Any% Hard runs

2004-04-21 01:17:38 am

lol no way

I've recently decided that in the future I would enjoy doing an any% hard speed run. But, I don't really know how I would go about doing this. I've heard that doing Kraid first and skipping Acid Worm ala HBJing is the way to go, is this true? Any help would be appreciated.

Thread title:

Radix

2004-04-21 01:37:24 am

Quote from ajbolt89:

I've recently decided that in the future I would enjoy doing an any% hard speed run. But, I don't really know how I would go about doing this. I've heard that doing Kraid first and skipping Acid Worm ala HBJing is the way to go, is this true? Any help would be appreciated.

Well I've said that kraid first would have to be the way to go for hard because of supers. If you go to kraid first you can get the crateria super, then the two in ridley, and then the brinstar one to still have 4 for tourian. Then two in chozodia and you still have six for a mecha ridley slaughter. Going ridley first you just can't get that many ... The other issue is how many missiles do you get, is it worth the time to get more out-of-the-way missiles?

nate

2004-04-21 10:19:37 am

only on metroid 2002:

a reply to a forum question ends with a question.

Xin

2004-04-21 02:05:04 pm

Well, obviously you'd want a lot of supers for Hard like Radix said. Kraid first would be the best for that. For skipping the zip-line, it isn't really worth it to get the items near the acid worm, so yeah, I'd do it. If you've seen the route GC04 and Radix have agreed on, the high-jump boots are included. I should test if the screw attack is worth it, for Normal it isn't, but Hard...

ajbolt89

2004-04-21 06:44:19 pm

lol no way

Well, highjump isn't too out of the way either though, what with the booser near the door... maybe when exiting Ridley, jump up to the highjump door (getting the missiles in the process) and get the highjump, then go back through where the missile was, missile the wall next to the booster and boost the rest of the way up... would that make sense? Or would I want to get it earlier?

Xin

2004-04-21 08:25:04 pm

Quote from ajbolt89:

Well, highjump isn't too out of the way either though, what with the booser near the door... maybe when exiting Ridley, jump up to the highjump door (getting the missiles in the process) and get the highjump, then go back through where the missile was, missile the wall next to the booster and boost the rest of the way up... would that make sense? Or would I want to get it earlier?

That's what I was thinking. Have you seen GameCube04's run?

ajbolt89

2004-04-21 09:12:26 pm

lol no way

I watched the first couple segs, but then had to go to bed, and never got around to watching the rest, but from the ones I saw I know I could beat it. Teehee.

Radix

2004-04-22 01:04:34 am

Quote from Xin:

I should test if the screw attack is worth it, for Normal it isn't, but Hard...

Well by going to Kraid first you have speed booster, so after leaving ridley you can get screw attack via the launcher and then get high jump on the way right.

SonicandTails218

2004-04-22 02:56:19 pm

Quote from njahnke:

only on metroid 2002:

a reply to a forum question ends with a question.

Not true. I've been to other forums, and they reply with questions. A reply without a question usually kills the topic there.

JaggerG

2009-08-23 01:20:13 am

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

For those uninitiated, there used to be several members on the forums long, long ago. This thread shares the concerns of five individuals, never to be heard of again on these forums. Let's take some lessons from young Ajbolt89 the brave, headmaster Radix, high-chancellor nate, hacker Xin, and forum regular ST218, and begin our journey from the moment they left off.

So yeah, guys, I've been attempting an any% hard run these past couple days, and either I really suck, or Hard mode is freaking hard! Dude, half the time I get killed in the hives room, a third of the time, Charge Beamst runs off, and the rest of the time I either fail the HBJ or get killed by the hoppers right before the first save station.

I have never had this much trouble on an any% Normal run, and can usually single segment the entire game in a decent time. But this is just much more than I've ever been used to. Has anyone else tried this run?

tomatobob

2009-08-23 01:28:06 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I tried this a few times back in the day, I played it waaaay more carefully than normal runs. I think I even grabbed Varia early in some of them and certainly didn't go Kraid before Power Grip. I should try one again, I remember having a lot of fun with hard mode.

