Hey everyone,

We're considering a number of leaderboard rule changes and would like your input on them to help us decide how to proceed. If you could fill out the survey linked below, that would be much appreciated!

Here's the short version of what we're considering (these are explained in much more detail within the survey):

• Allowing a couple of (non-game altering) quality-of-life mods (namely, increasing the window size and allowing the game to run when unfocused)
• A mod to automatically advance text by simply holding the button so that you don't need to mash (with a delay to make it similar to human text mashing speed)
• Allowing Wine for runners that use Linux or Mac (although, Wine may be slightly faster than Windows; it's complicated)

For further discussion, we have threads about these topics in the Discord server (https://discord.gg/ksNyRY9), or you can also talk in here (or write your thoughts in the survey) if you don't want to join that for whatever reason.

Link to survey: https://forms.gle/8S14vc99bePCYBkX6

Hi all,

Recently Nicalis updated the Switch version of the game to v1.3. This patch fixes an issue with the challenge modes crashing when trying to open them, and for NA/EU regions it also brings over the changes from the Japanese version of the game. The biggest impact this patch has on the speedrun is the patching of the cutscene skip pause glitch, which is the glitch that enables the credits warp to be possible although it also had other uses which saved a couple of seconds in other categories.

Seeing as there is no proper way for people to downgrade to v1.2 (the only game version that has the cutscene skip pause glitch), we are making some changes to the leaderboards:

• The cutscene skip pause glitch is now banned for all future submissions from runners still playing on v1.2, to ensure fairness with runners who updated to v1.3 and newer runners who just bought the game. (This does not affect you at all if you have the most recent game version.) Existing leaderboard runs that use this glitch will not be removed, with the exception of:
• The credits warp category, which has been deleted since it's no longer feasible to obtain the exact version of the game that you need to run that category. The two runs that were on that leaderboard have been archived in the forum thread about the credits warp: https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/fy4lt . If you're still on v1.2 and you wanted to do some credits warp runs, feel free to share your PBs in that thread! Just know that from here on out, we will no longer be officially tracking this category.
• A co-op option for shared health bars was added to the NA/EU versions of the game in the v1.3 patch. (It was already available in the Japanese version.) Accordingly, we have added a "Shared Health Bar" variable to the Co-op categories, so you can choose to do runs with or without that option enabled. Furthermore, runs with different settings for that option will not obsolete each other, so if you and a friend do two Co-op runs, one with shared health bars enabled and one without, you can submit both runs and have them both shown on the leaderboard.

That's all for now. Have fun caving :)

Hi all,

I wrote an autosplitter for this game recently, and thought I'd share it with everyone. It also happens to work with SMB2J, at least mostly. (It does not currently remove load times; see the README for more information.)

This autosplitter can now be enabled from within LiveSplit. Go to Edit Splits and make sure the game name is spelled correctly ("Super Mario Bros."), and then click "Activate".

You can also download the autosplitter manually from here: https://github.com/periwinkle9/smb-autosplitter

I highly recommend reading the README on that page to get an idea of what the autosplitter can and cannot currently do. The README also contains instructions on how to install/use it, in case you've never used an ASL autosplitter before.

If you decide to use it, I would consider starting from a fresh, empty set of splits. If you choose to continue using your existing splits, you may notice the autosplitter splitting earlier than you do, due to a computer's reaction time generally being much faster than a human's. (For example, a typical "perfect" 1-1 split without FPG is around 29.57s using this autosplitter, compared to ~29.75s for a human.)

Let me know if you run into any bugs/problems.

FAQ

Q: Can I use a title screen delay with this? A: Yes, but you will have to start the timer manually in that case. Note, this doesn't apply if you use a starting timer value of 0.0 and use some other method of counting title screen framerules (e.g. by watching the flashing coin counter).

Q: Will this work if I'm playing on console/BizHawk/(insert any emulator other than FCEUX, Nestopia, or MesenRTA)? A: This autosplitter is memory-based rather than image-based, which means that LiveSplit has to be able to hook into the game's memory, and I also have to know how to tell LiveSplit where to look for those memory values. As such, this autosplitter will not be usable by console players (sorry :( ), or with any emulator other than the ones that are specifically supported (see the README in the GitHub repo for the exact list).

Other versions of the supported emulators may not (and probably will not) work. If you happen to know the base address of the game's RAM for any emulator that's not currently supported, let me know and I can get that added for you right away! (I'm particularly interested if anybody can get this to work for BizHawk.)

Q: If I don't use LiveSplit (or I'm on Mac/Linux), can I use this autosplitter? A: See the above question. In short, no.

Q: Why is this not splitting perfectly consistently? I'm seeing a small variance in split timings. A: This one is on LiveSplit, not me. In general, LiveSplit tends to split within ~3 frames of the actual intended split timings, so you may occasionally see fake golds appear in your splits if it split late for the previous segment but then split on time for the next.

Note that this means that even with the autosplitter enabled, you shouldn't trust LiveSplit's sum of best calculation, since all of your gold segments will probably eventually end up being a few frames shorter than what they're supposed to be, which in turn will make the sum of best show lower than it actually is.

Hi all,

I figured I'd drop this here since this might be the Endgame of glitchless TASes (barring another potential frame in room 2 of 8-4, which I've spent a lot of time looking for but couldn't find).

Note that this TAS follows the same rules as the RTA category, and thus does not use L+R (which would save an additional framerule in 1-2 and 8-3, plus some frames in 8-4).

In case anybody is wondering: Compared to the current glitchless WR (5:03.367 by GTAce99 at the time of this writing), this TAS saves one framerule in 4-2 and 31 frames (O_o) in 8-4 (and that's it).

