IoG TAS Research

[HULK]: Earthquaker skip works with the super Dark Friar because it enables you to hit the golem without walking on the trigger which makes the golem invincible.
When you pass that trigger, the golem starts moving and it's like there's an invisible wall which prevents you from passing
The golem doesn't even damage you, it just blocks you.
With a well-placed Spin dash, you can get there before the golem has moved into position, but the "wall" is there already so it's useless.
I've also tried to push another golem to hit the golem, since it's possible to stack damage with psycho dash, but that also didn't work


----


Some of these tricks simply do not work anymore after I get the Psycho Slider, so don't come complaining that I didn't use a trick where you think I could, because I couldn't (because of the Psycho Slider).

-Charge without hitting (new)

Normally, to charge a psycho dash or a dark friar, you would have to swing the sword first. Nitrodon found a way to start charging without swinging the sword. Here's how (if you want to start running UP): up, nil, up, up, down+A, up+A.

-Block while running (new)

Normally, you can't run while spinning the flute (blocking). Nitrodon found a way to do so (if you want to run UP): up, nil, up, up+R, R, up+R.

-Hit while running (new)

This trick only applies for Freedan and Shadow. The trick allows you to swing the sword / the arm while running without having to stop and without having to move in a perpendicular direction. Here is how (if you are running LEFT): run left, left+A, nil, left, continue running left.

-Hit cancellation

You can cancel a sword swing by pressing a perpendiculat direction 2 frames after the press of the A button. For example, if you attacked an enemy to the left, you could do this: A, nil, nil, up or down. This allows for faster recovery between hits, making it possible to start running earlier after a hit. This can be used while running too: cancelling a hit will allow you to continue running in that direction.

-Telekinesis while running

While running, you can use telekinesis for 1 frame up to 8 times in a single run. This allows me to "pull" statues while running up to them, instead of pulling them while standing still. Telekinesis also blocks attacks, so I can do the same to block projectiles too.

-After-hit invincibility

Enemies in IoG are invincible for a short period of time after they get hit. When they are invincible, they can't hurt you and you can run through them easily. This also applies to enemies that are "not killable". Even though they don't suffer damage, they become harmless for a short period of time, allowing me to run right through them.

-Moving an object while walking away from it (new)

Moving an object takes 16 frames. This means that I can walk away from it for 14 frames, face it on the 15th frame, and move it on the 16th frame. This can be repeated, making it possible to move an object towards you while you walk away from it without losing time.

-Faster map destination selection (new)

When it comes to selecting a destination, I can do so way before the actual dialog appears. This means that I can select a destination before the dialog appears, and so that dialog disappears instantaneously. I saved an average of 5-6 frames on each map travel, compared to the any%.

-Jumping up slopes (new)

When it comes to small slopes, you can jump over them with Will by doing a jump attack at the very last moment possible. Alternatively, when it comes to longer slopes, you can do the same to start running at the same speed you would if you went up the slope and then went down that slope. Only you didn't have to do that, you just jumped up the slope a little.










================================================================================================From Halamantariel's Any% TAS Notes

- Whenever you defeat a boss, Will automatically receives all the upgrades he was supposed to get on his way to that boss. That allowed me to simply run through all the rooms without having to kill enemies.

- You can use telekinesis while running. This means you can use it for 1 frame without losing any speed. I used this twice in the run.

- You can also hit an enemy while running and then “cancel” your shot by pressing any other direction than the one you’re hitting. I used this in a LOT of places, but you’ll notice a decrease of that technique when I receive Psycho Slider. This is because I couldn’t do it anymore.

- Will is invincible when doing a jump attack, using Psycho Dash, Psycho Slide or Psycho Spin.

========================================================================================================================Route Notes

Larai Cliff

I think I abuse a programming error in this dungeon. There is a statue head on a pedestal which is trapped in walls. Normally, Will can’t reach it, so I’d have to get Freedan and come back to kill it. However, I discovered that when you run, you can attack at a greater distance because your character goes “through” the wall and then comes back behind it. This is, I think, something the programmers didn’t expect. Killing the head that way saved a couple of minutes.
Also, you don’t need the Wind Melody at all if you know on which tile to stand. This saved me a bunch of minutes too.
Castoth Battle: I managed to kill Castoth before he went on his “laser frenzy”, but it was a really close call. A few frames longer and I would’ve had to wait around 30 seconds before I could hit him again.

Drifting Raft

I remembered that part of the game to be really long and really boring. However, when I did the time attack, I realised that it wasn’t that long after all. You just have to know what to do to trigger the events and it’s soon over.

