EARTHBOUND HALLOWEEN HACK SPEEDRUN GUIDE

First it should be addressed that before learning this speedrun it's recommended that you enter with at least some familiarity with EarthBound and its mechanics (particularly involving the speedrunning strategies such as despawning enemies and stutterstepping), and this hack definitely should not be played before you see any other Mother game. However, if you're here, you probably have seen all the Mother games. Or at least one of them. Hopefully it's EarthBound, so what happens in this hack makes sense to you and stuff. Okay anyway let's go.

If you're looking for more specific strategies, or you're very comfortable with the run and you're looking to bring your time down even further, look here! :: http://pastebin.com/RjpS4dGM

SEWERS

There's two routes you can take through the sewers. Either you can set up RNG manipulation (Which I also have a guide for!) or you can yolo it until you win. I personally recommend going with RNG manipulation simply because it's not nearly as hard to do as Onett manipulation since there's no NPC movement to influence it too much at all, but if you're newer to speedrunning or don't understand how RNG manipulation works in EarthBound in general and just want to learn the run there's a few things to take into account for the opening of the game.

First off, you wake up as Varik similarly to when you wake up as Ness in EarthBound, except right off the bat you'll want to equip both the Silent Dagger and the Leather Armor you start with (Weapon and Body). Don't worry about the text boxes not closing, I don't even know if that was done on purpose but it doesn't change anything, just head left until you ACTUALLY wake up.

After this nerd quits rambling at you (you're too cool for him anyways), go to Poochyfud's old office and talk to ex-Mayor of Onett Mr. Pirkle. After a year of Radiation's signature descriptive narrative text you'll get the key to the sewers. You can drop it if you want, or even sell it for a buck, it doesn't serve any real use. It's just required that you go hear Pirkle's spiel before moving on.

There's the whole town of Twoson yet to be explored... but we don't really want any part in that. Check the sign just outside the theater and head into the sewers. You may consider grinding in Twoson on the weak enemies to get to a survivable level (around 6?) BEFORE entering the sewers, but there's still a high risk of early death, which makes RNG manip more worth looking into.

The layout of the sewers perfectly copies the Plague Rat sanctuary's sewers, so you won't get lost. Go east one room, then continue east until you see the door with the phone by it. Make your way up to that door to wrap up the first portion of the sewers. Beware though, the enemies in here are intentionally made to be way too tough to fight, so you definitely wanna avoid every encounter you possibly can. Despawning is possible but you have to be careful.

The second portion of the sewers is much scarier, both visually and enemy-wise. You're highly likely to enter a fight immediately upon entry, and from this point there's no going back, even if you die. What you can do to despawn these enemies before they getcha is immediately hit up, then mash B and select to clear the weird tiny text box arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. You can do this over and over until you get a result you like, i.e. a butterfly. From there, though, it's a roulette. Just head east and don't get swamped. ;) ?'s can go through walls too, so be careful.

The final room (the room with the trash can) is the kicker. You're extremely likely to get a quad-enemy encounter that crushes your face. Every enemy has ridiculously high speed and you're level 1 so running is also tough. It's not impossible! It's just that without RNG manipulation it could take around 20 minutes to get through alive.

WINTERS

Welcome to the land of doom.

Head east until you hit the area where the shop used to be, and from there the layout of Winters follows EarthBound's Winters. Every enemy until after the recently-landbridged Tessie area is despawnable, and there's a gravestone that'll save your progress as well as a tent that'll heal you.

Cross the land bridge. The always-spawning zombie will either block your path or be far enough down/left to be able to run past. You can and should walk back up to respawn it in case of the former. Beyond that there will either be one more zombie, two more enemies, or none. All are evadeable. Winters should be fightless, but in an emergency it's not as difficult to run. Keep heading south until there's no more south, then head west. Once you get to stonehenge you can make your way from there down to Dr. Andonuts' lab.

