So I have been watching the various speedruns people have been doing and I feel like this game can be done in under 30 mins. I'll be trying a few things that may help speed up certain parts but just with my practice I have gotten under the current record for easy mode through 2 stages. I just need to practice some more and see if there is any way to skip through the box section during stage 5. Also why do you all use fire+follow? I find Laser+follow to be a better combination as you can start getting hits quicker on certain bosses. Anyway wish me luck on getting to sub 30 on Easy.
Thanks JimRaynor3. Yes I do stream and plan on doing streaming of my runs with this game. I don't skip the first train appearance but I do get to skip the second appearance all together in the Mine. However in the first boss of the jungle level you can beat it in 5 seconds as the laser/chaser starts dealing damage immediately after the text is gone. So far I have a personal best of 2:55.9 for that level as you lose 30 seconds every time you slide down the side of the pyramid.
SO I have been trying to see if there is a way to manipulate the Die for the board game room and I think I have figured out something about the die. The more times you throw it in the air the higher the chance of getting the number that it first lands on. I threw the die 3 times before getting my roll number 50 times and got the same number on the die 50% of the time. Then I threw the die into the air 8 times and found that my odds of getting the same number as when the die landed increased to 66%. I will need to run a few more trials. I want to get to 100 samples of 3 and 8 throws. But if things stay consistent then there may be a way to manipulate the die so it will give you the same number every time. I'll get back with my findings in a few days once I run it a few more times.
"So I have been watching the various speedruns people have been doing and I feel like this game can be done in under 30 mins. I'll be trying a few things that may help speed up certain parts but just with my practice I have gotten under the current record for easy mode through 2 stages."
Around the time I got that 31:02 run, DukeNukemFTW actually tweeted to me about the hopeful possibility of me pushing sub-30. So the idea of it being possible was always there, the main issue is the motivation for me to just get the grind on and do it as i know alot of potentiaI time can be shaved off throughout the 31:02.
Still have yet to have a low 4 minute segment of Dice Palace on all my attempts on easy (4:33.75 for a Dice Palace gold split is BAD) and between Pink, Orange and Green stages I can still be a combined almost 12 seconds faster based off my sum of best. Stage 5 in the record run is actually pretty bad as well (16 seconds left off the table there) and I miss the quick kill strat on the final Green fight as well. Lots of exploitable weaknesses there.
Once I've achieved a Mega Turrican run I'm happy with (sub-15 at least), I will attempt to challenge the 31:02 again and push for that coveted sub-30 finally.
"Also why do you all use fire+follow? I find Laser+follow to be a better combination as you can start getting hits quicker on certain bosses."
Flame/Chaser gives me the flexibility to handle bosses both close and afar without the worry of the weapon itself betraying me.
I'm open to the idea of a different weapon combo with better potential but I will have to chime in on my personal experiences here with Laser/Chaser and my biggest issue with it is Control. Flame/Chaser not only does crazy damage but you have full control of it allowing you to do pretty close to optimal damage even from far distances which comes in handy against fights that are difficult to handle in close range without losing time which became a problem for me to overcome with the Lightsaber.
The thing is that, much like other combinations of Chaser (aside from Flame), you have have the issue of your weapon targeting non-threatening enemies chasing behind you over enemies coming at you just because they don't appear on screen fast enough. This is lethal especially when dealing with enemies that can grab you. It's also frustrating when it wonders off to kill some unimportant enemies when a phantom that needs to be killed shows up.
Damage is also an issue especially with regards to the phantoms that you're required to kill to advance the level as their I-frames are triggered based on number of hits with the weapon as opposed to the amount of damage you do to them which screws over weapons that don't do the full weapon damage as JimSR mentions. Thankfully Phantom quick kills are a thing in the level where you have to save Yellow (Stage 5).
Finally, there's the throwing glitch which currently to my knowledge only works with Flame/Chaser. This however still needs to be tested further with other weapon combinations yet which is something I can work towards whenever I feel ready to make a return to this game.
Now that being said though, I want to make it clear, that if it works for you and you see the potential in Laser/Chaser to push sub-30, then go for it. It is always a good thing to challenge the status quo by trying something different. That's how new strats and routes are found.
"I use Fire/Laser (Lightsaber) rather than Laser/Chaser because Laser/Chaser doesn't do full damage (I think there are 3 weapon combinations that do full damage) but Fire/Chaser lets you skip a train (first train appearance) cycle on Green's level and Lightsaber doesn't, I don't know if you're able to do that with Laser/Chaser."
Assuming I actually know what part you're talking about here, you actually can achieve the same train cycle skip with Laser/Flame. You just have to switch out laser and kill the 3rd guy that wonders off screen with flame solely as the range is just far enough to do so. When I get back to doing full attempts on Easy again you'll see me take advantage of that to full effect. Laser/Chaser might be able pull this off as well assuming no enemies are on screen.
"SO I have been trying to see if there is a way to manipulate the Die for the board game room and I think I have figured out something about the die. The more times you throw it in the air the higher the chance of getting the number that it first lands on. I threw the die 3 times before getting my roll number 50 times and got the same number on the die 50% of the time. Then I threw the die into the air 8 times and found that my odds of getting the same number as when the die landed increased to 66%. I will need to run a few more trials. I want to get to 100 samples of 3 and 8 throws. But if things stay consistent then there may be a way to manipulate the die so it will give you the same number every time. I'll get back with my findings in a few days once I run it a few more times."
A way to manipulate the dice would be a god send especially for newer runners that might be intimidated by the horrid luck factor that is involved with Dice Palace.
Currently, the ideal Dice Palace is 7 rolls with 3 of them landing on the "Happy Item" spaces. My 33:39 normal mode run managed to achieve this despite some horrible execution errors in that level.
In that run, Dice Palace went like this:
Turn 1: Roll 2 to land on Happy Item Turn 2: Roll 2 to land on Rush N' Go Turn 3: Roll 3 to land on Destroy! Turn 4: Roll 3 to land on Happy Item Turn 5: Roll 3 to land on Curry and Rice Turn 6: Roll 3 to land on Happy Item Turn 7: Roll 2 to land on Boss
If the goal is to manipulate for consecutive rolls of "3" all the way to the Boss space the time to begin that manipulation is Turn 3 as doing it on Turn 2 potentially leads to landing on "The Way Back" space.
I still see top runners opting to save the frames and let fate decide the outcome of this level but the run hasn't gotten to that point of optimization just yet so I feel looking into this is very much worth it.
I know you posted this months ago but if you're still looking into it be sure to let us know if you find something big there. Best of luck to you.
I really, really hope that some sort of manipulation is found for Dice Palace. That would blow the door wide open for a more optimized run and lower times. Dice Palace seems to be the hinge for me to get my time lower. A buddy of mine and I have been experimenting on and off for the past month or so, trying to find ¤something¤ but there seems to be nothing concrete for us yet. Will definitely update if we find anything definitive ourselves.
Damn! Nice find!
Once I figure out how to do that I should see about the other difficulties and see if that trick works there too.
