The one thing you have to remember is that we can't cheat TOO much. The population has to be over 200 (200 exact doesn't cut it) to get the scroll they find while fishing.
...ok, watched it. First, that wasn't the cheat I was thinking of.
Second, using that route you'd have to get your one scroll in Filmoa from the woods and miss the fishing one. However the severe population loss will come back to haunt you later. The fishing scroll has to be gotten with a population over 200 and before Act II becomes available (your route will prevent that from happening).
Personally, I don't think your edit to my route is a good decision.
I tried another little strategy, but right now while it boosts the initial population by 4, by Growth 6 I'm down 4. -_-;;
One thing about the up/down construction at the beginning is seems you have to go up first, then down, then back up. Going down then up seems to cause me to get that stupid house in the fire zone.
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From the Max Population guide, I found the RAM values for the 4 lairs. What's interesting is that they're suppose to be balanced (from what I read in the guide), but they're not.
Filmoa (Initial #s)
7F96B8 - 200 (W White Dragon Lair)
7F96BA - 100 (E Bat Lair)
7F96BC - 100 (S Bat Lair)
7F96BE - 100 (NW Bat lair)
Bloodpool (Initial #s)
7F96C0 - 100 (SW Red Devil Lair)
7F96C2 - 50 (NW Bat Lair)
7F96C4 - 90 (S White Dragon Lair)
7F96C6 - 90 (E White Dragon Lair)
Casandra (Initial #s)
7F96C8 - 110 (NE White Dragon Lair)
7F96CA - 125 (N Red Devil Lair)
7F96CC - 125 (SE Red Devil Lair)
7F96CE - 90 (Central Bat Lair)
Aitos (Initial #s)
7F96D0 - 80 (NW White Dragon Lair)
7F96D2 - 80 (Central Skull Lair)
7F96D4 - 80 (NE White Dragon Lair)
7F96D6 - 80 (SW White Dragon Lair)
Marahna (Initial #s)
7F96D8 - 50 (NW Red Devil Lair)
7F96DA - 60 (SW Bat Lair)
7F96DC - 50 (E White Dragon Lair)
7F96DE - 50 (Central White Dragon Lair)
Northwall (Initial #s)
7F96E0 - 30 (E Skull Lair)
7F96E2 - 30 (Central Skull Lair)
7F96E4 - 60 (S White Dragon Lair)
7F96E6 - 60 (NW Red Devil Lair)
Note: These variables don't empty out if you seal a lair, only when you actually kill a monster. The counter will go down if you kill the monster of the lair even if the lair itself is sealed. You can earn yourself an extra soul to the counter by NOT killing the last standing monster for a lair until after the lair is sealed.
Example: Filmoa has a soul count of 201. The last lair (WD) has 207 monsters. After sealing the lair, the soul counter is 152,1 (aka 408) with the last WD left alive. After killing that, the WD lair count goes down 1 (to 206) and the soul counter goes up 1 to 153,1 (aka 409).
Population counter is the following:
7E0218/19 - Global Population
7E021A/1B - Local Population
7E021C/1D - Filmoa Population
7E021E/1F - Bloodpool Population
7E0220/21 - Casandra Population
7E0222/23 - Aitos Population
7E0224/25 - Marahna Population
7E0226/26 - Northwall Population
Still looking to be playing with the soul counter:
7F9EFA/7F9EFB
(To no surprise, this doesn't go up if the enemy goes off screen.)
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http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5472/SirVG-Strategy4.smv
Play-around with some soul watching. Make sure to have the following on:
7F96B8 - (W White Dragon Lair)
7F96BA - (E Bat Lair)
7F96BC - (S Bat Lair)
7F96BE - (NW Bat lair)
7F9EFA - Primary Soul Count
7F9EFB - Secondary Soul Count (each # = 256)