Here is a new version of my Blaster Master run.
Old Time: 34:11
New Time: 33:18
Quick Info:
- Aims for the fastest time
- No warps (none are available)
- Collects only necessary items (and a few stray powerups left by enemies)
- Manipulates luck
- Manipulates enemy spawns and their powerup drops
- Manipulates attack patterns of enemies and bosses
- Abuses glitches
- Dungeon Map Glitches
- Walks over instant death tiles by abusing invulnerability caused by taking damage
- Walks "behind" (north) of walls that appear to have damage causing spikes but don't due to poor map design
- Pause Abuse
- Pauses to skip the scrolling animation between rooms
- Pauses to activate the infamous grenade pause glitch during boss fights where bosses are still damaged even though the game is paused
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death as a shortcut
- Uses continues as a shortcut
- Accurate shooting
Overview of the Game: Blaster Master follows Jason as he searches the underground for his lost pet Fred. Game play is divided into 8 levels, and each level consists of the overworld and dungeons. In the overworld you use your tank (and sometimes Jason) to find the correct dungeon entrance that leads to that level's boss. After defeating the boss you collect a powerup for the tank that allows you reach the next level. Here's an overview of the levels...
Description of Powerups:
- Hyber Beam - Allows you to destroy the miniboss on the wall guarding level 2.
- Crusher Beam - Allows you to destroy blocks that are blocking level 3.
- Hover Mechanics - Allows you to fly above the start of the game to level 4.
- Key - Allows you to unlock a wall to level 5.
- Dive Part - Allows the tank to swim to level 6.
- Wall 1 - Allows the tank to climb the sides of walls to level 7.
- Wall 2- Allows the tank to walk on the ceilings of rooms to level 8.
Wall 2 Note: Once you get Wall 2 it makes controlling the tank more difficult. Once getting Wall 2 if you walk off an edge you will cling to it instead of simply falling down. This can be avoided by drifting off an edge instead of holding either right or left to walk off of it.
Continues: In order to save time and aleviate the boredom of having to watch a lot of backtracking I use continues as a shortcut. When you continue you are warped to the start of the current level (and thus the entrance to the previous level). I use my four continues after defeating the bosses of levels 3, 4, 5, and 7.
Pausing Between Rooms: If you pause while the game is scrolling from one room to the next it will skip the scrolling animation and put you in the next room. I use frame advance to pause/unpause at the earliest possible frame.
Grenade Pause Glitch: Bosses 2, 4, 6, and 7 can be defeated by this infamous glitch. When you pause while fighting a boss the game doesn't go to the pause screen. If you pause it while a grenade is hitting certain bosses the grenade will continue to hit the boss while the game is paused. This makes defeating bosses 2, 4, 6, and 7 quite simple.
General:
- (Improvement) - Uses frame advance to pause at the earliest possible frame to skip the scrolling animation inbetween rooms
- (Improvement) - Uses frame advance to shoot backwards without turning around or losing momentum
- (Improvement) - Uses frame advance to select weapons while paused
- (Improvement) - Better use of special weapons
- Shoots as many enemies as possible with accurate shots to make the run more entertaining. Doesn't destroy enemies that would cause slowdown or affect randomness in an undesirable way.
Level 1:
Overworld:
- (Improvement) - Destroys more enemies in the first room to avoid slowdown
- (Improvement) - Doesn't get hit by the miniboss guarding level 2. I don't shoot the enemy near the miniboss because doing so would cause his projectiles to hit me.
- Swims to the dungeon entrance as Jason because Jason swims much faster than the tank.
- I glitch a few frames up the ladder by jumping off the ladder into the wall and back onto the ladder again.
- I glitch up to the top of the ladder by jumping.
Dungeon:
- (Improvement) - Faster route through the dungeon by destroying blocks in the second room to move north while walking west
- (Improvement) - Faster and flashier boss fight by using frame advance to shoot behind me as I walk south, allowing me to constantly fire grenades at the boss.
Level 2:
Overworld:
- I destroy (or don't destroy) mines depending on if doing so would cause particles that would get in my way.
Dungeon:
- I walk over spikes, which causes damage, but allows me to reach the door to the next room faster.
- Uses the grenade pause glitch on the boss.
Level 3:
Overworld:
- (Improvement) - Manipulates randomness in the second room so I don't have to jump to avoid landing on the worm.
