Since I’m not sure if and when I’ll put more time into the categories, I figured I should share what I’ve discovered and used so far for my current records.

All Characters: Summary: Adventure with Captain Falcon (unlock Luigi) Target Test A (OG 14 + Luigi’s) 692 Stamina matches 8 Super Sudden Death matches (unlock battles for Jigglypuff thru Mewtwo) Classic with Marth (+Marth Target Test, unlocks Roy) Target Test B (Doc, Falco, Pichu, Puff, Mewtwo, Ganondorf, Young Link, Roy to unlock GnW)

Details: I’ve opted to do Adventure Mode first to get Luigi, and to reset if Hyrule RNG is bad since it can make a difference of about a minute between the best and worst. I studied AyRookie’s record Adventure run, and suggest you do the same. I go through the original 14 characters Target Tests plus Luigi’s, and if any are horrible this is early enough that I’m comfortable resetting again. It would be optimal to start in VS and do all the 1P modes after for better menu’ing, but poor Hyrule RNG and a lack of confidence in the Target Tests makes it more worth it to start with these in my opinion. Because you need 700 VS matches to unlock Mewtwo, there’s no need to do other requirements for unlocking Jigglypuff, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Falco, Marth, Young Link, or Ganondorf. They all become available on the way to 700. (Roy, Luigi, and GnW get unlocked at 800, 900, and 1000 but doing their 1P modes is faster). Stamina Mode does not trigger any unlockables, including the character fights, but they do count toward the VS matches needed. So we do 692 of them, then switch to Super Sudden Death for 8 matches that properly trigger the fights, ending with the 700th match that unlocks Mewtwo. Super Sudden Death is only one down input away from Stamina, plus the extra knockback means we can clear the matches faster than other modes. I’ve seen other people use Lightning Melee, but I believe SSD is better overall. I’ve been reapplying the Handicap after picking characters for SSD, but this is probably unnecessary. I break down my Stamina method in more detail below in the section for things that apply to both categories. Beating Classic Mode with Marth unlocks Roy. Note that doing his Target Test here counts towards unlocking GnW, so do it now to cut down on a tiny bit of menu’ing later. Now we just need to finish Target Tests with the remaining 8 secret characters. I end with Roy since his reverse UpB is a quick easy way to beat GnW in the unlock fight. Though, since this KOs him off the top, there may be a faster way such as backthrowing him off the walkoff. My current runs lose roughly 5 minutes in Target Test compared to the individual records. I suggest studying those and Zero’s All Target Test record to improve upon mine. The precision needed for them, the fact that you have to wait for the end of the run to perform 8 of them (and Hyrule RNG for the openers), makes me believe this is the hardest part to optimize. It is probably better in general to use slightly safer strats that lose a few seconds than to risk losing a record run entirely for failing something difficult. I know a couple individual records, such as Bowser’s, also require good RNG. Even with that mindset, my records could be vastly improved.

All Characters+Stages: Summary: Lottery (Birdo trophy, unlocks Mushroom Kingdom II) 692 Stamina matches (unlocks Brinstar Depths, Fourside, Big Blue, and Poke Floats) 8 Super Sudden Death matches (unlock battles for Jigglypuff through Mewtwo) Classic with Marth (+Marth Target Test, unlocks Roy) Adventure with Captain Falcon (unlock Luigi) Target Tests (all except Marth. Include doing GnW’s after he is unlocked) Home Run Contest with Yoshi (1350 ft to unlock Past Stages - Yoshi’s Island N64) 15-Minute Melee (unlocks Past Stages - Kongo Jungle N64) All Star Mode with GnW (unlocks Battlefield and Flat Zone) All 51 Events in Event Mode (unlocks Final Destination)

