Mega Man Zero 4 Any% Junk Notes

***General Things***
Alot of things throughout the notes were copy pasted from the No Junk Demo notes. If you're familiar with that then you're already mostly familiar with the stuff here though there are a number of differences.

--Boss Order--
Popla - Genblem - Fenri - Titanion - Mandrago - Kraken - Pegasolta - Mino
This boss order aims to get the parts for Junk Armor as soon as possible while obtaining important EX Skills. Popla is first so you can obtain Time Stopper to kill minibosses easier and obtain Mechameson and Bombadeer parts. Genblem to Fenri so you can obtain parts you need for Junk and to get their EX Skills. Then you do Titanion so you can get a Glass Cannon part. Mandrago is 5th because at this point you have assembled Junk and you want to get downstab ASAP. Kraken next so you can obtain Ice Javelin to kill Pegasolta and Mino quicker. This order obtains Junk Armor after the first Craft fight.

--Weather--
All Bosses are fought with weather set to hard so you can obtain their EX Skill except for Titanion and Pegasolta. Titanion saves time in easy weather from weaker heat meaning less time waiting in shade while Pegasolta doesn't have wind pushing you back during the stage. Both those stages have useless EX Skills.

Mino is the only boss you play on hard weather but don't use his ex skill. The reason for this is because his stage is much faster on hard weather because of low gravity. His EX Skill is useless.

--Combos--
There are alot of instances where doing fewer but longer combos is slower or not as consistent because of low DPS or the boss messing around too much because of bad RNG. This is why I do alot of small combos during the run. They have higher DPS and it's easier to work with them with how random the bosses can be. An example in Fenri's case. While I can two combo him (Charge Saber/Knuckle - Triple - Up Slash - Down Slash) it's faster and more consistent to do 3 smaller combos on him because of better DPS and makes adapting to his random patterns easier.

Combos work a bit differently with Junk Armor but it's a similar premise where you want to do high DPS combos. With Junk some bosses can be defeated in a single combo which means that even though these combos have low DPS the fact the boss can be defeated in a single combo makes it worth it.

--Combo Levels--
Level 1: Pea Shot
Level 2: Charge Buster/Saber/Z-Knuckle, Single Slash, Ice Javelin (Bullet Spawning Javelin)
Level 3: Double Slash, Ice Javelin (1st hit)
Level 4: Triple Slash, Ice Blade, Ice Javelin (2nd hit)
Level 5: Flame Fang, Ice Javelin (3rd hit)
Level 6: Sky Chaser, Ice Javelin (4th hit)

--EX Skills and Other Combo Moves--
Charge Buster:
Damage - 6 (12 with Junk)
Pretty limited for combos because saber and knuckle are just simply better. You only really use charge buster for combos once (Craft 1) because of pause optimizations.

Charge Saber:
Damage - 7 (14 with Junk)
Charge saber is nowhere near as good as it was in past games because it was nerfed from 8 damage to 7. It also has a cooldown issue because you can only start charging it after a combo has ended. Despite that it's still good for the first combo in a boss fight because you can enter the fight with it already charged.

Charge Knuckle:
Damage - 7 (14 with Junk)
The best charge attack for combos. Has damage equal to saber without the added cooldown. The best way to make use of knuckle is to charge it mid combo so you can use it right as a boss's I-Frames end.

Triple Slash:
Damage - 4 (For each slash) (8 with Junk)
Only good when you absolutely have to use it. Becomes almost useless after obtaining other EX Skills because of its low DPS. On average you'll do 8 damage with triple against a boss because the first slash won't count if you hit a boss with a charge attack before doing a triple.

Time Stopper:
Damage - 5 (1st Hit does 1. 2nd does 4)
Popla's EX Skill. Time Stopper's main use is to do the damage stack glitch and destroy minibosses in seconds. Also be used to freeze some enemies and move through them.

