Name: Donkey Kong 64 Single-Segment Speed Run Part 4 @cheeseoman
Uploaded: 2024-10-17T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: Donkey Kong 64 Single-Segment Speed Run Part 4

Donkey Kong 64 Single-Segment Speed Run Part 4

Cheeseoman 2024-10-17 | Donkey Kong 64 Single-Segment Speed Run Part 4

Paraglider-less Challenge Highlights (Tears of the Kingdom)

Cheeseoman 2023-10-09 | I beat the game, all the shrines, and the first four temples without the paraglider. I also got all the treasure chests in the shrines. This video shows some highlights of the challenge. I mostly show the shrines, since you can get just about anywhere in the overworld by using flying machines; see clips 8 and 9. Apart from the shrines shown in this video, there are others where using the paraglider is the most obvious solution, but they can be solved with a simple Ultrahand + Recall combo or another technique shown here.

1. You can drop into a chasm without dying by holding onto a climbable object. I used a log here since trees are ubiquitous, but other objects can be used. A piece of ruins rubble is well suited because it tends not to rotate while falling. As this clip shows, a log can rotate, so it helps to climb around in such a way that you're holding onto a vertical section. Otherwise, you can lose your grip and take fall damage. There are several other ways to drop into chasms without dying: Fall into water, use a fairy to heal yourself, or wear all three pieces of glide gear upgraded to level 2 in order to get the Impact Proof bonus, which prevents all fall damage. Once you have Impact Proof, it's by far the most convenient option, but because it takes some time to get the gear and upgrade it, it's good to have alternatives.

2. Kiuyoyou Shrine. This one is easy once you realize that you can walk on the spikes.

3. Runakit Shrine. Grind and walk up the rails to reach the top.

4. Morok Shrine. This was the very first surface shrine I attempted in my first playthrough. I didn't have the paraglider yet, and I wondered why Nintendo made such an early shrine so hard. The first two parts can be done by giving yourself some horizontal momentum when you boost. Returning to the central area from the side involves taking a fall, but I think landing on slightly higher ground (rather than in the well for the orb) reduces the damage a little. After getting the treasure chest, you can break your fall on the lamps in order to get back down safely. As mentioned above, Impact Proof prevents all fall damage, which makes this and other shrines, plus movement in general, much easier.

5. Mayaumekis Shrine. The enhanced aerial movement of the glide set makes this one straightforward.

6. Mayamats Shrine. Although you cannot use portable Zonai devices or Autobuild in shrines, you can fuse Zonai devices to your equipment outside a shrine, then bring it inside with you. Using this trick to bring rocket shields into shrines is very useful. Here, I cross the large gap easily using a rocket jump. Bringing the orb back across the gap is also pretty easy: just use an Ultrahand + Recall combo.

7. Gatakis Shrine. This is perhaps the trickiest shrine to beat without the paraglider. I used a number of rocket jumps to get through. The second rocket jump involves landing on a pretty small platform. I found the speed of the entire glide set excessive, so I only equipped one piece for this jump.

8. I also beat the Legend of the Great Sky Island quest, which normally involves using the paraglider and the Zora Armor. The steward construct says that you can't stand on ground other than the top of the temple, but a Zonai device apparently doesn't count as "ground". So, you can fly by a torch, use Recall to bring your flying machine backwards, and shoot the torch while standing on the machine. Incidentally, using Recall like this is an excellent way to refill your energy; I never consumed a Zonai Charge in this challenge.

9. The Colgera battle was the hardest part of the challenge. The first phase is easy, but in the second phase, he launches tornadoes that will knock you down if they hit. I tried various strategies involving springs, but I couldn't get above Colgera. Ultimately, I found that I could avoid the tornadoes with careful flying. While I was diving through the weak point, either I misjudged my position or Colgera moved, but I almost missed. Luckily, I bounced up off of Colgera's body and was able to try again. This clip shows one hit from the second phase; the other two hits are very similar. After finishing the challenge, I learned that you can damage Colgera with arrows. That would probably be much easier.

Sparks of Hope Various Softlocks

Cheeseoman 2023-08-03 | Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope suffers from various softlock and crash bugs, just like its predecessor. Here are a few of them I happened to run into while playing the game.

1. In the final battle, I ran onto a small ledge and tried to attack. Instead of attacking, Edge shook back and forth endlessly. I had to restart that phase of the battle. Thankfully, the game doesn't make you restart the entire battle, which is pretty long.

2. At the end of a Coin Blitz in Tower of Doom, I was pressing against a partial cover and the vault command was displayed. The game never moved on to the results screen. I could move the camera around with the right stick and make the vault command appear with the control stick, but I couldn't vault. I tried pausing and skipping the Coin Blitz, but that didn't work. I also tried reloading the file, but that resulted in a never-ending black screen. I was worried that I might have to restart the entire Tower of Doom file, but when I restarted the game and loaded the file again, it worked correctly (though I did have to repeat the battle).

3. In another Tower of Doom battle, a Goomba got stuck while rounding a corner. I had to repeat the (very long) battle.

Boxboy Triple S Rank (SSS) in All Worlds with No Costume

Cheeseoman 2023-01-08 | Although the costumes make it much easier to get SSS in many worlds, it's possible to get SSS in every world without a costume. The time limit for S rank is very lenient in almost all worlds, but the box limit is sometimes pretty tight. In this video, I don't go for the minimum number of boxes. There are many places where it's possible to save boxes, but it isn't necessary to do so. However, in worlds where the box limit leaves a big margin for error, I sometimes try to save additional boxes just to keep things interesting.

One technique I use many times is worth explaining. I call it the walk-off. To perform it, walk almost all the way off a platform. Move a box back toward the platform, then create another one below the first. You will be pushed completely off the platform, but will still be able to create boxes. This technique allows you to save boxes in many scenarios. A simple example is in 18-6; see 1:15:01 in the video. Getting across the spike field without a walk-off would require at least one box, but with a walk-off, you can get across with no boxes. When I was working on World 6, I discovered this technique and used it a few times without really understanding it, but it wasn't until World 16 that I paid attention to it and started using it frequently. Thus, there are lots of places in the first 15 worlds where I could have easily used a walk-off to save a box, but didn't.

A variant of the walk-off can be used when you walk from regular ground toward a spike field. Instead of moving the first box backward, you can move it forward. I use this variant in 21-3; see 1:31:53 in the video.

Another technique I'd like to point out is a very simple one: press X to destroy existing boxes. I only discovered this partway through making the video when I accidentally opened the Controls screen.

If you get SSS in every world, then each category on the whole-game stats screen will show an S+ rank. You'll have the title of Legendary Champion.