Sky Garden

You can clearly see the “use telekinesis while running” trick in the third “room” of Sky Garden. If I hadn’t discovered this trick, I would’ve been forced to go back to Will’s form to continue my route.
For the fourth crystal ball I picked, the path I took, walking below the statue was really tiny. I strongly suggest you don’t try this when playing on the console, because you will jump down the small fence.
I succeeded in not being hit by the three fireballs that force me to backtrack, but this trick had a 1 frame window. This means that if I started running 1 frame faster or slower, I would’ve been hit. Do not try this on a real console.
Viper Battle: This boss is by far the easiest one I had to fight in this speed run. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the fight.

Mu

I hate the Rock Guardians. The time windows to hit them are really weird, and I had to re-record many times for each one I had to fight. I hate them.
About that “wizard” I slid through near the end of Mu, I had no choice to. Whatever path I took, it always appeared right in front of me.
Vampires Battle: Being the hardest fight in the whole game, I expected it to be quite tough. However, I quickly found out that abusing the short invincibility times Will has when doing some attacks, that fight was really a piece of cake. I totally abused these invincibility times.

China’s Great Wall

When I killed that second snake, right before picking up part 2 of Lilly’s necklace, I did it because I had no choice. If I didn’t kill it, it would have moved right below the staircase and hit me the very frame I went downstairs.
Sandworm Battle: I had a lot of trouble to optimize this battle. It just wouldn’t cooperate with me. This battle caused me a lot of frustration. I took a long break (around a month) before fighting this one and continuing my speed run. However, after I was done with this one, I had a boost of energy and finished the whole speed run in less than a week.

Watermia (second visit)

As I expected, I couldn’t manipulate the lily pad to come or go any faster. There will be some waiting here. Sorry guys. It’s not that bad, though.

Ankor Wat

I found out a pretty nice bug, if you could call it that. When I defeated the enemy on the wall, near the beginning, it releases a blue energy ball which is supposed to create a sliding path for Will. However, as soon as the enemy is killed, the path exists; it’s just invisible.
I took the Black Crystal Glasses for entertainment purposes only. I preferred the watchers to see the path instead of always seeing a very bright white light. I could’ve done it without the glasses, though, but I thought you wouldn’t have liked it.

Pyramid

When I stop running, seemingly for no reason, it’s because I had to. If I continued my way, the enemy nearest to me would’ve changed direction and hit me. I stopped to manipulate the enemies.
Mummy Queen Battle: This battle is probably the longest once since every hit she takes, there’s a long time where she transforms into spirits that float around the screen. I did it the fastest I could, though.

Babel Tower

Fighting every boss for a second time was a really cool thing to do. The fights are a lot faster and most of the time more impressive to watch… Viper and the Vampires both had a bad time.

The Comet

The first part of the fight is not that entertaining to watch, but the second part really copes for that lack of entertainment. I won’t give it all out though.

================================================================================================From Halamantariel's 100% TAS Notes

Tricks & Techniques

The tricks and techniques discussed here are divided in two categories: new and old ones. The new ones weren't known when I did the any%. There are a few more techniques than those listed here, but I can't remember them all, so I'll just write about those other ones when I get to them in the comments.
Some of these tricks simply do not work anymore after I get the Psycho Slider, so don't come complaining that I didn't use a trick where you think I could, because I couldn't (because of the Psycho Slider).

Charge without hitting (new)

-Normally, to charge a psycho dash or a dark friar, you would have to swing the sword first. Nitrodon found a way to start charging without swinging the sword. Here's how (if you want to start running UP): up, nil, up, up, down+A, up+A.

Block while running (new)

-Normally, you can't run while spinning the flute (blocking). Nitrodon found a way to do so (if you want to run UP): up, nil, up, up+R, R, up+R.

Hit while running (new)

-This trick only applies for Freedan and Shadow. The trick allows you to swing the sword / the arm while running without having to stop and without having to move in a perpendicular direction. Here is how (if you are running LEFT): run left, left+A, nil, left, continue running left.

Hit cancellation

-You can cancel a sword swing by pressing a perpendiculat direction 2 frames after the press of the A button. For example, if you attacked an enemy to the left, you could do this: A, nil, nil, up or down. This allows for faster recovery between hits, making it possible to start running earlier after a hit. This can be used while running too: cancelling a hit will allow you to continue running in that direction.

Telekinesis while running

-While running, you can use telekinesis for 1 frame up to 8 times in a single run. This allows me to "pull" statues while running up to them, instead of pulling them while standing still. Telekinesis also blocks attacks, so I can do the same to block projectiles too.

After-hit invincibility

-Enemies in IoG are invincible for a short period of time after they get hit. When they are invincible, they can't hurt you and you can run through them easily. This also applies to enemies that are "not killable". Even though they don't suffer damage, they become harmless for a short period of time, allowing me to run right through them.

