Lv 1 Data Org FAQ

What's the goal of the run?
I'm attempting to beat all of Organization XIII's Data Replicas as fast as possible at Lv 1, using no Power, Defense, or Magic Boosts. AP Boosts are acceptable and necessary to equip some abilities.

Why not use those boosts?
Simple: it would completely defeat the purpose of playing at Level 1.

How are you doing so much damage at Lv 1?
Kingdom Hearts 2's worlds have the Battle Level system, which serves 2 purposes: tell you what level you ought to be around for it, as well as actually scaling your damage accordingly so you're not doing chip damage - this is especially the case on Critical Mode. The Garden of Assemblage and all the fights contained in it have a Battle LV of 99, so my damage is scaled upwards so these fights will naturally not just drag on.

Why do you keep resetting and dying to *Org member name here*?
This is so I can manipulate RNG and produce a consistently more favorable setup for the first fights, so long as I don't make any mistakes.

What do "DM and DM skips" mean?
DM is short for Desperation Move, and a DM skip is skipping those moves. A Desperation Move is essentially a boss's ultimate attack where the room/arena/area goes dark and the boss goes into a really special attack, giving them near full invincibility. These take up a lot of time, so alot of strats are really centered around skipping these attacks as often as we can. The one exception where a DM skip is actually slower in Lv 1 Data Org is Luxord and it's also impossible to skip Demyx's water clones DM and Final Xemnas's laser dome.

Why do you pause every time you go into a Drive Form?
Anyone who has played a PS3 version of 2.5 would immediately recognize the long Drive Form transformation. This is to let the drive form actually load while ceasing all on-screen movement, allowing me to actually punish a boss I just staggered instead of being punished myself for staggering them. This is also the case in some scenarios in original 2FM such as against Marluxia where I need to use a Megalixir before an Ars Arcanum but isn't necessary for every drive form usage. PS4 also cut load times significantly.

How do you know when bosses will retaliate?
There's a hidden system in KH2 that is dubbed by the community as "Revenge Value" and it dictates (in most cases) when a boss will retaliate or even break out of your combo, ensuring you can't combo them to death with no repercussions. Using knowledge of the revenge, strategies can be made to force bosses to retaliate, or make them not retaliate immediately. The most notable things that don't add Revenge Value in this run are Final Form Firaga (non finishers), Solo Trinity, and Ars Arcanum. There is another hidden system in KH2, also coined by the community, known as Flinch Count. This plays a role in at least one Data Org fight in particular, and that's Axel. If his flinch count reaches a certain point in the last stretch of the fight, he'll use his Desperation Move (another community term) and... Well, to quote the man himself... "You won't forget this!"

There are multiple videos for explaining what Revenge Value is and how it works.
by ahirun255 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXKSGZxO9Y
by ahirun255 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzJLPFTt_8g
by Bl00dyBizkitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV2fM2UtfTU
by Bl00dyBizkitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwT3FIjzE2Q

Okay, but what about that Berserk Charge strategy? Shouldn't Revenge Value prevent this from working? Also, do you mash the Horizontal Slashes?
If you want my honest answer, it perplexes me as well. The way I understand it to work is that for every hit you have an extremely tight window during a stagger animation to stagger the enemy again; actually near frame perfect (I could be wrong, but I think I heard you have a 2 frame window?). If at any point you mistime an input and drop the combo, the boss will break out and retaliate as they should since, if done properly, a boss's Revenge Value would be substantially high. And do I mash the Horizontal Slashes? I used to, and I'm really glad I no longer do so. It's painful on the wrist, and simply a bad habit anyway, especially in a speedrun as optimized and truly intricate as Lv 1 Data Org. So no, I time all of my Horizontal Slashes.

How are you not getting Anti-Form?
This one would pretty much require its own paste to detail thoroughly, so I'll keep it brief. I'm manipulating another hidden counter that determines my chances of getting Anti-Form. In most cases, the counter is increased by 1 every Drive form usage and is reduced by 10 every time Final Form is used, so I essentially have 0 chance of getting Anti-Form. If you'd like more info on the Anti Points system, check out Bizkit047's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spOsvQ1QHqI

Do you have a time goal in mind?
Just a general improvement for now.