Sonny 100% in 22:54 [WR]
2FAQ:
- What are you doing in the options menu?
Due to a mistake in the way the game was coded, when you drop any item that your class can wear in the options screen the game will try to equip that item. This works fine if you're not already wearing an item in that slot as it will simply equip the item. For some reason though, if you're already wearing something in that slot it will just add the stats of the item to your stats instead of putting the item back in your inventory. These added stats interestingly also reset if you reload the game or re-spec your character but do not reset if you die in a fight.
- How are you able to wear Veradux' equipment then, aren't you an Assassin character?
It is true that trying the exploit described above wouldn't work with Veradux' equipment, however a variation of the exploit that you can see me do does let you overwrite your item slot in a different way as seen in the run. I'm not entirely sure if the stats stack and if this can be done multiples times because of that but it's only really useful for Veradux' equipment anyway. I also don't equip myself with Veradux' weapon (even though it's possible to do so) because Veradux is very useful in zone 2 to heal and support Sonny. As I am running the assassin build my health is laughably low until I get to stack a lot of items in zone 3 and the weapon Veradux is holding mostly increases magic which is entirely useless for the main attacks I use and increases his healing capabilities by a lot. Both of these exploits were patched in the later games.
- Why are you using the Assassin character?
The other contender for best class is the Gunslinger which specializes in Magic and mostly uses Electro Bolt to attack. The biggest advantage Gunslinger has over Assassin is that Electro Bolt scales with both Magic and Strength, while Smash - our main attacking move - only scales with Strength. This means that there are a lot more items in Zone 3 that add to useful stats for a Gunslinger than for an Assassin, not to mention that some of the Tribe Blades that can drop in Zone 3 and the Paladin equipment we stock up on before Zone 4, greatly add to your electric piercing which further increases damage dealt by Electro Bolt. The main advantage Assassin has however is that Smash can be equipped up to 6 times while Electro Bolt can only be equipped twice. This means Assassin really outclasses Gunslinger in the battles against three opponents in Zone 2 and onwards, and to compensate there are also items in the shops in Zone 3 and 4 that boost our physical piercing to add greatly to the damage dealt by Smash (as well as the assassin having a slightly higher damage output in general).
- Is this run improvable and where is there time to be saved?
This run is definitely improvable. The most obvious mistake is the terrible Baron fight in zone 3 which I came very close to losing, I have a very aggressive strategy and the baron completely outplayed me in the beginning (which is luck dependent and very unlikely) which almost caused me to lose the battle. The main improvement in this game relies on item drop luck at this point though. The main items you want to drop are Moon-Struck Horrors in Zone 2, certain Tribal Blades in Zone 3 - specifically the purple ones, and as many Blade of Lights as possible from training before zone 4, all of which boost either Strength or physical piercing.
The Moon-Struck Horrors are a 3% drop in stages 10, 11 and 15, and a 5% drop in stages 16 and 17.
The purple Tribal Blades are 2 separate 8% drops from every Shaman of Blades you fight in training battles in Zone 3 (which we do to unlock Shatter Bolt) (8% for both the primary and secondary arms, both of which have the same stats). Aside from that it is also a 25% drop on Rockstar, the Council and Baron Brixius alongside the other 3 tribal blades. The red ones, which are also an 8% drop from Rock Golems in training fights are also mildly useful but the other 2 are essentially useless for an Assassin build (but really good for a Gunslinger) and are sold to buy other items with.
Lastly the Blade of Light is a 15% drop each time you fight Paladin, which you do 21 or 22 times in total to train for Zone 4.
I got no Moon-Struck Horrors, 1 purple and 1 red Tribal Blade and 7/21 Blades of Light. Moon-Struck Horrors tend to be the most important ones as they can really skyrocket your earlygame, if you want an example look at AzureStar's any% world record where he gets both of the first 2 3% drops (a 1 in 1111 chance) and proceeds to fly through zone 2 because of it. Getting none is pretty standard but bad, the amount of tribal blades I got is average but could definitely be more. The 7 blades of light were really lucky (~2.9% chance to get 7 or more) and is what saved the sub 23 for this run I think. With better luck, especially with 2 or more Moon-Struck Horrors a 20:XX is definitely not unrealistic but grinding it out will be a pain for anyone attempting to do so