Moving an object while walking away from it (new)

-Moving an object takes 16 frames. This means that I can walk away from it for 14 frames, face it on the 15th frame, and move it on the 16th frame. This can be repeated, making it possible to move an object towards you while you walk away from it without losing time.

Faster map destination selection (new)

-When it comes to selecting a destination, I can do so way before the actual dialog appears. This means that I can select a destination before the dialog appears, and so that dialog disappears instantaneously. I saved an average of 5-6 frames on each map travel, compared to the any%.

Jumping up slopes (new)

-When it comes to small slopes, you can jump over them with Will by doing a jump attack at the very last moment possible. Alternatively, when it comes to longer slopes, you can do the same to start running at the same speed you would if you went up the slope and then went down that slope. Only you didn't have to do that, you just jumped up the slope a little.

========================================================================================================Stuff From The SDA Thread

Initial Route:

1: South Cape, Edward's Castle, Edward's Prison (Save after using the key given by Hamlet)
2: Edward's Dungeon part 1 (Save after changing into Freedan)
3: Edward's Dungeon part 2, Edward's Castle, South Cape, Itory Village (Save after getting Psycho Dash)
4: Itory Village, Moon Tribe Camp, Incan Ruins, Larai Cliff (Save right before Castoth)
5: Castoth fight, Gold Ship, Drifting Raft, Diamond Coast, Freejia part 1 (Save before going to see the laborer prison, or whatever it's called)
6: Freejia part 2, Diamond Mine part 1 (Save after getting Dark Friar)
7: Diamond Mine part 2, Freejia, Neil's Cottage, Nazca Plains, Sky Garden part 1 (Save on arrival, before doing any rooms)
8-11: Sky Garden. You could save after each room if you want to. That would be a logical choice.
12: Viper fight, Seaside Palace (Save right before unlocking the door, before leaving for Mu)
13: Mu part 1 (Save after getting Psycho Slider)
14: Mu part 2 (Save right before going to the Vampires fight, after getting the 2 Rama statues, at the same Dark Space than the last save, on your way down)
15: Mu part 3, Vampires fight, Seaside Tunnel, Angel Village part 1 (Save at the Angel Village Dark Space (there's only one, can't miss it))
16: Angel Village part 2, Angel Village Dungeon, Ishtar Studio, Watermia (Save right before leaving, after reading Lance's letter)
17: Great Wall of China part 1 (Save after receiving Psycho Spin)
18: Great Wall of China part 2, Sandworm fight, Watermia, Euro, Mountain Temple part 1 (Save at the first Dark Space, in room 2 after the jump)
19: Moutain Temple part 2, Euro, Natives' Village (Save right before leaving for Ankor Wat)
20: Ankor Wat part 1 (Save in the garden Dark Space)
21: Ankor Wat part 2 (Save in the Main Hall after transforming back into Will)
22: Ankor Wat part 3, Natives' Village, Dao, Pyramid part 1 (Save after changing into Shadow)
23-28: Pyramid. You could save after each room is done if you want to.
29: Pyramid part 8 (place the hieroglyphs), Mummy Queen fight, Dao, Babel Tower part 1 (Save before or after Castoth, your choice)
30: Babel Tower part 2 (Save after the bosses, before the comet, you know where)
31: Comet fight, Dark Gaia fight, End.

----------------Details of ^ later on in the thread:

Segment 4. This one is probably going to be the hardest one (Moon Tribe Camp can be pretty annoying, plus you have to do all of Larai Cliff). So why do all of Larai Cliff? Well... there is no other Dark Space to save at. Sure, there's one where you can transform into Freedan (near the Wind Melody), but that would lose way too much time to get there. There's also one right before the tile room (where you're supposed to use the wind melody), but then there's the one right before Castoth right after that one. Therefore, the one before Castoth would be the ideal choice. Cruel segment. You're going to restart a LOT for that one (I would guess).

Sky Garden. You might wish to save between each room. It would make smaller segments, allowing for more precision. Or not. That would make the run a few segments smaller.

Great Wall of China offers you many possibilities.
Option 1: Use the door-glitch (which could be hard to pull off on a console) or the Psycho Slider to stop your run and enter Freedan's Dark Space early. After that, you clear the path Freedan has to clear, go back 1 room, get Psycho Slider and save there. After that, you finish the level and fight the boss. No need for the third Dark Space.
Option 2: You could do it the classic way, which would be to get Psycho Slider (save there), go back 1 room to get Freedan, clear the path, fight to get the third Dark Space and transform into Will (you could save there, right before the boss). Then, finish it off with the boss fight.
You have a choice, there. Faster China, or slower China with a save right before the boss. Option 1 is faster though, since you have a lot less traveling to do. Again, it's your choice: both options have pros and cons.

