I don't understand the timing rules. The rules say the timing ends when the final boss is hit with the seed - however, the seeds are not used in the final boss.

Also, the only run currently in Standard Any% stops the timer when the IGT final time screen is shown - not on last hit on the final boss.

You smash the final boss in the face as the last hit. Whether it's with the seed or your fist is questionable, who knows, but that is the last gameplay input outside of mashing text in the final cutscene.

The only current run stopped the timer later than this because these rules were just updated yesterday.

Ah, I see. I never really saw the last hit as a seed hit, but yeah, now that you mention, it could be possible - even intended - and I just read that wrong.

Okay, so there was a rule update. This is better, I feel this correlates more with your usual suspects for timer starts and stops. Also, as there is an in-game timer I hope the game page is setup to use that as the default comparison - I feel we should always strive to use an in-game timer in speedruns wherever it's possible.

Thanks for the answers!

Yes my first run was before we decided on end timing. I assume the final hit is a seed since all other characters killed by seeds sprout trees and the final boss sprouts trees all over the world. IGT is default time. We're still in the very early stages of figuring out everything for what we want the leaderboards/rules to be like. Things can very well be reworded and changed as things progress.

Yah, it very well could be a seed, but I read the end as simply a last punch, an "alright STOP that!", which promptly broke the whole thing, spewed all the stuff out back into the world, where it got renewed energy and life prevailed again. The trees growing from the seeds in ivory were white.

It's definitely seeds. Note that Robin has a "text" box that shows a picture of seeds right before that final smack.

There's one thing I'd like some clarification for. Does time end on the button press or the visual cue of Robin landing her fist?

As far as I know time is on final input, so, on the button press, not Robin landing her fist