Hi everyone and welcome to my Mega Man Network Transmission 100% run! This run completes the game as fast as possible while reaching a community-defined 100% defintion and is timed to 2:00:43 with community timing (first control at first textbox to loss of control at final hit).
Ever since I completed my Any% run last year, I wanted an excuse to keep playing this game and started working on a 100% category/definition but ended up shelving the project for a while due to real life factors and other games. Cue TeamBN planning the next marathon to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series, the community would showcase 100% / All Stars or Icons runs from almost every game in the series in March of this year! This was a huge motivator to finish routing 100% and kick off the category, so I completed most of my research and prepped the run over the course of a couple of months before finally doing my showcase on the last week of the month. The run here was done several days after the marathon showcase to try and push the time down from a 2:04 I had gotten in practice, and I am honestly very satisfied with this time for now despite a few rough spots and possible route changes I thought up after the run was completed.
Major shoutouts to the whole TeamBN crew for being awesome and keeping me motivated as I routed this category out, as well as just being some great friends to hang out with.
Glossary:
BMD: Blue Mystery Data, one-time items that usually contain upgrades, sometimes chips
GMD: Green Mystery Data, items that regenerate when jacking out and contain random contents depending on the map and location in said map
PMD: Purple Mystery Data, one-time items that require an Unlocker subchip to open and contain upgrades or rare chips
YMD: Yellow Mystery Data, one-time items that contain either key items or hints to special secrets
PA: Program Advance, a special attack formed by selecting three specific chips in order at the chip draw menu
Reg: Setting a chip to always appear in the first slot of the chip draw screen, requires enough MB from RegUps to set chips with higher MB values
Subchips: Buyable / findable consumables that can heal HP (energies), open PMDs (Unlockers), or manipulate the Custom gauge speed (FstGauge / FullCust)
HP Memory: Increases max HP by 20
MemUp: Increases max MP/MB by 8 and speeds up regen rate
Backup: Increases maximum live count by 1
Powerup: Can be used to add points to Mega Man's buster stats
RegUp: Increases Reg memory max by 8 MB
Category Definition:
Network Transmission is a bit of an oddball; there are no completion stars or icons like the main GBA games nor any way to save after defeating the final boss, so a 100% definition took some thought. In the end, these became the defined conditions for 100%:
- Complete the Library (137/137 chips, all 14 PAs revealed)
-- Every chip must be collected at least once to count towards Library completion
-- Every PA must be assembled (but not used) to be revealed in the Library
- Reach Level 100 in the Mega Man screen
-- Mega Man starts at Level 1 and each permanent upgrade adds 1 level to this total:
--- 46 HPMem
--- 22 MemUp
--- 8 Backups
--- 12 Powerups
--- 4 Armors
--- 7 RegUp
-- Add the 99 permanent upgrades to initial level to reach Level 100
Library completion is fairly standard for a full BN 100% category and adding the permanent upgrades to the mix gives the category some consistency to games from MMX series for example, so this maxes out everything reasonable that is tracked in-game as well as completes the few sidequests for a full game clear.
Resources:
All resources that I compiled for 100% will be here on my DB, some are slightly out of date due to the drop rate table below and will be fixed soon: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9hddz4wkh3cf0nt/AACIPuuaqs0Df1CMs7cbnn5Fa?dl=0
Megaboy's old maps on GameFAQs were also a large help in routing but needed fixing since some of the contents in BMDs / PMDs were wrong, so I made the necessary edits and have them uploaded on DB as well: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nyukn9jj92btccb/AADExwGshF-rpk-CbTz7xSUca?dl=0
Literally the day I finished this run, MegaRockEXE was able to decode and release a drop rate table for enemies that also details how ranking works (which I wish I had when I was routing, but it's good info worth sharing): https://pastebin.com/Vi8yNaYA
Mechanics and routing:
For basic game mechanics and such, please refer to my Any% run notes, I will only refer to updated / new mechanics in order to save some work and space.
- As I need to complete the Library in this category, most chips will be obtained from S ranks on viruses and boss refights. I routed levels out for best consistency to get S ranks on all necessary enemies and avoid revisits as jack-in/out animations take a long time.
- Some chips I need to rely on a random enemy drop (or in the case of PopUp, getting Mole2 to randomly appear) that's not S rank or get as a random GMD drop, so there's quite a bit of luck involved grabbing these (thankfully it's only a handful of chips).
