SDA Knowledge Base - User contributions [en]

Legend of Mana

2019-12-12T10:48:15Z

Silentsigil: Blanked the page

Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics

2018-05-02T16:05:07Z

Silentsigil:

=Game Mechanics

== Weapon Proficiency and Skills ==

Each weapon has an affiliated skill that can be used while the weapon is equipped.

The user gains proficiency with any weapon based on the number of strikes given to objects and enemies. As proficiency rises, the damage dealt by the weapon increases by a significant amount.

At 100% proficiency, you permanently learn the equipped weapon's skill,and are able to utilize it without that weapon equipped. The curve of gaining proficiency resets. The curve from 100% to 200% is much sharper, but the damage dealt by the weapon is also on a sharper curve to its' maximum state.

Skills that amplify weapon damage stack.

Each active skill has a set amount of uses available between rests. Drinking a magic potion (highlighted skill), leveling up (all skills), dying to utilize an elixir (all skills) or touching a save statue refreshes the amount of uses available.

Passive skills have their effect active so long as they are equipped on the skillbar.

== Spells ==

Spells are divided by 'tier'. Each 'tier' generally has a set amount of base casts (20,10,7).

Spells are further divided (with the exception of specific spells) into levels. The basic elemental spells have 3 levels. The middle tier elemental spells have 2 levels. The special spells have one level.

Spells and equipment available in the shops are updated per Crown boss kill. You can find most of the spells in the wild once the exploration items are found and the pathways to them are open.

Touching a save statue (all spells), upgrading a level one spell with a higher spellbook (only that spell), drinking a magic potion (only the highlighted spell), leveling up (all spells) all refresh the amount of available spellcasts.

Routing around killcounts, experience, and spellcasts between areas to refresh spell and skill uses between levelups and statues is a thing.

= Passive Items =

Items with a passive effect like the Ruby and the Gauntlets have their passive effect active only while they are equipped to the item bar. You need to swap out these items between the inventory and item bar based on your circumstances in order to progress.

= Experience Gain =

Each monster has a base amount of given experience. As your level approaches and exceeds their level, that given amount decreases, to a minimum of 1.

= Guardian Spirits =

Guardian cards level up, with each individual enemy death granting one experience. The card effect given increases per level of the card. The Flugel card grants an additional 10% experience given per card level(max card level 5), and the Sorcerian card grants an additional 3% magic damage per card level (max card level 5).

You can also get a flat level (no experience is carried over) from touching Guardian statues scattered about the island. Routing out killcounts in order to utilize these statues most efficiently is a thing.

= Keys =

The general store in towns sells the keys you will need for progression. You need roughly a hundred and fifty to complete the game.

As you purchase keys, the next key gets more expensive at a ludicrous rate. To keep the price of keys to a reasonable amount, you need to sell this shopkeeper monster bones.

Each monster bone sold reduces the cost by 5 keys worth, to a floor of 20. The first three keys buy for 20. Buying keys to 23 gp cost, then selling a bone and repeating is the most efficient method.

Monster bones sometimes drop from enemies, but Agnes (dungeon shopkeep) sells 2 for a price determined by your character level. You can fill up to 10 monster bones at her locations, then stock keys at the next available opportunity.

Agnes appears at set locations upon fully clearing the room and reentering.

= Block Puzzles =

Block puzzles are pretty straightforwards until the colored blocks (match 3) and the hover boots come into play.

[https://youtu.be/2QEXw8_-rdI Alternate puzzle solutions]

The above video has alternate solutions to a few of the puzzles.

= Backstabs, directional damage =

When you attack an enemy from the front, it deals reduced damage. Attacking from the sides increases damage dealt slightly, and attacking from the rear (signified by red slashes appearing on the enemy and a 'critical hit' screenshake, very satisfying) increases damage significantly.

Directional damage and backstabs apply to the player as well, so watch your back.

=Item drops=

The final enemy killed on a screen will always drop a chest containing something pulled from that enemies' loot list. The final enemy must be killed with physical attacks in order for this to occur. You can accidentally destroy this chest.

Another Star

2018-04-15T23:57:59Z

Silentsigil: /* Additional Information */

[[Category: PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Beginner/High|Any% Beginner/High]]- Beat the game as quickly as possible on the lowest difficulty, with the highest EXP growth.

= Additional Information =

[[Another Star/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/ Developer's Website]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/another_star.html SDA Forum Page]

[https://steamcommunity.com/app/358030/guides/ Steam Store/Discussions page]

[https://www.speedrun.com/Another_Star/guides Speedrun.com guides page]

Beginner/High

2018-04-15T23:56:40Z

Silentsigil: /* Fastest Time */

[[Another Star]]
= SDA run =

No run currently submitted to SDA

= Fastest Time =

[https://www.speedrun.com/Another_Star Speedrun.com Leaderboard]

Another Star

2018-04-15T23:56:13Z

Silentsigil:

[[Category: PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Beginner/High|Any% Beginner/High]]- Beat the game as quickly as possible on the lowest difficulty, with the highest EXP growth.

= Additional Information =

[[Another Star/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/ Developer's Website]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/another_star.html SDA Forum Page]

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/358030/Another_Star/ Steam Store/Discussions page]

[https://www.speedrun.com/Another_Star/guides Speedrun.com guides page]

Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics

2018-04-13T21:55:22Z

Silentsigil:

=Game Mechanics

== Weapon Proficiency and Skills ==

Each weapon has an affiliated skill that can be used while the weapon is equipped.

The user gains proficiency with any weapon based on the number of strikes given to objects and enemies. As proficiency rises, the damage dealt by the weapon increases by a significant amount.

At 100% proficiency, you permanently learn the equipped weapon's skill,and are able to utilize it without that weapon equipped. The curve of gaining proficiency resets. The curve from 100% to 200% is much sharper, but the damage dealt by the weapon is also on a sharper curve to its' maximum state.

Skills that amplify weapon damage stack.

Each active skill has a set amount of uses available between rests. Drinking a magic potion (highlighted skill), leveling up (all skills), dying to utilize an elixir (all skills) or touching a save statue refreshes the amount of uses available.

Passive skills have their effect active so long as they are equipped on the skillbar.

== Spells ==

Spells are divided by 'tier'. Each 'tier' generally has a set amount of base casts (20,10,7).

Spells are further divided (with the exception of specific spells) into levels. The basic elemental spells have 3 levels. The middle tier elemental spells have 2 levels. The special spells have one level.

Spells and equipment available in the shops are updated per Crown boss kill. You can find most of the spells in the wild once the exploration items are found and the pathways to them are open.

Touching a save statue (all spells), upgrading a level one spell with a higher spellbook (only that spell), drinking a magic potion (only the highlighted spell), leveling up (all spells) all refresh the amount of available spellcasts.

Routing around killcounts, experience, and spellcasts between areas to refresh spell and skill uses between levelups and statues is a thing.

= Passive Items =

Items with a passive effect like the Ruby and the Gauntlets have their passive effect active only while they are equipped to the item bar. You need to swap out these items between the inventory and item bar based on your circumstances in order to progress.

= Experience Gain =

Each monster has a base amount of given experience. As your level approaches and exceeds their level, that given amount decreases, to a minimum of 1.

= Guardian Spirits =

Guardian cards level up, with each individual enemy death granting one experience. The card effect given increases per level of the card. The Flugel card grants an additional 10% experience given per card level(max card level 5), and the Sorcerian card grants an additional 3% magic damage per card level (max card level 5).

You can also get a flat level (no experience is carried over) from touching Guardian statues scattered about the island. Routing out killcounts in order to utilize these statues most efficiently is a thing.

= Block Puzzles =

Block puzzles are pretty straightforwards until the colored blocks (match 3) and the hover boots come into play.

[https://youtu.be/2QEXw8_-rdI Alternate puzzle solutions]

The above video has alternate solutions to a few of the puzzles.

= Backstabs, directional damage =

When you attack an enemy from the front, it deals reduced damage. Attacking from the sides increases damage dealt slightly, and attacking from the rear (signified by red slashes appearing on the enemy and a 'critical hit' screenshake, very satisfying) increases damage significantly.

Directional damage and backstabs apply to the player as well, so watch your back.

=Item drops=

The final enemy killed on a screen will always drop a chest containing something pulled from that enemies' loot list. The final enemy must be killed with physical attacks in order for this to occur. You can accidentally destroy this chest.

Xanadu Next/Glitches and Skips

2018-04-13T21:54:11Z

Silentsigil: /* General Speedthings */

=Glitchiness=

== General Speedthings ==

The goblin mages in the tutorial dungeon, for some reason, have magic potions on their drop list. These sell for quite a bit and drop semi-reliably enough that you can grab several as you achieve other goals.

When you get the Gauntlet, so long as it is equipped on the item bar, you no longer need a weapon equipped in order to break wooden boxes. This removes the animation times of sheathing and unsheathing weapons and allows you to simply punch your obstacles away.

Both m&k and a gamepad are suggested. Shop screens, tight aiming, and inventory management are better in general with mouse and keyboard, and general movement and combat feels better with the gamepad (imo)

While using a gamepad (I specifically use a PS3 controller via Nefarious Productions scripts), when you enter a screen, your direction resets. Quickly stopping and starting input at the proper time allows you to continue movement uninterrupted.

While a gamepad is in use, there is an autotargeting system that allows you to only briefly pause movement to shoot spells, rather than slow direct aiming with the mouse.

While using a gamepad, pressing left on the D-pad in a shop automagically teleports your cursor to the top left item in the shop field. In the general store's case, this is the purchaseable key, of which you need around 150 to complete the run. This lets you sell bones to reduce price, then pop directly over to spam buy the keys.

When you get a feel for which rooms have locked camera angles and which direction you will be going in the next room, aligning the camera with your movement allows for slightly smoother and faster moving around.

== Glitches and Skips ==

As shown here :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNL9z4kJrTo Early Needle 3]

This corner glitch jump allows you to get the third level of the Needle spell incredibly early. This spell is roughly 270% stronger than the first level needle spell, and thereby allows you to pew pew your way through things quite quickly for a while.

The Black Onyx item is a town portal: When used, it teleports the player to town, and creates a one-use portal back. The key here is that you return to the entrance of the room you used it in. This allows you to bypass several minutes of runaround, specifically in the treasure room of the Xanadu Labyrinth and the mechanical bridge room of Castle Strangerock.

The final boss's first form is supposed to be immune to all damage except from the weapon Dragonslayer and its affiliated skill. You can not only still hit it with the Death spell, but if you line it up properly, the death spell will proc against both the leg you are standing by and the torso. This speeds up the first phase of the battle significantly.

Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics

2018-04-13T21:51:40Z

Silentsigil:

=Game Mechanics

== Weapon Proficiency and Skills ==

Each weapon has an affiliated skill that can be used while the weapon is equipped.

The user gains proficiency with any weapon based on the number of strikes given to objects and enemies. As proficiency rises, the damage dealt by the weapon increases by a significant amount.

At 100% proficiency, you permanently learn the equipped weapon's skill,and are able to utilize it without that weapon equipped. The curve of gaining proficiency resets. The curve from 100% to 200% is much sharper, but the damage dealt by the weapon is also on a sharper curve to its' maximum state.

Skills that amplify weapon damage stack.

Each active skill has a set amount of uses available between rests. Drinking a magic potion (highlighted skill), leveling up (all skills), dying to utilize an elixir (all skills) or touching a save statue refreshes the amount of uses available.

Passive skills have their effect active so long as they are equipped on the skillbar.

== Spells ==

Spells are divided by 'tier'. Each 'tier' generally has a set amount of base casts (20,10,7).

Spells are further divided (with the exception of specific spells) into levels. The basic elemental spells have 3 levels. The middle tier elemental spells have 2 levels. The special spells have one level.

Spells and equipment available in the shops are updated per Crown boss kill. You can find most of the spells in the wild once the exploration items are found and the pathways to them are open.

Touching a save statue (all spells), upgrading a level one spell with a higher spellbook (only that spell), drinking a magic potion (only the highlighted spell), leveling up (all spells) all refresh the amount of available spellcasts.

Routing around killcounts, experience, and spellcasts between areas to refresh spell and skill uses between levelups and statues is a thing.

= Passive Items =

Items with a passive effect like the Ruby and the Gauntlets have their passive effect active only while they are equipped to the item bar. You need to swap out these items between the inventory and item bar based on your circumstances in order to progress.

= Experience Gain =

Each monster has a base amount of given experience. As your level approaches and exceeds their level, that given amount decreases, to a minimum of 1.

= Guardian Spirits =

Guardian cards level up, with each individual enemy death granting one experience. The card effect given increases per level of the card. The Flugel card grants an additional 10% experience given per card level(max card level 5), and the Sorcerian card grants an additional 3% magic damage per card level (max card level 5).

You can also get a flat level (no experience is carried over) from touching Guardian statues scattered about the island. Routing out killcounts in order to utilize these statues most efficiently is a thing.

= Block Puzzles =

Block puzzles are pretty straightforwards until the colored blocks (match 3) and the hover boots come into play.

[https://youtu.be/2QEXw8_-rdI Alternate puzzle solutions]

The above video has alternate solutions to a few of the puzzles.

= Backstabs, directional damage =

When you attack an enemy from the front, it deals reduced damage. Attacking from the sides increases damage dealt slightly, and attacking from the rear (signified by red slashes appearing on the enemy and a 'critical hit' screenshake, very satisfying) increases damage significantly.

Directional damage and backstabs apply to the player as well, so watch your back.

Another Star/Game Mechanics

2018-04-13T21:50:22Z

Silentsigil:

= Stats =

STR (strength) determines the power of your magic attacks. It also determines ATK (attack) for most weapons, which affects the damage output of normal attacks. For most weapons: STR + weapon POW (power) = ATK.

RES (resistance) determines your overall defense. It is combined with armor BLK (block) to determine the DEF (defense) stat. It's separate from the DEF stat because some attacks ignore armor and are calculated directly against RES. Piercing weapons do this against enemies, for example. Magic ignores DEF and RES entirely. It's dealt directly based on the attacker's STR.

AGL (agility) determines your hit rate, evasion, and affects each combatant's turn during the battle round. Those with high AGL tend to go first, but it's randomized, so not always. Furthermore, the higher a defender's agility is compared to an attacker, the more likely the attacker is to miss. Agility-based weapons determine a character's ATK using AGL instead of STR. For agility-based weapons: STR + weapon POW = ATK. Soel ends up with high AGL, which is why agility-based weapons tend to work so well for him. (developer quote)

= Spells =

Spells are learned from hermits in hermit caves. To use a spell in combat, the cost is your HP. There are a few items that mess with this
mechanic (like the Survivor Pendant, which allows you to cast regardless of cost, reducing you to 1 HP). Spells are subject to combat initiative and agility.

Each character has basic spells and an advanced spell. The advanced spell can only be learned after mastering the lower spells.

Spells gain exp : "When you use a spell at least once during a battle, at the end of that battle the spell will receive TOTAL ENEMY EXP / NUMBER OF ENEMIES to its internal counter."

Each basic spell has several levels that it progresses through before it is mastered. Each level has differing effects (Damage spells become stronger, the Purge spell affects more status ailments, etc.)

As a note, the current run uses Tachi's Advanced spell, Astra. Astra does high non-elemental magical damage to all foes, and is affected by STR.

= Combat Items =

There are various combat items that deal fixed damage ranges, heal the party, cause debuffs, or cast spells without cost. Combat items will always process first in a round, and are not subject to combat initiative and agility. Straight damage items are fixed and not affected by stats. Scrolls are affected by STR, in a similar way as Magic damage is.

Of note:

The Glass Orb is the highest tier damage item, and does nonelemental magical damage instead of physical damage.

Marks of Will and Marks of Mastery multiply the experience gained in the current combat by 3x and 7x, respectively.

Ambrosia grants an additional 100 current HP--this can go over maximum. If combat is ended before the buff expires, the buff lasts until it wears off. Ambrosia may be used once per combat, but with the lingering buff, you can stack a couple hundred extra additional HP in certain scenarios.

= Passive Items =

From exploring and completing subquests, the player can find various items that provide a passive benefit while they are in the inventory. The current run uses an item called the Herb Pin, which makes all healing items heal to full HP.

= Chief Blessings =

The chiefs of the various clans, when given tribute, grant two bonuses. On first tribute, the chief will grant what is usually a small stat bonus to either an individual party member or the entire party. The second effect is a temporary experience gain bonus. This bonus stacks with the combat items Mark of Will and Mark of Mastery.

= Defending =

Defending in combat reduces all incoming damage and heals for a percentage of the health of the user. The damage reduction is immediate, and the health regeneration occurs at the end of the turn. If the user is weak to an elemental damage source, that source will bypass the damage reduction and still deal "critical" damage from weakness exploitation.

= Omni-Battle System =

Both the player party and enemy party choose one action per turn.

If attack is chosen, then all members of the selecting party do their respective attacks to all members of the other party, with turn order based on weapon initiative and agility.

If a spell is chosen, the spell is applied to all members of the other party. This is subject to initiative and agility, if the user does not have the HP necessary to cast the spell at the moment their turn is up in combat, the spell will fail.

