Speedrun Route?

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Sherkel(imported)
Posts: 74
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:07 am

Re: Speedrun Route?

Post by Sherkel(imported) »

I saw a post on here mentioning someone working on a speedrun of one of the original games. Are there any notes or important discoveries I should know about if I want to try running it? Speedrunning would be one heck of a way to bring some novelty back to this series. I saw that there was one completed run on speedrun.com, from which I gathered that you need Krypto at level 10 by Tabasco 2 and level 61 before Kai 1, but I wasn't able to tell much else in the way of techniques.
Sherkel(imported)
Posts: 74
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:07 am

Re: Speedrun Route?

Post by Sherkel(imported) »

So, recently our fellow member Maribel Hearn has decided to gopher it (in both Telefang 1 and 2!) and get down to a 2:28 in Telefang 1! The basic idea is still following the walkthrough, but what caused the massive time-save is calling Ornithogalum at the start. Kanzou sometimes wastes time in battle due to its personality and doesn't hit for as much damage on late-game bosses, hence why Orny is used instead. You can't use experience items on either during the run, as you don't get the necessary passes for those Denjuu until clearing the campaign, but it turns out you don't need to. If this isn't encouragement, I don't know what is!

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Maribel Hearn(imported)
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:28 am

Re: Speedrun Route?

Post by Maribel Hearn(imported) »

It should also be noted that I went with the Speed version for a reason, namely a faster Doomsday battle. Speed lets you recruit Maoran and Bashou in Bryon Ruins (or both, even better, if you're lucky enough to find both and have them join you), who can freeze Doomsday. Bashou can deal very high damage to him as well after freezing, together with Ornithogalum. In my 2h28 I had Maoran join me but I got unlucky as Frost Breath missed twice, so I wasn't really able to use the strat. Oh well. Bryon Ruins is also full of event Gentiana fights in Speed, who get conveniently one-shotted by Ornithogalum.

Speaking of Ornithogalum, it being Mountain type is unfortunately quite bad, since the many T-Fanger battles during the lategame are full of Grassland types, all of which are only a 3HKO. It helps to get a Potzal or Guntzatl from a T-Fanger as early as you can, since these have high Attack and compensate for the weakness. Regardless of this weakness Ornithogalum still seems to be the fastest to go through the game with, given Kanzou is Selfish and the other possible starting (secret or not) Denjuu start at lv30 or lower rather than lv50, so they require exp. item abuse for a fast run.

I'm not exactly sure whether playing Power or Speed makes a significant difference for the run outside of Bryon Ruins.

The 2h28 run can be watched here: https://www.speedrun.com/telefang/run/z5owjvgy
Maribel Hearn(imported)
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:28 am

Re: Speedrun Route?

Post by Maribel Hearn(imported) »

I've been massively rerouting the game, adding save & reset T-Fanger skips (or just maneuvering around them) and better battle strategy. Cactos Ruins is much faster now especially, not only because of the T-Fanger skips but also the fact that a faster path through the dungeon existed that I wasn't aware of. Much of the improvements come from the 1h59 glitchless TAS (that sadly doesn't use Ornithogalum, so it's not optimal). My sum of bests is currently at 2:02:04 and I got a time of exactly 2:13:00 last night, which is quite nice, but sub 2h10 is feasible so I will still try for that.

As to summarise the route through the game, here are a few general rules of thumb:
- Hold A+B throughout all text;
- Save before anything that could gameover (like Sanaeba or Doomsday);
- Skipping a fight is always faster than doing it even if it is a OHKO normally;
- Phone calls happen roughly every 5 minutes and block encounters, which can theoretically be planned (have not looked into this much yet);
- Try to run from every encounter unless said otherwise (for example it is useful to try to recruit a Raygirth at Sanaeba Research Center, if encountered).

Right after the intro, you set battle animations to OFF and call Ornithogalum, after which you immediately set him as your main, go up and buy a Game Machine (required to recruit Liriope so you can go on water), and race through the early game story events, from Nerikara's speech to restoring Ion Island's phone signal with Noisy. Hold A+B when setting Ornithogalum (or Noisy) as your main and when buying the Game Machine, since both will click "Yes". Also note that you can save & reset skip two of the walking T-Fangers in the Northeast Cavern.

At Craft Research Center, certain fights are skippable by waiting until the T-Fanger is far away enough or by quickly running past them. You might want to save beforehand in case you do it wrong, since saving only costs about 5 seconds and missing a skip can cost anywhere from half a minute to over a minute. The four required fights can all be solo'd with Ornithogalum and are safe enough not to require saving beforehand; same for the Octorifle fight, which is a 2HKO. Panses Village and Dimenza's Mansion are simply having your route notes readily available so you don't take wrong teleports ;)

The Antenna Tree dungeon is still safe to solo, especially the bossfight against Dipsacus which is a OHKO, just like any other Sky type in the game is for Ornithogalum. You want to save & reset to skip the first Eryngo. At the room with the stairs to 3F, it is possible to diagonally cut through the unstable squares, saving a few seconds. Only worth it if you do it without saving.