- Money was already a huge problem in Any% but it's even worse in 100%! I need to buy 18 Unlockers for all the PMDs to open, all buyable items that count towards my Level, and many chips through the course of the run so money is extremely tight for a long time in the first half. Everything is routed to try and be consistent with money and get enough for what I need per stage but money drops from bosses can affect this (and actually did before I went to Waterworks this run!) so I have to pay attention to my zenny counts. Unfortunately there is nowhere near enough money to do a single pass on levels and buy out everything I need, so a long grind is done in the second half of the run to acquire the cash for all remaining buyable goods. This is also the reason I swap the order of Legendary and Vacant Comps in this category as I can grind at Vacant and then buy out Number's shop on the way to Legendary instead of making an extra trip just for goods.
- Boss always drop their signature attack chip when fighting them the first time but their Navi chips can only be acquired when doing refights at the Park, so this is why I save the boss grind for the end of the game when I have more resources to make the fights easier and more consistent.
- Since I need to fill the PA side of the Library out as well, I wait until the end of the game when I can burn through my folder and force the correct draws quickly with FstGauge and FullCusts.
Stage breakdown:
(I'll be listing all chips I grab for Library completion per stage as filling the Library is much more complex to talk about over finding Level upgrades)
The game always starts me off with the following 20 chips in my folder:
Cannon (1)
Shotgun (4)
V-Gun (5)
Bubbler (8)
MiniBomb (16)
LilBomb (17)
Sword (23)
WideSwrd (24)
LongSwrd (25)
ShockWav (41)
DashAtk (58)
Wrecker (59)
Ratton1 (66)
3-Way (69)
Burner (74)
Guard (90)
Repair (93)
Recov10 (94)
Recov30 (95)
StoneBod (110)
- Fire Man -
Chips collected:
FireArm (44)
ZapRing1 (75)
This category starts almost the same as Any% so I reg Sword when I get control and jump into Den Areas with Cannon and V-Gun from the tutorial. I pick up some extra coins along the first part of Den 2 as money is tight and I can't afford to be too short on coins if I get some bad boss drops, but other than this and grabbing an HPMem off the path in Den 1 there are no serious changes. A ZapRing1 is scavenged off a Bunny since it's on the way and I attempt to get a HeatShot drop from the Spikey in Net on Fire but I got unlucky with no drop at all so I grab it later through GMDs. Fire Man still goes down quick to Swords and I grab FireArm from his remains so I'm off to a pretty good start here.
- Guts Man -
Chips collected:
HeatCros (14)
GutPunch (47)
Cannon is reg'd as this stage is also not much different from Any%, the only major difference is grabbing some powerups in the upper parts of Global 1. My movement in area 1 was pretty sloppy so I missed a spike cycle and also got hung up a bit here and there so this is one of the worse executed stages in the run. S rank on the Spikey2 in Outer Net snags me HeatCros easily, then I make my shopping trip to Number but only buy one MemUp as money is too tight to afford any HP upgrades. I opt for 1 Cannon + 2 DashAtks on Guts Man to do the initial damage then switch to reg'd Swords to finish the job; this fight went well so I take GutsPnch and leave the area.
- Quick Man -
Chips collected:
CrossGun (6)
FireBlde (29)
QuikBmrg (53)
ShldGard (91)
HiGuard (92)
Outside of money routing, figuring out the stage order for this batch of four areas was perhaps the trickiest part of piecing this category together. In the end I decided the Any% order was still optimal due to money and resource reasons so I reg Shotgun, grab an Unlocker from the Higsby, and dive into the Bank Comps. This is the first stage that really showcases how 100% is different as I have to make some trips to new rooms for powerups as well as grab some other chips for Library completion. There is an ElecSwrd in Bank 1 that I would be able to get if I randomly drew DashAtk but I was not lucky so I save that trip for the end of the game and press on, grabbing ShldGard from a Shielder and picking up a GMD that can sometimes give Candle1 but no luck there. HiGuard is finicky to get off of SniperJoes as I need an S and the timing is too tight to get an S with my current folder using initial spawns, so I cleverly exit and reenter Bank 1 through the midway portal to reset the SniperJoe spawn and blast through the shield with Shotguns to nab it consistently.
FireBlde is taken from the BMD at the top corner of Bank 2 and I press on to the Quick lasers; this part is a bit more scary in 100% as I need to make a careful jump after the first batch of lasers, not getting far enough left means I get sniped by death when I try to drop off the edge. After grabbing the locked HPMem, I check the GMD at the very end of the laser section because I need to get a CrossGun; CrossGun is only available from GMDs and there are only a few areas in the game where I have a chance to grab one, so it was very fortunate I got the CrossGun drop immediately here. Quick Man fight was rather weird this time, I got a very unusual block pattern and didn't play super well so a bit of time was lost (though some was saved by having a full batch of Swords to save cycles). Getting hit several times lowered my fight rank as well as the amount of money I got so I take QuikBmrg and prayed I'd have enough to afford at least two ElecBldes later.
