Difficulty: Easy
Runners: Blacksecret, Carbonehell, Tarakan3000
Time: 0:28:37
129 Segments
This speedrun was created because recently the RTA record on Easy difficulty was improved by Carbonehell and his run also beat the record on Normal difficulty by 4 seconds making it the fastest category.
So we wanted to compare which category is the fastest, the limits of Easy category and what kind of crazy strategies and optimizations we could find and employ in a segmented setting.
For reference the segmented speedrun on Normal difficulty which is on SDA clocks in at 30:20 (this run was made a few years ago so it doesnt include some new strategies that in total should save atleast 30 seconds).
The three main differences between Normal and Easy are different enemy spawns (Less waves of enemies in arenas on Easy etc.), no self damage on Easy (except for the cannon), and less damage from enemies on Easy.
A message on the top left of the screen for example "Blacksecret is now known as Carbonehell" indicates which player is doing the next segments for those who are curious.
All timestamps refer to the ingame timer in the top center.
Hatshepsut (0:00:34) 4 segments
0:09 - A rare boost that you won't normally see.
0:19 - Killing the Gnaar to make the door open.
0:31 - Grabbing the shotgun to open the door that leads to the end of the level.
Sand Canyon (0:00:44) 3 segments
This level is done the same as in a regular speedrun, but with the fastest setup only used in individual levels runs, using the kamikazes and gathering them as close to eachother as possible to take as much damage possible for a big enough boost to go out of bounds while avoiding some teleport triggers on top of the hill that send you back inbounds.
Also this strategy doesnt work on Tourist difficulty because you dont take enough damage from the explosion to get a big enough boost.
0:45 - Jumping to alert some kamikazes earlier
Tomb of Ramses III (0:01:30) 8 segments
1:32 - A solid boost from kamikaze that is pretty random
1:52 - Jumping over a trigger that closes a door infront of you
1:58 - Machinegun boost from a scorpion
2:05 - Using a flying Gnaar to skip a bunch of staircases
2:19 - Another kamikaze boost, combining all the enemy boosts on this level is extremely rare due to rng
Overall saved a full second on this level over the individual level record.
Valley of the Kings (0:01:40) 7 segments
3:14 - Combining a boost from a bull with a kamikaze explosion for a bigger boost
3:32 - Using the bull to go out of bounds and skip the whole level
3:48 - While in out of bounds here normally we can only go up, but going through that mountain peak we were able to get full vertical movement. That allowed us to save time by not trying to avoid holes in the ceiling down below, but instead flying directly to the end level trigger.
3:55 - As soon as we enter the part that the game considers as inbounds we start falling and after we fall down we jump again to re-enter out of bounds while airborne to be able to move down.
Overall these optimizations saved 3 seconds compared to the individual level record.
Oasis (0:00:47) 3 segments
4:31 - Sadly the individual level strategy doesnt work in a full game setting which lets you enter the waterfall a few seconds earlier.
4:36 - Taking a slightly suboptimal line to manipulate enemies to the best of our ability for the upcoming skip which allows us to go straight to the end of the level.
4:45 - This strategy is pretty infamous for its inconsistency because the different enemy attacks have to line up perfectly or you wont get enough speed to get up the hill.
Dunes (0:00:49) 5 segments
5:35 - Jumping on this bull in a specific way to go the direction we want while baiting the bull to run over the hill so he could proceed to boost us again quicker.
5:53 - Getting hit by a bull and jumping at the same time to gain a lot of height to get over the wall.
6:00 - Grabbing a health pill that spawns an ammo backpack which triggers enemy spawns.
6:08 - Kleer skeleton pushing us just far enough into the door to touch the end level trigger.
Suburbs (0:00:55) 10 segments
Running through the level and pressing 2 buttons that open the exit. Done same as the individual level route.
Sewers (0:01:02) 11 segments
7:14 - A pretty new strategy to use a fish boost at the start for a small timesave.
7:32 - Boosting from enemies as much as possible
7:44 - Normally you would take a sub optimal line here to jump over a trigger that closes the door to the water section, but we found that it is barely possible to get there before the door closes with a Kleer boost at the right moment.
7:56 - Another quite recent strategy to float to the surface of the water to get a further boost from the fish.
A second faster than the individual level record.
Metropolis (0:07:08) 28 segments
8:09 - Jumping on edges in a correct way allows you to jump higher.
8:14 - This also applies to enemies tilting their heads if timed correctly.
9:10 - In a RTA run you would go straight to the final arena, but with segments we can use a much more difficult route.
