f23518 *** STAGE 1 ***
f24481 Segment 0: 963
f25065 Segment 1: 584
f25161 Segment 2: 96
f25371 Segment 3: 210
f26131 Segment 4: 760
f26627 Segment 5: 496
f27439 Segment 6: 812
f27675 Segment 7: 236
f29094 Segment 8:1419
=== END OF STAGE 1 (Frames: 5576) ===
Turns out, this stage was on the good side of the frame rule before the 12 frames, so then it went onto the bad side. I poked about for stray frames and got on the good side again. I also exited the boss a frame earlier, but this will be lost due to animation frame rule on the next stage. 17 frames delay right now, hopefully Stage 4 will prove receptive to 16 of these (and again, that last 1 is lost to frame rule).
2 frames on Segment 0 was saved. One of them, apparently, was because I started a dash a frame late, so I enjoyed an extra frame of 0 speed at the tail end of the previous dash. Fixed. Also, some complicated jump mechanics got me another 2 pixels, which ended up worth a frame.
After that, I somehow ended up at a different height on the transition to the final horizontal segment. A few adjustments were made to deal with the change, and apparently it's faster.
Stage 4... After I get rid of the intentional delay, I'll have items to manipulate all over again. This was a tricky stage to get right. We'll see if I can lose zero frames on item drops.
Also, copied in Team 3's input to the start of the end stages.