BioSpark

2009-08-23 02:15:32 am

i don't think i've ever really done an any% hard run. for sure i've done 100% hard and i attempted low% hard. i believe i got stuck on iron ted and gave up.

MASTER-88

2009-08-23 07:46:36 pm

Speedrunner

My personal best hard any-% time is 35.52 using Ridley first route.

I think Kraid first is better on hard mode, but i personally can,t make HBJ well enought.

Yeah i agree hard mode is much harder. ajbolt89 time is as well very beatable. I recommend use save point before Tourian metroids and you can manipulated luck take more SM refill drops. I think couple else possible time savers are skip long beam and screw attack. I know this will be hard, and i not even know save these ones any time. Because screw attack pay some time back in Tourian and chozodia. Long beam pay back in Hive room.

I personally think sub 33 minutes is possible time on hard mode. But i am quite sure Ridley first route is not good like Kraid first route. But surely sub 35 is possible time to reach even used Ridley first route.

JaggerG

2009-08-23 10:30:55 pm

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

Yeah but I doubt SA saves THAT much time. Maybe five seconds, tops. It's too big a detour. It's biggest bonus is that the exit is the Hello-Jump Boots room, but if you do get those, I'm still not convinced SA should be grabbed.

Long Beam I'm gonna strike out immediately. Even though I die a lot in the fly room, Long Beam doesn't save that much time in that room.

---

I have other concerns, though. I talked to spidey the other day and asked about maybe getting Charge Beam to use on the hives. On Normal mode, sure, it's totally pointless. You have too many missiles to care about charging. The only benefit is Psuedo-SA against Zoomers and charged shots against the hives. This costs 3 seconds and could potentially save several in Hard. You can only take ten hits in that room, and I tend to take at least seven from the first one. Those things keep blocking shots in Hard, making it take longer to kill them. >_< So I've started leaving Charge Beamst as soon as he dies and gong back to get the beam slightly sooner (those long room transitions don't count IIRC). I haven't timed it though.

Secondly, Hello-Jump. It's unnecessary in Kraid-first Normal, but to skip them means 3 supers entering Tourian. Sonic sez: That's no good. 3 supers means a 5-round MB fight insteadof the standard 4, and tougher times luck manipulating the Metroids. It also means you can't use super missiles on Iron Ted until you break the glass. The question here is, do the 2 missiles, the super missile and Hello-Jump make up for their significant detour? If so, is misfiring the Norfair escape shinespark better? It takes you to just under the missile, so you just have to climb up to the door, instead of overshooting it and coming back.

---

Frankly, I have some bigger concerns than the HBJ in this run. Odd, really, since that's most people's fear. Even Kraid himself is tougher to master on such minimal ammunition. I personally only have 6 missiles in that fight. :^/

Yeah but I doubt SA saves THAT much time. Maybe five seconds, tops. It's too big a detour. It's biggest bonus is that the exit is the Hello-Jump Boots room, but if you do get those, I'm still not convinced SA should be grabbed.

Long Beam I'm gonna strike out immediately. Even though I die a lot in the fly room, Long Beam doesn't save that much time in that room.

---

I have other concerns, though. I talked to spidey the other day and asked about maybe getting Charge Beam to use on the hives. On Normal mode, sure, it's totally pointless. You have too many missiles to care about charging. The only benefit is Psuedo-SA against Zoomers and charged shots against the hives. This costs 3 seconds and could potentially save several in Hard. You can only take ten hits in that room, and I tend to take at least seven from the first one. Those things keep blocking shots in Hard, making it take longer to kill them. >_< So I've started leaving Charge Beamst as soon as he dies and gong back to get the beam slightly sooner (those long room transitions don't count IIRC). I haven't timed it though.

