Revision as of 18:22, 25 April 2014

Category description

This category aims to complete the game as quickly as possible by collecting all the golden wings. None of the game's hidden items and therefore only gets the normal ending.

The terminology of the game mechanics page will be used below.

Fireball management

Given that fireballs are scarce, cost time to both grab and launch and how they need to be shot in the order they are picked up, fireball management is a huge task when routing this game. Below is a document that shows which fireballs are collected and where they are used in the route described in this section. There are also some comments about time saved by fireballs in the different rooms and how much time they take to collect.

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Level-by-level description

Room 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeAIyJtLhc
There are a few different ways to grab the key in this room. One alternative to what's seen here is to jump to the key from below, turn around mid-air, break block below to the left and then drop down. This is a few frames slower. A better alternative would be to do a running edge jump to the key, turn around mid-air, break block below to the left and then drop down. This is very close time-wise to the shown video (possibly a few frames faster in real-time), but considerably harder due to the running edge jump.

Room 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTQHB2k_zuU

Room 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RznY8Cdog8E
Not too seldom, the item dropped by the fireballed gargoyle will get stuck inside the block. The game reacts by slowly pushing it to the right. If this happens, it allows for creating a block where the gargoyle stood and make an edge jump from it. It's 10-15 frames faster than what's shown here.

Room 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJYm0McO474

Room 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOmQZ77BsVo
The second gargoyle (from the bottom) on the left side sometimes start a little out of sync (10-20% of the time?). The fireball will then be shot a little later than what's shown here, making this solution impossible. There is no known workaround for when that happens (other than to reset or to lose several seconds). There is also some variation to the top right gargoyle. It will sometimes shoot the fireball a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later. This seems to be rng-dependent. The result of bad rng is that Dana has to wait a few tenths of a seconds longer for the fireball to pass by overhead, but the room solution doesn't change.

Room 6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt0QmJM-d2w
Shooting the goblin at the bottom would save half a second. That fireball is therefore better spent in room 13.

Room 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr-wLVmBbY
This is a quite boring room solution. Dana needs to wait in several places without being able to speed up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v57z7R6ZVqk
Faster, but this solution could possibly be emulator only (because of the advantage from playing on keyboard).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3WF7uxb4CQ
A variant using a fireball. This saves ~1 second compared to the first alternative above. The fireball is otherwise used in room 13. The problem with not using a fireball in room 13 is that that room solution gets considerably harder and a bit slower (more discussion under room 13).

Room 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrjPG4ZOCuE
Shooting the ghost reduces enemy slowdown and allows for a one second faster solution than without using it (both because of having the sparkballs in better positions and because of not having to spend time dodging the ghost). It might be tempting to pick up one of the orange jars. This prevents more saramandors spawning for a while because of the game's sprite limit. However, this will also increase the lag and ends up wasting time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPF4NMsDi_I
This solution without using a fireball on the ghost is possibly keyboard-emu only. Testing showed that climbing the right side after picking up the key was very difficult on console. The saramandors spawned too early for passing through. There are other alternatives to circumvent this, but none found that isn't a second slower than with using a fireball. In summary, unless a consistent way is found to complete the room as fast as shown in this video, the time gained in room 7 would be cancelled here in room 13. The result would only be adding a bit of difficulty.

Room 14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSoMhKld3v4
One of the harder rooms. Both because of the running edge jump and turning around correctly after picking up the key. If you tap too long on the d-pad, Dana falls down. If you don't tap long enough, Dana will break the block above the key.
The beginning is intentionally not optimized. If you go too fast, you'll run into the ghost when trying to cross the middle. The part around the key also usually has to be slowed down intentionally (just a tiny bit). If you're too fast, the Saramandor will not have passed to left before the block is destroyed.

Room 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJeI_Aqpqn4

Room 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc0SKqiak9A

Room 22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgXzA2jTs8
Little room for margin with this solution. Being a bit late and Dana ends up getting fried by the saramandor by the key. Being too fast and he risks landing on the same saramandor. If it looks like the latter is about to happen, a solution is to cast block magic just Dana comes out of the key grab animation. This wastes a little time, but is sometimes the only alternative to losing a life. The pause after picking up the key is also intentional as the Saramandor otherwise will stop if you try to go right too early.

Room 23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOSt_P09WGU

Room 29

The gargoyle in this room starts randomly (?) walking to the left or right in this room. Left allows for a quick solution. Right is bad luck and requires a slow solution and wasting a fireball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alpkMxXXamU
When the gargoyle starts walking to the left, it can't be avoided in a quick manner and has to be destroyed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbin8m9_Y_I
This is the good case. The gargoyle starts walking to the right and can be completely ignored.