- Needle Man -
Chips collected:
Spreader (7)
Heat-V (13)
TreeBom1 (20)
TreeBom2 (21)
FireSwrd (26)
NdlCanon (65)
Spice1 (81)
Needle's split is also very similar to Any% with just a few small changes, so I buy another Unlocker and stock up on 5 Heat-Vs for later use at the shop. As I did not get HeatShot at the beginning of the game, I check all area 1 GMDs for a HeatShot drop, unfortunately no luck so I bank on getting it in the next few stages and press on. TreeBom1 is nabbed off of some KillPlants in area 1 as well as a BMD containing FireSwrd, then TreeBom2 and Spice1 are gotten off of some KillWeeds and Mushies in area 2. I normally respawn an extra KillPlant or two in area 2 to finish the level with 5 TreeBom1 chips for possible later strats but got an extra TreeBom1 from one of the GMDs and also got a drop from every KillPlant so I saved some time be able to skip the respawn which was nice! At the end I grab Spreader from the BMD right above the MemUp and then reg Heat-V for a fast Needle Man kill. Although I didn't know this at the time of this run, fellow runner Verallix taught me that staying close to Needle Man after the 4th Heat-V prevents him from doing the invincibility desperation attack so it's a good strat to document here, I pick up NdlCanon after the fight and am happy with how the execution in this level turned out.
- Ice Man -
Chips collected:
Bub-V (9)
BubCross (10)
BubSprd (11)
HeatShot (12)
AquaBlde (30)
ElecBlde (31)
DoubJump (46)
BrnzFist (49)
IceSlshr (52)
DoubNdl (62)
TripNdl (63)
QuadNdl (64)
IceCube (103)
Roll (121)
Waterworks is quite complex in 100% as it's not only one of the biggest stages in the game, but we also have a bunch of chips to grab that require some sneaky strats and those took a while to plan. I read some emails at the pause screen as they're near the top of the menu anyways and I can get a few things: BrnzFist and Roll to fill out the Library and a FstGauge subchip that I can use for Waterworks if needed. I then buy an Unlocker and find out I'm short a bit on cash for 3 ElecBldes that I would want, turns out the lower rank in Quick Man's fight did bite me a bit in the money department. I decide to improvise with just 2 ElecBldes and pray I can get some extra chips to help finish out Ice Man at the end of the level since this run was still on overall good pace.
I enter the stage with Heat-V still reg'd for the DoubJump grind and check if I can get MiniBomb or LilBomb in my draw, but unfortunately I drew neither (in fact my draw was AWFUL with no shooting chips) so I opt for using FstGauge; FstGauge will let my Custom bar fill up to the max by the time I need to set a bomb chip and it wouldn't fill up fast enough otherwise so it's why I took the emails at the beginning of this split! Some clever use out of ShockWav, Burner, and Ratton1 get me through the first part of area 1 while I grind for 10 DoubJumps off the Pepes and snag DoubNdl and a Bub-V from a ShellGeek and Shrimpy. MiniBomb is then reg'd and used to deal with the ColdBear as this is the only level in the game I can get IceCube and I need to deal 300 HP of damage in S rank time (which is stupidly strict for this point in the game), so the lingering hitbox from the bombs is the best way to take it out. AquaBlde is scavenged from a BMD right after and then I take a side trip to a required PMD that also houses a Shrimpy3 and ShellMan; the spawn of the Shrimpy3 is in a terrible spot to consistently get a chip so I just knock it out of the way and get QuadNdl from the ShellMan using a bomb.
MiniBomb still gets use in the next couple of areas as I can quickly clean up the ShellGeek for TripNdl and a few other enemies; no Repair draw to skip the Yoku blocks unfortunately but this was balanced out by checking the GMD and getting the HeatShot drop I was still needing, so I press on after the blocks and also take BubCross from the Shrimpy2 by the powerups. MiniBomb the Puffy for BubSprd and then the folder edit is done to add TreeBom1, TreeBom2 (sometimes gets used if lucky), DoubJump, Bub-V, and ElecBlde before reg'ing ShockWav and moving on to the GiantPuffy mini-boss. Had a pretty good fight in this run thanks to redrawing MiniBomb and securing plenty of Bub-Vs which was nice, then I grab the key and set ElecBlde before deathwarping back up. Ice Man fight was a little weird since I only had two ElecBldes but the fight worked out okay with a Shotgun draw so I pick up IceSlshr and leave, overall a good stage!
