heh I was using the same addresses and these
7EEC10,2u,X Position (2)
7EEC12,2u,Y Position (2)
7EEC16,2u,X Position (3)
7EEC18,2u,Y Position (3)
7E184E,1u,action cooldown
7E02F8,2u,camera Y (1)
7E02F4,2u,camera X (1)
7E02FB,2u,camera Y (2)
7E02F6,2u,camera X (2)
the 'action cooldown' indicates whether merlin can start a new action (e.g. shoot a star, 0 for 'ready to go')... I suppose it's pretty much the same as your 'freeze'
I'm not sure about the deathwarp-to-rainbow pond, afaik only those plants will make merlin warp to the rainbow pond (the oinkmers make him warp to the tulip-pond)
and yeah you're right about the moment of collecting the tulip
still haven't properly tried the bubbleskip with 9hp (i too was only like 4 frames short... actually merlin get's warped to the position for re-oxigizing but still dies)
oh and the hedgemaze route that's one of the three routes i'm going to try... alternatives (imo) are:
Bottle->Death->Key->Rose->Heart->Death
Bottle->Rose->Heart->Death->Key->Death
edit:
lol i made a stupid mistake, I collected the very first heartpiece on the re-run.... because I thought 'gotta catch em all' anyway.... but now I get refilled to 4hp by the lakelady :P back i go again :D
edit2:
ok here's the fastest way i could get into pinedale without going invincible (merlin is graphically still a bit off-center)
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/119245348/Rewind.smv
I'll be looking into all the other stuff for a while now... as i'm not sure I fully understand the cause of merlin going invincible (note that not walking all the way rightward before getting 'thrown by a tree' will produce different results) so I was hoping you (klmz) could help me out some more :P
edit3:
I found that not many frames 'produce' health in the mines... and still trying to figure out what exactly triggers it :P
Also, it seems from some quick real-time testing that your route for the maze is easily the fastest