Congrats!

This is what NG+ should be: just having fun with the most broken setups possible. Yes, every fight becomes trivial and ends in a few seconds, but that's the point. It's not about fighting, it's about optimizing your movements in order to squeeze a couple seconds saved here and there. I'll give DS NG+ a try this weekend, as I still have a 100% savefile somewhere.

There's a glitch in FR where the game sometimes does not advance the day if you skip the day transition too fast. In this case, magical_mace used the chapters menu to advance the day. I feel this is acceptable.

I'm for this. NG+ with no restrictions, just beat the game as fast as possible. The aim is for pure speed. I feel more people will do this than the current Any% Normal rules, which feel way too restrictive. Also, you can do this using a 100% savefile.

• Easy difficulty allowed.
• Grinding to 100 ATK/DEF and 999 BRV is allowed. Partners can have all 9 ATK/DEF stickers.
• All pins and equips allowed. Note that the game itself only gives a single copy of certain equips, like the secret report items and red quest items.
• Character switching allowed.

Specific run rules:

• Before timing starts, show character equips and pin decks. These may obviously change, but they are shown so that we know what's being used on W1D1.
• Timing starts when W1D1 is selected with the chapters menu. After this, using the chapters menu is disallowed.
• Timing ends when the final fusion pin is pressed.

SR/FR times are ended by the final fusion pin press, so it should be the same for DS. The IGT can be recorded after the credits, just like how the IGT could be recorded after the credits in FR.

Currently I'm the only active DS runner, but there has been some interest in FR lately due to the anime announcement. The DS and FR runs are different due to the different mechanics, but I've incorporated into DS some of the FR strategies that we discovered. I feel syncing up the moment where DS and SR/FR ends would be appropriate, as it would show that we're all one community of runners.

Feel free to put it up to a vote, but I think having the timings be different between DS and SR/FR is a little silly.

Thank you for responding to my post civilly. Transparent discussion about any techniques is one of the core principles of speedrunning. So I'm not angry or anything.

After reading your explanation, the 1-chain stuff for the brand walls is OK because it was a calculated risk. As for the pause issue, https://www.speedrun.com/moderationrules indicates that The time of the run is the time in the video from starting condition to ending condition. It is not the time shown on the timer program, which is started and ended with human error. Be aware that post-processing video can have minor effects on video framerates. This is a site-wide rule so that's why I had to bring up the timing issue.

One thing I probably didn't convey well in my post was that the WR video was likely never examined or scrutinized in detail, because nobody else watched it or brought it up. For this game specifically, I went out and bought a new $120 1080p webcam that could focus on both DS screens at once clearly. I had done a previous DS speedrun (Advance Wars 4) with a 480p webcam, but it only focused on the bottom screen. For TWEWY DS, I had the 480p webcam pointed at my face, and the run started with the DS boot screen. I wanted to leave absolutely zero room for doubt that my runs are legitimate. I think we both understand that a 5 hour speedrun requires many hours of planning and practice, and trust is extremely important. If I take the WR, I fully expect and welcome everyone to dissect my run, and I will respond to any suggestions or concerns to the best of my ability.

Basically, after I did my run, I looked at the WR video in order to see where I lost time and how I could improve. So when I put in the numbers, this is what I got:

I actually expect my W2 to be slower than the WR because there is more shopping in order to set up the Goth Bondage Coat and King Pendant shopping in W3. But I saw that I lost 4:14 on W2D3, which was almost the entire time difference. That's when I looked at the WR video and saw some funny things going on. Again, thank you for addressing all of my points. It's up to the community to decide whether your WR should be 4:56:29 (the current time), 4:44:20 (real time without credits), or 4:58:05 (real time with credits). Personally, I think you should change it to 4:44:20, as I think real times should end at the final fusion pin press. The other times should be adjusted accordingly as well. Win-win, your time becomes "lower" and everyone is happy!

Now that we discovered that the W2D5 DB wall can be 100% skipped, at least that bit won't come down to luck anymore. I figure if this run gets contested, it'll all come down to how many RNG reapers appear.

