Advanced Guide - Combat and Flight

This guide should be treated as a supplement to the beginner's guide as its content adds information of how to deal with combat and flight.

[Combat positioning]

In terms of the combat parts it is the positioning that can be crucial for the run's time. Thus an explanation of how it should work in the runs thriving for PBs and WRs is needed. It is already present in A Change of Plans (a tutorial mission), but there it is down to the spawn point of the crows. After defeating the first crow, some time later another crow will appear. Its spawn point is in the certain position, so it can come handy to learn where the second crow is spawned as you may save up to a few seconds if you can memorise what position it is.

As the spawn points have been mentioned, it would be recommended to remember them for all the missions. The missions that rely on the enemies' spawn points or their primary locations (partly or as a whole) are: A Change of Plans, Ally in the Sand, Thieves in the Night, Pure Ones Pursuit, Resistance Evacuation, Fire Fight, Pure Retaliation, A Curious Convoy, Shard to the Rescue, Breaking the Signal and Clawing Towards the Forge.

In the combat itself flexibility is another factor of success or failure. How one can save time while fighting off the enemies may depend on their vicinity. While attacking one enemy, it is advised to make sure you are near another enemy so that Shard would not have to fly for too long just to make a strike on another enemy. It is not always possible, but if it is, then go for it. Also, make sure you would be close to some further objectives. Examples of it are: the ropes in Pure Ones Pursuit and Pure Retaliation, assembly place in Fire Fight along with the caged monks in Shard to the Rescue and the exits in Clawing Towards the Forge and Allomere's Fury.

Speaking of vicinity, the aim is what you need to pay attention to. If you are absolutely sure your next attack is going to defeat the enemy, you should try to aim at another enemy before your last attack. In order to change the target, a button for aiming has to be pressed twice. If you defeat one enemy and the targeted enemy is right close to you, you may have a chance to attack them without having to wait for the aim to turn red or even to appear on your screen.

[Burning Talons and combat]

Another thing to know about the combat is how the Burning Talons actually work. As it is known, Burning Talons can be obtained once the 10x combo is reached and lasts until Shard gets hit or until the combo ends. What is considered a hit is e.g. failing to counter/dodge the attack of an enemy, failing to dodge the flecks, getting stunned, hitting the wall twice while flying up to attack an enemy or getting countered by an enemy. But let's focus on the actual effect of the Burning Talons. Once they are obtained, each attack will not only deal more damage at a single strike, but it will also do constant damage due to the fire until it distinguishes itself. When the enemy's health is low and there are circumstances you could either focus on another enemy or to fly to the mission's objective place, you could leave the enemy so that their health gets nullified by the fire.

[Boss fights]

Last thing about the combat is the boss fights. There are 3 of them. To fully understand them, it is recommended to take a deeper look in each of them:

- The Chieftain Strikes - you can only strike the Chieftain by throwing hot coals at them. The damage seems to be constant, no matter what owl or what armour is chosen (for example, a Great Grey Owl with training claws or a Spotted Owl with Burning Spirit are capable of completing the level in under a minute IGT),

- The Queen's Game - you can only use the strike attack on the Hagsfiend Queen. She may break out of the 3-strike-attack chain, but it is likely the matter of IGT. However, if you are able to get the chain of attacks, the recommended chain is: strike, strike, strike and throw. The Hagsfiend Queen will dodge the throw attack, but it is recommended to perform that nevertheless as intentionally stopping the chain will cause the Hagsfiend Queen to dodge the next attack. Usually after 4 successful strikes, wave 1 of the fleck bats will be spawned. It is recommended to take out one of them and at the same time to call your wingman to take out the second one. If you have enough prowess to call another wingman, you could try to do so on the third fleck bat. It is crucial to get the Burning Talons as soon as possible as they will drain the Hagsfiend Queen's health way more. There are 2 moments when her health bar is manipulated: she will not receive any damage if the fleck bats are spawned and at some point she will regain some health (usually when reaching the red for the first time),

