- No Warps (no warps available in the game)
- Only necessary items (and a few health power-ups left by monsteres)
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death to save time
- Uses continues to save time
- Manipulates luck
- Exploits glitchees
Blaster Master is quite a long game (with the current time attack at 42:57). The game consists of two main modes, when you are in the tank in an overworld kind of mode, and when you are jason exploring dungeons (where the bosses are.) You can also use jason while in the overworld but he's really weak and slow. Here's some techniques that I used make this speed run fast:
Taking Damage:
- As the tank there is maybe one instance in level 8 where I must get hit as the tank or else sacrifice a lot of time to avoid a worm on the floor. I also get hit while collecting hover points to reach level 4 in order to affect randomess/luck.
- As the tank in level 8 I take damage by falling through spikes to save time.
- As jason I get hit to use a glitch where you can walk over water and lava in dungeons when you are blinking from having been damaged. Normally water and lava tiles are instant kill tiles but walking over them allows huge shortcuts, especially in dungeons 4 and 7.
- As jason I walk over spikes in dungeons to cut corners and save time.
- As jason I take damage to defeat boss 5 faster. This is because at the beginning I stand in front of him and shoot him and don't waste time to shoot/avoid his projectiles. For the second part of the fight the boss moves left and I follow him left, even though I am in his claw and continue to get damaged, it is faster than if I were to follow him and not take damage.
- As jason I take damage to defeat the second to last boss faster. This is because I don't take the time to avoid/shoot his projectiles.
Death/Continues:
- I use my four continues in order to be warped to the beginning of a level. I use them after defeating bosses 3, 4, 5, and 7. This saves time and keeps the movie interesting as it eliminates backtracking through levels you have already seen/completed.
- I die after defeating the boss of level 3 by jumping to my death as jason in the overworld.
- I die after defeating the boss of level 4 by falling into water in the dungeon.
- I kill myself as jason by jumping on the way to level 5 from level 4. This seems random but it is faster than killing myself by enemies after defeating the level 5 boss. (After the level 5 boss there is no instant kill tiles or a jump outside of the dungeon)
- On the way to level 5 from level 4 in the overworld there is a section where you must use jason to unlock a door from the other side. This involves climbing a ladder and then working your way down. Instead I decided to jump down and unlock the door as I land, even if the fall kills me. This saves the time of working my way down and saves time of killing myself at the end of level 5.
- I take damage at the level 5 boss to both defeat the boss easier and make killing myself via damage easier after defeating the boss.
Glitches:
- The infamous pause trick where you pause the game at a boss while a grenade is damaging the boss. While paused the boss will continue to take damage. This is used on bosses 2, 4, 6, and 7.
- Uses a glitch where you can walk over water/lava as jason in the dungeons when you have been damaged. This saves a lot of time on the dungeons in levels 4 and 7 as it allows huge shortcuts.
Interesting Game Features:
- In dungeons I walk on tiles that appear to be damage tiles without taking damage. This occurs when a damage tile is north of a wall, you can walk inbetween the wall and the damage tiles.
- I pause/unpause the game when transitioning from room to room. This saves time as if you pause/unpause the game while changing rooms, the scrolling that normally takes place while changing rooms is avoided. This also helps when it is difficult to avoid getting damaged by an enemy when you enter a room - if you enter it earlier than normal the you'll be able to shoot the enemy. I also use this trick when selecting special weapons as it saves time rather than switching special weapons in the middle of a room.
Manipulating Luck:
- Luck was manipulated to make the collection of hover points faster. (You need hover power to reach level 4 from the beginning of level 1 and to reach the boss's dungeon of level 4)
- Affect bosses movements (especially in level 1, 4, and the final boss)
- Affect how enemies appear. For example, I manipulated luck in the dungeon of level 2 to avoid what would be an unavoidable hit when I entered a new room.
- Affect how mines explode
Swimming:
- The tank is very slow in the water until you get the upgrade after level 5. To avoid unnecessary time in the water I avoid swimming with the tank in level 1 to reach the dungeon. I also get out of the tank as fast as possible in level 5 (after I destroy the wall blocking the way to the next section of the level.) This saves a lot of time.
Ladders:
- In level 4 there are two ladders (one to the dungeon and one to get to the other side of a door that jason must unlock.) I jump up the ladders by jumping, grabbing the ladder, and jumping again. This is faster than simply climbing up the ladder.
- In levels 1 and 4 when I reach the top of a ladder and the above trick doesn't work, I jump and kind of glitch the game into warping me up a bit.
Slowdown:
- I make sure to kill enemies in sections where the game will slowdown if too many enemies are on the screen. This includes level 3 and the bomb-laying machines, level 5 while swimming as jason with the enemy swimmers. I also avoid killing certian enemies (mines) to avoid unnecessary projectiles and slowdown.
Accurate Shooting:
- While both in overworld and dungeon mode I keep my shooting accurate. This makes the run look better than firing unnecessary shots.
That's about it, enjoy!
Bisqwit: Thanks! Sounds interesting.
