Please see this guide for everything there is to know about speedrunning Titan Souls.

[big][big]Titan Souls Speedrun Guide[/big][/big]

It is best viewed on a web browser if you're using a PC, or in the Docs app if you are on mobile.

Hey everyone! I just began running this game and I'm having a blast. I have a few suggestions, somewhat inspired by other boards I moderate.

Right now there are 5 categories.

Any% no OOB Any% All Bosses Any% No Major Glitches All Bosses No Major Glitches

The order seems somewhat arbitrary. I am suggesting we group them up under two categories, that being Any% and All Bosses. Then we use subcategories to divide Any% into No OOB, NMG, Any% and any other any% routes in the future. Likewise with All bosses.

This is what we did over on the Titan Souls leaderboard. http://www.speedrun.com/Titan_Souls You can click around here to see how it works. I made a mock-up of how it would look, kinda, for S&S. https://imgur.com/j8BGCSu

What this does is it fixes the arbitrary order, and establishes a bit of parallel format for any% and all bosses (we are currently "missing" the All Bosses No OOB category, it would fit well using subcategories if it's ever added).

In addition, I am suggesting we add sellsword runs. If you guys don't think co-op or 1player2controller runs belong in the main categories, they'd fit fine in Miscellaneous until there's some competition.

Lastly, if stone sellsword 1p2c strats are banned from the current categories, I think we should update the rules to say so.

Please let me know what you guys think!

We don't have leaderboards for every challenge run, so instead, use this topic to log your achievements and challenge others to do the same.

If you have the parameters of your challenge, post it along with a video link and your time!

This might not have been discovered before, I did a quick online search and didn't see anything. So maybe it's brand new! I discovered it by accident.

What it does: It lets you walk away from the Stash (or Shared Stash) and go to other maps, while keeping the Stash popup window open!

As far as I know, this might not be that useful in a run since I don't think inventory space is ever an issue. But I figured I'd post it here and someone else can figure out if there's anything more to it.

First, open the stash, and go to spells/tomes tab. On your pet spells/tomes, click the X as if you were going to remove one. When it brings up the confirmation window, hit Esc.

It should close the confirmation window and back out and let you move around, but it will keep the stash window open!

The downside is that if you close it, you can't reopen it until you go to the stash again. So you can't, for instance, put Character attributes in after leveling.

Removal of Truth%:

Truth% used to be called “Hard mode 100%”, but after the secret forest boss was found, it was renamed. If people had kept running it, it would have survived as an active category. However, now it is a legacy category, because deleting it would delete the runs, and in case anyone wanted to run on the old route. But it’s been a year. In the past few weeks, tons of ideas have come up for new categories, and it turns out there’s a lot to balance when it comes to new stuff! For that reason, I have recently been thinking about removing the Truth% category. Now that DarkestUno has brought the Truth Door Skip (TDS) back into the spotlight, and SNeaky found a way to do it, the idea has been thrown around of removing Truth%, especially to make room for any new category down the line.

If we don't redefine Truth% rules, then TDS would be allowed. There's no way around it. The old runs on the leaderboard would instantly be obsolete the moment someone completed a 13-boss Truth% run. So if Truth% stood as-is, and TDS is allowed in Truth%, then it would no longer be a legacy category. The whole basis for its existence as a category is taken away, although it was a weak basis to begin with, especially since no one has run it in about a year or so.

So that leaves us two options, really: Option 1: Remove Truth% as a category. Option 2: Do nothing. Any third option like adding new categories can be discussed in the future, but it’s not relevant to the old legacy route Truth%. If TDS creates a new reason to support the existence of Truth%, then we can keep it. The question is: Does it? No, at least not right now, with what the route would be. The route would essentially be an any% run (in Hard or Normal), without killing Soul, and instead dying, with an unreliable skip, and killing a longer final boss. Unfortunately, that is not very competitive, unique, or (IMO) interesting enough to justify a category.

Leaving Truth% as a category would, in my view, be a disservice to the old runners. I think they would probably rather their runs be removed than be 6-8 minutes slower than everyone else.

Speaking of the old runners, let’s go over them real quick. 1st, Melestara, has not been seen since he cancelled his ESA run last summer. 2nd, PaperTwo is around but isn’t active on TS (I'm hoping he'll post his opinion here, but in case he doesn't, he suggested we update the rules and keep a similar category if there is a genuine interest, and he emphasized that a variety of categories is good to stave off boredom.) 3rd, ReksQ, Popo, and Kex are completely MIA.