- Allomere's Fury (the chase and the combat part) - while chasing Allomere, there are 5 moments when Shard can grab the coals. To completely break off Allomere's armour, 6 hits with the coals are needed. Although it may be a marginal timesave, you could try to keep 2 coals after collecting them on the last (5th occasion). That is because of the fact you could throw these coals at Allomere in the direct combat area so that you would start the battle with 2x combo already. The crucial part is obtaining the Burning Talons. Once you get them, you will be able to set him on fire. If his health is low enough that the fire could burn the last bit of his health bar, instead of finishing him off, you should aim towards the exit. The reason for that will be explained in the next chapter of the guide.

[Flight, Shinies and prowess]

As the game does not only consist of combat, a few tips on flight need to be shared. Focus has to be put on the advanced aspects of flight and prowess management. As mentioned in the Beginner's Guide, the Top Speed is variable for each owl and dependant on the armour. But let's focus on Max Speed. It is known that Max Speed can be reached with a corkscrew. For that though a single bar of prowess has to be used. Speaking of prowess, it can be obtained in a few ways: nosediving, defeating an enemy (including the owlet grabs), collecting Shinies or flying through the rings/air currents. The amount of the gained prowess depends on how much of the Prowess Bonus the armour gives.

To begin with, let's start with the analysis of collecting Shinies and their effect on prowess. Shinies are not as much of a concern as a currency as their other aspect. That said, Shinies are not just a currency. Collecting them does add some prowess, so they should not be ignored completely. In some levels their location is not a coincidence as they are usually on a path of a mission. Examples of that are: Ally in the Sand, Desert Eagle, Thieves in the Night, Pure Ones Pursuit, Race to the Retreat, A Curious Convoy, No Owl Gets Left Behind, Defense Destruction and Clawing Towards the Forge.

Their more practical aspect though is the number of them you get after defeating the enemy. You will receive a variable number of Shinies, depending on what your combo was at the time of defeating the enemy. They will be collected automatically after some time. That affects the missions Shard to the Rescue and Allomere's Fury. In case of Shard to the Rescue, you may want to call 2 wingmen and use corkscrew (under the condition you have all 3 full prowess bars). Then a bit of a nosedive to use corkscrew and to call the 3rd wingman. In Allomere's Fury, if you managed to set Allomere on fire and he has low enough health so that the fire could finish him off, head out to the exit instead of striking him. You will hear his death and you will gain some prowess, so use it to get closer to the exit. After a while you should get Shinies and therefore prowess. You will have enough prowess to keep Max Speed.

[Flight - bonus tips]

Just like in case of Allomere's Fury, in Resistance Evacuation you could try to fly to the Resistance's old base if the first carrier is close enough to the new base. Do not do that too early though as the carrier will not move further if you are not close enough.

The spawn points mentioned in the combat part also refer to the spawn points of the bats you have to chase after to grab the owlets. They spawn in the specific places, so remembering them can be useful to save some time.

Make sure that you are close to the assembly points in the parts of the missions that requires you to be in a certain place.

[Bonus section - coals]

In the missions such as Desert Eagle (except for the time past clearing the 3rd sanctuary), Lighting The Way (in the transition to one wave of the torches), Defense Destruction and Allomere's Fury (the case mentioned before in the guide) it is good to keep the coals for later.

There are missions (or some of their parts) that require you to use the odd or even number of coals to meet the objectives. If the number is odd, you are technically allowed to miss once. If the number is even, you cannot miss any throw or else you will lose time.

[Closing]

The guide has been based on Beginner's Guide by xeirla, observations by the LOTG speedrunning community and on my experiences while speedrunning the game. Its purpose is to help the LOTG speedrunning community along with the new speedrunners who would like to take up the challenge and to go for a run in LOTG. Hopefully, thanks to the given tips the even better times can be achieved. Glauxspeed!

