but I'll be able to make Atma happy with my first submission.
Sadly, I'd suggest that you're mistaken. Since you didn't come onto IRC so I could detail the mistakes, I figured I'd make a dsm(mkv) of the same part you did to show how many (and what) there (they) were. I stop at the frame of the boss death, but I think you'll see the large amount of improvement.
I have no intention of doing a full run of this game, but I felt that you needed to know what mistakes you've made, so that you don't make them through the entire run and have it being highly inconsistent.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
eternaljwh wrote:
Holy+fire+slash, I think, actually. Not sure.
You should be able to attack above with a timed sword/hammer perhaps (They do have a bit of swing animation that hits), though- remember, Axe glyphs are rather expensive mp-wise.
And you didn't mention the Red Drops hidden drop that you skipped.
I wasn't ignoring you. I mentioned my reason for skipping the red drops in a tangent while I was talking about the boss strategy. I always thought that the guide on gamefaqs was wrong because I did my own testing, and the "lightsaber" seemed to be slash+light. Which makes sense. But I tested it again last night, and fire+slash+light is correct. Oops. That explains why this union is the most powerful - it's getting three bonuses! That has to be a mistake on the part of the developers. So now actually, yes, I do want those Red Drops. Especially since they're right in my way.
And yes, the axes do consume a lot of MP. And in my double-axe-hop combo the second axe could be a hammer, for example. But in certain maps I won't be able to dodge enemies as easily as I did in the Monastery. It'll be expensive, but I think Axe + Hammer will allow me to kill the most the fastest in a crowded hallway. (Specifically in Minera, Somnus Reef, and the Skeleton Cave.)
Atma wrote:
Isn't it unreasonable to expect me to be on IRC? If it's not the weekend, I'm not really available. And it's not like we had an appointment. You only asked me to be there. By the time I did get there, you were afk. But I'm not a big fan of irc anyway. If you have advice, just tell me in a PM or post it. How to handle corners. How to do doorways. How to manipulate Peeping Eyes. Anything.
Actually the .dsm file was an even bigger favor. Thank you. I hit start 1 frame earlier on the title screen. But then you showed me to use the stylus on the name entry screen. That saved me a bunch. And now I see how to handle doorways optimally (meaning "land on the ledge facing left") everytime. Before I was only doing it when my backhops landed me at such a distance that I did it by coincidence. However, you desynch right after the second skeleton of the Monastery. I tried playing around with the U+D/L+R option and the sound options but all I succeeded in doing was moving the desync earlier into Ecclesia. :x I have no cheat codes on and I tried with and without frame advance.
I'm back in Ecclesia because using the stylus to enter my name was a huge savings. (Over something trivial, I know. But if I'm going to blow frames on my name then I had better do it optimally!) It was a neat combination of stylus + buttons that turned out to be fastest. It was something like: tap 'C', L and hold 'C', -, L+A and tap 'T' (triple handed TASing already), hold 'T', -, tap 'A', hold 'A' + start, up, -, R+A and tap 'OK', start. It saved at least 11 frames. Since I'm in Ecclesia I don't have a new WIP. But this weekend will be 3 days for me. I'll definitely get something done but I don't know if I'll be able to get as far as I did in one weekend again. Maybe the 30th/31st for me next WIP up to Ruvas Forest.
Isn't it unreasonable to expect me to be on IRC? If it's not the weekend, I'm not really available. And it's not like we had an appointment. You only asked me to be there.
Perhaps, but IRC is efficient and simple to use. I left it for a few days and you weren't on (though you did reply to the thread), so that's why I did what I did.
However, you desynch right after the second skeleton of the Monastery. I tried playing around with the U+D/L+R option and the sound options but all I succeeded in doing was moving the desync earlier into Ecclesia. :x I have no cheat codes on and I tried with and without frame advance./
Ok, this is odd. I've played it back just fine using the version of desmume I use and the most recent "officially endorsed" version linked in the desmume emulator thread. It synced just fine on both, so I can't really point my finger at a reason why it should desync. The only real thing I've ever had cause a desync was save files being present (as in the .sav file the emulator creates) in an earlier version of desmume somehow interfering with movie playback, but that doesn't seem present in the more recent revisions.