- Bright Man -
Chips collected:
RemoPlug (70)
ZapRing2 (76)
Satelit1 (78)
MagBomb1 (84)
MagBomb2 (85)
One quick Unlocker shop and a fast folder edit here: I opt for reg'ing MiniBomb here as my old strats used Bub-V but relied on either getting a bomb in my draw as well or pushing a random drop from a Magmacker for MagBomb2, MiniBomb is not much slower by itself and can guarantee an S Magmacker kill. Satelit1 and MagBomb1 are scavenged from Sparkies and Magneakers in Shopping 1 and I stay on the top route since dropping to the bottom for coins is too slow and dangerous to be worth it. After the path split in area 2, I missed my bomb on the TuffBunny and the hitbox didn't linger in the right spot, so I'm forced to make a big detour later unfortunately which costs a lot of time. The Magmacker by the PMD can be respawned by moving far enough to the right, this allows me to get the S for MagBomb2 by leaping between the launched attacks and quickly tossing a bomb of my own. After rejoining the main path, I backtrack to the left to pick up ZapRing2 from a backup TuffBunny and finish prepping for Bright Man with TreeBombs. Bright's strategy is still the same: fire a buster shot to force his taunt and TreeBomb combo him at the end of his animation. The fight is smooth and I pick up RemoPlug but the stage was very mistake-heavy so this is probably the worst-executed stage in the run and there's lots of time to make up here in a future run.
- Color Man -
Chips collected:
HiCannon (2)
ClrBall (54)
DoubJump is reg'd to both do the early skips in Arcade as well as just have movement tools to get items and a quick stop for two Unlockers preps for the PMDs in the next two stages, not too much to say about this level. A couple of Canodumb2s are cleared out for HiCannons and all silver zenny coins are picked up as I need to make up cash for the Unlocker buys before the end of Power Plant. It's important to take the route I do to the PMD in Arcade 2 as going through the top slide route forces me to take the warp to the slot machine and back which is quite slow. The GMDs in area 2 are also picked up to try and scavenge some FullCusts for later (and HeatShot if I still needed one), unfortunately no luck getting one so I waste a few seconds overall for no gain. Color's fight is still the same and I had a pretty good pattern so this went by smooth, I take ClrBall from his remains and head over to Power Plant.
- Elec Man -
Chips collected:
SilvFist (50)
ThunBeam (55)
MagBomb3 (86)
IronBody (111)
Power Plant became one of the more difficult levels to plan due to troubles with obtaining MagBomb3 consistently. The only two Magnoids in the level are in pretty awful locations in different ways: One in stuck in a one-way shaft that wastes DoubJumps and is off the path while the other is in an awkward spot to S rank in the final ladder room due to being on the ground. I opted for the latter location to help conserve DoubJumps and came up with some strats that involve thrown attacks but which attack I get ends up tweaking my level strats, so I set DoubJump as my default chip and jump in to Power Plant to see what my draw is.
The initial chip draw was a bit odd as I had Wrecker and never had gotten it in practice but I decided to improvise and use it for the Magnoid kill. This still left me with needing one other attack chip to get IronBody so I was thankful I drew Bubbler as well! Two DoubJumps at the beginning help climb straight up to the BackUp chip and skip some Fishy3 spawns that would block me if I went around the long way. More DoubJumps are done for the normal big skip and I move on to the trickiest jump in this level: The slide jump out of the alcove is an EXTREMELY tight window (probably 2 frames?) and missing it costs me a DoubJump that I could use later in the level, unfortunately I miss it and have to burn the DoubJump to get to the PMD which isn't a huge loss, just annoying. The remaining BMDs in this area are grabbed for SilvFist and some other powerups before jumping into area 2.
Power Plant 2 starts with damage boosting through the BigEye; it's technically possible to get FootStmp from him here but he has a beefy 400 HP and we don't have any MiniBombs or LilBombs to get the S rank so we skip him and move on. Bubbler is used to obtain IronBody from one of the Gabyoall2s and use our Repair near the top of the shaft to summon the Yoku blocks early and prep for our Magnoid strat. With 3 DoubJumps and a throwing attack, I can climb to the top of the room and put myself on about the same elevation as the zenny, then drop down and toss our two Wreckers at the respawned Magnoid for a guaranteed MagBomb3 drop. This strat goes off without a hitch and I use the remaining two DoubJumps to quickly climb out of the shaft like Any%. TreeBom1 is reg'd for Elec Man and the fight goes smoothly, though maybe using the Recov30s earlier burned a bit too much MP and I could have saved using one or two to be able to throw a TreeBomb faster. Not a huge deal, I grab ThunBeam after the fight and breathe a bit knowing one of the more difficult levels is done.