This is the epic finale and Part III of the cutscene pause glitch saga. Required reading before delving into all of this:

• Part I (Normal Ending credits warp): https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/fy4lt
• Part II (Best Ending credits warp): https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/jawlo

I wrote a computer program to search through all of the TSC overflow possibilities, and report back the ones that could potentially be useful. Below I have compiled all of the "interesting" results that my program found. Note that most of these will require a second save file, and so will not be useful for speedruns. Also note that although I've made an effort to find every single possibility, there's always the chance that I missed something or that I omitted something that I thought was "uninteresting" but actually isn't.

Also, I haven't personally tested every single one of these, so I'm just trusting my computer program (and that I didn't make any typos) here. If anybody can test a few (or all :P) of these and let me know if anything doesn't work, that'd be much appreciated! :D (Note that some of these setups may involve mashing through invisible dialog before the actual thing of interest happens, so if something isn't working for you, try doing that first.)

I'll be using "A --> B" to denote "perform a TSC overflow from map A into map B's script". In other words: 0. Perform Core Escape in order to activate the drowning glitch. (See https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/fy4lt )

1. Save in map A. (If map A has no save point, see the remarks below.)
2. Enter map B on any save file (does not need to be a glitched file).
3. Quit and reload back into map A, and then drown in that map to trigger the TSC overflow.

Some "map A" rooms don't have a save point. For these rooms, you should instead do the following:

• First Cave: Save in Start Point instead.
• Mimiga Village: Save in the Save Point room in the center of the village, or in Start Point. Saving in Arthur's House will not work.
• Jail No. 1: Set the graphics to "Classic". For whatever reason, with the original graphics setting, the block that's supposed to block the escape tunnel in and out of Jail No. 1 doesn't have any collision, allowing you to reach the save point without having to get arrested.
• Reservoir: Save in Start Point. You also need a second save file (in either story mode) in Dark Place, with the entrance to the Waterway open. After quitting out of map B, load into this Dark Place save file, enter the Waterway, then quit out of Waterway and load into your glitched Start Point save, and drown to warp to Main Artery. Defeat Ironhead and you'll end up in the Reservoir. Drown again to trigger the overflow into map B.

Unless otherwise specified, you should load these maps in the main story mode. So for instance, "Mimiga Village" refers to that map in the main story (Curly Story may not work), whereas "Mimiga Village (Curly)" tells you that you should load that map in Curly Story (the main story may not work). "Mimiga Village (either)" means that either one works.

Alright, with that out of the way, let's get into it:

Labyrinth Escape: Dark Place --> Mimiga Village warps you to First Cave

Labyrinth Access after doing Labyrinth Escape: Mimiga Village --> Arthur's House enables the teleporter to Labyrinth B (and also gives you a Booster v2.0, as a bonus) (Enter Mimiga Village from Arthur's House and then drown to trigger this TSC overflow. No need to quit and reload)

Plantation access: First Cave --> Egg Corridor? (either) warps you to Egg No. 00 (Climb Outer Wall to get to Plantation)

Alternatively: Labyrinth I --> Sanctuary Time Attack Passage? to warp to Corridor, then exit to Passage? (post-Heavy Press). Enter and exit Statue Chamber to arrive in Passage? (pre-Heavy Press), after which the leftmost door takes you out into Plantation.

To unglitch and continue the game normally: Start Point --> Dark Place warps you to Core (You drown again immediately after warping, triggering the "Losing consciousness" cutscene. Interestingly enough, you can still pick up the Tow Rope afterwards if you didn't get it before the fight.)

Best Ending warp:

• First Cave --> Fall (Curly) (Only if you don't have Mr. Little in your inventory. See https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/jawlo .)

Normal Ending warps:

• Dark Place --> Egg Corridor? (either)

• Reservoir --> Egg Corridor? (either)

• Camp (Labyrinth save point where the physician is) --> Sand Zone

• Drowning in Bushlands

• Drowning in Labyrinth W

• Drowning in Plantation (The above setups all warp to various spots in the normal ending "breakdown" sequence.)

• Dark Place --> Fall (either) (triggers final best ending cutscene, but rolls the normal ending credits)

• Start Point --> Fall (either) (only if you don't have a Mimiga Mask. Kazuma catches you, but no message box appears to hear him (unless you used Fall (Curly)). If you have a Mimiga Mask, it triggers the opening cutscene instead.)

• First Cave --> Fall (direct warp to credits)

• Jail No. 1 --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers Mahin's dialogue instead.)

• Labyrinth I --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers the door to Labyrinth H instead.)

• Reservoir --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers Kanpachi's dialogue instead.)

• Dark Place --> Mimiga Village warps to First Cave
• Dark Place --> Bushlands warps to Bushlands Hut
• Labyrinth I --> Passage? (post-Heavy Press) warps to Corridor (before Ballos)
• Start Point --> Dark Place (either) warps to Core (triggers drowning cutscene immediately after that)
• Start Point --> Waterway (either) warps to Main Artery (Ironhead fight)
• Start Point --> Egg No. 00 (either) (post-Labyrinth) warps to Outer Wall
• Start Point --> Outer Wall (either) returns Mr. Little home (even if you don't have him in your inventory), and warps you to Little House
• Start Point --> Teleporter (either) (Plantation teleporter room) triggers the jail cutscene (say yes and you get arrested and sent to Jail No. 1. Only if you haven't already been thrown in jail, otherwise it triggers the opening cutscene instead.)
• Start Point --> Jail No. 2 (either) triggers the teleporter in Jail No. 2 (warps to Shelter. Invisible yes/no prompt)
• Start Point --> Balcony (post-fight) (either) warps to Last Cave (Hidden)
• Start Point --> Last Cave (Hidden) (either) warps to Balcony (pre-fight) (Last Cave skip, I guess?)
• First Cave --> Egg Corridor? (either) warps to Egg No. 00
• First Cave --> Labyrinth M warps you to Labyrinth Shop (shortcut if you're going to Labyrinth I)
• First Cave --> Throne Room (Misery fight arena) warps to The King's Table (Doctor fight arena) (Skips the Misery fight)
• Reservoir --> Passage? (post-Heavy Press) warps to Blood Stained Sanctuary - B3, below Heavy Press (the boss doesn't spawn, and neither do most of the enemies in Hell. Fall down the hole below Heavy Press and you'll get sent to Passage? before Heavy Press has broken the floor)

