This is a speed oriented TAS for MK4.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.3.2(x64)
- Complete single-player mode Endurance mode in Ultimate difficulty, Master II tower.
- Do it in fastest time possible.
Why Endurance?
- Endurance is chosen because it has one round only and you always keep the same health between battles, so I'll only take damage the first time to avoid Flawless Victory message. Also no Finisher to try a fatality on the enemy.
The fastest strategy in RTA is repeatedly kicking the enemies in the face. However, it's only done because RTA players don't have control over the RNG. This game, unlike MK3, has a very static RNG which is not easily manipulatable, so you just kinda accept the RNG for the fight mostly. New actions can cause new rng, but just waiting will not change the result. This is really bad for TAS. If you can cause a new action, all the rest of the RNG for the fight will change. Sometimes i delay to get a new action.
Combos
Combos usually slow the matches down because the hits that come after have lesser damage per hit, but I figured a few that make the match go faster. Combine that with RNG I can't control and you get a lot more variety in this TAS. Doing IAJK (instant air jump kick) 2 HKs is a universal combo which is significantly faster than just doing HKs.Good luck trying to make the enemies eat your combos though.. I sometimes use a weapon at the end of this combo for big damage, but only if I can avoid triggering Max Damage..
Maximum damage
This mechanic separates characters if one of them has done a combo with more than 40% of damage to the other. It slows the match even more this one-time only mechanic. It stops the combo and separates characters, and the few ways to circuvent this take a boatload of time.
Weapon combos!
Each character in this game has a set of Weapons, I noticed Scorpion Sword, Shinnok Lance and Liu Kang Sword are the most relevant ones for their damage and combo potential. Taking the weapon from your pocket inside a combo already makes it hit the enemy with a very fast animation, instead of the slow startup the weapons have by themslves when being taken from their character's pocket. You could use other weapons by selecting the 3rd and 4th outfit for the characters, but i didn't find anything interesting with that. ( johhny cage has a pistol with the suit, looks really good!)
Character choice
Shinnok is similar to the past versions of Shang Tsung, he can morph into other character fight styles, with weapons and combos and special moves all from these charters. He doesn't get the Fatalities though, but we don't care about that. We use the fight styles to get other weapons, like scorpion and liu kang, and to cancel normal moves into the style switch to recover faster from your own moves.
How many moves does it take to kill someone in mk4?
I don't have damage values but it takes:
8 High Kicks, or 4 IAJK HKx2 combos or, 2 of IAJK HKx2 and one IAJK HKx2 WEAPON COMBO with Scorpion or Shinnok (50 and 48 % damage combos)
Goro
Goro has more health, but that also means he's less prone to trigger Maximum damage. He also doesn't use lows, so the Liu Kang Sword is really useful with that fast attack( without max damage that would be an infinite, but unfortunately it's still hard to hit normal enemies with that move, they sweep all the time)
IMPROVEMENTS I BELIEVE IN
RNG
Character choice
Hardly, I tried Quanchi and Tanya too but they all leave the enemy a great distance or have bad recovery in their more damaging moves. But who knows, maybe someone finds a way to bypass max damage or to cause more damage faster.
I really wished Scorpion was faster, but at the end of the day, the stance cancels from Shinnok and the Liu Kang Sword made a significant difference from the original TAS i MAde with Scorpion, both are in my Youtube Channel.
Screenshot: whatever , maybe something with maximum damage or 50% damage combos.
Thank you for reading, TASvideos for the amazing community and MK SPEEDRUN Discord for providing the most valuable input and support.
Truncated: I usually think it is a bit cheap to decrease the number of rounds in fighting games, but in this case I think it works out. Since the life bar carries over between fights, it actually makes the game harder, and as mentioned in the submission, it means you can go at full speed and still avoid Flawless Victory messages every stage. I will accept this to the standard category, i.e. not replacing the current playaround movie.
EZGames69: removed "hardest difficulty, and Master II", as we dont include those in branch names
