Castelian (NES)/any%(ntscj)

The route shown here is for the Japanese version, played on Hero difficulty . This is the fastest combination for beating the game.

Tower 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIeP55IynsE

• Taking the elevator past the first molecule on Hero difficulty only works on the JP-version and is frame perfect (= 3 actual frames since the game runs at 20 fps).
• With a well times jump (around 0:28-0:29 in the video), it's possible to time the spawn of the vertical moving enemy at the second destroyable ball so it bounces back off the ball, eliminating any waiting time. It saves a little under a second. However, this depends on other enemy positions that are difficult to gauge in real-time and therefore adds quite a bit more risk.
• It's important to walk, and not jump, onto the elevator leading to the aforementioned vertical moving enemy and the second bouncing ball (at around 0:30). This ensures that the bouncing ball can be destroyed before other enemy blocks it and will also set up a better timing of the last molecule appearance.

Tower 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj9bC4TRzM

• Note the jump at 0:16. It would have been possible to jump one step further down to scale the stairs faster. However, jumping on this step will spawn the enemy above as early as possible. This will allow you to push on a little earlier when it's blocking the way a little later on.
• Walking (and not jumping) up the stairs after the jump mentioned above and allowing the character to turn in the wrong direction at 0:24 (by not holding right) almost work as a buffer strat for jumping past the enemy at 0:26 pretty much as early as possible. You're still likely to arrive a bit early for the jump. If that's often the case, you can experiment with including a small delay somewhere or entering the door in a slightly unoptimal way.
• With perfect execution, it's one movement frame (= 3 actual frames + any random lag frames) faster to jump (at 0:52) to the very last lift instead of walking onto the breaking floor tile. However, if the jump is not timed well enough, it will end up losing time to walking.

Tower 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8eO3qdGExs

• By shooting just out of range of the bouncing ball at the beginning, it's often possible to manipulate the ball to delay its start of movement. This allows you to enter the opening, which otherwise is not possible without shooting the enemy. By avoiding to destroy it, 6 frames of countdown are saved at the end of the level.

Tower 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz5pIti9gRM

• The timing and time window for passing beneath the first molecule is tight. A well-timed jump (at 0:11) is needed to make the molecule spawn when you're at the top of the jump. The molecule always appears at the same time after the level begins, but since it can be difficult to have consistent movements, it's not always easy to gauge when to jump with the required precision. This trick is however important as failing it will cost several seconds both here and also set up the molecule in an unfavorable way later on.
• It's a movement frame faster to jump to the door at 0:35 and 0:39. However, the jumps are pixel perfect and failing to execute them will lead to a time loss instead.
• If the blinking pellet to the right is destroyed at 0:39, you can continue to the left at 0:45. However, that route is slightly slower.
• By waiting in the spot at 1:02-1:05, the lag is slightly reduced by having fewer enemies on screen compared to waiting next to the lift. Turning as shown in the video is a good way to keep track of when it's time to move to the right. When the bird turns right for the fifth time, the lift is about to be lowered.
• There is a risk that the bouncing ball at 1:19 will not start moving if you push on too fast. This can be mitigated by adding an intentional pause before shooting (see enemy movements for more details). Postponing shooting until after the jump is both risky (if the ball starts moving towards you) and slower. Once the ball is destroyed, the molecule timer will start ticking down. The more it ticks down, the more time saved at the very end when waiting for getting knocked down.
• The brief pause at 1:21 was to get the molecule timer to tick down a bit more and make the molecule appear earlier at the top. By timing this correctly (= minimize waiting time for getting knocked down), half a second or so is saved.
• It's slightly faster to jump (and not walk) onto the last lift that leads to the top of the tower.