9:24 - Jumping over the spike pit on the right side to manipulate a bull for more optimal boosts and grabbing the minigun for later.
9:59 - Going this far into the arena starts the arena fight and now we have to wait for over 2 minutes for the final kamikaze to spawn, so we take this time to go and grab the secret cannon back in the middle of the level.
11:04 - The first thing we do when getting the cannon is self damage boosting to get back to the arena before the enemies finish spawning.
12:19 - Killing the final kamikaze as soon as it spawns to progress the arena as fast as possible.
12:24 - Grabbing this ammo backpack aswell as 2 more backpacks later starts the next wave of enemies.
13:25 - These harpies spawn a set time after grabbing the backpack so we have plenty of time to clear the previous ones and we can anticipate their spawn with some well placed rockets, also this is where the minigun comes in handy saving a bunch of time.
13:43 - Clearing bulls on the left to be able to kill the rest of them in one shot.
13:55 - Final waves of the arena where we just wait for the final spawns.
15:10 - Standing in the middle of the enemy line to clear it quickly and reach the exit faster.
9 seconds faster than the individual level record.
Alley of the Sphinxes (0:02:08) 13 segments
16:03 - Using trees to make the bull turn around faster.
16:12 - Combining a cannon boost with a bull boost to get a huge boost, this is why we kept as much health as possible up to this point since you take a lot of damage using this strategy.
16:54 - Triggering enemy spawns since we need a Kleer skeleton to skip the arena.
17:06 - Staying close enough to the Kleer so it does throwing attacks minimal amount of times and to make it run towards us and to the exit without stopping.
17:23 - Leading the Kleer towards the door in a straight line and having it clip us slightly into the door so we would touch the end level trigger.
13 seconds faster than the individual level record.
Karnak (0:04:46) 14 segments
17:28 - Cannon jumping out of the intended play area and going towards the final arena.
18:20 - A strategy that was only used on Normal difficulty up to this point but Inv1ve (previous record holder on Easy difficulty) discovered that you can use a cannonball instead of a rocket to get the same effect.
18:30 - Getting boosted all the way to the Backpack which starts the final arena (saving 25 seconds over just walking here).
19:30 - The final kamikaze kill starts the timer of the next enemy spawns.
20:23 - Killing the Kleer skeletons quickly wont speed up the arena but we have to kill the red scorpions as fast as possible.
21:08 - Another wave that only spawns after a set amount of time and we have to kill all but one harpy to progress the arena.
21:24 - Red scorpions that spawn after the harpies are killed which also need to be killed as fast as possible.
21:55 - After grabbing enough health for the next level we prefire one of the Biomechs with rockets to focus our attention only on the other two that we have to kill for the final door to open.
22:08 - Killing these bulls is not necessary but we couldnt make them useful to save time and we need to keep our health as high as possible.
Overall 29 seconds faster than individual level record mainly due to the new fish boost. It wasnt previously used in any runs whatsoever.
Luxor (0:01:22) 5 segments
22:35 - Horizontal cannon boost can save up to 1 second if done this way, similarly to rocket boosts on the normal difficulty.
22:37 - Tricky jump to go out of bounds to skip all of the level.
23:22 - Avoiding picking up 100 armor but picking up 25 armor instead. This allows for the jumppad boost on the next level since we cant perform it with too much armor.
The Great Pyramid (0:05:05) 18 segments
23:42 - Getting stuck on the jumppad and using a cannon boost to skip a lenghty arena.
23:47 - Grabbing a mandatory trigger to spawn the final boss.
24:10 - Bull boosting and getting this 200 armor pickup to combine bull boosts with cannon boosts.
24:34 - Thankfully we have just enough health here to do another cannon boost.
24:38 - On the bottom of this slope is a trigger that starts a timer to open the door to the final boss arena.
24:51 - The boss is still invulnerable so we start shooting rockets at it that will reach him only when he becomes vulnerable since we want to deal as much damage as possible before the doors open.
26:57 - The boss doesn't take damage at the start of the actual bossfight so we shoot rockets at him.
27:05 - Shooting 2 cannonballs while in the air for free damage and to stay on optimal lines during the rest of the fight.
27:11 - Doing some horizontal cannon boosts saving around a second each at the cost of a lot of our health.
27:57 - The lower the boss health is the more regeneration it has, so there is not much point in getting it into red health before jumping through the last hoop and at this point we just lower the bosses health as much as we can until the laser kills it.
28:40 - We lose control of the character and the run is over done in 28:37 as shown in stats screen after the unskipable cutscene.
We hope you enjoyed the run and thanks for watching. |