K64:Aqua Star: Difference between revisions

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''Note: this page was adapted from swordsmankirby's guide. Some strats may be outdated.''
''Note: this page was adapted from swordsmankirby's guide. Some strats may be outdated.''


== 2-1 ==
== 3-1 ==
A mostly straightforward level with one annoying powerup combination.
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After Whispy Woods, you should have double fire, and if not, there is a fire enemy towards the beginning that you can grab. The three clips show the double fire route for the first room. The route is designed so that you don't land on any enemies during the recovery period between double fires.
At the beginning of the level, headbutt (or jump over) enemies until you get fire (left). In the second room, float up instead of taking the Zebons, grabbing '''Shard 1''' along the way (right). Though you can squeeze through the Scarfies, it's faster to stay left and fire over because the platform is lower.
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Once inside, float up to the ceiling and double fire across while grabbing '''Shard 1'''. A safer strat that's easier for getting the right height is shown on the right. In both instances, use the star piece as a visual cue. Afterwards, grab stone on the Cairn enemy below after throwing away double fire.
Hold the Emp enemy in your mouth as you navigate to the right, combining with the Poppy Bros. at the end (left). There are few things to be careful about. If you're too close to the Emp, you can swallow the enemy behind it. The Gloms (frogs in the wall) will destroy anything in your mouth, so it is imperative that you jump quickly past them. A safer strat would just be to swallow and take out the powerup later. Finally, I like to spit the enemy out in between the two sets of collapsing platforms so that I don't lose running speed. For whatever reason, you go back to walking speed if you spit on those platforms, even before they fall down.
 
In the room afterwards (right), just jump and avoid enemies. The two floppers are in the way, so puff them out of the way. The waterfalls push you down, so account for that when jumping.
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The Kacti miniboss takes four hits and is straightforward with the rock powerup. The fastest way to grab '''Shard 2''' is to use the powerup twice, ending farther left by the time of the fourth hit. Note that the animation where Kirby comes out of stone form also does damage and even has a larger hitbox. An easier strat, as shown on the right, just involves standing underneath the miniboss in stone form.
Drop below the miniboss and run into it with the snowman powerup. After the four hits, the platform will sink, revealing '''Shard 2'''. To get to the door when the Tick enemy on the right is still there, just float up and walk towards the exit. Depending on its movement, you might be able to just jump over it or freeze it incidentally during the actual fight, allowing you to reach the exit more directly.
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After exiting the autoscroller, there will be a cliff and a hill. Puffing right before hitting the ground cancels the nosedive animation, and since both uphill and downhill slopes slow down Kirby, jumping prevents you from losing speed. By far the scariest part of this level is combining with the Sparky at the end of the hill. There are many ways the Sparky can move, and missing the throw means resetting the level. Afterwards, run back across the hill and break the barrier with the yoyo to get '''Shard 3'''.
Navigate towards the bottom of the room and break the block with the snowman powerup. When climbing down the platforms, I like to hug the left side, but some people prefer to go more towards the middle. Since the snowman attack lasts so long and there's nothing nearby to help you break the block, you should activate it as soon as possible (i.e. once you reach the lowest level) to minimize the waiting time. After getting shot up into '''Shard 3''', remove the powerup while falling to avoid faceplanting and run it into the Zoos. To avoid the Kapars, just run over the blocks.
 
== 3-2 ==
This is the first level with significant amounts of moving water. It came into play in 2-3, but very minorly.
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After climbing the hill once more, make it through the gauntlet of enemies. It's fastest to go underneath, as shown on the left, but floating up and running on the blocks doesn't lose too much time, either. The yoyo is helpful for clearing out enemies, but keep in mind that you get sent back to walking speed after using it.
As in the previous level, combine two powerups (stone and fire) without swallowing the first one. The difference here is that the two enemies are found in different rooms. Right before the Bobo, you can pass over the Emp with a few well-timed jumps.


