MM5 beatless route

[Forum post from 2014, links gone, largely obsoleted by baronhaynes's more recent work on the beatless route]

As I started learning this game I went for the route that includes dumb glitched shit and does fun Dark Man buster fights instead of boring Beat ones, and as far as I know am the only one who's using it even remotely seriously. Here's a list of differences for reference.

The route described here is what I've used. One alternative I learned from bjw after I stopped actively running this is that you could skip the first M-tank and instead do dark 3 like this , though the normal dark 3 arrows have been improved too since then. I'm also not sure whether getting the stone M-tank is faster than getting the dark 2 M-tank. It's very close.

All robot master stages:
You ignore Beat letters. Very straightforward everywhere except In gyro where there might exist a faster route going over the letter with an arrow.

Crystal skip:
Crystal stage is completely skipped with a death warp that takes you from the first screen to the boss corridor. The short how-to is you need to suicide right as an enemy is appearing, so that its walker part appears on screen but the ball part doesn't. The most convenient way to do this is to slide into the third enemy with the fourth one appearing. If you're right at the edge of the ledge there, the cue is to slide as the enemy is turning around. What precisely happens with the glitch and how to optimize it a bit further is described in detail .

Getting your first M-tank:
Getting the M-tank in stone requires switching to buster to enter the room it's in, which is located awkwardly between the arrow uses in the normal route. In very rough testing, using the arrow normally before the M-tank ended up equal to just using buster, thanks to the two extra weapon switches. Using an arrow in the M-tank room instead you can save about half a second, and then another half a second arrowing over the crawler guy in the next room.

Dark 2 boss:
Killed with buster instead of Beat. TAS uses napalm, but also finishes the stage with arrow so it needs to menu anyway. Ideal buster fight is roughly 1-1.5 seconds faster than napalm or crystal (which both deal 2 damage) when starting with an uncharged shot, and about half a second more if starting charged. You could do that by doing a very precise slide under the last tiger right before the boss door.

Dark 4 boss:
Killed with buster instead of Beat. There are three ways to hit these two bosses with buster through shields - either the intended way while the shields are pulled in, shooting very precisely over the shield and hitting the head, or firing point blank past the shield like against Star Man.

Capsule:
Killed with buster instead of Beat. Equally fast with perfect luck, but every time Wily spawns too high to reach you'll miss a cycle. Remember that gyro deals 1 damage and can be switched for the kill if Wily spawns high at 1 hp, which he'll eventually end up at if you get the one hit in the beginning don't miss any later on. Normally you should do 3+1 damage on every spawn you can hit, but if he spawns precisely where a charged shot hits but a normal one doesn't, making a half-charged shot in time can be hard. Spawns right above you are tricky too.

Time difference:
Capsule rng costs you slightly under 7 seconds per missed cycle. With the small time saves from skipping letters adding up the total difference is hard to calculate, but I estimate you break even somewhere around two missed capsule cycles.

Conclusion:
I find this route more interesting and more fun, and since it's potentially faster, I can pretend it's a legitimate choice. If you actually want to hit a certain time goal, I recommend switching to Beat before capsule rng drives you insane.