I'm back in Ecclesia because using the stylus to enter my name was a huge savings.
I'm glad to see you're going to redo it. If you had left it, by the end of the run you may have felt that it tarnished the rest since you would've learned much throughout.
Now, as for the boss fight, it was roughly 120 frames longer than the version that you did, but at the same time the run is at least 180 frames shorter from not stopping to kill things in order to level up. I believe it could be done even faster by keeping the last glyph union until the boss has enough health to be done in by a 4 hit version of it.
Shanoa's level is the same after the boss fight, so the only thing you gain by killing stuff prior is a level up animation (~100 frames to disappear).
Something that will help you if you don't already have them are addresses (all 2 byte signed):
02128C2E - Shanoa's hitbox - left
02128C32 - Shanoa's hitbox - right
021002B8 - Current MP
0210D728 - one of many enemy hp values, this one is used for the boss at least.
I didn't bother finding more as it wasn't necessary for the monastery, but the top/bottom hitbox should be near the left/right ones. There's no practical use for knowing the hitbox since you probably wont have enemy ones, but it's useful as it tracks your x/y position in the current room which is very useful for optimization.
TL;DR Stuff.
The movie did desync for me too, on second watch
Its because there is a trouble with you .sav file (sram), delete them (near rom) and then it will work back again
On another hand, there was already an encode... and its not just stylus matter on start screen (witch is obviously the less important and smallest improvement)
Overall your wip movie was looking sloopy to me (at least monastory), damage received wasnt handled correctly, fighting tonnes of monsters, atma movie looks more optimized, i hope you will get inspired from it, good luck with this :D
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Yeah, I would've regretted the beginning of the run later. The skeleton at 1:37 was the first thing that bothered me. I didn't notice it until Sir VG encoded the WIP for me. But once I saw it, I knew I had to go back for it. Using the stylus on the name selection screen struck me as the same kind of unforgivable mistake.
Killing the bare minimum to reach level 2 isn't necessarily a waste since I'll be that much closer to level 5 when I leave. The experience might be worth the level up animation. I also gain the slash attribute points. I'll watch your movie now and find the exact improvement. Comparison of two very different routes is a tool that I didn't have the first time.
I have a separate 'environment' (a copied folder) to separate my TAS from my other games and from my testing on a dirty save. I dropped Atma's WIP into my 'clean' environment and it desynched. If I need to make a new environment for each movie file then what is the .savmovie for?
Bisqwit said this back in 2004, in a recently bumped Super Punch Out Thread:
There are some mistakes I spot obviously,
there are some mistakes I don't see and
there are some mistakes I think I see but which don't really exist.
When I see mistakes, I want them fixed, be they real or not.
I don't really care about the numbers - they are just tools for comparing movies.
I want that movies look fluent, like a dance.
This is an aspect of art.
There are several places where I want to damage boost off of zombies. I do this specifically with zombies because zombies are worth one whole screen of invincibility time for some unknown reason. Damage boosting is an acceptable TAS tactic. But there's one part where I hit a zombie and it knocks me backwards instead of forwards. Obviously I couldn't get the zombie to knock me forwards, but hitting it was still faster than jumping over it. But getting knocked backwards, especially only once in a run, looks horrible.
It's not just zombies. When you see me kill 5 skeletons, jump clean over 4 more, and get 'boned' twice, it looks like something is wrong. Part of it was that I had to kill a few of them to reach level 2. And since Skeletons are manipulated by distance, it was the presence of other enemies plus the shape of the room (plus my backhopping) the determined if a bone would be thrown in my way. So I decided to handle each skeleton individually, which lead to inconsistency, which lead to mistakes everywhere. I think it also created a perception of probably more mistakes than I actually made. (Or two mistakes that were really just one, then an optimal recovery.) This second run is going to be much cleaner, but still inconsistent. Getting boned by a skeleton is faster than jumping over it only if I don't have to stop and wait for the bone. Should I stop attempting these stunts and make my movie smoother? Bisqwit from 5 years ago says yes, but we also have rules about violating your primary goal. (Mine is frames.)