- Sword Man -
Chips collected:
HeatSprd (15)
CrosBomb (18)
SonicBld (32)
SonicWav (42)
Candle1 (99)
AquaAura (114)
Prepping for the next segment is mostly the same as Any% with only a couple of minor changes: An Unlocker is bought at Higsby's and extra DoubJumps are used to backtrack to a BackUp chip we couldn't get to before in Outer Net. I throw all my buster upgrades into Attack and Charge and warp back to the bookmark in Global 3 to grab HeatSprd from the Spikey3 before jumping into Old Area. Both Old 1 and 2 have some items off the direct paths so this was another tricky level to plan especially with acquiring AquaAura at the end of the stage. Some careful enemy management allows me to pick up CrosBomb and Candle1 from a BeeTank2 and CanDevil1 while DoubJumps are used to grab an HPMem and jump directly up to the top of Old 1 and skip a long runaround. I pick up SonicWav from the Mettaur2 at the beginning of Old 2 and make my way to the bottom so I can grab the items with DoubJump and replace my default chip with ElecBlde. All auras in Network Transmission protect from attacks that do less than 100 damage unless there is an elemental weakness to exploit, so ElecBlde is a perfect fit to take out the Megalians and grab AquaAura consistently. Looking back, there was no need to grab the chip from the Swordy3 at the powerup alcove as it's not possible to S rank it for AquaSwrd without very specific chips, so this and a couple of small fumbles lost a small amount of time but there were no major falls or mistakes thankfully. Sword Man goes down smoothly and I take SonicBld before leaving the area.
- Gravity Man -
Chips collected:
M-Cannon (3)
BigBomb (19)
DynaWave (43)
GrvtyHld (56)
CannBall (60)
Hammer (61)
ZapRing3 (77)
Satelit2 (79)
Recov80 (96)
FireAura (115)
Bub-V is reg'd for two difficult drops to get in this level: FireAura and CannBall. According to the drop table, CannBall is only a 30% possible drop from a HammerJoe at a rank that's not S and there is no other place in the game to grab it so this is one of the more dreaded stages to grind in this category as respawning HammerJoes takes some time. This is also the reason I buy more Heat-Vs while I am at the shop for the Unlocker: I have a chance to draw those and get more fast attacks for CannBall farming, and since I need more Heat-Vs for No Grav Area later it makes sense to buy them now. I also start farming the GMDs in Global 3 for FullCusts as I have several chances to get some between now and the end of Zero's stage.
My initial draw didn't get the Heat-Vs but ended up getting both Shotgun and Bubbler instead so this worked out as extra sources of damage! I grab M-Cannon and Satelit2 early on but mistime my shot on the Mettaur3 and miss my S rank, so the chip drop was possibly Guard instead of DynaWave. Since there's another Mettaur3 later, I decided to just get a guaranteed drop there as it costs less time to delete for another chip than check the menus so I press on. The first HammerJoe drops nothing due to being loaded too long from the Mettaur shenanigans so I end up having to rely on the spawns in area 2, I quickly snag ZapRing3 off a MegaBunny and warp into the next section.
Immediate Mettaur3 kill here nets a guaranteed DynaWave and I delay my kill on the HammerJoe ahead to avoid S ranking. Miraculously, I get the 30% CannBall drop immediately and am able to skip any grinding so I push ahead to the Recov80 BMD and kill the remaining HammerJoe for an S rank Hammer drop. Bub-V helps grab BigBomb and FireAura off the Beetank3 and MegalianH to finish up the stage and I jump into the Gravity Man fight. No Barriers available to me in this category so I'm forced to just damage boost off of whatever attacks he does, thankfully he doesn't do much and allows a fast kill so I pack up his GrvtyHld drop and head towards the next level.
- Star Man -
Chips collected:
AquaSwrd (27)
StrArrow (57)
Satelit3 (80)
Yo-Yo1 (87)
Yo-Yo2 (88)
Yo-Yo3 (89)
MetalBdy (112)
Barrier (113)
WoodAura (116)
A bit of buying is done first to nab AquaSwrd and Barrier from Higsby before doing a folder edit; Barrier is tossed in now for possible Star Man or Zero use and both HiCannon and M-Cannon are great draws to get in the upcoming stages. As this is 100% and I need to acquire all the Navi chips to access the secret fight against Bass, I have to collect the YMD in Global 3 before completing Zero Account so I reg DoubJump and grab the data now to maximize my DoubJump uses. DoubJumps are used to speed up the climb through the data graveyard and a deathwarp back to the portal saves many seconds over jacking out or climbing back up.
No Grav has some nasty enemies to get chips from so I rely on charge shots and whatever else I can get in my draw to speed things up. Satelit3 is grabbed from an early Sparknoid and I attempt to get a drop from the MegalianW using M-Cannon but then realize I never switched to M-Cannon before trying to fire. This wasted time to where it was not worth trying to grab it here so I ignore it and move on to the lower Yort for a Yo-Yo1 drop. A careful charge shot and M-Cannon combo knock out the Yart for Yo-Yo2 and I get a quick MetalBdy drop from the Gabyoall3s before heading right for some powerups, then I skip going around the room using DoubJump to climb up to the rail and jump into the portal.