Beginner Guide - Tips and Tricks Reference

This guide is intended as a quick tips and tricks guide for those just getting into playing the game, be that casually, or speedrunnning!  

=== Intro ===  
A more in-depth guide for the speedrun is in the works. One exists, but is very outdated and more along the lines of my personal notes for the game from long ago. 
The advice in this guide is more generally applicable for improving your skills at the game, and covering some of the small nuances of the flight and combat mechanics. Hopefully it is helpful!  
  
=== Prowess ===
The Prowess meter is the most useful resource in the game. It allows Boosting and calling Wingmen to attack, which are conveniently the two most optimal resources for both flying and combat mechanics! Managing your Prowess use and keeping the meter full and ready to use is critical to the highest level of play. 

Only 2 Armors in the game give a Prowess Bonus, which adds a multiplier to the prowess gained from any source (diving, shinies, rings etc.) 
Valor Rose gives roughly a 1.20x multiplier
Burning Spirit gives roughly a 1.35x multiplier


=== Flight Mechanics ===  
  
There are 2 speeds you should be aware of when playing the game:  

Top Speed - The top speed of your owl, flying in a straight line.  
Max Speed - The speed cap of the game. also referred to as Boost Speed  
  
Your owl species choice and armor selection influences your Top Speed only, which is represented as the Speed stat.
For example, Spotted Owl with Diamond Dash has the fastest Speed stat in the game, meaning it has the highest normal flying Top Speed. (around 56 units)
Whereas the Barn Owl with no armor would have a much lower top speed, and thus fly slower.  
A higher speed stat also means you decelerate from Max Speed slower (or rather, the difference between the two speed limits is less, so its a less harsh falloff over time.) 

This is rather simple to understand, however under ideal flying conditions, Max Speed makes these stats almost irrelevant.  
Max speed is around 60 units, the highest achievable in the game. It can be obtained in 2 ways. The first method is by going into a full nosedive with your owl, at which point you will accelerate up to the speed cap. This is useful in a lot of situations, as even maintaining a slight downward angle, will keep a lot or all of this speed once attained. This is most visibly useful at the end of Pure Ones Pursuit, where you must fly to the Tyto owl's hideout. It is across a long stretch of water, but going into a dive first and flying low to the water is significantly faster than flying in a straight line to it.  
  
The second method is by using Boost. Boosts have a short windup period, but set your speed to the speed cap, giving Max Speed instantly in any direction. This is incredibly useful, however requires 1 bar of your Prowess meter to be consumed. As such, a combination of utilizing ways to regain prowess, such as a Dive, in conjunction with boosts is the fastest form of movement.   
  
However, Boosting while Diving is pointless, and actually slower than just maintaining a normal dive. This is because the windup animation from the boost will actually lower your speed for a few frames each time, and since it consumes prowess as well, this is very inefficient.  
  
A Boost can be used every 3 seconds. Conveinently, this is just before the falloff back to your Top Speed, so chaining boosts will maintain Max Speed over long distances. Even unoptimal boost chaining saves several seconds over flying normally.   
  
===
For more information and frame data observations on both Prowess gain and Flying speed, check out the Flight Frame Data document by Xeirla.
===


=== Advanced Combat ===
Combat is rather simple but there's a few things to keep in mind.  

The Lock-On, or targeting system, is not the most reliable. It takes a while to get a feel for what it will prioritize, and can be annoying to try and manage. Generally though, facing more directly at what you want to target will aim it there. In large flocks of enemies, tapping the button can quickly switch targets.   
  
Your Wingmen are actually pretty good at combat. Using Prowess to send them after various enemies at the start of an encounter can save a lot of time and make handling large waves of enemies easier. They will fight on their own if not called, but will generally not be as effective unless you direct them.   
  
