- TAS Breakdown
Here is a summary of the TAS. If you watch the associated video (
https://youtu.be/m7oAE5tAsRs ), I have placed the timestamps here so you can more easily locate the different parts.
0:00 - Power On
Nothing unusual here, just booting the game.
0:42 - Start
This is where the RTA run would start, when you press "Start" at the menu screen.
1:33 - The Klark
The Klark is the ship where Alundra starts to actually move. Basic movement here, not much to explain apart from the running mechanic used throughout the game. You run using the triangle button and a direction simultaneously. To do a quick turn, lift your finger off a direction for about 11-17 frames before pressing another direction, and you don't need to wind up a running animation twice.
6:44 - Inoa Arrival
You are greeted by most of the villagers. First mission here is to get a book to help to know more about the nightmares. The first task is to go to Tarn's Manor to get it. Basic movement here as well.
9:07 - Tarn Manor
First dungeon of the game. Very standard movement to get the book, only a single glitch where you stand on two buttons at once to skip one barrel. Since your starting weapon is weak, we take advantage of the jars and boxes in the rooms to throw them on enemies for an instakill We also meet Melzas as a hologram at the end of the dungeon as we pick up the book.
11:39 - Exit Tarn Manor
Running back to the village to deliver the book to Septimus and finally entering the first dream.
12:48 - Wendell's dream
Very first dream. It is so easy that it is all contained in the same room consisting of a giant maze. This dream is somewhat of a running tutorial since it is all you do here. It also unfortunately contains the hardest boss of the TAS, because of the insane RNG it takes to make it perfect. Regardless of what you do, it can always be improved because the boss is actually a big slime dividing and spreading, so this is a lot of enemy movement control. The first phase is fine, because there is only one slime, but on stages 2 and 3, every slime divides into 4 smaller slimes. The optimal fight scenario would have all slimes moving in the same direction so that we can hit them all at the same frame, but it is really hard to do.
15:43 - Exit Wendell's dream
We now learn a bit more about the dreams, talk to one of the characters partly responsible for all this mess, the Pastor Ronan, although the player isn't supposed to know Ronan is a bad guy yet. The mine collapsed and a miner got rescued.
19:29 - Coal Mine dream
We then enter a dream of a miner to know what happened at the nearby mine that started to crumble apart. Just after we learn that the Murggs are responsible of this, he dies and this motivates Jess to make the first weapon, the bomb. It is the second most glitchy item in the game and will be used a lot until we get the magic bean. We then go to the Coal mine to try and find more of the miners trapped in there.
23:04 - Coal Mine
Very standard back and forth to open doors, activate levers and gather a few items. The aim of the dungeon is to activate the various rails to use the minecart to get to the end of the mine. Some notable tricks include the bomb. The turtles can detonate the bombs sooner, used to break one wall. In one of the flooded rooms, pulling out a bomb will prevent the game from switching to slow walk mode in water and retain the normal walking speed, saving time. The first real glitch also happens here in this dungeon, the bomb jump glitch to jump over a gap. The dungeon boss isn't even a real boss, but just 4 Murggs so it's pretty easy.
30:41 - Exit Coal Mine
You get a first view of the Murggs' Tree, a dungeon that will be accessed later on. Alundra is shown a premonition by one of the villagers about the future of the village, and then he goes on to the next dungeon, Lars's Crypt.
A lot of movement in this dungeon, mainly to open rooms and talk to NPCs. The bomb is the main source of damage so it is used a lot, including carrying it to jump slightly further over gaps. This is where the bomb jump glitch would be used in RTA for a conveyor skip, but we can precisely jump here so no need for it. The boss requires the bomb glitch to get damaged here, since the bomb is the strongest weapon so far. We also get the first magic scroll here that will be used shortly after in the next dream.
Virtually nothing happens here, just some more storyline and then going to the next dream.
44:47 - Bonaire's dream
Lots of button activating, but not really anything glitchy happens. Just standard route to the boss that is defeated in a single bomb.
48:39 - Exit Bonaire's dream
Learning more about the lore of the game, so nothing happens.
49:32 - 20 Death grind
Very boring to watch, dying 20 times to have the ability to collect the Legend Sword later in the game. Just some bomb deaths.