DoubJump is used to stay on the top path for a bit and I go for an early Yo-Yo3 drop off the first Yart by dropping down from above. I missed my first shot and the S rank but got bailed by a lucky drop so I grab both that and the HPMem before DoubJump'ing up and reg'ing Heat-V; DoubJump allows me to reset the Megalian by the lower rail and Heat-Vs give a consistent fast kill so I'm able to pick up WoodAura and move on to the GiantYart mini-boss. My remaining Heat-Vs blast it away and I move into the Star Man fight, he's handled well with charge shots and the lucky HiCannon draw so I pick up StrArrow and prep for one of the hardest stages in 100%.
- Zero -
Chips collected:
Z-Saber (33)
Candle2 (100)
DropDown (108)
ElecAura (117)
Zero Account in 100% is completely different from the Any% route due to the items and chip drops spread across the whole room, this is one of the most difficult (if not THE most difficult!) stages to pick everything up in a single pass without making a major mistake and having to death-reset the area. I reg DoubJump again and max out my Unlockers to 5 for the next couple of stages before picking up Global 3 GMDs and heading to Zero Account.
Right off the bat I have to make some tricky charge shots through the slide hole to S rank the CanDevil2 as going to the right and back is too slow for a fast kill, I pick up Candle2 and grab the powerups in the alcove above before heading left. Some damage boosts are used to get past the spikes and I use the lucky Heat-V draw to kill the Popper3; this Popper was in a weird spot and I wasn't sure if I S ranked it for DropDown so I quickly verify in the menu while grabbing the PMD above. M-Cannon is then reg'd for later and I deathwarp back to the beginning of the area to both avoid crossing the spikes again and get a full HP refill.
I didn't notice I had DoubJump in my draw after the deathwarp and use damage boosts to get past the Megalians and Blasters in the middle corridors as I make my way up to the top-left MemUp, then I drop down on the conveyor belts below to pocket the zenny while I run to the remaining powerups. The only chip left to get before the boss fight comes from the only MegalianE in the whole game and it's in too bad a spot to try and kill with TreeBombs, so I opt for my reg'd M-Cannons to blast it away in the time limit. ElecAura is acquired and I jump into the Zero fight using the safe strats due to my low HP, he plays nice and doesn't give any Phantom Zero attacks so I'm able to get a fast kill and pocket both Z-Saber and a good amount of zenny.
- Shadow Man -
Chips collected:
Kunai1 (34)
Kunai2 (35)
Kunai3 (36)
Muramasa (38)
Ratton2 (67)
Spice3 (83)
Recov150 (97)
Invis3 (107)
Zero (134)
Typical plot progression happens but I also read the extra email to get the Zero chip, then I reg DoubJump and trigger the UnderNet event so the next two stages appear. As I still need to buy out the shops and Vacant Comps are the fastest source of zenny in the game to grind, I make my way there first to clear out Shadow Man instead of going to Legendary WWW Area like Any% does.
Plenty of coins are grabbed on the way through the area as I still want to maximize my cash and avoid making more revisits during the grind later, I also try and get Spice2 from the Mashy but miss my first charge shot and elect to just get it during money grind. Recov150 is taken from the BMD at the end of this section and I make my way to area 2 for the Invis3 grind which is by far the worst part of this stage. Spooky3s have a fairly bulky 140 HP and can heal when below 50, plus they like to teleport when you get on the same elevation as them which makes killing them quite aggravating. To make matters worse, I need to grind for three Invis3 chips for a later boss fight so I do the best I can with the random spawns but this part is unfortunately just awful to deal with. I get my three Invis3s and try for an Invis2 real quick but fail to get the drop so I leave it for later when I go to Legendary where there are Spooky2s. DoubJump is used to grab the powerup before I reg Heat-V and deathwarp to reset the room; this both refills my HP and resets the cycles on the carts ahead.
With Heat-V finally equipped, I can deal with the Snappers easily since their Kunais block most attacks but Heat-V gets around that. Kunai1 and Ratton2 are grabbed quickly, then I later take Kunai3 and the PMD before backtracking to the left; this respawns the Moshy on the bottom path so I can get a fast kill and snag Spice3. One last set of Heat-Vs gets me Kunai2 and I grab the remaining powerups but back off on the last cart since I wasn't sure if I would make the cycle and played it safe. I already had HiCannons in my draw so I just lock Shadow Man down with those for an easy kill and take Muramasa from him.
