Item Drops

There is no random element to drops in this game:

• Enemy golds and bread drops are completely fixed in when they drop (every time) and in the amount of health or number of golds given.

• Some room spawns are completely fixed, as their items will appear every time you enter the screen.

• However some room spawns will only appear about one fourth of the time. These rooms work on a global counter. Count from 1 to 4, increasing the count by 1 every time you enter a room with one of these spawns. If the count is at 4, killing every enemy in the room will force the drop (as with the Mattock, all Boots spawns, and some Ointments), or the item will just appear automatically on room entry (as in the case of the ointment by Grieve and the ointment by the evil one).

Experience and Titles

Higher titles from experience tend to be a net negative in this game. While you do start with more golds after death or password entry when you have a higher experience level, and you do accelerate faster, there's one big disadvantage that outweighs both of those in a speed run. That is, your ointment and wing boots timers get shorter at higher levels. The Speed Run never goes up to a level where the timer reductions begin.

Timer Extensions

While the Ointment and Wing Boots timers are tracked separately, they are both decremented on a global counter. Every 64 frames, if a Wing Boots or Ointment is active, their counters will be reduced by 1 if the timer is above 0, or deactivated if the timer is at 0. However, this timer keeps ticking while the game is paused.

So, by pausing the game in rhythm with the timer, so that the game is paused every time the 64th frame hits, it's possible to extend ointment and boots indefinitely. In fact, with perfect pausing, it's possible to keep ointment active even in boss rooms where the ointment counter is automatically reduced to 0, such as at the Black Onyx.

The minimum amount of time that can be lost each time is 3 frames (1 frame for each press of Start to register, and pausing the game for exactly the critical frame only), but this is not practical in real time. To minimize time lost, pause as close to the critical frame as possible, and press Start twice as quickly as possible.

Gold from the King

The King will give you golds if you have 0 golds. Therefore if you spend all of your golds, he will give you more.

Shiner Strikes

Casting a spell or using an item will cause you to stab with your weapon. This means careful use of magic can enable you to get double hits. This is most notable in two places: at the start of the game, Shiner Strikes will instantly kill the jumping enemies with a Dagger hit plus a Deluge hit. Additionally, after getting the Black Onyx, when using the Wing Boots to fly to the A Key, using the boots at the right time will cause you to slash with your sword, knocking the squid away, saving time to let you fly up while taking no damage.

Casting magic while moving forward

Hold up and forward, then press A and B at the same time. You will jump and cast magic without stopping, and your magic will be low enough on the ground to hit two-tile-high enemies. This is useful at the Mist Hospital when getting Boots, as well as against other enemies like the tall bread-dropping enemies on the way to Forepaw.

Movement

Faxanadu does not have a static walk speed; the player accelerates from a slow starting walk to a faster walk. Gravity, however brutally fast it may be, does not accelerate. Free-falling is the fastest way to travel.

Controls with Wing Boots: - Press A to initiate a jump (just like without Wing Boots). - If you let go of A at any point, you will stop flying and plummet down as you would without Wing Boots. - While holding A, press the D-Pad in any direction to initiate gliding. If you press Left or Right you will accelerate forward at a similar rate to walking while gliding. Until you let go of A, you will glide above the ground as well. If you move to lower ground, you will sink slowly as if while gliding, even if you jumped, then held A until you hit ground (at full falling speed) and did not press a direction to initiate gliding. If you are on a ladder and start gliding you will not sink at all. - Hold Up to ascend.

Flying upwards is the slowest way to move; you remain at initial speed but do not accelerate. Always walk, jump, or climb ladders if you can, and always start any flight with a jump.

Jumping is faster than climbing. Always jump onto ladders.

Ladder climbing is much faster if you have wing boots active, than if you don't. That is why ladder climbing is also faster than flying. But the fastest way up is to jump up ladders repeatedly with Wing Boots active, like in the TAS. Press A to jump and hold it; press Up to hover upward a short ways with Wing Boots, then stop holding Up to "land" on the ladder in standing posture. Then repeat (Press A again to jump...). Don't press Up again or you will switch into climbing the ladder upwards.

Getting hit by an enemy deals some knockback, in the direction you got hit (similar to fighting games). Jumping behind an enemy and getting grazed by the upper back corner of their hitbox (like crossups, also in fighting games) are only barely possible. However, a damage boost also resets your walk speed back to its initial speed, causing a loss of 10 frames if you were already at full walk speed.

If you get hit while on a ladder, you will be knocked sideways similar to when you get hit on the ground. You will be knocked off a ladder, unless there is a wall behind you.

Always jump off a ladder if you can, as well. This is possible if you get hit on a ladder and knocked into a wall. Getting hit 'resets' you so that you are standing on the ladder. This is used in a number of places in the speed run, including on the way to the sky fountain, by getting hit on the ladder just outside Forepaw.

Acceleration

Attacking with your weapon will lose your speed unless you perform a (frame perfect?) trick to attack as you land on the ground from a jump. The TAS does this. Attacking with magic will lose your speed unless you are in the air. Therefore, aerial Shiner Strikes are the fastest means of attacking, but they do cost magic.

To sweep and hit annoying flying enemies in the air in front of you, press B then press A right after. Your weapon will be stuck out, and you can hit enemies at a variety of heights that ordinarily will be difficult to hit. This is notable when generating the ointment on the way to the Jo door.