Talk to Andonuts (the phone is useless), then check the revitalizer. Mash B and select to win.

MAGICANT, PART 1: ONETT

You'll appear in Magicant. HIS Magicant.

Head down/left. You don't need healing or shopping yet. Follow the path to the left, and enter the first building you see (the one with the glasses guy). Enter the first door from there. You'll appear in bittersweet Onett.

Head Northeast up to the mountain where the meteorite landed.

Don't worry about the enemies. They're there to PSYCHE you OUT. Every time you see a Mayor Pirkle go touch it. You'll get into a fight with a Remember Me?. Just autofight until you win. You need to grind to level 6 (level 7 or 8 might be better for new runners!) on these guys. These are the best enemy in the game to early grind on for a few reasons: The decent amount of experience, the near impossibility of death to these fights, the money for a key item later on, and the 100% Sky Nectar drop (Sky Nectars always max out your HP!).

By the time you reach the top of the mountain, you'll be right at level 6, your inventory will be full of Sky Nectars, and now you have psychic spells! Spoooooky!! (Of course, if you already did your grinding in Twoson, you can avoid all the Pirkles. Despawn them if they block you.)

Talk to the meteor (ONCE), then walk away from it. Your response does not matter.

NO, NO, NO is easily beatable, if you're level 8. If you're level 6, you'll have to just run and hope for the best.

If you're level 6 you can increase the odds of an early run by putting the crotch, arm, and abs to sleep with Sleepstun a in that order. Other than that, it's luck-based. You won't need the experience from the victory.

If you're level 8, you have the option of defeating this boss because you're equipped with Sleepstun Omega! Once everyone is asleep, attack the abs until they die. The other two will die along with it, and you'll get 400 exp out of it.

Unfortunately, this strategy is tons slower, but you'll be much better off for the rest of the run.

This isn't a scripted cutscene, walk!!! Talk to the grave, not Andonuts.

MAGICANT, PART 2: MARITAL PROBLEMS

Oh hey, it's Paula?

Equip her with her Frying Pan and Fire Pendant (Weapon and Body), then head down to the bottom building by the floweys.

This is the shop, and it has a telephone as well.

Withdraw enough money to have $30 and buy a Psycho Pspirit for Paula. This is used so that the next boss doesn't completely destroy you.

Head back to the glasses guy building, and enter the second door to the left, skipping the bathroom doors. You'll appear in the cave before Trillionage Sprout. Despawn the enemies in this room until you get something that's not two floating hearts. A trick or trick kid (ghostkin) is the easiest to defeat, but the zombie dog is fine as well. Autofight ghostkin, bash and fire zombie dog. If you have enough PP for two sleepstuns, you can do that do the two Anxiety Attacks and run, but be careful.

Instead of fighting Trillionage you'll appear in Ness's house, or something. Walk past Andonuts and the Toppola Theater manager lady to the door to the right (another useless phone).

Sometimes enemies will appear in this room. You're hoping for anything but Anxiety Attacks. That present is a Ribbon for Paula, if you'd like to give her some more defense (Other).

Head through the bottom door to wind up closer to the right in the next room. Again, potentially a fight coming up. Should be okay to autofight unless it's an Anxiety Attack duo.

The next room is dumb, so just leave it. Oh, you're in Andonuts' room now? Okay. Go heal at the revitalizer and save. DROP THE TEDDY BEAR IF YOU STILL HAVE IT. Leave that room again and go talk to Jeff. You'll enter the battle with Dearkhart.

Dearkhart is not tough if you come prepared. Turn 1, Bash with Varik and have Paula use the Psycho Pspirit. All Freeze's will be deflected right back at him. From here, use Bash and Freeze until Dearkhart is down. (Don't use Paula's brain food lunch yet, just switch to autofight when she runs out of PP.)

Talk to Andonuts and steal Jeff!!!

