We've seen an
"X, 100%" TAS on our site. Now here's a run with the opposite goal, beating Mega Man X4 without magic shoes, magic gloves, etc., but only with the magic of TAS.
Game Objectives
- Completing the game with no hearts, E/W/Ex-Tanks, or any piece of armor.
- Movie stops after skipping the final animation. Since all the previous animations are skipped, I think I might as well skip the final animation, and get to the ending credits faster.
Low% and 100%, How Different?
This low% TAS should be about 1 minute shorter than
sparky's 100% TAS. Movie time seems to show this run being 20 seconds longer than sparky's 100% TAS, but mostly because of the emulator difference. BizHawk has a really long intro, and produces way more lag frames. It's hard for me to compare and calculate it accurately, because lag differences happen everywhere.
In general, regular stages are usually faster, because no need to spend time collecting items, making regular gameplay more fluid, but boss fights usually take longer.
Arm Parts make the most difference, because it allows charged special weapon shots, as well as four Charge Shots at once, making them very useful against bosses like Sigma first form, Cyber Peacock, General, and Split Mushroom. Body Parts reduces damage, not only the amount but also time, and Nova Strike does more damage on almost all bosses, especially Storm Owl. Foot Parts are also useful on bosses like Web Spider and Gunner Sigma.
Boss order is different from sparky's TAS. But at this time, I'm not sure what the perfect boss order for 100% would be. In comparison, the route for low% TAS is much more straightforward.
The difference could be larger, because I'd predict that Nova Strike would be used more often for future 100% TAS.
I think it would be great if we could have "X, 100%", "X, low%", and "Zero, any%" as categories on TASVideos for this game.
How I Started This Project
At first, I was looking for improvements over sparky's 100% TAS, and I found some. But the main issue for me in the 100% TAS is route (or boss order) choice. Some routes may end up really close, so I have to test many boss fights in various ways.
But then I thought, while having to test those boss fights anyway, I might do a low% TAS first. During the whole month of making this TAS, I've learned a lot, and hopefully, all the improvements I've found can be used in the future 100% TAS.
New Tricks
Faster Charge
By pressing square and triangle cleverly, 1 frame can be saved for every 2 continuous charged shots, and 2 frames can be saved for every 3 continuous charged shots.
It's used a lot in this run, but it only works when no special weapon is selected, so when you see I changed to no weapon mode, usually it's because of this.
Soul Body of Death
Mainly used for Storm Owl miniboss (Generaid Core), Storm Owl fights, and breaking boxes during the final boss fight.
Normally, Soul Body does 1 damage every 9 frames, but if you combine it with direction change, it can do 5 damage every 9 frames.
Frost Tower Double Damage on Jet Stingray
Normally Frost Tower does 4 damage on Jet Stingray. Because the frozen animation takes a long time, hardly any speedrunner or TASer actually used it.
But when Frost Tower and Jet Stingray move reletively, every 1/9 chance, double damage occurs. This saves lots of time in this run, and it would save time in 100% TAS as well.
Lighting Web Pause Cancel
Used to skip Split Mushroom miniboss (Tentoroid).
Pausing is the only known way of canceling Lightning Web without touching it, except using Nova Strike.
With this technique, you could climb high anywhere. I've tested it almost everywhere, but unfortunately, the only time save I've found is this miniboss skip, because most ceilings in this game are sealed off.
Faster Wall Climbing with Rising Fire
Surprisingly, Rising Fire can sometimes save time during regular gameplay. It's used once in Slash Beast stage 2 where there's no train, and once in Web Spider stage 1, to make X climb on the wall faster.
Volcano (Magma Dragoon)
Stage 1 contains several improvements over sparky's TAS, including climbing the last slope without taking damage.
Snow Base (Frost Walrus)
Stage 1 miniboss (Eyezard) is very hard to deal with without using charged Rising Fire attack. Unfortunately, the miniboss can't be killed in one cycle, because it will close after being hit too many times by regular shots.
Stage 2 is 50 frames faster than sparky's TAS, due to a different strategy of using charged shots to break the ice blocks.
Marine Base (Jet Stingray)
The strategy for Jet Stingray fight is to use 2 fully charged shots at first, and then several double damage Frost Tower, and another 2 fully charged shots, and finish it with one Frost Tower.
Screen Y position affects where Jet Stingray shows up above, so screen scrolling is used to make Jet Stingray appear faster, saving time than only doing it at the top of the screen.
Military Train (Slash Beast)
There are frame rules at the end of stage 1 and the middle of stage 2 when the train stops, so I have several frames to spare for entertainment.
I love this stage because it has the most enemies, and I got many lives through luck manipulation (although still quite rare).
Memorial Hall (Colonel)
3 charged shots are used along with Frost Tower. Colonel sometimes loses invincibility during change of moves, sometimes for only 1 frame. So every opportunity needs to be used to maximize the damage of Frost Tower.