Mighty Milky Way Low Candy for All Levels

Cheeseoman 2023-01-03 | I've been working on beating each level while using the lowest possible number of planet candies. I'm only interested in the number of times I use candy; I don't care whether I pick it up. This video shows my best score for each level. For some levels, I already achieved my best score in my Time Bomb mode video, so I reused parts of that video:

youtube.com/watch?v=gZbZwGpMSm8

Most of the techniques I use are self-explanatory, but one might not be obvious. The buttons A, B, Y, and X function the same as the D-pad directions right, down, left, and up. I often press A immediately followed by D-left in order to walk a very short distance. This is easier than pressing D-right, then D-left.

Comments on selected levels:

2-T-Rex: Getting from the big planet to the goal doesn't require any candies. If you aim north and launch with good timing, the T-Rex will destroy the planet as you're falling south. You'll then land on the final planet, from which you can finish the level. However, I wasn't able to get to the big planet without using candies.

3-3: This was the last level where my score was higher than 1 candy. There are 2 corners that seem impossible to navigate without candy, so I was initially using 2 candies, as seen in my Time Bomb video. Then it occurred to me that it might be possible to use a single planet to turn both corners. After a bit of experimentation, I came up with the strategy seen here.

3-6: I didn't know whether the shot at the beginning was possible, but from playing the level quite a bit, I knew it would be very precise if it was. Somehow, though, I managed to get it in only two tries. I hadn't practiced the ending, but luckily I did it correctly.

3-9: This level took the most work to figure out. There are lots of tricky shots you can do in the northern half of the level, but piecing them together into a working strategy wasn't easy. Executing the strategy is no cakewalk either, since there are a number of tough moves.

4-6: This level seems like one of the most likely candidates for improvement. I tried slingshotting around the easternmost planet to reach the goal with no candy, but I couldn't quite make it.

4-9: One of my favorite low-candy strategies. With a few good shots and a well-placed planet, you can skip most of the level.

--------------------------------------

The number of candies I used for each level is listed below.

1-1: 0
1-2: 1
1-3: 1
1-4: 0
1-5: 1
1-6: 0
1-7: 1
1-8: 1
1-9: 0
1-T: 0
2-1: 0
2-2: 0
2-3: 0
2-4: 0
2-5: 0
2-6: 0
2-7: 0
2-8: 1
2-9: 0
2-T: 1
3-1: 1
3-2: 0
3-3: 1
3-4: 1
3-5: 1
3-6: 0
3-7: 1
3-8: 1
3-9: 0
3-T: 0
4-1: 0
4-2: 0
4-3: 1
4-4: 1
4-5: 1
4-6: 1
4-7: 0
4-8: 1
4-9: 1
4-T: 0
5-1: 0

Total: 19

Out of 41 levels, I beat 22 with no candy. The remaining 19 levels took one candy each. Some of these seem impossible to improve, but I could imagine a few of them being done with no candy.

Mighty Milky Way Orbiting a Planet

Cheeseoman 2023-01-02 | I managed to get into a perfect orbit around a planet. Normally, you either land on a planet after being pulled in by its gravity or you slingshot around it without doing a complete revolution. However, the planets in this level appear to be in the perfect positions for you to enter orbit. I did this completely by accident while messing around in the level. I left the game running for a while and the loop showed no signs of ending.

Mighty Milky Way All Levels in Time Bomb Mode

Cheeseoman 2022-12-31 | Time Bomb mode is an excellent bonus for players who have finished the game in regular mode. Play is the same except that each level has a time limit. However, unlike typical time limits in games, some of the limits are pretty strict and require the player to come up with a good strategy and execute it well.

Since I couldn't find any videos of this mode, I figured I'd make one to show how to beat all the levels.

I added giant borders to the video to trick YouTube's video processing, which is based largely on resolution. Without borders, YouTube drastically reduces the video's quality.

Valkyria Chronicles Guarding the Refugee Camp in 1 Phase (1 Turn, No Enemy Phase)

Cheeseoman 2022-11-30 | I beat Guarding the Refugee Camp in one turn without going to the enemy's phase. Once again, I killed many enemies with friendly fire. I hadn't practiced beforehand and was just winging it, but I managed to find some good spots to stand during the friendly fire kills. Aside from that, my strategy is similar to the one in my original one-turn completion:

youtube.com/watch?v=d_QPkqqBG80

Valkyria Chronicles East Bank of Vasel Expert in 1 Phase (1 Turn, No Enemy Phase)

Cheeseoman 2022-11-28 | I beat East Bank of Vasel Expert in one turn without going to the enemy's phase. Like the last few one-phase completions I've uploaded, this one involves lots of friendly fire. I used all three engineers with the Invincible potential. Karl gets lots of friendly fire kills, but the other two just use Invincible to survive, since the enemies are very powerful and you're exposed to lots of interception fire. Most of the level is straightforward, but there are a few things worth mentioning:

* Karl doesn't have much AP to spare. For this reason, you can't move back and forth very much while trying to find a good spot to stand during a friendly fire kill. I had some trouble finding the right spots for some of the kills. It can be tricky because the enemies are pretty accurate in this level; when the enemies are less accurate, their shots cover a wider area, making friendly fire kills easier.

* Because the shock trooper on the roof is crouching and inside a camp, he has lots of extra defense and takes 7 out of 7 shots from the ZM Kar 9(g) to kill. You can't get right next to him, so you can't fill up the aiming circle. For this reason, I used Ramsey, who has the highest accuracy of the Invincible engineers. She can fill up much more of her aiming circle than the other two, giving her a better chance of success.

* While taking Claudia to the southwest, you can use friendly fire from the southwestern shock trooper to kill the remaining units in the group of five east of the allied base camp. This would save a CP, but I had enough CP without doing it and the kills would be really slow, so I didn't bother.

* In the southwest, I could have used friendly fire from the tank to kill the shock trooper, but I found a more amusing way to kill him.

Valkyria Chronicles Edys Challenge (Shock Trooper Trial) in 1 Phase (1 Turn, No Enemy Phase)

Cheeseoman 2022-11-27 | I beat the Shock Trooper Trial in one turn without going to the enemy's phase. This is a fairly easy and boring one-phase completion, but I haven't seen a video of it, so I decided to make one. The level has lots of enemies, but they are mostly out in the open and packed closely together, providing ample opportunities for friendly fire. I cut out most of the friendly fire because it's so boring to watch, but I kept the entirety of the friendly fire kills involving Rosie and Lynn; since they're not invincible, there's a possibility they might be killed.