MAGICANT, PART 3: BELCH'S BASE

Equip Jeff with his Pop Gun and H20 Pendant (Weapon and Body). Head down to the shop and withdraw enough money to buy two Psycho Pspirits for Paula, and maybe stock up on a few Cocoon Pizzas as well. If you still have significant extra money, deposit it.

Head to the courage building, and enter the final door at the end of the hall. Head left through the Summers museum up to Belch's Base. Make your way through there as normal (Right, down the ladder, left forever).

There is an abundance of Magic Butterfly spawns around, so use that to your advantage. Every enemy in here but the Vladula is susceptible to Timestop (paralysis). If you enter a fight with a single Vladula, great! They always fall asleep on the first turn so it's a free run.

Once you make it to the save/heal room, save/heal. Head up to Phaze Destrortur. Warning: You will probably die to this boss.

Turn 1, Phaze Destrortur will always use Lightning. Have Varik use Sleepstun and hope for that 75% chance he'll fall asleep. Have Paula use her Pspirit, and Jeff use the HP-sucker.

Turn 2, Phaze Destrortur will do a full-team OHKO move, and at this point the only way to avoid this is to have Varik put him to sleep AND/OR have Paula solidify him. Varik use Sleepstun again, Paula use Freeze and hope for that 25% solidify chance, and Jeff use HP-sucker.

Turn 3, Phaze Destrortur will do a single-person OHKO move. Hopefully it's on Paula, because Jeff needs to live for this fight and Varik needs to live after the fight is over. Have Varik use one last Sleepstun, Paula Freeze, and Jeff use HP-sucker.

Turn 4, Phaze Destrortur will use PSI magnet Omega. Varik defends from now on, Paula Pspirit, Jeff HP-sucker.

The moves cycle from there. Next turn he'll do a lightning, but after this HP-sucker use he should die. Don't ever bash because he has a power shield, just spam the HP-sucker until you win.

If you do die, soft-reset by selecting No, then Yes in the game over screen, and re-opening your save file. Your inventory will be restored. This fight takes some luck so don't feel bad if you die a billion times.

Once you win, talk to Andonuts again. You will retrieve Poo!

MAGICANT, PART 4: MAGICANT

Poo has no equipment, so go straight to the shop.

IF VARIK IS DEAD, he needs to be alive. Withdraw all your funds and fork over the $100 at the hospital lady to the west to revive him.

After this, buy 3 or 4 magic taffy's each for Paula and Poo (HOLD ON TO THESE FOR THE END OF THE GAME). Varik should still have a few Sky Nectars left, and will definitely need a couple Cocoon Pizzas. If you have significant extra money left, deposit it.

Leave the store, head north to Apple Kid, and mash through what he says. Continue mashing A and L until the game lets you move because there's some weird glitch here.

Everything here should be autofightable aside from Anxiety Attacks, which you can Sleepstun Omega and run from. Head up at the first fork for the Sword of Kings (Any guesses for who that's for?), then head down at the next fork for Varik's hair gel. The rest of the path is straightforward (That big obvious present is the Cloak of Kings). Your choice in whether you think it's worth it to despawn enemies or tank quick fights. Towards the end, though, there are Uberhaunts, so be wary of Varik's PP.

SEA OF EVE

The Sea of Eve is what you need Varik alive for. Giegue Leagues are susceptible to Sleepstun, Brain Busters are susceptible to Timestop, and Trandimensional Terminates are weakest to physical attacks, so autofight. (Beware, though, TT's have Whiteshock which can rarely but possibly kill you or make you feel strange.) Take advantage of the again abundant butterfly spawns to refill Varik's PP at every turn, and avoid double fights if you can.

Immediately make for a north and east movement, but make sure to grab every present you see, except for one that's coming up which you don't care about. Once there's no more East, head North, once there's no more North, head west. Skip the present that's up to the top, it's a Neutralizer which has little use.

Touch the guardian heiroglyph at the dead end to magically warp to the Cave of the Past. Everyone will be robots except for Varik. Heal and save at the Phase Distorter.

