Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Run Categories and Times

Current Any% Main Mode WR: 1:41:09 by kirbymastah1991 video

Current 100% Main Mode WR: 2:50:30 by yoshifan28 video

Note: both runs above time from when Main Mode is selected in the file menu, up until the final hit on Magolor's Soul.

Note 2: The 100% Main Mode definition is defined by in-game 100%, which includes completion of the game and un-ranked completion of all challenge rooms, which also requires collection of all 120 energy spheres to unlock.

General Tricks

Note: Everything below is in-progress and incomplete

General Movement Tips ^[1]

• If lacking an ability boosting horizontal movement, or carrying an item, almost always slide attack.
  • The main exception is on ice; for moderate and longer distances, start a dash and immediately short-hop to accelerate to full running-on-ice speed.
• Jumping up ladders and ropes are among the fastest forms of upward movement (faster than wing and hi-jump). Do it as much as possible.
• In contrast, avoid climbing down ladders.
• Avoid puffing whenever possible; use full jumps and use jump-through platforms.
• Unlike most Kirby games, jumping (without puffing) is the same speed as running in KRtDL; Kirby jumping is as fast as how fast Kirby was moving before jumping. Slide attacking should still be used when possible, however.
• When inhaling a non-ultra enemy, suck it in when Kirby is almost touching the enemy, so you can skip the sucking animation and instantly swallow.
• For abilities with hitlag, avoid hitting enemies. This is most apparent with parasol.
• Swimming diagonally does not slow you down horizontally nor vertically, compared to swimming strictly horizontally or vertically respectively.
  • Take advantage of the above by avoiding enemies underwater whenever possible, as opposed to killing them. The exception is with Spear Kirby, where Kirby (or Waddle Dee) doesn't slow down when attacking upwards or sideways underwater.
• Kirby can take light or heavy hits. Light hits don't slow Kirby down much, and heavy hits completely stop him, wasting a few seconds. Sometimes it may be faster to take a light hit so that via invincibility frames, Kirby can move through obstacles that would otherwise deal heavy hits.
• Whether Kirby loses his ability or not is never random. Boulders, spikes, gordos, bowling pins, cannonball, being sucked by Whispy Woods, and such always make Kirby lose his ability, whereas touching an idle non-Gordo enemy, a Blipper, and such never do. The list is obviously not exhaustive, and comes down to merely knowing which attacks kill Kirby's ability and which don't. This is mostly independent of light/heavy hits.

Hidden Rooms

There are five hidden rooms/secrets scattered throughout the game, two of which are HAL rooms. Unfortunately they are mostly useless for speedrunning, though they can be used as challenge goals and such.

1. In level 1-2, in the third room (where Kirby is climbing up the inside of a tree), there is a hidden door above the maximum tomato at the side. This leads to a small room with an invincible candy. It is extremely unlikely that taking this detour for the candy is faster for completion of the level, because Gigant Edge is taken out quickly anyways with Wing or Fire, but it has yet to be tested.

2. In level 1-4, in the first room, reach the very right end of the room, past the door. Move left and the spot with the stone logs will have collapsed, revealing a hidden door leading to a HAL room with ability stands for Hammer, Fighter, Wing, and Ninja. To note, these are the four rarest standard abilities in the game, as outside of mixing, it is impossible to obtain fighter or ninja before White Wafers, wing before Nutty Noon, and hammer before Egg Engines outside of the Bonkers in level 2-1. There is currently no use for this in any% nor 100%, as Kirby should already have Wing in the former from mixing in 1-1, and for 100% Kirby must discard whatever ability he obtains anyways due to the dimensional rift at the end of the level. However, if one wishes to not use mixing for an any% run, the runner can take this detour to obtain Wing extremely early as a viable alternative (though mixing in 1-1 is much faster).

3. In level 5-5, instead of entering the door into the mini-boss tower, float straight up and enter what looks to be a jailed entrance. This leads to a series of rooms with smaller arenas for minibosses, with every miniboss (Rather than just 4) to fight. There is no advantage to taking this route other than an extra challenge, though every energy sphere can still be obtained in this route.

4. In level 6-5, in the third room with the long conveyer belts, reach the end of the room. Instead of entering the door, take out the enemies falling from above, navigate the conveyer belts above and enter the black square in the top right corner leading to another HAL room. This one has several stars, a few 1ups, and most notably, ability stands for Spear, Water, Leaf, and Whip (interesting to note is that these are all the new abilities in this game). There is currently no use for this in any% nor 100%, as Kirby will have just received Wing before reacing this room, which outclasses all four for speedrunning.

5. In level 7-3, directly above the level exit door is what looks to be a black meteor/moon hybrid. Kirby can enter this as if it was a door, and it leads to a vertical room with many 1ups and stars. There is currently no advantage to entering this room, unless a goal of the run is to end with as many lives as possible.

Mixing Mechanics

As with most Kirby games, you can start the mixing roulette by sucking in multiple enemies with abilities, and obtain almost any ability at random. Unlike most Kirby games, because of the ability to inhale more enemies and larger objects, KRtDL requires Kirby to simultaneously inhale at least three enemies.