As for Ankor Wat, it MIGHT be possible to skip Earthquaker. I know you won't have the Dark Friar upgrade, but it is possible to skip it without the upgrade in a TAS. I didn't test this enough on console though, but it's not impossible to pull it off (I think). You might want to test that. The save in the garden isn't too far away, so even if it's really hard to pull it off, the nearest save isn't that far so you wouldn't have too much to redo if you miss. Then again, it might not be possible to do it on console, in which case you make a detour to get Earthquaker (but don't save in that Dark Space, it's not necessary). Also, I don't think you would need the dark sunglasses. 2F is easy enough to do with some memorization. Plus, you just saved moments before that room.

The Pyramid. You could save between each room if you want to or need to. I don't know what your plan is for this, but it's a possibility. It would shell out some nice small segments that are as close to perfection as humanly possible. Or not. That would make the run a few segments smaller.

----------------------------------------

Death abuse with lives sends you back to where you entered that room, I believe.  Some of those very large rooms, like the Great Wall, could be backtracked much quicker with death than without.  I believe a room boundary is when a screen fades, so the scrolling on the Great Wall, when taking stairs, is part of the same room.

I just fired up my emulator to see what happens.  I was actually on the Incan Ruins.  I died inside, about the third room, right after getting 100 Dark Gems.  I restarted right back at that room.  With no lives in reserve, I was taken to the Incan entrance.  If this is different from your results, its probably because of my ROM or emu.

---------------------------------------


I was trying to do it on the console but I couldn't get it to work. Since it was a TAS and (I'm guessing) you were using a slowdown there wouldn't have been any slight pause when you had to start running in another direction. You must have somehow manipulated the button that activates the text blurb because you were running so fast. I could be wrong but in the end it doesn't really matter. Skipping the text would only save about one third of a second. I was just curious.

The reason that text was skipped is that it only triggers at (520,223) and (520,224).  Walking speed is 2 pixels/frame, so the text will always trigger if you walk into the house.  However, running speed is 3 pixels/frame, so running will skip that text 1/3 of the time.  If you run straight up from a location down and slightly left/right of the doorway (so the game will automatically move you around the wall), you will always skip that text, since you will always reach Y=240 when your X coordinate is changed.  (This last part is obviously not useful in a speedrun.)

---------------------------------------

Puwexil's Segmented Run

https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/illusion_of_gaia__any1002.html

1. It is faster to tell King Edward you didn't bring the Crystal Ring.  This is simply a matter of pressing B instead of A at that point.
2. You only need to look at moss once in the prison, even though it exists in two locations.

With Freedan, if you resume holding your dashing direction immediately after pressing attack, he will resume dashing immediately.  It's similar to the neat trick you do at the start of segment 2 with the sliding telekinesis.  Same input.  I find that using that makes it easier to run through enemies, and saves a little bit of time.  ^_^

In the Incan Ruins, when you have to charge the Psycho Dash, it is faster to begin charging by canceling your attack during a dash.  You don't have to sit through the animation of swinging that way.  Of course, it only saves 1/2 a second or whatever each time, but every bit helps I suppose.  This is more of a question out of curiosity: is it possible to use the Diamond Block without killing the face man who is sitting on it?  If so, I guess you could do that and cut the 2 seconds it takes to kill him.  No idea how feasible it is.  I just remember it being done in the TAS (maybe?) but never tested it on console.

Yup - Halamantariel and/or Nitrodon did that trick in their runs, and I experimented with it a bit when I was working on this run last year.  From what I remember, the only other tile you can use the block from is the one directly north of the shooting head (which is in the line of fire for both that and the other nearby head); and since you can't move for a few seconds during the animation of the room shaking, you need to time it very precisely with the heads' shooting pattern to avoid taking a hit or two while you can't move.  If I decide to try a console run of this game for SDA submission (which the vampire battle and Pyramid laser orb room will probably be the main gatekeepers for), I'll play with the block trick some more since it is a cool skip.

For the attack cancel, you got it.  Just press the d-pad in a direction perpendicular to the direction you're running pretty much immediately after you attack, and it'll be canceled (e.g. if running north, press attack and immediately either left or right to cancel it).  Note that you still need to be holding the dashing direction for it to work, so it's more of a diagonal that you're hitting instead of the pure direction.

it actually IS possible to use the orb glitch to skip the explosion animation before entering the Freedan Dark Space in the Underground Tunnel.  I think the hitbox for the Dark Space might be smaller during the animation, which is why I was missing it before.


