I think there’s no greater sign of a soulless dev team than a loathing of people who speedrun their game
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[[Major Cave Story Spoilers]]
This post will be my guide on achieving the most difficult challenge the freeware version of cave story rewards you for, which is speedrunning the most difficult stretch of the game in under 3 minutes.
While there are many videos of speedruns on the freeware version of the game of under 3 minutes and there are many guides for speedrunning Blood-Stained Sanctuary, the guides are mainly focused on the Steam version of the game, Cave Story+, in which it is significantly easier to get faster times due to having a different frames per second, and the videos can make certain strategies unclear. I aim to explain all of the necessary tricks with the intentions behind them in this guide.
Before explaining the run, there are a few things I need to make clear. You should have achieved the Best Ending at least once before trying to speedrun it, the build I used was the Spur/Blade+Super Missile Launcher, but I will add possible alternatives too, and perhaps most importantly, your times won’t save and earn new title screens without the 290 counter, found in the Outer Wall. The Life Pot which Jenka gives you is also practically required to get a sub 3 minute time. Note that if you want speedrun Hell, I highly advise against using anything but the Super Missile Launcher, as it’s practically a necessity for this run, and highly recommend using either Spur or Snake(the Spur is stronger, but the Snake can shoot through walls), as the Machine Gun and Polar Star are both not at all useful for this run.
Now to start the run…
Be sure to have your Super Missile Launcher out because we’ll need it at Level 3 by Heavy Press, the semi-final boss which we’ll spam to death. As you speed through the rooms getting to it, you need to be sure to collect enough xp crystals. All this means for the first room is destroy the crates and collect them for the SML. The first two must be destroyed by the SML to be collected without losing time while the last 4 are far easier to collect by destroying them with the SML, but if you have fast fingers than switching to a different weapon and switching back saves you 4 missiles(I didn’t so it’s not really required). Other than that you can approach this room like normal, though you can save up to a second(?) by boosting down at the beginning of the room and boosting down and to the left after the first set of xp. Attach Curly Brace and move on to room 2.
B2 - RNG Hell
Blocks fall all around you and enemies are trailing behind you too. Switch to Spur/Snake to deal with enemies and prioritise not getting hit by the blocks over pure speed. Short hops into long horizontal boosts are my main method of traversal with vertical spur shots to clear out enemies. Unfortunately getting unlucky here can legitimately just kill a run but with enough experience you may be able to save more health and time for this floor. Ideally you’ll have above 30 hp and around 42 seconds on the clock. On my successful run, I had 25 hp and 41.9 seconds on the clock by the end.
B3 - The Fun Part
B3 is where the run gets good. Switch to missiles and try to boost horizontally such that you align exactly above the second block to the left, then boost horizontally again after getting past it to the next vertically aligned block. Boost forward until you’re past the lower parts of the ceiling, then boost up and shoot 2 missiles horizontally to trigger the Deleet before having to deal with the enemies. Immediately after shooting the missiles switch weapons and blast the enemies with a Nemesis(Curly’s or your own will work fine). If you have the Snake, trigger the Deleet underneath at this point. Collect any XP drops you can into your SML, if it’s level 3 afterwards than you don’t have to worry about it and if it’s not than it can be compensated for later on. If you have Spur charge it to lv3 and shoot through the blocks into the second deleet, and if you have the Snake trigger the third deleet with the Snake through the floor. Kill the enemies on the left and collect their drops for the SML before proceeding. If SML is extremely close to Lv3 at this point, try collecting crystals from the deleets, otherwise it can be made up by damage tanking near the end before Heavy Press. In the next room charge a max level spur shot, take contact damage and then destroy the Mesa blocking the pathway through the spikes. With your invincibility frames, boost through the spikes and above two mesas. Charge a level three spur shot and then shoot it as you boost into the deleet a little below the eye, ideally so it clips through it and into the next deleet. Otherwise the same clip can be performed with the Super Missile Launcher, though I advise against trying it. While waiting for the deleet to die, avoid getting hit, and if you can, kill the enemies above for useful drops. After the first deleet explodes the second will follow shortly. Boost to the right and charge a spur shot to get rid of some of the flying enemies in the room before Heavy Press. Do the same deleet clipping to the last two deleets before Heavy Press and quickly boost up and grab the 24 missile capacity upgrade, spamming attack to minimise contact damage from enemies. Start charging a spur shot and boost back down and left to enter the Heavy Press arena. If your missiles aren’t at level 3 try to get hit by a flying enemy and jump into the spikes with your SML out to collect crystals before moving on. This room or the next is also when you’re most likely to need to use your Life Pot but try to hold it off for as long as possible.
Heavy Pre-
oh its gone. In all seriousness try to shoot your spur shot into Heavy Press and then switch to SML and spam. Without spur the strategy is basically the same. Stop shooting when a rolling enemy is blocking it and jump so your missiles don’t level down by contact damage. The minions it spawns will run into the missiles and die too. One it starts dying (if you have <5 hp use your Life Pot) damage tank into one of its minions and let Heavy Press try to crush you.