Details: Between the free trophy gifted to you, and using each of the 5 coins available in the Lottery, there is roughly a 7% chance of getting the Birdo trophy to unlock Mushroom Kingdom II. You could also look for it in Adventure Mode (or even in the later 1P modes), but for now I have opted to ensure I get this first since it is not guaranteed later. Although the Hyrule Temple RNG applies here, since the Birdo odds are so low I decided to take whatever I got and optimized for menu’ing instead, starting with the Stamina grind immediately after obtaining Birdo and doing Adventure afterward. As far as I can tell, all the secret stages except for Mushroom Kingdom II that are possible to unlock before ending the Stamina grind are all slower for matches than the average without them, hence why we do this first. The only difference for the Stamina grind and character fights is Mushroom Kingdom II will be one of the stages. If you’ve waited to do Adventure Mode like me, it doesn’t matter if you do it or Classic with Marth first. Again, do Marth’s Target Test during Classic for a small save in menu’ing during the rest of Target Test. After you have Luigi and Roy, do everyone’s Target Test (except Marth’s if you did his in Classic Mode). Make sure you do GnW’s Target Test as well after he is unlocked to get Past Stages - Dream Land N64. Since we’re already here in Stadium, spend a few seconds getting 1350 ft in Home Run Contest with Yoshi to unlock Past Stages - Yoshi’s Island N64. (Note that I’ve seen a couple various numbers for what’s actually required. Also, I don’t believe Yoshi needs to be the character who performs it, but his downair makes it incredibly easy to accomplish. I don’t see a need to incorporate any fancy HRC tech to save a few seconds, but actually performing it to get the shortest distance needed would be optimal, saving the time where Sandbag is airborne, and the counter ticking up the distance). Move to 15-Minute Melee while in Stadium. I originally planned to do this early in case of bad RNG with bombs or exploding containers if using DK’s downB or Yoshi’s double jump armor. Instead, I discovered from another player that it’s rather easy to float in the air as Peach, and carefully avoid the wireframes when landing to refresh your jump and float. This avoids a lot of potential explosions, and the wireframes will rarely if ever aerial. According to at least one commenter, the enemies get smarter as you get more KOs. I find this claim dubious, but since you only need to clear the mode to get Past Stages - Kongo Jungle N64, you don’t need to worry about attacking anyone. Just float in the corners and dodge as best you can. I have yet to fail the mode after adopting this technique, so I’m comfortable waiting til this late in the run to do it. All the wikis and how-to guides I’ve found tell you that unlocking Flat Zone requires you to beat Classic Mode with GnW, though some also say you can do Adventure with him instead. Thanks to a comment on a Reddit thread, I learned that beating All-Star mode with him also unlocks his stage, which is useful since it unlocks Battlefield for you at the same time. I’m unsure how to optimize this, especially given the RNG, but it’s definitely faster to do this with him than splitting up All Star with Roy and Classic with GnW. Lastly, we go through all 51 Events. Though a couple characters could be unlocked in this mode, we have to do the 700 matches for Mewtwo regardless, and many Events are locked until all characters are unlocked, so I think it makes sense to leave this for last. There seems to be more RNG-dependent strategies here than other modes which hurts since it’s so late, but I admit I’m not well-versed in the mode. I’ve watched the first and second placing All Events videos, and suggest you study them as well to improve upon my run since there’s a big time difference between mine and theirs. As a quick reference, I can give you this: Event Mode Use Jigglypuff when you can select character (mostly abuse rest) Except on the following events Lvl 4 - Kirby (suck Yoshi up offstage) (I’ve not had good luck with Kirby, and opt instead to use Puff and rest) Lvl 6 - Fox (just shine) Lvl 7 - Fox, neutral B until Pika’s shield breaks, then grab the poke balls Lvl 8 - Captain Falcon (just knee) Lvl 21 - Fox, grab first Nana and bthrow, then shine spike her (I’ve had trouble timing this and opt to use Puff and rest instead, but it is slower) Lvl 22 - Pikachu, DJ Uair, DJ Uair land with fair Lvl 24 - Pikachu, Uair the 2 Yoshi’s on the right side of the stage Lvl 28 - Dr. Mario, upB Lvl 37 - Mewtwo (abuse the battlefield confusion glitch) Lvl 38 - Samus, tether grab and throw into walk-off blastzone. (I’ve been using puff here too, but had some struggles with her) Lvl 46 - Fox, downthrow off bottom left ledge Lvl 48 - Ganondorf, roll back, grab fthrow, downsmash, downB offstage. (I can’t get this. Don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s just RNG dependent. I just use Puff and try to constantly Pound eventually landing rest on the Pichus, but that is also rather inconsistent.) Lvl 50 - Ganondorf, upsmash