----------------

For door #3 in the pyramid,  I use freedan.  Yes he can't shadow skip, but since I death abuse all but will's door anyway, time works the same,and its safer.  Use the DF explosion to 0ko the orbs most of the time, and you have just enough life to Make a couple raids on the ***** six of them at the end.

as for deaths kips in general I do this

1 on Inca to get a life refill after clearing the ladder from the entrance down.

1 for all but the lower right side of the Sky garden(So I can keep Freedan)

1 in MU  when I get the second statue of hope.

Every room in the pyramid, except Will's room.

On the vamps in the tower of babel for a life refill.

When I get back into IoG, I'll take a look at your death warp recommendations.  As of now I'm planning to death warp at the Diamond Mine, the upper-right Sky Garden area, the Mountain Temple, and Angkor Wat (though unfortunately this one only takes you back a couple of screens instead of all the way to the entrance).

The jewels are faster, IF you can manipulate Mr, fisherman,I was only 3 jewels short when I got to Euro, and 2 of them I could have easily had.  You need the DF upgrade anyway, if you want to skip the earthquaker.

But yes, you can cut in line in euro.  Go in the exit of the store, and jump in line quickly, you'll be 4th in line instead of 6th.  this saves a whole minute.

Freddan on Door #3.  there's s switch on the far wall, you have to hit with Dark Friar, that moves Freedan down past the shadow skip area.  UNFREAKING FORTUNATELY there is no way in **** Will can hit it.  if he could JUST hit that switch, you could save 5 minutes on that level. I'll make a video later, I've got a save file at Babel, and I can get aback to the pyramid.

okay new gem route.

South cape	2
Castle	3 (skip the one you gotta jump on the switch for)
Itori	1
ship 1
raft	1
freeja	1 (the hotel one, the others take  up 15 seconds each.)
mines	3 (get them all at once.)
sky garden	2 (The one in the back of the garden can be skipped if you don;t get physcho
Seasidie palace	3 (all of these are relatively in the way)
Mu 1 (only one there is)
Angel city	2 (the easy 2 in the studio)

For a total of 20 to get all the upgrades except dark power.  if you don't NEED the Physcho upgrade, then skip a few of the more out of the way ones.  I haven't seen where its too useful though.

I don't think the Psycho Power would be worth the detours to pick up the Red Jewels, since by the time you'd get 20 Jewels you should already have the Psycho Slider, which I think is more useful for quick kills than the Psycho Dash.  Getting the Dark Friar upgrade would be faster at Euro (especially if you can partially cut in line) than via getting 30 Jewels, and getting the Strength boost might be worth it if Strength actually mattered against bosses (you always deal 1, 2, or 3 damage to a boss depending on whether you're Will, Freedan, or Shadow).

Do you have any other ideas for possible uses for the Red Jewel prizes?  Except for maybe getting the 3 jewels at the Diamond Mine so that you can have an extra herb for the Mu vampires, I'm still having a hard time seeing how any of them would be worth the detours in an any% run (as opposed to a 100% run, where you'd need to get all 50 of them).

https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/illusion_of_gaia__any1002_55.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UITY3rxGGl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca5E5uyDbgM

I might sound nuts, but I think it may be possible to beat the vampires without needing any herbs (segmented run only obviously). Either that or you'll still need herbs but will beat the vampires very quickly.

I found a reliable method of doing damage- if you get an enemy to shoot fire down a lane you can use a well timed jump attack to not only hit the enemy but simultaneously avoid damage. From there you can follow up with an extra hit or two. This also saves a lot of time when the 2 vampires use their special attack- instead of running for your life you can simply use the invulnerability period of a jump attack to avoid damage.

So, ideally you want to have a good mix of the following:

1) Charge at enemies and time a jump attack to avoid being hit by fire (shouldn't take damage but low payoff)
2) Use a wall trap in a narrow corridor to do a large amount of damage in one go (will likely get hit once or twice by enemy force field)

It takes a lot of practice to get used to (hence no video yet), and I'm not sure how feasible jump attacks are on an SNES pad (I'm using arrow keys on my keyboard at the moment), but that's the general idea.

Actually, I'll make a video using heavy savestates just to show you what it would ideally look like.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo8t1o_iog-vampire-4_videogames

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=63&v=tmmoZNKolYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLh4OcQ5J0

puwexil's first 100%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky-JCCf8JFQ
Puwexil's improved 100%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5UT9-G2nU
			- notes: http://pastebin.com/Vy1YgYWf

To chain I-Frame dashes without losing running speed, the total execution time must be less than 8 frames (0.133 seconds).  It's possible to chain two dashes consistently with practice, but the timing is so tight that I am sometimes not consciously aware that I released the directional button at all.