When fighting enemies, most, if not all, can be infintiely combo'd. Stronger enemies will sometimes break out if you repeat the same attack too frequently (generally 4 times in a row, so an alternating combo of [Barge, Strike, Barge, Strike, etc.] is generally easiest to stunlock most enemies. Throws can be used to reset enemies, and prevent them from dodging or countering your 4th attack. Using Barge to knock enemies into walls also deals extra damage. 
For enemies in Armor, [Barge, Barge, Throw, Barge] will break 3 armor and make it impossible for the enemy to counter. Additionally, a throw into a wall or ground will also break 1 armor.  
For Hagsfiends, [Strike, Strike, Strike, Throw] can be looped indefinitely.  
For the Hagsfiend Queen, intentionally stopping your combo after 3 strikes before continuing can also theoretically loop them through the use of combo resets. This strategy is still not completely understood yet, but has been used effectively both in runs and ILs.  
For the final boss, [Barge, Strike] can be used to infinitely combo and stunlock them from full HP (after breaking their armor). They can still sometimes randomly break out of the combo however like other enemies, but what causes that is still not fully understood. Thankfully it is seemingly less common on the final boss, lol.

Enemies defeated by indirect sources (Wingmen, Burning Talons Fire, Hot Coals) do not cause the slow-motion effect when defeated. This saves time RTA, and so it is generally reccommended to call in Wingmen for final hits if possible, or leave enemies to be defeated with fire damage once Burning Talons is achieved at 10x Combo. 
Burning Talons fire damage over time _increases_ with your combo multiplier. This can allow the weakest owl + armor configurations to practically oneshot enemies once attaining a combo of around 20x. Unfortunately, more testing needs to be done to determine what fights Burning Talons can effectively be used on, as well as how much time this would actually save over the course of a full game run. Spotted Owl makes the most use of this, while Great Grey owl struggles to even reach Burning Talons on most combat encounters. 
Also, Hot Coals from _any source_, can damage enemies and structures, This can be utilized in Pure Retaliation to cause the Ballistas and Catapults to damage eachother or themselves, by hovering near or underneath one. The timesave is minimal though.
Notably, in a run by KillerSharNHwk, they managed to have the 3 catapults arranged in a triangle in No Owl Gets Left Behind all be instantly destroyed, by having them aim towards Shard while flying between the 3 structures. It is unknown what exactly caused this, as it has not been replicated since, however it is theorized that the structures either happened to all aim and hit eachother by random chance, or that their shots were aimed low enough to collide with the walls behind them, causing them to damage themselves. If this can be replicated, this would be a huge timesave in the run by several seconds, if not a full minute. 


=== Misc Info ===
Some other quick info 

- Tapping the Fly button a few times in quick succession (3-4 times) and then holding it will instantly put you to your top acceleration from a standstill, which is faster than just holding the button. Even across a short distance, this can save about 2 full seconds. Critically important for any Speed Challenge ILs

- For the mission Resistance Evacuation, only one owlet carrier must be saved for the mission to be counted as a success. This means allowing the 4 others to be defeated instead of escorting them the full way is significantly faster in the speedrun by about 4 minutes.

- Bats carrying owlets in Thieves of the Night can only be intercepted along certain areas of their flight path, no matter how quickly you fly. Learning when the earliest of these are can be helpful for ensuring quick mission completion, as some are difficult to successfully hit, and Prowess management is difficult due to the terrain and low paths through the canyon. 

- Choose whichever owl species you like best! Currently, it is not known if any owl is an optimal choice for speedrunning, as both Attack and Speed stats are relied on for much of the run, and combat has still not been optimized for much of the game. The inherent randomness with enemy encounters and how they move and attack makes it difficult to determine if strategies such as Burning Talons damage is faster overall compared to just dealing more base damage. Likewise with flight sections, as Boost speed effectively equalizes all owls to the same Max Speed, however the falloff and general flying speed differences in places you are not boosting is still significant enough to create some time discrepancy, even at the current highest level of play. 

