Plague Any% spark notes

About Plague's bombs: We use Plague's basic bombs and burst for the run. We can throw three bombs at a time. Double jumping resets your bomb throw so we do that to get more damage out.

Movement: Plague can charge a Burst (with the attack button) which when released propels him in the direction being held, or straight up if no directional input. This burst has a hitbox that covers 1 small block width around Plague and deals damage. You are granted some invincibility upon startup. It is possible to chain bursts together by pressing and holding the attack button shortly after releasing the burst.
			The Burst is combined with Double Jumps to go super fast. The route for each level is mostly sticking to a pattern for fastest completion, adding backup strats when needed should you get off cycle or something. In order to reset your double jump you must land.

Items: Plague is automatically given three health upgrades in the run. We also pick up a few tonics which can be used to heal 1 bubble, as well as give plague temporary bonus health. This health disappears on death. EG you can have a max health of 5 with a bonus of 1 for a total of 6. Die, and you go back to 5.

Arcana: These are Plague's version of Relics. We only acquire 1, the staff of striking. It is swung horizontally and is used for fast DPS. We get this in Flying Machine. It costs 9000 gold because we don't have the item to trade for it. We also get 2 magic upgrades, which total 10500.

Important points in the run: Explodatorium features a fight with Shovel Knight. He can use the following items: flare wand, chaos sphere, throwing anchor, war horn, and phase locket. If we are below 2 health, he will not use phase locket. This is important for the stun lock to work. We set up in a corner and mash bombs after intentionally getting hit. Throughout the level we take intentional damage to be at 2 health bubbles or lower at the entrance to the boss.

After world 2 (iron whale, explodatorium, lost city) we want to be close to 10500 gold. After Flying Machine I like to be at 9000 so i can buy magic afterwards. Some runners buy magic later. After Flying Machine we fight Black Knight 2 which gets us 1500 gold, hence why i get my magic then. I dont like carrying around that money when i might die and need to collect it.

Boss rush: we have to fight Shovel at the end of boss rush so we have to do the whole thing low health or get hit a lot.

Zip/screen wrap in plains: at about 1:25 into the run we do this cool trick where we skip a few screens. We just line ourselves up with a visual cue and burst right, then left, then right again and we do cool shit.