Info
This is a 502 frame improvement over my previous TAS (#3435: dunnius's NES Metal Gear in 22:35.93). The bulk of the improvement (487 frames) is from a different route at the beginning, which is entering building 1 from the back door, picking up card 4 early. The remainder of the improvement is from lag reduction and overall better pause timing luck.
I had better luck on Coward Duck this time, but I lost 6-8 frames (depending on the door frame rules) from bad luck in the small deep water section in the center room of building 2 floor 1 both times passing through. It is possible to get through pausing once by using the screen transition to avoid the second pause. There is likely further lag reduction that can be done, but I think it will require bot testing.
Thanks to WunUnknownPlayer for suggesting the new route, and Pasky13 for help with the hitbox lua script.
Noxxa: Judging.
FractalFusion: Changed ROM name to one that syncs.
Noxxa: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie. Tier will be inherited from its predecessor (Moons).
Ilari: Uploading...