Here's the progress on the new Zelda 2 glitched run, stopping a bit before the hammer run and subsequent warp to east Hyrule.
Since my desktop died an untimely death quite some time ago, my previous progress on the Zelda 2 glitched run was lost. I have recently been rebuilding it on my brother's laptop. Luckily, the bulk of the testing has already been done, so it's just a matter of executing.
And since my last WIP was lost forever because I didn't give it to anyone, I'm posting this WIP. It is 34 frames behind where my notes from the lost WIP tell me it should be. But I temporarily inserted an overworld battle to save me (more) hours of searching for a way past. Since the town is where the routes synch back up, it is worth it to get there, so I can easily compare how I'm doing against the published run.
As it stands, I am 1633 frames ahead of the published run at this point. I am very optimistic that this run will shave 30 seconds off that run. My notes indicate that it should be possible to exit the glove room 5 frames sooner, but I don't see where, and my notes are sketchy at best around this point in the game, because it's mixed in with the previous overworld. Those 5 frames are probably from the swamp before level 2, but I just don't see where they are, and if swamp 2 works well, it might not matter anyway, it might lead to better luck, and a faster overall time. Here's hoping.
I'm going to rework the last stretch of the second pass through the swamp first, which hopefully covers the 34 missing frames. Unfortunately, the swamp is a horrific nightmare, and I will be lucky to retain my sanity while trying to tighten it. If I can't find a way through, I'll look back for the mystery 5 frames on swamp 1. It's possible that going even slower on swamp 1 will lead to a faster swamp 2, and be better overall, but I'm not in a position to test every possibility. Luckily, the actual dungeons are hex friendly, so I can use the same run through palace 2 no matter what I do to swamp 1. My only goal is to match what my notes tell me for arriving at the town, since that's where my notes get more exact.
Anyway, about the WIP, I found 1 frame of savings in the basement where you get the Jump spell. The rest of the savings is from better route choices, and playing more of the game broken. I found a frame of savings in the basement where you get Downstab as well, but, that one frame forced me to lose something like 20 frames manipulating the overworld on the way to palace 2. So I get downstab the old way.
The more I work on manipulating enemies on the swamp, the less sense it makes. If there's anywhere the run won't be fully optimized, it's that damn swamp. If anyone has any ideas about how to tackle it, or wants to take a crack at it themselves, I'm open to that...
tl;dr just watch the WIP and tell me what you think