Room 30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xixVbBn2f3k

This solution can also be mirrored:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUnErkf0qQw
This solution is equally fast to the one above. However, dropping down in the hole with the demon head near the end is not completely safe here, but seems to be so with the first video. It fails ~25% of the time. Frame-by-frame study shows that there is of slight randomness in the turnaround time of the demon head in the hole. If it bounces back slightly faster, Dana won't make it.
The block creation in the top-right corner is to prevent the fairy from entering and potentially mess up the block creations on the top row.

Room 31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDVh9fBz6w0
The clear time in this room is highly dependent on the enemies, which spawn roughly every 3 seconds. It's possible to arrive at the key faster without adding much risk. However, the demon head that spawns around then blocks the passage resulting in no time gain. The only way to gain time overall is to chain together edge jumps (zigzag jumping) in order to arrive at the key before the demon head spawns. The same logic applies on the left side. The spawning demon heads are effective barriers for only improving time by chunks of 1.5 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyajcGChk8I
This solution uses zigzag jumping and is one enemy cycle faster than above (~3 seconds). It hasn't been researched thoroughly if more time can be gained through tweaking the route somehow, but as already mentioned, the cyclic enemy spawns make it difficult to cut time other than in chunks of 3 seconds. For information, this video took over 40 tries (with a save state at the key) to do in real time. It's doable, but the risk factor increases dramatically (of course very much dependent on the player's consistency as well).

Room 37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wokuhxgur1c

Room 38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VO7LK3V5PE
There are three optional "advanced techniques" in this room. The two edge jumps on the left and right side of the room and finally the 1-space drop above the ghost. The former save 10-15 frames each. The latter saves ~20 frames. It's up to the player to decide on the acceptable risk level.

Room 39

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWwlyIELE14

Room 45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RUgpqaZ4tM
It's possible to collide with the demon head when running from after having picked up the key towards the exit. Looking at the position of the spawned demon head during the grab key animation gives a good indication if you're early or not.

Room 46

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs8kkd-0ZIQ
This is minor variation of the current sda-run (by 'ktwo', 2014-02-08). By creating one more block before launching the super fireball, the enemy drops falls into a better position and won't prevent creating the block above slightly earlier. A few tenths of a second faster than in the published run.

Room 47

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWXXLd2dru0
Hardest room in the game. The first drop with the key has a two frame window to break the block and then enter the created opening. The second drop has a three frame window for the same thing. Both of these drops can be avoided in a normal playthrough, but there is not really a good alternative in a speedrun.

Room 48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2FMdxWLglQ
The tas saves a considerable amount of time by taking the same route both times through the room. However, it requires "fire block building" (not a good term, but hard to describe, se the game mechanics page.

Solomon's room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcAHLq2U1Ew
If the ghost in the top left turns around a little faster, it's not possible to jump over it as shown here and a slower solution must be used. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to judge if that's the case. Failing to jump leads to losing a life (and the attempt). However, as long as there are no deaths until this point, it seems like the shown solution is consistent (at least for a normal ending speedrun). It's worth noting that any fireballs you might have in the inventory when arriving here will disappear.

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSoMhKld3v4<br />
 One of the harder rooms. Both because of the running edge jump and turning around correctly after picking up the key. If you tap too long on the d-pad, Dana falls down. If you don't tap long enough, Dana will break the block above the key.<br />
+The beginning is intentionally not optimized. If you go too fast, you'll run into the ghost when trying to cross the middle. The part around the key also usually has to be slowed down intentionally (just a tiny bit). If you're too fast, the Saramandor will not have passed to left before the block is destroyed.<br />
 =Room 15=
@@ Line 62: / Line 63: @@
 =Room 22=
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgXzA2jTs8<br />
-Little room for margin with this solution. Being a bit late and Dana ends up getting fried by the saramandor by the key. Being too fast and he risks landing on the same saramandor. If it looks like the latter is about to happen, a solution is to cast block magic just Dana comes out of the key grab animation. This wastes a little time, but is sometimes the only alternative to losing a life.<br />
+Little room for margin with this solution. Being a bit late and Dana ends up getting fried by the saramandor by the key. Being too fast and he risks landing on the same saramandor. If it looks like the latter is about to happen, a solution is to cast block magic just Dana comes out of the key grab animation. This wastes a little time, but is sometimes the only alternative to losing a life. The pause after picking up the key is also intentional as the Saramandor otherwise will stop if you try to go right too early.<br />
 =Room 23=

Difference between revisions of "Solomon's Key (NES)/normal ending"

From SDA Knowledge Base