 seconds combining the Elephant Tome segment with the Archer Forest segment, and doing the Spider Venom segment after. Since the daylight wait for Archer's Forest is now relegated to when Shantae is heading towards Ghost Forest, this saves massive amounts of travel time and should result in only a 15 second wait. for the GF Firefly. Not to mention an extra 40 seconds being closer to Hidden Waterfall.
  • 1:30 cutting out the Water Town deathwarps besides the first one.
So in total, roughly 19:31 of theoretical route improvements. I'm sure I missed a lot since this game is Minor Tricks: The Game, but this should give you an idea of how insane a new run would be. Edit: Found some really cool tech with the spiral kick that allows you to jump after hitting something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAvA0AXgzZ0 Saves a few seconds and a potion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8k3A3JHUEI Saves roughly 16 seconds and 2 potions. Edit edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2196DHKTRc reverse squid eyeball room strat. Saves like 7 seconds. Edit edit edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rOwjCB5cs early Waterfall Firefly. I was supposed to pick this one up during Harpy cleanup, but now I can pick it up en route to the Monkey Claw. Saves about 80 seconds. Final edit: http://pastebin.com/v5xDagsL The route is now complete! Also found some more timesavers. Sub 1:20 is the goal, but we'll see.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Post subject: unfinished any% wip
Editor, Expert player (2015)
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So, an update of sorts in regards to any%. While working on the new 100% run, I found a few things involving Spiral Kick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkAO_2fRJy8 Two Spiral Kicks are enough to eliminate these minibosses. Combined with using a Storm Puff on the liquid chick, and that's 16 seconds of menuing saved. (8 for equipping Flash Bolts twice, 8 for deequipping them twice) Related to that, a very fast, new strategy for the Tinkertank has emerged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uobalstGdrk This completely eliminates the need for Flash Bolts in the route, which will save an additional 2-3 seconds of shopping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxAGLbmfkbI Pushing the block this way saves a good 7-8 seconds, which helps mitigate any potential timeloss that can incur by not using flash bolts. Spiral Kicking has a wide variety of uses besides this, in particular allowing Shantae to open key chests in the Golem Mine very quickly, one-shotting the Magnet miniboss, and being a fast alternative to deal with enemies in weird situations. Estimated to save at least 25-30 seconds, including the 11 seconds with the additional shop to get it. In addition to what I've found, here's a little bulletpoint list of other improvements that can be added to the new any%:
  • ~124 frames deloading the elevator's hitbox in Golem Mine
  • 4-5 seconds getting the second key of Golem Mine with blue polarity instead of red.
  • 86 frames in Dribble Fountain by avoiding 2 hits. Requires either 4HP or 2HP going in there to do it though, so we'll see.
  • ~10-15 seconds getting the Tinkerbat transformation before Twinkle Palace. This saves having to buy 4 potions for the hover right after Bandit Town, and some detransformations in Twinkle Palace. Takes about 740 frames to grab it in Bandit Town btw.
Edit: As it turns out, not only can you manipulate where Zombie Caravan goes, but you can warp to its new location immediately after you finish Cackle Mound! However, its position will be set until it's daytime again. Link to video This should save well over 40 seconds in any%, since it'll cut out the entirety of Mud Bog. Edit: Still experimenting with some route changes. Here's the unfinished improvement before I found all this junk btw: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/34208731037468038
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Post subject: big ol' list of optimizations
Editor, Expert player (2015)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2pnu6KQpM Let's see where this leads. Edit: Transition clipping is ultimately not that useful due to having to account for setup times/level layouts. It has more potential in 100%, but it'll take a lot of investigating before I can be sure. In the meantime, I've been doing research into improvements for both any% and 100% before I gear up and redo my two TASes for them, so I'll go ahead and dump a bunch of videos/found stuff by other people here for future reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZsKc3hr9bQ Basically approaching this launcher from below allows Shantae to jump once she's knocked out of it. Saves a jump and like two seconds in both categories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUYdoA8o5uE There's a frame that lets you skip the genie dialog via a warp, which is a faster alternative to dying via a storm puff wherever it's applicable. Saves at least 395 frames over a Storm Puff warp, accounting for having to lose life in preparation. Link to video A variant of this glitch is also possible on this squid for 100%, which saves roughly 4 seconds. Seems more lenient then the other version since you don't need to do anything besides fall. I'll post more as I find them.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser