Deathbulge Speedrun routing notes (updated)

Here are the notes I've compiled for the any% run of Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands as of 8/20/2023. This is still in the early stages of the game and its speedrun, and future patches and discoveries may obsolete some things. A few sections are still rough, I may continue to update them as I understand the route better.

Backstage Dream
---------------
* The Savant patch is collectable by going behind the amps at the start. It costs about 8-10 seconds but I haven't explored its uses in the speedrun route.
- Open all the chests, you can hold start to skip the cutscene immediately after the 3rd one.

Bopstead 1
----------
- Head to the Gazebo, then back home. Mash through the Sleeping Briff fight and head to Tonewood Forest.
* I don't know if talking to the dog does anything, but I always do it.

Tonewood
--------
- Go right after the first scripted battle in Tonewood to collect God Brain. Equip Faye with it.
- Recruit Ian. Collect Emergency Horn from the northwest chest on his screen.
- Fight all three Tootstumps, hope for the beat drop (15% odds per Tootstump). Equip to Faye if you get it.
- Talk to Bocks (you'd be required to on the way out anyway).
==MASTROPOD: Try to get 4 measures of pain on him, but if he puts 4 on your bar, use Breezin' at least once. Swap to Ian as needed to absorb damage.
* If you didn't get the Tootstump beat, try again on the way back through. Reset if it's not happening.
- Collect Fat Punch Five from the bottom of Claire's screen.

Claire's Hair
-------------
- Interact with the Modpod to unlock class changes and mod upgrades.
- Upgrade Tootstump beat to max (600 bops total).
- Change Ian to Headbanger and equip Fat Punch Five. Swap Faye back to Purple Lightning for the speed bonus.
- Head left from the Wet Beak to the secret path and collect Delayer.
- Fight ~4 battles, preferably in the last screen where they sometimes appear in groups of 3. Use Twang Fury to (usually) wipe them out in one attack.
==K-KWAK: Prioritize Face Melter for 4 measures of pain, then use Tootstump twice after his first turn. Even fortified, Mega Pop Slap will wear him down quickly.
- Should be level 5 after beating K-Kwak.

Bopstead 2
----------
- Talk to Zee in the Tooter's Boot, then Quakstack.
- In Keef's, buy 2-Stoked, Vroom Vrooms, SIDD-X (936 bops total).
- Equip Faye with Vroom Vrooms and Briff with God Brain.
- Talk to Bass and head down to the basement.

Bass Basement
-------------
- Take out the first Conchonko with two Mega Pop Slaps.
- Conchonkos give the highest XP here (36) until Level 7. Prioritize the ones near the end of the dungeon.
* Stock upgrade: in the 2nd left-wall door near the tent.
* Stock upgrade: after heading southwest from the tent, in the right corner near the bookcase.
* Talking to Ump and choosing "..." every time will get you the Silenceblaster. Costs 20 seconds. Might not be necessary depending on how the route develops.
- The Conchonko inside the aquarium is a 3-enemy fight, very good for XP. There's another off to the left before entering it as well, but it's more out of the way.

BABBY BASS
==========
- To open, use Toot twice, then Face Melter twice. Babby's first move always does nothing.
- Keep Faye's health high when possible, she will need to tank a bar of Mad Pain later.
- Mega Pop Slap is your best damage here. Get Babby down to (or near?) yellow to start his Butchered Classic phase.
- Use Toot twice to clear the Mad Pain. After 3 turns, use any performance (Faye's boosts damage) and Mega Pop to finish the fight.

Bopstead 3
----------
- Swap to Faye as soon as you load in so you can dash toward the path to the left.
- At the Bass store, buy Summer Jam and Pulse of the Possessed (2000 bops total). This detour takes 15 seconds.
- Head to the bus station.

The Bus
-------
- Don't talk to Bocks in the hallway unless you're completely out of stock, there's a lot of extra dialogue here. You'll see them in the bar area at the start of Deck 10 with a much shorter dialogue tree.
* The first suitcase in the hallway has Upbeat for Briff. It's useful in the bus for fights with 4 enemies, but after the bus it falls off dramatically in value because Faye's speed stat gets so much closer to the cap of 99 without it. Might get phased out.
- Switch Briff's class to Distorter (Pulse | Upbeat | Beaten Heart). For Faye, swap Hair Shredder for Summer Jam.
- Twinklespark gives the highest XP (45), Ravestone the next highest (36). Prioritize the later dungeon ones for larger groups, but this still needs testing.
* In the hallway with 3 kickable doors right after you go outside for the first time, the 2nd door has Shred of the Dead for Ian, which puts Muffle on enemies. This may be viable for a future route that has a lower party level and needs to survive high-damage hits from Trista or Iris. I'm starting to skip it now though.
* The suitcase in the corner at the start of Deck 14 has WELF, which I've been grabbing to help with money routing, but may not be necessary in the future.
- XP gain in this area starts dropping after level 9 and is very low at level 10. I'm aiming to be level 9-10 before the Platinum Scrumptious fight.
- Only restock from Bocks after the second window crash if you're very low, you'll have another chance at the start of Tillatek Jungle.
- Don't bother healing at the end of The Bus, you're gonna get a free one.