= Fleeing =

Running away is automatic, but cannot be performed in the first round of combat. Running away from some scripted encounters and bosses is not possible.
Escape Vial items allow you to run away in the first round of combat when used.

= Ambushes and random encounters =

The availability of a random encounter is signified by a yellow exclamation point above the character's head. You can choose to accept or ignore these. Ambushes are signified by a trio of slightly larger red exclamation marks over the character's head. You cannot ignore these, and must either accept them to get into a normal combat, or else get dragged into a combat where you lost the first round of actions. You can avoid ambushes if you are able to exit a screen when one shows up.

Beginner difficulty has no ambushes.

= Difficulty and Growth =

When you create your save file you can choose from a variety of combinations of difficulty and EXP growth rates. The most notable change is that on beginner, you don't encounter ambushes and can explore at will.

Dragon Wars (1989)/Game Mechanics

2018-04-13T21:39:32Z

Silentsigil:

= General =
[http://www.classicgaming.cc/pc/dragon-wars/character Weirdly complete and thorough fan site]

This site has the manual information, some (mostly accurate) maps, and quite a bit more information.

= (sloppy notes from routing) =
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDSEtWZwhTwjExGGGoWWCv5jCgKneQ8CNoeX2uedHUM/edit Cribbed from this document]

The goal of this game is to retrieve the Sword of Freedom, free the Goddess Irkalla from the Isle of Woe, and then return Namtar to the hells from whence he came.

Combats take place at range from within 10' to within 150'. Melee usually occurs within 10', ranged attacks (and special melee weapons) have varying distances. Melee and ranged attacks generally target one individual selected at random.

Spells target to within certain ranges. Spells can either affect an individual, a group, or everything within that range. Inferno, for instance, i believe hits everything within range 10'-50'.

Levels shouldn’t be too important, surprisingly, since the only benefit from levelling up is 2 skill points to spend.

You can get 5 free skillpoints in the Magan Underworld almost immediately.

Skill points are invested in the character's stats, skills, or magic category.

a STR score of 18 and a Beast Horn will allow a character to immediately learn Druid Magic 2 (~12 skillpoints. 17 since it bypasses Low Magic.). Most every good weapon has minimum required stats in STR or DEX.

DEX divided by 4 is your base AV (to hit) and DV (dodge). The sweetspot will obviously be dividable by 4. Necessary for everyone in the front row and ranged physical attackers. Secondarily necessary if your frontline gets crushed for your mages..

INT supposedly increases the chance to hit with spells (? nothing misses...) and only has maybe two out of combat uses. This is the dump stat.

SPIRIT and HEALTH. Spirit gives you POWER. POWER is your MP/mana. Health gives you Stun. Your HP are equal to your Stun, and your melee duders need some STUN so they can actually remain in combat. Since AoE damaging spells are fairly common mid to late game, this is probably the only stat that needs to be seriously raised after STR/DEX. Everyone needs some.

AC. AC is reduced from physical damage before it applies to your STUN. This makes wearing armor a good idea. The heavier the armor (unless magical), the more it will lower your AV (Unless it’s magical).

Some of the better nonmagical weapons will *lower* your AV. This gap can be made up for with the applicable weapon skill. (The weapon skill bonus is a 1 to 1 increase in AV, but is invisible. Your calculated AV is (Base +/- weapon modifiers) and your combat skills apply invisibly after that. An example is the Rusty Axe, which has the maximum axe damage outside magical weapons, but lowers your AV by 3.

------------

The game has both random encounters and scripted encounters. Unfortunately, there is no bestiary that I can find anywhere, so testing effective planned encounters for minimal leveling will have to be done by hand.

You cannot Soften Stone the area surrounding the Well of Souls (resurrection place), in Salvation, the Dragon Valley, or the Necropolis.

Bureaucracy and Picklocks will apply the most outside of combat versus almost any other skill. Bureaucracy can be used in a surprising number of situations, but I don’t know exactly how high you need it minimum. I saw somewhere that there is only one lock you need a 7 or 8 in picklock for, and there is a secret door right next to it. Other than that, sources say a 4 in lockpick is probably overkill.

Dragon Wars (1989)/Game Mechanics

2018-04-13T21:39:20Z

Silentsigil: /* General */

= General =
[http://www.classicgaming.cc/pc/dragon-wars/character Weirdly complete and thorough fan site]

This site has the manual information, some (mostly accurate) maps, and quite a bit more information.

= (sloppy notes from routing)
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDSEtWZwhTwjExGGGoWWCv5jCgKneQ8CNoeX2uedHUM/edit Cribbed from this document]

The goal of this game is to retrieve the Sword of Freedom, free the Goddess Irkalla from the Isle of Woe, and then return Namtar to the hells from whence he came.

Combats take place at range from within 10' to within 150'. Melee usually occurs within 10', ranged attacks (and special melee weapons) have varying distances. Melee and ranged attacks generally target one individual selected at random.

Spells target to within certain ranges. Spells can either affect an individual, a group, or everything within that range. Inferno, for instance, i believe hits everything within range 10'-50'.

Levels shouldn’t be too important, surprisingly, since the only benefit from levelling up is 2 skill points to spend.

You can get 5 free skillpoints in the Magan Underworld almost immediately.

Skill points are invested in the character's stats, skills, or magic category.

a STR score of 18 and a Beast Horn will allow a character to immediately learn Druid Magic 2 (~12 skillpoints. 17 since it bypasses Low Magic.). Most every good weapon has minimum required stats in STR or DEX.

DEX divided by 4 is your base AV (to hit) and DV (dodge). The sweetspot will obviously be dividable by 4. Necessary for everyone in the front row and ranged physical attackers. Secondarily necessary if your frontline gets crushed for your mages..

INT supposedly increases the chance to hit with spells (? nothing misses...) and only has maybe two out of combat uses. This is the dump stat.

SPIRIT and HEALTH. Spirit gives you POWER. POWER is your MP/mana. Health gives you Stun. Your HP are equal to your Stun, and your melee duders need some STUN so they can actually remain in combat. Since AoE damaging spells are fairly common mid to late game, this is probably the only stat that needs to be seriously raised after STR/DEX. Everyone needs some.

AC. AC is reduced from physical damage before it applies to your STUN. This makes wearing armor a good idea. The heavier the armor (unless magical), the more it will lower your AV (Unless it’s magical).

Some of the better nonmagical weapons will *lower* your AV. This gap can be made up for with the applicable weapon skill. (The weapon skill bonus is a 1 to 1 increase in AV, but is invisible. Your calculated AV is (Base +/- weapon modifiers) and your combat skills apply invisibly after that. An example is the Rusty Axe, which has the maximum axe damage outside magical weapons, but lowers your AV by 3.

------------

The game has both random encounters and scripted encounters. Unfortunately, there is no bestiary that I can find anywhere, so testing effective planned encounters for minimal leveling will have to be done by hand.

You cannot Soften Stone the area surrounding the Well of Souls (resurrection place), in Salvation, the Dragon Valley, or the Necropolis.

Bureaucracy and Picklocks will apply the most outside of combat versus almost any other skill. Bureaucracy can be used in a surprising number of situations, but I don’t know exactly how high you need it minimum. I saw somewhere that there is only one lock you need a 7 or 8 in picklock for, and there is a secret door right next to it. Other than that, sources say a 4 in lockpick is probably overkill.

Another Star/Game Mechanics

2018-04-10T18:57:16Z

Silentsigil:

Dragon Wars/any%

2018-04-10T16:51:27Z

Silentsigil: Blanked the page

Dragon Wars/any%

2018-04-10T16:50:36Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= SDA run= Currently no run submitted = Fastest times = [https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989 speedrun.com leaderboard]"

= SDA run=
Currently no run submitted

= Fastest times =
[https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989 speedrun.com leaderboard]

Xanadu Next

2018-04-10T16:47:32Z

Silentsigil:

[[Category:PC]]
[[Category:Games]]

= Categories =

[[Xanadu Next/any%|Any%]] - Beat the game in the fastest possible time

= Additional Information =

[https://www.gog.com/game/xanadu_next GOG page, game description]

[[Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[[Xanadu Next/Glitches and Skips|Skips and Glitches]]

Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics

2018-04-10T16:46:45Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "=Game Mechanics == Weapon Proficiency and Skills == Each weapon has an affiliated skill that can be used while the weapon is equipped. The user gains proficiency with any w..."

=Game Mechanics

== Weapon Proficiency and Skills ==

Each weapon has an affiliated skill that can be used while the weapon is equipped.

The user gains proficiency with any weapon based on the number of strikes given to objects and enemies. As proficiency rises, the damage dealt by the weapon increases by a significant amount.

At 100% proficiency, you permanently learn the equipped weapon's skill,and are able to utilize it without that weapon equipped. The curve of gaining proficiency resets. The curve from 100% to 200% is much sharper, but the damage dealt by the weapon is also on a sharper curve to its' maximum state.

Skills that amplify weapon damage stack.

Each active skill has a set amount of uses available between rests. Drinking a magic potion (highlighted skill), leveling up (all skills), dying to utilize an elixir (all skills) or touching a save statue refreshes the amount of uses available.

Passive skills have their effect active so long as they are equipped on the skillbar.

== Spells ==

Spells are divided by 'tier'. Each 'tier' generally has a set amount of base casts (20,10,7).

Spells are further divided (with the exception of specific spells) into levels. The basic elemental spells have 3 levels. The middle tier elemental spells have 2 levels. The special spells have one level.

Spells and equipment available in the shops are updated per Crown boss kill. You can find most of the spells in the wild once the exploration items are found and the pathways to them are open.

Touching a save statue (all spells), upgrading a level one spell with a higher spellbook (only that spell), drinking a magic potion (only the highlighted spell), leveling up (all spells) all refresh the amount of available spellcasts.

Routing around killcounts, experience, and spellcasts between areas to refresh spell and skill uses between levelups and statues is a thing.

== Passive Items =

Items with a passive effect like the Ruby and the Gauntlets have their passive effect active only while they are equipped to the item bar. You need to swap out these items between the inventory and item bar based on your circumstances in order to progress.

= Experience Gain =

Each monster has a base amount of given experience. As your level approaches and exceeds their level, that given amount decreases, to a minimum of 1.

= Guardian Spirits =

Guardian cards level up, with each individual enemy death granting one experience. The card effect given increases per level of the card. The Flugel card grants an additional 10% experience given per card level(max card level 5), and the Sorcerian card grants an additional 3% magic damage per card level (max card level 5).

You can also get a flat level (no experience is carried over) from touching Guardian statues scattered about the island. Routing out killcounts in order to utilize these statues most efficiently is a thing.

= Block Puzzles =

Block puzzles are pretty straightforwards until the colored blocks (match 3) and the hover boots come into play.

[https://youtu.be/2QEXw8_-rdI Alternate puzzle solutions]

The above video has alternate solutions to a few of the puzzles.

= Backstabs, directional damage =

When you attack an enemy from the front, it deals reduced damage. Attacking from the sides increases damage dealt slightly, and attacking from the rear (signified by red slashes appearing on the enemy and a 'critical hit' screenshake, very satisfying) increases damage significantly.

Directional damage and backstabs apply to the player as well, so watch your back.

Xanadu Next/Glitches and Skips

2018-04-10T16:25:03Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "=Glitchiness= == General Speedthings == When you get the Gauntlet, so long as it is equipped on the item bar, you no longer need a weapon equipped in order to break wooden b..."

=Glitchiness=

== General Speedthings ==

When you get the Gauntlet, so long as it is equipped on the item bar, you no longer need a weapon equipped in order to break wooden boxes. This removes the animation times of sheathing and unsheathing weapons and allows you to simply punch your obstacles away.

Both m&k and a gamepad are suggested. Shop screens, tight aiming, and inventory management are better in general with mouse and keyboard, and general movement and combat feels better with the gamepad (imo)

While using a gamepad (I specifically use a PS3 controller via Nefarious Productions scripts), when you enter a screen, your direction resets. Quickly stopping and starting input at the proper time allows you to continue movement uninterrupted.

While a gamepad is in use, there is an autotargeting system that allows you to only briefly pause movement to shoot spells, rather than slow direct aiming with the mouse.

While using a gamepad, pressing left on the D-pad in a shop automagically teleports your cursor to the top left item in the shop field. In the general store's case, this is the purchaseable key, of which you need around 150 to complete the run. This lets you sell bones to reduce price, then pop directly over to spam buy the keys.

When you get a feel for which rooms have locked camera angles and which direction you will be going in the next room, aligning the camera with your movement allows for slightly smoother and faster moving around.

== Glitches and Skips ==

As shown here :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNL9z4kJrTo Early Needle 3]

This corner glitch jump allows you to get the third level of the Needle spell incredibly early. This spell is roughly 270% stronger than the first level needle spell, and thereby allows you to pew pew your way through things quite quickly for a while.

The Black Onyx item is a town portal: When used, it teleports the player to town, and creates a one-use portal back. The key here is that you return to the entrance of the room you used it in. This allows you to bypass several minutes of runaround, specifically in the treasure room of the Xanadu Labyrinth and the mechanical bridge room of Castle Strangerock.

The final boss's first form is supposed to be immune to all damage except from the weapon Dragonslayer and its affiliated skill. You can not only still hit it with the Death spell, but if you line it up properly, the death spell will proc against both the leg you are standing by and the torso. This speeds up the first phase of the battle significantly.

Xanadu Next/any%

2018-04-10T16:09:59Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= SDA run = No run currently submitted = Fastest Times = [https://www.speedrun.com/Xanadu_Next Speedrun.com leaderboard]"

= SDA run =
No run currently submitted

= Fastest Times =

[https://www.speedrun.com/Xanadu_Next Speedrun.com leaderboard]

Xanadu Next

2018-04-10T16:09:01Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "{{Category:PC]] Category:Games = Categories = Any% - Beat the game in the fastest possible time = Additional Information = [https://www.gog.com/ga..."

{{Category:PC]]
[[Category:Games]]

= Categories =

[[Xanadu Next/any%|Any%]] - Beat the game in the fastest possible time

= Additional Information =

[https://www.gog.com/game/xanadu_next GOG page, game description]

[[Xanadu Next/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[[Xanadu Next/Glitches and Skips|Skips and Glitches]]

Dragon Wars (1989)/Game Mechanics

2018-04-10T11:15:33Z

Silentsigil: /* General */

= General =

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDSEtWZwhTwjExGGGoWWCv5jCgKneQ8CNoeX2uedHUM/edit Cribbed from this document]

The goal of this game is to retrieve the Sword of Freedom, free the Goddess Irkalla from the Isle of Woe, and then return Namtar to the hells from whence he came.

Combats take place at range from within 10' to within 150'. Melee usually occurs within 10', ranged attacks (and special melee weapons) have varying distances. Melee and ranged attacks generally target one individual selected at random.

Spells target to within certain ranges. Spells can either affect an individual, a group, or everything within that range. Inferno, for instance, i believe hits everything within range 10'-50'.

Levels shouldn’t be too important, surprisingly, since the only benefit from levelling up is 2 skill points to spend.

You can get 5 free skillpoints in the Magan Underworld almost immediately.

Skill points are invested in the character's stats, skills, or magic category.

a STR score of 18 and a Beast Horn will allow a character to immediately learn Druid Magic 2 (~12 skillpoints. 17 since it bypasses Low Magic.). Most every good weapon has minimum required stats in STR or DEX.

DEX divided by 4 is your base AV (to hit) and DV (dodge). The sweetspot will obviously be dividable by 4. Necessary for everyone in the front row and ranged physical attackers. Secondarily necessary if your frontline gets crushed for your mages..

INT supposedly increases the chance to hit with spells (? nothing misses...) and only has maybe two out of combat uses. This is the dump stat.

SPIRIT and HEALTH. Spirit gives you POWER. POWER is your MP/mana. Health gives you Stun. Your HP are equal to your Stun, and your melee duders need some STUN so they can actually remain in combat. Since AoE damaging spells are fairly common mid to late game, this is probably the only stat that needs to be seriously raised after STR/DEX. Everyone needs some.

AC. AC is reduced from physical damage before it applies to your STUN. This makes wearing armor a good idea. The heavier the armor (unless magical), the more it will lower your AV (Unless it’s magical).

Some of the better nonmagical weapons will *lower* your AV. This gap can be made up for with the applicable weapon skill. (The weapon skill bonus is a 1 to 1 increase in AV, but is invisible. Your calculated AV is (Base +/- weapon modifiers) and your combat skills apply invisibly after that. An example is the Rusty Axe, which has the maximum axe damage outside magical weapons, but lowers your AV by 3.

------------

The game has both random encounters and scripted encounters. Unfortunately, there is no bestiary that I can find anywhere, so testing effective planned encounters for minimal leveling will have to be done by hand.

You cannot Soften Stone the area surrounding the Well of Souls (resurrection place), in Salvation, the Dragon Valley, or the Necropolis.

Bureaucracy and Picklocks will apply the most outside of combat versus almost any other skill. Bureaucracy can be used in a surprising number of situations, but I don’t know exactly how high you need it minimum. I saw somewhere that there is only one lock you need a 7 or 8 in picklock for, and there is a secret door right next to it. Other than that, sources say a 4 in lockpick is probably overkill.