Valkyria Chronicles Janns Challenge (Lancer Trial) in 1 Phase (1 Turn, No Enemy Phase)

Cheeseoman 2022-11-24 | I beat the Lancer Trial in one turn without going to the enemy's phase. My previous one-turn completion involved killing three enemies during the enemy phase:

youtube.com/watch?v=jImJzn91fs8

After I made that video, I found another video of a one-turn completion:

nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7807500

My strategy uses fewer CP in the northern half of the map and his strategy uses fewer CP in the southern half. He also kills an additional foot soldier during the player phase. By combining elements of both strategies and using Musaad's Bloodthirsty to get a double kill, I was able to kill every enemy in one phase. This video may appear very similar to my previous one-turn video for this level, but when I was playing, there was a huge difference: the friendly fire kill of the southeastern Medium Tank + took over four days. The other friendly fire kills only took an hour or two apiece. All told, Karl's second move took over 100 hours. If it seems like I'm being ridiculously careful with my aiming at the end of the move, that's why; if I messed up and had to repeat the move, it would have taken another 100 hours.

Valkyria Chronicles Out of Bounds in Assault on Ghirlandaio

Cheeseoman 2022-11-06 | While making my video of beating Assault on Ghirlandaio in one turn, I came across this out-of-bounds glitch.

1. Use the tank to boost a scout over the first set of barricades, then save and load. The scout will be falling below the level, even while you're in Command Mode. As the scout falls farther down, he will sight enemies; watch the bottom left corner of the screen shortly after I load the file and you'll see enemy icons appear. These observations suggest that the game keeps calculating things like unit positions and sightlines while you're in Command Mode. If you move the cursor around, the scout's icon moves. Once you select him, you can run around in midair underneath the level.

2. Select the scout quickly after loading and you can see the level moving away from him.

3. Sometimes, the game crashes while you're using the glitch.

Valkyria Chronicles Assault on Ghirlandaio in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-11-06 | I beat Assault on Ghirlandaio in one turn. I learned the strategy from this video on Nicovideo:

nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7763547

The strategy is pretty easy. The positioning and aiming don't seem precise at all; I got everything on my first try. While working on this, I discovered a cool out-of-bounds glitch:

youtube.com/watch?v=un9Aua3LBig

Valkyria Chronicles Covert Op Azure Witch in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-11-01 | I beat Covert Op Azure Witch in one turn. I know I said this about the Lancer Trial, but this is by far the hardest one-turn completion I've done. It's much harder than doing the Lancer Trial in one turn. The level is huge, there are lots of walls blocking your shots, the enemies are far apart, and all but one of your units suck. There's one particular enemy that makes a one-turn completion seem impossible: the gatling in the southwestern camp. Because of the walls around him, you don't have a clear line of sight unless you're close to him. But it takes so much AP to get close to him that doing so appears to require two turns.

I've been trying to avoid any information about other people's minimum-turn runs, including the turn counts achieved, since it's more fun to figure it all out for myself. In this case, though, I inadvertently read that the level had been beaten in one turn. Without reading this, I may have concluded that two turns was the minimum because of the aforementioned problem with the southwestern gatling. But since one turn was apparently possible, I kept playing. As I messed around with the lazily named Beam Weapon, I noticed that it exhibited strange behavior that I haven't seen with any other weapon. When you shoot it at certain walls, the visible energy blast turns to avoid going through the wall, but the hitbox apparently keeps moving in a straight line. Thus, the Beam Weapon is able to shoot through certain walls, or at least hit targets behind them. Armed with this knowledge, I found a way to kill the southwestern gatling from a great distance.

Even with that problem solved, there are still lots of enemies to kill and not much CP to kill them with. The enemy apparently spends all but 4 CP on reinforcements regardless of how much they start with, so you can't kill many enemies during their phase. My strategy involves 7 moves with Selvaria, all of which use the Beam Weapon and not the useless Gatling Beam. I often destroy multiple targets in one shot. The trickiest shot is the final one, where I kill two gatlings and one tank in a single shot. I use visual markers such as the stones on the floor, the sandbags, and parts of the HUD in order to get the positioning and aiming right. After Selvaria's moves, I use a scout to kill a couple enemy scouts on the eastern side of the level. These scouts don't cooperate during the enemy phase, so I have to kill them during my phase. Next, I walk into crossfire range with Johann, then enter and exit target mode until his Fearless Will potential activates. This boosts my attack power, allowing me to kill the shock trooper below the allied camp with a grenade. From there, I carefully make my way toward the tank on the lower level. I have just enough AP to reach it.

At the end of my phase, there are three enemies left, all of which are scouts. The one east of the base dies the vast majority of the time, so he's not much of a concern. The one near Selvaria dies maybe half the time. But the one on the stairs is a problem. He's the type of enemy that stops moving when he's hit by crossfire, then targets someone for an attack. The issue I had on an earlier attempt is that I put scouts in the northern part of my camp and they kept stopping the stair guy in his tracks. He then targeted my sniper, who was unable to counterattack. Even if he killed the sniper and moved again, he would typically attack a scout, who was not powerful enough to kill him. After many attempts at the enemy phase, I decided to change my deployment, which of course meant repeating the level. This time, I didn't put any scouts in the northern part of the camp. Instead, in the two spots the stair guy likes to target, I put shock troopers, who are able to kill him with counterattacks. I also moved Selvaria as far north as possible on her final move so she wouldn't hit the stair guy and make him stop outside the shock troopers' range. This strategy worked, and I completed the enemy phase within a few tries.

Valkyria Chronicles Tank Launching

Cheeseoman 2022-10-31 | A trick I found in Valkyria Chronicles. By using the Shamrock to push someone against a wall, you can launch them a huge distance. In this case, I launched Hector across the entire width of Showdown at Naggiar 2. I suspect that the presence of the Edelweiss is relevant, since I couldn't get the trick to work when it was far away.

This video shows a few clips of the trick:

1. I launch Hector from near the middle of the Edelweiss.

2. I launch Hector from behind the Edelweiss.

3. Another launch from near the middle.

4. I launch Hector from near the front of the Edelweiss. This was the first time I did the trick, and it was completely by accident. I wasn't recording, so I used the Switch's camera button to save the last 30 seconds of play. After I found Hector, I took a screenshot of his position on the map, which is shown at the end of the clip. The trick worked a little differently here because you can actually see Hector flying into the air. Also, he ended up in a completely different place than in the other clips; he's at the southern end of the map instead of the eastern end. Maybe this is because there were some enemies in the way.

I haven't done much testing with the trick, but perhaps it could be useful somewhere, especially if it can be done with another tank. For example, in Assault on Ghirlandaio (in the Selvaria campaign), maybe you can use the tank to launch somebody to the bottom level of the fortress and finish in one turn. I tried that briefly, but didn't get it to work.

