swe1r-2secondOffset.srt

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If you're reading this, then you have the Author's commentary track active!

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This TAS represents about 8 months of work, and a lot of collaboration with the SWE1:R speedrunning community.

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I'd like to thank acE, andypanther, Digital Unity, Domirae, Galeforce, Gamedraco, Hyuudoro, and kingbeandip from the speedrun community.

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This TAS probably would never have been finished without their help and encouragement.

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The first thing I do is some RNG manipulation. I manipulate a low health Plug3 speed upgrade to show up in the junkyard on my first visit.

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The starting speed part (Plug2) is worth 1000 Truguts (money), and the Plug3 I bought cost 998, so I actually made 2 Truguts and got a speed boost.

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And we're off! The first podracer I chose was Ebe Endecott, a standard pick by speedrunners for this category.

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He has decent handling, but more importantly he's got great cooling, which means we can boost a lot with him.

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Let's talk about boosting. You've probably already noticed the sudden speed boosts and the big engine flames.

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When you reach a certain threshold speed, you can hold nose down (analog stick up) to start charging a boost.

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When the boost meter on the right fills up and the dot turns yellow, releasing the throttle briefly activates a boost.

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Boosting heats up your engines, which you can see indicated in the bottom left of the screen.

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If you overheat your engines, they will catch fire and start taking damage until you repair them.

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As long as you cut the boost just before this happens (that annoying beeping that you're going to hear constantly) you're fine.

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These anti-gravity tubes are considered "fast terrain" by the game. This means that your base speed is increased in them.

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I try to boost as little as possible in these tubes because I want to maximize my time spent on the fast terrain.

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The longer you're on the fast terrain, the more benefit you get from it. I still boost a little to make sure I don't underheat though (more on that later).

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I mentioned that the Plug3 upgrade I bought was "low health." Upgrades in this game can be damaged.

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Bumps, scrapes, and crashes in a race will reduce your upgrades' health and effectiveness for the next race.

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If you sell a damaged upgrade, it's worth less. Conversely, damaged upgrades sold in the junkyard cost less to buy.

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You deal with damaged upgrades with pit droids - a resource you can buy that repair your parts between races.

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You start with 1 droid, who can repair one upgrade to max. My one droid will repair my damaged Plug3 after this race.

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The repaired Plug3 will then be worth much more than I bought it for, effectively giving me more money to use.

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If you're familiar with racing games, then you've probably noticed that my racing lines look strange.

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That's because Racer's physics aren't like other racing games at all. You don't lose any speed by turning!

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So instead of taking turns wide to preserve speed, I can just cut them as close as is possible and maintain optimal lines.

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I still have to take some turns wide though just because I'm moving too fast to make the turn without crashing.

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Finally, some music! The N64 version of this game does not have any race music except for the third lap.

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Storage limitations of the cartridge format required the developers to remove individual course music from the N64 version.

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The music that plays on the third laps (and the credits) is John Williams' "Anakin Defeats Sebulba."

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The PC version of this game, released at the same time as the N64 version, had a lot more audio/video content.

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There were pre-rendered cutscenes between races, music for every world, and even cutscenes of racers taunting each other.

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RTA runners will sometimes approach the vertical gravity tube coming by riding up the wall on the right and launching in.

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This is done because entering this tube at high speeds tends to cause you to explode. I don't have to bother with that though...

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There's a lot to say about the junkyard RNG manipulations in this TAS, so I'll start talking about the one coming up after this race.

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There's a particularly noteworthy upgrade path for the any% run that is extremely unlikely to show up: about a 1 in 5000 chance for it to happen on your first try in the junkyard.

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That path is finding a very cheap Plug3 before the first race (like I did), then finding an almost maximally damaged Block5 on the next visit.

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This extremely unlikely Block5 showing up before the second race is sometimes called the "godblock" by the speedrunning community.

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There are just a handful of damage values (out of 129 per part) for both the Plug3 and the Block5 in this upgrade path that work due to cost.

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My starting money, winnings from this race, and trade-in value of my soon-to-be repaired Plug3 will just *barely* cover the cost of the godblock.

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There's plenty more to say about the RNG manipulation later.

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Godblock!

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Toy Dampner was unlocked after the last race and chosen because his average speed is better than Ebe's due to his better boost stats.

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His handling is poorer though. Switching to Toy for this race is very much a TAS-oriented strategy.

