I've watched yogi's 12:40 run. It's a very good time and it will not be easy to produce a faster run. However, I decided to look at the run in some detail and comment on where I see there is still room for improvement. I'm mostly focusing on the room solutions and not so much on the execution mistakes. While some of the comments are already well known, it might still be of use if someone shows up here in the future, once the dust has settled.

I found a faster way to clear this room: By dropping the goblin on the right side, the lag is not slowing down the sparkballs as much and you don't have to wait for the one on the left side. I think you can potentially save close to half a second in this room. The downside is that the jump past the sparkballs on the right side is tighter than in the 12:40 run.

One of the Saramandors dropped an "upgrade jar". It's a random drop for which I don't know of any manipulation in this room. This drop can be manipulated in some other rooms though, so it's possible that something could be found here as well. Either way, I'm guessing it's still a 50% chance or so even without any manipulation. If the jar drops, it's tricky to collect it with the solution yogi used, but there are other solutions to make it easier. See https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Solomon%27s_Key_(NES)/normal_ending#Room_22 The fireball that transforms into a super fireball can be used to save time in room 37, but at the same time requires room 31 to be cleared without using any fireballs.

This solution looks slightly slower than optimal. The additional block created before jumping to the key comes at a fix cost of 17-18 frames (block creation seems to vary a bit). That's quite a bit more than what's needed to avoid jumping into the gargoyle. You can also make a quick pause of a few frames, but less than what it costs to create a block, before jumping to the key and it should still be safe.

If the upgrade jar was collected in room 22, you could take out all the demon heads and get a more direct route to the exit. Time save a little under a second.

There is a safety block on the left side of the start row that can be left out. Obviously risky though as it requires two additional corridor jumps.

With pixel-perfect positioning (so frame perfect), you can drop the last blue flame without getting hit by the demon head. This saves a little under a second.

Another possibility is to use a fireball on the last demon head (assuming you didn't use one in room 31 or 37), which should be possible to convert into a half second time gain or so.

You should be able to save ~5 frames by destroying the lower block to begin with instead of the block in front of you.

I'm a little in doubt whether the fourth block at the start is better to destroy before dropping down or while dropping down. The former requires ducking, while the latter will block Dana for a few frames while dropping down. I'm uncertain because it depends on how well you execute ducking and how early you're able to destroy the block during the drop. By comparing mine and yogi's runs, it seems like yogi gained a few frames from destroying the block before dropping down.

Destroying the block on the other side of the shaft with the key requires running the length of two more blocks (and ducking). That corresponds to 40 frames (plus likely a few frames from ducking). The purpose of this is to transform the key drop into a 3-frame (iso 2-frame) window when exiting the shaft.

However, I found a way so exiting the shaft with the key becomes a 3-frame trick even without destroying this block. Consider the following RAM-addresses: 589 - x 588 - x-sub 586 - y Normally, Dana is restricted in the x-position between 84 and 92 during the drop and with no x-sub. However, if you press against the wall and hold right as Dana grabs the key, you'll get another frame of movement (=192 sub-pixels) and slightly clip into the right wall. If you now release right, you'll keep the new x-position (so x=92 and x-sub=192/-64). Breaking the block on the right can now be done when y=101, 103 or 105. If you make any movement after collecting the key or if you didn't get the correct x-position when grabbing the key in the first place, only y=101 or 103 will allow you to break the block and exit the shaft.

When creating the block under the demon mirror, you can arrange the blocks differently to make it slightly more efficient. It's described here: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Solomon%27s_Key_(NES)/normal_ending#Room_48

You should be able to save a tenth of a second or so at around 8700.

• First create the block to the right
• Turn around to destroy the block to the left
• Jump and turn right up to the edge of the block on the right This sequence allows you to use the jump time for turning around, instead of turning around on the ground (which will always be associated with a small time loss).

Using the block magic costs more time than an additional jump. So creating a block before jumping to the demon mirror is a time loss.

There is also the TAS-strat, which manages to use the block magic on the demon mirror and then get into the room with the book without having to make an extra jump. Pretty difficult for only a small time gain though.

I've noticed that both yogi and metroidmcfly often have a slightly different method when creating a staircase and climbing it than myself. I have the habit of creating the block before landing on the block above and then jumping again, while yogi and mcfly often start the next jump before creating the block. It turns out that it's one frame faster to wait with the block creation until after you've initiated the next jump.