I've thought about this before, too. I think such a category would be nice, but was struggling to find a short definition of what 'all encounters' exactly means.

First, I think that runs on higher difficulties would be a welcome addition in general, but I don't think they would be the solution to this. They would still include skipping over many if not most regular enemies, especially in later biomes.

(And this Skipping will generally only increase with the rise of the skillcap of players. For example, on base difficulty Any%, I like to take an HP-boost, simply to increase the chance of a successful run, even though taking a different boost or skipping that optional elite would be faster. If I were to become better and more confident to beat the game with 100HP, I would consider skipping more. I could see a similar thing happen on higher difficulties).

So, what should count as an encounter for the purposes of the new category?

• Including Challenges and the Optional Reward Gates is easily verifiable and in line with the spirit of the category, so yes.

• Including every hidden area seems to be quite the hassle for both the runner to keep track of and the moderator to verify, so limiting to the main path would be the way in my opinion. And I don't think it would be too difficult to define what 'main path' means for most rooms.

However, there are situations in which I am not too sure, like the room MushroomC01 (see pictures). Opening the blue gates is mandatory, so I think the enemies behind both blue doors should be considered on the path. But what about the one behind the red door? That one is purely optional, so I reckon it's not on the main path. Further down, but still in the same room, there's that golden door which would definitely not be on the main path, imo.

I see that it would require some detailed ruling for rooms like this, and would result in rules that cannot exactly be called concise.

But there are also more merits to it than just fulfilling the role of a combat-heavy category. In the upcoming AGDQ 2025 there will be a run in this - so far a bit loosely defined - 'All Encounters' category.

I was quite happy to hear that. Because I wasn't expecting to see a run of this game there, due to the fact that the current categories are not really fitting for such a marathon event due to the very high risk of dying well before the final boss.

(An Any% run there would either be very likely to end before showcasing the whole game or would need so many changes to safer strategies that it would no longer resemble an actual any% run.)

The 'All Encounters' category is very different in that regard.

Overall, I think this category would be a good addition, even though it might need a more detailed ruleset.