SCV4 Theory Tas Notes

It is highly recommended to download the movie file and view it in Bizhawk (http://www.mediafire.com/file/l26j0bee0ox2e1e/SCV4+Theory+TAS.bk2) and/or view the 60FPS highlight here in order to follow along with these notes (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127655021). The numbers represent the frame number in the movie that's being referred to.

816: SDA timing begins
1891: Jumping to a set of stairs, then doing a frame perfect jump up them will allow Simon to make it slightly farther onto the stairs. 3 frames were gained in this scenario.
2809: Limp-whip twice on this skeleton, so the bat spawns low enough to avoid the crouch landing after the damage boost.
3040: There's a strange 3-frame 'lag' when Simon walks off a ledge. This is usually avoided by jumping, but in some cases, jumping will cause the crouch animation which is slower.
3144: A 1-frame jump will avoid the ledge-lag and keep the bat high enough to damage boost, but it's exactly the same amount of frames as the standard strategy.
4100: Damage boosting off this bat saves 8 frames over the jumping skeleton boost/ceiling weed boost. The bat boost is slower when attempting to replace any other damage boost in the stage with it.
4500: With a ring that's at a small height like this, do a 1 frame jump so the whip immediately connects with the ring.
4925: There are 4 frames to jump into the transition.
5200: When Simon jumps from 2 blocks or higher, there is a 10 frame crouching animation when he lands. For every frame perfect jump will eliminate 1 crouch frame. Assuming realtime players can't do this, jumping within the crouch animation window will still eliminate a frame.
8494: Jumping lose 4 frames because of the crouch animation. It does not compromise enough to be faster than the 3 frame ledge-lag.
9521: I did not spend a lot of time being fancy and perfecting triforce poses, please don't kill me.
10860: An extra cross saved more lag frames, though I thought I remembered only 1 cross being able to kill this grass monster.
11183: Grappling hands on-screen will cause lag when enemies are killed and/or Simon's whip is out. There is always 4 lag frames when walking through this section.
12233: With a ledge that's at a small height like this, do a 1 frame jump onto it so there's less time Simon needs to jump again and proceed through the section.
12827: Two crosses will kill the grass monster immediately as it appears, however it causes 15 lag frames.
13525: This jump is a 2 frame window, it saves nothing in TAS but maybe in RTA. The platform moves the opposite way which will slow down Simon if he walks on it at all.
14265: Whip downright because the frog has two movements it will do upon appearing on-screen. The thrown cross and the whip will take care of either movement.
16080: Always wondered if damage boosting through this sequence is faster than other damage boosts in the stage. 17 lag frames are produced from killing the skeletons. Not waiting for the bird feathers to leave the screen causes more lag.
16594: Cross-and-whip is a trick where Simon whips one frame before throwing the cross, resulting in both happening at the same time. Whip cancelling does not work with cross-and-whip because the cross throw animation will finish out after the whip is prematurely cancelled.
18100: It is barely possible to make 3 normal jumps without hitting the spike. A 1 frame jump will make this easier in RTA.
18609: Hitting the bone pillar twice with the limp whip reduces 5 frames of lag by delaying it shooting fireballs on-screen entirely.
18720: The green goblin damage boost saves 10 frames, only because walking down the river constantly lags the game. Lag with the damage boost is mostly avoided until Simon walks on the ground again.
19494: Simon sometimes lands in a crouch after one/both damage boosts. I could not determine why. I also could not determine why the 2nd green goblin sometimes boosts Simon backwards (without 18720 goblin boost, this goblin rises too far up to damage boost off of). It didn't happen once through all the testing that was done.
20104: This method of starting the stage will make sure that a bat doesn't spawn where the first mudmen is located.
20542: This mudmen and the next set of mudmen in 3-1 were not tested for lag when whipping down at them.
21146: Whipping the bat causes 4 extra lag frames. There is a 6 frame window to bypass it without nudging the ledge infront of Simon.
21200: I made the mistake of save-stating after I was supposed to throw a cross, resulting in a later throw, causing a small amount of excess lag.
23313: Only two whips are needed to boost off the fuzzball immediately, though a 3rd limp whip behind Simon is safe.
24160: Damage boosting off of this bone pillar will offset the camera enough to put the ring above Simon barely on-screen. Whip this ring and Simon will be invincible until the 24600 mark.
24700: Preventing the camera from scrolling up immediately causes the fuzzball above to start later enough to optimally pass it without being damaged.
25652: I could not get the optimal barrel pattern here. This wastes 15 frames of idling compared to optimal barrels which requires almost no idling.