- (Improvement) - Destroys more enemies
- (Improvement) - I demonstrate the glitch that I still have control of Jason when he bounces after taking lethal damage from a fall.
- I kill myself by jumping to my death as Jason after defeating the boss to use a continue to warp myself back to the start of level 3.
Dungeon:
- (Improvement) - I improved the speed of the boss fight by beginning to walk to the location of the next spawn of the boss as soon as I fire the last grenade necessary to destroy the current spawn.
- (Improvement) - I improved the room before the boss by destroying the blocks much more accurately.
Level 2 to Level 1:
- Takes a shortcut to the entrance of level 1 by destroying blocks with the powerup from the second boss.
Level 1 to Level 4:
- (Improvement) - Manipulated randomness to improve the collection of hover points
- (Improvement) - Started the flight to the entrance of level 4 earlier.
- (Improvement) - Used frame advance to improve jumping up the platforms in the first room back from level 3. This room looks a lot better.
Level 4:
Overworld:
- (Improvement) - Faster route through the sewers.
- (Improvement) - Faster route in the second room by falling down on the left side instead of the right.
- (Improvement) - I activate hover earlier to fly over the wall before the dungeon entrance. I am able to do this because I have more hover points left over from flying to level 4. In the previous version I *JUST* had enough hover points to make it over this wall, thus I had to jump from the highest ground level.
- Jumps up the two ladders in this level to save time.
- I kill myself by jumping out of the tank as Jason to use one of my lives. This is in order to use a continue at the end of level 5. Level 5 doesn't have a very convenient way to kill yourself after defeating the boss so I use one of my lives here.
- In order to unlock the door to the next level I must leave the tank, climb up a ladder as Jason, and then work my way down to unlock the door. To save time I jump down to unlock the door. This kills me, thus using the second of my three lives. This saves time because I don't want to safely work my way back down to the keyhole, and it saves time killing myself after the level 5 boss.
Dungeon:
- Uses the grenade pause glitch on the boss.
- Takes damage to trigger unvurnurability to walk accross instant death water tiles. I use this to both take shortcuts and collect a powerup on an island which would otherwise be impossible to get to.
Level 5:
Overworld:
- (Improvement) - Takes damage by getting hit by the bullets in the small corridor right before the second room. This looks messy but getting hit jumps you ahead a few frames, plus you don't seem to lose that much momentum. In my old run I actually stopped, landed, and ducked to avoid getting hit which, in retrospect, looks worse than getting hit.
- Destroys enemies to avoid slowdown.
Dungeon:
- (Improvement) - Improved boss fight. I take damage by standing in the boss, which allows me to hit him easier than if I fought him from the south. I also end the boss fight with one health left, which saves time when killing myself after the fight.
Level 6:
Overworld:
- (Improvement) - Uses frame advance to destroy blocks in many rooms faster and more accurately, which allows for faster movement through the room.
- Jumps at the beginning of each room to gain momemtum on the ice.
Dungeon:
- (Improvement) - Uses frame advance for better destruction of the blocks. The third room looks a LOT better as I manage to continually move west while gradually heading south.
- Walks on damage causing spikes to take shortcuts through the dungeon.
- Uses the grenade pause glitch on the boss.
Level 6 -> Level 5, Level 5 -> Level 4, Level 4 -> Level 1:
Level 1 -> Level 2:
- (Improvement) - More accurate jumping in the room with the entrance to level 4.
Level 2 -> Level 7:
Level 7:
- Overworld
- (Improvement) - Destroys blocks more efficiently.
- Dungeon
- (Improvement) - Walks over lava more efficiently
- Absues invurnability caused by taking damage to walk over instant death tiles.
- Uses the grenade pause glitch on the boss.
Level 8:
- Overworld
- (Improvement) - Better path in many rooms
- (Improvement) - Better destruction of blocks
- Goes through spikes that causes damage to save time.
- Dungeon
- (Improvement) - Better destruction of blocks in the room before the boss
- (Improvement) - Only gets hit by the plutonium boss once. I get hit to continually attack the boss with grenades instead of taking the time to avoid taking damage.
Why this speedrun should be published:
- This game demonstrates a number of glitches, accurate shootingg, and is a great improvement (both in speed and in aesthetics) from the currently published run.
That's about it, thanks for watching!
Bisqwit: Editing to update the changed submission ID to the forum post...