Final Stretch
(My successful attempt had a time of 1:45.9 at this point) The final stretch is mostly the easiest, but is stressful and requires a lot of mashing. The first room after Heavy Press just walk to the door to the right and go in. Use your Life Pot if you haven’t yet. In the dog room move and boost right and avoid colliding with the floor horizontally because you’ll lose your momentum. Once you enter Ballos’ room, charge your Spur if you have it and run over to Ballos. Keep holding the charge button as he speaks so it’ll stay charged when the fight begins. After his dialogue, run to him and shoot your charge shot when he’s vulnerable, then switch to the level 1 blade/nemesis and mash him to death. Make sure to run along with him when he dashes to maximise both your damage and invincibility frames. After he dies, switch to spur and kill a few flying green goblins for potential useful drops. Note that his starting spot for this phase tracks your horizontal position and you want to lure him to around where he starts his first phase, and be on his right. Charge a max level spur, jump up to and shoot his right eye as soon as it opens before immediately switching to missiles and blasting him, ideally before he makes a second jump. His third phase is the most important to do well. Jump on his head and switch to Blade/nemesis, and spam like your life depends on it. You’ll most likely have three heads left to deal with which you can kill from the ground on his loop around. For his final phase, deal with it the normal way you’d cheese it, damage tanking the spikes at the bottom and boosting to his eye. Try to have at least 8 hp beforehand, start charging your spur, damage tank on the 2 damage spikes, boost to an eye, and once the eyes open shoot your spur shot, switch to SML and mash like your life depends on it. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get your sub 3 minute time and the secret title screen.
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Discovered a bit that gets me every time:
Fake speed running lingo or gaming coms for the dumbest shit ever, I can’t help but laugh
Sleepover (squad) any % [WR!!]: “Wait wait I’m sleepy I’m sleepy- I’m cozy- there’s sheep, I’ve counted them, fuck huge time loss- horrible rng, there were like 40 sheep”
Shoe tying 100% [second place]: “no, chat, this is the bunny rabbit strat hold on. I looped it! It went through the hole! Wait this might be it this might be it- oh my god that’s time!!”
Driving (duos) highway + backroads with backseat driver [40:38 personal best]: “Fuck he didn’t indicate, saved it, we’re good. Watch my blind spot watch my blind spot- I’m turning, we’re good we’re good”
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there’s something magical about old pictures and videos of people speedrunning before capture cards and emulators were easily accesible. some guy propping up his camera on a chair so that he can show his personal best on the twilight princess snowboarding minigame, that sort of thing.
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the year is 2050. speedrun.com has categories for olympic sports. the leaderboards are full of users who outperform actual olympic competitors by a wide margin. the “100m dash any%” somehow has a verified run under 6 seconds.
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Lady Arcaders 4 Year Anniversary Raid Train
Lady Arcaders is celebrating our FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY (February 14th!) with a Twitch community raid train from Thursday February 12th to Sunday the 15th! The train will be starting on our Twitch channel for Thursday’s Attract Mode! and doing a complete loop around back to Sunday’s Attract Mode! We’ll be celebrating our members and all the cool things they do!
During the weekend, we’ll be raising funds for Out of Bounds Toronto, our in person event! Donations for Lady Arcaders can be sent through our Ko‑fi page!
Check out the schedule the whole weekend on our website!
https://ldy.gg/4yrs 🚆
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Jay12310 on the second ever Minecraft speedrun under seven minutes 🏃💨
Last week, Jay12310 got the second ever sub-seven minute time in the 1.16+ Random Seed Glitchless (RSG) category for Minecraft speedrunning.
We chatted to him about this achievement in our new article here!
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Speedrunning is kind of toxic yuri when you think about it. I love you so much that I’ll dedicate hundreds if not thousands of hours to know you better than anyone else ever has, but in getting to know you so well I’ve lost sight of the reasons I loved you in the first place. I can only be with you for short periods of time because any longer makes me a failure. I know you better than anyone but can never recreate the magic of not knowing you at all.
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I just found out Infume makes videos and this guy has such “im doing my best :(” vibes, except his best is being the #1 ranked minecraft speedrunner
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Hey.
Need something to watch this weekend?
Maybe try Really Really Long-A-Thon’s ICEBreaker event, benefitting the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota’s Immigrant Rapid Response Fund?
Just a suggestion.
*Boops back out*
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So some awesome people in the speedrunning community have done some last minute organizing to create a fundraising event called Ice Breakers
Ice Breakers is a speedrunning weekend event which will be supporting the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota’s Immigrant Rapid Response Fund
The Immigrant Rapid Response Fund (IRRF) is a coalition of 32 philanthropic leaders rooted in communities most impacted by immigration-related harm. IRRF ensures that resources move quickly, responsibly, and with community accountability to trusted organizations responding to immigration-related emergencies across Minnesota.
Schedule: https://oengus.io/marathon/iceout/schedule/main
Watch: https://twitch.tv/ReallyReallylongathon (Go live at 10 AM CST)
Donate: https://donate.mwsf.gg/ui/donate/icebreaker
You can also buy merch with these designs in the Tantrum Merch store and a portion of the funds goes to charity:
Signal boosts would be greatly appreciated 💕
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This is an old one, but behold!
MY BEST CELESTE RUN!
well, actually its not something remarkable, but for me, it was one of my best achievements.
If you wanna know, I practice for some months, did some speedrun strats (the crouch dash on chapter 3) and then just trying to do a flawless run… with 87 deaths lmao.
I swear I will bring more content and maybe a drawing who knows lol.
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MCSR Ranked reaches new highs in latest Playoffs 🏆🏃💨
The recent ninth MCSR Ranked Playoffs concluded a season that saw MCSR Ranked reaching new highs, with the first ever Ranked sub-six time, several new elo records, and one of the most watched Minecraft speedrunning events of all time. We sat down with hackingnoises and OliverMCSR to talk about the season and what’s to come next - read the full article here!