56:17 - End Death grind
Second death of a villager means we get the second weapon from Jess, the flail. It is a change from the sword since it is semi-ranged as it can keep enemies at bay and also break large rocks. We now move towards the next dungeon Ancient Shrine, collecting more items on the way, especially the Earth Book at Nirude. The desert is pretty funny to watch because while we don't have the next set of boots, it is faster to jump around than walking/running. Before entering the dungeon, one small exploit to bypass the last windy maze room where you stand at the very bottom of a loading zone.
1:00:43 - Ancient Shrine
Here, another bomb glitch to kill enemies faster. Lots of movement to get to the boss, but nothing noteworthy. The first boss is a replica of the golem from Lars's crypt and is pretty easy with the Earth Book, and the second boss is just a lot of zombies, so bombs take care of them pretty fast. It serves no purpose but when defeating the zombies, Alundra dies and then is revived by a falling health drop. It is purely for fun and it is only done here because of time to waste.
1:09:38 - Exit Ancient Shrine
We got the boots now so we can walk properly. We move on to Berue's Chamber to unlock access to the eight teleport arches scattered around the game. We need to activate all eight so it is better to do it early on.
1:11:47 - Berue's Chamber
Lots of precise movement, almost like a dance. Fun to watch if you struggle with it in RTA because the TAS makes it look easy. I run as little as possible, but it does not matter because it's pretty much an autoscroller area.
1:15:39 - Exit Berue's Chamber
More item gathering, and then enter the Coastal Cave.
1:18:09 - Coastal Cave
Bomb is still the weapon of choice for enemies. Standard movement to access the boss. The room just before the boss has a rolling boulder with a massive hitbox, and you can stand pretty far on the side of it. Boss is the first one that required a lot of RNG grind to be able to hit it at the first movement every time. No crest in that dungeon because the monkey boss Zazan stole it.
1:26:39 - Exit Coastal Cave
Alundra now goes on to the Fire Manor. We can sequence break to get in it with a bomb jump glitch on the left stairs.
1:27:49 - Fire Manor
The torches there can be lit with bombs so it is pretty fast. Get the Fire Wand and go to the village for some more storytelling.
1:29:02 - Exit Fire Manor
Just running to the village. We then learn that Kline went insane, so we need to investigate it. We will enter his dream to find out more.
1:33:50 - Kline's dream
A lot of damage boost here to take advantage of the additional speed and invincibility frames. One weird mechanic of the boulder in one room allow you to move it in an unintended place to go up a ledge, making a very minor skip. This dream is also home to the arguably most difficult puzzle of the game. You need to push ice pillars on a button, but one of the pillars can be pushed in an unintended direction, so it is easier. The boss of this area does not have health, but hit points. It is defeated after hitting it 20 times, regardless of the damage dealt.
1:39:27 - Exit Kline's dream
Kline goes berserk werewolf and we can have some RNG fun here in TAS. Hit Kline 10 times while collecting as much gilders as possible. My record is 76 gilders so far. Another death, another weapon. This time, we get the bow. It does 1 damage but one glitch towards the end of the game will make it overpowered. It is also the only weapon than can be used twice in a single jump because of how short the animation is. We now go on to the next dungeon, Reptile Lair.
1:43:12 - Reptile Lair
Some statue enemies here can be killed with the bow since they have a set number of hits required to be killed, and the first bow can hit twice in a single jump, so it is faster. The reptiles here are usually killed with bombs and the statues with arrows. Usual movements here with some item collecting. Pretty fun here for TAS with the large enemy groups that must be killed with bombs and charged sword hits. Boss is just a giant reptile that does not last long with the Earth Book.
1:50:17 - Exit Reptile Lair
Running back to the village to get to Giles's dream.
1:51:31 - Giles's dream
This dungeon is the first one that would give real trouble in time lost if not done well. There are many fights that are RNG heavy, with ghosts appearing an disappearing out of existence, and are mandatory to kill to go forward. That dungeon is basically "kill an enemy group to access the next room", all the way up to the boss. The boss looks a lot like the one in Kline's but this time it has a health bar, meaning that the Earth Book is the best weapon here.