Things that apply to both categories:

I’m not sure how much of a difference this makes if any at all, but I’ve been running without a memory card under the assumption that the game saving to it wasted some time.

I don’t know if GameCube or Wii is faster for console runs.

The fastest loading times I’ve found are on Slippi, which is currently allowed for emulator. I’ve been running on 2.1.0 with Cheats unchecked and no added codes. The latest versions don’t appear to allow undoing cheats and starting the data from scratch as far as I can tell.

Optimally for both runs, you could start with Birdo as the one random trophy allotted to you, or finding it in Adventure Mode, but the chances of this and good Hyrule RNG are extremely low.

Stamina grinding:

I’ve tested some methods for Stamina grinding in normal Melee to compare IGT for them. I haven’t TAS’d them, but just grinded out a few strats to see which I could get the lowest. The fastest overall times I know of without wasting time switching characters between matches are:

First, to set up the rules we want: Go to Vs. Mode Up, Up to Custom Rules (can’t edit rules from Stamina CSS, but changing them here or elsewhere applies Handicap and Damage Ratio changes to Stamina matches. Doing it in this menu is faster than going to a different mode’s CSS and backing out.) Right once to change to Stock Matches Down, Left, Left, to change to single stock (3. and 4. don’t affect Stamina Mode, but we want to change this now to prep for the final battles in a different mode to trigger the character fights later) Down, Left to turn Handicap On (going right has to go through the Auto option first) Down, Left 6 times to change Damage Ratio to 2.0 (going right takes 10 inputs instead of 6) Down, Right, Right to change Stage Selection to Ordered (going left takes 3 inputs instead of 2. The Stage Select Screen takes too long, so skipping it via Ordered or Random is better. Random might work too, but Random ensures that each stage is played on once before allowing you to return to one, meaning you can’t really roll the dice on getting good RNG for faster stages. It’s effectively equivalent to Ordered, but I believe Random has to take slightly longer to load since it has to randomly determine which available stage to play on. Ordered makes it easier to find a rhythm of cycling too, without having to react to each stage. It also makes it much easier to track how many matches you’ve done.) B to return to Vs. Menu Up, A to enter Special Melee Down, A to start Stamina Mode Pick Captain Falcon on Port 2 (leave his Handicap at the default 9) and Fox on Port 4, with Handicap 1. These matter because they affect our starting positions for each stage. Though it would be fastest to use 2 controllers simultaneously if you have the coordination, it’s probably more effective to use one controller to set the other to a CPU first, pick it’s character and set it’s Handicap, then change it back to a Human. (While Human you cannot adjust these things, but they’ll retain them after set on the CPU for that port) (In a perfect world, you could roll the characters randomly by switching to CPU and avoiding navigating the CSS, but good luck with that outside TAS, especially since we’re more concerned with Birdo and Hyrule RNG in these runs)

Don’t bother turning Items Off. The games end long before they have a chance of spawning in.

For the SDs, make sure to fastfall as soon as possible, and I believe downairing at the right time lowers your ECB as I was able to get quicker SDs when timing it properly. It seemed that Falcon’s faster fall speed didn’t make much of a difference over Fox, but his down air did.