Jungle (Web Spider)
Web Spider quick kill without X's foot parts is really tough, because every Twin Slasher shot counts, with almost no room for error.
Web Spider has a maximum 64 frame window above the screen with no invincibility time, starting after hitting it when it is just about to go above the screen.
The whole setup also requires heavy RNG manipulation, because the RNG that makes the Spider drops to a certain vertical position, without web attack, and then reappears on the same required spot is quite rare.
Bio Laboratory (Split Mushroom)
In stage 1, the vertical room takes quite some effort. New strategies are used, ending up 37 frames faster than sparky's TAS, despite not having charged Rising Fire shots.
Stage 2 has a long vertical auto-scroller room, so I tried my best to entertain.
I've tested multiple strategies for Split Mushroom, and the fastest solution uses the period when Split Mushroom is in the sky and maximizes the damage of Lightning Web.
Cyber Space (Cyber Peacock)
Both stage 1 and 2 contains small improvements over sparky's 100% TAS.
Soul Body is used 3 times in Cyber Peacock fight, because although Soul Body does greater damage, using Soul Body would cause Cyber Peacock to disappear longer than usual, so charged shots are the main weapon against Cyber Peacock.
Taking damage twice is to cancel Soul Body, so 1 frame can be saved from faster charge each time.
Air Force (Storm Owl)
This is the first TAS that finishes stage 1 without using the Eagle Ride Armor. It's 69 frames faster than sparky's 100% TAS. Although I like the Eagle Ride Armor, not using it can also be an interesting strategy for TAS only.
Stage 2 has awesome usage of Soul Body against miniboss (Generaid Core) and Storm Owl. Storm Owl loses invincibility for about 64 frames after getting hit by Aiming Laser and a bullet shot afterward. But it flies away very fast, so I can't kill it in one cycle, so I took damage to cancel Soul Body, and add another Aiming Laser and a half-charged shot to finish the fight.
Space Port (Colonel)
For the second Colonel fight, I used a different strategy than the first one, because this time Colonel makes his moves faster. For the new strategy, I manipulated the time and place firing Frost Tower to make Colonel skip the blocking animation, which saves time.
Final Weapon (Double, General)
Lightning Web is cleverly used throughout stage 1 and 2. Sometimes it's faster to destroy the giant machine, and sometimes it's faster to skip it.
I'm lucky to witness a graphic glitch of the last enemy killed before meeting General.
Boss Rush
Magma Dragoon: I used Lightning Web in the Magma Dragoon fight, and it saves 20 frames because it allows time for another fully charged shot.
Storm Owl: Unfortunately it's slower than the first Storm Owl fight, because I tried lots of plans but can't get the 4 bullet shots to hit Storm Owl in place during the Soul Body shot. The setup requires very precise bullet shots, otherwise, it won't cause extra damage. Maybe it's because of asymmetric left and right physic, or some unknown reasons, so I had to use a fully charged shot to finish Storm Owl.
Split Mushroom: A fully charged shot is used first instead of Lightning Web, because unlike the first Split Mushroom fight, this time it's higher above the ground, costing more time if hit with Lightning Web.
Jet Stingray: One extra double damage Frost Tower is used instead of more fully charged shots, because this time the ceiling is wide open, so X can hit Jet Stingray much faster than before, with no need for screen scrolling.
Cyber Peacock: 2 frames slower before, because X couldn't afford to get hurt anymore to save time after the Soul Body shots.
Sigma
Gunner Sigma: Soul Body is lined up perfectly after getting hurt, without any delay or time loss.
Earth Sigma: It has 2 attacking modes. Spike Attack mode is slightly faster, but without charged shots or Nova Strike, to end the fight in only 2 attack cycles, I manipulated luck to get Spike Attack first, and then Slime Body attack. During the Slime Body attack, I broke the blue "mini body" because it allows X to move more to the right after the fight ends.
About RNG Manipulation and Lag Reduction
This run has a great amount of RNG manipulation, often to reduce the lag during the "READY" animation. But I'm not for extreme lag reduction.
Some super rare RNG values can save about 8 frames per stage, they are almost impossible to calculate (some require planning way ahead), and very painful to manipulate; even if they are achievable, entertainment and other things need to be sacrificed.
In my view, I don't find lag reduction more important than entertainment, so for this movie, I think a decent amount of lag reduction is enough.
Suggested screenshot:
Special thanks to Bernka and sparky. From watching their TAS, I've learned a lot.
Special thanks to SCWeeb, currently the Mega Man X4 speedrun world record holder for many categories. His low% speedrun inspired and motivated me a lot.
If people like this TAS, I may consider starting a new "X, 100%" TAS project.
feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Great run, it also got good feedback, and aiming for lowest in-game completion is a traditional goal, so accepting as a new branch.