Sky Chaser (Down Slash):
Damage - 8 (16 with Junk)
Mandrago's EX Skill. The best EX Skills in the game. It hits hard and has good DPS. Don't really need to say any more than that.

Flame Fang (Up Slash):
Damage - 7 (14 with Junk) (10 if Weakness. 20 with Junk)
Genblem's EX Skill. Same as Sky Chaser. Very good EX Skill with good damage and DPS. Only downside is it's useless against Mino and Pegasolta and does hardly any damage to Titanion and Genblem (3 Damage).

Ice Blade (Ground Slash):
Damage - 5 (10 With Junk)
Fenri's EX Skill. A substitute last hit in a triple slash. Much faster than said hit but has limited uses because it can only hit stuff on the ground. DPS is good.

Ice Javelin:
Damage
Neutral No Junk: 5, 1, 1, 1, 1 = 9
Neutral With Junk: 10, 3, 3, 3, 3 = 22
Weakness No Junk: 7, 2, 2, 2, 2 = 15
Weakness With Junk: 15, 4, 4, 4, 4 = 31
Kraken's EX Skill. Mostly used to deal a large amount of damage quickly on Pegasolta and Mino. Make sure you hit the boss with the bullet that spawns the javelin or else it will do much less damage.

Axe From Knuckle:
Damage - 8
Essentially Charge Saber from the past 3 games without the charge time. Really good weapon but unfortunately is only in two stages in the game. Great against Titanion. There exists a Hammer version of this weapon (only in Protect Settlement) except it has a ton of ending lag making it not very good. In Junk Routes the Axe isn't as useful because its attack power isn't doubled by Junk.

--RNG--
RNG in the Zero series is fairly consistent though Z4 has the most amount of stuff changing it. RNG is set to the stage index value at the start of a stage so things in previous stages don't affect things in the current stage.

This run uses a small amount of RNG manipulation to manipulate 3 of the 4 parts to obtain double jump. There are various things that affect RNG.
-Killing enemies
    -How the enemy dies (if you used buster, saber, charge slash, ect)
-Wall sliding and wall jumping
-Certain AI decisions/actions from enemies/bosses
-Firing buster shots at a wall
-Cyber elf being onscreen
-Certain effects like screen shake, bubbles from dashing underwater and death explosion from bosses/minibosses

Dropping weapons with Knuckle does not change RNG.

Bosses in Z4 cannot be manipulated because RNG is set to the stage timer on a cutscene skip. Same goes for minibosses however some minibosses are manipulated by avoiding skipping the cutscene before fighting it. The minibosses in Fenri and Titanion are not cutscene skipped to manip part drops.

RNG can also be reset by dying. Dying resets RNG similar to as if you entered the stage the first time. This is done once in the run during Popla's stage so you can manip Mechameson and Bombadeer parts.

--Values--
Boss HP: 0x0203A4E4 (1 byte)
Zero HP: 0x020366A4 (1 byte)
RNG: 0x0202DC38 (4 bytes)
Stage Time: 0x0202E8E8 (4 bytes)
Game Time: 0x02035918 (4 bytes)

--Lua scripts--
Script with Above Values
BizHawk: http://www.mediafire.com/file/37tzm38vuxbx3se/MMZ4_Bizhawk_Edit.lua
VBA: http://www.mediafire.com/file/77puxc2t318hwfo/MMZ4%282%29.lua

Chip Scanner
BizHawk: http://www.mediafire.com/file/p472czduy9o58b4/Z4_Chip_Scanner_Bizhawk.lua

--Equipment Recipes--
Enemy Translations and Pictures: http://i.imgur.com/7s7VCsi.png

Junk Head
-Junk: Combine two parts that don't create a chip
-GlassCannon: Sol Titanion (Miniboss)
-SerpentGear: Fenri Lunaedge (Miniboss)