Kirby is lighter than Fox, and I originally thought Fox’s shine would be better for KOs since it comes out on frame 1 and has a horizontal trajectory, but Kirby cannot SD quickly and Falcon ends up only barely losing to Fox’s KO potential on a couple levels, while having far superior strats on Hyrule and Onett.

Without Mushroom Kingdom II or any other secret stages unlocked, it takes 38 full cycles, plus an additional 8 matches to reach 692 in Stamina before you should switch to Super Sudden Death. This means your last match in Stamina should be your 39th visit to Yoshi’s Island. With Mushroom Kingdom II but no other secret stages unlocked, it takes 36 full cycles, plus an additional 8 matches to reach 692 in Stamina before you should switch. This means your last match in Stamina should be your 37th visit to Yoshi’s Island.

Peach’s Castle .14 falcon SD Rainbow Cruise .16 falcon SD Kongo Jungle .09 falcon KOs fox (full hop strong knee) Jungle Japes .00 falcon SD Termina Bay .47 falcon SD (fastfall off the tree and don’t drift to the right or you’ll lose traction) Hyrule Temple 1.06 falcon KOs fox (instant DJ over the pillar, strong knee Fox into the wall so he bounces and dies off the right side) Yoshi’s Story .09 falcon SD Yoshi’s Island .07 falcon KOs fox (upair) Fountain of Dreams .21 falcon KOs fox (short hop strong knee is the fastest I’ve gotten, but if you use upair then full hop works too and there’s less chance of missing and wasting time) Green Greens .37 Fox SD Corneria .21 falcon KOs fox (dash attack) Venom .27 falcon KOs fox (buffer holding right, so once you have control you can Isai drop through the wing, then strong knee) Brinstar .29 falcon SD Onett .51 falcon KOs fox (fall off late upair. Doing it too early will whiff) Mute City .00 falcon SD Pokemon Stadium .27 Fox SD Mushroom Kingdom .00 falcon SD Mushroom Kingdom II .00 falcon SD (while this does lower the average, it only adds up to about 10 seconds of time saved, meaning it’s not worth spending the time to go the Lottery for the Birdo trophy unless you are doing All Stages.) Icicle Mountain (varies. I believe there are 5 different starting locations on this stage, always picked randomly. On 1 or 2 it’s faster for Fox to run right. A couple others Falcon can simply run right. There are 2 where you start on awkward platforms. On the flat one, you can turn around as Falcon and Falcon Kick to SD, which I believe is fastest for that one. On the sloped platform, I’m unsure of the best method to get off of it, as Falcon Kick will usually start in the air, and running on it is slippery since it’s an ice platform.) = 4.21 IGT total (not counting Icicle Mountain)

Character Fights: Luigi: I try to backthrow him into the walkoff blastzone. It may be better to use standard combos into knee, or stomping him into the waterfall but I haven’t found a good consistent setup for those. Jigglypuff: I’ve been using Captain Falcon for uairs into knee, but it’s not consistent. Fox could be fine for lasers, upsmash, and upair, though KO’ing her off the top takes a couple extra seconds. Young Link: I learned from watching Event mode runs that you can Uthrow him into the ceiling from the right platform to KO at 0. He doesn’t always run into it immediately, but it’s the fastest method I’ve found so far, and usually works. GnW: using Roy, run at him and short hop out of range. He usually throws out an upsmash, which you can punish with reverse blazer to guarantee a KO. There may be a faster bthrow setup with someone to avoid KO’ing him off the top, but this has been quick and worked for me every time so far. For all the other characters, I’ve been using Jigglypuff and Rest setups but I’m not confident in all of them. Uthrow rest works at 0 on Falco, but sometimes he DIs it and lives so it may be worth tacking on some extra damage beforehand. Others I go for Utilt rest or pound rest, with varying degrees of success. Pichu is one I especially think a different character like Fox may be a better choice for; I’ve hit him with raw rest but his small frame makes it difficult, and he seems too light to combo into it reliably. I have similar issues with Doc, but that is probably just me being bad.