1:56:48 - Exit Giles's dream
Running to the next dungeon again, but this one is way easier.
1:58:31 - Magyscar
This dungeon was intended to be done with the fire pots laying around, and coming back with the fire wand to collect the remaining items. Having the fire wand on the first time around here significantly shortens the solving time of the puzzles. Otherwise, pretty standard movement here with a couple trick jumps. The boss here is a giant centipede that requires some heavy RNG grind. It is possible, with a single Earth Book cast, to remove all it's armored skin, and hit it three times on the head. It then dies with three more charged fire wand hits.
2:06:08 - Exit Magyscar
Some more storytelling in the village, and get the secret pass for the casino later on. Then go to the sanctuary and activate it with a wind scroll cast from the front of the church.
2:09:03 - Sanctuary
Lots of back and forth here, mainly to do some missions for Septimus that is looking for clues in the church. The stool pushing glitch is used here for some timesave. After hunting a teleporting book, uncovering the underground statue, and talking to Ronan, you leave the sanctuary.
2:15:50 - Exit Sanctuary
You get one more item but nobody died, right? Nope, someone dies again while you slept. This time you get the power gloves and go on for some more storytelling before heading for the next dream.
2:20:06 - Meia's dream
The most calm dream by far, where no enemies can be found. Alundra is in the mind of Meia, another dreamwalker. This dream is home to long cutscenes and nice puzzles, so it is very relaxing. Basically running around activating levers and and buttons with some hide-and-seek until a final game of red-light green-light before leaving the dungeon.
2:28:52 - Exit Meia's dream
It is now time to go and get the most exploited item in the game, the magic bean. It allows for some double jumps, activating some buttons and cancelling jumps. It is found at Nava's hut so we rush there and sequence break with a bean jump to enter the next dungeon, Nava's Keep.
2:31:40 - Nava's Keep
This dungeon is hard to navigate without knowledge of the area since the doors teleport you around. Activate all the torches while doing lots of bean jumps around the place. Get the wind book behind the house and destroy the next boss with it. It is possible after the boss is dead to have it land on Alundra's head, which I did.
2:36:34 - Exit Nava's Keep
Collect some more items and move on to the Riverside Bar.
That is just the entrance of the bar. Show the pass to the bartender and we can access the casino. There are three different games room that we will complete twenty times each. That is, four groups of five rounds per game.
2:37:53 - Slime Bash
Prove your skills here, since it is just an autoscroller. 30 seconds per fight regardless of how fast you can kill the slimes. Lots of time to show tricks here, but unfortunately, we can't pull out any items or change weapons in the ring.
2:51:36 - Slime Shooter
Same as before, an autoscroller, but this time we can max the score by standing still. Just jumping and shooting arrows are enough.
3:05:59 - Roulette
This part of the run is where a lot of the time difference is made for all 100% attempts. in RTA it is somewhat random, but in TAS, we can manipulate luck, so we are fine. However, not all is easy here, al lot of time can be lost by being careless. Basically, the aim of the game is to guess which color the light will land on after turning for a while. The light has a fixed range of 6-10 "ticks" away from the initial one on which it can land. Obviously, it is necessary to have the light land on the earliest possible color which is 6 ticks away. In addition, the light has three different speeds. Slow: it will take a while to land on the light, sometimes trolling you. Medium: it will slow down towards the color in a somewhat predictable manner. Fast: this is the one you want as it is the fastest, it will take two ticks of slowing down before landing on the light. The usual range of the light is 6-10, but if the black tile (instant loss) is at either 5 or 11 ticks away precisely, the game can exceptionally go out of it's way to land on it.
We talk to one of the sailors so that we can redeem the gilded falcons at the end of the game at Merrick's Shop. Collect the Legend Sword, the most powerful weapon in the game and collect more items on the way to Nirude's Lair.
3:16:08 - Nirude's Lair
One of the shortest mid-game dungeons, thanks to the DJs that you can do to bypass essentially all of it. It ends up being just a "go to the boss" dungeon with more cutscene than actual gameplay in it. If you pay close attention, the statue that appears after you kill the four goblins has a placeholder NPC that is the same one as the second boss as Ancient Shrine! It is here for one frame before changing to the normal statue NPC. The boss is pretty unconventional, as you defeat it by running away, breaking the boulders on your way.