The following setups partially involve Curly Story:

• Dark Place --> Mimiga Village (Curly) warps to Assembly Hall
• Labyrinth I --> Bushlands (Curly) triggers the "We're weapons of death?" cutscene (you end up in Arthur's House)
• First Cave --> Throne Room (Curly) warps to Balcony (post-fight cutscene) (Skips the entire final boss rush)

These setups involve entering a particular time attack challenge:

• Labyrinth I --> Sanctuary Time Attack Passage? warps to Corridor (before Ballos)

• Camp --> Boss Attack overworld warps to Egg Corridor (near the end around where Igor would be)

• Jail No. 1 --> Boss Attack Balfrog arena warps to Sand Zone Residence, but then triggers a TSC overflow in that map, warping you to Throne Room (directly on the Misery fight trigger)

• Labyrinth B --> Boss Attack Curly arena warps to Sand Zone Residence

• Start Point --> Boss Attack Doctor arena warps to Black Space (Undead Core arena, directly above the entrance pit. Mash the Booster v2.0 or the Machine Gun to avoid falling down to the Doctor fight arena.)

• Dark Place --> Egg Corridor (+3)
• Labyrinth B --> Sand Zone (+5)
• Labyrinth H --> Labyrinth I (+5) (exit Labyrinth I into Labyrinth H and then drown to trigger this TSC overflow. No saving required)
• Start Point --> Labyrinth I (either) (+5)
• First Cave --> Hermit Gunsmith (either) (+3) (Only if you have a Polar Star)
• First Cave --> Egg No.00 (either) (the one in regular Egg Corridor) (+3) (Say no to the invisible yes/no prompt. Saying yes makes nothing happen. Sue's facepic appears and she appears to give you the Life Capsule! LUL)
• First Cave --> Power Supply Room (either) (+3) (Triggers the Balrog fight cutscene. Saying either yes or no both gives you the Life Capsule, but with Balrog's facepic OMEGALUL . If you exited from Power Supply Room (Curly) and say yes, you'll get Curly's facepic instead.)
• First Cave --> Waterway Cabin (either) (+3) (Only if in your glitched save file, you've somehow managed to check the computer in the Waterway and learn about the notebook. Is this even possible?)
• First Cave --> Rest Area (either) (+3)
• First Cave --> Jail No. 1 (either) (+3)
• First Cave --> Hideout (either) (Momorin's hideout) (+3) (only if you have a Booster, otherwise nothing happens. Momorin's facepic appears)
• Jail No. 1 --> Egg Corridor (either) (+4)
• Reservoir --> Egg Corridor (+3)

The following setups partially involve Curly Story:

• Camp --> Sand Zone (Curly) (+5)
• Labyrinth I --> Waterway Cabin (Curly) (+5) (Only if you carried Curly out of the Core room in your glitched save)
• First Cave --> Boulder Chamber (Curly) (+3)

These setups involve entering a particular time attack challenge:

• Labyrinth I --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area (+26 :O) (Fastest way to gain HP)

• First Cave --> Boss Attack overworld (+3)

• First Cave --> Boss Attack Balrog (Power Supply Room) arena (+3) (Say either yes or no to the invisible prompt)

Infinite missile setup

• Start Point --> Egg Observation Room? (either) (+5 ammo)

Polar Star

• Start Point --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area (also triggers the opening cutscene, if you use this more than once)
• Jail No. 1 --> Boss Attack overworld (also permanently activates the 290 Counter)
• Reservoir --> Boss Attack overworld (also permanently activates the 290 Counter)

Spur

• Jail No. 1 --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area

The rest of these requires a Polar Star, to trade for the Spur:

• Dark Place --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)

• Labyrinth I --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)

• Jail No. 1 --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)

• Reservoir --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)

• Mimiga Village --> Boss Attack overworld (say yes to the invisible prompt)

Machine Gun

• Camp --> Sand Zone Residence (either) (requires a Polar Star to trade for the Machine Gun. Also warps you to Sand Zone Residence)
• First Cave --> Wind Fortress start (before the fade-in) (gives you a Machine Gun with infinite ammo and a Blade. Also warps you to Sand Zone, at the door to Curly's residence)

Nemesis

• Start Point -> Little House (either) (Requires a Blade to trade for the Nemesis. Doesn't require Mr. Little to be home. Say yes to the invisible prompt)

Blade

• First Cave --> Little House (either) (requires a Nemesis to trade for the Blade)

• Start Point --> Sand Pit - B3 (also takes away your Fireball, if you have one)

• Labyrinth B --> Boss Attack Toroko+ arena

• First Cave --> Wind Fortress start (before the fade-in) (also gives you a Machine Gun; see above)

Other

• Dark Place --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area removes your Polar Star (if you say yes to the invisible prompt)
• First Cave --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area gets Bubbline
• Labyrinth I --> Boss Attack Heavy Press arena gets a (regular) Missile Launcher with 100 ammo (but only if you've never picked up a Missile Launcher)

These are probably the most useful/interesting ones:

• Mimiga Village --> Arthur's House (either) gets Booster v2.0 (Enter Mimiga Village from Arthur's House and then drown to trigger this TSC overflow. No need to quit and reload)

• Start Point --> Cemetery gets Mr. Little (don't need to have talked to his wife beforehand)

• First Cave --> Jenka's House (either) (post-dogs) gets Life Pot

• Reservoir --> Jenka's House (either) (post-dogs) gets Life Pot

• Mimiga Village --> Plantation (Curly) gets Booster v0.8 (only if you haven't previously obtained the Booster v2.0)

• Dark Place --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (Say yes to the invisible prompt. Useful if you had to grab the Booster v0.8 in order to reach the save point in Dark Place after doing Core Escape. If this is the case for you and you still want to be able to obtain the Best Ending afterwards through normal means, you should, before fighting Ironhead, ditch the Booster v0.8 by warping to Plantation and starting Momorin's rocket fetch quest. If you have the Booster v0.8 upon defeating Ironhead, Curly will not show up in Plantation even if you've drained the water from her and carried her out of the Waterway.)

• Jail No. 1 --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (say yes to the invisible prompt. See above)

• Reservoir --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (say yes to the invisible prompt. See above)

• Jail No. 1 --> Boss Attack Ma Pignon arena gets Ma Pignon

• First Cave --> Last Cave (Hidden) (either) gets Medal of the Red Ogre (also despawns the Red Ogre in Last Cave (Hidden))

The rest of these are not very useful, but here mostly for documentation purposes:

• Dark Place --> Jail No. 1 (either) gets Sue's Letter

• Labyrinth B --> Power Supply Room gets Bomb

• Labyrinth I --> Bushlands gets Santa's Key

• Camp --> Bushlands gets Gum Key

• Start Point --> Gum (either) gets Gum Base (also triggers the boss fight cutscene, though no boss appears. If you later enter the Gum room afterwards, you'll be trapped inside)

• Start Point --> Clinic Ruins (either) gets Cure-All

• First Cave --> Camp (either) gets Clinic Key

• Jail No. 1 --> The King's Table (either) gets Sue's Letter (but only if you've started the Doctor fight in your glitched save and then somehow managed to escape back to Jail No. 1 to save?? Probably not actually possible)

• Reservoir --> Hideout (either) (Momorin's shelter) gets Silver Locket

• First Cave --> Cemetery (Curly) gets Arthur's Key

• Camp --> Power Supply Room (Curly) gets Bomb

• First Cave --> Boss Attack Red Ogre arena gets Medal of the Red Ogre

Labyrinth Escape: Dark Place (Curly) --> Mimiga Village (Curly) warps you to Assembly Hall

Labyrinth Access after doing Labyrinth Escape: Start Point (Curly) --> Waterway (either) warps you to Main Artery, then defeat Ironhead. Upon returning to Arthur's House, Professor Booster will show up and give you a Booster v2.0, also enabling the Labyrinth teleport slot (assuming you didn't pick up the Booster v0.8).

Plantation access: First Cave (Curly) --> Egg Corridor? (either) warps you to Egg No. 00 (Climb Outer Wall to get to Plantation)

To unglitch and continue the game normally: Start Point (Curly) --> Dark Place (either) warps you to Core (You drown again immediately after warping, triggering the "Losing consciousness" cutscene. Interestingly enough, you can still pick up the Tow Rope at this point if you didn't get it before the fight.)

Best Ending warp:

• First Cave (Curly) --> Fall (Curly) (Only if you don't have Mr. Little in your inventory. See https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/jawlo .)

Normal Ending warps:

• Drowning in Bushlands

• Drowning in Labyrinth W

• Drowning in Plantation

• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Sand Zone (main)

• Camp (Curly) --> Sand Zone (main) (These five setups all warp to various spots in the normal ending "breakdown" sequence.)

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Fall (either) (triggers final best ending cutscene, but rolls the normal ending credits)

• Start Point (Curly) --> Fall (either) (only if you don't have a Mimiga Mask. Kazuma catches you, but no message box appears to hear him. If you have a Mimiga Mask, it triggers the opening cutscene instead.)

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers Mahin's dialogue instead.)

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers the door to Labyrinth H instead.)

• Reservoir (Curly) --> Fall (either) (same as above, but if you have Mr. Little, it triggers Kanpachi's dialogue instead.)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Fall (main)

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Mimiga Village (Curly) warps to Assembly Hall
• Dark Place (Curly) --> Bushlands (Curly) warps to Bushlands Hut
• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Passage? (either) (post-Heavy Press) warps to Seal Chamber (drops you above spikes. How rude >:( )
• Start Point (Curly) --> Dark Place (either) warps to Core (triggers drowning cutscene immediately after that)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Waterway (either) warps to Main Artery (Ironhead fight)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Egg No. 00 (either) (post-Labyrinth) warps to Outer Wall
• Start Point (Curly) --> Outer Wall (either) returns Mr. Little home (even if you don't have him in your inventory), and warps you to Little House
• Start Point (Curly) --> Teleporter (either) (Plantation teleporter room) triggers the jail cutscene (say yes and you get arrested and sent to Jail No. 1. Only if you haven't already been thrown in jail, otherwise it triggers the opening cutscene instead.)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Jail No. 2 (either) triggers the teleporter in Jail No. 2 (warps to Shelter. Invisible yes/no prompt)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Balcony (post-fight) (either) warps to Last Cave (Hidden)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Last Cave (Hidden) (either) warps to Balcony (pre-fight)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Egg Corridor? (either) warps to Egg No. 00
• First Cave (Curly) --> Throne Room (Curly) warps to Balcony (post-fight cutscene)
• Reservoir (Curly) --> Passage? (post-Heavy Press) warps to Statue Chamber