Secondly, Hello-Jump. It's unnecessary in Kraid-first Normal, but to skip them means 3 supers entering Tourian. Sonic sez: That's no good. 3 supers means a 5-round MB fight insteadof the standard 4, and tougher times luck manipulating the Metroids. It also means you can't use super missiles on Iron Ted until you break the glass. The question here is, do the 2 missiles, the super missile and Hello-Jump make up for their significant detour? If so, is misfiring the Norfair escape shinespark better? It takes you to just under the missile, so you just have to climb up to the door, instead of overshooting it and coming back.

---

Frankly, I have some bigger concerns than the HBJ in this run. Odd, really, since that's most people's fear. Even Kraid himself is tougher to master on such minimal ammunition. I personally only have 6 missiles in that fight. :^/

tomatobob

2009-08-23 10:43:33 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Fighting Kraid with few missiles is easy, he gives you plenty of chances to refill and there's a safe spot you can use if you aren't going for records, for the hbj you really only get one shot at it which is why skipping acid worm is such a pain in the ass in the first place.

Long Beam might actually be worth considering on hard since the enemies you'd normally pseudo screw attack are upgraded to the point where doing that with the vanilla Charge Beam won't cut it. Long Beam at least makes your beam stronger and makes the hive room a cake walk.

I'd also like to add that this game did hard mode right and is a nice change from the typical route developers take.

JaggerG

Edit history:

JaggerG: 2009-08-24 05:15:14 am

2009-08-24 04:06:51 am

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

Indeed, I am proud of the developers for this.

But in regards to speedrunning, even though Kraid's safespot is the best place even in a speedrun, it's still a bitch to get all the shots in fast enough. He slashes your missiles right out the sky, and sometimes the damn fingernails block shots. You have to be really careful to time your shots so that they're not blocked, you can still easily refill from fingernails, and you actually keep up a near-constant rate of fire. Ideally, he should only take 17 missiles, and that generally requires no shots being blocked AND getting missile refills every drop.

The Long Beam takes far too long to actually get, and the hive room is the only place it saves any time. Once I get past the first hive, I'm usually fine. But I think one of the issues I have is trying to kill the flies after it. Maybe I shouldn't bother doing so, just take the missile and run. :^/ I'm probably dumb for not considering that in the first place.

But I have checkpoints so far. Best time out of Hive Room is 3:02, best time into Kraid elevator is 4:39 during the screen transition. Definitely beatable, but there you have it. :^/

EDIT: Yeah, I'm dumb, not killing the flies is loads faster. Best times, out of hiveroom in 2:33, 4:19 at Kraidevator.

EDIT: Saved right before Kraid at 6:03, 5 health remaining. If I do get a bad fight against Kraid, I'm probably gonna die because of it. :^D? Also yeah, I don't think I did get the HBJ first try this time, but I'm just glad to be alive.

Indeed, I am proud of the developers for this.

But in regards to speedrunning, even though Kraid's safespot is the best place even in a speedrun, it's still a bitch to get all the shots in fast enough. He slashes your missiles right out the sky, and sometimes the damn fingernails block shots. You have to be really careful to time your shots so that they're not blocked, you can still easily refill from fingernails, and you actually keep up a near-constant rate of fire. Ideally, he should only take 17 missiles, and that generally requires no shots being blocked AND getting missile refills every drop.

The Long Beam takes far too long to actually get, and the hive room is the only place it saves any time. Once I get past the first hive, I'm usually fine. But I think one of the issues I have is trying to kill the flies after it. Maybe I shouldn't bother doing so, just take the missile and run. :^/ I'm probably dumb for not considering that in the first place.

But I have checkpoints so far. Best time out of Hive Room is 3:02, best time into Kraid elevator is 4:39 during the screen transition. Definitely beatable, but there you have it. :^/

EDIT: Yeah, I'm dumb, not killing the flies is loads faster. Best times, out of hiveroom in 2:33, 4:19 at Kraidevator.

EDIT: Saved right before Kraid at 6:03, 5 health remaining. If I do get a bad fight against Kraid, I'm probably gonna die because of it. :^D? Also yeah, I don't think I did get the HBJ first try this time, but I'm just glad to be alive.