== 2-2 ==
The miniboss fight is straightforward with the volcano powerup. Conveniently, the first attack always shoots up, so use that to break the block. Collect '''Shard 1''' after the fight and remove the powerup as you leave. Note that you can't remove a powerup in the next room.
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Wait for the first column to fall and run underneath the rest. You can get underneath the first column, but it requires triggering it late with a precise jump. Waiting gives you time to throw away the yoyo powerup, which is useful for clearing the Sparky and Kacti enemies earlier in the level. If you're not comfortable with jumping underneath the Bouncys (middle), you can keep the powerup longer and get rid of it later (right).
In the river autoscroller, there are a few places where you can jump that save some time. The first place is where the Kany (crab) is, saving about a third of a second. In the middle of the autoscroller is a jump for '''Shard 2'''. Finally, jumping before the penultimate waterfall saves about half a second.
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Navigate through the mini maze to get '''Shard 1'''. There are several possible variations not shown here, such as floating up versus jumping up, or changing where you use fire.
At the beginning of this next section, inhale for a short amount of time to avoid faceplanting. Then, swallow the Kany enemy, grab the invincibility candy, and just run forward. '''Shard 3''' is at the bottom of a set of two waterfalls. Besides avoiding faceplanting with the enemy in your mouth (allowing you to just hold right), you can also spit at the enemy after your candy wears out.
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In the next room, fire across the abyss to get '''Shard 2'''. In the next room, I like to do one fire on the ground to get the right spacing for avoiding the Kapars, but this requires relatively consistent single fire canceling. Take the last of the crushing platforms up to get closer to the exit.
Since the water is running to left, jump repeatedly up the slopes, headbutting Bouncys when convenient. When you get underneath the Bronto Burt before the Galbo, jump and inhale to grab fire while landing on the platform. Make your way to the second Galbo by alternating jumping and fire. Here, float up and single fire across to the platform near the top of the waterfall. Perhaps the most time-consuming mistake is hitting one of the Splinters (spiky logs). Usually, these logs hit multiple times, causing your recovery to take forever and possibly knocking out your fire powerup.
 
== 3-3 ==
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In the Dedede section, it's faster to jump up the chains instead of climbing up them. It's easiest to damage boost off of the Galbo's fire breath to get up, but if you're low on health it's possible to jump past it. After grabbing '''Shard 3''', jump before the pit to both save time and to avoid waking up the other Galbo too early. In some of the chain jumping sections, you can reduce your horizontal momentum by turning around twice to grab the chain at a better location.
After single firing across the first room and into part of the second, put the Kapar enemy in your mouth. Note that if you're standing on the left half of the block, you'll swallow it with the enemy, causing you to fall in the water. Afterwards, jump over to the Blowfish in the water and combine for the ninja star powerup. I like to do one big jump and one small jump to get closer to the Blowfish, but far enough so he doesn't explode.
 
== 2-3 ==
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Before entering the level, backtrack to 2-2 to get drill.
Take the water jet up to the entrance into the mountain at the top of the screen. While standing on the plank I like to turn around twice to make sure I still have my running speed. Instead of jumping twice, you'll sometimes be in a position to ledge grab, which I think is a little bit faster. Once inside, move to the left and use the powerup to get '''Shard 1'''. Like in 2-1, I like to slide into the wall to quickly change directions. Slide into the block and immediately take your powerup out. For some reason, it'll go into your mouth as you step on the trigger. After exiting, spit out the powerup, inhale the Cairn enemy, and walk into the cutscene trigger.
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In the first room, use drill to get running speed as you enter the level, but keep in mind that you can get stuck on the entrance. Drill is useful for clearing out the many enemies in the beginning of the room. The first instance is using the drill on the first set of Boneheads. Depending on when you started the drill at the very beginning, it's possible to clear all four of them before letting go of the drill, but since it travels faster than you once you let go, you might as well do it as early as possible. The second drill comes after the Galbo, right before the block. If you do it too early, the second Bonehead might not get hit.
The next room is somewhat risky, because missing the powerup means restarting the level. With the Cairn enemy in your mouth, jump and spit it at the first Fishbone for the animal statues powerup. Float up and jump into the hole. The miniboss takes four hits, and since a large area around it collapses once it's killed, it's easy to get stuck in statue form while the floor collapses. The best real-time strat for killing this Kapar miniboss is to get one hit by bonking into it with the powerup, two hits by entering the powerup, and one hit by breaking out of it. Due to the invincibility frames, you have to delay the last hit a little bit. A safer strat involves going on the left side of the miniboss, where the floor doesn't collapse (right). Afterwards, grab '''Shard 2''' and fall through.
 