Dragon Wars (1989)/any%

2018-04-10T11:10:22Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= SDA run = No submitted run = Speedrun.com Leaderboard = [https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989/full_game Leaderboard]"

= SDA run =
No submitted run

= Speedrun.com Leaderboard =

[https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989/full_game Leaderboard]

Dragon Wars (1989)/Game Mechanics

2018-04-10T11:09:16Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= General = [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDSEtWZwhTwjExGGGoWWCv5jCgKneQ8CNoeX2uedHUM/edit Cribbed from this document] The goal of this game is to retrieve the Sword..."

= General =

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDSEtWZwhTwjExGGGoWWCv5jCgKneQ8CNoeX2uedHUM/edit Cribbed from this document]

The goal of this game is to retrieve the Sword of Freedom, free the Goddess Irkalla from the Isle of Woe, and then return Namtar to the hells from whence he came.

Levels shouldn’t be too important, surprisingly, since the only benefit from levelling up is 2 skill points to spend.

You can get 5 free skillpoints in the Magan Underworld almost immediately.

a STR score of 18 and a Beast Horn will allow a character to immediately learn Druid Magic 2 (~12 skillpoints. 17 since it bypasses Low Magic.). Most every good weapon has minimum required stats in STR or DEX.

DEX divided by 4 is your base AV (to hit) and DV (dodge). The sweetspot will obviously be dividable by 4. Necessary for everyone in the front row and ranged physical attackers. Secondarily necessary if your frontline gets crushed for your mages..

INT supposedly increases the chance to hit with spells (? nothing misses...) and only has maybe two out of combat uses. This is the dump stat.

SPIRIT and HEALTH. Spirit gives you POWER. POWER is your MP/mana. Health gives you Stun. Your HP are equal to your Stun, and your melee duders need some STUN so they can actually remain in combat. Since AoE damaging spells are fairly common mid to late game, this is probably the only stat that needs to be seriously raised after STR/DEX. Everyone needs some.

AC. AC is reduced from physical damage before it applies to your STUN. This makes wearing armor a good idea. The heavier the armor (unless magical), the more it will lower your AV (Unless it’s magical).

Some of the better nonmagical weapons will *lower* your AV. This gap can be made up for with the applicable weapon skill. (The weapon skill bonus is a 1 to 1 increase in AV, but is invisible. Your calculated AV is (Base +/- weapon modifiers) and your combat skills apply invisibly after that. An example is the Rusty Axe, which has the maximum axe damage outside magical weapons, but lowers your AV by 3.

------------

The game has both random encounters and scripted encounters. Unfortunately, there is no bestiary that I can find anywhere, so testing effective planned encounters for minimal leveling will have to be done by hand.

You cannot Soften Stone the area surrounding the Well of Souls (resurrection place), in Salvation, the Dragon Valley, or the Necropolis.

Bureaucracy and Picklocks will apply the most outside of combat versus almost any other skill. Bureaucracy can be used in a surprising number of situations, but I don’t know exactly how high you need it minimum. I saw somewhere that there is only one lock you need a 7 or 8 in picklock for, and there is a secret door right next to it. Other than that, sources say a 4 in lockpick is probably overkill.

Dragon Wars (1989)

2018-04-10T11:06:11Z

Silentsigil:

[[Category:PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Dragon Wars (1989)/any%|Any%|]] -Beat the game as fast as possible

= Additional Information =

[[Dragon Wars (1989)/Game Mechanics|Mechanics]]

[https://www.gog.com/game/dragon_wars GOG store page- Game description]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/dragon_wars_1989.html SDA Forum Page]

[https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989/guides Speedrun.com Guides page (Route notes)]

Dragon Wars (1989)

2018-04-10T11:05:38Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "Category:PC Category: Games = Categories = Any%| -Beat the game as fast as possible = Additional Information = Contra/Game Mechanics|Mechani..."

[[Category:PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Dragon Wars/any%|Any%|]] -Beat the game as fast as possible

= Additional Information =

[[Contra/Game Mechanics|Mechanics]]

[https://www.gog.com/game/dragon_wars GOG store page- Game description]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/dragon_wars_1989.html SDA Forum Page]

[https://www.speedrun.com/Dragon_Wars_1989/guides Speedrun.com Guides page (Route notes)]

Beginner/High

2018-04-10T10:45:59Z

Silentsigil:

[[Another Star]]
= SDA run =

No run currently submitted to SDA

= Fastest Time =

[insert link to speedrun.com when approved]

Beginner/High

2018-04-10T10:45:15Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= SDA run = No run currently submitted to SDA = Fastest Time = [insert link to speedrun.com when approved]"

= SDA run =

No run currently submitted to SDA

= Fastest Time =

[insert link to speedrun.com when approved]

Another Star

2018-04-10T10:44:10Z

Silentsigil: /* Categories */

[[Category: PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Beginner/High|Any% Beginner/High]]- Beat the game as quickly as possible on the lowest difficulty, with the highest EXP growth.

= Additional Information =

[[Another Star/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/ Developer's Website]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/another_star.html SDA Forum Page]

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/358030/Another_Star/ Steam Store/Discussions page]

[when approved on speedrun.com, insert link to leaderboard here]

Another Star/Game Mechanics

2018-04-10T10:43:43Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "= Spells = Spells are learned from hermits in hermit caves. To use a spell in combat, the cost is your HP. There are a few items that mess with this mechanic (like the Surviv..."

= Spells =

Spells are learned from hermits in hermit caves. To use a spell in combat, the cost is your HP. There are a few items that mess with this
mechanic (like the Survivor Pendant, which allows you to cast regardless of cost, reducing you to 1 HP). Spells are subject to combat initiative and agility.

Each character has basic spells and an advanced spell. The advanced spell can only be learned after mastering the lower spells.

Spells gain exp : "When you use a spell at least once during a battle, at the end of that battle the spell will receive TOTAL ENEMY EXP / NUMBER OF ENEMIES to its internal counter."

Each basic spell has several levels that it progresses through before it is mastered. Each level has differing effects (Damage spells become stronger, the Purge spell affects more status ailments, etc.)

As a note, the current run uses Tachi's Advanced spell, Astra. Astra does high non-elemental magical damage to all foes, and is affected by STR.

= Combat Items =

There are various combat items that deal fixed damage ranges, heal the party, cause debuffs, or cast spells without cost. Combat items will always process first in a round, and are not subject to combat initiative and agility. Straight damage items are fixed and not affected by stats. Scrolls are affected by STR, in a similar way as Magic damage is.

Of note:

The Glass Orb is the highest tier damage item, and does nonelemental magical damage instead of physical damage.

Marks of Will and Marks of Mastery multiply the experience gained in the current combat by 3x and 7x, respectively.

Ambrosia grants an additional 100 current HP--this can go over maximum. If combat is ended before the buff expires, the buff lasts until it wears off. Ambrosia may be used once per combat, but with the lingering buff, you can stack a couple hundred extra additional HP in certain scenarios.

= Passive Items =

From exploring and completing subquests, the player can find various items that provide a passive benefit while they are in the inventory. The current run uses an item called the Herb Pin, which makes all healing items heal to full HP.

= Chief Blessings =

The chiefs of the various clans, when given tribute, grant two bonuses. On first tribute, the chief will grant what is usually a small stat bonus to either an individual party member or the entire party. The second effect is a temporary experience gain bonus. This bonus stacks with the combat items Mark of Will and Mark of Mastery.

= Defending =

Defending in combat reduces all incoming damage and heals for a percentage of the health of the user. The damage reduction is immediate, and the health regeneration occurs at the end of the turn. If the user is weak to an elemental damage source, that source will bypass the damage reduction and still deal "critical" damage from weakness exploitation.

= Omni-Battle System =

Both the player party and enemy party choose one action per turn.

If attack is chosen, then all members of the selecting party do their respective attacks to all members of the other party, with turn order based on weapon initiative and agility.

If a spell is chosen, the spell is applied to all members of the other party. This is subject to initiative and agility, if the user does not have the HP necessary to cast the spell at the moment their turn is up in combat, the spell will fail.

Another Star

2018-04-10T10:21:31Z

Silentsigil: Created page with "Category: PC Category: Games = Categories = Any%- Beat the game as quickly as possible on the lowest difficulty, with the highest EXP growth. = Ad..."

[[Category: PC]]
[[Category: Games]]

= Categories =

[[Beginner/High|Any%]]- Beat the game as quickly as possible on the lowest difficulty, with the highest EXP growth.

= Additional Information =

[[Another Star/Game Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]

[http://www.visionriders.com/anotherstar/ Developer's Website]

[https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/another_star.html SDA Forum Page]

[http://store.steampowered.com/app/358030/Another_Star/ Steam Store/Discussions page]

[when approved on speedrun.com, insert link to leaderboard here]

Legend of Mana/Mechanics

2017-09-04T11:28:56Z

Silentsigil: /* Power Canceling */

== General Combat ==
Most of your timeloss will be from normal encounters and how they are handled. Boss fights, especially a few select ones, can be fairly trolly, but there are far, far more normal encounters than bosses and their times add up. Your choice of Abilities and Special Techniques will be based around either shutting down bosses and reacting to boss ST's to deal damage or focused on clearing encounters in order to reach the bosses faster.

== Movement ==
"Wiggling" the stick rapidly at a diagonal in the general direction you need to go saves a minor amount of frames. You're doing it correctly if your character's feet don't touch the ground and you aren't hearing footsteps.

== Combat Movement ==
Movement speed in combat is generally determined by the weapon you have equipped. Gloves and knives make your character move at a significantly faster pace than the heavier 2-handed weapons. This difference can be mitigated somewhat by moving in a serpentine pattern (diagonals) with the two steps the character takes. The character takes a long step and then a short step in their movement cycle. If you are moving horizontally on the long step, you can cover long distances even with a heavier weapon, then use the short step to position yourself diagonally.

== Weapons and Damage ==
Each weapon has four "types" of damage. The basic weapon type (glove, axe, sword, etc.) has its four ratings multiplied by the four ratings of the material it is made out of. Those four numbers are then divided by 128 and added together to show the "offense rating" on your equipment screen. The bigger this number, generally, the better.

((weapon x material)\128), repeated for each of the four categories, then added together.

(Ex: 2h Swords all have a modifier of 40,40,40,40. IshePlatinum material has modifiers of 40,40,40,40.)
40x40 is 1600. 1600 divided by 128 is 12.5. 12.5x4 (or 12.5+12.5....) is 50, which is the damage of an unforged IshePlatinum 2hSword.

Plug those numbers into this to get estimated damage:

( OFF * 0.625 ) + ( OFF * POW * 1.25 ) / 100 ) - ( ARM * 0.3125 ) - ( ARM * DEF * 0.625 / 100 )

Replace SKL in that formula for knife and bow.

Swords are balanced across the board, as shown, and other weapons have much different weights on the four categories.
=== Weapon Modifiers ===
There are multiple defense types versus physical damage, as well as eight elemental damage brands that can be applied through forging and resisted/cause increased damage or extra 'magic' damage to be applied. Some plunge attacks cause damage boosts to specific species, or cause damage indirectly through special effects (setting them on fire, poison). Casually, this hasn't been researched as far as I have found, as most interest has gone to simply creating overwhelming force (200-999 damage weapons) through forging. Those weapons no longer care about defense as they simply crush anything that looks at them the wrong way. Unfortunately, the materials used are either out of the range of NG or require excess money/grinding. Simple forging to about 80-140 dmg is possible given the right conditions in a speedrun, and costs about 3-5 minutes (saving roughly 30 sec to 1 min 30 sec per combat-focused mission). Forging is most likely only to be found in either an All-Story or 100% run. The most notable and useful effects that can be seen easily are the Land modifiers, which will be talked about below.

=== Player Modifiers ===
The player character has at least two statistics that apply extra damage to basic, power, ability attacks, and special techniques through an unknown process. The other player statistics have various effects that increase the chance of status effects landing on enemies or being resisted by the character, increase passive magic defense for the character, increase health and health regen, etc. The Magic stat may or may not have anything at all to do with the magic damage dealt by a character using Instruments (Instruments, so far as I know, are not used in speedrunning).

Character stat growth is determined by the weapon equipped during each levelup. Every weapon has different stat-up cycles, but generally, 2h swords make you better at swording (equal power and skill, general balance of other stats), 2h hammers make you better at hammering (Massive power growth, low skill growth, low balance of other stats), etc. Since a runner in the three single-story runs will likely only swap weapons once or twice, this growth has only minor influence. The 100% category usually ends with the player in the high forties or low fifties in level, meaning that your weapon choice could have a significant impact on your damage dealt.

=== Land Modifiers ===
This is the important bit. There are a handful of "tanky" monsters in the game that get severe health and defense boosts from having certain mana levels in the lands that they are found. This information can be found on their Monster Encyclopedia entry. Generally, the creature gets a large boost from the two elements that make them 'stronger', and a small nerf from the two elements that make them 'weaker' on that page. Woodings, Mad Mallards, ArchDemons, Land, Air, and Kid Dragons, Yaks, Chobin Hoods, and Ape Mummies can all be granted enough of an HP and defense pool to become more than minor speedbumps that cost time if this is ignored. *(check these names, dummy)*

The monster's basic level is determined by the order that the land was placed down and the distance the land is from Home, much like store/weapon shop levels. Some areas get enhanced monster levels as they are meant to be 'tougher' (The Flames, The Mana Sanctuary). If you get, say, a Wooding, in an advanced area that was placed very late and has high Dryad levels, you will be slamming your weapon into its face for quite a while.

The US version is significantly different than the JP version. The actual land level formula is something like this:

Land Level 0-4:.... Base Level = 1
Land Level 5-33:.. Base Level = 2 + (LLvl - 5)
Land Level 34-48: Base Level = 32 + 2(LLvl - 34)
Land Level 49:...... Base Level = 63
Land Level 50-59: Base Level = 69 + 3(LLvl - 50)
Land Level 60-63: Base Level = 99

Secondary lands (The Flames, Cage of Dreams) and bosses/minibosses (Punkmaster in the Jungle, Skeletal Soldier, Sierra, Deathbringer) are calculated something like this:

ROUNDDOWN((# of lands - 2) * 1.5)

== Techs/Abilities ==

=== Learning Techniques and Abilities ===
The character starts off knowing several basic Abilites and one Special Technique. More advanced maneuvers are learned by accruing hidden weapon and ability experience on a battle-to-battle basis. You generally get one 'point' per combat, with several bossfights instead granting you four points of both weapon and ability experience.
=== Abilities ===
Abilites are combat skills that are equipped to two button slots (default is Triangle and Circle). As you gain experience in an equipped ability, you will learn new abilities. Backroll, for instance, requires that you have (x) experience in both the Jump and Retreat abilities. Acquired experience is kept for all abilities you have previously had equipped in combat. This means that if you had Jump equipped (it's one of the default ability equips) for several fights, and then swapped out Jump for Crouch and Retreat, you would most likely learn High Jump (requires Jump and Crouch experience) and Backroll (requires Jump and Retreat experience).

If you have one ability equipped in both slots, it receives both slots worth of experience (you double your learning rate). This means that if you have (Defend+Defend) equipped, you will learn Counterattack twice as quickly.

Useful Abilities in a speedrun are:
*Spin [Default ability] (spin + power attack creates a damage circle around the player dealing slightly less than a basic attack to all opponents caught in its range. Spamming this causes the player to get 'dizzy' [stun animation], but can be used twice successively (Usually). Teaches players their first AoE ST. **The usefulness of this ability is DIRECTLY linked to the damage you are capable of dealing. If you can't kill or wound the enemies severely enough that they can be finished off by a basic or power attack, don't use this.
*Counterstrike [Learned by accruing Counterattack experience] (makes the player pause for a moment. If the player is struck by a combat ability or an attack, they will strike in the direction they are facing for between 2x(Bow.) 8x (most other weapons) and a quick attack's damage.

=== Special Techniques ===

Special Techniques (ST's) are learned by a combination of weapon experience and ability experience. Some special techniques are shared between weapons, and some are unique to each weapon. Your character gains weapon experience in the same way as Ability experience (by completing combat with that weapon equipped). Depending on your chosen starting weapon, you will also start with a single pre-learned Special Technique that may or may not be worth utilizing right off the bat.

Some ST's require experience in multiple abilities (the level 3-4 "Major Damage" techs), and some only require experience from your weapon and a single ability. Most two handed weapons will learn "Rising Crush" from having the Crouch ability and that weapon equipped for (x) combats. The Spin ability will teach the player a weak-to-middling AoE technique that will strike either all opponents on a battlefield or a medium-to-large size circle around the player, depending on the players equipped weapon.

Useful ST's for speedrunning:

* Rising Crush/Claw (2h sword, 2h axe, hammer)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if you select 2h sword as your first weapon. Minor damage to a frontal target, causes a short Stun.

* Flying Sawblades (2h Axe)- Learned by equipping Spin. Default ST if 2h Axe is selected starting equipment. More damage than Windslasher with a similar range, less damage than Blammo but a longer range.

* Salmon Upstream (1h Axe)- Learned by equipping Backflip. Hits a large radius around the player, similar to Blammo. Increases power significantly.