Best of luck with your stamina!

Huge shout out to magicalmace for labbing this, as this is a significant time save. I can confirm that the brands can be manipulated before the brand walls. Here's what we know with 100% certainty:

• The brand map does not change when the days change.

• The brand map changes under certain conditions after a fight with a results screen. (Dodge Beat fights don't affect it.)

• For FR, this could mean that there's a way to reliably skip both the NP (W2D3) and DB (W2D5) brand walls. Setting up the NP skip can be done while farming Tektite. Setting up the DB skip involves doing the AMX 4-chain wall at Scramble Crossing.

• For DS, skipping the NP wall is clunky, as Tin Pin Custom and Ichimonji are obtained at the end of W2D2. But the DB skip is good and will be incorporated into the run.

And this is what needs testing:

• It appears as though doing the W2D3 Cadoi 3-chain with unbranded pins and no clothes does not affect the map. For FR, this is the only fight that needs to be done on D3 before the NP wall, as the Pop Pendulum wall is cleared by getting the pin on D2.

• Is it possible to manipulate the Scramble Crossing brand to NP/DB without fighting there?

Now that I have an Any% Normal time, here are my thoughts on NG+:

Because Any% Normal for both DS and FR boost character ATK, I feel the current NG+ rules don't work anymore. Here's my take on what the rules should be:

• Base ATK for Neku ≤13, and ≤22 for the partners. For the maingame, all characters are able to eat 3 hot dogs for +3 ATK. All partners are able to get 9 ATK stickers. DEF should stay at 0 for Neku and 9 for the partners, as there is no reason to increase it.

• All food consumption is banned, except food that only boosts sync.

• As equips can't be sold, all non-postgame equips are allowed.

• All pins can be sold except for the starter pins, so all pins that can be sold should be sold before the run begins. Show an empty pin collection (except for the starter pins) and then start NG+. This means that you'll need to collect certain pins for the wall reapers.

• Premade decks can only have the starter pins before starting NG+.

• All other Any% Normal rules apply.

I feel this ruleset is better because I just one-shotted everything with Blue Blood Burns Blue in Shiki's week, and it felt quite boring. I have no interest in running NG+ again with the current rules, so this category is dead.

After hearing news of a possible TWEWY2 being announced in a few weeks, my interest in this game just came back. I just submitted a time of 5:00:53 (final fusion pin press at 4:47:08), IGT of 4h03. There are two things I'd like to discuss:

• I am requesting the real time listings to be changed to the moment that the final fusion pin is pressed, to sync it up with Final Remix. IGT can still be recorded at the save screen after the credit roll. The elapsed time after the final fusion pin should be 13:45, so if necessary, all real times should be rolled back by 13:45... with one exception.

• Herreteman's WR of 4:56:29 looks suspect. Why is the VOD 4:58:30? Upon closer inspection, Herreteman paused his timer at the beginning of W2D3. If you cut the video to exactly when the timer begins, and when the the final fusion pin is pressed, the length is 4:44:20. Add 13:45 to that and the real time should be 4:58:05.

Pausing the timer should not be allowed for this game. If you need to pause the game, your IGT won't increase, but the real time timer will. 5 hours is long, but still reasonable enough to play through to completion without any pausing required.

One other thing: At 2:15:25, Herretemen attempted to clear the Natural Puppy wall. He went into the menu to check brand trends. NP wasn't in the top 3, nor was it at the bottom. Somehow, Herretemen knew to do exactly a 1-chain here, even though the run calls for a 2-chain in this scenario. Then he didn't go into the menu to check brand trends again. Instead, he talked to the wall reaper directly and cleared it. (If you talk to the wall reaper and NP isn't #1, you waste time.) This also happened for W2D5 D+B wall: he did not check brand trends and somehow knew it was #1 after only a 1-chain.

