What is it that makes the Red Tentacle ignore pool drainage? Sometimes I can turn the water on/off and the tentacle reacts the same (goes to check the dark room). But at other times he ignores everything, even turning the circuits off.

Hey Niss. I've had the same problem most times. I think its timing, going into the lab too soon after turning off the power/draining pool seems to cancel the tentacle investigating the utility room. I haven't put this through the scientific method but its my best guess anyway. No idea what the threshold is if this is correct.

Yeah that might be it. I have been goofing around and doing some testing so I might have gone in and out of the lab without thinking about it. After testing it I think you are correct!

-edit- Nope, I had it happen again without entering the lab. Haha! It might be entering the code that triggers the weird state.

One thing that also seemed like it was happening on some of the recent TAS runs was a quickness filling and redraining the pool. Tentacle might not be meant to react after the Glowing Key is picked up but perhaps the fill and re-draining in quick succession overrides the normal way. Maybe someone else is more qualified to talk about what happened on those. When I tried the pool/utility room Fred skip I didn't question it too much but in any case you've inspired me to try and see what happens when I try to feed the Cold Can of Pepsi to the Red Tentacle (probably nothing).

Edit again: Meteor on the other hand won't acknowledge cold pepsi but trying to give it regular pepsi is kinda hilarious

I like to make sure that the cutscene with Fred and Purple Tentacle play before opening the inner door to the lab. (The “Oh no! Someone turned off the power”/etc cut scene)…

If the inner door is already open prior to interacting with the valve or breakers, nothing will ever happen.

If you’re closing then opening the pool valve back to back, timing is critical. If it’s opened too soon after closing, it’s basically like you never closed it and the house will blow up. Or tentacle will never show up to bust you by the breakers. There’s a real fine line there on the valve w/back to back actions if there’s no screen transition or cutscene between them.

That’s been my experience anyway