Also in this section is a rare exception to the slope mechanic. Since they appear to be flowing hills of sand, it's faster to run down these small slopes instead of jumping over them. Once you reach the big skeleton, use the drill to break the stone block, get rid of your powerup, and grab '''Shard 1'''. After dropping into the hole, take the path to the left. In the miniboss strat shown here, the third fire attack skims the bottom of the Fishbone so that the fourth fire (which is shorter and also slowed down by holding right) lands you right on the exit. Four "direct" hits is probably less than a second slower. After the fight, grab '''Shard 2''' on the left.
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The next two rooms are just tests of single fire, but there are some small optimizations at the exits. In the first of these two rooms, it's possible to slide from flat ground onto the slope, causing you to get into the loading zone faster than just sinking in the water. For the other room, try to spend as little time in the water, but don't go too far to the right or else you'll waste time sinking in the water.
The next shard is one of the more annoying RNG segments in the run. After breaking the block, you need to keep trying the powerup until you get Rick. To climb, hold left against the wall and press A at a certain rhythm (i.e. it's not mashing). After climbing to the top and collecting '''Shard 3''', drop down and break out of the powerup to avoid faceplanting. My visual cue is to press B when Kirby lines up with the second wooden platform visible on the right.
 
Afterwards, go to the right and float up, using the collapsing platforms to jump off of. For some reason, the ones on the right collapse almost immediately, while the ones on the left take about a second to fall. Once you get past these platforms, float past the last enemy and fall towards the exit. Keep the powerup, because it's useful for the next level.
 
== 3-4 ==
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The water sections can be sped up a little bit with a few fires. For '''Shard 3''' you can duck in the crevice with the Fishbone. You can also swim to the right of the skeleton piece that drops, but it's slower. Notice that while swimming up to it, Kirby doesn't need to slow down, even when the Fishbone attacks. After grabbing the shard, you can fit in three fires before reaching the exit.
At the beginning of the level, use the animal statues powerup to sink through the water faster. It's nicest to get Pitch here because of its horizontal speed. Conversely, Kine sucks because you can't move, and I'm still not sure what the best way of dealing with that is. The remaining four friends are more or less equal, falling in between Pitch and Kine.
 