When he did the Really Really Long A Thon in 2018, he played it safe, checked brand trends, and did a 2-chain because it was a live run (timestamp 2:20:15):

So this strikes me as very suspicious. This suggests to me that in the WR video, he knew NP was #4 and that he only needed to do a 1-chain. This could've been possible as a result of using emulator save states and rewinding. It is more suspicious due the "significant pause" between W2D2 and W2D3, which could suggest run splicing.

As for my run, I realize that my menuing needs to be better. I also had 8 deaths. (Submitted as 6 but counted 8 afterwards.) I think I got a bit too reckless for not using Cure Drink in W3, so I'll definitely do that in the future. Without the 8 deaths, I would've got the WR. I beat the WR split in 10/21 days. W2D3 was brutal: I was slower than the WR by 4:14, and I was behind the WR overall by 4:35. Even if I beat the WR, I won't be happy until I 0-death it.

Incorporating many of the ideas from FR into DS was key to improving Beat's week. I've squeezed as much money as possible out of the run. Though my budget through W2D6 (¥225K) is slightly less than the WR (¥230K), it's still very tight, and I've had to make concessions in order to afford certain equips. My run uses 3 Purple Sneaks (instead of 4), 2 Naraka (instead of 3), and 3 Green Warm-Ups (instead of 4). It's also a 0 Tektite run because farming Tektite takes too much time, and converting Rare Metal to Tektite costs ¥25K.

I'm really enjoying routing the NG+ run. Being 2h is a great relief to my sanity over the any% 5h run. I'm quite sure I can go sub-2h.

Equips have mostly been figured out. You want one character to be in SOS at all times. The exception is double SOS for week 1. Out of the 8 equip slots:

• 3 are used for Faster Puck 2 each, to reduce the puck passing time by 75%.
• 2 are used for Puck Power 2 (D+B Ring) & Puck Power 3 (Lavender Lotus), to start the puck at 4.5X.
• Vampire Dress is used on the SOS character, as it has the highest ATK boost in the game if postgame clothes are banned.

So there are 2 equip slots to play with. I have an idea of what's viable, but I'd need to try some more things out.

Unofficially SMASHED the WR tonight by over 13 minutes on my first attempt:

I had 9 out of a possible 24 RNG reapers, BUT I was lucky enough to skip the W2D3 Natural Puppy brand mission!

Deck: Main deck for weeks 1-2 was Tin Pin Thrift, Poison Bones, Dragon Couture, 2x Blue Blood Burns Blue, and One Stroke Vast Wealth (sub). For week 3, I swapped out one BBBB for another OSVW. This was a much different deck than the one used in the WR.

• Tin Pin Thrift is mandatory. +30% final damage for Neku with a single pin is just too good.

• Resonance DC gives +22 pATK to BBBB (111 to 133), and +16 pATK to OSVW (89 to 105). It's debatable if this is worth the pin slot, but I like it.

• Poison Bones should still be in the deck.

• A cure pin shouldn't be needed at all. Each level gives 50 HP, so you could run SOS and still start at a higher HP than the any% run.

• There isn't room for Her Royal Highness. You shouldn't need extra uses, as 2 OSVW is enough for Burst Rounds spam.

That leaves 3 attacking pins:

• While Anguis has 999 pATK, I dislike it being a useless pin for the majority of the fights. I also think it's actually a postgame pin because you don't get an opportunity to use it in any%. But I won't debate that very much when my run doesn't even use it.

• Ice Risers is so-so. It has 100% efficiency and can hit multiple targets, but it only has 43 pATK. It has nowhere near the raw damage potential of OSVW.

• A bunch of fights actually end before the puck can be passed. You need a pin that can dish out massive non-puck damage in under 2 seconds. BBBB fits that bill.

As per NG+ rules, all characters were at 10 base ATK and 0 base DEF at the start of the run. No postgame-exclusive equipment was used. Partners had all 9 ATK stickers. I won't reveal my equipment setup just yet, though! :p

Before I try again, I'm gonna ask for clarification: Is raising base DEF up to 10 allowed? The rules state no base ATK/DEF stat >10, so I want to be very sure about this. It actually does make the run faster, because if a character takes 0 damage from an attack, they don't flinch.