I've even chained three blocks (same timing as I-Frame dashes) a few times while messing around during idle time, but this is nowhere near consistent.

For Any% it's probably slightly faster to leave the school through the front door instead of the roof (where you have to go in 100% for the 1st jewel), though I haven't timed it yet
Only 1 piece of moss needs to be examined in the prison cell to trigger the soldier dropping the bread
If you don't make it to the trigger tile for the spear drop fast enough, I would wait for the spiked ball to move out the way, since that's faster than waiting for the spear to disappear.
After escaping, you can just enter Kara's room without talking to Old Snorehead
For Any% I would skip the Dark Space you went to in the Incan Ruins (I just go there in my 100% route since I have to enter that area for a jewel and the Dark Space is right there) and just use the Dark Space right before Castoth to become Freedan

Hulk's 100% 2:16:02: https://youtu.be/A62gikmvuvI
-Notes

First, I'd like to thank all the people involved in planning the route for this game, especially puwexil whose runs have taught me almost everything I know about IoG. thumbsup
I'd like to discuss a few timesavers that I found (all featured in my run):


----- SKY GARDEN -----
I've done a bit of testing, and I am almost certain that backtracking with Freedan after completing the second area in order to avoid having to transform again in the fourth area is not worth it.

- One the one hand:
    backtracking from the chest to the entrance of the second area takes ~49 seconds.
- On the other hand:
    committing suicide after getting the 2nd Crystal Ball and getting back control of Will takes 6 seconds, assuming you lowered your health to 1HP,
    in the fourth area, the time spent getting to the Dark Space to transform into Freedan and getting back to the place where you must throw a fireball at the statue is a rough 43 seconds.

So we seem to have an exact tradeoff here, except that with my strat:
- in the second area, you don't need to be extra careful, i.e. you don't need to kill the ball snake thingy with Dark Friar after becoming Freedan (because it would get in your way when you backtrack) ==> 1 second saved;
- navigating between areas is faster because you do them in clockwise order: 1-2-3-4 instead of 1-3-2-4 ==> ~0.5 second saved;
- in the beginning of the fourth area, you have Will instead of Freedan, so you can perform the ramp glitch instead of going around it ==> 2 - 2.5 seconds saved, provided you get it right on your first try;
- after becoming Freedan in the fourth area, if you have enough HP, you can damage-boost through the fireball snakes on the way back to the statue ==> ~1 second saved.

So in the end it may save 5 seconds if done perfectly. A couple pointers:
- you must make sure your HP is low enough so committing suicide in the second area is as fast as possible (getting hit twice on the "light" side of the Garden and once on the "dark" side leaves you with 1HP),
- when you get to the "dark" side of the Garden in the fourth area, you should head north until you see the fireball snake in the upper left corner of the screen; it will start moving immediately and you won't have to wait too much to get to the Dark Space.


----- PYRAMID -----
I think doing all six doors in the order 5-6-4-3-2-1 is the optimal route if you always commit suicide to get back to the main area (except after getting the Red Jewel in door #5 and in door #1 of course).
The issue with this strat is that you have to transform back into Shadow twice. If you have enough HP, you can instead use the teleporter and get to the next area without transforming again. That's is much riskier because you would have to do several doors in a row without getting your health back. In my run, I managed to do rooms #5 and #3 without transforming again between the two. Optimally, you should do #5, #3 and then #2 without dying, but that's reaaaalllly hard. Tongue

Every transformation into shadow that you skip is a 18 seconds saved (approximately), minus the time lost navigating between doors in the main area.
To sum up:
- the default strat is 5-6-4-3-2-1, which is already pretty good,
- a better/harder strat is 5-3-6-4-2-1 where you wouldn't die after door #5 (I did that one in my run),
- an even better/super hard strat is 5-3-2-6-4-1 where you wouldn't die after doors #5 and #3 (I would be impressed if anyone pulled that one off, only go for it if you still have decent HP and/or Herbs after door #3).


----- OTHERS -----
- In the prison, it is probably a little bit faster to go to the top left corner to get the dark gem after eating the bread, so it falls directly on Will.
- I'm not certain they really save time, but there are two places in Ankor Wat where I use Spin Dash: right after the room where the light goes off, and somewhere in the Garden (I do both in my run if you're interested).

... and I think that's it.
I hope you guys find my ideas useful.

----------------

I've done a little bit of testing for Any%.

I confirm that exiting the school through the front door is faster than going on the roof (by approximately 2 seconds).
I also confirm that it is faster to stand on the upper left corner in the prison after eating the bread, so the Dark Gem falls on Will directly (that also works for 100% of course).

