The boss fight had a lot of RNG and a lot of lag, but landing the hits optimally was quite easy. If I did slow down then I would miss the cycle and have to wait another 3 seconds. I make the cycle at the last moment so there is no way I could slow down to grab a block and still make it. So the total amount saved is actually 178 frames. One thing to note is that the published run uses this time waiting for the cycle to bring a block into the boss fight, saving 61 frames in the boss fight. While this technique is present throughout the entire run, it is extremely important in this room because the small number of frames saved by this means that I make an earlier cycle and save 239 frames over the published run. In the room leading to the boss I jump before falling to make sure I hit a high falling speed, rather than building it up as I leave the ground. I would like to transform into little mickey to get past the exploding rock section but unfortunately little mickey can’t reach high enough to do the damage abuse so it would have been slower. In the upwards section I skip grabbing the jar by using a damage abuse at the end. Some very minor time could be saved here if I had an extra star, since I could use little mickey, saving 3-4 frames, then damage abuse from one of the rocks to transform into big mickey before the ladder. I also had to make sure not to load the shooting enemy too soon otherwise I couldn’t avoid the projectile. It’s impossible to run straight through so ducking under the last rock at the cost of a frame or 2 is necessary. The strategy with big mickey is to get between the two little exploding rocks. I considered breaking only one rock and using little mickey to get through but this was slower since I would need to detransform. Then I manipulated this to happen as soon as possible. The strategy on the second exploding rock is to bounce on it on the earliest frame where it can destroy both blocks with a single little rock. Then I use small mickey to get through without taking damage, saving some more time. The rocks fly out at different heights so the block destroying can differ by up to 20 frames. For the first one I do some RNG manipulation to have the leftmost block destroyed as soon as possible. In the second room there is a lot of RNG with the exploding rocks.
Damage abuse where I used it was faster due to there not being room to run up to the enemy as big mickey, but in the spot later where I waited instead of damage abuse, I could keep full speed while running through.īy manipulating the second bat to fly lower I can avoid slowing down for it.
Both were similar in timing and both require big mickey after passing, so you can’t squeeze through as it’s going down as small mickey. There were 2 possible places to damage abuse here (both from the enemies that come out of the floor. This means that I only have to accelerate to full speed once (after transforming) instead of twice (once at the start of the room, then again when transforming). Instead of running up to the part where you need small mickey, I turn small as soon as the room loads. There’s an improvement at the start of the second room. The rest of this room is corner boosting and squeezing through very narrow gaps. Then throwing the block is the fastest way to get through, even faster than damage abuse. This is as simple as pressing left for one frame. I start by manipulating the enemy to come into the range where I can hit it. I timed 4 frames different between the routes, but there is most likely a bigger gap due to the extra lag from the extra star in the HUD with tiny cavern star route.
However, having 3 stars for more of the run actually causes more lag (for example 11 frames in flower field), this is what caused the no tiny cavern star route to be faster. Getting the star in Phantom’s Castle was faster, but if more damage abuses were found, Tiny Cavern star might be faster. I carefully timed both of these routes and they are extremely close. Getting the star in Phantom’s Castle allows for an extra damage boost over starting the level with 3 stars. So basically there are 2 possible routes: star in tiny cavern or star in Phantom’s Castle (note getting none or both is slower and the rest of the stars are out of the way). It takes 57 frames to get and saves time in Palace Ruins, Craggy Cliff and Phantom’s Castle. There’s a star in Tiny Cavern that I was very tempted to get.