These setups partially require the main story mode:

• First Cave (Curly) --> Labyrinth M (main) warps you to Labyrinth Shop (shortcut if you're going to Labyrinth I)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Throne Room (main) warps to The King's Table (Doctor fight arena)

These setups involve entering a particular time attack challenge:

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Sanctuary Time Attack Passage? warps to Seal Chamber (drops you above spikes. How rude >:( )

• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld warps to Egg Corridor (at the end, around where Igor would be)

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Boss Attack Balfrog arena warps to Sand Zone Residence, but then triggers a TSC overflow in that map, warping you to Throne Room (directly on the Misery fight trigger)

• Camp (Curly) --> Boss Attack Curly arena warps to Sand Zone Residence

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Boss Attack Omega arena warps to Warehouse (Sand Zone)

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Boss Attack Balrog (Boulder Chamber) arena warps to Start Point (then immediately triggers the door to First Cave)

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Boss Attack Ma Pignon arena warps you to Last Cave (Hidden) (directly on the Red Ogre fight trigger)

• Start Point (Curly) --> Boss Attack Doctor arena warps to Black Space (Undead Core arena, directly above the entrance pit. Mash the Booster v2.0 or the Machine Gun to avoid falling down to the Doctor fight arena.)

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Egg Corridor (Curly) (+4)
• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Sand Zone (Curly) (+5)
• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Waterway Cabin (either) (+5) (only if you carried Curly out of the Core room in your glitched save file)
• Start Point (Curly) --> Labyrinth I (either) (+5)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Hermit Gunsmith (either) (+3) (only if you have a Polar Star)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Egg No.00 (either) (pre-Labyrinth) (+3) (Say no to the invisible prompt. Nothing happens if you say yes. Sue's facepic appears LUL)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Power Supply Room (either) (+3) (Triggers the Balrog fight cutscene. Saying either yes or no both gives you the Life Capsule, but with Balrog's facepic OMEGALUL . If you exited from Power Supply Room (Curly) and say yes, you'll get Curly's facepic instead.)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Boulder Chamber (Curly) (+3)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Waterway Cabin (either) (+3) (Only if in your glitched save file, you've somehow managed to check the computer in the Waterway and learn about the notebook. Is this even possible?)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Rest Area (either) (+3)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Jail No. 1 (either) (+3)
• First Cave (Curly) --> Hideout (either) (Momorin's hideout) (+3) (only if you have a Booster, otherwise nothing happens. Momorin's facepic appears)
• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Egg Corridor (either) (+4)
• Reservoir (Curly) --> Egg Corridor (either) (+4)

These setups involve entering a particular time attack challenge:

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area (+26)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld (+3)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Boss Attack Balrog (Power Supply Room) arena (+3) (Say either yes or no to the invisible prompt)

Infinite missile setups

• Start Point (Curly) --> Egg Observation Room? (either) (+5 ammo)

• Mimiga Village (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld (+5 ammo)

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Boss Attack Heavy Press arena (adds 100 ammo to/gives you a regular Missile Launcher. Does not require you to not already have missiles, unlike the corresponding TSC overflow in the main story mode)

Polar Star

• Start Point (Curly) --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area (also triggers the opening cutscene, if you use this more than once)
• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld (also permanently activates the 290 Counter)
• Reservoir (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld (also permanently activates the 290 Counter)

Spur

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area

The rest of these requires a Polar Star, to trade for the Spur:

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)
• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)
• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)
• Reservoir (Curly) --> Hermit Gunsmith (either)

Machine Gun

• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Sand Zone Residence (either) (requires a Polar Star to trade for the Machine Gun. Also warps you to Sand Zone Residence)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Wind Fortress start (before the fade-in) (gives you a Machine Gun with infinite ammo and a Blade. Also warps you to Sand Zone, at the door to Curly's residence)

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Nemesis Challenge The Vents (3rd room) (if you already have a Machine Gun, it adds 100 max ammo to it)

Nemesis

• Start Point (Curly) -> Little House (either) (Requires a Blade to trade for the Nemesis. Doesn't require Mr. Little to be home. Say yes to the invisible prompt)

Blade

• First Cave (Curly) --> Little House (either) (requires a Nemesis to trade for the Blade)

• Start Point (Curly) --> Sand Pit - B3 (also takes away your Fireball, if you have one)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Wind Fortress start (before the fade-in) (also gives you a Machine Gun; see above)

Other

• First Cave (Curly) --> Sanctuary Time Attack starting area gets Bubbline
• Dark Place (Curly) --> Boss Attack overworld gives you a Polar Star and activates the 290 Counter, but there's no way to refresh your air so it retriggers infinitely with no way to break out of the loop

These are probably the most useful/interesting ones:

• Start Point (Curly) --> Cemetery gets Mr. Little (don't need to have talked to his wife beforehand)

• First Cave (Curly) --> Jenka's House (either) (post-dogs) gets Life Pot

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (Say yes to the invisible prompt. See my remarks about the corresponding TSC overflow in the main story.)

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (say yes to the invisible prompt. See my remarks about the corresponding TSC overflow in the main story.)

• Reservoir (Curly) --> Boss Attack Core arena gets Tow Rope (See my remarks about the corresponding TSC overflow in the main story.)