* Tornado (1h Axe) - Learned by equipping Spin. Bog-standard middle-range AoE. These 1h Axe techs would most likely be utilized by a runner who attempted to fetch an Earthsplitter axe from the goblins in Mekiv Cavern and got BlackElk as a first-drop instead. This is a viable choice over Earthsplitter if you intend to grind for Braveblade later.

* Windslasher (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Spin. Hits all enemies.

* Blammo (Hammer)- Learned by equipping Spin, automatically gained if Hammer is selected as first weapon. Smaller range than Windslasher, more damage.

* Jawbreaker (Glove)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if Glove is selected as first weapon. "Hits twice", meaning the ST damage is applied twice if both strikes in the ST animation hit the same enemy. Can hit multiple foes in an area similar to Flipkick in front of the player.

* Shishkebab (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Backroll. Hits twice like Jawbreaker. You perform a flipkick, hitting all enemies in the area of a flipkick, and then a thrust with a long-duration hitbox. If you fail to land the first strike, the lunge will still be performed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFliv3qdVs

* Lunging Arc (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Lunge. Hits twice like Jawbreaker and Shishkebab. Performs the same level of damage as Shishkebab. Significantly less likely to land than Shishkebab. You perform a short-duration hitbox lunge forwards. If this hit lands, you perform a second strike.If it doesn't, you lose the ST.

* Whirlwind Kick (Glove)- Learned by equipping Spin. Glove-flavored Blammo/Windslasher.

== Plunges, Sweeps and Stuns ==

=== Combo System ===

Each weapon type has a base attack string that ranges from 3 to 7 strikes. If you properly time your inputs, you will start to glow blue and have an afterimage. This glow and afterimage indicates you've started a Sweep. If you input once too many (a fourth basic attack on a weapon with only 3 in its string), your Sweep will end and you'll awkwardly pause for a moment. You can continue a Sweep or basic attack string uninterrupted by chaining Power Attacks and Plunge attacks, or using your equipped Abilities. Continuing a Sweep is sometimes undesirable for speedrunning purposes.

=== Plunge Attacks ===

There are three plunge attacks on every weapon. The basic three are Jump, Thrust, and Uppercut. You can check which are on your current weapon by checking its Status menu in your inventory. Special Plunge Attacks come on certain drops from enemies, and they can be forged into the Plunge slots under certain conditions. These special Plunges still require the same movement inputs, but have either different animations, special effects (sets enemies on fire or does large damage vs. Plants etc.), or both. Some weapons naturally have different animations (I.E. you don't perform the same movements with a Bow as with a Spear), but these changes are generally minimal.

The Thrust Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Thrust slot) is performed by pressing (Left Left+ Power Attack) or (Right Right+ Power Attack). This move will generally move your character very quickly forwards with their weapon extended, and is useful for closing distance and getting a first strike on an opponent who is only barely in range. This will knock the enemy backwards slightly, and is best used to close a final distance and pin them against the wall for further combo-ing.

The Jump Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Jump slot) is performed by pressing (Left Right + Power Attack) or (Right Left + Power Attack). This causes the player to do a partial somersault in the final direction pressed, and land a Power Attack that slides the enemy backwards slightly. Same general use as the Thrust Plunge, but covers less distance.

The Uppercut Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Uppercut slot) is performed by pressing (Down-slide to Left +Power Attack) or (Down-slide to Right + Power Attack). This causes the player to, you guessed it, perform an uppercut-type move with whatever equipped weapon they have. Causes knockback, lands a Power Attack worth of damage, like the other plunges.

=== Sweep Attacks ===
Complete Sweep Attacks cause Candy (25% life heal item) to pop magically out of the air above the player character, and forces the character into a sickeningly long "awesome pose" that costs precious, precious time. Sweeps complete after a varying number of consecutive strikes (12-18) with good button presses, or sometimes quite rapidly if you are sprinkling Abilites into your combos. You can complete a Sweep with 2 strikes, a Spin + Power Attack that connects to 3 enemies, and 2 more strikes that land.

Simply stringing your basic attack combo back to back will end a sweep, as will repeated abilities. Like a very simplified Devil May Cry system, if you keep doing the same thing over and over your combo becomes 'stale' and the sweep never completes.

Casually playing, completing a Sweep Attack shows how awesome you are, but in a speedrun setting you want to go out of your way to avoid them unless Tropicallo has nearly oneshotted you and you don't want to Crouch in a corner for 2 minutes getting back your health, or a similar situation.

=== Stuns ===
Landing *NORMAL* attacks (it doesn't matter if they are consecutive or not) on a single opponent will eventually stun them. This holds them in place, prevents them from using any special techniques, and opens them up for either a beatdown or a guaranteed special technique by the player. This stun is significantly longer than the one provided by ST's such as Rising Crush and Rising Claw.

=== Single Strikes ===
To avoid sweeps and get the most strikes possible for faster weapons, you can interrupt your basic attack string with slight pauses, which causes the character to repeat the first attack in the string ad infinitum. This prevents sweeping, and is utilized in the single-storyline missions for some particularly irritating bossfights to attempt a 'stunlock' before they get any teleporting or damage immunity frames in.

=== Power Canceling ===
Generally, if you throw out a Power Attack without immediately swinging into a Plunge or combining it with an ability, you have a pause similar to what happens if you mash the basic attack button. This pause is punishes you far more significantly, though, as it takes much longer to wear off. If you have an empty Special Technique slot (shoulder buttons and triggers), you can press the empty ST slot after the Power Attack has landed. If you time it correctly you will be rewarded with an annoying beeping sound and your Power Attack animation will be reset, allowing you to immediately throw out another Power Attack and repeat the process.

== "Jump" cancels and QuickPowercancels ==
Performing a power attack and using the Jump ability as soon as the hit lands transitions into an Uppercut. This motion skips several animation frames but has the downside of moving the struck target. The animations and damage dealt are faster than simply powercanceling, but the enemy movement and the requirement of a Jump variant as an equipped ability limit its applicability.

A "quick" cancel is a powercancel followed by a normal attack and another powercancel. You can chain this and stunlock even with heavier 2h weapons. This can also cause "stun" from accumulated normal attacks, but isn't likely to do so. This method deals damage at a slightly slower rate than simply powercanceling, but can lock down enemies you don't want performing attacks most of the time.

== Regional Differences ==
=== Weapon Damage ===

Weapon "Offense" ratings for a number of weapons are slightly lower in the US version versus the JP version, with some exceptions.Some of the rarer drops you're unlikely to see in a run have drastically altered statistics. This is most notable in allstory/100% forge routes, as JP runner weapons will show an offense rating of ~220 for a weapon that displays an offense rating of ~88 in the US versions.

=== Enemy HP ===
Enemy health from the JP to the US version was unevenly rebalanced all across the board. Some enemies just have more health/defense (which makes the mana level/artifact order placement more significant) and some just have less.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-09-04T11:25:33Z

Silentsigil: /* Skips */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
* Selva skip in Lucemia: Selva appears twice and initiates two lines of dialogs, with a decision box. You can "wiggle" past him, or if you have a party member, stand on their pixels and glide through him.

*Also in Lucemia, past the first Selva encounter, party member or pet recommended. The screen with two battles on it, the encounter triggers overlap. When you finish the first battle, don't pick up the XP/items that drop, instead run left as far as possible. When the battle wraps up, you should end up with frozen enemies onscreen in the non-battle setup. They're hard to clip, but this lets you skip a battle.

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission. (You can also choose 'no' and walk in, but this still leaves half a conversation to mash through. The loadscreens in the other method are slightly faster)

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap Bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. Doing this is only worthwhile in the PS3 version, as the loadtimes for the Junkyard are insanely long in that version.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The Allevent route uses this method.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-09-04T11:25:06Z

Silentsigil: /* Skips */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
* Selva skip in Lucemia: Selva appears twice and initiates two lines of dialogs, with a decision box. You can "wiggle" past him, or if you have a party member, stand on their pixels and glide through him.

*Also in Lucemia, past the first Selva encounter, party member or pet recommended. The screen with two battles on it, the encounter triggers overlap. When you finish the first battle, don't pick up the XP/items that drop, instead run left as far as possible. When the battle wraps up, you should end up with frozen enemies onscreen in the non-battle setup. They're hard to clip, but this lets you skip a battle.

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission. (You can also choose 'no' and walk in, but this still leaves half a conversation to mash through. The loadscreens in the other method are slightly faster)

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. Doing this is only worthwhile in the PS3 version, as the loadtimes for the Junkyard are insanely long in that version.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The Allevent route uses this method.

Legend of Mana Faerie Storyline Main Mode

2017-09-04T11:21:02Z

Silentsigil: Replaced content with "{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}} == Fastest Time == https://www.speedrun.com/lom == Notes == https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1mDnNQ2qY-fS..."

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}

== Fastest Time ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Notes ==

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1mDnNQ2qY-fSq9nnld6CJP99oJaFLJcwfdn3jNgetA/edit

Legend of Mana Jumi Storyline Main Mode

2017-09-04T11:19:41Z

Silentsigil: Replaced content with "{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}} == Fastest Times == https://www.speedrun.com/lom == Route Notes == Guides are still in progress for the new ro..."

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}

== Fastest Times ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Route Notes ==
Guides are still in progress for the new routes.

Legend of Mana Dragon Storyline Main Mode

2017-09-04T11:18:07Z

Silentsigil:

{{sda run|http://http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}

== Fastest Times ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Routes ==
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PDHnOnqdIwCneIeQOYe-FEAd7ySkMO1bmrkwGzs-y58/edit

Legend of Mana Dragon Storyline Main Mode

2017-09-04T11:17:54Z

Silentsigil: Replaced content with "{{sda run|http://http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}} *General notes taken from one of Sir_VG's runs (7/10/15) == Fastest Times == https://www.speedrun.com/lom..."

{{sda run|http://http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}
*General notes taken from one of Sir_VG's runs (7/10/15)
== Fastest Times ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Routes ==
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PDHnOnqdIwCneIeQOYe-FEAd7ySkMO1bmrkwGzs-y58/edit

Legend of Mana

2017-09-04T11:10:06Z

Silentsigil: Undo revision 42541 by Silentsigil (talk)

[[Category:PlayStation]]
[[Category:Games]]
== Categories ==

*[[Legend_of_Mana_100%_Main_Mode|100% Main Mode]] All Events
*[[Legend_of_Mana_AllStory_Main_Mode|AllStory% Main Mode]] All Main Storylines
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Dragon_Storyline_Main_Mode|Dragon% Main Mode]] Dragon Storyline
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Jumi_Storyline_Main_Mode|Jumi% Main Mode]] Jumi Storyline
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Faerie_Storyline_Main_Mode|Faerie% Main Mode]] Faerie Storyline

== Additional Information ==

*[[Legend_of_Mana/Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]
*[[Legend_of_Mana/Glitches/Skips|Glitches and Skips]]
http://www.speedrun.com/lom

https://splits.io/games/legendofmana

== Routing Tools ==

Forge Calculator
http://www.airelle.info/index.php/work/programming/88-jforge

Map Planner
http://www.mediafire.com/download/rawko3zl6b1pi9v/LoM+Map+planner.jar

Legend of Mana

2017-09-04T11:09:32Z

Silentsigil:

[[Category:PlayStation]]
[[Category:Games]]
== Categories ==

*[[Legend_of_Mana_AllmEvents|AllEvent%]] All Events
*[[Legend_of_Mana_AllStory|AllStory%]] All Main Storylines
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Dragon_Storyline|Dragon%]] Dragon Storyline
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Jumi_Storyline|Jumi%]] Jumi Storyline
*[[Legend_of_Mana_Faerie_Storyline|Faerie%]] Faerie Storyline

== Additional Information ==

*[[Legend_of_Mana/Mechanics|Game Mechanics]]
*[[Legend_of_Mana/Glitches/Skips|Glitches and Skips]]
http://www.speedrun.com/lom

https://splits.io/games/legendofmana

== Routing Tools ==

Forge Calculator
http://www.airelle.info/index.php/work/programming/88-jforge

Map Planner
http://www.mediafire.com/download/rawko3zl6b1pi9v/LoM+Map+planner.jar

Legend of Mana Faerie Storyline Main Mode

2017-07-08T06:14:08Z

Silentsigil: /* Fastest Time */

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}

Notes courtesy of DJTifaheart,

"Thank yous:
Sir_VG: For the route video and the work on the game overall. Wouldn't be possible without his videos.
Omnigamer: Use Square to lunge then quickly hit L1 to cancel out of the lag for that attack."

== Fastest Time ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Other notes ==

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=DF541DE9D1DC931C!24498&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!AMCO9CpeBebUBOE

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SIyCwAmMUy-cfuECcFoYVGGoZ1WARwj1JQuoNltZOkQ/edit (New route here)

== Starting Out ==
* Select [http://legendofmana.info/img/walkthrough/maps/world-start.jpg this] area as your starting map. Don't move the cursor, just drop the house after you confirm.
* <small>''Above image link from Craig Erksine's Legend of Mana Fansite.''</small>
Picks:
* ~ Pick the Glove
* ~ Whomever (Imu/Toto)

Artifact Placement #1:
* ~ Set the house down.

Ability Set #1:
* ~ Triangle: Defend
* ~ Circle: Defend
* ~ R1: Jawbreaker

Artifact Placement #2:
* ~ Place the Colorblocks below your home.
* ~ Place the Wheel above your home.

== Niccolo's Business Unusual (Luon Highway) ==
* Right, Right, Right, Upper Right past the Save Point, Learn Counterattack

~ (Ability): Set Counterattack on both circle and triangle.

* Right, Right
* Pick Candy, Boss
* Learn Counterstrike from the boss.

Artifact Placement #3
* ~ Place the Flame to the right of Lunon Highway

== The Flame of Hope (Gato Grottoes) ==
(Town):
* Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Right, Talk to the Sproutling.
* Upper Left, Upper Left, Left, Up, Talk to the Sproutling.
* Down, Down, Right, Upper Right, Talk to the Sproutling.
* Upper Left, Upper Left, Left, Up, Examine the Nun.
* Down, Down, Right, Upper Right.
* ~Pick the second option.
(Shop):
* ~ Sell until you have 190 Lure
* ~ Buy the Iron Glove
* ~ Equip it now
~ (Ability):
* Set Jump on Triangle and Circle
(Dungeon):
* Upper Left, Right, Lower Right, Upper Right, Left

Artifact Placement #4
* ~ Place the Ancient Tablet below Gato Grottoes/to the right of your home.

== Teatime of Danger (Mindas Ruins) ==
* Up, Learn Lighting Kick, Upper Left, Lower Right, Upper Left, Lower Left, Upper Left. Move the top flowering only.
* Right, Right, Upper Left, Left, Upper Left. Move the bottom flowering only.
* Right, Lower Left, Upper Left. Talk to the flowering here.
* Right, Right, Upper Left. Move the bottom flowering only.
* Right, Lower Right. Talk to the flowering.
Enter the open door.
* ~ (Ability): Set Retreat on both Triangle and Circle.
Left, Learn Jawbreaker, Left, Left
* ~ Go for the Spiral Claw Gloves drop from the Ape Monkeys. 12/5% drop. Expect resets here to get a run going. (note: only go for it for record runs)
* ~ Equip the Spiral Claw Glove now
Boss.

Artifact Placement #5
* ~ Place the Bottled Spirit to the right of the Mindas Ruins
* ~ Place the Medallion above of the Ulkan Mines/to the right of Gato Grottoes.
* +Enter Domina and get the AF Jade Egg.
* +Pick the bottom options when getting the Jade Egg.

== Niccolo's Business Unusual 2 (Gato Grottoes) ==
* +Find Niccolo in the item shop. Agree to help.
* +Elazul should leave.
* +Skip past the dungeon.
* +Enter and leave the next area. Niccolo will leave the party and start gathering greenballs. When you leave and return, it triggers a faerie to spawn.
* +DO NOT Stand on the log. Stand anywhere but the log and after ~15 seconds the faerie will appear on the log.

== Mine Your Own Business (Ulkan Mines) ==
* Upper Right, Upper Right, Talk to Pokiehl.
* Left, Lower Right, Lower Left, Lower Left after the Bridge, Lower Right, Upper Left after the Save Point, Upper Left, Upper Left, Upper Left, Upper Left, Lower Left, Boss.

Artifact Placement #6
* ~ Place the Moon's Mirror below the Ulkan Mines.

== The Looking Glass Tower (Tower of Leires) ==
* Go until you find two sword enemies.
* Right, Left, Left.
* Go after the Braveblade. Another 12/5% drop. Expect resets here to get a run going.
(Menu):
* Equip Braveblade now
(Ability):
* Set Counterstrike on Circle and Back-roll on Triangle.
Leave the tower now.

== Huntin' Du'Cate (Jungle) ==
* Mid-Upper Right, Mid-Upper-Left, Mid-Lower-Left, Left, Get spell cast on you.
* Right, Right, Upper Right, Right, Right, Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Left, Talk to Throne Guy.
* Down, Lower Left, Get sent back to the Entrance.
* Upper Right, Right, Right, Upper Right, Right, Upper Right, Right
* Right, Learn Shish Kebob

* (Ability): Equip Shish Kebob on R1 and Cheer on Triangle.
Boss. Take the 500 Lure after the boss fight.