Old runners, if you are reading this and disagree, get back in contact! We miss you! We’ll talk!

If you disagree, and you would personally be interested running a category that would include Truth Door skip, please reach out and share your ideas! It’s certainly possible to re-create a category similar to Truth%, but we can refine it a bit more instead of being confined to the old route that’s been dead for a year.

**The plan is to close the category on Monday, January 23rd, 2017. If you want to post a run between now and then, know that it would get removed along with the category. **

Welcome to Titan Souls speedrunners!

[big]Discord link: ** https://discord.gg/f8mc8Rw ** [/big]

[big]Guide link: ** https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VYr7FetWtbKGAMe1QPLA3CcgB2a1vnN7pgMyhFBveck ** [/big]

Here are a few basics to get you started:

Use a controller; the four direction keys on a keyboard are a significant limitation to where you can shoot. You'll do much better with a controller that gives you 8-way directional control as well as analog stick control. The most optimal strats alternate constantly between D-Pad and Control Stick.

You don't have to stream your run live, but make sure you have video for the record if you want to post competitive times on the leaderboard!

The PS4 version of the game had a larger team working on the port, and it preloads all the game's maps. Therefore, it has no load times making it a bit faster for any% and much faster for All Bosses. The PS4's credits are, accordingly, much longer.

We use Real Time, and the timer starts when the screen flashes white (as soon as you can begin to see the in-game map or timer), right after you finish or skip the opening cutscene. Once your arrow hits the final boss, you stop the timer. The auto-splitter will help you split, especially while you are learning. We use livesplit or other timers because the in-game timer is inaccurate and exploitable (quitting and reloading after a boss rolls back the in-game timer, and the in-game timer freezes on PS4 in the final area).

Yes, the broken in-game timer is what's used to calculate the time for the in-game achievement. You just have to beat Soul for that. New players who want to get the achievement are welcome to post their times on the competitive leaderboards here! Just remember that timer accuracy is a requirement, so try to include a Real Time result.

If you're hoping to learn a competitive route, both any% and 100% are pretty easy to learn. Any% is shorter, but more punishing if you die. 100% hits more checkpoints, but there's more to learn upfront.

Remember, when you're new, focus on getting in a deathless run. Even still, a death is not the end of the run. In any%, if you die in the fire area, you can go to the graveyard as a backup. If you have a lot of trouble with the forest, you can alter the route to skip the forest. If the ice bosses give you trouble in 100%, consider starting there to get them out of the way. There's only a few seconds of difference between each route, so when you're first starting out, just do the bosses you're most comfortable with. Almost any combination of bosses can get sub14, I think.

Also, remember that the fastest strats are not necessarily the best ones. You need a certain level of consistency and confidence with each boss before you start to crank out good times, so be sure to practice and continue your runs even if your objective is unattainable on that particular run... Endgame practice is very important, too!

There is a newly discovered way to skip the titan kill animations, by storing a pause and quitting on the same frame that you extract the soul. It's frame-perfect and very risky to pull off, so we call it the "risky skip". Unless your immediate objective is a world-class time, this glitch is likely not worth risking runs on. For advanced runners, there is a link below. As a visual cue, you might want to try playing with your resolution settings. Please note that skipping a titan kill animation by force-closing the game is NOT allowed.

We do fun races on challenge/unusual categories, often held on Monday nights, but feel free to organize a race at any time!

[big]The best way to reach someone for questions or tips is on discord. The discord server is here: https://discord.gg/f8mc8Rw [/big]

The latest quick kills guide, by Zic3, it's up to date as of 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUo1IfS3VYQEdXE59imdR-bafXDCtIzY

Here's the recent Hard mode video guide, by Scrublord, up to date as of 2017: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvThs_cP6PTgDtnc11U4360R1ADdcIoq7

For those on PC, we have an auto splitter. The easiest way to activate it is with the button in LiveSplit, under "Edit Splits". If for some reason you would prefer to manually add the files to your layout instead, here is the autosplitter with instructions: https://github.com/Starcrunsher/TitanSoulsAutoSplitter

A training map pack (with quick doors to bosses) was made by Nalae. Be sure to back up your game data! It can be found here: http://www.speedrun.com/titan_souls/resources

Some speedrunning tools, such as timers, and info can be found here: http://www.speedrunslive.com/tools/

Here's some info on the "risky skip", which should only be attempted by advanced runners. Scroll down a bit for lots of clarifying posts: http://www.speedrun.com/titan_souls/thread/uc13d

New strats, tutorials, videos, and runs are created and posted all the time, but everything is scattered across YouTube, Twitch, Discord, this site, and others. Hopefully you find what you need!

