Submission #2577: dave_dfwm's NES Dragon Warrior III "item glitch" in 48:28.08

Here is version 2 of the "glitched route" for Dragon Warrior 3. This version is approximately 9 minutes faster than its predecessor.

The main reason this video is faster is because it utilizes a new method to glitch items. Specifically, the "dream ruby" glitch is done without the dream ruby. Instead, numbness is achieved by fighting Killer Bees near Kanave, and the Dream Ruby cave is never entered. This saves a significant amount of time. In addition, glitching is done in the overworld outside of Aliahan, which is much faster than glitching in town at Assaram. The one exception is the spells - spells must be glitched in town. Return locations are glitched in town simultaneously with the spells, but they can be glitched outside as well. Finally, less items are glitched - the biggest timesaver here is not that less time is spent glitching, but rather, less time is spent acquiring necessary items to glitch. In the previous version, I glitched a Poison Needle (from a Thorn Whip 320 gold) for the Hero and two Shield of Heroes (from Bronze Shield 180 gold each) for my pilgrims. These items are not glitched in this movie. Thus, I am able to get through the Tower of Najima much faster as well since I don't have to collect items or gold. I use my Black Raven gold to just buy two Silver Shields for the Pilgrims in Rimuldar.

Glitching is Assaram using the dream ruby requires a dead hero and 3 numb party members. Glitching in Luisa's place is done with 4 dead party members. The numb character is needed because this is the only way you can acquire a party with 4 dead members. Normally, you cannot leave party members with Luisa if only dead members will remain. The numb character can be given to Luisa, leaving only dead members behind. The remaining dead people (given to Luisa earlier) can then be picked back up to have 4 dead members. You can glitch with just two or three dead members, but a "phantom" character will be created. He cannot be revived, leave your party, level up, or do any actions in battle. Occasionally, he will cause enemies to attack "nothing" or even attack themselves, but this is very unpredictable. Even glitching with 4 characters must be done with caution - if you walk outside at the wrong time, your party will "break apart" causing a similar effect. You will become a group of one or two ghosts walking around but never changing direction or moving your feet to walk, and your characters are sometimes not revivable.

A total of 37 "moves" down the RAM item list is required to glitch all of my items - however, this turn into 36 because the cypress stick creates two black ravens instead of just one. Thus, one less "move" is needed. Outside of town, I take two timed steps. On the first step, the first item in the first person's inventory is changed. On the second step, the first item in the first person's AND second person's inventory is changed. Thus, 3 "moves" occur each visit outside of the castle, requiring a total of 12 trips. These moves are based on the music playing in the song when the screen flashes, specifically memory address D6. When D6 = 2C, the inventory of person 1 changes. When D6 = 34, the inventory of the first two people change. These notes occur a few seconds into the song, which gives a few seconds of "dead time" on each outside trip. This time is put to good use since I need to throw away some items (copper sword, extra cypress stick that was created during spell glitching), transfer items, or rearrange party formation. Thus, no time is really "wasted" since I would have had to do these actions anyway. I do have to do a couple of "extra" item transfers in town which do use time, however. When you watch this movie and the old movie, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how "fast" each step is compared to the old movie. (Once again, the exception here is the in-town spell glitching).

The spells must be glitched in town. I am not sure why they cannot be glitched outside. It may have to do with a certain musical note that never plays in the outside music.

Return locations are glitched when D6 = 0B. This note is hit both in town and outside.

This movie also gets into less battles than version 1. I do not encounter any fights in the Tower of Najima, or Cave of Enticement. Since I walk less steps and don't have to conserve magic for the extra Dream Ruby cave, I can use HEAL to avoid all fights rather than running from a few of them. An additional item that I glitch that was not glitched in the first version is a Wizard's Ring. In the first movie, I entered a few extra fights in Zoma's Castle to prevent running out of magic before level B5. With the Wizard's Ring, I can use HEAL to avoid all battles, and use the Wizard's Ring also to avoid battles, while refilling low MP. The RNG effect is almost identical. Further, the Wizard's Ring gives another RNG manipulator that is used in battle against a Metal Babble.

The Ortega fight is faster in this video. Using just one additional HEAL before the battle caused him to chant HEALALL just once in battle and die much quicker.

Due to the new glitching routine, I had to create 3 characters at the Hall of Registration as opposed to 1. In addition, I have to spend a short amount of time killing two of my party members at the beginning. Switching party members at Luisa's place takes some time also.

General bad luck - I had to do some screwy things to manipulate a Bomb Crag fight and the second Metal Babble fight. This is more time consuming than in version 1.

I buy some unneeded herbs in Aliahan. Due to the very-difficult-to-manipulate-RNG, I buy 3 herbs each for Hero and Wizard (just in case), but only use two in the video. One is used just instead of HEAL to make inventory room for the Hero (sigh) to prevent another item transfer before Zoma, and only one is used during the Zoma fight (for a lot of damage). The wizard is only useful in the Zoma fight to allow Pilg #2 to use Parry-Heal.

Q: Could this movie be done faster?

A: With better RNG, all battles could be done faster. But once again, the DW3 RNG is very different from other DW games. It is much harder to manipulate. Good RNG here could mean terrible RNG later, and vice versa.

Q: Would a Soldier ever be of use?

A: Only if he had a glitched Thor's Sword (chants Firevolt in battle) for the Minions, and Herbs for Zoma. Unfortunately, herb damage is very inconsistent (sometimes as low as 5!). HealAll from Pilgrims is better than herbs on Zoma, and Infermost will work on all minions, whereas Firevolt won't work on the King Hydra. A soldier in the party lead would allow 3 Parry-Fights instead of just 2. A fighter is only useful in the (J) version of the game. See Pirohiko's movie for a demonstration.

Q: What about a Hero and 3 Pilgrims?

A: This could be doable, but only if a Poison Needle is glitched for at least one of the characters to kill Bomb Crags and Metal Babbles. Having an extra Infermost and HealAll would be nice for the final battles, though.

Q: Could the Bomb Crags be skipped? AKA - Could Metal Babbles just be fought on Level 1?

A: In theory, yes. I tried this unsuccessfully. Fireball can easily kill Level 1 party members, and extra MP is sometimes needed for manipulation before and during the fight.

Q: Can the Ortega fight be skipped?

A: Find the RAM address of the Ortega flag, and I'll let you know if it is glitchable.

adelikat: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.