I've never understood why it's such a big deal to use the "sacrifices speed for entertainment" criteria. I much prefer the fun-to-watch run to the one that's technically faster but looks worse. So I guess I agree with 5-years-ago-Bisqwit in that aspect.
It's possible that someone could come along with an improvement in frames that takes the hit. This could technically lead to a lower frame count than your run. Assuming your run was published, I would think it would take more than this alone to justify obsoleting the run. If this theoretical second submission were to turn this game into a frame war over something so trite... well, I'd like to think that wouldn't happen. I don't think we'll see obsessive frame wars here; this isn't SM64. (And I think even an SM64 with better frames would be rejected if the camera work [entertainment value] were shitty.)
I was goign to write up a reasonably long post replying to most of the things you pointed towards Catastrophe, but I don't think I can do it without coming off as an arrogant asshole, mostly due to a lack of direct response to each individual argument/counterpoint of which there are a lot. A single line I will take from what I wrote though and say here:
If this is your plan, you've got a hellish task ahead of you.
In my opinion, taking damage to save time is usually more awesome.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
Catastrophe, atma movie sync fine, beside, you can watch the encode...
Atma: ill try to take the arrogant asshole role then i guess :p
About zombie hit, yeah, honnestly, you look like a noob getting hit backward with zombie, theres NO excuses at all for this one, not any, no matter how hard you try to explain it, theres no excuses, it was ridiculous and laughtable
Cant tell me you have no choice but to get toss backward, you can jump and get hit on the other side, and you cant loose time since you get backdward toss in the other case! Even considering invulnerability, its impossible you go faster
Art argument is no more apropriate than my lame comment, who care, whe are doing speedruns right? just do it the fastest way... cant believe theres now a art argument in there... while at first you was speaking of how optimized you want this run to be... sound like resignation over atma movie
If you havent already watched the encode (it cant desync...), watch it and youll see getting lvl2 is a waste, youll also see how movements can be improved
If you realy need to see it from desmume (not sure why, since you sayd you cant replay .... you own file ... reliably or full speed or whatever prevented you to see that impossible to miss error with zombie), you probably didnt make it "clean" like you sayd, just be sure to delete the .savmovie to clear sram (near rom), check that you have the latest build too (08/05), clearing states is safer too
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Atma wrote:
I was goign to write up a reasonably long post replying to most of the things you pointed towards Catastrophe, but I don't think I can do it without coming off as an arrogant asshole, mostly due to a lack of direct response to each individual argument/counterpoint of which there are a lot. A single line I will take from what I wrote though and say here:
If this is your plan, you've got a hellish task ahead of you.
I can't tell if you're talking to me, or Acheron86. It sounds like you're telling Acheron86 that he's dead wrong: that there will be frame wars, that this game is SM64, and that obsoletions will be made over trivial things. Which I totally agree with. I'm looking forward to it. But then you tell who that they've got a hellish task ahead? Yes, I am testing every enemy. My testing was clearly flawed, but testing every enemy is the responsible thing to do. Hellish is irrelevant. I thought this is how much work TASing a platformer was supposed to be?
arukAdo - It's not going to be an art thing. I think "sacrifices frames for entertainment" is more of a special occasion thing, like getting the boss medal or the Book of Secrets. I never intended to sacrifice frames on each enemy to make it look smooth. It was more of a question of what you (specifically you, Atma, and the rest of the audience) want to see out of this run. If I didn't care what you thought, I wouldn't ask.
I'm not trying to excuse the way I handled certain enemies. There are definite mistakes there. I'm trying to say that if I do it again, that it'll be for a good reason. Now if I'm wrong twice then I'm probably just a shitty TASer or something. But I also don't want to "fix" the mistakes that you pointed out by doing something different in my next version. Doing something different just to impress you with "look! I improved!" is wrong too. What if I come back with good proof that level 2 really is faster? I don't expect that I will. Just saying.
