Mega Man Zero 4 Any% No Junk

***General Things***

--Boss Order--
Popla - Mandrago - Genblem - Fenri - Titanion - Kraken - Pegasolta - Mino
This boss order gets the most important EX Skills right away for the first four bosses and then aims for pause optimizations for the last four. Popla is first so you can obtain Time Stopper to kill minibosses much easier. Mandrago to Fenri because their EX Skills are the best for combos. Titanion because you exit Prison Escape with Knuckle equipped and her stage doesn't need buster. Then Kraken so you can obtain Ice Javelin to kill Pegasolta and Mino quicker. This order also gets Double Jump quite early on (right after Genblem).

--Weather--
All Bosses are fought with weather set to hard so you can obtain their EX Skill except for Titanion and Pegasolta. Titanion saves time in easy weather from weaker heat meaning less time waiting in shade while Pegasolta doesn't have wind pushing you back during the stage. Both those stages have useless EX Skills.

Mino is the only boss you play on hard weather but don't use his ex skill. The reason for this is because his stage is much faster on hard weather because of low gravity. His EX Skill is useless.

--Combos--
There are alot of instances where doing fewer but longer combos is slower or not as consistent because of low DPS or the boss messing around too much because of bad RNG. This is why I do alot of small combos during the run. They have higher DPS and it's easier to work with them with how random the bosses can be. An example in Fenri's case. While I can two combo him (Charge Saber/Knuckle - Triple - Up Slash - Down Slash) it's faster and more consistent to do 3 smaller combos on him because of better DPS and makes adapting to his random patterns easier.

--Combo Levels--
Level 1: Pea Shot
Level 2: Charge Buster/Saber/Z-Knuckle, Single Slash, Ice Javelin (Bullet Spawning Javelin)
Level 3: Double Slash, Ice Javelin (1st hit)
Level 4: Triple Slash, Ice Blade, Ice Javelin (2nd hit)
Level 5: Flame Fang, Ice Javelin (3rd hit)
Level 6: Sky Chaser, Ice Javelin (4th hit)

--EX Skills and Other Combo Moves--
Charge Buster:
Damage - 6
Pretty limited for combos because saber and knuckle are just simply better. You only really use charge buster for combos once (Craft 1) because of a pause optimizations.

Charge Saber:
Damage - 7
Charge saber is nowhere near as good as it was in past games because it was nerfed from 8 damage to 7. It also has a cooldown issue because you can only start charging it after a combo has ended. Despite that it's still good for the first combo in a boss fight because you can enter the fight with it already charged.

Charge Knuckle:
Damage - 7
The best charge attack for combos. Has damage equal to saber without the added cooldown. The best way to make use of knuckle is to charge it mid combo so you can use it right as a boss's I-Frames end.

Triple Slash:
Damage - 4 (For each slash)
Only good when you absolutely have to use it. Becomes almost useless after obtaining other EX Skills because of its low DPS. On average you'll do 8 damage with triple against a boss because the first slash won't count if you hit a boss with a charge attack before doing a triple.

Time Stopper:
Damage - 5 (1st Hit does 1. 2nd does 4)
Popla's EX Skill. Only used once in the run for a boss combo (Kraken) and it's just for a pause optimization. Time Stopper's main use is to do the damage stack glitch and destroy minibosses in seconds. Also be used to freeze some enemies and move through them.

Sky Chaser (Down Slash):
Damage - 8
Mandrago's EX Skill. The best EX Skills in the game. It hits hard and has good DPS. Don't really need to say any more than that.

Flame Fang (Up Slash):
Damage - 7 (10 if Weakness)
Genblem's EX Skill. Same as Sky Chaser. Very good EX Skill with good damage and DPS. Only downside is it's useless against Mino and Pegasolta and does hardly any damage to Titanion and Genblem (3 Damage).

Ice Blade (Ground Slash):
Damage - 5
Fenri's EX Skill. A substitute last hit in a triple slash. Much faster than said hit but has limited uses because it can only hit stuff on the ground. DPS is good.

Ice Javelin:
Damage - 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 9 (7 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 15 if Weakness)
Kraken's EX Skill. Mostly used to deal a large amount of damage quickly on Pegasolta and Mino. Make sure you hit the boss with the bullet that spawns the javelin or else it will do much less damage.

Axe From Knuckle:
Damage - 8
Essentially Charge Saber from the past 3 games without the charge time. Really good weapon but unfortunately is only in two stages in the game. Great against Titanion and Weil. There exists a Hammer version of this weapon (only in Protect Settlement) except it has a ton of ending lag making it not very good.

--RNG--
RNG in the Zero series is fairly consistent though Z4 has the most amount of stuff changing it. RNG is set to the stage index value at the start of a stage so things in previous stages don't affect things in the current stage.