- Prowess is the most vital resource in the game, as the fastest strats rely on being able to Boost and call Wingmen constantly. As such, Valor Rose and Burning Spirit armors are considered the best in the game, at least for most applications. There may be some situations where a Speed Bonus armor is theoretically better, but more data is needed to come to conclusions about that (Individual Level runs should help with that a lot!)

- Loading Screens vary significantly between game versions, with some versions losing several seconds on every load screen. As such, the community has decided to move towards a loadless timing metric for future runs! This will be implemented once all existing runs on the board are retimed to remove time lost to loads. The idea of switching to In-Game Time, as tracked by the mission results screens, has been discussed as well, however currently that is only being used for IL times, as the In-Game Timer has not been documented well enough to know how accurate it is across game versions. In the case of a tie with IGT, runs will be frame counted and retimed RTA as the tiebreaker if requested by at least 1 player holding said time. 



=== Closing Thoughts ===
Hope all this information is helpful as a quick reference, or miniature guide of sorts for anyone just starting out, and even those already experienced with the game. Good luck! ^^

Frame Data Analysis:  Prowess and Flight Speed

===============================================
	Legend of the Guardians:
		The Owls of Gahoole
		
	Frame and Timing Data Analysis
	of the following stat bonues:
		Prowess
		Flight Speed 
	
	Written by: Xeirla
===============================================

All the following data was gathered using 
the Great Horned Owl species.

===============================================
	Prowess Meter Gain from Diving
===============================================

Armor					||	1 Bar	||	Max	  ||
===============================================

=== Training Claws (No Bonus) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	105		180
From Standstill,  + 2 =		103		179
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -2		 -1

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.5s	6.0s


=== Swift Steel	(+1 Speed Stat) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	105		180
From Standstill,  + 2 =		100		175
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -5		 -5		

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.5s	6.0s


=== Valor Rose (+1 Prowess Stat) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	90/91	150
From Standstill,  + 2 =		89/90	149
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -1		 -1	

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.0s	5.0s


=== Diamond Dash (+2 Speed Stat [Max]) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	105		180
From Standstill,  + 2 =		100		175
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -5		 -5	

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.5s	6.0s



=== Golden Heart (+1 Health Stat) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	105		180
From Standstill,  + 2 =		104		179
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -1		 -1	

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.5s	6.0s



=== Burning Spirit (+2 Prowess Stat [Max]) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	81F		133
From Standstill,  + 2 =		80		132
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -1		 -1

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	2.6s	4.4s



=== Iron Fortitude (+2 Health Stat [Max]) ===
From Standstill, no 2 = 	105		180
From Standstill,  + 2 =		104		179
Fly Button Diff.	  =		 -1		 -1	

Prowess Gain In Seconds	=	3.5s	6.0s


===============================================
=== Conclusions ===
Prowess gain is influenced by the angle of your dive
Prowess gain is not tied to your speed
Prowess gain bonus from armor is a multiplier

The multipliers from armor are roughly the following:

All Other Armors	=	1.00x	+0%
Valor Rose 		=	1.20x	+20%
Burning Spirit		=	1.35x	+35%

===============================================

===============================================
	Flight Speed Comparisons
===============================================
Speed comparison with any armor vs DD 
Tyto Bonus from start to edge of map / collission with no input except Fly button.
1st frame of fade in from black 
1st frame of collission with mountain (damage to armor)

Tyto Bonus Mission 
From Mission Start to Crashing into Mountain

Holding Fly + Neutral 

=== Training Claws ===
24788
25496
708 =	~23.6s

=== Swift Steel ===
21527
22111
584 =	~19.5s

=== Valor Rose ===
24239
24947
708 =	~23.6s

=== Diamond Dash ===
26293
26820
527 =	~17.6s

=== Golden Heart ===
2092
2800
708 =	~23.6s

=== Burning Spirit ===
93230
93940
710 =	~23.6s

=== Iron Fortitude ===
23063
23771
708	=	~23.6s

============================
	Speed from Boosting
============================
=== Boost Frame Data ===
Meter spend					=	3 	
Startup						=  ~20	(0.7s)
Max Speed Decay to Top Speed	=  ~300  (10s) 
Can Boost Again 				= 	80	  (3s)
Boost Anim Duration			= 	80	  (3s)