If you do come by and "proove" im a arrogant asshole i guess its a good thing, and ill change my mind, regardless its about lvl2 or something else
My point here just been 10 seconds improvement from atma seems a lot, if you save 10 seconds more over atma and get lvl2, then i must admit that your good taser :p
Doing something that just "improve" like you say, is fine to me lol
On the bright side, hearing you take this (complains) the right way, should be oki i think
Now unlike atma, i didnt at all touched this game, assisted wise, so im not of any help, its just the zombie is realy so obvious (that i directly saw it), i had to push that argument forward and globalize it for the sake to say "your not going the right way with first wip" :D
If i where you i would follow his advice, IRC is generaly good to discuss because you dont need to post wall of text and wait 3 days, now i dont blame you if your not able to do so, its just if you want to maximize help, thats the best/fastest way to communicate
About entertainement trades: i guess its ok, but personnaly, i would skip that stupid book, doesnt matter to see names on screens, imo
About the route: are you 100% sure its required to get the heart upgrade in monastory? its such a big detour, meh, you would save considerable time by just skiping it (or swaping for a nearest-one-on-road later on the run?)
I can't tell if you're talking to me, or Acheron86.
I was talking to you. I wouldn't write up a ridiculous length post in response to a small thing like "coming down to frame wars in the end". That line was from the first paragraph of about 7 that I wrote before changing my mind and just writing what I did.
The idea of that paragraph was basically "slash points don't really mean shit in such small amounts, nor does 30exp. If you want to test the complete efficiency of every decision you make, you're going to have to beat dracula/etc every time to see if there's an improvement in the damage, which just wastes your own time."
I think "sacrifices frames for entertainment" is more of a special occasion thing, like getting the boss medal or the Book of Secrets.
I'm of the opinion that if you get one boss medal, you're thusly required to get them all to stay consistent, which would cost you a *lot* of time as you get further into the run. And it wouldn't be near as awesome looking as the alternative.
It was more of a question of what you want to see out of this run. If I didn't care what you thought, I wouldn't ask.
Something that looks impressive. Something that'll make me go "that was a cool fight." Something that'll make me feel satisfied in a way I've never felt before (this is a hard one I'll admit, but cpadolf did it perfectly in his contra 4 wip).
What if I come back with good proof that level 2 really is faster? I don't expect that I will. Just saying.
That in and of itself is impossible. The amount of time you spend slashing at enemies to gain the experience required for level 2 is more than the boss takes without it. Also, you get the level up animation.
If, however, you were to get a sword glyph and beat the boss with that at level 1, it may or may not turn out to be more efficient than the way I did it. I didn't bother testing since it required something like an extra 200 or so frames total to get and equip, so I doubt that it's faster, although that's where the possibility would be.
Sword points at this point really shouldn't matter, as it's 328/ % damage added (if memory/reading serves). And yeah, it'll be ...strange-looking if you get only some boss medals, particularly if it's known that it would have saved time on some.
(exercise: N sword points kill worth getting if it saves Y frames = X swings * A animation length, while costing Z frames. For extra credit, if you manage to save an MP bar refill/heart item use) But seriously, you should take the quick/easy kills probably
Sword glyph: pro: More damage per MP-bar, which should help on bosses on which it is used.
Con: Slower swing by a little, slow (and extremely laggy, this version) to get.
As for L2, time saved probably wouldn't be within the monastery, but tracking all the way to Drac would be ugh as noted.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Testing this stuff at Dracula is no problem. Since I'm apparently bad at counting (counting frames, counting damage) I'll share my methodology so that someone else can do it right.
Start a new game. Poke 100388 with 0xFE to skip the tutorial. Now poke 1003CC - 1003D0 with 0xFF to unlock the complete map. Enter Dracula's Castle. Notice that the cutscene won't play. That's because the programmers are major jerks who are working very hard to prevent even minor sequence breaking. Walk back left and poke 100147 with 0x30 to gain the map percentage for the Final Approach. Warp there and fly to Dracula. Set everything in the range of 1003EA-437 to 0x99 to gain every glyph. Might as well set 45E-548 to 0x99 to gain 9 of each item, too. Now you're ready to test different equipment setups against Dracula at level 1.
