Maddog Williams speedrunning guide

All categories of the game are full of skips and other tech, explained here.

General notes: The fastest way to move is by hopping. Maddog hops when Shift is pressed; but you should always hit Esc immediately afterwards. This is because hopping too many times will cause the game to crash (this happens on the first screen transition after approximately 85 full-length hops). Hitting Esc on each hop greatly mitigates the crash issue. Note that hitting Esc will also dispel any parser input; if you need to hop with text active, either save the text with Enter (so it can be called up with F3 later) or risk a small number of no-Esc jumps.

Usually, it is sufficient to simply tap Shift; but holding it briefly reduces the risk of input loss from multiple keys being pressed in quick succession. For this reason, holding Shift to jump is recommended in precarious situations, especially the pillar section near the end.

By tapping the numpad keys 1 through 9, Maddog can move in any of eight directions; but he only jumps in four. Hopping while moving in a diagonal direction will result in a horizontal jump. Numpad 5 is intended to stop Maddog; but this only works if numlock is on, while scrolling on the save/load screen with the numpad only works if numlock is not on. Repeating the previous direction also stops Maddog; but this is more dangerous, since tapping the key once too often will make him move again (and likely fall to his death).

A save glitch involves saving the game in the middle of a jump, loading the save, and continuing from the new location. Save glitches are banned in most categories.

**SKIPS AND GLITCHES**

Bar fight skip: The first skip in the Any% runs. Prepare (but do not enter) the "fix device" command directly after entering "give device"; on the first textboxes that appear after "give device", tap Enter twice; on the next textboxes, tap Enter many times very quickly. This skips the bar fight scene that would usually happen, but it also disables Maddog's movement. SIT BAR and GET UP to regain command.

Maze skip: On entering, turn left, jump twice, wait a bit to get closer to the edge, and jump a third time. (The goal is to cross the edge mid-air near the high point of the jump.)
Tap 7 to reach the wall, tap 9, jump to make another mid-air screen transition. Tap 9 to reach the wall, tap 7, jump to make a third mid-air transition and reach the exit.

Rogue Yun's cyclops skip: This is the largest skip in the run; it entirely skips not only the cyclops but also the gnome and the rock transformation wait, saving more than a minute and a half. 

On entering the cyclops screen, simply tap 7, then jump. You will naturally cross the horizontal screen-transition trigger line at the ideal position; the trigger only works when most (but not necessarily all) of Maddog is beyond the left edge of the screen.

Castle crossing out-of-bounds shortcut: After getting the keys from the guard in front of Faith's prison, hop east 2 screens. After screen transitioning to the courtyard, tap 7 (to reach the wall), Shift, 8 (ideally mid-jump), 9 (ideally quickly), turn east and then southeast (so that Maddog's knees are about level with the topmost part of the rail), turn back east, hop across the wall, turn southeast at the other side, attempt to hit the screen transition trigger at the east edge of the dark grey area. This skip saves about 5 seconds.

Rope skip: Another out-of-bounds skip. After getting the royal scepter and exiting the bedroom, hop west (to return to the scene of the castle crossing OOB), tap 8 (to reach the wall), 9, Shift, 3 (quickly), 2 (fairly quickly, but not immediately; Maddog should become visible), turn west, hop 3 times, navigate southwest to reach the throne room screen transition trigger line from above.

Fast gem: Prepare "get gem". On reaching the gem room, bring up "get gem" with F3, walk east a bit, turn south, jump towards the rock in the pool, and hit Enter mid-air while approaching the rock. This not only saves time, it means you can get the gem even if your positioning is slightly off for the rock jump. The timing is still precise, though; if you hit Enter too early you won't be close enough to grab the gem, while if you hit Enter too late and miss the rock, the screen transition may kick in early enough to supersede the gem grab.

Spiral skip:
This skip saves over half a minute by entirely skipping three rooms of the spiral climb; but the trigger is small and must be found in the dark, making it one of the most difficult skips. Make sure to practice it.

On entering the first spiral climb room, tap 8 (to reach the wall), 9, Shift, 6, 9, 8 (all of these should be tapped *fairly* quickly but *not* immediately; waits of about 0.3-0.6 seconds are indicated). Press 7 after a 1-second wait. Press 8 after a 1.4-second wait (lengthen this wait if the previous waits were also on the long side, and vice versa). Press 4 after another 1.4-second wait (lengthen this wait if the previous wait was *short*, and vice versa); or if playing safe, press 6, see if you quickly transition to Serak's room, and press 4 if not.

Spiral old/backup shortcuts:
- If you miss the spiral skip, you can instead aim to reach the usual screen transition trigger from out of bounds. This is still faster than not going out of bounds.
- In the second and third spiral climb rooms, immediately after crossing the invisible portion, tap 7 (to reach the wall), Shift, 9 (quickly); here you can either walk north to the screen transition trigger, or have a second go at the big skip by heading east, press 8 when you estimate you're crossing the screen edge, and then try to hit the transition trigger with 6 and/or 4.

**FIGHTS**

Most fights can be avoided; the only necessary fights (apart from the dragon arcade...) are the guard in front of Faith's prison (for the keys to Serak's trunk) and the dragon (for the breastplate). Fights can be greatly simplified in the following way: if Maddog is west of (or directly above or below) the enemy while facing west, he will consistently deal high damage despite seemingly hitting air, while taking very little damage himself. 

