Xipo, regardless of his behavior, did a great job beating the game the intended way (as Captain America).
[2856] NES Captain America and the Avengers by Xipo in 14:17.27 (.fm2 movie can be played back in FCEUX 2.6.6)
Hawkeye is left behind for a reason. He is extremely weak, has only two attacks, moves very slowly (1 pixel/frame) and cannot use chaining bars, hence not being able to use shortcuts.
Here are two tables showing how strong these characters are:
Hawkeye
| Power-up Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Arrow | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Jump kick | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Punch | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Captain America
| Power-up Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Shield throw | 2 | | | |
| Jump kick | 2 | | | |
| Jump shield | 6 | | | |
| Punch | 2 | | | |
| Tackle | 6 | | | |
| Crouch punch | 2 | | | |
Because Jump shield and Tackle deal so much damage at the beginning, there is no point in grinding power-stones as CA. Just tackle through all levels until the end.
Hawkeye route
Hawkeye route definitely requires grinding power-stones.
1) You need to pick up CA, because Houston level has only one exit source and only CA can collect it. That's an extra level to play (Miami).
2) You need to fight:
- 4 red alerts,
- 5 enemy traps (when you can't go any further, until you kill all the enemies) - that's 10-16 regular enemies in each trap,
- 6 bosses,
- 3 boss duets (armored guy + flaming skeleton).
Imagine how tedious each fight will be, if you deal only 1 damage per a shot or jump kick. Even regular enemies can't be killed in 1 hit!
There is not much of a variety of which level to grind. It will probably be
Mississippi River (MR), the first level Hawkeye has to pass. It has 3 big stones (10 points each).
- New Orleans has a boss duet fight at the beginning,
- Charleston has an enemy trap near the beginning,
- Montgomery doesn't offer much stones.
You need to get 300 points to reach Power-up Level (PUL) 3. That means, you need to pass MR level at least 6 times (31 * 6 = 186 stones) and grab the remnants alone the way, so you'll have PUL 2 while fighting the first boss. Such a grinding cycle takes
00:44.65 secs.
The question is, is this an optimal strategy? 9 times grinding (31 * 9 = 279 stones) also gives an opportunity to collect the lacking stones to PUL 3 in Charleston, to the first boss fight.