JaggerG

2010-11-30 04:43:32 pm

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

Oh hey, I forgot about this thread. Hi Aj!

But yeah I'm pretty certain that skipping long beam and SA is best. My current question is, is 8 missiles enough for an optimal Kraid fight? Or should a fifth tank be taken in the first segment? I had been considering other missile tanks along the path, such as the one behind bombs and the one in the pit coming back from bombs, but then I realized the one in the secret tunnel in the middle of the brinstar shafts is even closer. Is there enough need for that one to be collected?

samthedigital

2011-04-16 04:02:12 am

I think I am going to try both a Ridley first and a Kraid first test run as soon as I possibly can as it's going to be my first project for SDA, but I am not entirely convinced that Kraid first is faster, though it probably still is faster (even though I am having troubles figuring out exactly why). I think that the main merit of a Ridley first run is that there are more missiles to go around when going to Kraid. This is important because in Kraid first a lot of usually out of the way Missile tanks have to be collected because of Kraid himself and the vast amount of enemies*, and it probably slows the run down by about 20 (-7 seconds per extra missile on average I think, and more for the Missile in the hive room unless it's a *really* good hive room) seconds as a result. The total boss fight time should end up roughly even given the advantages of the respective routes. The main thing that is to be argued is 3 SMs versus 4 SMs, but the detour required for getting 4 SMs in Kraid first really mitigates many of the advantages of Kraid first anyway.

*That is to say, there are still about as many enemies that need to be downed with Missiles in Ridley first, but there are also more Missile expansions that are in the way, and thus dealing with enemies is trivialized. Plus the charge beam helps a lot.

Kraid first though is going to require a lot of testing because there are many different ways to go about it whereas Ridley first is relatively easy to test; it's like a gimped Normal any%.

I think I am going to try both a Ridley first and a Kraid first test run as soon as I possibly can as it's going to be my first project for SDA, but I am not entirely convinced that Kraid first is faster, though it probably still is faster (even though I am having troubles figuring out exactly why). I think that the main merit of a Ridley first run is that there are more missiles to go around when going to Kraid. This is important because in Kraid first a lot of usually out of the way Missile tanks have to be collected because of Kraid himself and the vast amount of enemies*, and it probably slows the run down by about 20 (-7 seconds per extra missile on average I think, and more for the Missile in the hive room unless it's a *really* good hive room) seconds as a result. The total boss fight time should end up roughly even given the advantages of the respective routes. The main thing that is to be argued is 3 SMs versus 4 SMs, but the detour required for getting 4 SMs in Kraid first really mitigates many of the advantages of Kraid first anyway.

*That is to say, there are still about as many enemies that need to be downed with Missiles in Ridley first, but there are also more Missile expansions that are in the way, and thus dealing with enemies is trivialized. Plus the charge beam helps a lot.

Kraid first though is going to require a lot of testing because there are many different ways to go about it whereas Ridley first is relatively easy to test; it's like a gimped Normal any%.

JaggerG

2011-04-17 03:27:16 am

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

Isn't the issue of a Ridley First hard mode route that you don't have enough ammo and health for Ridley himself? You lose a lot of time stopping his fireballs instead of pumping him full of missiles, don't you?

Zknight7126

(user is banned)

2011-04-17 03:06:34 pm

Every day is a happy day! :)

If you wanna do a hard run, get as many upgrades as you can, and try to sequence break varia, screw attack, and other items, they are REALLY helpful if you get them early.

samthedigital

2011-04-17 04:12:14 pm

Quote:

Isn't the issue of a Ridley First hard mode route that you don't have enough ammo and health for Ridley himself? You lose a lot of time stopping his fireballs instead of pumping him full of missiles, don't you?

To beat Ridley without collecting missiles from his fireballs you need to deal 50 damage to him, and getting the ammo to do that is far to slow even for Kraid first. In a Kraid first run if you collect 12 Missile upgrades before fighting Ridley you need to hit every single Missile and Super Missile while also shooting two fireballs with the Ice Beam somewhere in the middle of that while getting a Super and a Missile drop to beat Ridley without having to resort using some variation of the cheesing strategy. It *might* be feasible to do with a save after it, but otherwise the Kraid first Ridley fight might only be 6-7 seconds faster. The Ridley first Kraid fight is about that much faster too, but perhaps slightly more.

