Metal Slug X "1 player" in 16:03.66

Run objectives

• Aims for fastest time
• Default difficulty (Level 4)
• Uses death to save time
• Luck manipulation
• Heavy resource management

General Overview

• This run improves current "1 player" run by 10669 frames. The current run is timed with 60 fps on the site, making the time look like 18:48.40 when it should be 19:03.93, so in terms of seconds, this run is 3 minutes and 0.26 seconds faster (note that the above encode is for the initial submission file before replacement). This comes mainly due to completely different strategies developed over the years by Metal Slug speedrunning community.
• While this looks only less than a second faster than current world record run for the same category and difficulty, it's way faster than it. This is because Steam very has significantly less lag frames compared to arcade version. It's still great that I managed to beat it still!
• About difficulty, I decided to stick to Level 4. There are two reasons for this. First, the only thing higher difficulty adds is extending enemies HP, and second, ammo in 1 player mode is very tight and limited, unless you do some extra gameplay that will end up slower. These two reasons will just increase the length of the run, potentially make it boring. Also, I think 2 players still more suited for hardest mode compared to 1 player due to having access to more ammo.
• I used Tarma as my character just because I like it, and all other three characters have been used in current runs (2 players uses Eri and Fio, and 1 player uses Marco). It's just cosmetic and there is no specific ability exclusive to him as all characters are the same.

Stage by stage comments

Mission 1

• I discovered that the crouching glitch mentioned by X2poet in his run actually works with other weapons and bombs as well, not just knife. I tried to make use of it in Iron Nokana MK II fight with the bomb and it saved so much time.

Mission 2

• Nothing much specific here as well. The only thing I had some trouble with was Aeshi Nero fight. While I used same trick as Nokana MK II fight, using it early triggers a bad pattern, so I had to wait 20 frames before spamming all my bombs.

Mission 3

• The stage went smoothly until the plane fight, The Keesi II, where I realized I probably messed up my Shotgun and bombs amount. Turns out, the ammo was fine, but the plane hitbox is really weird. It seems you won't do much damage if attack it in the center, instead you have to target its wings, which a small animation indicate that a significant damage was dealt to it. Had to redo the stage a bit and it worked out nicely!

Mission 4

• I would say a normal stage overall, and also went smooth. The Stone usage was very helpful in clearing some UFO enemies and triggering the cannon of Big Shiee early. Flame Shot is not that easy to use unless you position yourself correctly, but thankfully it wasn't complicated here.

Mission 5

• Oh boy! This was a really hard mission! The first part, swarmed by so many soldiers really makes it a lag city. The helicopters also come in the way and make it worse. Destroying the helis has two possibilities: Either they fall then destroyed, or destroyed mid air. Of course, the latter is faster, so I had to choose good frames for mid air destruction.
• The tunnel part is also tricky. It's similar to the first part, but you have those trains that you have to destroy as soon as possible before they run you over to the edge of the screen. One cool thing about the crouching glitch is that it saves you so much ammo if used with Laser Gun, with same damage, something that REALLY helped extending the usage of Laser Gun. That said, I still had to take a quick death to reset the bomb count (I know people don't like Metal Slug runs with deaths but this was quick and strategic.... and with style!)
• The submarine fight, Hozmi, was tricky as well. I think the patterns I got were fine for the most part as they allowed me to get all my shots in time. They could be laggy a bit, but I tested other patterns which turned out to be slower.

Mission 6

• Allen O'Neil fight was done almost instantly! The crouching glitch done great job in spamming so many knife attacks, it kind of reminded me of SDC from Zero in Mega Man X games lol.
• Martians also have same characteristic as the helis when they are destroyed. Either their greeny blood gets out and their long death animation plays, or they're dismantled instantly. Laser Gun does allow for the latter (which is faster) but it requires good positioning. There weren't many spots where this mattered much thankfully though.
• I picked Flame Shot for Dai-Manji fight, the first boss in the last fight. It's RNG heavy but thankfully crouching also manipulates it better. The pattern I chose summons UFOs from inside it. They drop random items, including different weapons, once they're destroyed. This is extremely important for next fight as we will be out of ammo once it the boss dies. From what I noticed, you get large weapons, and but only have few possibilities. That is, you can only get H, L, R or C. I manipulated for Laser Gun as it proved to be quite effective.
• The final fight was quick! With 45 bombs and 200 Laser Gun ammo, it only too around 16 seconds of spamming.

Special thanks

• sukimos for his world record run. It showcased so many quick strats and options which were the main source of improvements.
• AngerFist; for his 1 player run. For its time, I think it was entertaining and great to watch as a first run in the franchise.
• X2poet: for his run and mentioning the couching glitch. This was very helpful in this run.
• You for reading and watching!

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