30th November 2023, 6:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 30th November 2023, 7:28 AM by Master Raiden. Edited 2 times in total.)
Speedrun Analysis
Let's put everything we have learnt into practice! In this section, I am going to analyze a speedrun of mine and explain the techniques I applied to help shave off every last bit of time.
Video: https://www.sendvid.com/imivplv4
This is a speedrun of Lost Dragon by Sothal (6356180) from Goliathe Grand Prix Deluxe.
In GGP Deluxe, my stats are set to 65, 65, 65. These are not ideal, but as you will see, there are ways to make these stats easier to work with.
This level is mainly comprised of Ice Blocks, so speed conservation will be very important. There are no stat blocks and plenty of time available which reduces the complexity of routing, so I focus on finding the single fastest route and experimenting with ways to optimize each section of the level.
The level begins with a lot of Ice Blocks. I perform a small jump at the start to stay off the ice a little longer, keeping my acceleration high in case I had not reached top speed yet.
The first optimization opportunity comes at the Crumble Blocks. To pass through them as quickly as possible, I need to destroy the Crumble Blocks in a single hit. I also need to avoid bumping into an adjacent Crumble Block during my fall by following the trajectory depicted by the Green arrow instead of the Red arrow.
![[Image: lzZO2t9.png]](https://i.imgur.com/lzZO2t9.png)
With a little bit of experimentation, I discovered that I can easily achieve this by holding Down while walking off the platform of ice.
As I fall into the water, I hold Up to minimize the time I spend walking, and jump out of the water as early as possible to maximize my speed.
In the next section, I spam Up and Space to teleport rapidly. As I jump onto the Left Arrow Blocks, I hold Down to begin charging my super jump as early as possible. With the right timing, I am able to jump up to next platform with minimal charging.
![[Image: yXQW66O.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yXQW66O.png)
I make a minor mistake at the next obstacle. By jumping too much, I bump into the upper Vanish Block which costs me a bit of time. Since I had 65 jump, I could have jumped through the gap by holding Up and Down. That would have allowed me to jump about 2.8 blocks high, enough to pass through the gap without touching either Vanish Block.
![[Image: ryiMsZQ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/ryiMsZQ.png)
After climbing the Up Arrow Blocks that follow, I make a leap from one collection of Ice Blocks to another. The second collection of Ice Blocks does not offer much room for error on the landing. I could easily run into a block and lose momentum if I don't land precisely, so I limit my jump so that some blocks remain visible in the bottom right corner of my screen which acts as a reference point for my landing.
![[Image: icrcpcx.png]](https://i.imgur.com/icrcpcx.png)
After falling down to the Ice Blocks, I approach this tricky cave. There is a crawl space towards the end of it, so I want to maximize my speed in that section.
If I were to land at the very bottom of the cave, I would be too close and too far down from the crawl space to slide in there at full speed. I would need to slow myself down momentarily to avoid bumping into the blocks.
I need to land and jump off a different block so that I can slide in there without slowing down. This block is the lowest block of the Ice Block staircase, and it can be tricky to land on it. So I bump my head at the entrance of the cave to help increase my falling speed so that I can land precisely on that block and pass through the section without slowing down.
![[Image: qkmXT0W.png]](https://i.imgur.com/qkmXT0W.png)
![[Image: Zm2rhie.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zm2rhie.png)
The next important optimization happens at the fall down to the white dragon. It is possible to fall down this area without slowing down or bumping into the wall on the right, and I achieve this by jumping high and falling as close to the Crumble Blocks as possible to maximize my falling speed early (Red arrow).
There may be a faster way though. If I jump earlier, I could possibly avoid bumping into any blocks and begin accelerating to the right earlier. But the jump is quite tight. With 65 jump, I can barely make it over the top Crumble Block while also maintaining a trajectory that allows me to begin falling early enough to avoid the wall (Green arrow).
![[Image: 3aUcLux.png]](https://i.imgur.com/3aUcLux.png)
The following water section is where timing your acceleration can save you some time. In this section, I swim extremely close to all the clipping points, allowing me to begin changing direction and swim towards the next clipping point as early as possible.
The White arrow is my path through this section, the Red dots are the clipping points and the Green dots are the points where I begin accelerating hard towards the next clipping point.
I also position myself high before the first and third clipping points so I can begin moving downwards earlier and maximize my downwards speed.