26533: Throwing a cross causes 4 frames of lag. Jumping instead of walking off the ledge saves 1 frame.
26921: Throwing a cross causes 10 frames of lag.
27863: Simply tapping Y + Down will give a ~10 frame faster ring glitch to the top, instead of normal ring glitch inputs.
28050: 30 frames are gained by boosting off the fireball, being able to pass the bone dragon without stopping movement. The screen needs to scroll slightly before the ring glitch, or else the 2nd bone dragon will spawn. Bypassing it still causes ~120 frames of lag as Simon is moving along.
28977: You will not lose time with unoptimal jumps until the screen scrolling has reached the point of your current position.
29784: Executing an extra whip causes significant lag. Though it is highly recommended in realtime, it's not necessary in an optimal fight.
31073: There is 1 pixel where Simon will go through the stairs, be careful.
32130: Whipping normally causes extra lag frames, but it did not in this case.
32261: Not using a cross can be risky, but seems reliable if there is correct reaction to the first skeleton's pattern.
32770: Part of the cross animation will still happen when Simon lands on the ground. Immediately jump to avoid this. If the skeleton is all the way to the left, this will not work because your first whip will not connect, and the cross will not damage the skeleton.
33800: The final whip did not cause any extra lag frames.
35420: If idling on the platform, do not hit the medusa head with a limp whip, as it was cause 1 frame of lag everytime it is done.
38200: Simon needs to crouch for at least 1 frame before proceeding.
38320: Throwing a cross at the rosarie loses 4 lag frames. Always whip.
38361: A mistake is made by jumping, which grabbed the rosarie later, which gave the skeleton more time to move and eventually jump. This made a later skeleton spawn which wasted some lag frames.
38680: It is unknown what causes an extraordinary amount of lag here sometimes. Fortunately it did not have to be dealt with at all.
39030: This skeleton causes a few extra frames of lag if it throws a bone while Simon is whipping the meat candle.
39262: Extra skeleton mentioned in 38361. This caused 4 extra frames of lag.
40340: Idling here simply eliminates the extra off-screen jumps that would be required had Simon didn't stop. 1 off-screen jump still needs to be executed.
40416: Each jump needs to be in a 2 frame window to prevent the screen from scrolling up, loading the wall above.
40520: It seems Simon needs to be in a specific x-position, along with landing on a certain frame, for this to work. Otherwise, Simon will go straight up into the ceiling and die.
40585: 8 frame window to input Left to zip to the right. Otherwise, Simon will go straight up into the ceiling and die.
40762: Unknown but seemingly small frame window to input Right. Otherwise, Simon can fall back in-bounds, get crushed by a wall, or get crushed by the spikes ahead.
41750: Fireballs on-screen seem to be the source of Simon's short-jump that happens here.
42555: The cutscene after Koranot varies depending how many projectiles hit him on the final hit. If only one thing damages Koranot, the cutscene will be short. The more projectiles that hit him, the longer the cutscene will be. The cutscene varies 120 frames.
44605: Jumping here reduces 10 frames of lag caused by the bone pillar above.
47130: Throwing two crosses instead of one cross then whip gained 1 frame.
47493: Optimal bat boost is exactly the same amount of frames as walking as normal.
48500: Throw the cross below the line of candles to prevent any chance of candle-cancellation with the enemies.
49718: Throw the crosses below the line of candles to prevent any chance of candle-cancellation with the enemies.
52007: Jumping where the candle is will put Simon at the correct height once the bat spawns, so Simon can damage boost under it.
53257: Any whips here will cause significant lag. The cross throws are very specific in order for this section to work without whips. The crouching animation in unavoidable here so it's taken advantage of.
53860: Use crosses on the axe knight, a whip needs to be cancelled in order for the animation to not carry into landing on the ground.
56251: This strategy was chosen because throwing an immediate cross requires some frames of cross animation on the ground, or else the cross will be above the skeletons' hitboxes. It is most reliable to reducing as much lag as possible anyway. I could not avoid 12 frames of lag throughout the room, killing anything will lag the game no matter what/how it's done.
57534: I could not get a completely lagless room, 5 lag frames was the least I could get. Killing both skeletons at the same time will cause extreme lag. It's unreliable to manipulate this in RTA because of RNG.
57877: Paul's strategy requires a later whip, resulting in a later cancel, resulting in being stuck on the ground for a mandatory few frames. I had to throw a cross to avoid knockback on the coffin infront of Simon, and damage boost off the coffin below it.
58578: Killing the last table reduces 3 frames of lag when the rosarie is used.
