I'm trying to build a good argument for obsoletion. Any help is appreciated.
By the way, the 2 player Black Dice maze glitch works. Here's
proof
Not only is it a great time saver for me, it looks cool.
I was lucky enough to hit it in realtime after many tries. Very lucky, in fact. There seems to be a one-frame leeway on this glitch. If you don't hit the right frame, it won't work. Naturally, it's not something that unassisted speedrunners should rely on.
By the way, if you're wondering what I'm doing in the level leading up to the dice maze, I'm just goofing off. I managed to kill the phantom quickly again, but I still have no idea what the exact requirements for doing that are.
While I'm here, I think I'm going to test different routes through the dice maze to see what would be better any other ideas for routes besides all threes and the one I suggested a while back would be appreciated.
This is proof of concept, not a WIP. Sorry for the sloppiness.
Update: Okay, I did enough testing to be satisfied with the mechanics of the dice palace. Here's what I found.
Luck on the dice seems to be more based on when you jump rather than when you throw the dice, or I guess it's the last frame your feet were on the ground before you throw the dice.
Curry and Rice did not go down with one hit from the weapon, so the fastest way to beat him is to throw him four times. Also it's quicker to take damage from his head after the fight is over than to let the head land harmlessly on the ground.
The vortex base cannot be hit with body attacks, which means I'll have to rely on weapons. He has 2801 HP, which means at four damage a frame, I'll take him down in 700 frames, or 11.5 secs (not exact math). That's assuming no lag and being able to hit him every frame. One problem with the boss is player 1 has to hang from the rafters to even have a chance to hit him, and I'm not sure I can find a safe place that he can fire on every frame for. Another problem is the laser actually blocks player 1's shots.
Each of the targets on the Gondola can be taken out in one throw. However, there are seven of them, which means I'll have to throw my partner seven times to beat it, compared with timeron who goes down after three.
After testing both routes, I found that the one I suggested is a little bit faster, when you consider everything.
Bringing the second player into battles with you, sometimes causes you to take fall damage. Places I know this happens are "destroy the tank", the vortex base, and Black's final battle. This isn't much of a problem in a TAS, though, especially since at the beginning of the level, I'll have 160 HP for each player.
Another slightly glitchy thing about bringing both players into a boss battle is the player who threw the die will warp to the place he was supposed to start after the screen has fully loaded. This makes getting into position for some battles a little trickier, especially when it requires you to move.
For the throw glitch, the first time you press "B" needs to be before the object you are about to throw is in range.
I'm guessing that when the battle with Black is optimized, he will maybe barely be able to attack once before going down.