== The Murmuring Forest (Jungle) ==
* Teleport to the Courtyard of Rain.
* Defeat enemies, get spell cast on you.
* Down, Upper Right, Left, Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Left, Talk to Selkie (near chest).
* Down, Lower Left, Skip past Escad, Left, Upper Left, Left
* Pick the bottom option
* Boss.

== Two Torches (Gato Grottoes) ==
* Go to the Temple of Healing in Gato's Grottoes. Talk to Daena in the back.
* Exit the Dreamweaving room and head outside.
* Enter the dungeon.
* Talk to Daena and take her offer.
* Upper Right, Boss.

Artifact Placement #7
* ~ Place the Stone Eye above Gato Grottoes

== The Gorgon Eye (Lake Kilma) ==
* Skip past the penguins. Talk to the captain instead.
* Lower Left, Upper Left, Upper Right, Lower Right, Talk to Tote. Get spell cast on you.
* Lower Right, Upper Right, Lower Right Past the Save Point, Right, Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Left, Upper Left, Boss.

== In Search of Faeries (Lake Kilma) ==
* Go to Gato Grottoes
* Go to the Dreamweaving room and talk to Matilda. Agree to help.
* Go to Lake Kilma.
* Lower Left, Upper Left, Upper Right, Lower Right, Lower Right, Upper Right, Lower Right past the Save Point, Right, Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Left, Upper Left. Talk to Tote.
Lower Right, Lower Right, Talk to Deana, Lower Left, Mid-Down, Left, Lower Left, Left, Boss.

== Pokiehl: Dream Teller (Ulkan Mines) ==
* Talk to Pokiehl.
* Left, talk to Pokiehl again to end the quest and fail it.

== Star-Crossed Lovers (Gato Grottoes, Mindas Ruins) ==
* Go to Gato Grottoes
* Go to the Dreamweaving room.
* Right, Right, Right, Right, Lower Left, Upper Left. Move the bottom flowering only.
* Right, Lower Left, Talk to Niccolo.
* Up from the Save Point, Join Escad.

Artifact Placement #8
* Enter Gato's Grottoes and go to the Dreamweaving room.
* ~ Place the Brooch of Love to the left of your home.

== Heaven's Gate (Lucemia) ==
* (Outside):
Upper Left, Upper Left, Mid-Lower-Right.
* (Inside):
Right, Lower Right past the chest, Right, Up the stairs and left.
* (Outside):
Upper Left, Lower Left.
* (Inside):
Right, Right, Upper Left, Upper Right at the fork, Left, Left, Up the stairs and Right.
* (Outside):
Upper Right, Upper Right, Lower Right.
* (Inside):
Upper Left, Left, Left, Upper Right.
* (Outside):
Upper Left, Upper Left, Boss.

Artifact Placement #9:
* ~ Place the Broken Doll below Mindas Ruins/to the right of Domina.

== The Infernal Doll (Junkyard) ==
* Upper Right, Lower Right, Upper Right, Lower Right, Upper Left, Right, Right, Boss.

Artifact Placement #10:
* ~ Place the Firefly Lamp below the Junkyard

== Faerie's Light (Lumina) ==
* Dudbear 1 (Near Puzzle Guy): B, B, A, C
* Dudbear 2 (Near Capella): A, A, A, C
* Dudbear 3 (Shopping District): B, B, A, C

Artifact Placement #11
* ~ Place the Tome of Magic to the right of Lumina
* ~ Place the Trembling Spoon to the right of Geo.
* ~ Place the Rusted Anchor to the right of the Ulkan Mines.
* ~ Place the Sand Rose to the right of Tower of Leries/below Palpota Harbor.
* ~ Place the Torch of Coral below Domina.
* ~ Place the Jade Egg below Lucemia/to the left of Domina.

== The Cage of Dreams (Home) ==
* Go to your home.
* Exit out to the World Map.
* Enter your home again.
* Enter your house, then exit.
* Go left.
* Enter the door there, exit then follow Pokiehl outside. Choose “No.”
* Exit the screen, then enter the worshop. Pokiehl will be gone.
* Talk to the Wheel.
(Dungeon):
* Lower Left, Upper Right, Lower Right, Right, Examine the Sproutling.

Artifact Placement #12:
* ~ Place the Sword of Mana above Lucemia/to the left of Luon Highway.

== Legend of Mana (Tree of Mana) ==
* (Outside):
Upper Right
* (Inside):
Upper Right
* (Outside):
Upper Right, Upper Left
* (Inside):
Upper Left
* (Outside):
Lower Right
* (Inside):
Upper Right
* (Outside):
Lower Right, Upper Right, Upper Right, Upper Left
* (Inside):
Upper Right
* (Sanctuary):
Upper Right, kill enemies here, Upper Right, Upper Right, kill enemies here, Upper Left, Upper Left, kill enemies here, Lower Left, Lower Left, kill enemies here.
Final Boss."

Legend of Mana Jumi Storyline Main Mode

2017-07-08T06:13:37Z

Silentsigil: /* Fastest Time */

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}

*General notes taken from Sir_VG's videos (7/11/15)
== Fastest Time ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Starting Out ==
*[http://legendofmana.info/img/walkthrough/maps/world-start.jpg this] is the starting map.
*Choose 2h Sword
*Drop the mailbox without moving it.
*Place Colorblocks (Domina) 1D of Home
== Nic 1 ==
*Place Ancient Wheel (Luon Highway) 1L of Home
*Defend 2x to learn counterattack before boss, Rising Crush. Equip Counterattack 2x when applicable.
*Place Flame (Gato Grottoes) 1U of Luon Highway

== Flame of Hope ==
*Purchase Iron 2h Sword from weapon shop.
*Place Torch of Coral (Madora Beach) 1L of Luon Highway
== Summer Lovin' ==
*Equip Jump/Lunge (or Jump/retreat) before first fight to learn somersault (for Lunging Arc) or backroll (for Shishkebab) before the boss.
*Go to Domina and start Lost Princess
*Place Moon Mirror (Tower of Lieres) 1U of Home
*Place Jade Egg (Mekiv Caverns) 1L of Domina
*Place Rusty Anchor (Polpota Harbor) 1U of Gato.
== Lost Princess ==
After mission, head to Gato to begin Nic 2.
== Nic 2 ==
Place Broken Doll (Junkyard) 1L of Gato Grottoes.
== Infernal Doll ==
*Place Firefly Lamp (Lumina) 1U of the Tower of Lieres
*Place Tome of Magic (Geo) 1R of Lumina
*Place Medallion (Jungle) 1D of Geo (1R of Lieres)
== Faeries' Light ==
== Tower of Lieres ==
*Seek Braveblade from the 2 sword fight. Equip Somersault or Backroll to learn Lunging Arc/Shishkebab if you haven't already.

== Drowned Dreams ==
*Rightmost Mr. Moti (Dancing shopkeepers) in the Inn.
*Soldier at the shore (far left).
*Mash through Boyd's first dialogue (3x selections, doesn't matter what).
*Mash through Boyd's second dialogue (only 1 option)
*Select the bottom option on Boyd's third dialogue.
*Go the opposite direction as Boyd, to the Cafe.
*After cutscene, head to the front of the Inn.
*After cutscene, head to the Lounge (left of the Mr. Moti's)
*Talk to the soldier (Thoma)
== Reach for the Stars (leave) ==
*Engage mission until everyone runs to the right.
*Leave.
*Go Home, leave.
*Go to Domina's bar. Take Elazul to Geo.
== Lucky Clover ==
*Try to enter Geo on Dryad day
*After mission, go Home and tell elazul 'not yet', 'let's find her'.
== Cosmo ==
*Leave home 2x. Enter Mekiv.
*Ignore Duck. Take upper Boink.
*Head right. Talk to Jewel Master (Fishman in a tuxedo)
*Head right.

== Two Pearls ==
*Enter Home. Head upstairs and talk to Elazul 1x.
*Go down and up the stairs 4 times. On the last downstair cycle, leave.
*(This begins Little Sorcerors)
*Go to the Tower of Lieres. Take or leave Elazul, Ascend.
== Alexandrite ==
*Go to Domina, pick up Pearl, finish Little Sorcerors.
*Go to Geo, do Alexandrite.
*Place Frozen Heart (Fieg Snowfield) 1R of Geo.
== Can't Look Back (leave) ==
*Go to Fieg Snowfield. Watch Melphianse. Leave.
== Flourite ==
*Go to Geo's Jewel Shop.
*Talk to Niccolo 5x, then head left 2x. (Or, talk to nic 3x and go left 4x.)
== Teardrop Crystal ==
*Enter and Leave Home.
*Enter Domina, head to the church and talk to Boyd.
*Enter the Jewel Shop. Leave.
*Enter the Box. Watch Scene.
*Take Elazul for shorter cutscenes or Pearl for a 40 dmg 1h sword.
*Place the Jumi Staff (Bejeweled City) 1R of Home.
*Place the Trembling Spoon (Underworld) 1D of the Bejeweled City.
*Enter Bejeweled City. Adjust skills for endgame.
== Cage of Dreams ==
*Enter Home. Leave. Reenter.
*Enter the actual house at home. Leave.
*Enter the Workshop (1L of house area). Leave.
*Tell Pokeihl "No." Leave screen to the south and reenter.
*Enter workshop, talk to the stained glass face (Nunuzac).
*Place the Sword of Mana 1R of the Bejeweled City.
== Legend of Mana, FIN ==
*Ascend the Tree
*Kill the enemies at the four corners of the Sanctuary
*Defeat the Goddess's Shadow.
*Win Game.

Legend of Mana Dragon Storyline Main Mode

2017-07-08T06:13:01Z

Silentsigil: /* Fastest Time */

{{sda run|http://http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html}}
*General notes taken from one of Sir_VG's runs (7/10/15)
== Fastest Time ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Goblin Routes ==

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cl6uDfbxi14eSZkebuc3ulF3erWw3p62mKa9AVVP-w4/edit

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=DF541DE9D1DC931C!24405&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!ADbQOcEnkIHWoK4

== Starting Out (Old route) ==

*Default map, don't move the box, just drop it.
*2h Sword
*Drop Colorblocks (Domina) 1L of Home

== Lost Princess ==
*Drop Jade Egg (Mekiv Caverns) 1D of Home
*Equip 2x Defend and Rising Crush
*Reenter, Lower boink, up, grind for Earthsplitter.
*Exit is Lower left, Upper Left, Left, Upper Left, Left from the spot the boink dropped you.
*When Counterattack is learned, equip it 2x.
*When Counterstrike is learned, equip it 1x.
*--option: Equipping and using Spin in the other slot rather than having CStrike/Cattack twice will speed up fights considerably. It will also teach an AoE ST for both 2H sword and 2H axe. Not using any AoE ability/tech and forcibly rushing to one you don't use 90% of the time (counterstrike) feels like wasted potential.
*Drop Firefly Lamp (Lumina) 1D, 1L of Home.

== Faeries' Light ==
*Go to the lamp store (Monique's barrel, far NE)
*Go to the "cafe" and talk to the bartender. Learn the language
*Trade the dudbears lamps for lucre 3x.
*Go to the barrel, talk to the centard (Centaur Bard).

== Monster Corral ==
*Go to Domina. Go to the far left, catch a pet.
*Drop Trembling Spoon (The Underworld) 1R of Home.
== Fallen Emperor ==
*Place Skull Lantern (Norn Peaks) 1U of Home
*Place Stone Eye (Lake Kilma) 1D of Underworld
== Guardian of Winds ==

== Grab your pet ==
*Place Dragon Bone (Bone Fortress) 1U of Norn Peaks.
== Field Trip ==
*Talk to the child. Go Right, Exit left immediately. Go right.
*Talk to the bluish pink female flowerling, the pink male flowerling, and the blue student at the top.
== Ghost of Nemesis ==
*Get a Braveblade from the flying sword enemies, equip it.
*Drop the Green Cane (White Forest) 1R of the Norn Peaks
*At this point you should be shooting for either Shishkebab (Backroll) or Lunging Arc (Somersault) as your bossfight ST.
== Dragon Princess ==

== Crimson Dragon ==

== Summer Lovin' ==
*Go to Domina and begin Nic 1.
*With Niccolo in tow, place Ancient Wheel (Luon Highway) 1L of Domina
*Place Torch of Coral (Madora Beach) 1U of Luon Highway
*Place Broken Doll (Junkyard) 1U of Bone Fortress
*Avoid crushing crabs in Madora beach, except for Fullmetal ones.
*Place Tome of Magic (Geo) 1L of Madora Beach
*Place Rusty Anchor (Polpota Harbor) 1U of Geo
== Nic 1 ==
*Place Medallion (Jungle) 1L of Luon Highway
*Place Flame (Gato Grottoes) 1U of Jungle
*Place Moon Mirror (Tower of Lieres) 1U of Gato
*Place Sand Rose (Duma Desert) 1U of Polpota Harbor
== Cage of Dreams ==
*Enter and leave Home.
*Enter and leave the actual house at Home after cutscene.
*Enter and leave the Workshop (1L of the House).
*Tell Pokeihl "No." Leave and reenter the screen to/from the south.
*Enter the Workshop. Talk to Nunuzac (The stained glass-circle-face dude)
== Legend of Mana, Fin ==
*Ascend the Tree.
*Kill the enemies at the four corners of the Sanctuary
*Slay the Goddess's shadow.
*Win Game.

Legend of Mana AllStory Main Mode

2017-07-08T06:12:42Z

Silentsigil: /* Fastest Times */

== Fastest Times ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12s-UStEfoXCnm3CJdfbhI6_HiXC2nClenOMFYRCEGa4/edit

Legend of Mana 100% Main Mode

2017-07-08T06:11:25Z

Silentsigil: /* Current Fastest Times */

== Current Fastest Times ==
https://www.speedrun.com/lom

== Overarching Information ==
=== Events/Artifacts/Lands ===
[some of this might go to game mechanics, some is specific to 100%/allstory?]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zgc0pG7RoVmQFM-lrq_lnXildq0WFDVs3rhyF8Vnojw/edit

=== Events ===
Legend of Mana has 68 total 'missions/quests'. The game refers to them as Events. Some are mostly story-based with minimal combat, some are mostly combat/exploration, and some simply involve running from place to place in various towns and talking to bartenders made out of puzzle pieces.
=== Artifacts/Lands ===
The deal with this game is that the world has been shattered into pieces, and the memories of the creatures that live in a place have crystalized inside various artifacts. In order to get to events, you need to drop the artifacts you've found onto your worldmap to turn them back into Lands.

The first Event in every land, with a few notable exceptions, generally has two slots for Artifacts (Primary and Secondary) to reward the player with. If the player has either already received the listed artifact or has more than two artifacts on their 'slate' (unused), then the reward will either change to a Metal or be dropped down to a single artifact reward. Planning a route involves researching what events will net you what artifacts, and planning when/where to place your artifacts. [Insert link to Gfaqs/googdoc?]

=== Shops, Monsters and You ===
The order in which you place artifacts and their distance from Home (the first artifact you place) determines the level of the monsters in dungeon/wilderness areas and the materials and weapons available in towns. The number in the artifact order is added to the distance in squares from home to produce a number, and if that number is above or below certain thresholds, you will get a specific result.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/256525-legend-of-mana/faqs/7785

=== Missable Events/Failable Events ===
Two events in the town of Domina are missable altogether if you do not provide the correct levels of Mana to the town (usually done by placing the Mana Tree next to it near the end of the game, but possible otherwise with planning). Peewee Birdie and Seeing Double are the names of these events, and they require three wisp and three shade in Domina. Three Salamander might also be necessary for one or the other.

One event (Wimpy Thugling) in Duma Desert can be missed if the event Blessed Elixer is ignored and Duma Desert is not given three Dryad Mana.

If you go to the cafe in Geo before completing the Gilbert missions up to Gilbert: School Amour, the game will automatically start Gilbert:School Amour and not allow the player to start the previous missions.

If you select the wrong options in Gilbert: Resume for Love, Gilbert will explode and you will fail the mission.

If you start Cosmo before starting Gilbert: Resume for Love, Gilbert disappears.

If you select the wrong options during Peewee Birdie, or talk to Peewee 10+ times, he will explode and you will fail the mission. (I'm sensing a theme here)

If you reenter Gato for any reason after completing Flame of Hope, Daena is no longer in Domina for you to start Gaeus's Wisdom.

If you leave the map during Pokeihl: Dream Teller, or Diddle Had It, you fail those missions. (?)

If you complete Catchin Lilipeas before starting Where's Putty and (possibly?) Little Cactus and Diddle Had It, you lose access to those missions.

Treasure Map and Nordic Snowfield both have failure options. One is timed, the other is a sort of exploration puzzle with a tiny bit of RNG at the end.

Buried Treasure will not start unless you have, for some godawful reason, smashed 20 crabs at the beach.