59810: I'm almost positive I've killed this boss a few frames faster in realtime, but this was still the best I could get.
61970: This is still the fastest strategy out of everything I've tried.
62283: Throw 3 crosses to get rid of the ghost and have more jumps to cancel the crouching animation with.
63516: With optimal movement, Simon still needs to turn around for 2 frames to be damage boosted by the lower axe.
63922: RTA-friendly strategy. Neutral whip, hold cross input anytime during the whip. Then hold Right as Simon throws the cross to stay locked in-place. There is a 7 frame window to make the jump onto the ledge.
64090: Simon needs to crouch at least 1 frame before jumping off of the final book, in order to make it to the end of the section. Continue jumping to completely avoid crouch animation frames, since the game is transitioning screens and won't carry the remaining crouch frames along like it does with stairs.
64675: The dog jumps when it senses a candle above it to knock off. Whipping the 2nd candle will give the dog nothing to detect, and thus will never jump at Simon.
64802: A 2nd whip will cause 4 frames of lag.
65723: Paul's strategy gives the exact same amount of lag frames as this one (19). The point of eliminating lag is to avoid the dog moving out of position by whipping it immediately.
67263: There is a 2 frame window to damage boost off the high/low axe without having to turnback.
67581: Standing on the edge pixel and timing the first set of crosses and whips will always make Grakul throw his axe. The cross-and-whip strategy ensures Grakul to take a lot of damage quick enough before he has a chance to block any projectiles from damaging him.
69840: 14 frames are lost idling due to the spike crushers pattern. I could not manipulate this any quicker, as later patterns required longer idling before being able to pass.
70700: I ran into a strange situation where the spike crusher ahead of Simon was not on it's correct timer. Even stranger is that unoptimizing this small section sort of reset the crusher to at least be in an acceptable position. This is a pretty big mistake, but I'm simply glad I was able to make it work out somewhat.
70924: Whip this candle to prevent any chance of candle-cancellation with the eyeball Simon needs to damage boost off of.
71209: This eyeball should be whipped normally, however I save-stated after landing on the ground so it was too late. Fortunately there were 2 available frames to still get the damage boost.
71618: A 1 frame jump is needed to get under this spike crusher.
71811: If I whipped the eyeball on the previous screen, Simon would jump onto these crushers immediately. However I traded waiting at the eyeball for waiting at these crushers, so I don't think it lost any time overall.
72189: Crouch animation frames are fine at this point because of needing to wait for the blooddrip anyway.
72953: Always use crosses on this bridge regardless of the situation, whip causes lag.
74275: A cross then whip creates 4 extra lag frames over two whips. Two crosses creates 20 extra lag frames.
76109: Simon needs to stand on the last pixel of the ledge to have a chance at the early orb. The orb is only able to be caught every other frame most likely due to how the game's collision detection works.
77637: A 1 frame jump avoids the crouching animation.
78237: The first two pixels available to drop Simon will work for the 'super boost'.
78562: A second cross gives one more lag frame than a whip.
79142: This movement is 10 frames faster than walking off the first stairs, and jumping down the second stairs.
79361: Frame perfect jumps on the disintegrating platforms will prevent them from disintegrating and save many lag frames.
80240: Without walking along this platform, Simon would not be in correct position for his crosses to hit the enemies.
80880: Mandatory 10 frame pause or else the bone dragon/fireball will hit Simon. Clearing the fireball immediately did not save lag frames.
81967: Jump off the treasure chest to avoid ledge-lag.
81993: 1 frame jump off the ledge to prevent Simon's head from hitting the ceiling, making him unable to land in the transition to the next screen.
82188: 1 frame window for optimal spike jump.
82441: Damage boosting off the coffin is only faster if damage boosting off the final falling block. Otherwise, fireball damage boost is best.
83020: Connecting then immediately disconnecting with a ring boosts Simon 3 pixels forward. Used twice for a gain of 6 pixels.
83335: Anything more than 1 cross killing this skeleton will give over 10 frames of lag. A later kill where the screen is scrolling up will add at least another 10 frames of lag.
84355: Lag seems uncontrollable here, enemies killed seperately gave the same lag frames (26).
84924: Connecting the first 6 whips before moving is ideal.
85572: Bring Zapf Bat to phase 2 before it is able to damage Simon saves ~40 frames.
87980: Walking over the peg on this gear gives Simon an 11 frame boost.
88038: This jump saves 2 frames.
88800: Whip cancelling saves lag frames, since the game lags every frame Simon's whip is out in these sections.