This run uses a small amount of RNG manipulation to manipulate 3 of the 4 parts to obtain double jump. There are various things that affect RNG.
-Killing enemies
	-How the enemy dies (if you used buster, saber, charge slash, ect)
-Wall sliding and wall jumping
-Certain AI decisions/actions from enemies/bosses
-Firing buster shots at a wall
-Cyber elf being onscreen
-Certain effects like screen shake, bubbles from dashing underwater and death explosion from bosses/minibosses

Dropping weapons with Knuckle does not change RNG.

Bosses in Z4 cannot be manipulated because RNG is set to the stage timer on a cutscene skip. Same goes for minibosses.

--Values--
Boss HP: 0x0203A4E4 (1 byte)
Zero HP: 0x020366A4 (1 byte)
RNG: 0x0202DC38 (4 bytes)
Stage Time: 0x0202E8E8 (4 bytes)
Game Time: 0x02035918 (4 bytes)

--Lua scripts--
Script with Above Values
BizHawk: http://www.mediafire.com/file/37tzm38vuxbx3se/MMZ4_Bizhawk_Edit.lua
VBA: http://www.mediafire.com/file/77puxc2t318hwfo/MMZ4%282%29.lua

Chip Scanner
BizHawk: http://www.mediafire.com/file/p472czduy9o58b4/Z4_Chip_Scanner_Bizhawk.lua

--Equipment Recipes--
Enemy Translations and Pictures: http://i.imgur.com/7s7VCsi.png

Double Jump
-Faital: Heat Genblem (Cylinder enemy that rises from the ground and shoots fire from sides)
-GangaGun: Heat Genblem (Big drill enemy)
-GyroCannonH: Very end of Area Zero before the boss door (Purple Copter enemy)
-C-Hopper: Last section of Area Zero (Blue enemy that shoots wave of bullets)

All parts for double jump are manipulated except for Faital which cannot be manipulated. You can grind off one near the end of genblem's stage.

--Cyber Elves and Sub Tanks--
Using Elves is only for safety and doesn't provide any time saves. All elf upgrades waste time obtaining because of crystal farming and making a trip to Alouette to upgrade it. While Level 2 Hacker can help with Triple Slash's terrible DPS you can get just as good DPS if not better from using EX Skills.

If you need something for safety I highly recommend getting the sub tank in Mandrago's stage. It's not out of the way to get and there's a max health drop shortly after it to fill it up quickly. A full subtank can hold 30 Energy so close to two full lifebars (sub tanks don't fully deplete when used in the zero series).

There's a second subtank in Fenri's stage but it's more out of the way to get. Requires using Knuckle to take a card key to a certain door. The downside to getting this subtank is you can't use Knuckle while you have this card key.

--Other Stuff--
Damage Stacking still exists in this game. It's when you have two attacks overlap each other which causes continuous damage. This is used on minibosses overlapping Time Stopper and Charge Slash.

There is a glitch with Double Jump where if you use your second jump then wall jump without touching the wall you won't get your second jump back. Keep that in mind when doing climbs.

You want to be at B rank for the entirety of the run. The reason for this is so certain bosses don't do EX Attacks. In some cases A rank is unavoidable so keep that in mind.

You can grab onto grabbable things a little bit quicker if you manually use Knuckle.



***Stage Comments***

--Intro--
Ignore all the V.Fires I collect since this initially started as a junk route. Main thing about the intro is if you want to do it optimally you have to play the first part of it with Type A controls. You can switch to Type B at the start if you want but this costs an extra pause.

Grab a V.Fire at the start to burn the truck after the first flame torch enemy. Keep in mind that how the truck burns depends on where the shot hit. You want it to hit the top of the truck since it creates a staircase that you can jump up. Hitting it lower will just block you from climbing higher. Make sure to grab a bomb before leaving this section.

Boss is self explanatory. It's possible to combo with a double slash after hitting him with a bomb but it's very precise to do and only saves a second at most.

--Area Zero--
First of two stages that have item drop manipulation and this is the harder one. This stage obtains GyroCannonH and C-Hopper. Things to keep in mind that change RNG.
-The moles at the start change RNG while they are in the ground. Don't stay onscreen for too long when one's around.
-Ground dashing in water will change RNG. Make sure to dash jump through any water.
Other than that if you kill enemies the way I do here then you should get the required item drops at the end.

After killing the enemy that drops the C-Hopper part there are 3 ways to manip the GyroCannonH.
-The way I do in the video. Shoot the wall with a pea shot and kill the GyroCannon while it's in midair. If it lands then kill it with pea shots. Fastest method.
-Destroy the copter part of the enemy and triple slash it when it lands.
-If you wall jump while crossing the pit, destroy the copter part and kill it with pea shots.