The enemies are the same as they were in gross intestiney zone, except there's more of them. And it's Cave of the Past.

Be careful. Be sure to save at the end of the third room as well, there are some potentially tough fights coming up.

You're in the Sea of... Eden. Eve? Whatever. If you're familiar with the EarthBound speedrun then you know all three of these Kraken (Amalgamate) fights are skippable, and that you definitely should skip all of them if you can.

If you do get into a fight with one though, have paula use Shield Omega and bash/freeze until it falls.

Make your way to Ness' Nightmare. I mean, Andonuts' wife. I mean, the Topolla Theater lady. Whatever!!! Talk to her, and you're home free.

DR. ANDONUTS

Make your way North and East to the arms dealer. Withdraw all your money, you'll need every cent. Sell the HP-sucker as well, and there's nothing wrong with selling Varik's old knife and armor.

Firstly you'll want to equip all four of your kids with each a Fire pendant and an H20 Pendant. Make sure they're all wearing the FIRE PENDANT, and have the H20 Pendant ready to go as a backup.

Make sure Paula has Psycho Pspirit, and make sure you didn't overly use Paula and Poo's taffy (there's no way to get any more).

Purchase any horns of life you need to revive anyone that's dead, and from there try to buy one horn for each kid. From there, if you have enough money, stock up Varik with a bunch of Pizzas.

Make sure everyone is at full HP and PP before leaving this area.

You're ready to go! Head to the upper left to save and head through the tunnel into the final room of the game. You're Ninten, Ana, Lloyd, and Teddy now, but Ninten has a creepy face. Slowly walk your way up to Giygas, I mean Andonuts' weird gross body.

Autofight the Id. He will ramble at you if you choose to not attack, so just attack until he gives up.

The second Andonuts phase is broken up into five more phases.

Make sure you quit out of autofight by mashing B and select!!!

Turn 1, have Varik use Timestop a, have Paula use a Pspirit, and have Jeff and Poo bash. After this turn, Megalovania will begin.

Varik Bash, Paula Freeze, Jeff Shoot, Poo Freeze. Do this until Andonuts talks to you about burning you to a crisp. You already have your fire pendants equipped so keep doing bash/freeze/shoot/freeze until he talks to you about the freezing cold temperature of space. Use taffy's throughout this to keep Paula and Poo's PP up.

Once Phase 3 (the ice phase) starts, SWITCH EVERYONE OVER TO THE H20 PENDANT!!! After that Use Bash/Fire/Shoot/Bash until Andonuts talks to you about the ultimate Psychic move.

During Phase 4, use your 2nd Pspirit, and heal everyone. On turn 3 you should queue up Bash/Freeze/Shoot/Freeze. He will use PSI Bitchkill Omega, the attack will reflect back to himself, and Phase 5 will begin.

Phase 5 is the scariest and the most luck-based phase. Basically you're hoping that Andonuts doesn't "Jed you all in the crotch enormously hard," because that not only near-kills all four of you but it poisons all four of you as well.

During this phase your Horns of Life come into play, as well as your Cocoon Pizzas. If you can, use Bash/Freeze/Shoot/Freeze to get as many solidifies as you can. Cleanse B clears poison. Starting from here, Andonuts has 800 HP.

If you die to Andonuts your only option is to hard reset and reload your file, because you'll get an inescapable text loop death screen. (Have I seen that somewhere else before?) Death to Andonuts is the only time hard resetting is allowed, because otherwise you can't advance in the game.

Timing ends when whoever last attacked has their little box cut off for a decent few seconds. You know from there you won. C:

/////////////An update to strats I guess///////////// If you wanna quickkill Andonuts just completely disregard the above and have Poo use Mirror on him. It has a 50% chance to work in any phase and from there you hope for a diamondize. If you get it, "You Won" will appear and that's when timing ends.