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> Boss Attack Ma Pignon arena gets Ma Pignon

• Reservoir (Curly) --> Boss Attack Ma Pignon arena gets Ma Pignon

• First Cave (Curly) --> Last Cave (Hidden) (either) gets Medal of the Red Ogre (also despawns the Red Ogre in Last Cave (Hidden))

The rest of these are not very useful, but here mostly for documentation purposes:

• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Power Supply Room (Curly) gets Bomb

• Labyrinth I (Curly) --> Bushlands (either) gets Santa's Key

• Start Point (Curly) --> Gum (either) gets Gum Base (also triggers the boss fight cutscene, though no boss appears. If you later enter the Gum room afterwards, you'll be trapped inside)

• Start Point (Curly) --> Clinic Ruins (either) gets Cure-All

• First Cave (Curly) --> Cemetery (Curly) gets Arthur's Key

• First Cave (Curly) --> Camp (either) gets Clinic Key

• Jail No. 1 (Curly) --> The King's Table (Curly) gets Sue's Letter (but only if you've started the Doctor fight in your glitched save and then somehow managed to escape back to Jail No. 1 to save?? Probably not actually possible)

• Reservoir (Curly) --> Hideout (either) (Momorin's shelter) gets Silver Locket

• Labyrinth B (Curly) --> Bushlands (main) gets Gum Key

• Camp (Curly) --> Power Supply Room (main) gets Bomb

• First Cave (Curly) --> Boss Attack Red Ogre arena gets Medal of the Red Ogre

• Start Point (either) --> Blood Stained Sanctuary - B3 puts Curly on your back (useful if you do the Lab I --> Passage? warp to Ballos, so that you can have Curly on your back when fighting Ballos. Restart the game before doing this one, because if you've seen the opening cutscene already, this will trigger an infinite fade-in softlock loop.)

• Start Point (either) --> Sanctuary Time Attack Blood Stained Sanctuary - B3 also puts Curly on your back (see above remarks)

• Dark Place --> Hideout triggers an unused event in Dark Place

• Start Point (either) --> First Cave (either) replays the cutscene that plays when you first exit First Cave, but King and Toroko won't be there to see you fall

• First Cave (either) --> Plantation (either) triggers an unused event in First Cave. Two breakable blocks spawn to block the entrance to Hermit Gunsmith

• First Cave (either) --> Fall (Curly) triggers the same unused event in First Cave (only if you have Mr. Little in your inventory. Otherwise, it warps you to the Best Ending :) )

• Start Point (either) --> Wind Fortress Drafty Cave gives you the Map System equip

• Dark Place (Curly) --> Hideout (Curly) triggers an unused event in Dark Place

This is Part II of the cutscene pause glitch saga, which started with https://www.speedrun.com/cave_story_plus/thread/fy4lt .

Since then, I managed to find a Best Ending warp. However, there is a catch: The key part of the setup requires running Curly Story's normal ending cutscene, and I am reasonably confident that there is no other direct warp to the credits that works entirely in the main story mode. (More on that in the future.)

This wrong warp relies on a glitch that I'll call "TSC overflow". This glitch technically exists in all versions of Cave Story, but can only be triggered by attempting to run a nonexistent event number, which requires either modding the game (to change the map data) or a glitch similar to Cave Story 3D's inventory glitch or CS+ Switch's Core Escape glitch. The tl;dr of how it works is this: If you attempt to run an event number that's higher than any event in the current map's TSC, then the game will read to the end of the script (without finding the requested event), but instead of throwing an error or silently failing or whatever, the game will then start executing TSC beginning at that ending point, reading off the end of the script. What ends up happening, then? Well, the game uses a buffer to store the TSC for the current map, and that buffer isn't cleared when you load a new area or quit to the title screen. So, the TSC that gets executed during a TSC overflow will typically be some remnant of a previously loaded map's script, which in the TSC buffer didn't get fully overwritten by the current map's script. Using the Core Escape glitch, we can carry flag 4000 out of the Core room, which causes drowning to trigger event #1100 (which is high enough to cause a TSC overflow in most maps) instead of killing the player. By manipulating which areas we've loaded previously and drowning in certain strategic locations, we can warp to the final Best Ending cutscene (and also do many other cool things; more on that at a later time).

If that explanation didn't quite make sense to you, I wrote a painstakingly detailed description of everything that's happening to make this credits warp (and the Normal Ending warp, if you haven't seen that already) possible: https://pastebin.com/uB4eF8nt

Now, the setup has three main parts:

1. Core Escape: Use the cutscene pause glitch the same way as before (pausing the game after triggering cutscene skip, to hold the Core shutter open), and leave the room after the fight before your air runs out. Then save in Dark Place (instead of escaping all the way out to the Labyrinth like you'd do for the Normal Ending warp). (You'll need some form of flight in order to be able to make it up to the save point. If you don't have the Machine Gun or are not confident in your ability to keep the Machine Gun at Level 3, you can grab the Booster v0.8 beforehand without affecting any part of this setup.)
2. Labyrinth Escape: Perform a TSC overflow from Dark Place into the Mimiga Village script. To do that: First enter Mimiga Village by any means. The easiest way would be to load up another save file that's close to the village (or start a new one). Note, if your Core Escape save file is in Curly Story, you must load Curly Story's Mimiga Village here. Otherwise, feel free to mix-and-match main story vs. Curly Story, if you'd like :) . Once you're in the main village area, quit to the title screen and load back into your Dark Place save (where you performed the glitch). Then drown. (Do NOT open the inventory at any point during this step, otherwise you'll overflow into the inventory script instead!) You should be taken to either First Cave (if you loaded Mimiga Village in the main story) or Assembly Hall (if you loaded Mimiga Village in Curly Story).
3. Credits warp: Perform another TSC overflow, from First Cave into the "Fall" map: Start by saving in Start Point. Then run Curly Story's normal ending (this must be Curly Story!) by any means (the easiest way would be to have another Curly Story save file in the Prefab House, before Hell). Quit to the title screen any time after the island falls and the screen turns to black, but before the credits roll. Reload into Start Point, then head out into First Cave and drown there. (Again, don't open the inventory at any time, or you'll mess up the setup.) If you did all of this correctly, there'll be a brief pause, followed by a fade-in and then the final Best Ending cutscene dialogue ("Close! Such a narrow escape."), which will roll the Best Ending credits afterwards.