I still think that Kraid first is faster though sort of. After fighting Kraid it's really uphill for Kraid first because the speed booster trivializes things which is much more important than in Normal mode. In hard mode staying at full health is so much more important for Missile drops, and you need to do this a lot more in Ridley first versus Kraid first. I still think that it warrants testing though because I think it's a lot closer than I had given Ridley first credit for earlier.

Quote:

If you wanna do a hard run, get as many upgrades as you can, and try to sequence break varia, screw attack, and other items, they are REALLY helpful if you get them early.

I will be surely getting more upgrades in the run because they are needed. In any% normal it's probably best to finish the game with 23% completion whereas in hard mode getting around 30% should be better, but getting the Screw Attack and getting the Varia suit early is kind of pointless. Screw Attack saves some time yeah, but not as much as it takes to get unless Screw Attack saves a lot more time than I think it does. I don't need Varia either (you get it later anyway automatically), and the only times I'd ever pick it up is on a SS hard 10% run or on a SS 100% hard run maybe.

[quote]Isn't the issue of a Ridley First hard mode route that you don't have enough ammo and health for Ridley himself? You lose a lot of time stopping his fireballs instead of pumping him full of missiles, don't you?[/quote]

To beat Ridley without collecting missiles from his fireballs you need to deal 50 damage to him, and getting the ammo to do that is far to slow even for Kraid first. In a Kraid first run if you collect 12 Missile upgrades before fighting Ridley you need to hit every single Missile and Super Missile while also shooting two fireballs with the Ice Beam somewhere in the middle of that while getting a Super and a Missile drop to beat Ridley without having to resort using some variation of the cheesing strategy. It *might* be feasible to do with a save after it, but otherwise the Kraid first Ridley fight might only be 6-7 seconds faster. The Ridley first Kraid fight is about that much faster too, but perhaps slightly more.

I still think that Kraid first is faster though sort of. After fighting Kraid it's really uphill for Kraid first because the speed booster trivializes things which is much more important than in Normal mode. In hard mode staying at full health is so much more important for Missile drops, and you need to do this a lot more in Ridley first versus Kraid first. I still think that it warrants testing though because I think it's a lot closer than I had given Ridley first credit for earlier.

[quote]If you wanna do a hard run, get as many upgrades as you can, and try to sequence break varia, screw attack, and other items, they are REALLY helpful if you get them early.[/quote]

I will be surely getting more upgrades in the run because they are needed. In any% normal it's probably best to finish the game with 23% completion whereas in hard mode getting around 30% should be better, but getting the Screw Attack and getting the Varia suit early is kind of pointless. Screw Attack saves some time yeah, but not as much as it takes to get unless Screw Attack saves a lot more time than I think it does. I don't need Varia either (you get it later anyway automatically), and the only times I'd ever pick it up is on a SS hard 10% run or on a SS 100% hard run maybe.

JaggerG

2011-04-17 05:21:11 pm

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

Yeah Zknight, this thread is really more for speedrunning any% hard, not so much for survival tips. Speed comes before safety. Several items are just too far off the necessary path.

samthedigital

Edit history:

samthedigital: 2011-05-18 11:40:22 pm

samthedigital: 2011-05-10 09:52:09 am

samthedigital: 2011-05-10 09:42:25 am

samthedigital: 2011-05-10 09:42:03 am

samthedigital: 2011-05-10 07:59:44 am

samthedigital: 2011-05-09 10:14:36 am

samthedigital: 2011-05-09 10:13:16 am

2011-05-09 10:11:27 am

Alright, I am going for the record now. I saved at 4:15 and then at 5:23 using the same saves aj does. I just did the first segment much faster and tackled the room before the save a lot more effectively in the second segment. I do get the long beam because otherwise having 8 Missiles is pretty much either inaccessible or slower.