Tower 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGuyTpS9_i4

• Try to jump off the blinking pellet at 0:08. There is not much room to do so, but it will trigger the enemy above earlier if successful. The time save is free (at worst you'll just walk up to the next step), but also very minor though.
• The pause before turning around at 0:17 was intentional to get the molecule timer to run for just a little longer. This is required for the end section (explained in more detail below).
• Turning around at 0:17 (instead of immediately activating the elevator) gives the best pattern for the circling enemy above.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

From 0:43 and onwards, careful planning is required. Several possiblities exist and it's easy to turn them into unwinnable situations unless the right actions are performed. It's therefore important to take a closer look to understand the requirements for achieving the fastest solution, as well as what to do in the different situations. The discussion will be based around the following collage of screenshots:

• The jump at 0:43 was to trigger the spawning of '2', ensuring it will not block the way later on.
• '4' will spawn when '1' despawns. The timing of this will have a decisive impact on the rest of the level. There are three possible cases (at least three commonly encountered cases, but the dependencies are fairly complex so it's possible that other cases also can occur). In all cases, '3' and '4' collide while waiting in 'A', but their continued movements differ between the three cases. Each case requires a specific set of actions and will be detailed below.
  

Keep in mind that these instructions are not fool-proof. The enemy movements at the end of the level can still create more or less unwinnable situations.

Case 1
This is the fastest of the three cases. The video for it is in the link at the top of this level description.

• After the collision between '3' and '4', '3' bounces back, while '4' continues to rise. This happens when '4' is spawned early enough before '3'. The player can impact this by getting to 'A' as early as possible.
• If '4' is disappearing off the top of the screen when approaching the lift next to it, you're in case 1.
• '6' needs to be passed without stopping at 'B'.
• You have to wait for '7' at 'C'. When '7' is out of the way, it's full speed ahead.
• If '7' and '8' collide, the solution will not work and it's going to be a time-consuming recovery (or even a virtually unwinnable situation).
• '9' (the molecule) must appear before the 5th step of the staircase. At that point '10' is ready to spawn. If '10' spawns at this point, it will knock you down immediately after taking the lift up to its level, so it's essential that '9' blocks '10' from spawning. The stop earlier at 0:17 was to ensure that the molecule would spawn in time.
• On the upper level with '10'-'13', you need to rely on '11' not getting triggered too early. Else you're going to stand below '12' while shooting '11', leading to a risk of getting knocked down. The risk can be offset for a small time loss by jumping immediately after having shot '10', which will prevent '11' from triggering at least at that point. However, if it already began to move before you were able to jump, it's likely going to be a tight situation and sometimes even unwinnable (if '12' spawned too early).

Case 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k-AAxCEpmQ
This is around one second slower than case 1.

• After the collision between '3' and '4', '4' bounces back down ('3' still bounces back, same as in case 1). This happens when '4' is spawned slightly later than in case 1. This is the result of completing the lower part slightly slower than in case 1. The time difference is only a few frames, so there is little room for error.
• If '4' is near the bottom of the screen when approaching the lift next to it, you're in case 2.
• You need to wait at 'B' for '6' to move one cycle, even though it's sometimes possible to squeeze past without waiting. However, doing so will desync the enemy movements later on and lead to a next to unwinnable situation ('7' and '8' will collide).
• You should be able to pass '7' without having to wait at 'C' and just go full speed ahead towards the lift.
• '9' (the molecule) must appear before the 5th step of the staircase. At that point '10' is ready to spawn. If '10' spawns at this point, it will knock you down immediately after taking the lift up to its level, so it's essential that '9' blocks '10' from spawning. The stop earlier at 0:17 was to ensure that the molecule would spawn in time.
• On the upper level with '10'-'13', you need to rely on '11' not getting triggered too early. Else you're going to stand below '12' while shooting '11', leading to a risk of getting knocked down. The risk can be offset for a small time loss by jumping immediately after having shot '10', which will prevent '11' from triggering at least at that point. However, if it already began to move before you were able to jump, it's likely going to be a tight situation and sometimes even unwinnable (if '12' spawned too early).

Case 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-DRtykZbhM
This is around four seconds slower than case 1. Since this case loses too much time for a serious speedrun attempt, it will not be described here in detail, even though it requires very specific actions for it to work. This case occurs when you're too slow through the lower section, resulting in '3' and '4' spawning closer to each other than in the cases above. '3' and '4' will still collide, but '3' will in this case not bounce back and will block your path after the lift at 'A' has been lowered.