89250: Unfortunately a 1 frame window to gain time, but 9 frames are gained shortening Simon's jump, giving more of a boost from the gear.
89501: Cross-and-whip is 1 frame slower than best sword skeleton RNG, being damage boosted to the gear above. I did not get the best sword skeleton RNG here so I said whatever.
89915: This whip was done later than usual so lag frames could be avoided from killing both skeletons at the same time.
90145: Turning backward for 1-5 frames ensures an early ring grab at the end of this section.
90730: The hitbox on this falling gear is visually shifted to the right, and generally much smaller than the gear looks. Minimal crouching is needed to pass it.
90811: Waiting slightly saves 20 frames over jumping to the next platform immediately. The screen needs to scroll a certain amount for the falling gear to start moving. Waiting at the position the screen starts to scroll will ensure that the gear moves as early as possible.
90987: Walking at least 2 frames on the gear will scroll the screen up enough for the medusa head to spawn as soon as possible. This is needed so Simon can proceed without stopping movement. As noted before, using the whip causes lag often in the vertical parts of this stage. Using a cross for this big heart candle is just another example of using a cross over the whip for reasons relating to lag.
91576: I did not time how much this ring glitch saves. It is very difficult to execute.
92120: This ring glitch saves two seconds. Throw a cross at the correct timing if the axe knight throws a high axe.
93238: This Mummy pattern is much faster because of the cross-and-whip strategy.
95500: This movement is exactly the same frames as walking off the first stairs and jumping through the second stairs.
96116: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BILdNHxWaas
97103: I risked some crouch frames for the heart. Good thing I did because I collected exact enough hearts for the end of the run.
97473: 5 frames faster to skip this candle and get both candles at the 3 ascending crumbling stairs. Very risky because sword enemy can hit Simon.
98043: The screen needs to scroll up for at least 1 frame for the whip to connect with the big heart candle.
98245: The ascending crumbling stairs heart mentioned in 97473.
98548: Simon needs to walk at least 8 frames before jumping on the stairs, for the 2nd mudmen to not spawn early.
98750: Ring glitching up here saves 48 frames, however it seems the amount of time you have to get onto the platforms is the same as the normal strategy. This was difficult to test so I'm not 100% certain this is true.
98795: Needed to do two jumps for the faster platform pattern. Don't mind this because it's not manipulatable in RTA.
99000: Could not figure out a way to reduce the constant lag that happens when ascending the platforms.
99286: 34 frames are gained from this ring glitch.
99600: Could not manipulate the 3rd platform to spawn higher, so the damage boost is 7 frames slower than this strategy. However, I suspect spawning the 3rd platform high and damage boosting off the sword attack to be faster. Walking up the entire stairs loses 10 frames over waiting later to jump, but the sword attack will always damage Simon.
99968: This enemy wouldn't keep moving right no matter how long I spent on it, so I just cross-and-whipped. This costs 24 frames over the enemy moving right and being able to jump onto the stairs without stopping.
100400: This platform pattern is 100% manipulatable, just follow the movement and stay on the platforms for minimal time.
100851: Jumping as soon as Simon entered the room made whipping all the heart candles very difficult. Normally Simon walks off the first ledge, then a jump and extended whip followed by holding Down is an easier strategy to collecting all 6.
101148: Start cross throwing sequence when screen starts shaking. Two whips is perfect timing to space out the crosses correctly so it triple-hits Slogra immediately.
101980: A second damage boost is taken so if Slogra attacks while Simon is throwing his next two crosses, the attack won't damage him until after the crosses are thrown.
102497: Jumping up this small set of stairs is 4 frames slower than walking up it.
103800: Whipped an extra time by accident, but it didn't cause extra lag so I didn't bother to redo it.
105277: This fight can be 12 frames faster, however Death really wasn't having it, with this being my best result after 5 hours of grinding. Just take my AGDQ2017 run's Death fight and splice it over this or something.
105560: This spot gives a 2 frame window to make the cutscene jump. The farther to the right Simon is positioned, the more frames that are available to make the jump.
105823: Apparently the B button input can be held during the cutscene and Simon will automatically jump when it's over.
106854: In realtime it is better to walk off the ledge if the first heart isn't needed.
108300: 32 lag frames are lost due to not catching the crosses immediately. Crosses staying on screen while the fire is spawning is the source to most of the lag during the fire phase.
108647: 30 lag frames are lost due to not catching the crosses immediately.
110053: The end of the game cutscene gives 18 frames of lag if Simon is standing still. Jumping here reduced 2 frames of lag reliably.
110142: At this point, further animations besides standing and jumping will give 2 frames of lag.