That's all for now. Please feel free to post questions below, or reach out to any active runner directly. Everyone is very helpful and friendly. Some of us will be happy to personally coach you, or help you plan a route.

Best of luck!

Hey everyone, I was hoping to get a brainstorm and discussion going on [big]small[/big] ideas and tricks and tips. Routing is daunting and tough, and that’s a whole other beast. This topic is about the little things! Since the most optimized route will try to maximize gold, fate, experience, while minimizing time, share what you think might help

I’ll get us started. :) - In the Tutorial, you can skip the triggered Big Spider spawn by turning the camera away from where it spawns, i.e. back toward the way you came. Rolling seems to help, for me. There might be other cases where if you don’t look at where something spawns, it won’t trigger but I haven’t looked that hard. :) - The third Lore stone in Erathell (the one after leaving Ayten and going around the bend), normally we go out of our way to avoid triggering a fight. However, don’t have to take the long way around. The fight triggers if you run between the two boulders there, so just avoid running between the two boulders. :) - Discovering Rundamir (near Cair Nyralim) makes the run to Detyre later a bit quicker. If you’re willing to sacrifice a second overall, you can also pick up two stones! As a bonus, there’s an additional location on the way so you get more exp from discovering it. It's called Aodh, and Aodh is the closest warp to Ysa once you unlock it. :) - You can get a 24k-gold ring from Elund, before you go to the siege of Mel Senshir. You just need to persuade him. It has a decent success rate of about 50%, so you can either save the game beforehand, go for the risk, or use a seduction potion before speaking with him (even if you’re male). :) - If you’re just short on gold and you do the Siege and want to purchase items or weapons after, you can tell the NPC right after the siege that Tilera ran like a coward (lie), you’ll get two random items that you can sell, instead of one. :) - In the game options, you can map the run button to the left stick click. This might help avoid accidental action button presses, that could slow you down by talking to NPCs (I’m looking at you Alyn).

Once we get going, we can start to build a knowledge base, use these to perfect routes and get the time down. Or we could consolidate them into a guide for players who want to learn. Onward, on the path toward optimization and a slightly shorter run!

Anyone have a Vita? What's the game like there?

***edit: no one has it lol ***

Update: I have replaced my outdated discovery videos with a better tutorial from the latest WR holder:

Just watch the above. ^

Original post:

Hey hi hey.

This is really exciting!

This timesave skips the cutscene after killing Titans by quitting to menu on the same frame. (You can also quit by forcing the game to close, but that is NOT allowed).

It's useful in any% and perhaps even more so in 100%. It could save over a minute, we think, if perfectly executed. Here's the catch: it's very very unreliable, so far.

I like to call it RiskySkip but hey that's just a nickname for now. Maybe one day it won't be risky at all. We could call it TCSS or TKAS or Absorb Skip...

Here's how it works.

Terminology used here: Action button: (A on 360, X on ps4, X on keyboard) Cancel button: (B on 360, O on ps4, C on keyboard)

----Step 1: Storing the exit menu.

This is the easy part. Pause, select quit, then press and hold the action button. Hit the cancel button while still holding the action button. This will unpause the game but you'll still see the exit menu.

To do it quickly, in a run, there are different methods. Here's mine. First, you'll need to prepare the menu. Pause and hover over quit, then unpause. You can do this while waiting for doors to open or on elevators or wherever you like. It takes a second, but you don't have to lose time to do it if you plan ahead.

Then, push and hold action and pause at the same time. This should bring you directly to the Exit menu, and you'll be asked to confirm if you want to exit. If it doesn't bring you straight to the exit menu, try again.

While still holding Action, push the cancel button. This should now cancel the pause but you will KEEP the exit menu. You can now run around with the exit menu open.

As long as you have some input on the control stick or directional pad, you can't click Exit. So as long as you are moving, you won't accidentally quit. With a bit of practice, you can do all of this in just a split second. You can do it as soon as you enter a boss room, or if you prefer, at any break in the action while fighting a boss. If you change rooms, you will lose the stored pause.

If you push Action just before you push Pause, you will roll as this happens. Depending on the situation, you may wish to do it this way.

Play around in this state to understand what will and will not trigger the menu.