I'm requesting that the DS realtime rule be aligned with the FR realtime rule: timer starts with New Game, and the timer ends when the huge fusion pin is pressed. The IGT rule could remain the same: finding out the value at the final save screen. Edit all of the current realtime times so that they're 13:56 faster, as that's the length it takes to go from the huge fusion pin to the final save screen.

If anyone were to ever run the DS version at a speedrun festival, they'd want to end the timer at the huge fusion pin.

Tried a run today, got an IGT of 3h59!

IGT splits: Shiki: 0h05, 18, 36, 47, 59, 1h17, 25 (1h25) Joshua: 1h30, 42, 2h01, 18, 33, 40, 48 (1h23) Beat: 2h56, 3h04, 12, 26, 33, 39, 59 (1h11)

My Joshua splits aren't that great, and I could probably save time with less menuing. It seems that running Tin Pin Thrift in W2D6 and W2D7 doesn't really help much at all. You still want to do it, but because most enemies die in one 3.5X+ puck shot anyway, it's not much of a timesaver except against Sho. However, running Tin Pin Thrift for the final 2 fights helps a bunch: Draco Cantus was cleared in 1:09.53 in the WR, but just 37.08 in my run.

Once I feel I can do this consistently I'll film and submit it.

Hey. Been a while since there's been discussion. Due to the recent charity speedruns (shout out to Ouro, Ghoul02, and Punchi), some people have expressed interest in running this game, but were looking for a one-stop resource. I've put together as much general information as I could here: https://www.speedrun.com/twewy/guide/0t37c

Let me know if there are corrections, things I should include, etc. Hopefully we can see more runners and optimize this towards sub-3h!

Rare metal:

3: Biker Jacket 1: Shiki ATK sticker 3: Definitivo Chili Dog 2: Extra Slot 6: King Pendant If you have 3 extra rare metal after getting the King Pendant, you can get both of Beat's ATK stickers.

Goth Bondage Coat requires Vampire Dress (bought), 2 Tektite (from W3D1 pigs), and a Sleek Silk (obtained for free).

There should only be a single case of farming: a 4-chain on W1D6. You get most of the rare metal here, and the rest on the required 3-chain on W1D7 (do this mission at Scramble Crossing instead of Hachiko).

I do have notes but I would rather release them after I make my attempt.

I had a bout of pneumonia in December that stopped me from doing the run. I'll give it another try next month or in March. There's no rush.

Fairly sure that I have a new routing that beats the current WR. The Goth Bondage Coat for week 3 strategy used in Switch actually works in DS, but with a twist: it's put on Beat. I have the whole thing routed, just need to practice it. It uses 15 rare metal and 0 tektite. (The 2 tektite needed for GBC is obtained from the W3D1 pigs.) Joshua's level 3 fusion isn't needed for Sho: getting the rare metal + tektite for it eats up too much time. Instead, Tin Pin Thrift is obtained so that you can clear Pork City faster, and clear Sho with a level 2 fusion. Tin Pin Thrift is out of the deck once GBC is obtained.

You can't get GBC before W3D2, because you can't buy Vampire Dress until W3D2. :(

Maybe Patchy Biker Jacket can be used for Joshua because you can get it as early as W2D4 or W2D5 with less backtracking. But the time save from W2D6+ must be huge for it to be worth it. Getting PBJ probably eats an extra 2-3 minutes. (Get 5 Tektite, buy 2 Durable Leather at Q-Heads, then backtrack to Molco to get it... OR wait until W2D5 after you clear all the walls because the PBJ would only be used for the crab fight anyway.)

The other potential big time save is actually using Tin Pin Thrift. But it's very risky in FR, and the ATK +30% affects only Neku. My DS run uses Tin Pin Thrift until Beat can wear the GBC.

Also, I honestly don't think you need Joshua's lv3. I saw it do 11k damage to Sho, but Sho only has 3141 HP, and the lv2 is 1/3 the strength of the lv3. A lv2 at 5.3X should one-shot Sho.