Mighty_bomb_jack_(nes)

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The route described on this page is based work leading up to the current SDA-run. Faster routes have been found in many rooms. Refer to https://youtu.be/iXHH3Bg6-d0 for the fastest reported run at the time of writing.

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/946751758
A straight-forward level. In theory, you don't need to collect any mighty coins (see the tasne), but it's difficult to save time in real-time and risky. The recommended route is instead spending time collecting two coins and then collect three more coins by upgrading to orange Jack. The coins will be used in level 5 and 17.

Palace room 1

https://vimeo.com/946751995

Palace room 2

https://vimeo.com/946752011

Palace room 3

https://vimeo.com/946752026

The following route is a few tenths faster, but considerably more difficult as it requires tight movement to be able to jump over the first mummy: https://youtu.be/PS-R9qCVly0?t=88

Palace room 4

https://vimeo.com/946752056 - If you're not fast enough at the start, the first mummy will spawn on the right side. If that's the case, it will most likely be in the way when trying to collect the three last bombs.
https://vimeo.com/946752034 - Alternative method that is a few tenths slower, but avoids close enemy encounters since the P-ball is collected along the way.

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).