SHA1: f82fff40254867aaa549c8d5f1dbbd6cfa20aeb2
BIOS: Default IPL BIOS in Dolphin 5.0-21264
DSP HLE was used (should be default in Dolphin).
Setup: Create a save file in slot A, then play the movie.
I made this TAS to improve on my first one (submission #8246), which was almost 8 minutes slower. I used a keyboard in my first one, whereas here I used a controller and Dolphin's TAS tools which resulted in a significantly faster time. This movie has a much larger rerecord count because of how much experimenting I did along the way, trying alternate routes and strategies and picking the best one.
- One of the most unique aspects of the game is the movement. Using the jetpack is one of the fastest ways to move in the game, but there is limited fuel. Jumping while targeting an enemy gives a huge speed boost, but cannot be done if there are no enemies around and is sometimes impossible to move in a straight line due to the janky camera behavior. Finding the perfect balance of target jumping and using jetpack was a difficult but redeeming part of making the TAS, and is the main factor for completing the game quickly.
- Killing enemies comes up frequently in the game as a trigger to advance the level, so it is important to kill them as quickly as possible. Usually the blasters are the best weapon choice because you can fire 30 times per second if the framerate is at 60fps. But laggy parts of the game reach very low framerates, so other weapons end up being better such as the sniper, flameflower, poison darts, missile, grenades and combinations of those.
- Out of bounds appears only occasionally, but provides massive time improvements when it does (levels: Sebolto's Compound, Tusken Canyon). In addition, the game was programmed so that the levels end when all cutscenes are triggered, so it is sometimes faster to trigger them out of order (Merchant's Row, Gardulla's Palace).