== 2-4 ==
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At the beginning of the level, toss fire and grab bomb. We toss fire here because it's really slow to do so underwater at the end of 2-3. After getting past a few enemies, let the Nruff pass you and then jump on the edge of the purple platform. In the elevator section, float up and damage yourself on these two shotzos. The gap between the shotzos is enough such that usually you won't lose your powerup, but it's still possible. To ensure that the powerup isn't lost, wait for Kirby's "panic" animation to show up before doing the second damage boost. Of course, if you're low on health, do fewer hits.
Throw away the powerup in the next room and inhale one of the Floppers. By holding the Flopper above your head, you can go through most of this room really quickly, but there are many obstacles in the way–go too high and one of the boulders will hit your fish, and go too low you run into a lot of enemies. The standard strat is to float up to the height shown in the top-left, allowing you to avoid everything. I like to go lower, as seen in the bottom-left, because I'm scared of the boulders. While you get to hold onto the Flopper longer at this height, you'll also run into one of the enemies (bottom-right). It is unclear which is faster.
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The strat shown on the left is what some of us refer to as "TAS Blocks". When you get the jumps correctly, it's faster to fall in and grab '''Shard 1''' before combining for lightbulb. I like to do a short hop after the ledge grab to fall into the hole faster, but there's a small risk of jumping too high and faceplanting. In 100%, it's always better to go to the left side because the backup (right), where you grab the powerup first, is no faster if you start on the right side. When combining for lightbulb, keep in mind that the Spark-i can shoot at you, breaking your powerup if thrown. I also like to jump before inhaling because the powerup bounces up when it just gets combined.
In this room, the objective is to swim up without touching anything and grab '''Shard 1''' at the top of the room. There are currents pushing you horizontally, with the top-most one flowing to the right. As a result, we need to stay towards the left side of the room. The clip on the left shows my preferred route, though it's possible to essentially hug the left side the whole time. In the beginning of the next room, there's a slope that you can slide off, saving a little bit of time.
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Using the lightbulb, light up the panels in the background and press the corresponding switches for '''Shard 2'''. The switches don't have to be pressed in order, and you can jump after pressing a switch to cancel the animation. Since walking speed with lightbulb is really slow, you should immediately stop using it once you've memorized the images. After exiting by jumping up the ladder, float up and skip the whole room. When on the elevator, take out the powerup in preparation for the miniboss.
Later on in the same room, you approach a pole with '''Shard 2''' off to the bottom-right. You can slide down it quickly by simply double-tapping and holding down. Turning around on the pole can be done without losing any vertical speed. The quickest way is shown in the top-left, where you can inhale before getting to the bottom. Note that pressing A here doesn't work as well because it'll cause you to jump a little bit. The safer way involves just sliding to the bottom and running along the ground. Immediately after, inhale the Blowfish and proceed to the end of the room, swallowing only at the end. The enemy is swallowed here because going through the loading zone cancels a bit of the swallowing animation.
 
An easier Blowfish is one of the ones right before the pole (bottom-right), but swallowing it is really slow. Furthermore, pressing B on the pole needs to be done lower because the recovery animation with bomb (which causes you to rise a bit) takes longer.
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During the miniboss fight, we want to defeat it as quickly as possible while getting double spark, a powerup useful for Pix. The lightbulb can be used to deal two damage, while we swallow a mini Spark-i to do the remaining two hits. My strat is shown on the left, while a safer variant is in the middle. A crazy idea to save a few seconds is to just fight the miniboss with lightbulb (right), risking huge potential time losses in the Pix fight. In all cases, jumping up the ladder is faster than floating up.
The Blowfish miniboss has a quick-kill that involves getting stuck in the alcove (left). The clip shown here shows the riskiest way of doing it, where you start moving towards the exit after the second bomb. To stay up in the alcove, alternate between pressing A to swim up and B to throw a bomb. Make sure to only tap B, otherwise you'll hold the bomb up and it'll hit the ceiling. In the final room, stay close to the bottom, avoiding the random boulders and Gordos. In between the second set of Gordos is '''Shard 3''' sitting in a pit.
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In the last room, it's fastest to jump up the poles. The spawn pattern on the right is tougher than that of the left, so unless you want to save the amount of time it takes for Kirby to turn around, it's better to go to the left.
If you lost bomb before the end of the level, you can quickly re-enter the stage to grab a Pedo (yes, that's its actual name) before heading to Acro.




'''[[K64:Pix|Pix]]'''
'''[[K64:Acro|Acro]]'''

Latest revision as of 03:22, 16 August 2023


100% Route

Note: this page was adapted from swordsmankirby's guide. Some strats may be outdated.

3-1

At the beginning of the level, headbutt (or jump over) enemies until you get fire (left). In the second room, float up instead of taking the Zebons, grabbing Shard 1 along the way (right). Though you can squeeze through the Scarfies, it's faster to stay left and fire over because the platform is lower.