Here's a video where I demonstrate the above steps in their simplest form, in case you didn't feel like reading all of that:

Naturally, this opens up a discussion about how we should treat this on the leaderboards. Given that the Normal Ending warp got its own category, I would expect this new Best Ending warp to receive the same treatment (although I'm not sure if the Curly Story requirement will be problematic). That means we should decide the rules and timing of that category. My inclination is that because most games' speedruns (that aren't New Game+ runs) are typically supposed to start from scratch, we probably shouldn't allow the use of pre-made save files (like I did in the above video) for official Best Ending warp speedruns. This setup can, in fact, be performed entirely from scratch in a way that isn't dumb, by making the following modifications:

1. Core Escape: Same as usual, except you must play in Curly Story.
2. Labyrinth Escape: The step of entering Mimiga Village can be done either by starting a new (blank) Curly Story save file and playing up until Mimiga Village, or on the same save file by going back to the Core to drown (triggering the intended drowning cutscene), then playing the game as usual without saving (going through Waterway, etc.) until arriving back in Mimiga Village.
3. Credits warp: After saving in Start Point, the normal ending can be triggered by drowning in Bushlands (this triggers the breakdown cutscene).

Obligatory video demonstrating the Best Ending warp on a single save file:

The question, then, is whether we should allow the use of a second (blank) save slot for the Labyrinth Escape setup (which is faster, but doesn't feel as nice and self-contained, if that makes sense), or if we should require everything to be played on a single save file (so that you have to go through Waterway to get to Mimiga Village). I'm personally kind of torn here, so I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions on the matter.

Hey folks,

So it's relatively well-known at this point that hitting the 1-UP block in 4-1 sometimes allows you to grab the bottom of the flagpole without losing a framerule. That's because 4-1 normally has 6 frames of leeway, but grabbing the bottom of the pole loses 7 frames†. Spawning the 1-UP can manipulate "judges" (by the same mechanic responsible for the 8-1 judges) and give you that extra frame needed to not lose a framerule.

† (You can lose 12 frames if you grab the pole low enough. Good judges won't save you in that case :p)

What might be less known (and apologies if it's already documented somewhere and I'm just being a doofus) is where you have to hit the 1-UP block in order to get "good judges". Side note: Obviously, you shouldn't have to care about this, because you should always be grabbing the top of the flagpole anyways (or not messing up the FPG :p), but I figured that a few of you might be curious about it (if only for academic reasons), so if you're one of those people, then this post is for you. :)

Anyways: As with the 8-1 star block, there is a 4-frame "powerup rule" that affects when the 1-UP can spawn, and how the powerup rules align with the frames that you're able to hit the 1-UP block depends on the length of the black screen at the start, which is constant if you're entering from 3-4 but can vary if you're entering from 1-2. In order to get "good judges", the 1-UP needs to despawn with a y-subpixel value ($041C) at least 61.

There are 7 possible frames that the 1-UP block can be hit. Let's number them 1-7. (Actually, there's a two-frame window to hit the block on the first frame. Four frames, if you jump super early and do a small jump to hit it. For our purposes, I'm going to count these as all the same frame, since the block does get hit on the same frame.)

Here's the y-subpixel value you get from hitting the block on each of these frames ("good judges" values are bolded):

| 29 | 111 | 110 |

|...2....| 171 |

| 137 | 220 |

|..40...|...1....| 110 |

So as you can see, if you hit the 1-UP block on the last possible frame, you're guaranteed good judges. Otherwise...it depends, but generally, it seems that hitting closer to the back of the block is better than hitting the front of the block.

(Note: This glitch appears to be already patched in the JP release of the game, though it should still work on at least the current US version.)

So apparently, when pausing the game (with the + button) while a cutscene is being skipped, the cutscene continues being fast-forwarded but with certain elements (like player/NPC animations and movement) being frozen. Shoutouts to @Setonkeys (and probably also @RepentMF, indirectly) for noticing this interaction (and bringing it to my attention).

While messing around with this glitch, I discovered a way to abuse it to warp to the normal ending. Basically, you can use this cutscene pause glitch to hold the big Core shutter open. There's an invisible wall or something that spawns there to prevent you from leaving during the fight, but it luckily disappears after the fight. By ending the fight close to the exit (and above the water), there's just enough time to leave the room before your air runs out. If you then backtrack to Labyrinth W and drown in any of the puddles there, you'll trigger the normal ending "breakdown" scene, which ends with Kazuma saving you and the credits rolling.

Here's a (potato quality) video where I demonstrate this setup:

And here's a technical explanation of why this works: The game stores its progression state in a bunch of numbered "flags", which can be either set or unset, and are usually manipulated by "events" which are coded in the *.tsc script file for each area and triggered by various in-game actions. Upon beating the Core, the post-fight cutscene event sets flag 4000. Flag 4000 is a special flag: Normally, when Quote runs out of air while underwater, the game runs event #0041 ("You have drowned. Want to retry?"), but if flag 4000 is set when this happens, the game instead runs event #1100. What event #1100 actually does depends on which map you're in (most maps don't even have an event #1100), so it's intended that the only place you can drown while flag 4000 is set is in the Core, whose event #1100 is the usual "Losing... consciousness..." cutscene. (That cutscene also happens to unset flag 4000, though you also get an air tank so you couldn't drown afterwards anyways...). But by using the cutscene pause glitch to escape the Core room after the fight, you can keep flag 4000 set permanently (or at least until you go back to the Core and drown there). This means that, from there on out, whenever you drown, the game will run the current's map's event #1100 instead of killing you. Anybody who's worked on routing Cave Story 3D glitched categories will know all too well where this is headed: Drowning in Labyrinth W runs that area's event #1100...which doesn't exist, but that's okay because the TSC parser lands on the next highest event instead, which is #1200. That event is part of the normal ending "breakdown" sequence, and so that's how you end up at the credits. (And if you're wondering how you're able to re-enter the Labyrinth to begin with...the flag that locks you out of the Labyrinth is set by the Core drowning cutscene, not by the post-fight cutscene.)

