Introduction

Running Sora's Story requires a fair bit of improvisation, micromanagment, and good judgment. By running the game often and practicing, you can get a helpful sense for what kind of map card spreads and decks you can expect to get, but no two runs of this category will ever be identical in these respects. It is the purpose of this guide to outline general and specific strategies for gaining control of the random aspects.

Farming

Over the course of the run, you will need to acquire ~150 map cards from random encounters to progress through the game. Traverse town's enemy composition makes it the quickest place to farm by far. Most of the ~150 can be accounted for by an average distribution of cards from Traverse Town's encounters, with a few exceptions. Because you cannot find blue cards as map card drops in Traverse Town, the following cards need to be found in other worlds:

• 3 Calm Bounties (or other treasure providing cards) - You will need to learn sleights from treasure chests in Olympus Coliseum, Monstro, and Destiny Islands.
• 2-3 Moogle Rooms (Route Dependent) - The first Moogle Room fills out the Raids Deck, the second fills out the Endgame Deck, and the optional third may be used to learn Thundaga after Larxene I
• 2-3 Other Blue Cards (Route Dependent) - Door requirements for 7F, 10F, and 11F. 7F and 10F are often skipped using the Hundered Acre Wood, but should neither of these be skipped, you will need to hold onto 3 spare blue cards
• The =1 Blue (The 1B) - At the very last Key to Beginnings Door in the game (often dubbed "The Gates of Hell"), you will be asked to provide a =1 Blue,an =3 red, and a sum of 99 value of cards. The 1B is the rarest card in the entire game, and one of the largest random factors. It should not be used in any situation other than opening the Gates of Hell.

In short, the easiest way to get blue cards is by farming enemies in the first world set with various elemental raids. Barrel Spiders, found in Olympus Coliseum, Monstro, Agrabah, Neverland, Twilight Town, and Destiny Islands by breaking barrels, are by far, the easiest to eliminate consistently. Should you be pressed for blue cards late in the game, Twilight Town has the highest probability of dropping them.

The Consistent Route

Advantages:

• Recommended for Beginners
• Will often produce a decent deck for fighting future bosses
• Produces a larger ball of map cards in the beginning of the game, which allows for easier decision making in the first few worlds

The single convincing disadvantage is this route's inability to get the 1B early on, which means a run can have wasted time fishing for it, or crash late game when one isn't found. The current SDA run uses the consistent route. Here are the steps:

• Farm Traverse Town until you have ~80 map cards (Stop when you've cleared out the room in which you've gained your 80th card)
• Farm Olypmus Coliseum until you get a Calm Bounty, then farm Olympus or Monstro until you get a 2nd Calm Bounty and a Moogle Room
• Continue to farm barrel spiders in Monstro and Agrabah to hopefully get the rest of the blue cards you need.
• If at any point you have the required blue cards and you need to farm, go back to Traverse Town to get more cards
• If you find yourself strapped for blue cards, continue farming in Neverland and eventually Twilight Town until you have what you need.

The Risky Route

Advantages:

• Potentially Faster
• Potential to find the 1B in the first 30 minutes

Disadvantages:

• Often Sketchy deck coming out of Traverse Town
• New reset point about 45 minutes into the game if the 1B isn't found (harder to finish a run)
• Needs a third Moogle Room

The current fastest time uses this route, and it should probably be used for serious record attempts. Here are the steps:

• Farm ~30 map cards in Traverse Town (About 5 rooms of Teeming Darkness)
• Farm Olympus until you get a Calm Bounty, defeat the bosses, and remain there. Farm Barrels for about 15 minutes and attempt to get the 1B (and the Moogle Room + Calm bounty you need for Monstro). If you don't find it, reset.
• A runner that gets past this point can breathe a sigh of relief and finish collecting the remaining required blue cards (shouldn't take long)
• Make your way through the first world set without using any important cards. Should you find yourself at a shortage of cards, farm Wonderland's enounters using blizzard raid rather than taking the time to go back to Traverse Town