========================================================
	Effects of Boosting on Average Flight Speed
========================================================

=== Location/Setup ===
Tyto Bonus Mission 
Bomber Challenge lake center rock aiming down the river 
towards small rock spike in front of you 
ending at trees on small hill

Hold 2+Neutral until collission or passing the same tree.
Frames rounded to the nearest 5 frames (.2second) to account for slight positional variance 
Seconds rounded to nearest .1s 

=============================================================
Armor/Boost Interval  ||  Frame Timing  || Seconds  Timing 
=============================================================

=== Golden Heart (+0 Speed Bonus) ===
Starting Frame: 		12400		-	-
Starting Boost Only 	13400	1000f	33.3s

Boost Every 250f		13075	 680f  	 22.6s
Boost Every 300f		13095	 700f	23.3s	
Boost Every 400f		13130	 730f	24.0s	
Boost every 500f		13240	 840f	28.0s


=== Swift Steel (+1 Speed Bonus) ===
Starting Frame: 		37000		-
Starting Boost Only 	37910	 910f	30.3s

Boost Every 250f		37670	 670f	22.3s
Boost Every 300f		37690	 695f	23.2s
Boost Every 400f		37725	 725f	24.2s
Boost every 500f		37750	 750f	25.0s


=== Diamond Dash (+2 Speed Bonus) ===
Starting Frame: 		17600		-
Starting Boost Only 	18450	 850f	28.3s

Boost Every 250f		18270	 670f	22.3s
Boost Every 300f		18290	 690f	23.0s
Boost Every 400f		18325	 725f	24.2s
Boost every 500f		18345	 745f	24.8s


=============================================================

=== Effects of Flight Speed Bonus on Average ===
All Other Armors 	=	1.00x	+0%
Swift Steel 		=	1.10x	+10%
Diamond Dash 	=	1.15x	+15%

This applies to your normal top speed when not boosting, and your turning radius.

On Average, compared to non-Speed Bonus armors:

Diamond Dash saves 	~5-6s 
Swift Steel saves 	~4s

when flying over a significant distance


========================
	Conclusions 
========================

Max Speed is the same across all armors, leading me to believe the 
Speed Cap of the game is the same as your Boosting speed. 

Diamond Dash Top Speed is faster than other armors.
Diamond Dash Accelleration appears to be faster than other armors 

Diamond Dash also has a faster dive as a result, therefore 
more space is required in order to gain prowess meter.

Diamond Dash's rate of decay from Max Boost speed is slower 
compared to other armors, allowing it to maintain near max speed for longer.

This means other armors must boost more often in order to maintain 
similar speeds (due to the max speed cap) as their rate of decay is faster.

As a result, Armors that increase Prowess (Valor Rose/Burning Spirit) 
are able to keep up better due to how quickly they can generate prowess and keep 
boosting constantly.

Prowess is also useful in combat for calling wingmen and repositioning with a boost,
however Prowess can be gained through defeating enemies, making it less necessary 
to manually dive.
You also are not always constantly boosting while in combat, as flight speed does not matter as much. 


==========================================================
=== Terminology ===
Top Speed 		= Fastest Speed while flying when not Boosting 
Max Speed		= Fastest Speed gained from a Boost or Dive
Rate of Decay		= How quickly you return to Top Speed from Max Speed 

Accelleration		= How quickly you can get to your Top Speed 
Speed Cap		= The fastest speed you can fly in the game. Same as Max Speed

==========================================================
==========================================================

Namn	Författare
Advanced Guide - Combat and Flight	CyrilTheOwl 1 year ago
Beginner Guide - Tips and Tricks Reference	xeirla 2 years ago
Frame Data Analysis: Prowess and Flight Speed	xeirla 2 years ago