If people start doing it in the Time Trial and want it to be split like we did with Hot Coco, I’m not against doing so. Not sure how much it saves IGT since I don’t follow TT’s much but if the TT community would prefer to split it we can probably accommodate that.

Maybe not the entire franchise, but it is a tricky one to get used to, especially if you're playing on console. With a lot of practice you should be able to get it done though. ^.^

And even if not, you can still get pretty solid times without it.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is that it's the runner's choice as to whether or not they want to make use of all existing tech. If they choose not to then they are accepting that time loss. An Any% run without hobslides is still Any%; everything else remains the exactly the same, with the exception of you just not hobsliding. That doesn't warrant an entirely separate category.

No one is forcing you to do hobslides, so if you want to run without them that's fine. But there is no need to separate them.

Oh I should also probably add that you can fix this by either entering another level or saving and reloading the file.

Obviously the latter is faster, as boss fights lock you out of every level in the warp room, but this is something to keep in mind if you accidentally trigger it again but don’t wanna reset the run.

This is common. Wait for the boss portal to fully spawn before trying to enter it. This is a result of trying to enter it too quickly.

I assume you are using Game Capture in OBS? This is a pretty common issue that comes up when trying to get the Steam FPS counter to show.

Make sure this box is checked in the game window's properties in OBS:

If you've been paying attention to the leaderboard for the past two days, then you've probably noticed some pretty big changes to it, namely the addition of something called "Cross-Game" and Full Trilogy now being split between "File Fusion" and "No File Fusion".

To keep it simple, a pretty huge discovery was made, but to properly explain what it entails, I think it's best to explain basically how the entire past two days have gone, the decisions we have made, and why we made them. This discovery is very recent so we're still figuring much of it out ourselves, so there could be more developments in the future. But this is what has happened so far:

1. How we found "File Fusion"

Potty was doing Crash 3 108% runs, when he wasn't paying attention upon rebooting the game and accidentally managed to start Crash 1 and Crash 2 at the same time. The end result was him loading into Crash 1 at Nitrus Brio, but also with 42/25 Gems and 100% completion. The video for this can be found here:

Basically, Potty loaded Crash 1, but the game loaded his most recent Crash 2 save file instead of a Crash 1 file, as the most recent thing he did was hit Continue on Crash 2. The end result was him being in Crash 1, but with items and percent from Crash 2 instead. As for why he ended up at Brio, the game probably saw that this file was at Cortex, the 5th boss, in Crash 2, so it put him at the 5th boss in Crash 1, which is Nitrus Brio.

After Potty shared this in the Discord server, Crodi began to mess around with it and was able to do it from starting a New Game in Crash 1. With this, he was able to automatically go to Brio at the beginning of the run, therefore finishing Crash 1 in less than 5 minutes, seen here:

We immediately started discussing whether this should be allowed in Any%. After a while, we ultimately concluded that because it requires an already existing Crash 2 file (that has made it to Cortex), it is NG+ and therefore should not be allowed for Any%. However, it does have application in Full Trilogy because you can use a Crash 2 file that you make within the Full Trilogy run itself (by completing Crash 2 first), and is not considered NG+ there.

Thus, we split both Full Trilogy categories by adding a new variable called "File Fusion" (which is the name we decided on for this glitch). "Full Trilogy - File Fusion" is the category that uses this glitch, while "Full Trilogy - No File Fusion" is FT Any% and 315% as we already knew them. As for Crash 1, we decided to add NG+ Any% and NG+ All Gems to account for runs that would use a pre-existing Crash 2 file to set it up.

2. And then Crash 3 got involved

The next day, Crodi managed to do File Fusion using Crash 3 instead of Crash 2. With this, he started a New Game from both Crash 1 and Crash 3, then immediately went into Crash 3, did Gate Clip to enter Bug Lite, and then quit and went back into Crash 1. This loaded him at Castle Machinery (the 25th level in Crash 1), and he was then able to finish Crash 1 in less than 9 minutes:

This opened the discussion up again, because this was not NG+; it requires no pre-existing files and is possible the moment you start up the game for the first time. However, it does require leaving Crash 1 and playing Crash 3, and the discussion ultimately boiled down to should we allow "game jumping" in the single game categories.