== Goals for Routing ==
* The Seven Wisdoms mission involves dragging an NPC to six different out-of-the-way locations. Compressing this down to complete other missions alongside these visits will be a large chunk of saved time.
* Ensuring that the missable and failable missions don't get overwritten means you have to get certain missions in specific orders within your route.
* Minimizing worldmap travel time, ensuring that some 'tough' bosses have reasonable health, and ensuring you have all the store levels/mana levels you need means you need to plan your artifact/land placement order carefully.
* Time-sink missions like Rachel and Lucky Clover, which involve either passing days on the worldmap or repeatedly entering and sleeping at a cafe to have days pass need to be compressed as much as possible (done together) or done piecemeal as you complete other missions alongside them to save time.

== Possible Routes ==
[No available/known notes for the first two, links to videos of them would already be available once linked in the best times section.]

Two routes in progress of being optimized can be found [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NYIpU_PMk94e1UUvGQDog2NjCsR5PSBxOQLEH7v1LF4/edit#gid=1046730040 here].

also this if that doc is awful to look at : [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fvpg8nprTtmQ1FqlABo7STn423btCCQ7v-fhMb69FVo/edit this]

Legend of Mana/Mechanics

2017-04-02T06:28:18Z

Silentsigil: /* Abilities */

== General Combat ==
Most of your timeloss will be from normal encounters and how they are handled. Boss fights, especially a few select ones, can be fairly trolly, but there are far, far more normal encounters than bosses and their times add up. Your choice of Abilities and Special Techniques will be based around either shutting down bosses and reacting to boss ST's to deal damage or focused on clearing encounters in order to reach the bosses faster.

== Movement ==
"Wiggling" the stick rapidly at a diagonal in the general direction you need to go saves a minor amount of frames. You're doing it correctly if your character's feet don't touch the ground and you aren't hearing footsteps.

== Combat Movement ==
Movement speed in combat is generally determined by the weapon you have equipped. Gloves and knives make your character move at a significantly faster pace than the heavier 2-handed weapons. This difference can be mitigated somewhat by moving in a serpentine pattern (diagonals) with the two steps the character takes. The character takes a long step and then a short step in their movement cycle. If you are moving horizontally on the long step, you can cover long distances even with a heavier weapon, then use the short step to position yourself diagonally.

== Weapons and Damage ==
Each weapon has four "types" of damage. The basic weapon type (glove, axe, sword, etc.) has its four ratings multiplied by the four ratings of the material it is made out of. Those four numbers are then divided by 128 and added together to show the "offense rating" on your equipment screen. The bigger this number, generally, the better.

((weapon x material)\128), repeated for each of the four categories, then added together.

(Ex: 2h Swords all have a modifier of 40,40,40,40. IshePlatinum material has modifiers of 40,40,40,40.)
40x40 is 1600. 1600 divided by 128 is 12.5. 12.5x4 (or 12.5+12.5....) is 50, which is the damage of an unforged IshePlatinum 2hSword.

Plug those numbers into this to get estimated damage:

( OFF * 0.625 ) + ( OFF * POW * 1.25 ) / 100 ) - ( ARM * 0.3125 ) - ( ARM * DEF * 0.625 / 100 )

Replace SKL in that formula for knife and bow.

Swords are balanced across the board, as shown, and other weapons have much different weights on the four categories.
=== Weapon Modifiers ===
There are multiple defense types versus physical damage, as well as eight elemental damage brands that can be applied through forging and resisted/cause increased damage or extra 'magic' damage to be applied. Some plunge attacks cause damage boosts to specific species, or cause damage indirectly through special effects (setting them on fire, poison). Casually, this hasn't been researched as far as I have found, as most interest has gone to simply creating overwhelming force (200-999 damage weapons) through forging. Those weapons no longer care about defense as they simply crush anything that looks at them the wrong way. Unfortunately, the materials used are either out of the range of NG or require excess money/grinding. Simple forging to about 80-140 dmg is possible given the right conditions in a speedrun, and costs about 3-5 minutes (saving roughly 30 sec to 1 min 30 sec per combat-focused mission). Forging is most likely only to be found in either an All-Story or 100% run. The most notable and useful effects that can be seen easily are the Land modifiers, which will be talked about below.

=== Player Modifiers ===
The player character has at least two statistics that apply extra damage to basic, power, ability attacks, and special techniques through an unknown process. The other player statistics have various effects that increase the chance of status effects landing on enemies or being resisted by the character, increase passive magic defense for the character, increase health and health regen, etc. The Magic stat may or may not have anything at all to do with the magic damage dealt by a character using Instruments (Instruments, so far as I know, are not used in speedrunning).

Character stat growth is determined by the weapon equipped during each levelup. Every weapon has different stat-up cycles, but generally, 2h swords make you better at swording (equal power and skill, general balance of other stats), 2h hammers make you better at hammering (Massive power growth, low skill growth, low balance of other stats), etc. Since a runner in the three single-story runs will likely only swap weapons once or twice, this growth has only minor influence. The 100% category usually ends with the player in the high forties or low fifties in level, meaning that your weapon choice could have a significant impact on your damage dealt.

=== Land Modifiers ===
This is the important bit. There are a handful of "tanky" monsters in the game that get severe health and defense boosts from having certain mana levels in the lands that they are found. This information can be found on their Monster Encyclopedia entry. Generally, the creature gets a large boost from the two elements that make them 'stronger', and a small nerf from the two elements that make them 'weaker' on that page. Woodings, Mad Mallards, ArchDemons, Land, Air, and Kid Dragons, Yaks, Chobin Hoods, and Ape Mummies can all be granted enough of an HP and defense pool to become more than minor speedbumps that cost time if this is ignored. *(check these names, dummy)*

The monster's basic level is determined by the order that the land was placed down and the distance the land is from Home, much like store/weapon shop levels. Some areas get enhanced monster levels as they are meant to be 'tougher' (The Flames, The Mana Sanctuary). If you get, say, a Wooding, in an advanced area that was placed very late and has high Dryad levels, you will be slamming your weapon into its face for quite a while.

The US version is significantly different than the JP version. The actual land level formula is something like this:

Land Level 0-4:.... Base Level = 1
Land Level 5-33:.. Base Level = 2 + (LLvl - 5)
Land Level 34-48: Base Level = 32 + 2(LLvl - 34)
Land Level 49:...... Base Level = 63
Land Level 50-59: Base Level = 69 + 3(LLvl - 50)
Land Level 60-63: Base Level = 99

Secondary lands (The Flames, Cage of Dreams) and bosses/minibosses (Punkmaster in the Jungle, Skeletal Soldier, Sierra, Deathbringer) are calculated something like this:

ROUNDDOWN((# of lands - 2) * 1.5)

== Techs/Abilities ==

=== Learning Techniques and Abilities ===
The character starts off knowing several basic Abilites and one Special Technique. More advanced maneuvers are learned by accruing hidden weapon and ability experience on a battle-to-battle basis. You generally get one 'point' per combat, with several bossfights instead granting you four points of both weapon and ability experience.
=== Abilities ===
Abilites are combat skills that are equipped to two button slots (default is Triangle and Circle). As you gain experience in an equipped ability, you will learn new abilities. Backroll, for instance, requires that you have (x) experience in both the Jump and Retreat abilities. Acquired experience is kept for all abilities you have previously had equipped in combat. This means that if you had Jump equipped (it's one of the default ability equips) for several fights, and then swapped out Jump for Crouch and Retreat, you would most likely learn High Jump (requires Jump and Crouch experience) and Backroll (requires Jump and Retreat experience).

If you have one ability equipped in both slots, it receives both slots worth of experience (you double your learning rate). This means that if you have (Defend+Defend) equipped, you will learn Counterattack twice as quickly.

Useful Abilities in a speedrun are:
*Spin [Default ability] (spin + power attack creates a damage circle around the player dealing slightly less than a basic attack to all opponents caught in its range. Spamming this causes the player to get 'dizzy' [stun animation], but can be used twice successively (Usually). Teaches players their first AoE ST. **The usefulness of this ability is DIRECTLY linked to the damage you are capable of dealing. If you can't kill or wound the enemies severely enough that they can be finished off by a basic or power attack, don't use this.
*Counterstrike [Learned by accruing Counterattack experience] (makes the player pause for a moment. If the player is struck by a combat ability or an attack, they will strike in the direction they are facing for between 2x(Bow.) 8x (most other weapons) and a quick attack's damage.

=== Special Techniques ===

Special Techniques (ST's) are learned by a combination of weapon experience and ability experience. Some special techniques are shared between weapons, and some are unique to each weapon. Your character gains weapon experience in the same way as Ability experience (by completing combat with that weapon equipped). Depending on your chosen starting weapon, you will also start with a single pre-learned Special Technique that may or may not be worth utilizing right off the bat.

Some ST's require experience in multiple abilities (the level 3-4 "Major Damage" techs), and some only require experience from your weapon and a single ability. Most two handed weapons will learn "Rising Crush" from having the Crouch ability and that weapon equipped for (x) combats. The Spin ability will teach the player a weak-to-middling AoE technique that will strike either all opponents on a battlefield or a medium-to-large size circle around the player, depending on the players equipped weapon.

Useful ST's for speedrunning:

* Rising Crush/Claw (2h sword, 2h axe, hammer)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if you select 2h sword as your first weapon. Minor damage to a frontal target, causes a short Stun.

* Flying Sawblades (2h Axe)- Learned by equipping Spin. Default ST if 2h Axe is selected starting equipment. More damage than Windslasher with a similar range, less damage than Blammo but a longer range.

* Salmon Upstream (1h Axe)- Learned by equipping Backflip. Hits a large radius around the player, similar to Blammo. Increases power significantly.

* Tornado (1h Axe) - Learned by equipping Spin. Bog-standard middle-range AoE. These 1h Axe techs would most likely be utilized by a runner who attempted to fetch an Earthsplitter axe from the goblins in Mekiv Cavern and got BlackElk as a first-drop instead. This is a viable choice over Earthsplitter if you intend to grind for Braveblade later.

* Windslasher (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Spin. Hits all enemies.

* Blammo (Hammer)- Learned by equipping Spin, automatically gained if Hammer is selected as first weapon. Smaller range than Windslasher, more damage.

* Jawbreaker (Glove)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if Glove is selected as first weapon. "Hits twice", meaning the ST damage is applied twice if both strikes in the ST animation hit the same enemy. Can hit multiple foes in an area similar to Flipkick in front of the player.

* Shishkebab (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Backroll. Hits twice like Jawbreaker. You perform a flipkick, hitting all enemies in the area of a flipkick, and then a thrust with a long-duration hitbox. If you fail to land the first strike, the lunge will still be performed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFliv3qdVs

* Lunging Arc (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Lunge. Hits twice like Jawbreaker and Shishkebab. Performs the same level of damage as Shishkebab. Significantly less likely to land than Shishkebab. You perform a short-duration hitbox lunge forwards. If this hit lands, you perform a second strike.If it doesn't, you lose the ST.

* Whirlwind Kick (Glove)- Learned by equipping Spin. Glove-flavored Blammo/Windslasher.

== Plunges, Sweeps and Stuns ==

=== Combo System ===

Each weapon type has a base attack string that ranges from 3 to 7 strikes. If you properly time your inputs, you will start to glow blue and have an afterimage. This glow and afterimage indicates you've started a Sweep. If you input once too many (a fourth basic attack on a weapon with only 3 in its string), your Sweep will end and you'll awkwardly pause for a moment. You can continue a Sweep or basic attack string uninterrupted by chaining Power Attacks and Plunge attacks, or using your equipped Abilities. Continuing a Sweep is sometimes undesirable for speedrunning purposes.

=== Plunge Attacks ===

There are three plunge attacks on every weapon. The basic three are Jump, Thrust, and Uppercut. You can check which are on your current weapon by checking its Status menu in your inventory. Special Plunge Attacks come on certain drops from enemies, and they can be forged into the Plunge slots under certain conditions. These special Plunges still require the same movement inputs, but have either different animations, special effects (sets enemies on fire or does large damage vs. Plants etc.), or both. Some weapons naturally have different animations (I.E. you don't perform the same movements with a Bow as with a Spear), but these changes are generally minimal.

The Thrust Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Thrust slot) is performed by pressing (Left Left+ Power Attack) or (Right Right+ Power Attack). This move will generally move your character very quickly forwards with their weapon extended, and is useful for closing distance and getting a first strike on an opponent who is only barely in range. This will knock the enemy backwards slightly, and is best used to close a final distance and pin them against the wall for further combo-ing.

The Jump Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Jump slot) is performed by pressing (Left Right + Power Attack) or (Right Left + Power Attack). This causes the player to do a partial somersault in the final direction pressed, and land a Power Attack that slides the enemy backwards slightly. Same general use as the Thrust Plunge, but covers less distance.

The Uppercut Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Uppercut slot) is performed by pressing (Down-slide to Left +Power Attack) or (Down-slide to Right + Power Attack). This causes the player to, you guessed it, perform an uppercut-type move with whatever equipped weapon they have. Causes knockback, lands a Power Attack worth of damage, like the other plunges.

=== Sweep Attacks ===
Complete Sweep Attacks cause Candy (25% life heal item) to pop magically out of the air above the player character, and forces the character into a sickeningly long "awesome pose" that costs precious, precious time. Sweeps complete after a varying number of consecutive strikes (12-18) with good button presses, or sometimes quite rapidly if you are sprinkling Abilites into your combos. You can complete a Sweep with 2 strikes, a Spin + Power Attack that connects to 3 enemies, and 2 more strikes that land.

Simply stringing your basic attack combo back to back will end a sweep, as will repeated abilities. Like a very simplified Devil May Cry system, if you keep doing the same thing over and over your combo becomes 'stale' and the sweep never completes.

Casually playing, completing a Sweep Attack shows how awesome you are, but in a speedrun setting you want to go out of your way to avoid them unless Tropicallo has nearly oneshotted you and you don't want to Crouch in a corner for 2 minutes getting back your health, or a similar situation.

=== Stuns ===
Landing *NORMAL* attacks (it doesn't matter if they are consecutive or not) on a single opponent will eventually stun them. This holds them in place, prevents them from using any special techniques, and opens them up for either a beatdown or a guaranteed special technique by the player. This stun is significantly longer than the one provided by ST's such as Rising Crush and Rising Claw.

=== Single Strikes ===
To avoid sweeps and get the most strikes possible for faster weapons, you can interrupt your basic attack string with slight pauses, which causes the character to repeat the first attack in the string ad infinitum. This prevents sweeping, and is utilized in the single-storyline missions for some particularly irritating bossfights to attempt a 'stunlock' before they get any teleporting or damage immunity frames in.

=== Power Canceling ===
Generally, if you throw out a Power Attack without immediately swinging into a Plunge, you have a pause similar to what happens if you mash the basic attack button. This pause is punishes you far more significantly, though, as it takes much longer to wear off. If you have an empty Special Technique slot (shoulder buttons and triggers), you can press the empty ST slot after the Power Attack has landed. If you time it correctly you will be rewarded with an annoying beeping sound and your Power Attack animation will be reset, allowing you to immediately throw out another Power Attack and repeat the process.

== "Jump" cancels and QuickPowercancels ==
Performing a power attack and using the Jump ability as soon as the hit lands transitions into an Uppercut. This motion skips several animation frames but has the downside of moving the struck target. The animations and damage dealt are faster than simply powercanceling, but the enemy movement and the requirement of a Jump variant as an equipped ability limit its applicability.

A "quick" cancel is a powercancel followed by a normal attack and another powercancel. You can chain this and stunlock even with heavier 2h weapons. This can also cause "stun" from accumulated normal attacks, but isn't likely to do so. This method deals damage at a slightly slower rate than simply powercanceling, but can lock down enemies you don't want performing attacks most of the time.

== Regional Differences ==
=== Weapon Damage ===

Weapon "Offense" ratings for a number of weapons are slightly lower in the US version versus the JP version, with some exceptions.Some of the rarer drops you're unlikely to see in a run have drastically altered statistics. This is most notable in allstory/100% forge routes, as JP runner weapons will show an offense rating of ~220 for a weapon that displays an offense rating of ~88 in the US versions.

=== Enemy HP ===
Enemy health from the JP to the US version was unevenly rebalanced all across the board. Some enemies just have more health/defense (which makes the mana level/artifact order placement more significant) and some just have less.

Legend of Mana/Mechanics

2017-04-02T05:41:51Z

Silentsigil: /* Weapons and Damage */

== General Combat ==
Most of your timeloss will be from normal encounters and how they are handled. Boss fights, especially a few select ones, can be fairly trolly, but there are far, far more normal encounters than bosses and their times add up. Your choice of Abilities and Special Techniques will be based around either shutting down bosses and reacting to boss ST's to deal damage or focused on clearing encounters in order to reach the bosses faster.

== Movement ==
"Wiggling" the stick rapidly at a diagonal in the general direction you need to go saves a minor amount of frames. You're doing it correctly if your character's feet don't touch the ground and you aren't hearing footsteps.

== Combat Movement ==
Movement speed in combat is generally determined by the weapon you have equipped. Gloves and knives make your character move at a significantly faster pace than the heavier 2-handed weapons. This difference can be mitigated somewhat by moving in a serpentine pattern (diagonals) with the two steps the character takes. The character takes a long step and then a short step in their movement cycle. If you are moving horizontally on the long step, you can cover long distances even with a heavier weapon, then use the short step to position yourself diagonally.

