Read desc. (Important)
Sup! After quite a break from Pandemonium, i returned to see what else i could improve on the route from some months ago.
Turned out, there is a lot to improve.
After fiddling around here and there, doing some theorycrafting and a little bit testing, i was able to obliberate the official WR (37:12) by a minute and 45 seconds.
I actually got the WR almost a week after the 37:12, with a 36:31 (Which had a slightly different route aswell)
Id rather decided to not upload it, since i wasn't really happy with it and discarded the whole thing quite after.
After picking the game up again, to see what else might be possible,
i improved from 36:31 all the way to the current time now, while always tweaking the route bit by bit.
There isn't too much to say about this route other than the fact that it uses a different "approach".
Earlier this year (or late last year i dont remember), i found out that you could get a permanent speed boost (lasts until polymorph) by dashing into a fixed obstacle (like a saw) with only one heart, or falling down and dashing shortly before the death animation.
The best way to execute this, without losing too much time, due to Fargus being slower overall, its the best choice to use it in the Fungus Grotto.
Not only are you a frog most of the time anyway, but also on the last checkpoint, there is a hole to fall down shortly after. And the rest is just sliding down, which is exactly the same speed as it would be with Nikki.
So overall, i've build the route here around the death abuse and some other "minor" things post level 8 (where you lose your speedboost due to getting poly'd), e.g. Efreet Palace with jumping against the wind and boosting through a whole section.
Im not really happy about this run in all honesty, due to a massive fuck up in Storm Temple (even though im still very certain in the fact, that i had executed it properly), where i did not got the last skip and lost roughly 10 seconds to it.
Additionally, i decided to not take certain risks, which also cost all around probably over 10 sec+. The reason for that was simply because i wanted to upload a run where all the new tricks and quirks are being shown, so that other runners could take a look at it and score better times overall... and while im typing this i realize that there are only 2 other runners, of which one of them is inactive since months..
It shouldn't be too difficult to beat this time after adapting to the new route.
I don't even see myself too much of a runner of this game anymore since im not actively playing it, but more as an exposer / an autistic adventurer who wants to find out secrets, new routes etc.
With my current route right here, it is possible to push it sub 35.
Without wanting to sound cocky, but if i truly wanted, im confident that i could push it atleast sub 35:10 myself, but the community is just way too small, almost non existent and that makes it just not worth it to me to run it out, personally.
I might return if for some reason the community should grow, or if i should find out something new.
Just see this as a "quick" status update and more educational, rather than an actual WR run.
Well, that's it, do what you want with it.
Oh, yeah! I've actually uploaded a run 2 days before on a different account, with a 35:34 which i had taken down by myself again because it had missing audio and i just hated how trashy the quality was overall.
Just in case anyone actually follows Pandemonium! runs. So don't worry about that one.
Shout-outs to the incompetent team of speedrun.com for banning the other account, for no legitimate reason and ignoring my support ticket!
My official previous time was 37:22 under the name "EmeraldSw0rd".