If you know anything about CS3D routing (and even if you don't), you may be starting to realize that this "core escape glitch" (so to speak) has enormous potential—it's like a baby version of CS3D's inventory glitch! Although it's more restrictive than what you can do in CS3D, there are still a lot of interesting things that are possible. In particular, the high event number of #1100 is useful for TSC "overflow" glitching (which CS3D routers will certainly have experience with). (For those unfamiliar with what any of this means, I have an in-depth CS3D inventory glitch explanation here: https://pastebin.com/gpsHt7aE )

For example, loading in Labyrinth I and then exiting to Labyrinth H and drowning triggers Labyrinth I's life capsule event, which you can run infinitely (even if you've already collected that life capsule!) to obtain as much health as you want:

If, instead of escaping to Labyrinth M, you instead save in Dark Place, you can exit the Labyrinth entirely with the help of a second save file, by entering Mimiga Village in that second save file, then exiting, reloading back into the first Dark Place save, and then drowning (this triggers the door to First Cave). Professor Booster won't appear in Arthur's House to give you the Booster v2.0 (his trigger only spawns upon beating Ironhead), but you can obtain the Booster v2.0 anyways (and enable the Labyrinth teleporter location, as a bonus) by entering Arthur's House, then exiting to Mimiga Village and drowning there:

Unfortunately, I haven't as of yet found a way to progress the game from there (the teleporter sends you to normal Egg Corridor, just for the record), or otherwise warp to the Best Ending credits or even find any kind of usable skip for the Best Ending route. There are several significant hurdles involved with achieving the best ending, so routing it (if it's even possible) will take a lot more effort. This is the closest I've gotten so far:

(it takes you to the normal ending credits afterwards BibleThump )

All of this brings up another important discussion point: Since a credits warp (at least for normal ending) now exists, we'll need to decide what happens with the current Normal Ending speedrun category. Currently, the rules say that timing ends "when the HUD disappears when jumping off the island after Undead Core", but obviously this new route doesn't do that. So that means either the timing rule for the existing Normal Ending category will need to be adjusted to accomodate the new credits warp, or the credits warp will need to become a separate category leaving the current Normal Ending category as a sort of "no wrong warp" (or "no major glitches"?) category. (I'm slightly partial to the latter option, but I'd like to hear other peoples' thoughts.) And if the core escape glitch ever leads to a major skip in the Best Ending route, we may need to have this discussion again for that category :) .

I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't think that this will be useful to anybody. That being said, I'm sharing this with everybody anyways in the off chance that I'm wrong. (Apologies if this setup is already common knowledge, somehow.)

The backstory: Several months ago, I went searching for an 8-1 FPG setup that runners could potentially use to recover from bad judges (and/or a bad/missed star block hit). I found this setup fairly quickly, but I wasn't particularly satisfied with the RTA viability of it, so I decided not to post it here and instead try to find a better setup. Fast-forward to now, and since then I never found the motivation to try to look for a better setup, so I decided I'd share this one after all.

Anyways, here's the setup: Do a 3-4 frame right-release anywhere in the air, then do "EC0" inputs on the stairs (i.e., land on the first pixel of the correct step, but walk for an extra frame before doing D70 inputs). A 3-frame right-release will give you D50 subpixels, while a 4-frame release will give you D70. You could, rather than doing a single 4-frame release, instead do two separate 2-frame releases if that's easier for you.

Obligatory video, even though there's really nothing interesting in it until about 40 seconds in: (The video is TASed, FYI. I have also been able to do this in RTA from a savestate, but the video of it would have looked basically the same as this anyways.)

D50 is also possible with the 4-frame release, by doing something similar to how you get D50 in 1-1, except once again you initially have to walk for an extra frame after landing on the step.

...You know what, I'll just post the entire table I made here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19J1TcNyKjKQ9tALzkhpyvDoj83wagoS5wzfZNiz-zrA/edit?usp=sharing (Disclaimer: Some values may be incorrect. I hope not, though)

Pros:

• Doesn't depend on judges
• Setup can be performed at any time up until the end of the level (you don't have to commit to it before you know whether you've canceled the judges)
• No left press required (except for the actual FPG itself)

Cons:

• NOT the TAS framerule (I hope I've made this clear by now)
• Harder than 8-3 FPG (do that instead of this if you need to make up a framerule)
• Harder than getting good at hitting the first pixel of the star block (always go for that before doing this)
• Less consistent than trying your luck with the judges, unless you're a robot like somewes (i.e., it's probably better to grab the top of the pole anyways even if the beetle indicates that you may have bad judges)
• No easy way to land on the first pixel of the step -- in particular, there's nowhere you can do a full jump from to land perfectly on that pixel
• Practicing EC0 inputs excessively may mess up your D70 muscle memory. Proceed with caution.

One last remark: I've also (very briefly) toyed around with releasing right on the ground instead of the air, in the hopes of finding a setup that lets you FPG by doing actual D70 inputs (instead of EC0 inputs). It turns out that it is indeed possible, by releasing right on the ground for 4 or 5 frames. The subpixels you get from right-releasing on the ground are wildly inconsistent, though (it depends on exactly where you do it), so I don't know if that's worth looking into any further.