Hold the Emp enemy in your mouth as you navigate to the right, combining with the Poppy Bros. at the end (left). There are few things to be careful about. If you're too close to the Emp, you can swallow the enemy behind it. The Gloms (frogs in the wall) will destroy anything in your mouth, so it is imperative that you jump quickly past them. A safer strat would just be to swallow and take out the powerup later. Finally, I like to spit the enemy out in between the two sets of collapsing platforms so that I don't lose running speed. For whatever reason, you go back to walking speed if you spit on those platforms, even before they fall down.

In the room afterwards (right), just jump and avoid enemies. The two floppers are in the way, so puff them out of the way. The waterfalls push you down, so account for that when jumping.

Drop below the miniboss and run into it with the snowman powerup. After the four hits, the platform will sink, revealing Shard 2. To get to the door when the Tick enemy on the right is still there, just float up and walk towards the exit. Depending on its movement, you might be able to just jump over it or freeze it incidentally during the actual fight, allowing you to reach the exit more directly.

Navigate towards the bottom of the room and break the block with the snowman powerup. When climbing down the platforms, I like to hug the left side, but some people prefer to go more towards the middle. Since the snowman attack lasts so long and there's nothing nearby to help you break the block, you should activate it as soon as possible (i.e. once you reach the lowest level) to minimize the waiting time. After getting shot up into Shard 3, remove the powerup while falling to avoid faceplanting and run it into the Zoos. To avoid the Kapars, just run over the blocks.

3-2

This is the first level with significant amounts of moving water. It came into play in 2-3, but very minorly.

As in the previous level, combine two powerups (stone and fire) without swallowing the first one. The difference here is that the two enemies are found in different rooms. Right before the Bobo, you can pass over the Emp with a few well-timed jumps.

The miniboss fight is straightforward with the volcano powerup. Conveniently, the first attack always shoots up, so use that to break the block. Collect Shard 1 after the fight and remove the powerup as you leave. Note that you can't remove a powerup in the next room.

In the river autoscroller, there are a few places where you can jump that save some time. The first place is where the Kany (crab) is, saving about a third of a second. In the middle of the autoscroller is a jump for Shard 2. Finally, jumping before the penultimate waterfall saves about half a second.

At the beginning of this next section, inhale for a short amount of time to avoid faceplanting. Then, swallow the Kany enemy, grab the invincibility candy, and just run forward. Shard 3 is at the bottom of a set of two waterfalls. Besides avoiding faceplanting with the enemy in your mouth (allowing you to just hold right), you can also spit at the enemy after your candy wears out.

Since the water is running to left, jump repeatedly up the slopes, headbutting Bouncys when convenient. When you get underneath the Bronto Burt before the Galbo, jump and inhale to grab fire while landing on the platform. Make your way to the second Galbo by alternating jumping and fire. Here, float up and single fire across to the platform near the top of the waterfall. Perhaps the most time-consuming mistake is hitting one of the Splinters (spiky logs). Usually, these logs hit multiple times, causing your recovery to take forever and possibly knocking out your fire powerup.

3-3

After single firing across the first room and into part of the second, put the Kapar enemy in your mouth. Note that if you're standing on the left half of the block, you'll swallow it with the enemy, causing you to fall in the water. Afterwards, jump over to the Blowfish in the water and combine for the ninja star powerup. I like to do one big jump and one small jump to get closer to the Blowfish, but far enough so he doesn't explode.

Take the water jet up to the entrance into the mountain at the top of the screen. While standing on the plank I like to turn around twice to make sure I still have my running speed. Instead of jumping twice, you'll sometimes be in a position to ledge grab, which I think is a little bit faster. Once inside, move to the left and use the powerup to get Shard 1. Like in 2-1, I like to slide into the wall to quickly change directions. Slide into the block and immediately take your powerup out. For some reason, it'll go into your mouth as you step on the trigger. After exiting, spit out the powerup, inhale the Cairn enemy, and walk into the cutscene trigger.