Junk Body
-Junk
-S-Crystal: Create on its own
-GangaGun: Heat Genblem (Big drill enemy)
-Ceratanium: 1/2. Heat Genblem (Particle beam section)

Junk Foot
-Junk
-Bombadeer: Popla Cocapetri (Enemy that is released by Mechameson when eyes are red)
-BeamWalker: Spawned by intro boss. Appears in Area Zero, Heat Genblem and Fenri Lunaedge (Green walker enemy)
-Moloid: Protect Settlement (Walking hammer enemy)

S-Crystal (Needed for Junk body)
-Faital: Heat Genblem (Cylinder enemy that rises from the ground and shoots fire from sides)
-Mechameson: Popla Cocapetri (Big purple cylinder enemy)
-V. Fire: Literally everywhere (First enemy you see in the game)
-Ceratanium: 2/2. Popla Cocapetri (Right before the boss door)

Double Jump
-Faital: Heat Genblem (Cylinder enemy that rises from the ground and shoots fire from sides)
-GangaGun: Heat Genblem (Big drill enemy)
-GyroCannonH: Very end of Area Zero before the boss door (Purple Copter enemy)
-C-Hopper: Last section of Area Zero (Blue enemy that shoots wave of bullets)

All parts for Junk Armor and Double Jump are manipulated except for Faital which cannot be manipulated. You can grind for one near the end of Genblem's stage.

Double Jump is still obtained because Ragnarok Control Room is much faster with it. It's only used in that stage.

--Cyber Elves and Sub Tanks--
In Junk Route you cannot use a Cyber Elf once you equip Junk Armor so going out of your way to set up an elf is pointless.

If you need something for safety I highly recommend getting the sub tank in Mandrago's stage. It's not out of the way to get and there's a max health drop shortly after it to fill it up quickly. A full subtank can hold 30 Energy so close to two full lifebars (sub tanks don't fully deplete when used in the zero series).

There's a second subtank in Fenri's stage but it's more out of the way to get. Requires using Knuckle to take a card key to a certain door. The downside to getting this subtank is you can't use Knuckle while you have this card key and you need to do an entirely different manipulation for the miniboss.

--Other Stuff--
Damage Stacking still exists in this game. It's when you have two attacks overlap each other which causes continuous damage. This is used on minibosses overlapping Time Stopper and Charge Slash.

There is a glitch with Double Jump where if you use your second jump then wall jump without touching the wall you won't get your second jump back. Keep that in mind when doing climbs.

You want to be at B rank for the entirety of the run. The reason for this is so certain bosses don't do EX Attacks. In some cases A rank is unavoidable so keep that in mind.

You can grab onto grabbable things a little bit quicker if you manually use Knuckle.

Theory TAS (Not really good for learning RTA): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/44545814



***Stage Comments***

--Intro--
The first part of the run is going to look familiar to the No Junk route. The main difference here is the V.Fire drops manipulated in this stage actually have meaning here since one is needed for the S-Crystal and the rest are for making Junk pieces.

The first V.Fire drop is simply destroy the third V.Fire with knuckle. The next two are a bit more tricky but are still not too bad. The main thing you have to do is set the truck on fire after the first flame torch enemy so you can both climb it faster and avoid generating RNG. Keep in mind that how the truck burns depends on where the shot hit. You want it to hit the top of the truck since it creates a staircase that you can jump up. Hitting it lower will just block you from climbing higher.

The last V.Fire drop is fairly hard to get consistently as it requires hitting the truck after the bombs with two buster shots then performing a precise wall jump to climb the truck in one jump. An extra wall jump will mess up the manipulation. This V.Fire drop isn't entirely necessary but the option is there if you want it.

Make sure to grab a bomb before leaving this section.

Boss is self explanatory. It's possible to combo with a double slash after hitting him with a bomb but it's very precise to do and only saves a second at most.