We eventually decided that no, we should not. The single game categories are precisely that: single game. Even if NST can technically be seen as one game, it is also a collection of three, and the single game categories are intended for you to only play one of those three games. Switching to another game, even if you don't complete said other game, did not seem like it should be a thing.

With that in mind, JHobz proposed keeping the current categories as they are, but also introducing a new group of categories that do allow switching between games. Pretty much everyone involved in the discussion was onboard with this idea, so we decided to make the "Cross-Game" categories. This also rendered the Crash 1 NG+ categories created the day before redundant and unnecessary, so they were removed.

3. Alright cool. But what does this all mean? (i.e. a TL;DR)

• All of the categories as you knew them still exist. The single game categories all just now have rules that specify that you cannot 1) play any other game besides the one game in question, and 2) load a save file that was not created during the run itself (this was already implied to be a rule, but it's just specifically stated now). These two rules cover all the bases of File Fusion and essentially bans it from being used in single game runs in any impactful way.

• The classic Full Trilogy categories, Any% and 315%, still exist. They are just now known as "Full Trilogy - No File Fusion, Any%" and "Full Trilogy - No File Fusion, 315%" respectively now. Otherwise, they are exactly the same as they were before. File Fusion categories for Full Trilogy now exist as well.

• Cross-Game now exists, and will encompass any categories that require jumping between games for the sake of completing one (or more) faster. At the current moment the only ones that exist are Crash 1 Any% and Crash 1 All Gems, but it is likely more will be added as we figure more out about File Fusion in general.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading all of this! It's been a crazy few days in the NST community, but everything is still intact from before this huge discovery, and I'm sure many will appreciate this explanation as to just what these new categories popping up are.

~Riko

After discussing between the mods as well as some runners, we have decided to update the rules for Crash 1 105%; you now only have to collect 26 out of the 27 Relics in the game to finish the run (note: the ones you collect still all need to be Gold or Platinum).

In order to address some potential common questions:

1) Why is this changing? How come we suddenly need one less Relic?

The reason for this change is simple: we have never needed all 27 Relics in order to get 105%. The game has always awarded the extra percentage for Relics by simply having 26 of them, likely due to the game's programming not factoring in the existence of Stormy Ascent as a bonus level. The decision to require all 27 Relics anyway was made years ago, when Stormy Ascent was freshly released, partly because we were not sure whether this was a legitimate mistake that might be fixed later on in an update. Nearly three years into the game's life, I think it's pretty clear that Vicarious Visions has no intention of patching the game to fix this (or anything).

2) But why change it now?

For those who don't know, it was recently discovered that in Crash 3, you can acquire 108% with only 30 of the 31 Relics in the game being Gold or Platinum (i.e. one of them can be Sapphire). It was quickly decided that in 108%, finishing the run with one Sapphire Relic should be allowed, as not only does it allow for the possibility of new one cycles, you also still get 108%.

That last point is the most critical. The full completion categories in NST should be concerned with doing whatever it takes to get the maximum percentage. This is also the case with other games in the Crash series that skip things that don't contribute to percentage, but for the sake of keeping things simple, let's keep this focused on just NST. Crash 2 102% does what it takes to get 102%, which is the maximum percentage. Crash 3 108% does what it takes to get 108%, which is the maximum percentage. Crash 1 105% is the outlier here; not only does it require doing what it takes to get to 105%, it also requires going further by collecting a Relic that isn't even needed, which is an arbitrary restriction.

We want to be consistent between all three categories, and if we aren't putting an arbitrary restriction on 108%, it makes no sense to keep the restriction on 105%. All three categories should be solely concerned with doing what it takes to get the maximum percentage possible in each game.

This was less of a concern when the only game in question was Crash 1, but now that a similar situation is known to exist in Crash 3, it is better to keep things consistent between the two, instead of having one be treated one way and the other be treated another way.

3) Why not just make it so it's like 108%, where you have to collect every Relic but one of them can be Sapphire?