I won't list values because the video shows it updating in real time. Just follow that and you'll be fine.

The boss is self explanatory. The stray Charge Knuckle at the start is because the boss would live with 6 HP if you were to spam just Charge - Triple and that point where I do the stray Charge Knuckle is the most convenient time to do it. It's possible to damage boost onto the ground after the last combo but it's pretty picky to pull off.

Alternate Manips if You either mess up movement at the start or have a hard time chaining dashes:
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrUiCHSOOP8
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RGveWKQ5B0
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stwE1H5DBAA (Least amount of knuckle throwing)

--Popla Cocapetri--
Nothing to say until the room with the moving grabbable bars. The bars are in the same position in the cycle each time you enter the room so it's consistent. However the moving blocks in the room afterwards are on a global timer so you'll have to be reasonably fast to reach the cycle I get in the video.

Top route is taken in the second half of the stage because you can do Tower of Buttons much quicker if you end on top path. Taking bottom path requires wasting time to hike back down to the start. The time spent doing Tower of Buttons quicker makes up for top route being slightly slower.

The blocks before the last room are on a global timer just like before. The moving grabbable bars in the next room also appear to be on a global timer.

Popla is a straight forward boss. Only real issue with him is he can be dumb and time stop you. Since doing nothing but Charge - Triple leaves him with 4 HP I do a stray Charge Slash at the start. The advantage to doing this is it lets you do one less charge attack before a triple slash.

--Noble Mandrago--
Not much to say about the first part except throw plants with knuckle because saber can't kill them quickly. For the miniboss you can buffer the Time Stopper by letting go of Buster before the fight starts and after the cutscene skip. Two triples and a half charge shot will finish him off after that. Sometimes you can get unlucky and he moves away from you which can waste some time.

Also note that minibosses in this game have 96-128 HP while bosses have 64-96. Good design Inti.

Shortly after the miniboss is a sub tank you can obtain. Destroy the second GyroCannon and grab the copter part to get it. I recommend getting this sub tank over using a cyber elf if you need some safety because this waste much less time than upgrading and equipping an elf.

The part right after where the sub tank is (with the long hallway of breakable vines) it is faster to go bottom path if you are a TAS. Top route is a bit faster if you are not a TAS. Take the bottom route if you need to quickly fill up the safety sub tank from earlier.

Mandrago is like Popla combo wise except I recommend doing as much damage as you can and not worry about optimizing combos too much. Mandrago can heal for 3 HP after an attack which is why I recommend dishing out damage. If she goes into the ground you can pull her out with Knuckle.

--Heat Genblem--
Equip Buster at the start so you can Time Stopper enemies leading up to the miniboss and to beat the miniboss quicker. Second stage with part drop manipulations to get a Ganga Gun. This one is really easy to do. Jump slash first enemy, charge slash the enemy before the ganga gun and then triple slash the ganga gun. Make sure your charge slash hits both the enemy and the ganga gun. Miniboss is self explanatory.

Switch to Knuckle at the start of the Particle Beam so you can stop a flame torch enemy from shooting. If you don't want to do the last damage boost you can jump up to where the 1-UP is instead.

Whether you get a Faital drop is random. You can respawn it by going offscreen if you need to.

Genblem is one of the worst bosses in the game. Do Charge Knuckle - Down Stab because it gets damage out quickly and it's easy to work with on the fly. You'll have to finish him off with a stray jump slash after doing said combo 4 times. It's also possible to combo him like this while he's spinning around firing a laser if you're good enough though you might have to use Charge Saber over Knuckle. Another thing is you can antagonize him when he dodges one of your attacks by slashing him over and over. Doing this will force him to do an uppercut.

--Fenri Lunaedge--
Before doing this stage remember to make Double Jump. Take the bottom path at the start because top path is a slow elevator. Time Stopper doesn't really work well on the miniboss so you'll have to wiggle with Charge Saber. Don't try to wiggle with Charge Knuckle because it's frame perfect.

With Double Jump you can skip the elevator for a 5 second time save. Downside is less health for the boss but there's a pickup at the top that wastes about 2 seconds getting.

Boss is self explanatory. Only dumb attack he can do is his sonic style bouncing spin dash since it makes him invincible. The combos work in such a way where you can cancel his attacks while dealing damage.

--Protect Settlement--
Really straight forward stage have nothing to say about it. Craft is a rather involved fight but if you keep your combos small (Charge Buster - Ground Slash - Up Slash) then you can reasonably react to his attacks with enough practice. You can swap to Knuckle if you have a hard time landing Charge Buster shots at the cost of an extra pause. Check the second Craft fight for how to fight him with Knuckle. Remember that one of your combos must end with a downstab or else he'll live with extra HP.