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The time a human can save with Toy on this race would probably be less than the cost of switching to him.

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Since this is a TAS, and I needed to switch pods for the RNG manip anyway, switching to Toy saves time overall.

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That little shortcut saves enough time in this race that I almost end up lapping the other racers later!

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In the sharp turn that is coming up, you'll see an obvious example of the sliding mechanic in this game.

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Sliding in this game looks a bit like drifting from Mario Kart, but doesn't work quite the same.

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When you activate sliding in this game, your traction is cut in half. This means your turning has less effect on your actual heading.

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When you stop the slide, your traction returns, and your podracer will suddenly be affected by the turning you've built up.

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What this lets you do is start turning into a sharp turn sooner than you would be able to otherwise.

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When you actually hit the turn, you release the slide and suddenly lurch into the turn with a tighter radius than normal.

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I use sliding constantly throughout this whole TAS and it's safe to assume I'm sliding on most turns.

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Alright, time for more RNG talk.

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The next junkyard trip is the last and the most intense RNG manipulation in this run.

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In order to make the next trip the last one, I need to buy a lot rare, expensive, high-tier upgrades on a shoestring budget.

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I am able to manipulate the junkyard to provide max tier speed and cooling upgrades, as well as a tier 5 turning upgrade.

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All of which have exactly the right damage values to allow my budget to also afford a traction upgrade from the shop, and 2 pit droids.

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AND on top of all of this, it was manipulated to show up all at once on my first try.

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The chances of this happening are about 1 in 2,000,000. It took brute-forcing scripts many thousands of permutations to find this manip.

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The two sources of entropy for manipulating the junkyard are the frame you exit the last race, and the frame you select a new podracer. You'll see me wait on Elan Mak for a while to do this.

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It's time to go FAST.

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Welcome to Grabvine Gateway, one of the hardest courses in the game, especially for speed demons like Elan Mak.

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Elan Mak has the best boost statistics of any podracer available to this category, and also has some of the worst handling too.

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Given how sinuous and punishing this course is, it might be surprising that a podracer with poor handling was chosen.

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Elan Mak suffers tremendously in the switchbacks of this course, but he is so fast in other parts (and in general) that he's worth using.

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Elan Mak is also the optimal podracer choice for the next course, so choosing him here saves time by not selecting him after this.

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RTA runners generally keep using Ebe Endecott for this course because Mak is so unwieldy.

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A shortcut opens up on this course on the second lap. An earthquake opens up a section of canyon wall in the canyon switchback section coming up.

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That turn is nearly impossible with Mak, even in a TAS!

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I mentioned underheating a few races ago, which I'll explain now.

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Your podracer's engines can only store so much boost power (or 'heat'). That value happens to be 100.

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If you let your engines cool off to 100 heat, then they just stop generating the resource.

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So if you let you engines cool off to 100 heat, you are underheating the entire time they are sitting idle at 100.

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In a speedrun you want to avoid this at all costs, since it's wasted speed you could be gaining.

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In general you also want to hold boosts as long as possible to get the most benefit from them...

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... but you'll see me doing short boosts all throughout this TAS, especially in this map, to avoid underheating - the greater sin.

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You can really see the power of Elan Mak's boost thrust and cooling capacity in the downhill spiral coming up.

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I hit over 1000 speed on the way down!

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I mentioned that the junkyard visit before this race was the last I was going to do, but there are more upgrades I could buy.

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There's acceleration, air braking, better turning and traction upgrades, and repair upgrades available.

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I don't bother with any of them because the time it would take to buy them outweighs the time they would save.

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I only rarely brake or slow down, so acceleration and brakes aren't that useful. I don't need better repair since I take little damage.

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Turning and traction might be useful, but my current upgrades are sufficient for navigation in a TAS.

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This course, the Andobi Mountain Run, is where Elan Mak really shines. Lots of straightaways to boost through.

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If you look out of the right side of the aircraft, you'll see the Howler Gorge.

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The first skip in this TAS is coming up! A skip is when you clip out-of-bounds as a shortcut. There are any% variants that do not allow skips.

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These canyon switchbacks are *really* brutal to navigate as Mak.

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A shortcut opens up on lap 2. One of the tents near the starting line opens up to a narrow, icy path with fast terrain.

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Boosting into the tent like that and maintaining it by riding the tunnel wall is a TAS-only trick. You will almost definitely explode if you try it normally.