I spent 3 hours on the second segment and kept it even if there was a second's worth of mistakes. Getting missile luck, staying at full health, and the enemy positioning is really annoying in that segment. The HBJ is not that bad in comparison.

[quote="samthedigital"]Alright, I am going for the record now. I saved at 4:15 and then at 5:23 using the same saves aj does. I just did the first segment much faster and tackled the room before the save a lot more effectively in the second segment. I do get the long beam because otherwise having 8 Missiles is pretty much either inaccessible or slower.

I spent 3 hours on the second segment and kept it even if there was a second's worth of mistakes. Getting missile luck, staying at full health, and the enemy positioning is really annoying in that segment. The HBJ is not that bad in comparison.

Quote:

Secondly, Hello-Jump. It's unnecessary in Kraid-first Normal, but to skip them means 3 supers entering Tourian. Sonic sez: That's no good. 3 supers means a 5-round MB fight insteadof the standard 4, and tougher times luck manipulating the Metroids.

I think that you can't 4 round MB anyway by the way. I think that MB closes its eye after you deal 3 missiles worth of damage or more.

---

I now have two main problems that will arise in the next segment. The first is whether I should take the save at the start of Norfair. I can save there at about 7:43 if I estimated correctly. The advantage to saving there would really be greater optimization because Kraid himself is tricky, and I can more effectively skip the charge beam for later if I need to pick it up at all which lets me do the spark in the room. The obvious disadvantage is that saving takes time, but also that there's a lot to do in the segment including killing Kraid effectively (my Kraid fight is 5 to 6 seconds faster than aj's), doing the last spark in Kraid optimally, not taking damage from beating Kraid to the long room in Ridley (there is one part where damage is forced though), and using missiles while running to kill sidehoppers to get a spark going in the room before the third Super Missile. It kind of seems like a cop out though to actually take the save since there is no actual luck involved in this segment other than Kraid himself.

My second problem is that I am not sure what Missile tanks to take. I definitely don't need to get all of the ones that aj gets, but I can collect from 13 to 15 total missile expansions. It takes 4 to 5 seconds to get any more missiles after 12, so they need to save 4 seconds each which is why I strongly believe that it is best to have only 26 missiles total, but I am not familiar with hard mode, and it seems that it would be difficult to conserve ammo in Chozodia and to beat Mother Brain effectively.

Is there anyone who still plays that can help me out? I am really not sure what I should be doing.

My times are now as follows:

4:15 before the HBJ (+8)
5:24 before Kraid (+21)
7:36 at the start of Norfair (+41)

In brackets is the amount of time I saved over ajbolt's 34:00 run so far.

Alright, I am going for the record now. I saved at 4:15 and then at 5:23 using the same saves aj does. I just did the first segment much faster and tackled the room before the save a lot more effectively in the second segment. I do get the long beam because otherwise having 8 Missiles is pretty much either inaccessible or slower.

I spent 3 hours on the second segment and kept it even if there was a second's worth of mistakes. Getting missile luck, staying at full health, and the enemy positioning is really annoying in that segment. The HBJ is not that bad in comparison.

[quote="samthedigital"]Alright, I am going for the record now. I saved at 4:15 and then at 5:23 using the same saves aj does. I just did the first segment much faster and tackled the room before the save a lot more effectively in the second segment. I do get the long beam because otherwise having 8 Missiles is pretty much either inaccessible or slower.

I spent 3 hours on the second segment and kept it even if there was a second's worth of mistakes. Getting missile luck, staying at full health, and the enemy positioning is really annoying in that segment. The HBJ is not that bad in comparison.

[quote]Secondly, Hello-Jump. It's unnecessary in Kraid-first Normal, but to skip them means 3 supers entering Tourian. Sonic sez: That's no good. 3 supers means a 5-round MB fight insteadof the standard 4, and tougher times luck manipulating the Metroids.[/quote]

I think that you can't 4 round MB anyway by the way. I think that MB closes its eye after you deal 3 missiles worth of damage or more.