--Area Zero--
Literally the exact same as the No Junk demo. Feel free to skip this part if you're already familiar with how this works but keep in mind that if you plan on doing your own manipulation you'll also need to manip a BeamWalker alongside the GyroCannonH and C-Hopper.
Things to keep in mind that change RNG.
-The moles at the start change RNG while they are in the ground. Don't stay onscreen for too long when one's around.
-Ground dashing in water will change RNG. Make sure to dash jump through any water.
Other than that if you kill enemies the way I do here then you should get the required item drops at the end.

After killing the enemy that drops the C-Hopper part there are 3 ways to manip the GyroCannonH.
-The way I do in the video. Shoot the wall with a pea shot and kill the GyroCannon while it's in midair. If it lands then kill it with pea shots. Fastest method.
-Destroy the copter part of the enemy and triple slash it when it lands.
-If you wall jump while crossing the pit, destroy the copter part and kill it with pea shots.

I won't list values because the video shows it updating in real time. Just follow that and you'll be fine.

The boss is self explanatory (Charge - Triple). Unlike the No Junk demo where I do the stray Charge Knuckle at the start I do it at the end so I fall to the bottom platform. Technically the strat in the No Junk demo is faster however it's only faster if you can damage boost off of a missile at the end of the fight so this is better in an RTA setting.

--Popla Cocapetri--
This stage Mechameson and Bombadeer parts are obtained. Since the parts are in the second half of the stage where RNG is changing every frame death abuse is used to reset RNG and make a manipulation possible. Since the moving blocks are on a global timer you can take as much damage as you want in the first half of the stage and lose no time. Just be careful in the tower of buttons because you'll be close to death.

Also in the room with the bars in the first half of the stage, the bars are in the same position in the cycle each time you enter the room so it's consistent.

Top route is taken in the second half of the stage just because that's where the part drops are. Suicide right after tower of buttons so you can stop RNG from changing every second. The blocks before the last room are on a global timer just like before. The moving grabbable bars in the next room also appear to be on a global timer.

Popla is a straight forward boss. Only real issue with him is he can be dumb and time stop you. Since doing nothing but Charge - Triple leaves him with 4 HP I do a stray Charge Slash at the start. The advantage to doing this is it lets you do one less charge attack before a triple slash.

--Heat Genblem--
Equip Buster at the start so you can Time Stopper enemies leading up to the miniboss and to beat the miniboss quicker. Here you get two GangaGun parts at the start. The first one is really easy to do. Jump slash first enemy, charge slash the enemy before the ganga gun and then triple slash the ganga gun. Make sure your charge slash hits both the enemy and the ganga gun. After that if you buster the next two enemies and kill the V.Missile with a jump slash you can get a part for junk. Avoid killing any enemies until you reach the two ganga guns next to each other and wiggle tron them for a second ganga gun drop.

For the miniboss do Damage Stacking using Time Stopper and Charge Saber. Also note that minibosses in this game have 96-128 HP while bosses have 64-96. Good design Inti.

Switch to Knuckle at the start of the Particle Beam so you can stop a flame torch enemy from shooting. If you don't want to do the last damage boost you can jump up to where the 1-UP is instead.

Whether you get a Faital drop is random. You can respawn it by going offscreen if you need to. The best place to farm is right after the particle beam. For junk you need to get two which can be a pain.

Genblem is one of the worst bosses in the game. All you can really do is do Charge Knuckle - Triple since that's all you have. You'll have to finish him off with a stray jump slash if you somehow manage to pull off Charge - Triple perfectly 4 times. It's also possible to combo him like this while he's spinning around firing a laser if you're good enough though you might have to use Charge Saber over Knuckle. Another thing is you can antagonize him when he dodges one of your attacks by slashing him over and over. Doing this will force him to do an uppercut.

--Fenri Lunaedge--
Take the bottom path at the start because top path is a slow elevator. Time Stopper doesn't really work well on the miniboss so you'll have to wiggle with Charge Saber. Don't try to wiggle with Charge Knuckle because it's frame perfect.

