FenPhoenix on 12/6/2023 at 17:24
Quote Posted by Brethren
Nice run Fen, this is really impressive. Haven't watched the full video yet, did you take any sizable breaks? 10 hours is a long time to stare at a monitor.
I let the T2X ending cutscene play for ~2mins while I took a short break. Other than that I don't think I took any breaks. I have decades of practice staring at a monitor all day, so...
Quote Posted by Brethren
Curious about this too. What were some of the main areas/locations where you played it safe, where you otherwise wouldn't have?
* I could have played it safe by taking the "normal" route (around back through the well), but because it's the first mission of the first game, a death costs next to nothing so I took the fast front-gate route.
Cragscleft:* You could just run into the guard posts with the switches and dodge around the guards if you don't want to wait for them to turn.
Thieves' Guild:* You can buy two speed potions and use them in the sewer straightaways, but I chose to buy more healing potions instead.
* In the first house, I go around and wait for a guard to walk through the marble-floor room, but the fast way is to go the other way around and just alert him and run/dodge around him while getting the loot and roping up.
* In the place where I pick up the flashbomb near the explosive barrel, the fast way is to not wait for the guards, but just run down and get them both in range and flash/KO them both (but I saved the flashbomb)
Mage Towers:* In the room with the secret door to the glasses, I take extra time to bop both the mages so I can get the one's healing potion.
* In the fire tower, I try to lure one of the mages out of the lava room to bop him more safely (but fail).
Return to the Cathedral:* There are two main strategies one could take here. You can one-flash/one-overhead-swing each haunt in the cathedral right off the bat, take the eye (spawning tons more zombies) and then do the level more-or-less as normal. Or, you can leave the haunts alive, leave the eye, go do all the other objectives first, then come back and get the eye, then hide in the corner to wait out the initial alert, then kill the ghost as he comes out of the door (to get rid of the distance-attack guy), then jump on top of the hammer where the eye was and holy-water all the haunts with the water arrows you'll have picked up around the mission. This strategy is slower (but arguably cooler looking) and much safer, so it's the one I take here.
* I wait for the haunt to come out of St. Yora's to safely kill him, whereas the fast strat is to just run in there immediately and try to get him in there or wherever he is.
* I take it slow in the main lower courtyard and try to wait for the haunts to come to me, rather than trying to get them while running around doing the tasks.
Escape:* There's a much faster route where you just pop into the big room where I fought the fire elemental, second bugbeast, and many apebeasts, climb the tree to get the flashbomb(s) there, then run up a shorter way to the exit that cuts out a lot of the apebeasts that are up there. However, on that route you get fewer flashbombs and you have to be quick when running into the house hallways because there are apebeasts
and a spider right in your face. I chose to take the much slower but safer route of getting all 6 flash bombs (necessitating clearing out the aforementioned enemies in the tree room and beyond) here, and then going up the long way.
The Maw:* You can start the Trickster going on the ritual, then run back out and take out the portal while he's doing so, thereby overlapping the two tasks and saving time. I didn't do that here because I just didn't want to tempt fate by doing anything weird.
Thief 2:
Running Interference:* Normally, you call Basso immediately and have him run in right after you, but you run ahead and clear the place out fast enough that by the time you're done, he's just getting to the exit with Jenivere. However, Basso can sometimes get stuck in Jenivere's room and not ever leave, causing a softlock. That can happen even if playing casually. So I do a weird thing where I blackjack Jenivere's door to get her to run out of the room and out of the house, then I follow her and call Basso then. I wouldn't normally do a weird semi-exploit like that, but when the game can decide to softlock through no fault of my own, I simply need insurance against it in a multi-game run.
Shipping and Receiving:* Normally in Building B you use a slowfall to fall right down to the ground floor, but in a previous attempt I ran into a situation where I fell right next to a guy on the ground floor and wasn't able to run away (because slowfall-speed movement even horizontally) and didn't use a flashbomb quick enough, so I got killed. So, in this run I just take the elevator down instead.
Ambush:* I take a very slightly slower route that avoids a risky fountain jump.
Bank:* In the vault, I go around the perimeter of the room, rather than the faster strat of running up to the left pillar and barely hiding from the cameras behind it. I also take the slower way down, rather than just dropping down twice.
Blackmail:* I wait for the first inside guard to pass through the room, rather than just running in immediately and having him chase me.
* I go to the attic and get the slowfall potion, rather than skipping it and attempting to drop down to the exit without fatal damage.