Valkyria Chronicles Susies Challenge (Scout Trial) in 2 Turns

Cheeseoman 2022-10-29 | I beat the Scout Trial in two turns. In this battle, your resources are very limited; you only have 1 base CP and you can only deploy a single unit. If you deploy a leader, you will have 2 CP. Since no leader has a potential like Double Action and there appear to be no places to do things like friendly fire or double headshots, you're pretty much limited to 1 kill per CP during your phase, for a total of 4 kills in 2 turns. This only accounts for half of the 8 enemies, so you need a lot of help from the enemies during their phase. Fortunately, they are willing to provide it. At the end of my first phase, I stand in a spot where I can see 2 enemies crawling in the grass. This causes these enemies to attack me during their phase, giving me a chance to counterattack and kill them. Another enemy runs toward me and gets himself killed. That leaves only 3 enemies on the second turn, which is no problem: I kill 2 in my phase, then kill the last one in the enemy phase.

This battle seems impossible to beat in one turn. Assuming you only kill 2 enemies in your phase (for the reasons described above), you would have to kill 6 enemies in their phase. The enemy only has 4 CP, so even if you somehow got 4 enemies to come near you and get themselves killed, there would still be 2 left. Thus, I don't see a one-turn completion happening, but I would be very interested in being proven wrong.

Valkyria Chronicles Janns Challenge (Lancer Trial) in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-10-28 | I beat the Lancer Trial in one turn. This is by far the hardest one-turn completion I've done. There are a number of factors contributing to the difficulty. To start with, the enemy has a whopping 13 tanks, all of which are facing toward you. Only a lancer can kill them in one attack from the front, but no lancer has anything like Double Action or Double Attack, so lancers would be limited to one kill per CP (see note below). Since you only have 8 CP, killing any large number of the 13 tanks that way is a non-starter. As a result, there's no practical way to attack the tanks without getting behind them. That brings me to another problem: most of the enemies start far away from you, so your units have to move a long way just to begin killing them. Scouts can handle the distance, but it's a big obstacle for the other classes. Finally, don't forget about the 5 enemy foot soldiers. The shock troopers and the scout can be killed with crossfire and counterattacks as long as you get a unit reasonably close to them, but these methods seem useless against the ace sniper. He rarely moves, he has seemingly perfect evasion, and he has massive HP and defense. About the only way to kill him without using tons of CP is to get behind him so he can't dodge.

(Note: A possible method to kill multiple tanks per CP with a lancer is to use the mortar weapon along with Tank Destroyer; I didn't think of this until afterward. However, lancers' low AP and inability to attack during the enemy phase still seem to be major problems.)

After a lot of experimentation, I managed to find a strategy to finish in one turn. Below, I'll break down the strategy move by move.

1. (Karl) I move toward the tanks in the southeast, killing one of them. Invincible isn't really necessary here, but I figured I'd get it just in case.

2. (Karl) I use Invincible and kill three tanks using friendly fire. This takes almost five hours, so the video is abridged. After those three are finally gone, I kill one more: the Medium Tank +. I experimented with killing it using friendly fire, but it was taking damage so slowly that it would have taken a day or two to die. Also, my AP is pretty low when I get behind that tank, and if I were to mess up and leave myself unable to get an additional kill, I would have to repeat the entire move. Even though killing one more tank with friendly fire might have saved a CP (thus making the rest of the level much easier), I figured it wasn't worth it.

3. (Lynn) This move and the next are very precise. I have barely enough AP to get where I want to go, so I have to shoot two tanks from a position where the weak points are hardly visible. As a result, the tanks don't die consistently. Three luck-based events need to happen: I need to kill the first tank, get Hard Worker, and kill the second tank. It took a lot of tries, but I finally got all three. By the way, did you know that you can aim using the D-pad? It moves the reticle much more slowly than the control stick does, making it very useful for precise aiming. Fortunately, I accidentally discovered this feature shortly before making this video.

4. (Lynn) Thanks to my careful movement on the previous move, I have just enough AP to get to a perfect vantage point from which to kill two tanks with one attack. Each tank takes 10 hits and I shoot 20 bullets, so I can't miss a single time. The lines on the tank's radiator help me line up the shot. Once those two tanks are dead, the other nearby tank is easy to kill.

5. (Lynn) I get behind the ace, then kill him and Commander.

6. (Alicia) Using Double Movement, I kill the shock trooper in the northeast, then end the move near the scout in the northwest. Unless you can see the scout during the enemy phase, he won't move for the first few turns. But if you can see him, he will attack you, giving you a chance to kill him with a counterattack.

7. (Aika) I kill the tank in the southwest and leave Aika positioned to kill the nearby shock trooper during the enemy phase. Oddly, this tank takes less damage than the other Medium Tank + even though its displayed stats are identical, so I need all 7 hits from the ZM Kar 9(g) in order to kill it.

8. (Karl) I kill the remaining tank in the southeast and leave Karl positioned to kill the nearby shock trooper during the enemy phase.

At the end of my phase, the enemy has no tanks and 3 foot soldiers. All the foot soldiers die from crossfire and counterattacks.

After finishing this battle in one turn, I managed to finish in one phase (i.e. using only the player phase). The video is here:

youtube.com/watch?v=q2eVrhJutjI

Valkyria Chronicles Guarding the Refugee Camp in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-10-27 | I beat Guarding the Refugee Camp in one turn. This one is pretty tough because you only have 6 CP and there are lots of enemies: 17 footsoldiers and 3 tanks. The enemy has quite a bit of CP, so there's potential for killing them with crossfire and counterattacks. However, many of the enemies (such as the lancers) like to hide in the grass, making anything but a direct attack ineffective. Plus, your units start pretty far away from the enemies, so many of them won't get close enough to be counterattacked. All these factors make the level tricky, but I managed to find a pretty good strategy. I only use two units--Lynn and Knute--and I use Hard Worker/Double Action with each move, giving me 12 total actions. Using these potentials along with the flamethrower, friendly fire, and double headshots, I kill all but 4 enemies during my phase. Then, during the enemy phase, the remaining enemies die from crossfire and counterattacks.

It may be possible to beat this level without going to the enemy phase. The last 4 enemies can be killed with a single flamethrower, and Lynn is almost close enough to do so. If she can save an action somewhere else (e.g. by getting another friendly fire kill) and use her AP carefully, she may be able to reach the final group and finish them off.