It's possible to manip a SerpentGear from the miniboss however it requires playing the first part of the stage pretty well. If you make a mistake during the climb at the start it ruins the whole manip. Remember to not skip the cutscene before the miniboss so you can get a consistent drop.

Conveniently one of the enemies in the bottom path gives a part for a junk piece if you do this manip.

Boss is self explanatory. Do Charge - Triple - Up twice and finish him off with Jump Slash - Up Slash. Only dumb attack he can do is his sonic style bouncing spin dash since it makes him invincible. The fight isn't as flexible as the fight in No Junk due to the lack of downstab so keep that in mind.

--Sol Titanion--
This stage is kinda bad to get a manip on due to how RNG works. For starters you can get an easy V.Fire drop at the start if you kill the first and second V.Fires with saber.

So what makes this stage dumb in terms of RNG manip is wall jumping on certain parts of a platform will not generate RNG. This isn't so much of an issue in the first section since it's very obvious where this part of the platform is (the very top) however it's a nightmare in the second section due to how thin the platforms are. Like with Fenri avoid skipping the cutscene on the miniboss.

For the boss spam just spam the Axe. She'll go down in 8 hits. Also when Titanion does the attacks with the spinning red and green projectiles she immediately does another action if you destroy both of them.

--Protect Settlement--
Pea shot the pillar at the start and saber the first V.Fire for a part drop for a junk piece. As for manipulating the Moloid the manip is unfortunately very picky. The frogs in the water at the start change RNG at a rate where it can be very tricky to get a consistent manip. Honestly I'm still not sure how you would do this stage in an RTA setting.

Craft is a rather involved fight but if you keep your combos small (Charge Buster - Ground Slash - Up Slash) then you can reasonably react to his attacks with enough practice. You can swap to Knuckle if you have a hard time landing Charge Buster shots at the cost of an extra pause.

--Prison Escape--
Before this stage remember to build Junk Armor and Double Jump.

Nothing to say about this stage. Boss is self explanatory (Charge - Up until he dies).

--Noble Mandrago--
Not much to say about the first part except that it's a bit easier here compared to No Junk since you can one shot the plants with saber. For the miniboss you can buffer the Time Stopper by letting go of Buster before the fight starts and after the cutscene skip. If you do the damage stack right you can one shot the miniboss.

Shortly after the miniboss is a sub tank you can obtain. Destroy the second GyroCannon and grab the copter part to get it. I recommend getting this sub tank over using a cyber elf if you need some safety because this waste much less time than upgrading and equipping an elf.

The part right after where the sub tank is (with the long hallway of breakable vines) it is faster to go bottom path if you are a TAS. Top route is a bit faster if you are not a TAS. Take the bottom route if you need to quickly fill up the safety sub tank from earlier.

Mandrago you can defeat pretty quickly by doing Charge - Up then Charge - Ground - Up. With how much damage you do you can kill her before she does another attack if you're lucky. If she decides to burrow you can pull her out with knuckle. Unfortunately Mandrago can be a jerk sometimes and spam spin attacks multiple times and waste lots of time.

--Tech Kraken--
First part is just memorization. Miniboss is another Damage Stack except you can one shot him this time with junk. Second section is basic platforming though it's harder here compared to No Junk since you don't get to use double jump. Boss you can defeat in a single combo (Charge - triple - up - down). If Kraken decides to go offscreen you can pull him out of a hole with Knuckle but this costs a pause. It's random if he does it unfortunately.

--Pegasolta Eclair--
Nothing to say about this stage either other than set the weather to easy. The enemies that move in a triangle pattern have random positions when they appear onscreen so keep that in mind. Also there's a mechameson near the end of the stage who spawns in different spots for no reason. Miniboss is another damage stack.