You can beat Craft a bit quicker if you do Charge - Ground Slash - Up Slash - Down Slash 3 times then do Charge - Up Slash - Down Slash however it's not as flexible to work with for when he feels like bouncing around alot.

--Prison Escape--
Another stage I have nothing to really say about. Boss is self explanatory.

--Sol Titanion--
Another straight forward stage. Set weather to easy so you can spend more time in the heat without taking damage. Make sure to grab an Axe with Knuckle in the first part because it does more damage than Charge Attacks and has the same combo level. For the miniboss wiggletron with the Axe.

For the boss spam Axe - Down stab. Since you have double jump you can reach the boss fairly easy to down stab. Also when Titanion does the attacks with the spinning red and green projectiles she immediately does another action if you destroy both of them.

--Tech Kraken--
First part is just memorization. Miniboss is stuff you've seen before. Second section is basic platforming. Boss is basic comboing. If Kraken decides to go offscreen you can pull him out of a hole with Knuckle but this costs a pause. It's random if he does it unfortunately.

--Pegasolta Eclair--
Nothing to say about this stage either other than set the weather to easy. The enemies that move in a triangle pattern have random positions when they appear onscreen so keep that in mind.

For Pegasolta while it is possible to 4 combo him by sneaking in a Ground Slash into a combo it's very unreliable. I recommend starting the fight with a stray Charge Slash to see what he does and go from there. Remember that you have to point blank bosses with Ice Javelin to get the full 15 damage.

--Mino Magnus--
Set weather to hard because low gravity is a massive time save. Stage itself nothing to really say about it other than in the part after the miniboss you can just go to the top immediately if you don't feel like being fancy. Mino is similar to Pegasolta combo wise except you don't have to do a stray Charge Slash and you can sneak in a Ground Slash more reasonably.

--Ragnarok Control Room--
Oh boy this stage. The climb at the start is a real pain to do optimally because of terrible enemy placement (why do these pantheons get to fire the moment they're onscreen). Recommend taking it safe for this climb if you want an easy time and no sore hands.

In the second section there are alot of moving platforms on a global cycle. The cycle for the first set of moving platforms doesn't mean anything because you have double jump. The next set does matter a bit. If you go as fast as possible you get a really good cycle that you can speed through pretty quickly. At some point I'm going to have to look into potential backups for if you miss this cycle.

Craft is the same as before except you have Knuckle equipped this time so he's a bit easier to combo. Make sure you enter the fight at B rank or else he can do an EX Attack that wastes a ton of time.

Like before you can beat him a bit quicker with Charge - Ground Slash - Up Slash - Down Slash 3 times then do Charge - Up Slash - Down Slash. It's slightly easier to pull off this time because of Knuckle but still just as risky as before.

--4 Way Stage--
Really basic stage nothing to say about it. Make sure in the left path you grab a GangaGun so you can speed through the bottom path quickly.

Boss can either stay in the center and cooperate or bounce around the room, go offscreen and waste time (and he can waste ALOT of time). Nothing you can really do if he does the later. He even laughs at you while he wastes time what a jerk.

--Cyber Space--
Stage isn't that bad without junk armor since you can take a few hits before you die. Remember to grab the health pickup near the met because you'll need it for the boss. The platforms in the second half on the stage are on a global cycle.

Cyball can be consistent if you can pull off the combos in the video. The last one has a very tight window to get. If you can't get this combo then you'll have to sit through a random attack and finish him off after he's done.

--Boss Rush--
Path leading up to boss rush is self explanatory. Boss rush itself is pretty similar to how you fought these bosses before though Titanion can only be 4 combo'd now if she does her mine attack (You don't have Axe to deal damage to 4 combo). You're better off just doing Charge Knuckle - Down Stab and finishing her off with a jump slash. You also have EX Skills to finish off Popla and Mandrago a bit quicker now so that's something.

The path to Weil don't have much to say about other than remember to grab an Axe for obvious reasons.

Weil's first form can die pretty quickly if he cooperates. Unfortunately his worse attacks involve him going offscreen while you wait for him to come back. If you enter this fight at B rank then the attack where he summons the Z3 bosses only summons 4 at a time and not all 8.

Weil's second form is an RNG mess. If he fires his laser then enjoy taking off half his health if you pull the combos off correctly. Remember that you can only go all out like that once because you won't have enough health for a second time. If he does any other attacks just wreck him with the Axe. Worst case scenario you end up hitting him with the Axe 12 times. Best case scenario he dies in 3 cycles.