== Weapons and Damage ==
Each weapon has four "types" of damage. The basic weapon type (glove, axe, sword, etc.) has its four ratings multiplied by the four ratings of the material it is made out of. Those four numbers are then divided by 128 and added together to show the "offense rating" on your equipment screen. The bigger this number, generally, the better.

((weapon x material)\128), repeated for each of the four categories, then added together.

(Ex: 2h Swords all have a modifier of 40,40,40,40. IshePlatinum material has modifiers of 40,40,40,40.)
40x40 is 1600. 1600 divided by 128 is 12.5. 12.5x4 (or 12.5+12.5....) is 50, which is the damage of an unforged IshePlatinum 2hSword.

Plug those numbers into this to get estimated damage:

( OFF * 0.625 ) + ( OFF * POW * 1.25 ) / 100 ) - ( ARM * 0.3125 ) - ( ARM * DEF * 0.625 / 100 )

Replace SKL in that formula for knife and bow.

Swords are balanced across the board, as shown, and other weapons have much different weights on the four categories.
=== Weapon Modifiers ===
There are multiple defense types versus physical damage, as well as eight elemental damage brands that can be applied through forging and resisted/cause increased damage or extra 'magic' damage to be applied. Some plunge attacks cause damage boosts to specific species, or cause damage indirectly through special effects (setting them on fire, poison). Casually, this hasn't been researched as far as I have found, as most interest has gone to simply creating overwhelming force (200-999 damage weapons) through forging. Those weapons no longer care about defense as they simply crush anything that looks at them the wrong way. Unfortunately, the materials used are either out of the range of NG or require excess money/grinding. Simple forging to about 80-140 dmg is possible given the right conditions in a speedrun, and costs about 3-5 minutes (saving roughly 30 sec to 1 min 30 sec per combat-focused mission). Forging is most likely only to be found in either an All-Story or 100% run. The most notable and useful effects that can be seen easily are the Land modifiers, which will be talked about below.

=== Player Modifiers ===
The player character has at least two statistics that apply extra damage to basic, power, ability attacks, and special techniques through an unknown process. The other player statistics have various effects that increase the chance of status effects landing on enemies or being resisted by the character, increase passive magic defense for the character, increase health and health regen, etc. The Magic stat may or may not have anything at all to do with the magic damage dealt by a character using Instruments (Instruments, so far as I know, are not used in speedrunning).

Character stat growth is determined by the weapon equipped during each levelup. Every weapon has different stat-up cycles, but generally, 2h swords make you better at swording (equal power and skill, general balance of other stats), 2h hammers make you better at hammering (Massive power growth, low skill growth, low balance of other stats), etc. Since a runner in the three single-story runs will likely only swap weapons once or twice, this growth has only minor influence. The 100% category usually ends with the player in the high forties or low fifties in level, meaning that your weapon choice could have a significant impact on your damage dealt.

=== Land Modifiers ===
This is the important bit. There are a handful of "tanky" monsters in the game that get severe health and defense boosts from having certain mana levels in the lands that they are found. This information can be found on their Monster Encyclopedia entry. Generally, the creature gets a large boost from the two elements that make them 'stronger', and a small nerf from the two elements that make them 'weaker' on that page. Woodings, Mad Mallards, ArchDemons, Land, Air, and Kid Dragons, Yaks, Chobin Hoods, and Ape Mummies can all be granted enough of an HP and defense pool to become more than minor speedbumps that cost time if this is ignored. *(check these names, dummy)*

The monster's basic level is determined by the order that the land was placed down and the distance the land is from Home, much like store/weapon shop levels. Some areas get enhanced monster levels as they are meant to be 'tougher' (The Flames, The Mana Sanctuary). If you get, say, a Wooding, in an advanced area that was placed very late and has high Dryad levels, you will be slamming your weapon into its face for quite a while.

The US version is significantly different than the JP version. The actual land level formula is something like this:

Land Level 0-4:.... Base Level = 1
Land Level 5-33:.. Base Level = 2 + (LLvl - 5)
Land Level 34-48: Base Level = 32 + 2(LLvl - 34)
Land Level 49:...... Base Level = 63
Land Level 50-59: Base Level = 69 + 3(LLvl - 50)
Land Level 60-63: Base Level = 99

Secondary lands (The Flames, Cage of Dreams) and bosses/minibosses (Punkmaster in the Jungle, Skeletal Soldier, Sierra, Deathbringer) are calculated something like this:

ROUNDDOWN((# of lands - 2) * 1.5)

== Techs/Abilities ==

=== Learning Techniques and Abilities ===
The character starts off knowing several basic Abilites and one Special Technique. More advanced maneuvers are learned by accruing hidden weapon and ability experience on a battle-to-battle basis. You generally get one 'point' per combat, with several bossfights instead granting you four points of both weapon and ability experience.
=== Abilities ===
Abilites are combat skills that are equipped to two button slots (default is Triangle and Circle). As you gain experience in an equipped ability, you will learn new abilities. Backroll, for instance, requires that you have (x) experience in both the Jump and Retreat abilities. Acquired experience is kept for all abilities you have previously had equipped in combat. This means that if you had Jump equipped (it's one of the default ability equips) for several fights, and then swapped out Jump for Crouch and Retreat, you would most likely learn High Jump (requires Jump and Crouch experience) and Backroll (requires Jump and Retreat experience).

If you have one ability equipped in both slots, it receives both slots worth of experience (you double your learning rate). This means that if you have (Defend+Defend) equipped, you will learn Counterattack twice as quickly.

Useful Abilities in a speedrun are:
*Spin [Default ability] (spin + power attack creates a damage circle around the player dealing slightly less than a basic attack to all opponents caught in its range. Spamming this causes the player to get 'dizzy' [stun animation], but can be used twice successively (Usually). Teaches players their first AoE ST. **The usefulness of this ability is DIRECTLY linked to the damage you are capable of dealing. If you can't kill or wound the enemies severely enough that they can be finished off by a basic or power attack, don't use this.
*Counterstrike [Learned by accruing Counterattack experience] (makes the player pause for a moment. If the player is struck by a combat ability or an attack, they will strike in the direction they are facing for between 2x(Bow.) 8x (most 2handed weapons) and 10x (most 1handed weapons) a quick attack's damage.

=== Special Techniques ===

Special Techniques (ST's) are learned by a combination of weapon experience and ability experience. Some special techniques are shared between weapons, and some are unique to each weapon. Your character gains weapon experience in the same way as Ability experience (by completing combat with that weapon equipped). Depending on your chosen starting weapon, you will also start with a single pre-learned Special Technique that may or may not be worth utilizing right off the bat.

Some ST's require experience in multiple abilities (the level 3-4 "Major Damage" techs), and some only require experience from your weapon and a single ability. Most two handed weapons will learn "Rising Crush" from having the Crouch ability and that weapon equipped for (x) combats. The Spin ability will teach the player a weak-to-middling AoE technique that will strike either all opponents on a battlefield or a medium-to-large size circle around the player, depending on the players equipped weapon.

Useful ST's for speedrunning:

* Rising Crush/Claw (2h sword, 2h axe, hammer)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if you select 2h sword as your first weapon. Minor damage to a frontal target, causes a short Stun.

* Flying Sawblades (2h Axe)- Learned by equipping Spin. Default ST if 2h Axe is selected starting equipment. More damage than Windslasher with a similar range, less damage than Blammo but a longer range.

* Salmon Upstream (1h Axe)- Learned by equipping Backflip. Hits a large radius around the player, similar to Blammo. Increases power significantly.

* Tornado (1h Axe) - Learned by equipping Spin. Bog-standard middle-range AoE. These 1h Axe techs would most likely be utilized by a runner who attempted to fetch an Earthsplitter axe from the goblins in Mekiv Cavern and got BlackElk as a first-drop instead. This is a viable choice over Earthsplitter if you intend to grind for Braveblade later.

* Windslasher (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Spin. Hits all enemies.

* Blammo (Hammer)- Learned by equipping Spin, automatically gained if Hammer is selected as first weapon. Smaller range than Windslasher, more damage.

* Jawbreaker (Glove)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if Glove is selected as first weapon. "Hits twice", meaning the ST damage is applied twice if both strikes in the ST animation hit the same enemy. Can hit multiple foes in an area similar to Flipkick in front of the player.

* Shishkebab (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Backroll. Hits twice like Jawbreaker. You perform a flipkick, hitting all enemies in the area of a flipkick, and then a thrust with a long-duration hitbox. If you fail to land the first strike, the lunge will still be performed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFliv3qdVs

* Lunging Arc (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Lunge. Hits twice like Jawbreaker and Shishkebab. Performs the same level of damage as Shishkebab. Significantly less likely to land than Shishkebab. You perform a short-duration hitbox lunge forwards. If this hit lands, you perform a second strike.If it doesn't, you lose the ST.

* Whirlwind Kick (Glove)- Learned by equipping Spin. Glove-flavored Blammo/Windslasher.

== Plunges, Sweeps and Stuns ==

=== Combo System ===

Each weapon type has a base attack string that ranges from 3 to 7 strikes. If you properly time your inputs, you will start to glow blue and have an afterimage. This glow and afterimage indicates you've started a Sweep. If you input once too many (a fourth basic attack on a weapon with only 3 in its string), your Sweep will end and you'll awkwardly pause for a moment. You can continue a Sweep or basic attack string uninterrupted by chaining Power Attacks and Plunge attacks, or using your equipped Abilities. Continuing a Sweep is sometimes undesirable for speedrunning purposes.

=== Plunge Attacks ===

There are three plunge attacks on every weapon. The basic three are Jump, Thrust, and Uppercut. You can check which are on your current weapon by checking its Status menu in your inventory. Special Plunge Attacks come on certain drops from enemies, and they can be forged into the Plunge slots under certain conditions. These special Plunges still require the same movement inputs, but have either different animations, special effects (sets enemies on fire or does large damage vs. Plants etc.), or both. Some weapons naturally have different animations (I.E. you don't perform the same movements with a Bow as with a Spear), but these changes are generally minimal.

The Thrust Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Thrust slot) is performed by pressing (Left Left+ Power Attack) or (Right Right+ Power Attack). This move will generally move your character very quickly forwards with their weapon extended, and is useful for closing distance and getting a first strike on an opponent who is only barely in range. This will knock the enemy backwards slightly, and is best used to close a final distance and pin them against the wall for further combo-ing.

The Jump Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Jump slot) is performed by pressing (Left Right + Power Attack) or (Right Left + Power Attack). This causes the player to do a partial somersault in the final direction pressed, and land a Power Attack that slides the enemy backwards slightly. Same general use as the Thrust Plunge, but covers less distance.

The Uppercut Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Uppercut slot) is performed by pressing (Down-slide to Left +Power Attack) or (Down-slide to Right + Power Attack). This causes the player to, you guessed it, perform an uppercut-type move with whatever equipped weapon they have. Causes knockback, lands a Power Attack worth of damage, like the other plunges.

=== Sweep Attacks ===
Complete Sweep Attacks cause Candy (25% life heal item) to pop magically out of the air above the player character, and forces the character into a sickeningly long "awesome pose" that costs precious, precious time. Sweeps complete after a varying number of consecutive strikes (12-18) with good button presses, or sometimes quite rapidly if you are sprinkling Abilites into your combos. You can complete a Sweep with 2 strikes, a Spin + Power Attack that connects to 3 enemies, and 2 more strikes that land.

Simply stringing your basic attack combo back to back will end a sweep, as will repeated abilities. Like a very simplified Devil May Cry system, if you keep doing the same thing over and over your combo becomes 'stale' and the sweep never completes.

Casually playing, completing a Sweep Attack shows how awesome you are, but in a speedrun setting you want to go out of your way to avoid them unless Tropicallo has nearly oneshotted you and you don't want to Crouch in a corner for 2 minutes getting back your health, or a similar situation.

=== Stuns ===
Landing *NORMAL* attacks (it doesn't matter if they are consecutive or not) on a single opponent will eventually stun them. This holds them in place, prevents them from using any special techniques, and opens them up for either a beatdown or a guaranteed special technique by the player. This stun is significantly longer than the one provided by ST's such as Rising Crush and Rising Claw.

=== Single Strikes ===
To avoid sweeps and get the most strikes possible for faster weapons, you can interrupt your basic attack string with slight pauses, which causes the character to repeat the first attack in the string ad infinitum. This prevents sweeping, and is utilized in the single-storyline missions for some particularly irritating bossfights to attempt a 'stunlock' before they get any teleporting or damage immunity frames in.

=== Power Canceling ===
Generally, if you throw out a Power Attack without immediately swinging into a Plunge, you have a pause similar to what happens if you mash the basic attack button. This pause is punishes you far more significantly, though, as it takes much longer to wear off. If you have an empty Special Technique slot (shoulder buttons and triggers), you can press the empty ST slot after the Power Attack has landed. If you time it correctly you will be rewarded with an annoying beeping sound and your Power Attack animation will be reset, allowing you to immediately throw out another Power Attack and repeat the process.

== "Jump" cancels and QuickPowercancels ==
Performing a power attack and using the Jump ability as soon as the hit lands transitions into an Uppercut. This motion skips several animation frames but has the downside of moving the struck target. The animations and damage dealt are faster than simply powercanceling, but the enemy movement and the requirement of a Jump variant as an equipped ability limit its applicability.

A "quick" cancel is a powercancel followed by a normal attack and another powercancel. You can chain this and stunlock even with heavier 2h weapons. This can also cause "stun" from accumulated normal attacks, but isn't likely to do so. This method deals damage at a slightly slower rate than simply powercanceling, but can lock down enemies you don't want performing attacks most of the time.

== Regional Differences ==
=== Weapon Damage ===

Weapon "Offense" ratings for a number of weapons are slightly lower in the US version versus the JP version, with some exceptions.Some of the rarer drops you're unlikely to see in a run have drastically altered statistics. This is most notable in allstory/100% forge routes, as JP runner weapons will show an offense rating of ~220 for a weapon that displays an offense rating of ~88 in the US versions.

=== Enemy HP ===
Enemy health from the JP to the US version was unevenly rebalanced all across the board. Some enemies just have more health/defense (which makes the mana level/artifact order placement more significant) and some just have less.

Legend of Mana/Mechanics

2017-04-02T05:36:56Z

Silentsigil: /* Weapons and Damage */

== General Combat ==
Most of your timeloss will be from normal encounters and how they are handled. Boss fights, especially a few select ones, can be fairly trolly, but there are far, far more normal encounters than bosses and their times add up. Your choice of Abilities and Special Techniques will be based around either shutting down bosses and reacting to boss ST's to deal damage or focused on clearing encounters in order to reach the bosses faster.

== Movement ==
"Wiggling" the stick rapidly at a diagonal in the general direction you need to go saves a minor amount of frames. You're doing it correctly if your character's feet don't touch the ground and you aren't hearing footsteps.

== Combat Movement ==
Movement speed in combat is generally determined by the weapon you have equipped. Gloves and knives make your character move at a significantly faster pace than the heavier 2-handed weapons. This difference can be mitigated somewhat by moving in a serpentine pattern (diagonals) with the two steps the character takes. The character takes a long step and then a short step in their movement cycle. If you are moving horizontally on the long step, you can cover long distances even with a heavier weapon, then use the short step to position yourself diagonally.

== Weapons and Damage ==
Each weapon has four "types" of damage. The basic weapon type (glove, axe, sword, etc.) has its four ratings multiplied by the four ratings of the material it is made out of. Those four numbers are then divided by 128 and added together to show the "offense rating" on your equipment screen. The bigger this number, generally, the better.

((weapon x material)\128), repeated for each of the four categories, then added together.

(Ex: 2h Swords all have a modifier of 40,40,40,40. IshePlatinum material has modifiers of 40,40,40,40.)
40x40 is 1600. 1600 divided by 128 is 12.5. 12.5x4 (or 12.5+12.5....) is 50, which is the damage of an unforged IshePlatinum 2hSword.

Swords are balanced across the board, as shown, and other weapons have much different weights on the four categories.
=== Weapon Modifiers ===
There are multiple defense types versus physical damage, as well as eight elemental damage brands that can be applied through forging and resisted/cause increased damage or extra 'magic' damage to be applied. Some plunge attacks cause damage boosts to specific species, or cause damage indirectly through special effects (setting them on fire, poison). Casually, this hasn't been researched as far as I have found, as most interest has gone to simply creating overwhelming force (200-999 damage weapons) through forging. Those weapons no longer care about defense as they simply crush anything that looks at them the wrong way. Unfortunately, the materials used are either out of the range of NG or require excess money/grinding. Simple forging to about 80-140 dmg is possible given the right conditions in a speedrun, and costs about 3-5 minutes (saving roughly 30 sec to 1 min 30 sec per combat-focused mission). Forging is most likely only to be found in either an All-Story or 100% run. The most notable and useful effects that can be seen easily are the Land modifiers, which will be talked about below.

=== Player Modifiers ===
The player character has at least two statistics that apply extra damage to basic, power, ability attacks, and special techniques through an unknown process. The other player statistics have various effects that increase the chance of status effects landing on enemies or being resisted by the character, increase passive magic defense for the character, increase health and health regen, etc. The Magic stat may or may not have anything at all to do with the magic damage dealt by a character using Instruments (Instruments, so far as I know, are not used in speedrunning).