- Pharaoh Man -
Chips collected:
TreeBom3 (22)
CustSwrd (37)
FootStmp (45)
ColdPnch (48)
GoldFist (51)
Ratton3 (68)
Tornado (71)
Twister (72)
Blower (73)
Spice2 (82)
Recov300 (98)
Candle3 (101)
Rockcube (102)
Anubis (104)
Invis2 (106)
PopUp (109)
Here's the dreaded money grind that's necessary for 100% unfortunately, I reg Bub-V for the first trip through Vacant to help get Candle3 and Spice2 from the CanDevil3 and Mashy and then switch to DoubJump before revisiting as many times as needed until I hit 113500 zenny. Each trip through Vacant 1 nets me 5100 zenny and I also take time to stock up on M-Cannons for later, but focusing on this for almost 20 minutes is really tough to avoid falling down a pit and losing a bunch of time. Thankfully no accidental deaths occurred (though one trip was really close) and despite a few small mistakes on some trips I get through the grind the best I've ever done. I then head over to Higsby's shop to buy my remaining five Unlockers for the run, all the elemental armors for level completion, and ColdPnch and CustSwrd to fill the Library before jacking in at Dex's and heading to Number's shop at Outer Net. Here I buy seven HP Mems, the remaining three MemUps, and then Tornado, Twister, Blower, and Rockcube for Library purposes before heading left past the security cube to Legendary WWW Area.
Legendary is unfortunately pretty awful to deal with in 100%: Enemies are difficult to get chips from and I need to save several DoubJumps for some powerups in area 2, leaving me to do the Yoku block climb in area 1 since I had no lucky Repair draw. The first Ratty3 is dealt with to make it easier to take out the Spooky2; this is the only Spooky2 I can respawn without resorting to a deathwarp if needed and it's difficult to deal damage anyways when Rattons are being shot at me. I quickly verify I get Invis2 as I wasn't sure if my time was good and the chip drop could have been Invis1 or a Recov, then grab the powerup below and press on. Another Ratty3 is killed cleanly for a Ratton3 drop and I grab the PMD here for GoldFist before going into the Mole room.
Moles are so odd in this game that they deserve their own little section here; Every hit on a Mole, no matter what kind of attack it is, does exactly 1 damage in this game and there's no way around this. Mole has only 10 HP which is bearable but Mole2 has a whopping 200 HP and it takes nearly 5 minutes to delete which is painful. According to GreigaMaster, Mole2 has a 25% chance to spawn in this room which makes normal Mole the remaining 75%; I need to get both for PopUp and Recov300 respectively so I kill Mole for Recov first and exit/enter the area through the portal to reset the spawn until Mole2 finally shows up. I needed two extra spawns and lost about a minute and 20 seconds to complete luck which is still perfectly acceptable with how late in the run this is, so I kill Mole2 for PopUp and finally move on.
TreeBom3 is scavenged from the first KillFleur in area 2 and DoubJump is used in the upper-right corner of the room to skip some terrible slide jumps out of the passages. Due to the extremely tight timing of these jumps that have cost me literal minutes in both practice and attempts, I wanted two DoubJumps here to save my sanity so go figure I try for the last slide jump and get it anyways to spite myself, haha. A charge shot + M-Cannon combo knocks out the BigFlappy for FootStmp which saves me a bunch of time and headaches since the next chance to get one would involve going all the way back to the end of Bank 2 after this stage. I make my way to the end of the level and use my last DoubJumps to reach the HPMem before grabbing the health and going to the Pharaoh Man fight. Pharaoh gives me an excellent pattern with no Anubis statues or summoned Ratties so I'm able to bring him down quick and take Anubis with me.
- Endgame -
Chips collected:
ElecSwrd (28)
VarSwrd (39)
Slasher (40)
Invis1 (105)
LifeAur1 (118)
LifeAur2 (119)
LifeAur3 (120)
GutsMan (122)
ProtoMan (123)
FireMan (124)
NeedleMan (125)
BrightMan (126)
IceMan (127)
QuickMan (128)
ColorMan (129)
ElecMan (130)
SwordMan (131)
GravityMan (132)
StarMan (133)
PharaohMan (135)
ShadowMan (136)
Bass (137)
Despite being at the last leg of the game, there's still quite a bit to do before finishing up. I blanked out and forgot if I had FootStmp in my Library so I quickly check before heading back to Bank 1 and grabbing ElecSwrd. I jack out and add Invis3 to my folder then accidentally go to Higsby early to buy FullCusts but am short zenny for a 5th one as I did not have the money from the upcoming fight so I come back later. I then head over to the UnderNet portal to start the optional fight against Proto Man who is definitely worst boss in the entire game; Proto has blocking mechanics, incredibly stupid hitboxes on all of his attacks, and moves around the arena much faster than you can reasonably dodge so I'm not sure how the devs really intended for players to fight him. I cheese him out with my stock of Invis3s, charge shots, and some lucky M-Cannons to get a clean kill for VarSwrd and then head to the park to start a long boss rush grind.