Update: I managed to finish in one phase (i.e. using only the player phase). The video is here:

youtube.com/watch?v=b_Wc3-0Bf6c

Valkyria Chronicles An End to Darcsen Hunting in 1 Turn (No Enemy Phase)

Cheeseoman 2022-10-26 | I beat An End to Darcsen Hunting in one turn without going to the enemy's phase. With all the leaders present, you have 9 CP. Thus, if you use Hard Worker or Double Action on every move, you can take a maximum of 18 actions. Since there are only 17 enemies and there's at least one place where you can easily kill two enemies with one attack, you don't actually need two actions on every move. The enemies are mostly hiding behind rocks, so a lot of them can't be sniped; you need to get pretty close to them in order to kill them. It took a little work to find a way to do this, but overall, the level isn't very hard.

Valkyria Chronicles Marinas Challenge (Sniper Trial) in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-10-25 | I beat the Sniper Trial in one turn. This level is tough because relative to the number of enemies, your CP and the enemy's CP are pretty low. There are many enemies that can be killed with interception fire and counterattacks, but the enemy can only move one unit per CP, so the number of units you can kill this way is limited. In order to kill more units, I used Lynn's Hard Worker potential to take two actions per move. With 5 moves, I can kill 10 units. Then, on the enemy's phase (5 CP), I kill the 5 remaining units. It took some experimentation to find a strategy that would allow me to kill 10 units and end up in a good spot to counterattack from. The trickiest part is my final move, where I make a blind grenade throw to kill a unit hiding in the grass in the canyon. This unit likes to stay hidden even when the enemy has CP left over, so it's important to kill him during my phase. Due to the extra defense provided by crawling, he will only be killed by a grenade that detonates very close to him, so I need to make a pretty good throw.

Valkyria Chronicles Marberry Shore Hard in 1 Turn (No Orders)

Cheeseoman 2022-10-24 | I beat Marberry Shore Hard in one turn with no orders. I found this level to be trickiest of the Hard skirmishes to beat in one turn. It's also quite a bit harder than a one-turn completion of the same map on Expert. I relied heavily on potentials that only activate a fraction of the time, so I saved before and after most moves in order to ensure that the potentials activated.

One of the keys to my strategy is to make shock troopers turn so that Alicia can run by them later. I do this in a few places:

* On Karl's second move, I make the trooper south of Alicia face west-northwest. When Alicia starts moving, the trooper can see her for a split second, but not long enough to shoot her. This lets her activate Resist Crossfire without getting hit.
* At the end of Karl's third move, I make the northernmost trooper face east-northeast. He doesn't see Alicia at all.
* On Largo's move, I make the trooper west of him face toward him. He doesn't see Alicia at all.

On Alicia's final move, I repeatedly enter and exit target mode while near the enemy tank. This has two effects. First, it makes the tank turn its turret away from me so that I don't get hit. Second, it provides multiple chances for Resist Crossfire to activate. Once Resist Crossfire is active, the tank does very little damage, so I can let it hit me until Valkyria activates. Valkyria allows me to kill the tank with one attack.

Valkyria Chronicles Naggiar Plains Expert in 1 Turn

Cheeseoman 2022-10-24 | I beat Naggiar Plains Expert in one turn. The key is to use grenades to boost yourself over the barricades. I discovered this trick independently, but since it's very easy to do, I wouldn't be surprised if others have also found it. The damage dealt by a grenade seems to increase as the distance between the grenade and the target decreases, so it helps to avoid throwing the grenade as close as possible to yourself. This is especially important with the engineer, since his health is pretty low.

I probably could have saved a CP or two by moving more carefully, but I wasn't going for minimum CP, so I didn't bother.

Bug Fables Beat Mr. Tester

Cheeseoman 2022-08-16 | This video shows how to beat Mr. Tester and what happens if you do so. Mr. Tester is an enemy found in the Test Room, which is a debug menu of sorts. You can get there by using a series of glitches shown in the following video:

youtube.com/watch?v=pqEH_K6Bmnk

That video was made on version 1.1.1, but the glitches also work on version 1.1.2.

Mr. Tester has 500 HP and 5 defense. He only has one move: he heals 500 HP and restores 99 of the party's TP. Due to his high defense, it seems impossible to take out all his health in one turn unless you use the Test Room to get extra items like Super Peppers. But in a comment on another video, RullianTheSkunk suggested that it might be possible to inflict a status ailment like freeze in order to prevent him from healing. I tried this out and it works. When he is frozen, shocked, or asleep, he doesn't heal.

By inflicting these status ailments, you can beat Mr. Tester fairly easily. Each time you inflict one of these ailments on an enemy, the enemy becomes more resistant to it. So, I use a combination of freeze, shock, and sleep. You have to kill Mr. Tester before his resistances get so high that you can't prevent him from healing, but it's not hard to do so.

When you beat him, nothing exciting happens. You go back to the Test Room and Mr. Tester is still there.

Bug Fables 520 Damage Against Single Target in One Round (530 Total)

Cheeseoman 2022-08-09 | I dealt 520 damage to a single target in one round. I also dealt 10 damage to another target, bringing the total to 530.

I've been working on a damage calculation guide for Bug Fables. It describes how to calculate the amount of damage dealt by all the party's attacks. The guide is now complete and can be found here:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/265304-bug-fables-the-everlasting-sapling/faqs/80075

After finishing most of the guide, I decided to put my newfound knowledge to work by taking on this challenge. A few others have also tried their hand at it:

RareBeeph (246 damage; older version of the game):
youtube.com/watch?v=WFAmXcaIggI

Mr.Fruitman 7 (256 damage):
youtube.com/watch?v=toxYehAP-MM

RullianTheSkunk (351 damage):
youtube.com/watch?v=3Xl8FhKa4UQ

My strategy is most similar to RullianTheSkunk's in that the primary source of damage is Frost Relay. I discovered its massive damage-dealing potential while working on my guide. However, one of the crucial techniques in my strategy is something that I haven't seen anywhere else. After attacking a few times with Vi and Leif, I use Abombination to kill them, then use Miracle Shake to bring them back to life. This has two very beneficial effects. First, it resets their exhaustion to 0, thereby greatly increasing their attack power. Second, it sets their turn counts to 1, giving me a total of 2 more turns. As a bonus, Abombination deals 10 damage and restores 12 TP.

Like the players listed above, I fight The Everlasting King because he has infinite health until he has finished his scripted healing.

In the first 6 rounds of battle, I prepare. There are many conditions I want to have in place when I launch my assault in round 7:

* Everyone is alive.
* All allies have red up arrows, raising their attack.
* All allies have 3x charge.
* Vi is in danger (HP less than or equal to 4) so that Last Attack takes effect.
* Vi is poisoned so that Poison Attacker takes effect.
* The king has a blue down arrow, reducing his defense.
* The king is burned so that he takes 3 damage.
* The king is poisoned so that he takes 2 damage.
* Kabbu has at least 11 HP so that he can survive Abombination.
* Chompy has Pretty Ribbon equipped so that she can deal the maximum amount of damage.
* Due to the use of Hustle Candies, Vi has 4 extra turns and Kabbu has 3.