• The roulette is completely randomized, but each individual roulette is a true roulette, meaning the second and third cycles of the wheel will have the same ability order as the first cycle. ^[2]
  • First Cycle: All abilities, but one, show up for 4 frames each.
  • Second Cycle: All abilities show up for 7 frames each.
  • Third Cycle: Ten abilities show up for 10 frames each, followed by a last ability that the roulette ends on.
• The roulette cycles through all 20 standard abilities, along with crash, mike, and sleep.
• Though there is no direct way to pause during mixing, the wii home menu can be accessed. If the home menu is brought up, and the '1' button is held while closing the home menu, then the roulette will stop on the ability that the home menu stopped on.
• The main way to try to get the desired ability through a mix is to repeatedly press the home button until it either stops on the desired ability (which then, the '1' button should be held to obtain it) or the player spots it in between home menu presses. Then the player should try to calculate how many abilities are left before it re-appears, then roughly count and then open the home menu around that time. It is not very reliable, and still luck-dependent, unfortunately.
• The main locations where the mix roulette can be opened are:
  • Level 1-1, the last room, right past the ultra sword knight
  • Level 6-2, the third room with the triple flamers
  • Level 7-2, the very first room with the descending floor with the triple cutters
  • Level 7-2, the very end with the three Tsukikages

Ability Recycling

Similar to storing an ability via a helper in Kirby Super Star, Kirby can "store" the current ability he has by discarding it and carrying the ability star. This can be done by discarding it with the '-' button and then standing right where the ability will land on the ground.

• If Kirby inhales two abilities, one just discarded and one he was carrying before, the one carried before takes priority and Kirby will use that one. For example, if Sword Kirby is carrying a Fire ability, tosses the Fire ability star, discards sword, and inhales both, he will become Fire Kirby.
• Note that when Kirby swallows an ability, any ability that is discarded will start flashing and disappear within a few seconds. However, by picking it up, the timer for disappearing resets.
• Ability stars that touch water, spikes, or boulders will instantly shatter. One must take particular care to not take heavy hits underwater.
• However, since objects can be carried in water, ability stars can still be carried underwater as well, as long as it isn't dropped while swimming. There is currently no use for this in speedrunning at the moment.
• The main advantage is allowing Kirby to recycle the current ability he has, and briefly use a different one required, then switch back. This is especially handy for 100%, as it allows Kirby to save a mobile ability, use a different less-mobile ability required for an Energy Sphere, then quickly switch back.

Ultra Sword Finishing Blow Animation Skip ^[3]

Against both Grand Doomer and Magolor, after finishing off their ultra barrier, the game intends for you to finish off both bosses with an ultra sword attack, resulting in a lengthy animation of Kirby finishing off the boss. However, this animation can be skipped, as the final hit can be dealt with any attack. The problem is, typically there are no enemies directly available to either copy or shoot at the boss. This can be circumvented, however, and requires Kirby to have some sort of offensive ability before the ultra-barrier phase.

1. When starting the boss's respective ultra-barrier phase, and before eating an ultra enemy, recycle the current ability you have, and have Kirby carry it.

2. When the ultra enemy appears, drop the ability, get the ultra ability, and pick up the normal ability before it disappears to reset its shattering-timer.

3. When you want to attack the boss, drop the ability, attack, and pick up the discarded ability. Due to how the ability-star-timer works, it will not disappear for a while so there is no rush to pick it up again.

4. Every time you need to switch an ultra ability (against Magolor), repeat step 2.

5. When the barrier is gone, discard the current ultra ability, eat the ability you've been carrying around this entire phase, and attack Grand Doomer / Magolor when they come to the center to recharge. This will finish off the boss and skip the animation.

This may seem trivial, but this trick is extremely useful because:

• With both the current any% and 100% route, the player should be fighting Grand Doomer with Wing (especially since it is conveniently available in the pre-boss lobby). This allows Kirby to keep Wing for level 6-1 without having to backtrack to get wing or use the inferior Fire ability available via a Flamer at the beginning of 6-1.
• The developers intended the player to start the final fight without any abilities. After Magolor's Soul flies across the screen, he will toss objects and enemies at Kirby which one of which, if inhaled, gives Kirby the ability he had when facing Magolor (for example, if you fought Magolor with Ninja, one of the first enemies he'll throw at you is a Tsukikage). Normally there is a sizeable chunk of time where Kirby is ability-less, but using the trick above, Kirby can start the fight with whatever ability he finished the previous phase with, and will not have to wait for Magolor's Soul to give him an ability. This makes it possible to finish the first phase of Magolor's soul before he disappears into the background for a time-wasting attack.

See Also

Route - ability routes for any% and 100%

Ability Info - ability tips, movement speeds, and damage amounts.

References

1. ↑ General Movement Tips are supported by frame data tested by yoshifan28; more details can be found in the Ability Info page at tp://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Kirby%27s_Return_to_Dream_Land/Ability_Info#Kirby
2. ↑ Mixing testing and data by yoshifan28 at http://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/kirbys_return_to_dreamland_speedrunning_discussion__wii_51.html
3. ↑ Animation Skip first documented by gsk6930 at http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/935607-kirbys-return-to-dream-land/61821094