PLATINUM SCRUMPTIOUS
====================
- There is apparently a way to manipulate which one you fight first, but I don't know and my developer buddy won't tell me. Adjust strats accordingly.
- Platinum's moves in order: Heal, 3 measures of haste, moderate party damage, amplify.
- Scrumptious moves in order: ~90 Hype damage, 3 measures of pain, ~90 damage to party leader. I think the next one causes fluster, but by this point I did enough damage to trigger the performance phase.
- At around 40-50% health, whoever is in lead will start a performance. Platinum puts healing and 4 measures of haste on their bar. Scrumptious fortifies their bar and puts 4 measures of pain on yours.
- If Platinum is up, prioritize amplify + haste first, then put 4 measures of slow on her bar after she casts haste.
- If Scrumptious is up, tank the hype damage with Faye, and do slow before haste and amplify.
- Once the bars are set, Mega Pop Slap to victory.

Hoho
----
- You can't dash as Briff, so immediately head left to the Blue Horn Taven.
- Mash your way through the K-Kwak fight. It ends on his 3rd turn.
- Buy the Demonic Sewing Kit and Sinner's Breakdown (3666 bops total). Head back to the tent.
* Bountiful Barry's is 2000 bops and recovers 33% health for the whole party. I'm getting it as insurance, but it might not be necessary. We need 5000 bops for Make It Worse as the last purchase.

Tillatek Jungle
---------------
- Equip Faye with Vroom Vrooms + Purple Lightning.
- Equip Ian with Fat Punch Five + Delayer
- Equip Briff with God Brain + a patch of your choice (2-Stoked, WELF, or BOTB 100). Switch his class to Distorter, (Pulse | Sinner's Breakdown | Beaten Heart)
- I don't know which enemies are give the best XP in here, but the ducks are the easiest to kill.
- Stock increase in Zone 4 behind a pillar.
- Change Beaten Heart to Healthy Fill on Briff before the Mutilla fight.

MUTILLA
=======
- Prioritize slow, don't let Headbang hit Faye. Amplify + Weaken, it's okay for Trista to get 1 turn.
- Twang Fury with Ian to deny turns to Mutilla, healing with Healthy Fill when necessary, until they're in critical.
- Headbang and Rona die normally, but Trista does Pandemonium as a final attack for ~200 damage to all party members, just make sure someone has enough HP to survive it.
* If you have WELF equipped, this fight gives 4500 bops.

Hellblivion
-----------
- There's a stock increase in the first porta-potty.
- I don't know how to navigate this effectively yet, I'm still winging it. The very last security demon before the stage has to be either baited out, or engaged and then defeated or despawned with an escape.
- At the Popup Store, buy Make It Worse (5000 bops total) and equip it to Faye instead of Breezin'. Outside of restocking, this is the last purchase.
- Bocks can restock you right before Pokalyps, but there's a very long conversation with them.

POKALYPS
========
- I still don't fully know how this fight develops with the band member swaps. I usually get Pesto (the plague one) after the lead singer, but in my PB I got Klopp (the drummer) (maybe because I did more damage first). Letting them get a turn after 40-50% health will cause a performance.
- Malnora's first attack puts 2 measures of empowered haste on their bar. You want to set up amplify + weaken, 4 measures of slow, and then use Make It Worse to empower them and do Ian/Briff's delay loop on either Pesto or Klopp. If it's Klopp, he's far too slow to be a threat and you can mix in higher damage attacks than Twang Fury.

Hoho 2
------
- Talk to So Coaled and travel to Bopstead, at which point he unlocks fast travel. Bus to Claire's Hair (entrance).
- Talk to Claire, then either bus to the Lower Locks (if it's available - unclear if this will be a travel option by default in later patches) or run back to the Wet Beak to get there.
* If you have money left over, you can buy Healthy Barry (66% health) or SIDD-X 2 (66% Hype) from the Wet Beak now.

The Lower Locks
---------------
- I'm still winging this area, but I do no fights here and pick up nothing.
- After the sage opens the archives, you can skip the first 3 fish and talk only to the 4th one, then talk to the sage to skip the rest of the cutscene.
- Back in Hoho, talk to the BOTB Gatekeeper, then enter the portal.
- At the BOTB lobby, you can replenish stock for free. Everyone's equipment should be the same, but make sure Briff's patches are God Brain and 2-Stoked.

ULTIMATE CHAMPIONS
==================
* If you're Level 12 or lower, I don't have strats for this fight, but you'll probably need to apply Muffle to not get a character killed by Iris's "Inspired" attack.
- If you're Level 13 or higher, you'll get 3 turns before Iris can attack. Use Pulse twice to put slow on her bar, then Make It Worse, then switch to Ian to tank her ~450 damage attack. At Level 12, Ian usually survives this, but it's possible a high roll could kill him.
- Iris will switch with Rudi, who's considerably slower. Amplify + Weak + Delayer loop. Iris's final attack will kill the party leader, but it doesn't matter.

MUTILLA 2
=========
- Ronabot is very fast and likes to put empowered pain on your bar. She also fortifies her own. I'm still winging this phase, but once she's dead, Trista is much slower and her first party-wide attack is easily tanked. There's no final attack this time.

MAELSTRONA
==========
- Best guess is she has 500,000 HP. Destroying a limb does 122,500 damage, 4 times is 490,000. The player likely needs to do 10,000 damage on their own in addition to taking out two sets of limbs.
- Get empowered slow on her bar and take out the limbs while also stacking damage on her head.
- Once the first sets of limbs are gone, Maelstrona will need to get a couple turns in order to respawn them, so replace the slow on her bar with pain.
* An option I'm playing with is to use Briff's Distorter class to put Mad Pain on Maelstrona's bar and then empower it for the 2nd set of limbs. Since Benevolence (the wing) has low HP and high defense, empowered Mad Pain doing 160 damage per measure is a good bonus. However, the performance wipes Amplify from the bar, which reduces the damage being done to Maelstrona's head during it, so this is still a bit questionable.