The next room is somewhat risky, because missing the powerup means restarting the level. With the Cairn enemy in your mouth, jump and spit it at the first Fishbone for the animal statues powerup. Float up and jump into the hole. The miniboss takes four hits, and since a large area around it collapses once it's killed, it's easy to get stuck in statue form while the floor collapses. The best real-time strat for killing this Kapar miniboss is to get one hit by bonking into it with the powerup, two hits by entering the powerup, and one hit by breaking out of it. Due to the invincibility frames, you have to delay the last hit a little bit. A safer strat involves going on the left side of the miniboss, where the floor doesn't collapse (right). Afterwards, grab Shard 2 and fall through.

The next shard is one of the more annoying RNG segments in the run. After breaking the block, you need to keep trying the powerup until you get Rick. To climb, hold left against the wall and press A at a certain rhythm (i.e. it's not mashing). After climbing to the top and collecting Shard 3, drop down and break out of the powerup to avoid faceplanting. My visual cue is to press B when Kirby lines up with the second wooden platform visible on the right.

Afterwards, go to the right and float up, using the collapsing platforms to jump off of. For some reason, the ones on the right collapse almost immediately, while the ones on the left take about a second to fall. Once you get past these platforms, float past the last enemy and fall towards the exit. Keep the powerup, because it's useful for the next level.

3-4

At the beginning of the level, use the animal statues powerup to sink through the water faster. It's nicest to get Pitch here because of its horizontal speed. Conversely, Kine sucks because you can't move, and I'm still not sure what the best way of dealing with that is. The remaining four friends are more or less equal, falling in between Pitch and Kine.

Throw away the powerup in the next room and inhale one of the Floppers. By holding the Flopper above your head, you can go through most of this room really quickly, but there are many obstacles in the way–go too high and one of the boulders will hit your fish, and go too low you run into a lot of enemies. The standard strat is to float up to the height shown in the top-left, allowing you to avoid everything. I like to go lower, as seen in the bottom-left, because I'm scared of the boulders. While you get to hold onto the Flopper longer at this height, you'll also run into one of the enemies (bottom-right). It is unclear which is faster.

In this room, the objective is to swim up without touching anything and grab Shard 1 at the top of the room. There are currents pushing you horizontally, with the top-most one flowing to the right. As a result, we need to stay towards the left side of the room. The clip on the left shows my preferred route, though it's possible to essentially hug the left side the whole time. In the beginning of the next room, there's a slope that you can slide off, saving a little bit of time.

Later on in the same room, you approach a pole with Shard 2 off to the bottom-right. You can slide down it quickly by simply double-tapping and holding down. Turning around on the pole can be done without losing any vertical speed. The quickest way is shown in the top-left, where you can inhale before getting to the bottom. Note that pressing A here doesn't work as well because it'll cause you to jump a little bit. The safer way involves just sliding to the bottom and running along the ground. Immediately after, inhale the Blowfish and proceed to the end of the room, swallowing only at the end. The enemy is swallowed here because going through the loading zone cancels a bit of the swallowing animation.

An easier Blowfish is one of the ones right before the pole (bottom-right), but swallowing it is really slow. Furthermore, pressing B on the pole needs to be done lower because the recovery animation with bomb (which causes you to rise a bit) takes longer.

The Blowfish miniboss has a quick-kill that involves getting stuck in the alcove (left). The clip shown here shows the riskiest way of doing it, where you start moving towards the exit after the second bomb. To stay up in the alcove, alternate between pressing A to swim up and B to throw a bomb. Make sure to only tap B, otherwise you'll hold the bomb up and it'll hit the ceiling. In the final room, stay close to the bottom, avoiding the random boulders and Gordos. In between the second set of Gordos is Shard 3 sitting in a pit.

If you lost bomb before the end of the level, you can quickly re-enter the stage to grab a Pedo (yes, that's its actual name) before heading to Acro.


Acro