Mt. Peperi is where things start to get interesting. You use save & reset to skip the first two T-Fangers and only battle the third one, from which you want to recruit Obana (two possibilities), to make sure the Gaiurus duo and Gypsophi fights are safe. It saves a few seconds not to use him, but the chance you will gameover will be way higher; one critical against you and it could be over. Raigaleon encounters are very dangerous since they deal a lot of damage to you; try to recruit one if you failed to run on the encounter, instead of risking a KO by trying to run during battle, since it saves a bit of time over using Obana. If you encounter a Potzal in the outside section, try to recruit it, since it helps for the Ixos Forest fights.

Sanaeba Research Center also has several skippable fights. The first fight, down from the first stairs to B2F, can be skipped by going into the screen at walking speed, and running shortly after. The last fight before Yarrow can be skipped by save & reset when he's the furthest to the right, you being as close to him as possible without triggering the battle. Saving before any of these skips is recommended. There are also a few T-Fangers you can simply run around. There are 4 fights that you actually do, and in the first two, you want to recruit Berzelia and Arakuida, to make the Yarrow fight fast. Always save before Arakuida in case Ornithogalum auto-attacks him twice and KOs him. The last fight, against three Warutah, can be safely solo'd with Ornithogalum. Also note that if you encounter a Raygirth before the T-Fanger fights, it is useful to try to recruit it, since it will significantly speed up the first two battles. Otherwise you will want to use whatever other Denjuu you managed to recruit, if any, as well as Punkhoro, as partners in the first (two) fight(s), and Berzelia and Arakuida once obtained. On Yarrow, Snarl with Berzelia just in case Arakuida misses, and Chill with Arakuida, followed by attacking him (make sure Berzelia uses Hoof if Yarrow is frostbitten instead of Snarl). Frostbite is by far the fastest way to beat Yarrow since it makes your damage output over 10 times higher. Note that you do not have to save before Yarrow separately, as you already did so to skip the T-Fanger in the room right before.

At Ixos Forest, you want to call Kanzou before the first fight to help make the battles faster, even with his Selfish personality. As the third partner you'd ideally have a Potzal from Mt. Peperi, but you won't always be able to recruit one; use Obana if you didn't. Recruit a Guntzatl from the third battle (guaranteed, since that T-Fanger uses three of them) and use it in the remaining fights together with Kanzou, where you could check their personalities beforehand if you can afford to sacrifice the required seconds. Solo the Kai fight with Ornithogalum.

Every single fight in Cactos Ruins B1F and B2F can be skipped; the first one by running right to the top right corner (note that you get an encounter during this), then waiting, then running left when he's moved down. The second fight can be skipped by entering its screen on the right and circling around him via the right. The third fight can be skipped by running into the screen and pressing Select to save & reset when close to the path leading down. After that, run further and almost immediately press Select again (if done right, you will be above the path leading down), and save & reset again. When back into the game, immediately run down and exit the screen. Enter the last room in B2F on the right, run to the top right, save & reset, then run down and right to skip the T-Fanger. On the way back after the scripted loss to Golaking, the T-Fanger in the room when you enter B3F again can be skipped by running around him on the left when he's on the right. You first use Kanzou and Guntzatl as partners, and then, out of the T-Fangers that you do fight, you want to recruit both Potzal and have them replace Kanzou and Guntzatl as battle partners respectively. Use both Potzal for Golaking as well to ensure a fast and safe fight. Finally, be wary of wild Gadorkuma throughout all of this lengthy dungeon, since they deal a lot of damage to you; if you had your health massively lowered by one right before a T-Fanger fight, don't forget to heal for safety.

Sanaeba requires good luck to get past quickly. There are no good partners to use for him, since Potzal cannot do much to Maoran and will be defeated quickly, and the Gymnos received from Kai barely deals damage, too. Still, you want to use both, but largely as decoys to take hits from Sanaeba's Denjuu, so Ornithogalum stays alive. OHKO his Gentiana once you get the chance to, and Dipsacus second, then take care of Maoran. If you were fortunate enough to encounter and recruit a Bashou or Maoran as your only Myces Lake encounter, you want to use them against Sanaeba to frostbite Maoran so Ornithogalum can OHKO it.

Bryon Ruins is relatively simple since you can solo almost every fight except Doomsday. Bashou is the most dangerous, as it can 2HKO Ornithogalum; use a partner against it just in case you're unlucky, including wild encounters. The main catch is that you want to try to recruit any Bashou or Maoran you encounter to make the Doomsday fight fast (like Yarrow, use frostbite). Use Potzal as your third partner against him, since there isn't anything better available. If you were unlucky and did not recruit Bashou/Maoran before Doomsday, run back and forth in the screen before him to still try to get one, since it is not worth it to try to defeat Doomsday without frostbite.

...wow, that turned out longer than I expected. I've basically explained the entire speedrun route. Hopefully you guys will find it interesting :)
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