Due to my high falling speed past these clipping points, I am able to change direction extremely early, allowing me to maximize my horizontal speed past the second and fourth clipping points.
![[Image: FVpcf0o.png]](https://i.imgur.com/FVpcf0o.png)
After the water section, I jump out of the water as early as possible to begin my out-of-water acceleration as soon as possible. Note that with 65 speed, I will receive a 1 pixel/frame speed boost after running for about 4 seconds.
I then jump and position my landing on the left edge of the Arrow Block to avoid bumping into the Ice Block next to it.
The next Crumble Block section can be tricky with the Mines above them. Jumping from the right Crumble Block can make this section easier and save you some time.
It's important to realize that small jumps are more difficult to execute with high jump stats. So if you try to jump as high as possible on your first jump, you will be required to follow up with a precise 2-block jump which puts you at risk of hitting the Mines above.
So instead, I perform a small jump first and follow that with a 5-block jump which is much easier to execute with 65 jump.
Looking at the shape of the terrain and identifying exactly which block to land and jump on can also save you a bit of time. The image on the left shows a jump from the lowest Crumble Block while the one on the right shows a jump from the second-lowest Crumble Block.
The Red line shows the part of the trajectory where no horizontal movement is possible. The height of the wall directly next to you determines how soon you can begin moving horizontally. In this case, jumping from the lowest Crumble Block is fastest.
![[Image: Tqf9lwi.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Tqf9lwi.png)
![[Image: QyHVfJG.png]](https://i.imgur.com/QyHVfJG.png)
Taking advantage of the Arrow Blocks at the end of this Crumble section requires some precision due to the height of the blocks that follow. It is ideal to carry as much speed from the Arrow Blocks for as long as possible, especially when using speeds ending in 5. To achieve this, I need to be travelling slowly enough on the Arrows so that I can make the jump up the wall of blocks without slowing down.
Luckily, this can be easily done by sticking to the Crumble Block just before the Arrows, then holding Right and Up. The speed I gain on the Arrow Blocks is perfect and I am able to jump up the blocks without needing to slow down, but also with no room for any additional speed.
But is this the fastest way? Could it be faster to zoom across the Arrows and sacrifice a little bit of speed as I approach the wall? A balance needs to be made here, and a good way to find the perfect combo is through experimentation.
![[Image: Nd12G10.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Nd12G10.png)
At the next big drop, I bump my head on the ceiling to maximize my falling speed and land in a position far away enough from the crawl space so that I can carry as much speed into it without needing to delay my jump. This is not the ideal route though. It is faster to fall directly into the crawl space, but such a maneuver would be very difficult to pull off.
Having the right positioning when falling through the Vanish Blocks can save a bit of time. The icy section below heads towards the right, so maximizing speed to the right will allow me to pass through it more quickly and avoid the need to accelerate on ice.
By falling through the Vanish Block on the left, I am able to fall through the small gap without bumping into any blocks simply by holding Down and Right. My high falling speed allows me to instantly destroy two Crumble Blocks at the bottom which enables me to take a trajectory that falls through the gap perfectly.
![[Image: py7lOcR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/py7lOcR.png)
The following section contains a few Item Blocks and Happy Blocks. Knowing where to use the Teleport item and which Happy Blocks to bump can help save some time.
Since my stats are 65, 65, 65, it is preferable to bump one or three Happy Block. Bumping only two Happy Blocks would leave me with 75, 75, 75 stats which is not ideal since it does not offer an immediate speed boost, nor does it allow me to jump an extra block higher compared to 70, 70, 70 stats.
I figured that it would be too costly to bump three Happy Blocks, so I decided to go with one. I chose to collect the last Happy Block since it is lowest to the ground which means I can break the Brick and bump it a lot more quickly.
At this point, I lose a little bit of time. Since I can only teleport while under the Crumble Block, it is best to perform a small jump and head glitch into the crawl space to keep my speed high as I teleport to the icy part to the right. This requires some precision since the ceiling is quite low. Unfortunately in this case, I bumped my head into the Crumble Block which meant I wasn't able to build up the speed I wanted. After hastily jumping off the ice on the other side to recover my speed, I land poorly and run into a block.