Except when you walk in, the throne room is empty, and the door locks behind you. You're trapped. This isn't what happens to pirated games, it's what happens when you sequence break. Dracula will only appear if 38C = 0x11. (It's the 0x10 bit that matters.) This bit is set by the cutscene that plays when you use the Custos glyphs. However, using the Custos glyphs will have no effect unless 38C = 0x01. What sets that? The cutscene that plays when you enter the castle. But the cutscene won't play unless 38B has 0x08 set, which is set by Barlowe's death scene. If 0x02 is set then Barlowe will attack you, but that's only set when you kill Albus with all the villagers. So basically, we're never going to be able to sequence break in this game. Not unless a memory corruption glitch can hit these event flags. So just poke 10038C with 0x11 and start testing Dracula.
Level 1 Shonoa, no equipment, attributes = 40/50/10/10/10/10/10
(Watch 10D308 for Dracula's HP. He really does have 9999 HP and you need to deal all of it.)
Lightsaber = 65 damage
LS + Dominus Agony = 518 damage!
LS + Arma Custos = 68
LS + Arma Custos with hp = 1/128 = 86
LS + Arma Custos with hp = 1/512 = 86
LS + Red Drops = 65
LS + Red Drops + Agony = 522
LS + 2x Red Drops + Agony = 528
LS + Diamond Ring = 68
LS + Diamond Ring + Agony = 549
Axe/Scythe/Sword/etc Union = 65
same union + Agony = 255
Okie dokie. So Agony wins. It wins by so much that it's faster to stop and drink potions and tea during the fight. The red drops are worthless, which surprised me. I guess when you have 50,000 attribute points it makes a huge difference in your boss rush time. But 1,000 not so much. And 30... well I didn't know what the formula was or how big the effect would be until now. I had to test it.
Level 10 Shanoa, same atts and no equipment
LS = 108
LS + Agony = 563
LS + Agony + Red Drops = 569
LS + Agony + 2x Red Drops = 575
Level 13 is 578 damage with no drops. That seems good compared to 518 at level 1. Here are the breakpoints for how much damage I need to do to save myself a whole swing. Saving a fraction of a swing is probably useless.
625 damage/swing = 16 hits
588 damage/swing = 17 hits (do the last 3 damage with Dominus Hatred)
555 damage/swing = 18 hits
The required fights in this game are only going to take me up to level 8 or so. Which means I need 18 glyph unions for Dracula. Heart Refreshes are worth 2, MAX UPs are worth 2/3rds each, and I start with 3 1/3. Which means I need to work harder to get 2 HRs out of the Monastery. I tested over 30 frames last time to find the optimal frame with a HR and a Ticket. (Of course, it was the 2nd or 3rd frame.) Hopefully my luck is different in the remake and I can manipulate an insane two HRs.
I started calculating the DPS of each weapon measured over a two MP bar period. But then I realized that my calculations are thrown off as Shonoa levels up and gains a larger bar. With enough MP a slow and powerful weapon might overtake the rapier at a higher level. I'll probably just calculate the DPS for each boss I face as I meet them since I need to take their weaknesses into account as well.
I am *this* close to skipping Volaticus. I used my triple jump with a backhop and the cat morph to get started. Then I unmorphed in midair, sleeved over to Rapidus Fio, and did a double jump. And I was just pixels away from landing on the top of the stairs. Some cooldown timer was preventing me from activating Rapidus Fio early enough. I'll try again later.
All that stuff with anti-sequence break is amazing, simply, castlevania turned out gay, and deeply, from level design to story and now coding
Castlevania as so much be ripped off its boudary its getting ridiculous
Great job IGA, the best exemple is the library boss... its a clown that use bomberman gameplay element... !?!
