As of October 29th, 2021, v1.07 has been released, and users here, new and old, might be wondering how this version compares with the two versions prior that are mentioned frequently, (v1.05b and v1.06) and whether or not they should downgrade.

• v1.07 buffs the damage of the Lv.3 arrow charge attack. (Specifically to the 2nd & 3rd arrow of the attack)

• This shortens some of the established strats we do on bosses, while others have new, even faster alternatives available. (A comparison video can be found in Chapter 3)

• Easy Difficulty's reduced starting HP value from v1.06 is still in v1.07. (Originally 80HP, reduced to 48HP)

• v1.06's forced transforms and additional text boxes are still present in this version.

• Strats to negate/bypass these forced transforms have been found, more info on Chapter 3.

• v1.06's bug involving the presisting Queen hitbox in-between phases has been fixed.

Overall, v1.07 can be a direct upgrade for AVIB, and NG+ runners, while a slight hindrance for Any% and Low% runners by default.

Details about these timings are found in Chapter 3

• Any% is 1.7s slower without any optimizations, but saves up to 3.4s with optimizations.

• AVIB is 0.7s faster without any optimizations, and saves up to 6.5s with optimizations.

• NG+ is 0.2s faster without any optimizations, and saves up to 3.2s with optimizations.

• Low% is 2.1s slower without any optimizations, but saves up to 18s with optimizations.

As titled above, a boss comparison video, a showcase of forced transform strats, and a Spreadsheet listing timings of boss fights between both versions, optional time saves and possible time Losses, and overall time gain/loss estimates for each category at the end.

Boss Fight Comparisons

Forced Transform Strat Showcase

Timings Spreadsheet

The Autosplitter, and anything you see on the "Resource" page will work in v1.07.

The only exception to this being HitachiHex's Debug Practice Tool (1.0), however, you can find (2.0) just above it, which does support v1.07 and includes new features to boot!

Even with default Any% and Low% being slower, v1.07 is still the best version we've gotten for speedrunning, as every category can still save a significant amount of time over v1.05b, given some practice for some, while others not much!

Also, v1.07's changes do not alter the movement, route, or combat of any category's run by default. This is good, as this means any Video/Guide/Speedrun using versions before v1.07 are completely viable to use as reference while you learn and practice the speedrun.

If you may still be considering switching back to v1.05b, I'd personally only recommend doing so for the cosmetic changes, the convenience factor of no Forced Transforms and OP Easy Difficulty Health. Otherwise, you will end up spending 15 or so minutes only to get a slightly easier Any%, and, weirdly, a harder Choir.

I hope this post has answered all the questions regarding v1.07, and that you enjoy learning and practicing the speedrun, feel free to comment below any questions that may not have been answered here. Have fun! :D

If we did decide to make the rules more strict, when would it be necessary to? As of right now i can only think of 11 - 12 people that either actively run the game or have at least done a run as of this year. The tournament from last year had brought in a pretty decent amount, but at the same time a lot had also dropped off right after, so i wouldn't expect this next one to be too different.

While i could be oblivious to other capabilities a macro might have, somebody using a macro for rolljumping, no hit-lags, etc, really wont get them far in terms of a time on the leaderboard as the tricks involving the usage of multiple buttons (at the same time) make up a (somewhat) small portion of an average run. as rolljump canceling and rolljumps into dashes have you putting in the last input of those a moment after the start of them. this, how you approach the bosses, and simply just nailing your general movement are things that cant be done with a macro. even then, i still don't condone this. while i don't think new runners would flock to the chance, suggesting the usage of a macro could easily screw over runners who worked for a time in the upper 20s - lower 30s a bit. as a lot of the high risk strategies would become trivial, thus making something like sub 30 runs a cakewalk. because of this, i'd say keep the rule in place and avoid encouraging any degree of usage.