Rockman 5 Double Jumper routing notes

General Info:
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-Hold B and press A to clear the RAM when starting a new game (otherwise the game remembers your stage and ammo count from your last reset).
-Hold SELECT and press START to get back to buster from any position in quick select.
-Unlike in vanilla MM5, enemies don't have i-frames, so you can mash kill them.
-You still lose your charge buster when you get hit and can't charge up while sliding.
-Bosses have 40 i-frames between hits. Using Napalm Bomb only causes 16 i-frames between hits.
-Super Arrow speed is slightly faster than sliding, but its longer startup time only makes it useful on very long straightaways or over difficult terrain.
-The Wily 3 refight skip is removed in v2 of the game. The room with Wily Press has been moved above the teleporter room, so there's no way to access it without being all 8 bosses.


Stage by Stage Notes:
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STAR
-You can use select to cancel on-screen buster shots even if buster is the only weapon you have.
-Gravskip (fast falling during the weapon get animation) is done with a 1-frame A tap that delays the fanfare. You'll know you
delayed the fanfare if you don't hear Mega Man's landing sound. Getting this saves 1.5 seconds.

WAVE
-Using Star in this stage seems to be slower on almost every screen I timed. The shield sprite adds more lag than it saves by kiling enemies. The exceptions are killing the last dropper on screen 1 (if you cancel the shield right away) and the turret at the end of the stage.
-Scrolling the screen on a small bubble is done by being at the right height and close to the bubble (usually standing on it
but this isn't actually required) when it goes through the screen boundary. You can use super arrow to buffer your vertical
position until the bubble reaches you. This just takes practice.
-The Octopus miniboss has 4 i-frames between shots. Because of the bubble climb and sliding on previous screens, it's not worth
opening this fight with a charge shot. Just use regular shots.
-Killing the turret at the boss gate without getting hit: Don't slide immediately after landing. Walk for a couple frames to
let Star Crash finish him before sliding.

CHARGE
-The ideal usage of Star in this level is to kill every enemy in screen 1 by sliding through them, then get a weapon refill
during the autoscroller with the energy balancer so you can use it again in the last screen.
-Using arrows in the metroid room reduces more than a second of lag. Star can do this too, but I found it saves more time in
the last screen then arrowing over the stomper.
-Quickly cancelling Water Wave is a bit harder with select bound to its default position, but it can still be done quickly.

STONE
-Bumping off arrows is no longer possible with D-Speed, so a bit of energy has to be conserved in screen 2 to use another arrow
in the falling telly room.
-Arrowing over the falling telly room is slightly faster than a perfect Star Crash strategy with no drops.

NAPALM
-Stopping the first drill and getting under the second saves about 30 frames. It's kind of dumb.
-Using Stone to kill the metroids in the cave reduces some lag, but it might be hard to do the midair swap with default select.
-Killing the 4 thumpers with arrow seems to be the fastest way through this room.
-You want to be against the wall when Napalm finishes firing his missiles so he'll think you're behind him and skip his room-
length dash.

CRYSTAL
-Fire Super Arrow from the bottom platform with an A+B input and it will make it all the way to the ladder.

GYRO
-Super Arrowing over the jumping dolphins saves 1 second, and using it to shortcut the vertical climb to the E/W tank saves
around 40 frames.
-If you use Star Crash in the falling blocks room, don't have the shield up the whole time, it causes a lot of lag.
-You can still hit Gyro Man when he's in the clouds.

GRAVITY
-Flipper Hallway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmbEsFHSbiI Jumping before the turrets negates the risk of drops throwing off
your timing.
-Do a very small air hop after entering the boss room to position yourself for an immediate gyro shot.
-Gravity Man jumps and shoots when he passes under/over you, and chooses a new pattern (flip/walk again) after he does it 3
times.

DARK 1
-Thumpers and tigers both attack if you press B while they're onscreen. You don't actually have to shoot, they just react to
the input itself, which can happen during a slide, and releasing a charge shot won't aggro them.
-Getting the ammo pickup here costs 1.5 seconds just in movement, more if there's a fillup animation.

DARK 2
-To kill a chicken with 1 shot of napalm, it has to land on its chest, since the blast travels upward.
-In the mouse room, I enter with a charge, do 1 slide and release it, then do 1 additional slide and begin charging again. This positions me to have a full charge when I reach the next mouse if I just walk and jump until I reach him, and I slide the rest of the screen. No combination of charge kick or star crash has been faster than this in my testing.
-Shoot to aggro the last tiger before the boss gate so he'll be out of your way.

DARK 3
-Using buster instead of Charge Kick is not much slower, and you can get some free ammo drops if you have the energy balancer.
-Killing the last chicken with 2 shots of napalm is consistent and quicker than jumping over him. He can be killed with 1 shot but it's very precise and I usually fail it.

DARK 4
-Nothing special to note here. Swap-cancel off of Crystal after killing the boss to reduce lag.

WILY 1
-Many different heights of the low arrow work in the block-riding screen. You can even slide under the 3 single spikes if you place it too high.
-The high route in the conveyor room is slightly faster.
-I've gotten crusher zips, but I don't think you can save any real time with them, since you're still cycle-limited.
-Big Pets becomes vulnerable only while you're standing on the ground.

WILY 2
-Going the low route and sniping fish point-blank saves a second over going across the top. Arrow is the fastest way through, but it's more useful for vertical climbing later in the level.
-You can use 5 gravity holds in the met/metroid room to reduce lag, but you'll need a refill before the Star refight.
-Use 1 napalm shot to take out the missile launcher before the boss gate.

WILY 3
-Refills with the energy balancer become an issue in the next 2 stages, since they default to the weapon with the lowest energy. Some will be wasted on things like arrow (which isn't useful anymore) or wave (which isn't used again after Charge Man). I do automatic refills in Wily 3, but depending on energy, it might be useful to manually refill something here on some runs.
-If you know how to count Wily Press cycles, you can arrow up and get 5 (maybe 6?) hits on him in a single cycle, but it's hard. I'll make a Wily Press tutorial eventually but it's hard to explain in text, at least the way I understand it.

WILY 4
-I make sure to manually refill Star Crash at the start of this stage, and Charge Kick across the bottom until the boss gate.
-I've stopped getting the E/W tank and just open the capsule fight with Gyro, switching to Star when I think his health is low enough to finish him. You can use Gravity Hold to see his next spawn position, but swapping to it quickly is hard because it's 5 spaces away from Gyro. sometimes I can do it, then start+select back to buster and go 2 spaces to Gyro. It's a pain, though.


Star first vs. Wave first stage comparisons (a bit rough but close):
[[[[from v1, now obsolete]]]]
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wave first - 2:03.55
star 8th - 1:34.13

Wave second - 1:55.41 (star usage could possibly be improved)
star first - 1:45.23

The utility of Star Crash in the other 6 stages hasn't been calculated yet, but I'm optimistic it could save time or at least make some screens easier.


Cost of getting items (updated for Dash Mode v2):
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(STAR)     Energy Balancer: 6.1 seconds
(WAVE)     Super Arrow: 5.1 seconds
(CHARGE)   Rush Coil: 1.3 seconds
(STONE)    Beat: 6 seconds
(NAPALM)   Recovery Up: 0.3 seconds (but only against a very risky drill room that skips it - otherwise slightly faster)
(CRYSTAL)  Knockback Guard: 5 seconds
(GYRO)     E->W Tank: 5 seconds
(GRAVITY)  Rush Jet: 3.6 seconds