-------

Couple insights:
- As I said earlier, exiting the school from the front door instead of the roof is faster.
- In the Angel village, blue skeletons should be handled carefully. You cannot kill them with only one Slider like in 100%. In the room with the two dragon heads, they cannot be defeated with one Psycho Dash, so the best way to kill the one on the right is probably to position Will just below the one on the left, and start a Slider from there.
- The snakes in the Great Wall are harder to kill. Two Sliders is probably the best way to get rid of them.
- The two beetle statues in the second room of Ankor Wat are tougher to kill. I have no consistent way to beat them in Any% (I already sucked at that in 100% :P), I'll have to work on that. In the third floor (just before the stairs leading to where you get the Gorgon Flower), you cannot kill the second-to-last pink skull with one Psycho Dash. A good strategy would be to damage-boost through them. Contrary to 100%, you'll want to get killed to go back to the last checkpoint immediately after receiving the Gorgon Flower. Getting hit once by a golden skull and twice by a pink skull leaves you with 1HP.
- The Pyramid should be much faster than in 100% because of all the jewels you don't get, but it is also tougher, especially because you only deal 3 damage to the laser orbs instead of 4 (and they do 7 damage to you instead of 6). The killer 6-pack is a real pain there. The routing in the Pyramid is pretty much the same as in 100% except that you don't take any of the red jewels of course. The best strat would be rooms 5-3-2-6-4-1 (without dying after rooms #5 and #3, which is hard), good strat is 5-3-6-4-2-1 or 5-2-6-4-3-1 (without dying after #5), default one is 5-6-4-3-2-1 where you die after each room is complete.

------

Hulk's Any% 2:04:38: https://youtu.be/HGIBmzf6BAw
Improved Version: http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/14348419


http://www.twitch.tv/sakegeist/c/3848238
https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/illusion_of_gaia__segmented_30.html

He goof'ed up a bit at the start (though no fault of his), what you want to do is spin dash through the yellow skulls and ignore the fire faerie before the skulls. With Will's Spin Dash in place, you want to kill the one after the bridge/stalk. Jump attack it if the spin dash isn't enough to kill it.

Regarding the fire faerie's; after he opened the chest here, he got two. When I was messing around with it, I kept getting mixed numbers. This room has a grand total of six of them, but the game can only handle four of them on screen at a time. Even with the glitch in place, four of them will cause lag. You don't want that, which is the reason for killing at least one of them. Three will cause a tiny bit of lag, two won't cause any.

Now, if the fire faerie's start spinning spirits around them, they'll chase Will. You can get by them without them starting up their spirits. If they do start up their spirits, after you open the chest, the ones you triggered will be near Will. This is what I've come to understand about their AI.

https://youtu.be/dNlPWW7iJv8
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQMUHq04RLtga-aTO-Y98g7ZNOYLntEn

When rerouting the Pyramid I decided to start with the 3rd chamber to give the route some flexibility, so if I had bad runs through #3/#5 and took enough damage that messing up the I-frame dashes at the start of #2 means death, I could suicide after finishing #5 (which would be quite a bit faster than suiciding at the end of #3, and worth the extra second of travel time in the hub).

After practicing this route a few times though, I'm thinking that #5 suicide shouldn't ever actually be needed, since the slower/safer #2 strat of stunlock killing the laser orbs should still be faster than an extra dark space visit, and entering #2 with full health will mean a slower suicide after getting the red jewel.  Next time I practice I'll test starting with #5 again.

Having more flexibility with routing the Pyramid because of not having to suicide in #2 is one of the few things I'm looking forward to about Any% whenever I get around to that - I don't really care much for the category otherwise (less cool/fun tricks & skips than 100%).

For the Pyramid in Any%, it doesn't matter too much in which order you do the three Shadow doors because the teleporter always sends you back to the same position, and you don't have to do that extra bit of travel to get the jewel in the hub. The real concern though should be to finish with the door which is the closest to the next doors to do with Will. My wild guess would be the 5th door, because you can then do doors #6, #4, and then #1.
It gives: 3-2-5-6-4-1 for Any%.

Fisherman discussion on SDA: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/illusion_of_gaia__segmented_34.html

Hulk's 100% 2:15:12: https://youtu.be/4JDNMqtESpo
-notes:

100% definition:
Collect all 50 Red Jewels, defeat Solid Arm and beat the game.

I am very satisfied with this run. There are of course some flaws and mistakes: missed Castoth's door, bad fish RNG, got out of a Dark Space early in the Pyramid, bad Gem's Mansion...