It took quite a bit of planning to figure out how to do this and a fair amount of luck to make it happen. Once I finally got to round 7 with all the above conditions met, my strategy dealt the exact amount of damage I had predicted.

Now that I've described the key parts of my strategy, most of my actions in the battle should be self-explanatory, but I'll elaborate on a few points:

* I apply the same status effects repeatedly because the duration stacks.
* Kabbu has Status Mirror equipped. When the king tries to burn him, I deliberately fail to block, causing Kabbu to be burned. Due to Status Mirror, the king is also burned.
* At the beginning of the damage round, I select Do Nothing with Leif. It might appear that I'm wasting a turn and that it's better to do something, even if it only deals a little damage. But any attack or skill would increase Leif's exhaustion. Then, when I used Frost Relay, each of Leif's 6 hits would be weaker by 1 attack power. Multiply this by 4 uses of Frost Relay and the reduction in damage is large, so I would need to deal lots of damage with Leif's turn to compensate. Ice Rain can do so, but it's an expensive skill and I can't spare the TP. An offensive item like Longleg Summoner would be ideal because it doesn't increase exhaustion, but I'm already using all 15 item slots. The turn relay is more useful later on (and it isn't restored when someone is revived), so I don't use it here.
* I get the last Frost Relay action command prompt wrong on purpose because doing so increases attack power. The details are discussed in my guide (linked above).
* After bringing Vi back to life, I feed her an Abomihoney. This is the perfect item for the situation because it accomplishes three things at once: it puts her in danger (activating Last Attack), it poisons her because of Weak Stomach (activating Poison Attacker), and it restores 12 TP.
* Kabbu has Status Relay equipped, so when he turn relays to Vi, he transfers his red up arrow and 3x charge.

After exiting the battle and showing my setup, I go to the Cave of Trials to check my record. It says 530 instead of 520 because it's counting damage against all enemies. I dealt 10 damage to the floating key.

With so many options available, I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible to deal even more damage than this. One thing that might help is the charm system. If you received one or two TP-restoring charms, you might be able to squeeze in an Ice Rain with Leif, increasing damage slightly. However, this seems like it would require a large amount of luck, so I don't plan on attempting it.

Yooka Laylee Stuck Inside Horn

Cheeseoman 2022-08-03 | If you jump inside this horn-shaped object in Hivory Towers, it's tough to get out. The ground is slippery, so you're constantly sliding. You can influence your movement somewhat with the control stick, but not much. Eventually, I managed to get to a patch of non-slippery ground and jump out.

Bug Fables Frost Relay Action Command Glitch

Cheeseoman 2022-07-15 | Sometimes, the final prompt in the Frost Relay action command only appears for 1 frame, causing you to fail almost immediately. I'm not merely pressing the wrong button because when you do that, the prompt turns red and stays on screen for a while, which isn't what happened here. I don't know what causes this glitch, but it seems to happen perhaps 5-10% of the time.

Incidentally, missing the action command sometimes causes your attack to deal more damage than if you had done the action command correctly. If the final prompt had appeared normally and I had gotten it right, the last hit would have dealt 2 damage. Instead, it dealt 3 damage.

Bug Fables Frozen Enemy Glitches

Cheeseoman 2022-07-10 | 1. I played around some more with a glitch I showed in an earlier video:

youtube.com/watch?v=zeN-pfik0Ls

I found that two traits that usually go together--an enemy being frozen and an enemy being encased in ice--can become desynchronized when Leafbug Ninja clones are involved. Also, the number of ice cubes around an enemy is not limited to 0 and 1; it can also go to 2 or 3. In this clip, I do the following:

* Freeze the real ninja. The clones are now what I call "stealth frozen". They are not encased in ice, but they otherwise behave like they are frozen.
* Attack one of the clones. Vi has 5 attack power, but her attack deals 6 damage because the clone is frozen (even though it it not encased in ice). This attack takes the real ninja and the remaining clone out of their frozen state, but the real ninja still has an ice cube around it. I call this state "fake frozen".
* Attempt to freeze the real ninja again, but fail.
* Enter the enemy round. Even though the enemies have exited their frozen state, they are still unable to act for one round.
* Freeze the real ninja again. This puts it in a state I could "double frozen". The number of ice cubes around the ninja increases to 2, making it difficult to see.
* Attack the remaining clone, taking the real ninja out of its frozen state. It still has 2 ice cubes around it.
* Enter the enemy round. Once again, the enemy is unable to act.
* Freeze the real ninja yet again. The ninja is now "triple frozen". It has 3 ice cubes around it. The ice is completely opaque and almost white.

Since an enemy's freeze resistance increases every time they are frozen, it may not be possible to "quadruple freeze" an enemy.

2. Another apparent glitch is that the counters for various status conditions are shared between a Leafbug Ninja and its clones. In this clip, I use Break twice to give the enemies a blue down arrow with a duration of 4 rounds. But the counter is shared and, in a single round, it decreases by 1 for each enemy that shares it. Because there are 3 enemies, the counter decreases from 4 to 1 in a single round. If there are 2 enemies, the counter decreases by 2. If only the real ninja is out, the counter behaves normally.

Blue Fire Hardest No-Spirit Voids

Cheeseoman 2022-06-29 | This video shows a few of the hardest voids to beat without using spirits. I beat all of them without spirits, but most are pretty easy, so I only included these six.

Lucua's Climb: Probably the toughest main-game void. However, as I demonstrate, you can bypass a lot of the hazards.

Thea's Tower: This level is mostly a matter of timing your movements properly. With correct timing, the jumps aren't too tough.

Gordur the Shifter: You must maintain your speed to avoid missing the platforms. Toward the end, you can make things easier by standing on the "wrong" sides of the platforms.

The Wise Hineoto: Sprinting in midair makes it much easier to cross some of the gaps in this level.

Tolon's Race: This level becomes pretty easy once you know how to do the fire jump: while hugging a wall, use a fireball to get a wall jump that is bigger than usual. This technique isn't explained anywhere in the game (as far as I know), but it's mentioned in the official strategy guide, which the game's creators released for free on the web.

Ascendance of Kinau: Perhaps the hardest void in the game. Taking advantage of the crystals and walls is important. Crystals restore your first jump, double jump, and dash. If you jump from a wall and then jump or dash back to it, you can wall jump again, giving you more height. The fire jump is also useful here.

Origami King Phase Through Door

Cheeseoman 2022-06-28 | A pointless glitch I found in Paper Mario: The Origami King. When you rescue this Toad, he opens a door for a moment. While it's open, you can walk past it. On the other side, there is a small black area you can walk around in. When you approach the door from behind and try to open it, Mario will phase through the door, then open it and enter the room normally.

