Beatless Comparisons (2016) Notes

Comparison Video: https://youtu.be/ZWRlOiqSifQ

Notes:
-I was careful to try and calculate ideal against ideal between the two routes, but sometimes when the fastest strat is rarely (or never) done by runners, I used the more common one in the time comparison. A 100% runner might recoup around half a second against this comparison by doing all the risky stuff correctly.

-Beatless has 9 fewer menu inputs over the course of the run that aren't calculated here, but probably add up to an additional 1 or 2 seconds. It's hard to calculate because people menu at different speeds, but a slow menuer (like me) will recoup closer to 2 seconds.

-Collecting the Gravity and Wave letters lose no appreciable time. Gravity comparisons were inconclusive, a couple frames either way depending on lag and perfect slide chaining. Functionally, in an RTA setting, they're the same.

-The Crystal stage in this comparison is a 2:06.7, which to my knowledge no one has gotten in a run before. My times usually range 2:09 to 2:11. Compare to your own to see how many extra seconds you'll gain by doing one of the death warp setups.

-The ideal arrow drop in Charge (first mouse, large drop) negates any savings, since you collect the letter during arrow travel.

-Sliding under the tiger in Dark 2 is very tight, but it allows for a faster boss fight due to keeping your charge and maximizing the boss's i-frames.

-Using Beat against Dark 2 and Dark 4's bosses ultimately saves about 1 second, once all the menus and M-Tank refills are calculated.

-Skipping the M-Tank in Dark 2 and playing Dark 3 without one loses about 1-2 seconds. I recorded the comparison but haven't encoded it yet.

-Getting hit and losing a charge shot opportunity or playing the Dark 4 fight a lot safer during shield patterns will lose a couple more seconds against the Beat fight. Bustering this fight is a huge potential time loss in this route.

-There's a theoretical 6-cycle Beat fight that's done by getting an early hit, scoring 2 hits and a track off of a lucky low spawn, and finishing Wily with a double buster on a final low spawn. I'm told it's been done in RTA, but I've never seen it and no one currently running the game has attempted to master it. It would bring Beat about even with a 5-cycle buster/gravity fight.

-There's also a theoretical 5-cycle buster/gravity fight that uses gravity for 4 double hits instead of 3, and hits the last cycle with Gyro Attack if he goes high. This would lose 3-4 seconds but remove the RNG from one cycle if everything else goes well.