Mighty_bomb_jack_(nes)

Category description

This category exploits the fact that the palace rooms are secretly connected (see the section about the game mechanics). The idea here is therefore warping from palace room to palace room until level 17 is reached and then rescue the king. This means no hidden items are collected and will therefore give the normal ending when Jack leaves the pyramid.

Level-by-level description

To shorten down the text I will use some references below. Numbers refer to the bomb numbers in the Palace room bomb sequences. The tases for the best ending and the normal ending, are referred to as tasbe and tasne, respectively.

1-1

https://vimeo.com/568101966
A straight-forward level. There are 7 mighty coins available, of which 4 are equally fast and considerably faster than the other three. It's recommended to pick up these four coins, which will be used in level 17 (and will be further discussed there).

Palace room 1

https://vimeo.com/568101989 - This method is fairly safe and relatively fast.
https://vimeo.com/568102038 - From the tasbe. It's a few tenths of a second faster than the method above. There is a tricky jump on the right side that requires practice.
https://vimeo.com/568102085 - This is a very tricky route based on the TAS solution.

Palace room 2

https://vimeo.com/568102129 - Running between two platforms is actually one frame slower than jumping between them. However, there is a risk of jumping over bomb 10.
https://vimeo.com/568102177 - This is a variant of the tasbe method. Unfortunately, I have only been able to follow this route on emu and been able to reproduce it on console.

Palace room 3

https://vimeo.com/568102209 - This is a copy of the tasne method. The wide turn for picking up bomb 4 is because of bad hit detection. The tasbe starts out with bomb 24, but that route leads to some close enemy encounters. While it's faster, it's doubtful whether it can be used in real time. In this video, a jellyfish spawned at the bottom. It's quite uncommon for that mummy to drop all the way to the bottom. Some of the other enemy types can not be bypassed by simply running straight to the right. However, since this is so uncommon, I won't list the different ways to deal with them.

Palace room 4

https://vimeo.com/568102273 - It requires fairly precise timing throughout the room to arrive in the top right corner at the right moment. Too early and the mummy will not drop and too late means there is not enough time to collect the last bombs at the bottom before the enemy hitbox becomes active.
There is a minor enemy manipulation required for this to work. If the first enemy spawn is a skull, it's almost impossible to not lose time and must be avoided. The lobster is not ideal either, but still workable. The other enemy types are fine. Since the previous rooms are cleared so quickly that no enemies should spawn, there is no indication where in the enemy cycle you are when entering this room. The best is to keep track during attempts of which enemy spawns you get in this room. That can then be offset earlier on. For example by pressing A a few times when approaching the exit in room 2. Since there is so much gliding leading up to here, there is no guarantee it will work though. It's just a matter of improving the odds.
https://vimeo.com/568128168 - Alternative method that saves half a second on the above. It's considerably more difficult though, so it boils down to a risk-reward decision.
The tas methods are not practical in real time.

Palace room 5

https://vimeo.com/568102329 - The tasbe has a faster method, but it relies on the 1-frame instant jump at the beginning and is not practical in real time.

Palace room 6

https://vimeo.com/568102364 - Slightly faster than the tasne. Turning around too quickly after picking up the first bomb will result in a mummy spawning on the right side, which will end up wasting time to deal with. It's therefore beneficial to be just a little bit sloppy...

Palace room 7

https://vimeo.com/568102428

Palace room 8

https://vimeo.com/568101841 - From this room and onwards, careful routing is required in order to manipulate the enemies in the coming rooms, which means minimize floating. The method here is to look at the first spawned enemy and adjust by A-presses between the lit bomb and the exit to get the right value of the enemy counter for room 9. Provided the room solutions demonstrated in the videos of the next rooms are followed, this is the recommended number of A-presses to the exit:
3 - lobster
4 - bat
5 - bird
6 - fireball
7 - skull
8 - jellyfish
It might be hard to press A 8 times until the exit. However, two A-presses can be done in room 9 instead (described there). In the video shown here, a fireball was spawned as the first enemy. That means 6 A-presses should have been done. Instead, 5 A-presses were done here and one additional in palace room 9. The result is the same, so it's only personal preference that determines where one chooses to do the A-presses.
The tasne has a solution that is roughly one second faster, but not practical on console.