The final optimization in this level is at the next two icy crawl spaces. In this section, it is possible to slide from one crawl space to the other without falling down into the space between, but it requires me to carry a lot of speed into the first crawl space. This would be easier with 80, 80, 80 stats, but I manage to make it work with 70, 70, 70 stats by head glitching into the first crawl space. This allows me to keep my speed just high enough to make it to the next crawl space.
![[Image: FjeZ6UH.png]](https://i.imgur.com/FjeZ6UH.png)
After this point, all the difficult parts are done. I lower myself into the water just enough so that I can build up the upwards speed needed to reach the Ice Block, then I run towards the finish, making sure I don't bump into any blocks along the way.
Let's put everything we have learnt into practice! In this section, I am going to analyze a speedrun of mine and explain the techniques I applied to help shave off every last bit of time.
Video: https://www.sendvid.com/imivplv4
This is a speedrun of Lost Dragon by Sothal (6356180) from Goliathe Grand Prix Deluxe.
In GGP Deluxe, my stats are set to 65, 65, 65. These are not ideal, but as you will see, there are ways to make these stats easier to work with.
This level is mainly comprised of Ice Blocks, so speed conservation will be very important. There are no stat blocks and plenty of time available which reduces the complexity of routing, so I focus on finding the single fastest route and experimenting with ways to optimize each section of the level.
The level begins with a lot of Ice Blocks. I perform a small jump at the start to stay off the ice a little longer, keeping my acceleration high in case I had not reached top speed yet.
The first optimization opportunity comes at the Crumble Blocks. To pass through them as quickly as possible, I need to destroy the Crumble Blocks in a single hit. I also need to avoid bumping into an adjacent Crumble Block during my fall by following the trajectory depicted by the Green arrow instead of the Red arrow.
With a little bit of experimentation, I discovered that I can easily achieve this by holding Down while walking off the platform of ice.
As I fall into the water, I hold Up to minimize the time I spend walking, and jump out of the water as early as possible to maximize my speed.
In the next section, I spam Up and Space to teleport rapidly. As I jump onto the Left Arrow Blocks, I hold Down to begin charging my super jump as early as possible. With the right timing, I am able to jump up to next platform with minimal charging.
I make a minor mistake at the next obstacle. By jumping too much, I bump into the upper Vanish Block which costs me a bit of time. Since I had 65 jump, I could have jumped through the gap by holding Up and Down. That would have allowed me to jump about 2.8 blocks high, enough to pass through the gap without touching either Vanish Block.
After climbing the Up Arrow Blocks that follow, I make a leap from one collection of Ice Blocks to another. The second collection of Ice Blocks does not offer much room for error on the landing. I could easily run into a block and lose momentum if I don't land precisely, so I limit my jump so that some blocks remain visible in the bottom right corner of my screen which acts as a reference point for my landing.
After falling down to the Ice Blocks, I approach this tricky cave. There is a crawl space towards the end of it, so I want to maximize my speed in that section.
If I were to land at the very bottom of the cave, I would be too close and too far down from the crawl space to slide in there at full speed. I would need to slow myself down momentarily to avoid bumping into the blocks.
I need to land and jump off a different block so that I can slide in there without slowing down. This block is the lowest block of the Ice Block staircase, and it can be tricky to land on it. So I bump my head at the entrance of the cave to help increase my falling speed so that I can land precisely on that block and pass through the section without slowing down.
The next important optimization happens at the fall down to the white dragon. It is possible to fall down this area without slowing down or bumping into the wall on the right, and I achieve this by jumping high and falling as close to the Crumble Blocks as possible to maximize my falling speed early (Red arrow).
There may be a faster way though. If I jump earlier, I could possibly avoid bumping into any blocks and begin accelerating to the right earlier. But the jump is quite tight. With 65 jump, I can barely make it over the top Crumble Block while also maintaining a trajectory that allows me to begin falling early enough to avoid the wall (Green arrow).
The following water section is where timing your acceleration can save you some time. In this section, I swim extremely close to all the clipping points, allowing me to begin changing direction and swim towards the next clipping point as early as possible.
The White arrow is my path through this section, the Red dots are the clipping points and the Green dots are the points where I begin accelerating hard towards the next clipping point.
I also position myself high before the first and third clipping points so I can begin moving downwards earlier and maximize my downwards speed.
