Secret of Mana Speedrun Overview

Secret of Mana FAQ & overview

For more specific and in-depth explanations, visit:
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Secret_of_Mana

========= General =========
- The current Record is 2:04:23 by StingerPA (1 player 2 controller)
- AGDQ run was supposed to be 3 player coop, but unfortunately Luigimeister won't be able to make it, so it's going to be 2 player :/

========= Base mechanics =========
- To deal maximum damage, a 100% full stamina bar is needed
- A 100% full stamina bar is required to dash
- Once you dash, you can not change direction unless you stop dashing
- Diagonal movement where possible is always faster
- RNG (=Randomness) is everywhere. Monsters behave the same only around 60%-95% of the time
- Low damage roll: There is a random chance of ~25% of dealing about 20% less than the normal amount of damage
- Some enemies (mostly bosses) have [Evade] Ratings - making us randomly miss ~40% of the time

========= Glitches overview =========
===== Item & Money glitches =====
Money glitch [BLAT glitch]
- We trick the game into selecting an empty item slot in the sell-menu and generate a large amount of money through this

8 items glitch [Trashing glitch]
- By standing in a very specific spot while trashing equipped armor-items we can manipulate values we shouldn't be able to. We lower the "Amount" of "Candy", "Medical Herb" and "Cup of Wishes" to 0 -> Which lets us use each item 8 times before it is used up (items are usually limited to a supply of 4)

===== Weapon glitches =====
Equipping the same weapon [Weapon unequip]
- Extension of the Trashing glitch, simply standing in a bit of a different spot on the screen we can unequip a weapon without using the weapons-menu, allowing a 2nd character to select the same weapon

Overcharge glitch & Menu Buffer
- Swapping level 2 charged weapon with another weapon which has a maximum charge-level of 1, the "break the charge limit" and overcharge a weapon to level ~100 which deals maximum damage. Opening the menu is to buffer, check & confirm which charge attack (=Animation) we want to execute more reliably

Storing Weapon Charge
- Opening the menu, releasing the charge button [B], closing the menu and quickly holding the charge button [B] again lets us execute the charge-attack, and then immediately recharge the exact same attack again right afterwards again

Infinite & swap-able Mana Sword
- Using any weapon enchant on the Mana Sword after reactivating it with the Mana-Magic, makes it last infinitely (it's normally limited duration) and allows the Girl or Sprite to swap the Mana Sword for another weapon (it's usually bound to the Boy)

===== Skips =====
Walk through walls [Spellwalk]
- Casting any spell and then hitting a rope-pole let's one character walk through walls for a short time(requires at least 2 players)

Frost Forest Neko Savefile corruption + Cutscene Savewarp -> Invisiblity glitch [Backwards Grand Palace]
- Flying to the Frost Forest Neko and saving there corrupts a savefile
- Holding L + R + START + SELECT for a few seconds let's you soft-reset the game, NOT erasing the current RAM information
- Loading the corrupted savefile after the soft-reset let's you "savewarp" into any place you were in before the reset, this includes cutscenes
- Savewarping into the beginning cutscene on the bridge, makes the character invisible + teleports them to Potos, essentially keeping them in "cutscene mode" while still being controllable
- Healing a character reverts the invisibility
- An invisible character can not interact with doors or enemies, can walk through NPCs
- Having any textbox open if 1 or more characters in your party are invisible let's you walk through walls

Joch Barrier skip
- Charging up a weapon, releasing the charge -just- before talking to an NPC which gathers your party, let's the charged character execute -after- the gathering, letting you move through walls

Pure Lands skip [Mana Fortress Barrier Skip]
- Using a weapon charge to move a character on those jumping-chicken-things -after- Flammie was already called let's you overwrite the textbox-and automatic fly-away at the entrance of the Mana Fortress that usually happens if you did not clear the Pure Lands yet

Mana Sword cutscene skip
- Casting the 2nd portion of the Dryad Mana Sword Spell so it finishes the spell -after- stepping on the final teleport-tile, but -before- the screen fades out entirely let's you skip the ~20 second mana-sword-released cutscene

===== Rest =====
Remote-interaction
- After a cutscene and when an NPC or interactable object appears on screen, there is a 1 in 5 frame perfect chance to interact with that entity when hitting [B]