Affordable Space Adventures Skip Most of Origin Level 1

Cheeseoman 2022-06-28 | A trick I found in Affordable Space Adventures. A lot of the action happens on the GamePad, which isn't shown in the video, so I'll explain what I'm doing. First, fly up using the electric engine, deploy the sticky gear, and land on the right-hand wall near the edge of the artifact's bubble. Switch to the fuel engine, using level 1 mass generator and nothing else. At this point, the problem is as follows: Using mass generator level 2 or lower causes you to rise in the water. Using level 3 or higher causes you to sink, but also produces an unacceptable amount of heat within a few seconds. The solution is to repeat the following steps:

1. Set mass generator to 3.
2. Unstick.
3. Fall down for a moment.
4. Stick.
5. Set mass generator to 1. This must be done before the mass generator produces too much heat.

By repeating these steps a few times, you can work your way low enough to shoot the switch. Then simply unstick from the wall, rise to the top of the water, and fly to the end of the level with the electric engine.

I actually figured out this method of beating the level before I figured out the intended method. I thought it was strange that the level would be so tricky. Once I finally got this method to work, I realized that I could leave the level without going to the upper section, so I must have skipped something. Afterward, I went back and deduced the intended (and much easier) method.

Bug Fables 23 Damage in One Regular Attack

Cheeseoman 2022-05-16 | In my last video, I showed how to deal 22 damage in one attack:

youtube.com/watch?v=TCCIOJ2njO0

I thought that was the maximum, but now I believe 23 is number one. See the description of the 22-damage video for information on the setup. The main difference is that this time I freeze the Acornling, allowing me to deal 1 extra damage. I forgot to do that last time. Any of Leif's freezing skills would probably kill the Acornling because his attack power is so high (plus he can't use one-person skills because he has Berserker equipped), so I use a Frost Bomb instead. The Frost Bomb deals quite a bit of damage, so I play on Hardest mode to give the Acornling more health.

Bug Fables 22 Damage in One Regular Attack

Cheeseoman 2022-05-13 | This video has been superseded, since I found a way to deal 23 damage in one attack:

youtube.com/watch?v=UNVz1dyWYx0

Here is the original description:

I dealt 22 damage with a single regular attack. I think this is the maximum, provided that you don't use the item list glitch that lets you get lots of Super Peppers. First, I boosted Leif's attack power as follows:

Starting attack power: 2
Super Pepper x 2: 2
Power Exchange x 2: 2
Last Attack x 2: 2
Poison Attacker x 2: 2
Berserker: 3
In front: 1
Elemental boost: 1
Charge x 3: 3
Attack up (Spicy Berry): 1

This gives an attack power of 19. I also gave Leif 2 Antlion Jaws, allowing him to pierce the Acornling's 2 base defense. The Antlion Jaws apply even when the Acornling is flipped. Finally, I used a Burly Bomb to lower the Acornling's defense. Thus, when it's flipped, its defense is -1 (although it displays as 0). A non-flipped enemy can't have negative defense, but a flipped enemy can. With all this setup out of the way, the only thing left to do is flip over this Acornling on its back and attack its weak point for massive damage.

Metroid Dread Challenge: Dread Samus Aran

Cheeseoman 2022-05-03 | Here's a challenge I came up with in the new boss rush mode in Metroid Dread. I call it Dread Samus Aran, which is short for:

Dread Rush. Explosives Are Disallowed. Shinespark And Missile Use: Same. Also, Remain Alive, Naturally.

In other words, beat Dread Rush under the following conditions:

* Don't use bombs of any kind (regular bombs, Cross Bombs, Power Bombs).
* Don't use Shinesparks.
* Don't use missiles.
* Don't die.

The primary obstacle is Raven Beak; the easy options for dealing with his black holes and suns are unavailable, and the alternatives are much harder. But nearly every boss is at least a little harder without missiles.

I wrote notes on each battle, but they're too long for YouTube, so I put them here:

sites.google.com/site/manocheese/dreadsamusarancomments

This was a fun challenge. In the absence of quick and easy ways to deal with enemies' attacks, I was forced to study their behavior and come up with good strategies, especially in the Raven Beak battle. I encourage anyone who's beaten Dread Rush with no deaths to try this challenge. Or, for an easier time, replace Dread Rush with Boss Rush to get the Bread Samus Aran challenge.

Gerudo Archery: One Pass, One Target, Perfect Score

Cheeseoman 2022-04-16 | To make the Gerudo archery minigame more challenging, I came up with the following rules:

* Only shoot one target.
* Fire all your arrows before Epona reaches the far end of the course, i.e. only make one pass by the targets.

Following these rules individually creates two nice challenges, but I combined them for extra difficulty.

I think the third target is the only one you can get a perfect score with. Because Link can only turn so far to the side, you don't have enough time to hit either of the first two targets 20 times, and you can't hit the fifth target at all. You don't get credit for hitting a target unless you're close enough, which rules out the fourth target; by the time you're close enough to hit it, you don't have time to fire 20 arrows. That leaves the third target. There is enough time to hit it 20 times, plus a little extra time to allow you to line up your first shot.

This challenge would be harder on GameCube because the stick sensitivity is higher, making it harder to aim.

Bug Fables Frozen Enemy Still Moves

Cheeseoman 2022-04-14 | A glitch that happened to me in Bug Fables. After a Leafbug Ninja cloned itself, I used Icefall to try to freeze all the enemies. All but one disappeared, and the remaining one was frozen. However, despite being frozen, it continued to move.

Metroid Dread Freeze the Game

Cheeseoman 2022-01-24 | A strange glitch that happened when I was playing Metroid Dread. I used the Switch's camera button to save the last 30 seconds of gameplay, which I then recorded from the Switch album.

I tried to take an elevator from Artaria to Dairon. The screen went black for what seemed like an unusually long time, then a still image from the teleportal loading screen came up (even though I was using an elevator, so the elevator loading screen should have been used). I left it on this screen for a while and it never advanced.

Retake Kakerus Home Barrier Girl

Cheeseoman 2021-06-18 | The latest battle in my quest to solo Story Mode with Barrier Girl. This was one of the toughest so far, just as it was with Command Girl. From Proto Eagle and Sirius at the beginning of the battle to the Panther Vehicles in the middle to Proto Red and Proto Blue at the end, you're bombarded with dangerous enemies nonstop; your only break is at the very end when Proto Blue is by himself.