Due to my high falling speed past these clipping points, I am able to change direction extremely early, allowing me to maximize my horizontal speed past the second and fourth clipping points.
After the water section, I jump out of the water as early as possible to begin my out-of-water acceleration as soon as possible. Note that with 65 speed, I will receive a 1 pixel/frame speed boost after running for about 4 seconds.
I then jump and position my landing on the left edge of the Arrow Block to avoid bumping into the Ice Block next to it.
The next Crumble Block section can be tricky with the Mines above them. Jumping from the right Crumble Block can make this section easier and save you some time.
It's important to realize that small jumps are more difficult to execute with high jump stats. So if you try to jump as high as possible on your first jump, you will be required to follow up with a precise 2-block jump which puts you at risk of hitting the Mines above.
So instead, I perform a small jump first and follow that with a 5-block jump which is much easier to execute with 65 jump.
Looking at the shape of the terrain and identifying exactly which block to land and jump on can also save you a bit of time. The image on the left shows a jump from the lowest Crumble Block while the one on the right shows a jump from the second-lowest Crumble Block.
The Red line shows the part of the trajectory where no horizontal movement is possible. The height of the wall directly next to you determines how soon you can begin moving horizontally. In this case, jumping from the lowest Crumble Block is fastest.
Taking advantage of the Arrow Blocks at the end of this Crumble section requires some precision due to the height of the blocks that follow. It is ideal to carry as much speed from the Arrow Blocks for as long as possible, especially when using speeds ending in 5. To achieve this, I need to be travelling slowly enough on the Arrows so that I can make the jump up the wall of blocks without slowing down.
Luckily, this can be easily done by sticking to the Crumble Block just before the Arrows, then holding Right and Up. The speed I gain on the Arrow Blocks is perfect and I am able to jump up the blocks without needing to slow down, but also with no room for any additional speed.
But is this the fastest way? Could it be faster to zoom across the Arrows and sacrifice a little bit of speed as I approach the wall? A balance needs to be made here, and a good way to find the perfect combo is through experimentation.
At the next big drop, I bump my head on the ceiling to maximize my falling speed and land in a position far away enough from the crawl space so that I can carry as much speed into it without needing to delay my jump. This is not the ideal route though. It is faster to fall directly into the crawl space, but such a maneuver would be very difficult to pull off.
Having the right positioning when falling through the Vanish Blocks can save a bit of time. The icy section below heads towards the right, so maximizing speed to the right will allow me to pass through it more quickly and avoid the need to accelerate on ice.
By falling through the Vanish Block on the left, I am able to fall through the small gap without bumping into any blocks simply by holding Down and Right. My high falling speed allows me to instantly destroy two Crumble Blocks at the bottom which enables me to take a trajectory that falls through the gap perfectly.
The following section contains a few Item Blocks and Happy Blocks. Knowing where to use the Teleport item and which Happy Blocks to bump can help save some time.
Since my stats are 65, 65, 65, it is preferable to bump one or three Happy Block. Bumping only two Happy Blocks would leave me with 75, 75, 75 stats which is not ideal since it does not offer an immediate speed boost, nor does it allow me to jump an extra block higher compared to 70, 70, 70 stats.
I figured that it would be too costly to bump three Happy Blocks, so I decided to go with one. I chose to collect the last Happy Block since it is lowest to the ground which means I can break the Brick and bump it a lot more quickly.
At this point, I lose a little bit of time. Since I can only teleport while under the Crumble Block, it is best to perform a small jump and head glitch into the crawl space to keep my speed high as I teleport to the icy part to the right. This requires some precision since the ceiling is quite low. Unfortunately in this case, I bumped my head into the Crumble Block which meant I wasn't able to build up the speed I wanted. After hastily jumping off the ice on the other side to recover my speed, I land poorly and run into a block.
The final optimization in this level is at the next two icy crawl spaces. In this section, it is possible to slide from one crawl space to the other without falling down into the space between, but it requires me to carry a lot of speed into the first crawl space. This would be easier with 80, 80, 80 stats, but I manage to make it work with 70, 70, 70 stats by head glitching into the first crawl space. This allows me to keep my speed just high enough to make it to the next crawl space.
After this point, all the difficult parts are done. I lower myself into the water just enough so that I can build up the upwards speed needed to reach the Ice Block, then I run towards the finish, making sure I don't bump into any blocks along the way.
