Rosenkreuzstilette FAQ

Q: What is the world record for Tia?
A: 30:30 by me. For more runners and times, check out the leaderboard here: http://bombch.us/edD

Q: What platform is this game for?
A: RKS is a PC exclusive. I use a Logitech F310 Gamepad.

Q: Where can I purchase RKS?
A: You can buy it here: http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/product_id/RE051185.html

Q: Is this a Touhou game?
A: No, RKS uses original characters and content.

Q: What kind of Mega Man clone is this?
A: In particular, RKS is a Mega Man 4 clone (e.g. sliding, chargeable buster, 2 castles, etc.), but it references a wide variety of Mega Man titles.

Q: You can choose two different characters?
A: Yes, RKS has a Mega Man character (Tia) as well as a Zero character (Grolla). Although I’m interested in working on a Grolla run, I'm not expecting ever getting around to it.

Q: What is continuous sliding?
A: When Tia slides, the animation lasts for 21 frames. On the last 3 of these frames, a window opens up in which you can press the slide input again, thus renewing the slide for another 21 frames. The result is a single continuous slide, and although it isn't absolutely necessary to do, it's an easy way to tell if your movement is good or not. Note that some tricks in the run can result in death without continuous sliding.

Q: Why’s the route the way it is?
A: Grolla needs to be done as soon as possible because she gives Item-1, of which saves a lot of time in Liebea’s stage, and having both Item-1 and Liebea’s weapon is crucial for Luste’s stage, of whom gives Item-2. Freudia’s weapon is extremely useful in Grolla’s stage and is also Liebea’s weakness; thankfully, Freudia’s stage doesn’t really benefit from any other weapons or items (time stop, her weakness, only deals 14 damage to her at maximum).

Q: How does Freudenstachel work?
A: Freudenstachel is a rapid fire weapon that oscillates up and down in a wave-like motion and can be used while sliding. Although the oscillation itself is an unchanging pattern, the individual icicles can randomly spawn a bit higher or lower than where you would normally anticipate. As a result, it’s fairly common to miss targets, especially those with small hitboxes.

Q: How does Grollschwert work?
A: Uncharged Grollschwert fires a single short-ranged projectile, or, if Tia is at or under half health (referred to as desperation mode), three medium-ranged projectiles in an arc in front of her. The lower her health, the more damage grollschwert will deal. Proper health management is crucial for optimal Sichte, Sepperin and Deviled Egg fights.

Q: Who is Lilli and is she useful?
A: Lilli is Beat from Mega Man 5 and can be found in the pit of Trauare’s checkpoint room (this is a reference to Mega Man 4’s wire adaptor in Dive Man’s stage). Although she isn’t the true weakness of Raimund’s second form or Iris, she can prove very useful in these fights. Regardless, she doesn’t save enough time in the end and you ultimately lose time for taking the detour to get her. It should be noted that the TAS uses Lilli because its timing ends on the final input needed to complete the game, of which happens to be calling her out at the start of the Iris fight.

Q: Is Bosspider as awful as he looks?
A: Yes. His hitbox is really small and his weakness is freudenstachel, the only weapon in the game with randomness. An optimal fight defeats Bosspider in 3 cycles but that’s a pipe dream. An average fight is 5 or 6 cycles.

Q: Do you need to be at 1 hp for the Sepperin and Devil fights?
A: Not necessarily. Sepperin and Devil are not weak to grollschwert, but if you bring Tia down to 1 hp, it manages to deal 3 damage to both of them. This happens to be more damage than Sepperin’s true weakness, and in the case of Devil, 1 hp grollschwert makes a 3 cycle decently consistent to perform. 1 HP is not required for either fight (and it isn't even required for 3 cycle Devil).

Q: Why does timing not end on the last hit on Iris?
A: RKS’ ingame timer is actually real time, and the timer stops right when the cutscene of the Iris Castle collapse begins. We try to match our own timers with the game’s ingame timer since that’s ultimately what the community uses for runs.

Q: It looks like 62.5 FPS (and even higher FPS values) is possible depending on how VSync's configured; why is 60 FPS used?
A: 60 FPS is the intended default (as far as we know) and any higher value usually requires you to go out of your way to achieve it, and, depending on how high it is, may also be unstable. The community has decided on 60 FPS as being the standard for the run.

Q: Where can I learn more about RKS?
A: TAS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGq9mXS_IG4

Passwords:

Grolla
A236 B6 D1 E3

Liebea
A3 B26 C2 D1 E3

Luste
B36 C23 D1 E3

Zorne
A4 B6 C12 D1 E3

Schwer
A4 B6 C24 E13

Sichte
A4 B5 C26 E13

Trau
A14 B5 D2 E13

Sepperin 1
A14 B5 E234

Iris 1
A14 B5 D5 E23

Cheat Engine: http://www.cheatengine.org/ (for the purpose of freezing memory values in RKS, allowing you to, for example, have infinite lives and kill yourself to restart boss fights or at checkpoints)