http://home.comcast.net/~f_amoroso/Crystalis-TheAxeManv0.4.zip
Ok Hamm, you asked for it. A full test run in 48:30. I think I can get this down to 45:00 with a bit of work, maybe even better. Of course the more feedback I get the better. There are quite a few mistakes, unplanned problems, etc here. Most time improvement will come from leveling faster. In pretty much every case the bosses made themselves easier than I could ever have expected, I hope I can get this lucky on a real run. Oh yeah, the wild warp can be confusing sometimes as it's pretty sudden, so sometimes things are hard to follow.
Problems I ran into:
--A couple times I have to spend several minutes leveling up, and it's kind of tedious. The worst is the ice zombies. Even though I have a pretty efficient circular pipeline of destruction, it takes about 5 minutes to get levels 6 and 7. But in those 5 minutes I kill 150 of these dudes! Unfortunately, these ice zombies are the best I can do at this point. In the sea cave and styx dungeon I also need 2 levels each, which takes time. You can think of it as a snack break or intermission.
--I had hoped I could step into Goa from the fortress and then warp in later with boots to save from looping through all the warp points. It seems you have to walk all the way through, then on warp booting in you'd have to walk through again. Since this is the case, I end up wild warping through all the warp points again. I also bought extra warp boots in Swan for this purpose.
--You have to pick up the items the boss drops. I end up dropping something so I can pick up Sabera's fruit of repun. I don't really need this, the sacred shield, or the opel statue. Item space won't be a problem since I won't be getting magic rings.
--I still haven't figured out Stom. I couldn't find any way to change his attack pattern besides losing a couple times.
--Looks like in changed form the dolphin doesn't go as fast. Oops, didn't realize this until too late.
--Also, doing the moving charge trick slows you down when riding the dolphin. I stick to hacking sea enemies.
--Leveling in the Kirisa cave, I couldn't find a good spot with just the spiders. The spiders give the most experience and are vulnerable to the sword of water so they would be ideal for leveling. I think next time I'll blow open that wall before leveling to give myself more room and also kill enemies on the way through the cave. The first room is probably the best as once you get deeper into the cave the enemy mix isn't as lucrative and there isn't one sword which hits them all either.
Helpful things I found:
--Using the wild warp interrupts some sequences, like waiting for Akahana to leave Brynmaer. A neat little bonus.
--I don't need any magic rings. I was able to use magic and level 3 sword attacks as much as I needed and plot-based healing was enough. In fact, I made it through with no armor, no shield, no healing magic and without visiting an inn. It was kinda close so if things worked out differently, I could get one from the chest near where I built to level 14. Actually, I do acquire an armor and a shield near the end, but I didn't bother equipping either. It might be a good idea to equip the Psycho armor and take some hits near the end. Shields are completely useless in this game though. If I want to block enemy attacks, I'll use barrier.
--Barrier was pretty useful. In the final tower it was hard to use against the gold robots, but easy on the silver ones. It might be faster to just use hack and barrier tactics vs these guys instead of a thunderstorm. My favorite use was on Karmine-without his curse he's nothing. Also, after checking the statue traps I needed barrier on, I can confirm that one of these is needed to get by these:
1. Barrier. Easy to get, many uses.
2. Refresh. Requires a few chores in the beginning, including spending precious starting money on an alarm flute.
3. Decent armor and inn stops. Not really practical as this would take more time to get than barrier and not be as useful.
--I think getting power ring was a good call. It took about 53 seconds, which is easily returned on the remaining bosses and leveling. I could cut this down slightly by waiting until I have flight, but then I wouldn't have it for the fortress. The ice bridges are actually in pretty convenient locations so I think I will stick with this part of the plan.
Definitely glad I did this test run, this game is so complex that it would have been impossible to figure everything out in one pass. I think my next step is another test run, and then I'll be ready to go all out. I'll be a little smarter on planning, and hopefully faster on all the leveling. I also have some minor changes for the warp pattern, using warp boots more. I'll get the first three in the same place and the rest in Portoa, as I walk right by the item shop. Here's the new plan:
WW: from sleep chamber to Leaf
--get sword of wind and 2 boots
WW: outside Leaf
--build to level 2 on the blue blobs
WW: sealed cave entrance
--get ball of wind, medical herb, warp boots, build to level 3
WW: sealed cave exit
--build to level 4, get statue and trade for gas mask
WW: swamp
--build to lvl 5
--talk to Oak villager
WB: Brynmaer
--beat Stom, get telepathy
WB: Oak
--talk to mom
--find kid
WB: Oak
--get flute and fire sword
--beat big bug, get ball of fire
WW: Mt Sabre South
--build to level 7 on the ice zombies
WW: Mt Sabre exit near Portoa
--step in cave to get paralysis
--go to Portoa, buy more WB(3), get flute of lime
WB: Portoa, just to get from queen to entrance
--waterfall cave, sword of water, level 8 on lamias
WW: Valley south of Portoa
--get ball of water from Rage
--Kirisa plant cave, get level 9 and kirisa plant
WB: Portoa
--Talk to Asina for Recover and give herb to dolphin for shell flute
WW: boat to sea
--Talk to Kensu, call dolphin
--go to Joel, talk to Ralph the Elder, get back on dolphin
WW: Sea cave linked to Portoa
--get love pendant, build up to lvl 11 in sea cave
WW: Swan
--talk to Stom, use paralysis to reveal Kensu, give him love pendant for Change magic
WW: Mt Hydra (2 warps)
--sneak into Shyron with Change, get key to Styx
WW: Sealed cave exit (looping back through several warps)
--visit Amazones, get Bow of Moon and Blizzard Ring [not strictly necessary but easy to get and will speed up Mado battles]
WW: Swan
--go back to sea to get Barrier magic
WW: Mt Hydra (multiple warps)
--Styx cave, build to lvl 13 on the sorceror-type dudes, get thunder sword
(a useless free warp back to Shyron)
WW: Goa (2 warps)
--enter fortress, approach wall and get distress call
WB: Shyron
--beat Mado, get ball of thunder
[I think power ring is worth getting, for a 53 sec side trip it will speed up the many coming boss fights and the battle in the tower, not to mention the last few levelups]
WW: Desert entrance (several warps)
--get Power Ring
WW: Goa Fortress
--beat all of the "finest four"
--build to level 14 before Mado2. Finding these spiders requires a quick side trip, but it's worthwhile
--get Thunder bracelet after Karmine
--get Flight magic from Kensu
WW: Mt Hydra (looping back through several warps)
--fly over chasm to get bow of sun
WW: Desert by pyramid (several warps)
--duck into cave and max level at 16 on the scorpions
--go to first pyramid dungeon, run through and beat Draygon
--Azteca gives bow of truth
--second pyramid dungeon. Use all bows and beat Draygon's true form
--Floating tower. Spam out L3 thunder strikes. Get Crystalis and final boss is a joke