3:19:28 - Exit Nirude's Lair
Do some more item collecting and then go to the Underground Waterway.
3:21:38 - Underground Waterway
This dungeon is done backwards, where we enter through the exit, collect items and exit through the entrance. DJs allow for some skips, and this area has no boss, so just exit it quickly.
3:23:10 - Exit Underground Waterway
Get a few more items and head to the village for a lot of storytelling and reminiscing of the past. Then, we enter Elene's Dream, which is one of the least linear dungeons of the game.
3:33:54 - Elene's Dream
This dungeon is intended to be done as a teamwork with Meia, but as with all games, NPCs are slow. We skip almost all interaction with her in this dungeon thanks to the DJs.The first part of the dungeon is done in reverse to skip the tutorial part of the teamwork training. We then move on the the real dungeon, which is divided in four main areas. Ice, Fire, Water Earth. DJs allow for many small skips, especially to climb up to get keys and we end up activating only the water pillar (we are meant to activate all four). We need this one because otherwise we cannot access the key stuck in the ground in the water area. Each area has a mini-boss, that dies in three hits of the legend sword in the central eye.
3:41:32 - Exit Elene's Dream
Although nobody died, for real this time, you are given a new weapon, the Steel Flail. Many items need to be gathered after this, and head to the Fairy Pond.
3:48:33 - Fairy Pond
This is an underwater dungeon that has no boss, but only one sword as reward. Since you have the Legend Sword by now, it is useless to get it, but for 100% completion it is required to have it. Since we are underground most of the time, we cannot DJ here but we can jump cancel to go faster by throwing a bean just after jumping so it lands on our head, cancelling the jump. Get the sword and leave by the entrance as the dungeon falls apart and closes as you exit.
3:52:38 - Exit Fairy Pond
Get a few more items on the way to Murgg Woods, especially in the large pit room that requires lots of beans to get through.
3:54:06 - Murgg Woods
Skip the entrance door and the next cutscene with a DJ, but play the one where the murggs argue, as it unlocks the Willow bow, that we will collect after leaving the next dungeon, the Murgg Tree.
3:55:01 - Murgg Tree
After getting captured, head through the tree mazes to free the locksmith. Use his services for the first door, then go collect the broken key at the very top of the tree so he can fix it for you. One particular room of the dungeon has a murgg battle trigger that we can skip by jumping over it. It cascades forward as many other fights are not triggered as a result. After that, head for the boss door to use the repaired key, and defeat Zazan, the giant monkey boss with four hits of the Legend Sword, and get back the stolen crest.
4:05:08 - Exit Murgg Tree
Just a couple seconds of walking to leave the tree. Nothing more to say.
4:05:45 - Exit Murgg Woods
As you exit the Woods, get the Willow bow and DJ over the door again.Warp to the Arch above Reptile Lair for some item collecting and head to Lurvy's for some purchases and to fix the armor obtained from Jess's chest. Warp to the Arch above the village and head to the Ice Manor with a nice DJ.
4:10:46 - Ice Manor
First room is same as RTA, with the pillar pushes, but the next puzzle is completely skipped with a DJ to the chest
4:11:52 - Exit Ice Manor
Walk to Torla Mountain. It is on the same map.
4:12:09 - Torla Mountain
When inside, go for the boots with a DJ and solve the next puzzles that are all fire wand based, lighting torches to open the doors along the way. This boss, Wilda, is a giant dragon that is immune to every damage, except the ice wand. We will use some weapon swapping with the Legend Sword to defeat it in three hits. Get the final crest here.
4:16:57 - Exit Torla Mountain
You wake up in the village and head straight to the last dream, Nestus's dream.
4:18:46 - Nestus's Dream
This dream consists of breaking three giant glass panes and restore the link between Nestus and his twin, captured by the Murggs. You do this by DJing all over the place and activating the three switches located after the glass panes.The boss of this area is the best example of the weapon swapping. It has 200HP and usually takes many hits to beat it, but with the following trick you can defeat it quickly. This boss has a single health bar, but two hitboxes because it is split in two monsters that move in mirror to each other. When you hit one, both enter the "invincibility flicker" animation, so you can usually only hit one at a time. However, with bow, you can make it so two different arrows hit the two monsters on the same frame. Add to this a weapon swap with the legend sword for big damage. Do one more Legend Sword hit and then with a charged fire wand, if you hit both bosses on the same frame and do a weapon swap with the Legend Sword, you will deal the highest damage possible in the entire game in a single hit, 91 damage.