Although, apart from Gem's Mansion and Incan Ruins, all the dungeons were faster than my previous PB, which is pretty amazing if you ask me ^^

The most significant improvements are:

- Great Wall: I used more aggressive strats here, including I-frame dashes through Archers (which actually are both easier and faster than short kicks), and I also intentionally damage-boosted through some of the snakes to save time.

- Pyramid: I managed to do all of Shadow's doors without having to commit suicide and transform into Shadow again. The whole dungeon was 16 seconds faster than in my previous PB.

- Dark Gaia: I got the 3-cycle win at last! Also, I did not heal at Gaia's Dark Space. I saved more than 30 seconds in that segment alone. The boss's RNG was also very good.

This is by far my best IoG run to this day. I hope you enjoy it!

-----

Hulk's 100% 2:12:17: http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/14578911 + http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/14579487
Hulk's Any% 2:02:44: https://youtu.be/OBkaZCxrjpU
-notes:

The major issues with this run are: sub-par luck and execution against Sand Fanger and an awful beginning of Ankor Wat. The beginning of the Pyramid was also very scary (I used all three herbs there) but the dungeon turned out to be good overall. Apart from that, all the rest of the game went well, so I'm very happy with this record right now.

-----

Hulk's Any% 2:00:45: http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/14348419

-----

Today, I found a consistent way to go around the statue in the fourth area of Sky Garden. This skips having to defeat the sword and move the statue to get to the chest, and seems to be very consistent (certainly much more than trying your luck going around the statue normally and risking falling off the cliff). You can see it in the following highlight:

http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/c/4419864

This saves roughly 3 seconds. Bear in mind that you need to have 3HP at the very least to be able to do this skip, but that should normally not be too much of a problem.
Additionally, if you are low enough on HP, you might want to get killed by the sword directly rather than by going to the blue robot, for an even bigger time save.

This video: https://youtu.be/neS29UmW_x0


Problems: The Golem can snipe you before you can get around the Statue (which happened to you), in this case it's either run ender (since the laser hits for 4HP) or you can come into this area with half health or more. You can also let the laser kill you if it fires it as its second shot (after grabbing the crystal ball here).

Naturally, jumping off wastes more time than the trick does.

Saves 3-4 seconds when I clocked it.

As a side note, think stopping and hesitating can cause the Golem to fire at Freedan; which is why I think this happened to you in the highlight. Otherwise, it's patterns are rng as to where it'll fire.

----------

Moar Fisherman stuff:

Bump!

I recently looked into manipulating the fisherman who holds the third red jewel, and here is a new technique:
http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/13710233

The idea is: wait for a particular moment in the demo loop, then start the game, and make sure your trip from the school to Lance's door is at a particular timing (not too fast or too slow), and then the fisherman should be at the right spot when going to the cave. No need to go in and out of the cave seven times anymore, which saves a solid 15 seconds at least!

For some reason, the only moment of the demo loop where RNG evolves is the scenery with the ruins after the big zoom on the skull. Try to listen to the music for an audio cue. During/after the skull zoom, the music should repeat the three "duuum duuum duuum duuum duduuuum", wait for the third one (it ends on an E flat if my musical knowledge doesn't fail me), count three beats and press Start on the third beat. Then start the game, skip through the first cutscene and get out of the school. The time spent in the game menu or indoors in South Cape has no influence on RNG; only the time spent outdoors does. So, make sure you get to Lance's door at the right time. You should get over there when the music plays four notes (B, D, C#, D) before looping the main theme, so enter Lance's house on that second note. It's not extremely precise, and you can refer to the video to have an idea of the timing. If the whole process was done correctly, the fisherman and the red jewel should be waiting for you at the right spot.

To be honest, I haven't found the connection between RNG values and the fisherman's position, so my idea was to find a different way to replicate the same RNG conditions as the ones we get with the current route (the seven trips back and forth into the cave), but by using the demo. Indeed, it was known for a long time that RNG changed during the demo. The RNG in this game is represented by 16 bytes spanning from address $000410 to $00041F, and the last one ($00041F) is the number of times RNG was called. You want it to be 39 (in decimal) when you press Start at the demo loop, and 52 (decimal still) when you enter Lance's house. 52 is the same value which gets the fisherman in the right spot with the current route, so it works with this new method the same way. Smiley

To put this thread up to date, here are my current PBs/WRs:
Any%: 2:01:18 (SDA time 2:00:52) ==> http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/13427361
100%: 2:14:16 (SDA time 2:13:50) ==> http://www.twitch.tv/le_hulk/v/13708590

Any% is now really good but I'll try to push for a 2:00:XX. 100% is OK but not great, I'll try to reach a mid-2:13.
Will the sub 2 hours happen some day? Shocked


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------End SDA Discussion Thread



TASVideos Thread Stuff:





-