(Power increases, very slightly, decimal damage above base (5), and hits a threshold at +10 from base (15). This threshold increases damage noticeably. If this follows a pattern, then +20 (25) will also be a threshold. Skill seems to be strictly governing ST's.

On levelup, characters gain 5 Health at base stats. At the moment, it appears that every 2 points of the HP stat increases Health gained per level by 1. So, a character that has 7 HP stat will gain 6 health. A character that has 9 HP stat will gain 7 health.

Character stat growth is determined by the weapon equipped during each levelup. Every weapon has different stat-up cycles, but generally, 2h swords make you better at swording (equal power and skill, general balance of other stats), 2h hammers make you better at hammering (Massive power growth, low skill growth, low balance of other stats), etc. Since a runner in the three single-story runs will likely only swap weapons once or twice, this growth has only minor influence. The 100% category usually ends with the player in the high forties or low fifties in level, meaning that your weapon choice could have a significant impact on your damage dealt.

=== Land Modifiers ===
This is the important bit. There are a handful of "tanky" monsters in the game that get severe health and defense boosts from having certain mana levels in the lands that they are found. This information can be found on their Monster Encyclopedia entry. Generally, the creature gets a large boost from the two elements that make them 'stronger', and a small nerf from the two elements that make them 'weaker' on that page. Woodings, Mad Mallards, ArchDemons, Land, Air, and Kid Dragons, Yaks, Chobin Hoods, and Ape Mummies can all be granted enough of an HP and defense pool to become more than minor speedbumps that cost time if this is ignored. *(check these names, dummy)*

The monster's basic level is determined by the order that the land was placed down and the distance the land is from Home, much like store/weapon shop levels. Some areas get enhanced monster levels as they are meant to be 'tougher' (The Flames, The Mana Sanctuary). If you get, say, a Wooding, in an advanced area that was placed very late and has high Dryad levels, you will be slamming your weapon into its face for quite a while.

The US version is significantly different than the JP version. The actual land level formula is something like this:

Land Level 0-4:.... Base Level = 1
Land Level 5-33:.. Base Level = 2 + (LLvl - 5)
Land Level 34-48: Base Level = 32 + 2(LLvl - 34)
Land Level 49:...... Base Level = 63
Land Level 50-59: Base Level = 69 + 3(LLvl - 50)
Land Level 60-63: Base Level = 99

Secondary lands (The Flames, Cage of Dreams) and bosses/minibosses (Punkmaster in the Jungle, Skeletal Soldier, Sierra, Deathbringer) are calculated something like this:

ROUNDDOWN((# of lands - 2) * 1.5)

== Techs/Abilities ==

=== Learning Techniques and Abilities ===
The character starts off knowing several basic Abilites and one Special Technique. More advanced maneuvers are learned by accruing hidden weapon and ability experience on a battle-to-battle basis. You generally get one 'point' per combat, with several bossfights instead granting you four points of both weapon and ability experience.
=== Abilities ===
Abilites are combat skills that are equipped to two button slots (default is Triangle and Circle). As you gain experience in an equipped ability, you will learn new abilities. Backroll, for instance, requires that you have (x) experience in both the Jump and Retreat abilities. Acquired experience is kept for all abilities you have previously had equipped in combat. This means that if you had Jump equipped (it's one of the default ability equips) for several fights, and then swapped out Jump for Crouch and Retreat, you would most likely learn High Jump (requires Jump and Crouch experience) and Backroll (requires Jump and Retreat experience).

If you have one ability equipped in both slots, it receives both slots worth of experience (you double your learning rate). This means that if you have (Defend+Defend) equipped, you will learn Counterattack twice as quickly.

Useful Abilities in a speedrun are:
*Spin [Default ability] (spin + power attack creates a damage circle around the player dealing slightly less than a basic attack to all opponents caught in its range. Spamming this causes the player to get 'dizzy' [stun animation], but can be used twice successively (Usually). Teaches players their first AoE ST. **The usefulness of this ability is DIRECTLY linked to the damage you are capable of dealing. If you can't kill or wound the enemies severely enough that they can be finished off by a basic or power attack, don't use this.
*Counterstrike [Learned by accruing Counterattack experience] (makes the player pause for a moment. If the player is struck by a combat ability or an attack, they will strike in the direction they are facing for between 2x(Bow.) 8x (most 2handed weapons) and 10x (most 1handed weapons) a quick attack's damage.

=== Special Techniques ===

Special Techniques (ST's) are learned by a combination of weapon experience and ability experience. Some special techniques are shared between weapons, and some are unique to each weapon. Your character gains weapon experience in the same way as Ability experience (by completing combat with that weapon equipped). Depending on your chosen starting weapon, you will also start with a single pre-learned Special Technique that may or may not be worth utilizing right off the bat.

Some ST's require experience in multiple abilities (the level 3-4 "Major Damage" techs), and some only require experience from your weapon and a single ability. Most two handed weapons will learn "Rising Crush" from having the Crouch ability and that weapon equipped for (x) combats. The Spin ability will teach the player a weak-to-middling AoE technique that will strike either all opponents on a battlefield or a medium-to-large size circle around the player, depending on the players equipped weapon.

Useful ST's for speedrunning:

* Rising Crush/Claw (2h sword, 2h axe, hammer)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if you select 2h sword as your first weapon. Minor damage to a frontal target, causes a short Stun.

* Flying Sawblades (2h Axe)- Learned by equipping Spin. Default ST if 2h Axe is selected starting equipment. More damage than Windslasher with a similar range, less damage than Blammo but a longer range.

* Salmon Upstream (1h Axe)- Learned by equipping Backflip. Hits a large radius around the player, similar to Blammo. Increases power significantly.

* Tornado (1h Axe) - Learned by equipping Spin. Bog-standard middle-range AoE. These 1h Axe techs would most likely be utilized by a runner who attempted to fetch an Earthsplitter axe from the goblins in Mekiv Cavern and got BlackElk as a first-drop instead. This is a viable choice over Earthsplitter if you intend to grind for Braveblade later.

* Windslasher (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Spin. Hits all enemies.

* Blammo (Hammer)- Learned by equipping Spin, automatically gained if Hammer is selected as first weapon. Smaller range than Windslasher, more damage.

* Jawbreaker (Glove)- Learned by equipping Crouch, automatically gained if Glove is selected as first weapon. "Hits twice", meaning the ST damage is applied twice if both strikes in the ST animation hit the same enemy. Can hit multiple foes in an area similar to Flipkick in front of the player.

* Shishkebab (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Backroll. Hits twice like Jawbreaker. You perform a flipkick, hitting all enemies in the area of a flipkick, and then a thrust with a long-duration hitbox. If you fail to land the first strike, the lunge will still be performed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFliv3qdVs

* Lunging Arc (2h sword)- Learned by equipping Lunge. Hits twice like Jawbreaker and Shishkebab. Performs the same level of damage as Shishkebab. Significantly less likely to land than Shishkebab. You perform a short-duration hitbox lunge forwards. If this hit lands, you perform a second strike.If it doesn't, you lose the ST.

* Whirlwind Kick (Glove)- Learned by equipping Spin. Glove-flavored Blammo/Windslasher.

== Plunges, Sweeps and Stuns ==

=== Combo System ===

Each weapon type has a base attack string that ranges from 3 to 7 strikes. If you properly time your inputs, you will start to glow blue and have an afterimage. This glow and afterimage indicates you've started a Sweep. If you input once too many (a fourth basic attack on a weapon with only 3 in its string), your Sweep will end and you'll awkwardly pause for a moment. You can continue a Sweep or basic attack string uninterrupted by chaining Power Attacks and Plunge attacks, or using your equipped Abilities. Continuing a Sweep is sometimes undesirable for speedrunning purposes.

=== Plunge Attacks ===

There are three plunge attacks on every weapon. The basic three are Jump, Thrust, and Uppercut. You can check which are on your current weapon by checking its Status menu in your inventory. Special Plunge Attacks come on certain drops from enemies, and they can be forged into the Plunge slots under certain conditions. These special Plunges still require the same movement inputs, but have either different animations, special effects (sets enemies on fire or does large damage vs. Plants etc.), or both. Some weapons naturally have different animations (I.E. you don't perform the same movements with a Bow as with a Spear), but these changes are generally minimal.

The Thrust Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Thrust slot) is performed by pressing (Left Left+ Power Attack) or (Right Right+ Power Attack). This move will generally move your character very quickly forwards with their weapon extended, and is useful for closing distance and getting a first strike on an opponent who is only barely in range. This will knock the enemy backwards slightly, and is best used to close a final distance and pin them against the wall for further combo-ing.

The Jump Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Jump slot) is performed by pressing (Left Right + Power Attack) or (Right Left + Power Attack). This causes the player to do a partial somersault in the final direction pressed, and land a Power Attack that slides the enemy backwards slightly. Same general use as the Thrust Plunge, but covers less distance.

The Uppercut Plunge (and Plunges that replace the Uppercut slot) is performed by pressing (Down-slide to Left +Power Attack) or (Down-slide to Right + Power Attack). This causes the player to, you guessed it, perform an uppercut-type move with whatever equipped weapon they have. Causes knockback, lands a Power Attack worth of damage, like the other plunges.

=== Sweep Attacks ===
Complete Sweep Attacks cause Candy (25% life heal item) to pop magically out of the air above the player character, and forces the character into a sickeningly long "awesome pose" that costs precious, precious time. Sweeps complete after a varying number of consecutive strikes (12-18) with good button presses, or sometimes quite rapidly if you are sprinkling Abilites into your combos. You can complete a Sweep with 2 strikes, a Spin + Power Attack that connects to 3 enemies, and 2 more strikes that land.

Simply stringing your basic attack combo back to back will end a sweep, as will repeated abilities. Like a very simplified Devil May Cry system, if you keep doing the same thing over and over your combo becomes 'stale' and the sweep never completes.

Casually playing, completing a Sweep Attack shows how awesome you are, but in a speedrun setting you want to go out of your way to avoid them unless Tropicallo has nearly oneshotted you and you don't want to Crouch in a corner for 2 minutes getting back your health, or a similar situation.

=== Stuns ===
Landing *NORMAL* attacks (it doesn't matter if they are consecutive or not) on a single opponent will eventually stun them. This holds them in place, prevents them from using any special techniques, and opens them up for either a beatdown or a guaranteed special technique by the player. This stun is significantly longer than the one provided by ST's such as Rising Crush and Rising Claw.

=== Single Strikes ===
To avoid sweeps and get the most strikes possible for faster weapons, you can interrupt your basic attack string with slight pauses, which causes the character to repeat the first attack in the string ad infinitum. This prevents sweeping, and is utilized in the single-storyline missions for some particularly irritating bossfights to attempt a 'stunlock' before they get any teleporting or damage immunity frames in.

=== Power Canceling ===
Generally, if you throw out a Power Attack without immediately swinging into a Plunge, you have a pause similar to what happens if you mash the basic attack button. This pause is punishes you far more significantly, though, as it takes much longer to wear off. If you have an empty Special Technique slot (shoulder buttons and triggers), you can press the empty ST slot after the Power Attack has landed. If you time it correctly you will be rewarded with an annoying beeping sound and your Power Attack animation will be reset, allowing you to immediately throw out another Power Attack and repeat the process.

== "Jump" cancels and QuickPowercancels ==
Performing a power attack and using the Jump ability as soon as the hit lands transitions into an Uppercut. This motion skips several animation frames but has the downside of moving the struck target. The animations and damage dealt are faster than simply powercanceling, but the enemy movement and the requirement of a Jump variant as an equipped ability limit its applicability.

A "quick" cancel is a powercancel followed by a normal attack and another powercancel. You can chain this and stunlock even with heavier 2h weapons. This can also cause "stun" from accumulated normal attacks, but isn't likely to do so. This method deals damage at a slightly slower rate than simply powercanceling, but can lock down enemies you don't want performing attacks most of the time.

== Regional Differences ==
=== Weapon Damage ===

Weapon "Offense" ratings for a number of weapons are slightly lower in the US version versus the JP version, with some exceptions.Some of the rarer drops you're unlikely to see in a run have drastically altered statistics. This is most notable in allstory/100% forge routes, as JP runner weapons will show an offense rating of ~220 for a weapon that displays an offense rating of ~88 in the US versions.

=== Enemy HP ===
Enemy health from the JP to the US version was unevenly rebalanced all across the board. Some enemies just have more health/defense (which makes the mana level/artifact order placement more significant) and some just have less.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-04-02T05:18:34Z

Silentsigil: /* Skips */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
* Selva skip in Lucemia: Selva appears twice and initiates two lines of dialogs, with a decision box. You can "wiggle" past him, or if you have a party member, stand on their pixels and glide through him.

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission. (You can also choose 'no' and walk in, but this still leaves half a conversation to mash through. The loadscreens in the other method are slightly faster)

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. Doing this is only worthwhile in the PS3 version, as the loadtimes for the Junkyard are insanely long in that version.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The 7:02 100% route uses this method.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-04-02T05:17:33Z

Silentsigil: /* Skips */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
* Selva skip in Lucemia: Selva appears twice and initiates two lines of dialogs, with a decision box. You can "wiggle" past him, or if you have a party member, stand on their pixels and glide through him.

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission. (You can also choose 'no' and walk in, but this still leaves half a conversation to mash through. The loadscreens in the other method are slightly faster)

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. This might save or lose a negligible amount of time and needs to be measured.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The 7:02 100% route uses this method.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-04-02T05:16:38Z

Silentsigil: /* Skips */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
* Selva skip in Lucemia: Selva appears twice and initiates two lines of dialogs, with a decision box. You can "wiggle" past him, or if you have a party member, stand on their pixels and glide through him.

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission.

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. This might save or lose a negligible amount of time and needs to be measured.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The 7:02 100% route uses this method.

Legend of Mana/Glitches/Skips

2017-04-02T05:15:01Z

Silentsigil: /* Quasi-glitches */

== Quasi-glitches ==
*Starting Can't Look Back (Entering Fieg Snowfields) and then leaving before completion removes Melphianse (Demon principal/teacher) from Geo's school until Can't Look Back is finished.

*Starting Reach for the Stars (Enter Duma Desert and talk to the basilisk 1x, leave after she says she doesn't know what to do) removes the basilisk from Geo's cafe--this means you can mess around in Geo all you want without triggering Gilbert: School Amour and losing the Gilbert missions up to it. This allows you to do Wimpy Thugling and Blessed Elixer before the Gilbert line is completed. Initiating this mission also allows you to begin Lucky Clover without needing to complete Gilbert: School Amour first.

*Starting Reach for the Stars and then starting Can't Look Back fails Reach for the Stars This is used in Jumi to free up Duma Desert for Fluorite.

== Skips ==
Selva skip in Lucemia [insert link to video tutorial for this? Talk to DJTifaHeart? WowExp said something about this as well.]. Only worth it if you nail it first try?

* In Gorgon Eye (Starts upon entering Lake Kilma the first time) you can walk under the penguins and talk to the captain to shorten the dialogue considerably. Also, at the save statue, if you head to the upper right you skip a fight and a couple screen transitions on your way to the cliff.

* In Flame of Hope (Starts on entering Gato Grottoes for the first time and touching a nun), when you reach the dungeon finally, ignore the sproutling's dropped leaves and head to the leftmost cave. Skim by to the right and down a set of stairs. Once you're out of this cave, just head left and you're done. You skip most of the dungeon.

* In Murmuring Forest (Enter Jungle after DuCate and talk to Selkie in the Courtyard of Rain and then the Forested Ruins), when you start the mission proper, ignore Escad and the nun. Just head left past them and end the mission.

* In Cage of Dreams (available after a main storyline is complete at Home), when you reach the point where you talk to Pokeihl, tell him 'no' and walk away. Reenter the screen, then reenter the workshop and talk to Nunuzac (stained glass face guy) and you will skip a long diatribe and head right to the end of the mission.

*In The Seven Wisdoms (Bud's mission), once you talk to the first 5 Wisdoms in their locations, Selva will be forced to appear in Gato Grottoes. Once you talk to him, the mission is technically complete. You can swap bud out of your party and skip a worldmap transition, a dialogue, and an end mission splash screen (these happen after talking to Selva and entering Home). Merely returning home and talking to him nets you the yellow completion bubble on your Diary menu.

*In Daddy's Broom, when you walk down the stairs after talking to Lil' Cactus, telling Bud 'no' skips two of the 'new party member' join times (sometimes considerably lengthy) and keeps Bud from ruining your fights by preventing you from damaging enemies with his incredibly weak spells.

*In Infernal Doll (Entering the Junkyard for the first time), you can also start Bomb's Lab before leaving. This lengthens the time for Infernal Doll's completion, but saves a worldmap transition and reentering the Junkyard. This might save or lose a negligible amount of time and needs to be measured.

*In any Tower of Lieres mission, taking the third floor elevator to the sixth floor and taking the left stairs down to the fifth saves a small portion of time versus running the entire way up/down from the fifth floor.

*Placing lands carefully (using the worldmap's Wisp innate mana to enhance Domina) allows access to Seeing Double and Peewee Birdy long before getting the Mana Tree, which is the usual strategy. The 7:02 100% route uses this method.