4:23:57 - Exit Nestus's Dream
Head to the crests pedestal to place all seven of them, then go to the Outer Lake Shrine.
4:28:30 - Outer Lake Shrine
The aim here is to open the main gate to access the gardens. The buttons for this are located on either side of the mini-dungeon. Collect the necessary keys for this in here and activate the two buttons. Head in the gardens and throw a bean on the left button after entering. The trick is rather difficult in TAS and virtually impossible in RTA. Here is a video of the inputs: (
https://youtu.be/llfeNGnXT0E ). Go through the gardens to get the very last gilded falcon and go to the village through the teleporter in the top-right room.
4:33:07 - Exit Outer Lake Shrine
Free the burning village from the Murggs and go to the mayor's house for a long cutscene. Then, head to the church to defeat Ronan with repeated hits of the fire book.
4:39:29 - 100% Item Gathering
The remaining items of the game are going to be collected here, except for the last life vessel in the castle. Get the Holy Sword from the villagers' collective wish, head to the village shop and then go to Merrick's to redeem your fifty gilded falcons. After getting the Spirit Wand, go to the village well teleporter and go in the castle Inner Lake Shrine.
4:46:34 - Inner Lake Shrine
Right as you enter, Melzas freezes time in the castle and locks the door to the dungeon with a spell. The mission here is to go everywhere in the dungeon to undo the spell by pressing the six buttons scattered all around and activate the two machines to restore the flow of time. DJs and bean throws are used a lot to travel around. After undoing the spell and restoring the flow of time, head to the dinning room for the final puzzle that rewards the last item for the 100% collection, a life vessel. Then, go straight to Melzas for the final three fights.
4:55:30 - Melzas Fight
Equip the spirit wand and spam the fire book until each boss is defeated. There is little to no room for RNG here as the boss doesn't move around that much. Just hit it at the first possible frame. One thing to notice is at the second phase, you need to get the pattern where Melzas appears as three bodies instead of four because you can hit it sooner.
5:00:56 - The End
This is it, the end of the TAS. The last input is at frame 1,080,256 with one additional empty frame, mandatory for the software. All the rest of the recording is just a giant cutscene in anime style with "The End" as the last image. Thanks for watching the run! I hope you enjoyed it! I spent three years on it and I had a lot of fun! :D
Although the TAS is optimized, it is not flawless. The routing is near perfect but it can be improved in the future. Since this is a 5 hours long TAS, it is not a surprise that time can be saved.
Obviously, this run can be improved since it is 5 hours long and some very minor mistakes have been made. I lost a bit of time in one of the text dialogue, Wendell's boss can be improved and some general routing rework can be made. Otherwise I am very pleased with this run!
Agate Crest
Diamond Crest
Emerald Crest
Garnet Crest
Ruby Crest
Sapphire Crest
Topaz Crest
Ancient Armour
Broken Armour
Cloth Armour
Leather Armour
Silver Armour
Charm Boots
Long Boots
Merman Boots
Short Boots
Aqua Cape
Miner's Bomb
Nava's Charm
Olga's Ring
Power Glove
Recovery Ring
Sand Cape
Silver Armlet
Spring Bean
Earth Book
Earth Scroll
Fire Book
Fire Scroll
Water Book
Water Scroll
Wind Book
Wind Scroll
Book of Elna
Bouquet
Jess's Letter
Secret Pass
Zolist Stone
Tree Gem
Curious Key
Elevator Key
Sluice Key
Small Key
Dagger
Fiend Blade
Fire Wand
Holy Sword
Hunter's Bow
Ice Wand
Iron Flail
Legend Sword
Spirit Wand
Steel Flail
Sword
Willow Bow
North (Left) - Magyscar Area Arch
![[Has commentary]](/images/commentary.png "Has commentary")