Seriously someone should kick him for blasphemy at konami, for 3D games they have an excuse but here its pathetic
And yeah its pretty much correct, with max stat you get ridiculous timer on boss rush
This probably mean someone will need to make a bot to farm holy attribute :p
Catastrophe: What about damage values with the Death Ring included? If I recall, it's only a slight detour in the clock tower to get it, and grants an additional +44 to your stats(on top of the +66 from Dominus Agony). That could help severely with the required hearts for the Dracula fight(as well as Death, Eligor, and general timesavers on enemies too large to dodge)
Yes, I am testing every enemy. My testing was clearly flawed, but testing every enemy is the responsible thing to do. Hellish is irrelevant. I thought this is how much work TASing a platformer was supposed to be?
For any platformer in which you have multiple long-term weapon strategies to choose from, you are supposed to test lots of enemies, but not all of them.
Catastrophe wrote:
arukAdo - It's not going to be an art thing. I think "sacrifices frames for entertainment" is more of a special occasion thing, like getting the boss medal or the Book of Secrets. I never intended to sacrifice frames on each enemy to make it look smooth. It was more of a question of what you (specifically you, Atma, and the rest of the audience) want to see out of this run. If I didn't care what you thought, I wouldn't ask.
How often do you need to sacrifices frames for boss medals?
Catastrophe wrote:
I'm not trying to excuse the way I handled certain enemies. There are definite mistakes there. I'm trying to say that if I do it again, that it'll be for a good reason. Now if I'm wrong twice then I'm probably just a shitty TASer or something. But I also don't want to "fix" the mistakes that you pointed out by doing something different in my next version. Doing something different just to impress you with "look! I improved!" is wrong too. What if I come back with good proof that level 2 really is faster? I don't expect that I will. Just saying.
Wow, you are truely a TASer! Just keep going on!
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
That's quite the bit of information you've gathered there Catastrophe.
Anyway, Level 8 isn't the highest you'll get, I'd imagine the lowest level you'd get would be at *least* 13, with the highest being anywhere between 17-20.
In regards to some quick movement tests I did, the werebat morph has the fastest overall movement speed compared to anything else (66 for the initial value, compared to around 53/56 for normal/cat form), although I didn't accurately test jump kicking as I didn't find a good pattern to it, the highest speed it gets is 42.
Magical ticket wise, you should probably manipulate so you can get one or two in the forest that follows the monastery, unless you planned to pick up additional tickets around the place instead of buying them.
For now, that's about all I can think of in terms of things that would be of relevance.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
All at once:
I changed my mind and I'm not going to go for the boss medals. The first boss I thought I was losing just 8 frames (one rapier stab) to save 5 MP for Magnes. It turns out I also lose a bit more time while setting myself up for another combo. Later bosses I'm not going to be hit because I'll be using Dominus Agony, so maybe I'll get a few by coincidence.
The Death Ring! How did I forget to test that? That's my favorite item in the game. I found it on my first playthrough and I loved the description. It sounds like a blessing, but it's really a curse. I didn't fall for it because the huge bonus was a giveaway. But I hope someone out there thought "OH BOY!", equipped it, and lost 15 minutes of progress. (The item description is "Hits may cause instant death." Evil designers.)
I was testing more random crap, and I discovered that I couldn't use a Ticket after I killed Albus. The game forced me to walk out of the mansion for no good reason. It's as if they locked the Tickets while you're fighting the boss (normal) but then forgot to unlock it afterwards? Lame. So that beings my Ticket count down to 5. I better test my other Ticket opportunities, too.
I tested my proposed Volaticus skip with the cat morph because of its Y button move. Before I figured out to unmorph and sleeve over to Rapidus Fio in midair I was actually doing: morph+jump, Y button for great distance, unmorph right before I drop too far, and double jump with Shanoa for height. But it wasn't good enough. The machine morph I ignored. The bat I assumed would work just the same as the cat when it comes to jumping and unmorphing in mid air. But you never know. I might as well test it.
