Hey! As the 100% route for this game includes purchasables (per category rules), I thought it might be helpful to put up a thread talking about money routing in the game, as that seems to be the largest barrier towards optimization.
I've been doing some analysis of my runs to figure out which areas have the best gold yield and figure out which detours are 'worth it' vs not.
By my calculations it takes 24,300 gold to satisfy category requirements (all hearts, all mana, etc), and an additional 150 gold if one desires to use potions to push through the first 4 witch phases (3 simple potions + 1 advanced one).
I have a few spreadsheets I can clean up and share if so desired.
The money route is also my biggest problem for the 100% categories. It's really not the most enjoyable thing to run multiple times through a level just to collect money. Up until now I went for what felt like the right choices, but maybe we really should work out the most "optimal" route.
To start off with, we should lay out the basics. Assuming no glitches or cheats are found, my calculations suggest that 24,300 gold is necessary to beat the 100% route (barring any additional expenses for potions). This is from my spreadsheet, hopefully it parses well on the forum:
Name .............................. Gold ......... Requires Spin Attack .................... 300 ........................................ Melee (Green) .............. 600 ........... 2 Grind, Spin Stomp Attack ................ 900 ........... Melee (Green) Melee (Yellow) ............ 1200 ........... 6 Grind, Dive Roundhouse Slash .... 1500 ........... Melee (Yellow) Melee (Red) ................. 1800 ........... 12 Grind, Slash
Heart (6) ........................ 1000 Heart (7) ........................ 2000 Heart (8) ........................ 3000 Heart (9) ........................ 4000 Heart (10) ...................... 5000
Mana 1 ............................. 500 ........... 2 Ore Mana 2 ........................... 1000 ........... 4 Ore Mana 3 ........................... 1500 ........... 6 Ore
100% Run Req: ......... 24300
I've noticed in my runs that I'll have the money to purchase everything but the last two hearts after I've completed all courses (meaning I'm usually aiming to get to 9k gold in the money grind segment). I think this is similar for you, yeah?
Yeah that's pretty much what I get to as well. Usually after buying everything but the last two hearts I'm around 7000 to 7500 gold short. As soon as I got time for it (with all the great runs at the ESA Summer event that I'm currently attending, it's hard to squeeze time in) I wanted to time all non-autoscrollers for a quick run through and a money collecting one. And then check what the time and money differences are (roughly). Maybe that will shed some light as to which stage to best farm in.
I've been creating a spreadsheet with money data from the best runs so far (observing how much money the player has acquired by the end of each level), but 'fast vs money route' data on individual levels would be extremely valuable. I'd also be willing to contribute some runs to that.
I also went through the tedious process of counting out every coin in the bonus levels, so I may as well put that information here too, haha
For every bonus level but 4, I'm considering 'optimal' gains to be getting all coins except the ones on the floor (IE do the course and then hit the see-saw at the end). It might turn out to be worth it to grab the coins below the challenge area, but I'm skeptical that's the case
BONUS LEVELS YIELDS 1-Bonus ........... 810 optimal / 870 total (46 coins on course; 6 on floor; 3 big coins + 200 catapult) 2-Bonus ......... 1150 optimal / 1260 total (70 coins on course; 11 on floor; 5 big coins + 200 catapult) 3-Bonus ........... 930 optimal / 990 total (63 coins on course; 6 on floor; 2 big coins + 200 catapult) 4-Bonus ......... 1590 optimal / 1590 total (119 coins on course; stage is vertical; 4 big coins + 200 catapult)
Usually I miss a number of coins in 1-Bonus because leaf patterns are tricky to learn; whereas it is very easy to get 2-Bonus perfect because the zip line challenges are not terribly lossy.
My initial data unsurprisingly suggests that the levels with the highest coins per second in natural playthroughs are of course the bonus levels. I'll try to fill out my spreadsheets and let you know when I have something more concrete to share. Based on my initial findings, though, I think levels of particular interest for money-routing are 3-2 and 2-1, which both have high yields in playthroughs. My only concern is that 2-1 might be too long to be viable, but I've never actually attempted to do a money-only route through it.
So I just managed to squeeze some time in to time my routes "fast vs money grind". I played about equally badly in both, so the comparisons should work. I left out 2-2 and 4-1, because you pretty much always get the same amount of coins and I don't think they yield more money than other stages.
So by my calculations (as I expected before), 3-2 is the best stage for money grinding. What's interesting however is that the average amount of money per second is only marginally higher when grinding for it. so some areas that are out of the way (like the one at the 3rd checkpoint (I think) where you need to shoot a blue target to ascend to the top left for some enemies and 2 money chests).
My spreadsheet with all the data can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sZJqUBeFPRcjHk9o1zLtdHNRFAeyKdHzQitTlXY7FXA/edit?usp=sharing
I timed all stages from stage select until I hit the catapult (so the "money wheel" is not included, but that always takes the same time if you Stomp the catapult, so it doesn't really matter).
Okay I did some money grind tests, and I also got 3-2 as the best head and shoulders above the others (6.62/s in my case; the next highest, 2-1, was 4.85).
It's kind of how I suspected, but it's good to see it confirmed
The bonus levels have higher GPS, but unfortunately we can't repeat these, as category rules state time ends when we kill the witch.