---

I now have two main problems that will arise in the next segment. The first is whether I should take the save at the start of Norfair. I can save there at about 7:43 if I estimated correctly. The advantage to saving there would really be greater optimization because Kraid himself is tricky, and I can more effectively skip the charge beam for later if I need to pick it up at all which lets me do the spark in the room. The obvious disadvantage is that saving takes time, but also that there's a lot to do in the segment including killing Kraid effectively (my Kraid fight is 5 to 6 seconds faster than aj's), doing the last spark in Kraid optimally, not taking damage from beating Kraid to the long room in Ridley (there is one part where damage is forced though), and using missiles while running to kill sidehoppers to get a spark going in the room before the third Super Missile. It kind of seems like a cop out though to actually take the save since there is no actual luck involved in this segment other than Kraid himself.

My second problem is that I am not sure what Missile tanks to take. I definitely don't need to get all of the ones that aj gets, but I can collect from 13 to 15 total missile expansions. It takes 4 to 5 seconds to get any more missiles after 12, so they need to save 4 seconds each which is why I strongly believe that it is best to have only 26 missiles total, but I am not familiar with hard mode, and it seems that it would be difficult to conserve ammo in Chozodia and to beat Mother Brain effectively.

Is there anyone who still plays that can help me out? I am really not sure what I should be doing.

My times are now as follows:

4:15 before the HBJ            (+8)
5:24 before Kraid                (+21)
7:36 at the start of Norfair  (+41)

In brackets is the amount of time I saved over ajbolt's 34:00 run so far.

Tyjet66

2011-05-18 11:48:38 pm

What'd you say?

For your first problem, I wouldn't take that save. It will probably take a few more attempts to get a good segment but it will make your overall time that much harder to beat for future runners.

As for the second problem, I wouldn't know how to tackle it, I usually play on normal.

spidey-widey

2011-05-19 01:08:41 am

I wouldn't be afraid to take that save. You might still lose a few seconds after optimizing the two segments, but it might also drastically reduce your frustration with the game, thus helping you maintain your motivation throughout the run. When I did my 100% hard run, I later regretted going from before Kraid to before screw attack in one segment; it's a tricky segment, and I had to reset a ridiculous number of times before finally settling on a mediocre segment. I probably could've been at least as fast by splitting it into two segments. I don't know exactly how similar the any% Kraid segment is to 100% for hard mode, and I also don't know if you'll mess up as often as I did, so I can't tell you definitively what you should do. However, if it was me, I would likely save at the beginning of Norfair.

I'd opt toward getting fewer missiles total. In the Mother Brain fight, there are so many rinkas coming at you that it shouldn't be difficult to get missile refills. Chozodia is a little trickier. aj had plenty of missiles in his run (enough that he was able to shoot the robot back a second time while starting the escape shinespark), but he also had the screw attack, which reduces the need for missiles in Chozodia. I still suspect 26 would be enough, but I couldn't say for sure.

I wouldn't be afraid to take that save.  You [i]might[/i] still lose a few seconds after optimizing the two segments, but it might also drastically reduce your frustration with the game, thus helping you maintain your motivation throughout the run.  When I did my 100% hard run, I later regretted going from before Kraid to before screw attack in one segment; it's a tricky segment, and I had to reset a ridiculous number of times before finally settling on a mediocre segment.  I probably could've been at least as fast by splitting it into two segments.  I don't know exactly how similar the any% Kraid segment is to 100% for hard mode, and I also don't know if you'll mess up as often as I did, so I can't tell you definitively what you should do.  However, if it was me, I would likely save at the beginning of Norfair.

I'd opt toward getting fewer missiles total.  In the Mother Brain fight, there are so many rinkas coming at you that it shouldn't be difficult to get missile refills.  Chozodia is a little trickier.  aj had plenty of missiles in his run (enough that he was able to shoot the robot back a second time while starting the escape shinespark), but he also had the screw attack, which reduces the need for missiles in Chozodia.  I still suspect 26 would be enough, but I couldn't say for sure.