----Step 2. Kill the boss.

This part is easy, too. Kill the boss but don't finish it yet, as in, don't recall your arrow. You can fight the boss with an exit menu stored, or you can kill the boss and then store an exit menu. Up to you.

-----Step 3. Frame perfect quit.

While you have an exit menu stored, retract your arrow from the boss in order to finish it off. At the very moment when the animation is about to start, click Exit on your stored exit menu.

If you are too late, you'll have to watch the cutscene you were trying to skip. If you are too early, it's pretty bad: you will exit to the main menu but the boss kill will not be saved to your file.

It took me many tries to get it for the first time. Here are some tips to help.

-Practice on a quick kill boss that you can easily access from a nearby spawn point. I like Hevel and Eyecube. -Use a NG+ save so that if you finish the boss you can respawn the boss. Keep note of your file's number of kills, if you do this. -Use the text and ornamentation found on the exit menu to line up with certain background elements. -Most people seem to have more success by standing as close as possible to where the arrow hit the boss.

Update: I have replaced my outdated discovery videos with a better tutorial from the latest WR holder: (twitch.tv/videos/553072710)

If you ever want to attempt WR using Risky Skips, this is a must-watch. ^

Overall, you can do anywhere from 0 to 8 skips depending on how much risk you want to take. [big]Which bosses work?

Often, you will quit out and skip the animation and the trick will appear to work, but the boss kill counter will -not- increase and you'll have to fight the boss again. It's very unfortunate. We call this a Fake Skip. In addition to just randomly not working, Fake skips lead to a full on game crash for these bosses:

[big][big]☑[/big][/big] SLUDGEHEART [big][big]☑[/big][/big] BRAINFREEZE [big][big]☒[/big][/big] EYECUBE [big][big]☑[/big][/big] OBELLO [big][big]☒[/big][/big] VINETHESIS [big][big]☑[/big][/big] GOL-HEVEL [big][big]☑[/big][/big] ELDER [big][big]☑[/big][/big] KNIGHT ELHANAN [big][big]☑[/big][/big] AVARICE [big][big]☒[/big][/big] MOL-QAYIN [big][big]n/a ☒[/big][/big] GOL-QAYIN [small]always fakeskip and crash[/small] [big][big]☑[/big][/big] ROL-QAYIN [big][big]☒[/big][/big] ONYXIA [big][big]☒[/big][/big] YETI [big][big]n/a[/big][/big] STRATUS [small]always fakeskip[/small]

Gol-iath, Gol-set, Soul, Truth are not included because the skip saves no time. Hard mode bosses may or may not be the same, they can be tested too.

☑ = Works if done properly ☒ = Crashes on fakeskip[/big]

[small]Thanks to Sneeaaky, Zic3, and especially Nalae/Str00del for help with testing.[/small]

Hey fellas,

Sneaky and I have been looking for new timesaves recently and we've come up with a couple. We only tested on the PC version. Here is one of them. (We are still refining the other, bigger one).

It's a small time save that essentially uses the main hub elevator as the savewarp spawn for the end of any%. I'd like to call it ElePort but the name isn't that important. I estimate it saves 2 seconds.

Here's how it works. Normally, when you spawn on an elevator, it activates the elevator. However, if your last area change (LAC) was riding that same elevator, then a delay will be added and it won't immediately activate. You can test this by taking the elevator to the main area, quitting, and loading. Upon spawning, because your LAC was by means of the elevator, you indeed have time to get off the elevator before it activates.

I found that, oddly enough, the LAC is detected across all saves. We think it's a global variable that may have been applied later in development, and is not tied to the save files. This means that if you preset a secondary save file to spawn on the central hub elevator, you can exploit that to be able to quickly savewarp to the elevator on a main file.

So, optimally, you set a secondary file to spawn at the bottom of the main elevator. Then, you run the regular any% route, but avoid the forest save. Then, after killing Rol-qayin, quit as usual, but load the secondary file. Ride the elevator up on your secondary file, then quit as soon as you load the main area. Load your main file, and you'll spawn at the top of the elevator and be free to run to the final area without activating the elevator.

It requires one extra quit and load, and you have to ride the elevator halfway up. But it's slightly faster than spawning in the forest.

Here is a demo video. https://secure.twitch.tv/6oliath/v/76822872

We have some ideas on how this works and why it's in the game. What do you all think of it?

The question is: is it allowable to manipulate data using a preexisting save?