Palace room 9

https://vimeo.com/568101866 - A slightly easier and slower route (the wide turn before catching bomb 5 is because of weird hit detection).
https://vimeo.com/568102494 - A slightly faster and more difficult route (I have only managed it on emu, never on console).
Provided the instructions from room 8 were followed, the first spawned enemy will be either a fireball or a bird (depending on if one of your jumps was done before or after the enemy type in room 8 was determined). The bird is the safest, but is usually slightly slower as the last drop to the exit will first hit the wall. If it's a fireball (like shown here), its movements are more unpredictable. Remember to make a jump on the top platform when falling down to the exit if it's a fireball.
As mentioned in the description for room 8, there is an opportunity to make one or two extra A-presses before the first enemy spawns. That is when passing through the narrow passage from the left to the right side.
The tasne solution is slower.

Palace room 10

https://vimeo.com/568101890 - The number of A-presses are planned to spawn a bird as the first enemy. Some of the other enemy types are able to catch up with Jack and making this solution less consistent. This solution is the same as in the tasne. The tasbe has a different and slightly faster (a few tenths of a second) way to traverse the room. It seems like the enemy spawns depend on if it's the normal ending or the best ending route. In the best ending route, the tasbe solution works well, but it becomes extremely difficult and risky when warping from palace room to palace room.

Palace room 11

https://vimeo.com/568101913 - The movements on the left side look a bit unoptimized, but it's to avoid a mummy spawning on the left side. The tasne uses a slower solution. The first enemy spawn here should be a jellyfish.

Palace room 12

https://vimeo.com/568101935 - There is a risk of spawning one of the mummies on the left side, which is a disaster for a speedrun. That happens by making the turn after bomb 23 too tight. So a little bit of sloppiness near the start is necessary. The hitbox on bomb 5 is very weird. That's one of the reasons for not using the tas method (also because it will be a very close call with enemies falling down on the right side). The enemies spawning here should be jellyfishes. It's not important for clearing the room, but it's an absolute requirement for the room 13 solution to work.

Palace room 13

https://vimeo.com/568101949 - This is an extremely cruel room when playing normally. There are two superposed manipulations that allow for this set of enemies (two fireballs and two bats) to spawn. The first manipulation is to arrive to this room with the right value of the enemy counter(controlled since room 8 if the videos above have been followed). The second manipulation is to move in such a way that you get two of one enemy type (fireballs) and two of another (bats). Playing this normally will most likely yield four different enemy types and render a quick solution more or less impossible.

Palace room 14

https://vimeo.com/568102528 - Conservative approach.
https://vimeo.com/568102573 - Half a second faster. Bombs 8-13 could be collected in a similar way. However, that would trigger the top mummy to start walking to the right and block the passage for a short while (see the tasne). The tasbe has another (and faster) solution, but not practical.

Palace room 15

https://vimeo.com/568102619 - It's a real risk that the jump to the last three bombs will end on top of the mummy. This can be prevented by deliberately be a bit slow in the sections before.

Palace room 16

https://vimeo.com/568102667 - The stop below is to manipulate the right mummy to start walking to the left. This is a fairly safe method.
https://vimeo.com/568102721 - Time-wise similar to the solution above, but does not require a stop below and is therefore a few tenths of a second faster. It's at the same time riskier. Both because the mummies can sometimes transform into enemies faster than shown in this video and then block the exit of the interior and also because the last jump somehow seems to be quite tricky to perform on console (not enough height). Some enemies are more favorable than others, so this solution requires enemy manipulation based on the spawns in room 15, but will not be detailed here. Also be aware that 00FA will likely loop around here. This creates a risk for the discontinuity around 0 that is mentioned in Game Mechanics.

Round 17

https://vimeo.com/568102784 - It's possible to get through the whole level without using mighty coins. In the first room, there is only one enemy setup that is workable and it's still extremely difficult. The second room is also very impractical because very good mashing ability is needed and there is still a chance to trigger a mummy, which is inside one of the chests. The king's room is also possible to get through, but it depends on the enemy spawns. Overall, it introduces a ton of risk to cut out on using mighty coins in this level. And one also has to keep in mind that it's possible to clear these three otherwise difficult rooms with 5 mighty coins. Not powering up Jack to green in one (two) of the rooms would only save one (two) mighty coin(s). So unless all rooms are done without power ups, the time gain is small (less than a sec).