Tower 6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nqGeWGRnoo

• The jump at 0:20 despawned the enemy below for a small time save.
• From emulator testing, it seems like the lag is reduced by turning around on the lift at 0:27, instead of turning around after the lift has ascended. This is difficult to fully confirm though since the difference between "natural" and "random" lag isn't known (at the time of writing).
• Jumping at 0:35, and not at the next step, will spawn the enemy above at the earliest possible time and slightly reduce the waiting time when passing it.
• At 0:48, it's not necessary to take the elevator up to jump onto the stack of destroyable floor blocks. Jumping directly from the elevator at its lowest position is pixel perfect and saves a little less than a second. Initially it saves a bit more time, but the enemy positions are worse near the end and eat up some of that time.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

Tower 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7N57DXg44

• Shooting the bouncing ball on the top of the tower is optional, but is overall a few frames faster by reducing lag.
• It's not possible to jump down the pit to end the bonus level early. You have to walk into it.

Tower 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGvS2048Y1g
The most critical part of this level is the mid-section. The discussion below will refer to the following illustration:

The key is to keep an eye on enemy '1'. If '1' is eventually despawned too late, '5' (the molecule) will not appear until the end of the lift ride above '6'. If it appears in this position, it's going to be undodgeable, so it's imperative that it's triggered during the lift ride. Fortunately, the timing of '5' can be manipulated.
'1' can spawn during jumps from position 'A', 'B' or 'C'. Otherwise it will spawn during the lift ride from position 'D'. This depends on if one of the four bouncing ball enemies in the bottom screenshot is despawned during any of the mentioned jumps. This creates four potential outcomes that can require specific actions. If '1' spawns during the jump from 'A', it's going to be easy to notice. If it spawns at position 'B', 'C' or 'D', it will be off-screen. However, it's still possible to tell when it comes back on-screen when it spawned (the later it spawned, the later it will be in its movement cycle). The four possibilities are described below:

A

• For the mid-section, this is the best outcome, but it has one potentially major drawback later on (see below). The enemy at '1' should be out of the way both times when crossing the shaft it moves in and '5' shouldn't be a problem either.
• From the point when the molecule appears for the first time in this level (at '5'), the next appearances will be set without possibility to manipulate the timing. For the third appearance (at 1:45), there is not a lot of time to turn around and shoot the pellet and then jump out of the molecule's way. The earlier the molecule spawned in '5', the less time there will be to the point where it's not going to be possible at all. This can be gauged by looking at the y-position when the molecule appears at '5'. The lower the y-position, the less time there will be later on. It can also be gauged when going through the tower right before the third molecule appearance. As a rule of thumb, if the screen has scrolled so that the blinking pellets have the tower behind them when the molecule's spawning sounds, there should be enough time. If it's not the case, it will lead to a 2 sec time loss because of the additional maneouvering required.

B

• It's likely going to be tight jumping over '1' the first time, so it will be important to jump past '2' as early as possible.
• If the lower blinking pellet is shot after jumping over '1' the first time, '1' will be in the way the next time and cause a time loss.
• If the lower blinking pellet is not shot after jumping over '1' the first time (and this is the better option), a quick pause is needed at the lift with the two blinking pellets before activating it. 10-15 frames or so should do. The reason for this is to ensure that '5' (the molecule) is triggered during the lift ride past '6'.
• If it's not possible to jump over '1' the first time, then proceed shooting the lower pellet and then avoid the delay before activating the lift. It's still going to be a few tenths of second slower than the instructions described above though.

C

• Same as 'B', but the first jump over '1' is going to be easier and the pause at the lift needs to be slightly longer (~0.5 secs). This is because the molecule timer will start counting down once '1' has disappeared, which happens slightly later in 'C' than in 'B'.

D

• The blinking pellet doesn't matter. It can be shot either the first or the second time.
• A slightly longer wait at the lift with the two blinking pellets is required than in 'B' or 'C'. Around a second will be required.

• Getting '1' to spawn at 'A' is difficult to manipulate. However, from RAM-address observation, it seems to be a little less than 50% chance of occuring, with a cycle of 20-25 frames.
• For any of the four cases above, '6' can sometimes spawn slightly late and require a short wait before activating the lift for the last part. This is difficult to control in real-time since it depends on when '2', '3' and '4' despawn. Since their appearance in turn depended on the bouncing balls in the bottom screenshot, it's essentially going to be random for the purpose of real-time attempts.
• For reference, the linked video above got '1' to spawn after jumping from position 'B'.