Precious Cargo:* In this mission, equipment carries over to Kidnap, so I need to plan for that in my purchases and pickups. I buy three gas arrows. Normally, I use one on the first mechanist lady at the start, then get the other one at the top of the vine, so I'm back to three. Then, I use two on the two mechanists at the top of the wooden building, and blackjack the third, thus saving one gas arrow for Kidnap, which I absolutely require. However, here, I save the first gas arrow and wait and KO the mech lady, then I get the gas arrow from the vine top in a safer way (because you can sometimes fly right through those vines when jumping at them, falling to your death!). I then use
three gas arrows to take out all three previously mentioned mechs, still leaving one more for Kidnap.
* I turn off the camera for safety, whereas the fast way is just to ignore it.
Soulforge:* I buy a slowfall instead of a second speed potion, and I take the older (but slick looking) Bay E strat of going up on the beam, mossing the generator top, and slowfalling down right between the cameras. The newer strat is simply just to run straight past the cameras, let them alert, make the signal piece, then run out while throwing a flash or two at the big bots that are now coming in. Way too scary for a run like this.
* In the experimental workshop, I get the extra water arrows in the water tunnels for safety.
Thief 2X: Shadowing the Enemy:* I bop the guy to steal his ticket so I won't be attacked by the hammers next to the train while boarding it, as sometimes the door teleport script doesn't work the first time (or several) and I would be in danger if the hammers were after me and it didn't work. Normally, you skip the ticket and just go in through the robot room with the crates blocking the passage.
Down Among Dead Men:* I take it exceptionally slow (basically ghosting) with the zombies in the graveyard. Normally, you'd just run around and hope for the best, trying to fight them off if necessary and somewhat improvising.
The Cure:* I wait for the scales-room gate to raise fully and try to take it slow and careful (and only partially succeed). Normally you'd just run up the gate as soon as you thought you could squeeze through.
* I wait for the soul elemental to loop around its patrol again when getting the last flashbomb.
Thief: Deadly Shadows:
* This my most recently-routed and least-practiced run, so a lot of it is just being careful in the first place. But I sometimes wait for guards to pass in the street instead of flashbombing and running, and I try to conserve equipment in missions, thus sometimes waiting around to KO guys instead of running in arrows blazing. At the artifact-placing segment at the end, I'm extremely cautious and take it very slowly.
* In general, AIs can be dealt with much more easily than in previous games due to being allowed to kill combatants even on Expert. However, this can eat a lot of arrows quickly, so it needs to be considered still. The fact that you keep your equipment between missions and generally have enough loot to keep topped up, means you can often use gas bombs or flashbombs a lot too. Flashbombs are also more forgiving than previous games, because they stun enemies by simple radius, rather than needing to land in front of them as in previous games. However, AIs can't be bopped out after being flashbombed, so there's that. Also,
non-combatants are
not allowed to be killed, so I have to be careful not to do that accidentally.
* I take it slower in the first part of the Rutherford manor as I don't have a lot of equipment yet and I want to conserve it, so I wait and KO rather than just running around.
* The "memory" section of the Cradle is unique in that you have no items nor equipment, and thus can't kill the staff. This makes the staff much more dangerous than they normally would be. However, they don't kill you on contact, but just send you back to the present, where you can at least get another item and go back, and you have a generous 8 chances, so it's not as bad as it could be. Still, I'm very careful in that section. Ironically, when you're in the Cradle's memories as yourself for the last part, even though it's supposed to be more dangerous because the staff can kill you now, it's actually
way less dangerous because they don't hit very hard and you're topped up on health potions, and you can also fight back if you choose. I just run and heal as necessary.
* In general I follow the (
https://www.speedrun.com/tds/run/zp45k4gz) Expert 100% loot speedrun route, but skipping glitches and dangerous strategies where I deem necessary.
* I ally myself fully with both the hammers and pagans, otherwise the later parts become extremely dangerous due to encountering both factions on the street and in their territories (Fort Ironwood and the Auldale park are both required to be entered, and the pagan park in particular becomes a very convenient friendly zone). This actually doesn't take nearly as much extra time as you'd think. The two main timesinks are waiting for the pagans to finish their convo so they can get out of the way of the note on the wall, and then taking the tree to the bar and burning it. The rust mites and cornerstones can all be done on route and cost next to no time, and the zombie killings can all be done in the Abysmal Gale which is also very quick and most of them you'd kill regardless because they're in the way.
* I get as many holy waters as possible for the Cradle, because the puppets can eat either two or three flashbombs, so you might run low and want or need to use holy waters instead. Since you can't buy holy waters but can buy flashbombs, I conserve all holy waters for the Cradle.
* In the Keeper Compound, I go to the Hall of Statues area first, clear it out, and
then go to Caduca's quarters to trigger the cutscene there. Otherwise you're looting around a bunch of statues, which is far more dangerous.