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This underground catwalk is another one of the few places in this TAS that I consistently hit over 1000 speed.

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This skip isn't normally done in any% runs because it's way too risky.

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Hitting the top of the ramp just right to clip through the wall is tricky, and it's easy to explode when re-entering the canyon.

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I will now be selecting Mawhonic as the podracer I'll use for the rest of this TAS.

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His boost stats are a little worse than Mak's, but his handling is better, and the shape of his podracer makes certain skips coming up easier.

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We've got a fun-filled ride for you folks here on Dethro's Revenge, so strap in!

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Now *this* is podracing!

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I helped discover that skip in the making of this TAS!

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I accidentally clipped out of that tube section, and the speedrunning community turned it into a useful skip!

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While that skip looks incredible, it doesn't save *that* much time and it's nearly impossible, so RTA runners don't use it for any%.

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This section where I jump onto the roof of the tunnel and ride the edges is full of TAS-only nonsense.

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Hitting those edges like that to bounce off the roof of the tunnel and cut the corners is ridiculously hard to set up.

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RTA runners doing individual lap or single-track runs might cut corners up there, but not to the extreme degree that I did.

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Since this is the last lap and I can drain my boost tank, I get to do a particularly big jump off the catwalk that I'm proud of.

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I lapped position 12!

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Does this course look familiar? It might, because this course (Fire Mountain Rally) is just Grabvine Gateway, but in reverse.

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It's not exactly the same though - you explore different parts of the course including an active volcano!

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This is the longest course (time-wise) and considered the hardest course in this category.

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Passing over lava at any height heats up your engines, so I avoid doing that except where cutting corners saves enough time to make it worth it.

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Since we've got some time, I'lll talk about another mechanic I've been using this whole time: tilting.

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You've probably noticed by now that the podracer sometimes flips onto its side.

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This is left/right tilt. When titled, you lose some turning ability, but gain a slim profile you can use to get closer to walls.

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Being tilted also affects speed loss/gain from slopes. Being tilted reduces the speed lost from going up steep hills...

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... and also reduces the speed gained when going down steep hills.

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It's also used in a normally unreliable trick that lets you modify the amount of bounce height you get from bumps.

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Perfectly timed tilts can reduce/increase the air you get from bumps, which is good for keeping long boosts going.

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I primarily use tilting throughout this TAS to cut corners dangerously close though.

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Here comes that earthquake shortcut from Grabvine Gateway, but in reverse.

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Throughout this TAS you've seen me take bumps and scrapes here and there, with damage shown on the engines.

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Damage causes your upgrades to lose efficiency after races, if you don't have enough pit droids to repair them.

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It's impossible to avoid taking any damage, but this being a TAS I can guarantee that I take very little.

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Taking so little damage on these courses is what allows me to safely do the any% with only 3 out of 4 pit droids.

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Here it is! The Boonta Eve Classic, the racetrack from Episode I, and the final course of this run!

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Right away we've got a major shortcut coming up just behind that rock column directly ahead.

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Coming up is the "service ramp" that Anakin jumps off of in the movie.

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Here comes another skip! This one is actually RTA-feasible, and speedrunners will do this skip for all three laps

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It looks like a few Tuskan Raiders are camped out on the canyon dune turn!

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Those gouts of fire are the Raiders' shots, which become hazards.

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Jawa Sandcrawler!

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I intentionally hit these rocks on the first lap so that I can boost here later.

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This little switchback coming up was actually the hardest part of this course to TAS.

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You can see and even hear a Sarlaac that has made its home in the middle of the racetrack up ahead.

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The Tuskan Raiders' shots cause you to momentarily loose traction and turn away from the flame if you drive too close.

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Driving directly through the fire will set one of your engines on fire.

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The Sandrawler moved! It actually crawls along this section of the course and changes position each time you pass through.

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Watchout Slimo! Mawhonic is the first racer to crash in the movie!

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Sebulba rams him into a canyon wall and his podracer disintegrates into spinning, fiery wreckage.

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Maintaining my boost through the next section of corridors was a real trick to pull off, but it looks pretty cool!

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Time! TAS timing: 31:36.75  RTA timing: 31:05.39

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And with that, Mawhonic is your podracing champion of the galaxy!

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This marks the end of the commentary. I hope you've enjoyed this TAS!