Coming back to this game after a long break and I found some new strats for the beginning section. For context, the current fullgame world record beats the first Montezuma boss at around 7:50 and here I do it in just about 7 minutes flat.

Overall there were 2 changes to the route: the first one happens in the first 30 seconds where I make a seemingly unintended jump where I barely miss some flames and grab onto a rope. Going this way to grab the two keys down there saves about 10 seconds I think from the normal way of looping around. The cycle to get both keys without having to wait for the laser is really, really tight.

The second change is when going to get the 3 circle keys to unlock the torch, I grab the 3rd key first which seems a lot faster although I haven't actually timed it.

Gonna derust the second half of the game now and see if I find any other new things. Sub 20 Any% is gonna come real soon.