All bosses need to be refought here to get their Navi chips from high rank fights so I use Invis3 to help with Sword, Gravity, and Proto, take TreeBom1 for Bright and Elec, then M-Cannon through the remaining bosses. All of the fights go well enough and I get an email after defeating all of them which confirms I acquired all Navi chips and can unlock the hidden security cube leading to Bass in Den Area 3. A major folder edit is done here to include a reg'd Wrecker, DoubJump, Sword, WideSwrd, and LongSwrd while low quantity chips are dropped in to act as filler to burn for the upcoming PA grind, I then head over to Den 1 to finish getting some powerups on the way to the Bass fight. Filler chips are burned through quickly with the help of FstGauges at the beginning of every area while Wrecker is used to access a locked portion of Den 2 with some powerups before heading over to Den 3; it's surprisingly slightly faster to stay in the net and make our way there rather than jack out and back in at Mayl's! DoubJump is used to access some extra powerups in Den 3 that I couldn't reach earlier and a Spooky is also killed for Invis1, then we DoubJump past the Global 1 portal to get the Slasher BMD and use up all our remaining chips to force the game to give us only chips in our folder that we still have uses of. From here, all 14 PAs are assembled as quickly as possible with the help of FstGauge and our stock of FullCusts:
- LifeSrd1 (Sword, WideSwrd, LongSwrd)
- GigaDeth (Spreader, BubSprd, HeatSprd)
- Arrows (DoubNdl, TripNdl, QuadNdl)
- UltraBmb (LilBomb, CrosBomb, BigBomb)
- LifeSrd2 (FireSwrd, AquaSwrd, ElecSwrd)
- LifeSrd3 (FireBlde, AquaBlde, ElecBlde)
- Meteors (SonicBld, GrvtyHld, StrArrow)
- ZeroCntr (HiGuard, Z-Saber, Zero)
- Z-Raton (Ratton1, Ratton2, Ratton3)
- Punch (GutPunch, ColdPnch, DashAtk)
- GtsShoot (Guard, DashAtk, GutsMan)
- BigHeart (Repair, Recov300, Roll)
- 2xHero (CustSwrd, VarSwrd, ProtoMan)
- Z-Canon (Cannon, HiCannon, M-Cannon)
I save Z-Canon for last as I want to use it for the Bass fight and also toss Heat-V and TreeBom1 back in the folder since I need them for later anyways, then wait for a full gauge refill so I can pick Z-Canon again during the fight when the first use runs out. Bass has an aura and does a huge amount of damage with his attacks so Z-Canon is by far the safest option for killing him. Looking back, I could have probably gone in without waiting for the gauge refill and relied on TreeBombs once Z-Canon ran out since I only need to deal 700 damage to end the fight so this is potentially a spot for better strats. The Bass chip is acquired from the fight and I reg Heat-V, buy a FullCust from Higsby, and head back to the UnderNet warp to finish the game.
The only remaining chips to grab here are the LifeAura series from the Scuttles hanging around, so I make my way to the top and nab LifeAur1 from the second Scuttzer using Heat-Vs. Unfortunately there is still one big luck element to end the run: LifeAur2 is a 30% non-S rank drop from the Scuttlests and they have a whopping 300 HP, so the only reasonable way to grind them is to assemble Z-Canon in order to not run out of M-Cannon uses. I burn through the rest of my folder with the help of FstGauge plus my remaining FullCust and prep not only Z-Canon but also DoubJump in case I get the drop and can move on to collecting the remaining powerups. LifeAur3 is easily gotten from the first Scuttlest and I go to kill the second one; to my amazement, LifeAur2 drops immediately and I quickly check my menu to ensure it's correct, what incredible luck! I scavenge the necessary BMDs and PMDs in the level for powerups (though I accidentally grab another Hammer since I forgot I picked one up earlier in Strange Grav) and head to the point of no return at the portal. Checking the menus confirms I hit Level 100 as well as filled the entire Library with 137/137 chips and all 14 PAs revealed so 100% conditions are done and I assemble Z-Canon, Heat-V, and TreeBom1 for the final boss rush. From here pretty much everything plays out the same as Any% and I finish out the run with strong execution. As we rescued Zero earlier by doing the source data fetch, we also get the good ending which changes dialogue for a whole one scene, woohoo.
While there is definitely room for improvement in both strats and some execution here and there, I'm incredibly satisfied with this run for now as my luck overall was extremely favorable and most stages were played pretty well with only minor mistakes here and there. I think the time for this category will stand until we can figure out some way to cut the money grind out via new glitches and reroute the rest of the game, for now I'm very done with 100%. I hope you enjoyed the run and comments and take care until next time! |