**RNG**

The first major RNG spot occurs shortly after crossing the bridge. There are two blocked passages, one to the left (lever/spider) and one to the right (snake statue); only one of these is the true secret passage, while the other is lethal. Outside of a marathon context (or a really *really* optimized ultimate-god-run grind), I would recommend always guessing the snake path; while it's slightly slower, the difference is small (about 1.5 seconds with optimal execution), and the snake path is safe far more often and simplifies the walk down the following stairs. In marathons, it's recommended to either save at the crossing or to check the spider room first (if no web can be seen, the spider passage is safe, otherwise the snake passage is safe). 

The two pools in the fire-mouth room (the Dew of Heaven and the Drool of Hell) are randomized. The safe approach is to SNIFF WATER at the pool on the left, pick that one if you smell nothing, and pick the other one if you smell something awful. (You do not need to be very close to the pool to smell it; you can smell it even from the room entrance, or while walking due east.) The correct pool is nearly always the one at the right, which is unfortunately also the slower pool. Smelling is not strictly required, but keeps things safe, and lets you spot those sweet left-side pools. 

The worst RNG spot is the patterns of the dragons in the arcade sequence; some are very easy and quick to deal with, while others are almost guaranteed to kill the run. It is fairly common (though by no means guaranteed) for the 2nd and 3rd dragons to spawn at the top; positioning yourself accordingly (slightly below the top of the screen) for those two is recommended. There is a 4-second wait between a dragon being killed (end of the explosion animation) and the next dragon spawning.

In the forest, it's occasionally necessary to go north an extra screen before reaching the well. I'm not sure if this is RNG, or involves some mysterious side effect of variations in execution. There are also two possible positions for the mushrooms.

**WAIT SKIPS**

A wait skip is performed by hitting F4 or F5 followed by Esc during a wait (since F4 and F5 are involved, wait skips are disallowed in Deathless categories, even though no actual save is loaded). Not all waits are skippable, and some waits are only skippable in part. The following waits are skippable:
- Part of the wait after giving the lamp to the wizard
- The second part of the wait for the dragon (after getting the textbox a few seconds in) 
- The screen transition wait on using the throne elevator
- The two screen transition waits in the water rooms
- The transition wait at the mirror (100% only)

Part of the mushroom wait can be skipped if the mushrooms are grabbed in the middle of a jump. The mushroom wait cannot be skipped with a normal wait skip.

**TILE CRACKS PUZZLE**
There are many ways to cross the tile cracks; the fastest way uses many jumps, but this is very risky not just because of the timing precision needed, but also because jumps can throw Maddog's pixel position off and make it impossible to reach the ideal position for the already difficult final crack. The following approach combines speed with relatively good and easy consistency.

At the start, go due east (while it's possible to go northeast and jump over the tile, this is not recommended for the reasons cited above). On reaching the corner of the first line, turn northeast. Aim for the next line, it has some leeway to the north so it's okay to go a bit over. At the correct position, either turn east or stop to verify position, then turn east. Repeat this procedure at the next corner; this line has less leeway, but this time it's okay to stop slightly below it. Repeat again at the third corner, but with great care: the next line has *no* leeway, so *don't* go over it. 

If your timing for the last line is *correct* and you stop exactly at the line, turn east, walk to the corner, and hop (fairly late, but not too late...) If you stopped *just below* the line (you'll be a couple pixels away - it's not possible to be only 1 pixel away if this method is followed), you have two options. One is to tap 9, immediately stop or turn east, and pray that you somehow hit the correct line and lived. The slower but safer method is to hit Ctrl+J (or Ctrl+Enter) twice to switch to joystick and back, which makes Maddog start an east-facing walking animation without actually walking. While in this state, you can hop across the next bit, turn southeast (you can go east and hop at the start of the next tile, but this is risky), turn east at the next crack, and hop the last bit just to speed things up.

**SAVE GLITCHES**
A save glitch involves saving the game in the middle of a jump, loading the save, and continuing from the new location, potentially out-of-bounds. Save glitches are banned in most categories.

The following save glitches can be useful in a save-glitches-permitted run:
- Bypassing the snake head, and eliminating the passage RNG, by glitching into the snake statue's pedestal and screen-transitioning there
- Breaking the maze even more by glitching through the wall due north from the entrance
- Bypassing the walk around the screen before the hairy monster (do glitch at start, head north, jump, head south to screenwrap, head northwest to screen trigger)
- Skipping the tile cracks puzzle (doesn't save time, but eliminates risk)
- Skipping the pillars (does save time while also eliminating risk)
- Bypassing the gem and its pedestal by glitching through the bars
- Bypassing the tomb by glitching through the door
- Faster backup shortcuts in the 2nd and 3rd spiral rooms by going out-of-bounds at the bottom

**MIRROR QUIZ ANSWERS**
These are only needed in 100% runs, since the mirror is skipped in other categories.
- behind tapestry: NOTHING
- behind door: DEMON
- behind bookcase: HOLE
- imprisoned: FAITH
- danger in the moat: MOSS
- seen from window: CENTAUR
- demon god: MALTHAZAR
- servant demon: BRAGG
- bottom of the scepter: STAR
- bird: VULTURE
- words of passage: MALTHAIC POWERS