Did anyone else test Dracula and notice that normal weapons wouldn't hurt him? Yes, he is Dracula after all. But how would you win hard mode with a level cap of 1? I've only played Shanoa's game twice with my thumbs and neither was a hard mode game. Anyway, while I was testing Dracula, I definitely intended to test glyph unions versus just hacking away at him. But hammer level 3 passed right through him. So did Nitesco+Nitesco. And I'm sure that when I played the game with my thumbs that I used those against him. So I thought I was just too low of a level? Maybe my attack stat had to be higher. So I leveled up to 13 and my attacks were still passing through him. Is this a normal feature of the game? (EDIT: Figured it out. Hit his head. Duh. Which means that both he and Eligor basically can't be comboed.)
I was testing more random crap, and I discovered that I couldn't use a Ticket after I killed Albus. The game forced me to walk out of the mansion for no good reason. It's as if they locked the Tickets while you're fighting the boss (normal) but then forgot to unlock it afterwards? Lame. So that beings my Ticket count down to 5. I better test my other Ticket opportunities, too.
that doesn't sound right. you should be able to use a ticket after beating him. if you can't do it from the boss room, you should be able to exit that room and then warp out.
Not my point, I meant testing the whole route, due to dodging vs killing and such.
Also, Vol/Melio Arcus combos just fine ;) but it's not worth it. ...Melio doesn't track properly on either, iirc.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Good news. Leveling up everywhere is totally irrelevant. That means all I need to do is get to each boss as fast as possible. I'm sure of this because every level up between 10 and 15 was adding 5 damage to my Death Ring + Agony boosted lightsaber attacks, and just one damage to random enemies. Also, Minera Prison Island is the last map where I'll be able to kill anything. Shortly after that it'll be impractical to kill stubborn enemies even if I'd rather save HP for Agony. This means that I shouldn't pick up any weapon that I don't use on a boss, like the Axe. And especially not axe level 1. (Yeah, yeah, "We told you so". That's fine. I deserve it.)
So I tested the Death Ring. :D Of course it rocked!
Lv 10 lightsaber = 108
Lv 10 LS + Agony = 563
Lv 10 LS + Death Ring = 563
Lv 10 LS + Agony + Death Ring = 866! HOO-ray!
Needing only 12 swings (11.3) to kill Dracula is a huge boost. That's also with no Wind Ring. It's very likely now that I'll be able to kill Eligor and Blackmore with just hearts and save the refreshes for Dracula. Blackmore has high HP, but a double weakness to the lightsaber. Eligor has only 3000 HP, but both a weakness and a resistance. I don't know how that will work. I need to see if I can double jump (or triple jump) and swing at his head without going through his script. Everyone else is just whackwhackwhackwhack dead, except Wallman who is just dead. If I need a maximum heart capacity of 120 to be able to swing 8 times then I only need 7 heart MAX UPs, which is also great. I might be able to skip the one in the Monastery. (Cue another "We told you so.")
All 6 of my Ticket opportunities do work. I went back to check, and I can ticket my way out of all 6 rooms just fine. In Ecclesia I have to walk through the boss door first. I probably panicked earlier and forgot to absorb Dominus.
Using Volaticus on Dracula is like taunting him. Dracula's first phase consists of him doing but teleporting and shooting fireballs at you. (Like Gannondorf, except he doesn't turn into a giant mutant for the final round. Oh wait.) But if you activate Volaticus he will immediately cancel his attack (!) and purple flames will shoot from ceiling to floor for massive damage. It's that silly. Then Dracula teleports away faster than usual. The developers hate Volaticus. It's the dumbest glyph in the whole game. By the time you get it your map percentage is like 99.2% and they specifically ban it from the only optional map where it would be useful. It's only needed in 1 required place and 1 optional place. And since you can't use Volaticus on Dracula I don't know why it even exists. Perhaps for backtracking? It's still a waste of something so potentially cool.
It's only needed in 1 required place and 1 optional place. And since you can't use Volaticus on Dracula I don't know why it even exists. Perhaps for backtracking? It's still a waste of something so potentially cool.
Exactly same as Hippogryph in DoS, sadly.
When's the next WIP? I'm very much looking forward to it.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