This sounds great in theory, but this argument falls apart when you realize that the way Crash 1 handles Relic percentage is completely different from how Crash 3 does it. In Crash 3, every single collectible item, including each individual Relic, provides 1%. This means that even if you don't need the 31st Relic to be Gold, you still have to collect it, otherwise you will end the game with 107%.

Crash 1 (and Crash 2) both handle this differently. These games only check if you have the total number of desired Relics (26 in the case of Crash 1, 27 in the case of Crash 2), and give you 1% if you do. You get an additional 1% if all of the required Relics are Gold or Platinum. Each individual Relic doesn't contribute any percentage by itself.

Because of this, while you need to at least collect the 31st Relic in Crash 3, regardless of what color you get, in Crash 1 you can skip the 27th Relic entirely. Requiring we collect the 27th Relic, but allowing it be Sapphire for the sake of being similar to 108%, puts a restriction on the category that is even more arbitrary than the "require all 27 Gold Relics" requirement that was already in place. It makes much more sense to just omit that Relic entirely.

4) I really liked having to collect all 27 Relics. Is there any way we can have a category that still does that (e.g. All Gold Relics, Gems, Bosses)?

Nothing is stopping you from running the game in whatever way you want. And we would not be against allowing a category like this to be Miscellaneous if it gained traction and popularity. Our primary concern with this suggestion, however, is that the category would be near identical to 105%, with the only difference being the addition of one Relic. However, we are open to the possibility, or any other potential ways to make it more distinct as a category (All Achievements/Platinum Trophy is a potential option).

If you would really like to continue doing the 27th Relic (which for most people will probably be Stormy Ascent's), you can always do it after the fight with Cortex; this would let you stop your submission time on the final hit of Cortex, but still collect the last Relic if you wanted to.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all continue to enjoy running NST!

This is a common issue with 144Hz monitors. I don’t know the specifics because my monitors are 60Hz but someone in the discord can help. I think if you set your refresh rate to 60 Hz that might fix it though.

There is a guide in the Guide section on how to set up the loadless timer. If you have any other questions you can ask in the Discord server.

As per the rules:

“This board uses loadless timing, through means of a load removal tool for LiveSplit found here. All submissions must include both a loadless time and a time with loads. Additionally, LiveSplit with the load remover running (with the option "Remove Transitions" checked) must be visible in your video submission.”

https://www.speedrun.com/crashnstce

With the ability to mod NST since the PC release, there has long been demands for runs that use things like the PowerMod, uncapped FPS, and skin/music mods. We do not feel like these types of runs fit on the main leaderboard, but they do have a lot of potential regardless. So we have set up a Category Extensions board for these types of runs.

At the current moment, the two types or runs supported are PowerMod and Uncapped FPS. If more ideas pop up in the future we will add them as well. Additionally, given the nature of these runs, they are currently only known to be possible on the PC version of the game.

Enjoy!

Casual playthrough is definitely helpful for a game like this, since speedruns are essentially going through the levels without a lot of major sequence breaks. After that watch runs and feel free to ask questions about anything that may be confusing you! And be sure to have fun!

It is used to skip Tiny and N. Gin. It doesn’t let you skip to the end of the game because the game unlocks bosses based on the number of Crystals you have, not which specific levels you’ve beaten. So you still need all 25 to beat Cortex.

PC version has a load remover that detects internally when the game is loading. Console (obviously) can't have anything like this to the same degree of accuracy, and attempts to have a video based load remover didn't really go anywhere, so it's timed with the In-Game Timer, which is generally considered inferior.

Because they use different timing methods, the two versions are not really comparable at all, so they can't share a leaderboard. I believe the boards are completely separate as opposed to being split into subcategories due to site limitations.

Ah okay, that makes sense. I remember there being a rule that you couldn’t change the settings between Cups but I see that rule has been removed. 👍

Is there a reason All Cups lacks the difficulty filter now?

This came up a while ago when Trob ran on keyboard and mouse. As far as we know, there isn't a way to speed up the animation without a controller, so unfortunately playing on K&M will put you at a disadvantage.

Make sure to change your timing method to Game Time if you haven’t.

Like Cameron said, if you record the run and then play it back with the load remover running and record it again, you should be good to go. Shouldn’t put too much strain on any computer to do that.