Pegasolta is a very awful fight. You can play it safe and just spam Charge Slashes or you can do all out and do the combo in the video (Charge - Down then Ice Javelin - Down). For the Ice Javelin you have to do the downstab in the middle of the Javelin so the last hit doesn't hit but the downstab does. It's alot more precise than it looks.

--Mino Magnus--
Set weather to hard because low gravity is a massive time save. Miniboss is yet another damage stack. Stage itself nothing to really say about it other than in the part after the miniboss you can just go to the top immediately if you don't feel like being fancy. Mino isn't too bad if you do a stray Ice Javelin then do Charge - Ground - Down.

--Ragnarok Control Room--
Oh boy this stage. Switch to double jump at the start since it makes the stage much faster and alot more manageable. The climb at the start is a real pain to do optimally because of terrible enemy placement (why do these pantheons get to fire the moment they're onscreen). Recommend taking it safe for this climb if you want an easy time and no sore hands.

In the second section there are alot of moving platforms on a global cycle. The cycle for the first set of moving platforms doesn't mean anything because you have double jump. The next set does matter a bit. If you go as fast as possible you get a really good cycle that you can speed through pretty quickly. At some point I'm going to have to look into potential backups for if you miss this cycle.

Essentially the stage is the same as No Junk aside from the boss.

Craft is the same as before except you have Knuckle equipped this time so he's a bit easier to combo. The combos you want to get on Craft are Charge - Up - Down then Charge - Ground - Up - Down.

--4 Way Stage--
Really basic stage nothing to say about it. Make sure in the left path you grab a GangaGun so you can speed through the bottom path quickly.

Boss can either stay in the center and cooperate or bounce around the room, go offscreen and waste time (and he can waste ALOT of time). Nothing you can really do if he does the later. He even laughs at you while he wastes time what a jerk. The combos you want to do on him are Charge - Up - Down then Charge - Triple - Up - Down. Keep in mind for the triple slash that only the last hit hits the boss.

--Cyber Space--
How the hell do you do this stage with junk? I'm not kidding it's that awful. In an RTA setting you'll have to slow down so much because you can only tank one hit and you don't have double jump to make adjusting jumps in the second half of the stage more manageable. I highly recommend playing it slow for this stage just for the sake of survival because going fast is both risky and very difficult to do. Keep in mind that you want to enter the boss with more than 8 HP.

Cyball can be consistent if you can pull off the combos in the video (Charge - Ground - Up - Down then Charge - Up - Down). The last combo has a very tight window to get so I recommend maybe doing the Up and Down slashes after jumping over Cyball when he goes into the middle row. Since you have junk making this fight consistent is alot easier compared to No Junk.

--Boss Rush--
Path leading up to boss rush is self explanatory. Boss rush itself is pretty similar to how you fought these bosses before though you can now one combo Popla and Mandrago by doing Pea Shot - Charge - Double - Ground - Up - Down. You can also one combo Fenri with the combo used on Kraken earlier. For both Titanion and Genblem you can take them out in two combos by doing Charge - Ground - Down then Jump Slash - Down.

The path to Weil don't have much to say about. Ignore getting an Axe because it doesn't get a boost from Junk armor.

Weil's first form can die pretty quickly if he cooperates. Start the fight with Charge - Up - Down then do two Up - Down combos. Unfortunately his worse attacks involve him going offscreen while you wait for him to come back. If you enter this fight at B rank then the attack where he summons the Z3 bosses only summons 4 at a time and not all 8.

Weil's second form is an RNG mess. If he fires his laser then enjoy taking off almost all of his health if you pull the combos off correctly. Here's how the laser combo works:
-Do a pea shot into charge slash before he fires the laser
-Wait for his I-frames to end and do Triple - Up - Down
-Charge an Ice Javelin and fire it after letting go of his horn
-After that he dies in one charge slash

Remember that you can only go all out like that once because you won't have enough health for a second time. If he decides to be a jerk and spam other attacks all you can really do is spam charge slashes on him.