In the past several months, there have been many threads started that have been asking us to add many of what we call "challenge categories". Most of challenge categories consist of "Low BP" or "Pit of 100 Trials Before Hooktail" and whatnot. We were very reluctant to allow a Google Document that has a leaderboard of sorts to be linked in a thread here so people could submit their times for these various "categories". However, after this challenge leaderboard was created, there were very few runs ever submitted in the months that it was linked here. We (the moderators) have decided that enough is enough. We have a post dedicated to discussing the issues of these categories on the top of this forum if you want to read into more of why we are reluctant to allow these category discussions. From June 1st, 2016 onward, we will delete any threads that pertain to any "challenge categories" on the spot.

We have a link for a Discord server available for those wanting to discuss these categories and what-not at the bottom of this post. We advise joining this Discord server and keep conversations there, but we will not allow for discussions about this subject going forward on this site. This is not a Discord server that was created by the SRC moderators, rather those that are in control of the challenge leaderboard.

The main purpose of these forums is to promote discussion and to ask questions regarding tricks, routing, glitches, and any other various questions regarding the main categories of the game that we have on this site.

Challenge Category Discord Server: https://discord.gg/0yohFnSHDvFsBE7E

So after some discussions on the Sonic Discord group, I want to propose a timing change for Sonic Rush. I have compiled a Pastebin here suggesting said changes: http://pastebin.com/fYVDwG3K

I will update the Pastebin with stats as to how much time is saved by skipping these cutscenes as soon as I can get an estimate on the run.

Thank you.

Hello everyone. So we have had a plethora of questions coming in asking if we can add challenge categories such as "All Troubles" or "Complete the Pit of 100 Trials" etc. The short answer is no. Reason being is because adding such categories is very unnecessary to a speedrun that is already long enough. Games that have challenge categories are usually games that have massive skips, or the game is just simply too short, for example: Zelda: A Link to the Past has several different categories, even one where you defeat bosses in reverse order. The key difference between ALTTP and a game such as TTYD is length. A Link to the Past can be completed in just under 2 minutes. Situations like these lead to the community having a lot of competition with similar times just on this single category and needs to expand into other categories in order to allow for more fair and more spread out competition. TTYD does not have this problem... at all, and probably won't ever. Just recently we have also split the English and Japanese runs for similar convenience reasons. A lot of people were asking if we could split the categories since people were very weary about learning the Japanese route and wanted more fair competition against English times.

Please refrain from asking to add new categories in this forum from this point forward. If you do so, your post might be deleted within a week of it being posted.

We hope this will clear up some questions that you all might have.

Thank you

We have seen many ask many questions regarding whether or not there is a "Glitchless" category for TTYD. The answer is a big fat no. There are many reasons why, but the main reason is the fact that most "glitches" are technically not glitches by definition. For quick reference by definition of a glitch - "an action that goes against the programming of the game to put it in an altered state or incorrect state. This counts for out of bounds as well". Here are a list of glitches/tricks that land in this gray area:

• Flip Skip: This is an example of doing a set of jumps that the programmers did not expect for the player to make.

• Puni Glitch: This one is debatable whether or not it is really a glitch, but overall it doesn't save TOO much time compared to the real glitches in this game.

• Bookcase Jump: This is an example of just doing a jump the programmers did not expect to be possible. The after affect of the jump by going into the vent is a glitch however by activating a trigger that is skipped to.

• Yoshi-Save Block Hover: All save blocks are programmed to have a solid surface. Yet again, another jump (hover in this case) that the programmers did not expect the player to make.

• Wooden Wheel Skip: The wheel is programmed to be solid enough for you to walk on it with Paper Mode, the programmers simply missed this mark on this one.

These "skips and tricks" can save some time in the course of the run. The main glitches of the run, Ultra Hammer Early (or Fish Glitch depending on which version you run on) and Goombella buffer, do save the most time over the previous skips listed. So why the fuss? The main reason is the route. Ultra Hammer Early and Fish Glitch do very little to the route if you were to do "Glitchless" by only saving approximately 25-30 minutes depending on which version you run on. An optimal time for "Glitchless" would be around 6:45:xx. This saves only about an hour and a half over Any%. There is no point to start a leaderboard and create a whole new category because of this reason. The average player who would do Any% would get a 6:30:00 on his or her first run of the game, which again, is only about 15-30 minutes faster than a somewhat decent first Glitchless run. So please everyone, do not do Glitchless runs, they are completely pointless. We obviously won't stop you from doing Glitchless runs, but if you submit a run to the leaderboard with the tag that says it is Glitchless, we will file the run under Any%.