When you kill either Sirius or Proto Eagle, two Panther Vehicles will come out. Kill another borg and a third Panther Vehicle comes out. Kill two more: Proto Red and Proto Blue come out. This time, Kakeru killed Proto Eagle much earlier than I expected. Thus, I had to fight Sirius and two Panther Vehicles at the same time. This was tricky since each of them can break my barrier pretty easily, but the Panther Vehicles cut me some slack and focused on Kakeru for a while, allowing me to survive until Sirius was dead. Afterward, I got the last two Panther Vehicles down to low health so that I could kill them at about the same time. That way, I wouldn't have to fight against Proto Red, Proto Blue, and Panther Vehicle all at once. With the Panther Vehicles gone, the last real threat was Proto Red. I had some close calls, but I got him.

Retake Serenity Street Barrier Girl

Cheeseoman 2021-06-17 | Barrier Girl is the latest borg I've worked on soloing Story Mode with. Although she doesn't have much firepower, her melee helps make up for it. Her airdash melee has extremely high knockback; if all the hits connect, any borg that can be sent flying will be (at least there are no exceptions I'm aware of). Her ground dash melee is also pretty effective. The combination of her melee attacks and her barrier gives her a unique playstyle. Whereas most borgs are safer while fighting from afar, Barrier Girl is often better off getting up close and personal. That way, her slow-moving bullets have a better chance of hitting their targets, and her melee can neutralize much bigger and badder borgs.

Managing the health of your current barrier and your X ammo is key; without a barrier up, Barrier Girl is pretty fragile. When your barrier is weakened, there is always a question of whether or not to refresh it to full strength, which depletes your ammo. On the one hand, if you can avoid enemy attacks long enough, you'll have both a full barrier and full X ammo, which is the ideal state since it provides maximum protection. On the other hand, if the refreshed barrier breaks before your ammo refills, you'll be defenseless. The best course of action depends on the circumstances. When the enemies are easy to dodge, it's typically better to refresh your barrier. But when it's tough to avoid enemy attacks, it can be safer to let your current barrier run out (or nearly run out) so that you can absorb the maximum number of hits before taking damage.

While this battle wasn't one of the hardest ones so far, it demonstrates some useful strategies with Barrier Girl. In a tough battle, I tend to save hyper mode until I'm in a tight spot. This is typically when my barrier is broken, my X ammo is nearly empty, and I don't think I can avoid the enemies' attacks. This time, I waited until the trio of Beam Gunner, Cyber Girl Hyper, and Cyber Ninja came out. I knew they could wreak havoc on me, so I activated hyper mode before they could break my barrier and deal a bunch of damage. Later on, I had to fight Ruby and Sapphire Knight. In every other battle, I activate hyper mode to help me survive this deadly pair, but I wanted to save it for Cyber Mars and Cyber Atlas this time. Fortunately, I was able to stay alive with some help from Sho.

Because Barrier Girl deals damage fairly slowly, it was pretty much inevitable that the enemy would have plenty of time to attack Sho and fill their hyper meter, thus guaranteeing that Cyber Mars and Cyber Atlas would fuse. The fight against Cyber Machine Suzaku showcases the awesome power of Barrier Girl's airdash melee. I was able to knock down Suzaku again and again, preventing him from launching too many attacks (any one of which can break my barrier, as happened a few times). I also executed a well-timed dodge to avoid his charge beam, one of the strongest attacks in the game. After the fusion ended, I still had to deal with two dangerous borgs: Cyber Mars and Cyber Atlas. The coward's way--taking cover and letting my ally handle them--was unlikely to work, since they most likely would have refilled their hyper meter and fused again, leaving me little chance of surviving without hyper mode. So, I had to get into the thick of things, even though I only had 2 HP left. With a little luck and a hyper meter that filled up just in the nick of time, I squeaked by.

Evergate 4-1: All Essences, No Upgrades

Cheeseoman 2021-04-26 | I've been playing through the game trying to collect all three essences in each level in a single run without using upgrades (artifacts and the dash). Most levels haven't been very hard so far, but 4-1 gave me some trouble. The time limit is short, so it would be difficult to break all the crystals and collect all the petals before touching the exit. You're allowed to touch the exit to stop the timer, then finish the remaining objectives and return to the exit, but this is also tough because there are multiple vertical and horizontal gaps to cross and a fairly limited number of crystals to help you do so. But I was able to finish the challenge using the strategy shown here. The key is the rock in the upper-left corner of the level. With a well-placed shot at a swap crystal, you can get on top of the rock, allowing you to collect the middle petal and get past the spikes without consuming another crystal. This leaves you enough crystals to return to the exit.

Update: I have now finished every level in this challenge. There were a few that took some thought, but this one was the hardest.

Evergate Double Barrel Secret Area

Cheeseoman 2021-03-29 | An Easter egg in Evergate. After getting to the exit in Double Barrel, walk to the left and go over the top of the level. Drop off the building and fall straight down. You'll land on a platform with a message that says "Greetings from Ariel :)". There are some statues and green crystals. You can break the green crystals, but they don't do anything. You can also drop down further and keep falling for a long time. I fell for a few minutes and nothing happened.

Sparrow Bombinoes (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2021-02-11 | My new Wargroove puzzle. This video shows the solution, so if you want to figure it out yourself, I recommend not watching until after you solve it.

While playing around with Sparrow Bombs, I realized that if I placed them in a line, alternating between enemy and allied bombs, I could detonate them all with a single move, similar to knocking down dominoes. I decided to develop that idea into a puzzle. Players must fill in gaps between bombs, then start the chain reaction. To prevent people from simply destroying a bomb near the end of the chain and thereby blowing up the subsequent bombs, I used an event to make the enemy bombs invincible when the puzzle starts. To make them vulnerable, the player must pull a lever, after which they can't move any units (except to start the detonation).

Download code: 4M8B4VKM

irritable level syndrome (N++ A-19-03): T

Cheeseoman 2021-01-31 | A very precise, very repetitive secret mission. Unlike most of the hard missions, this one doesn't require much effort to figure out a strategy for; it's just really tough to execute. There are some similar levels, such as prosumer, harried hallway, and datacreche, but I think this one is the hardest of the bunch.

I now have four levels left on the N++ screen. Hopefully they'll be easier than this one.

For more information on secret missions, see my guide:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/186604-n-plus-plus/faqs/76503

spin quantum number (N++ X-13-01): T++

Cheeseoman 2021-01-20 | Another tough secret mission. I'd say this one is a little easier than G--, but they're both among the hardest missions on the N++ screen. You can't really plan an exact route through the entire level because it's too easy to hit or miss a toggle accidentally, so you have to improvise. On the third lap, I paused a couple times to plan my next few moves.

For more information on secret missions, see my guide:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/186604-n-plus-plus/faqs/76503

terrrors (N++ X-19-03): G T++O++C++E++

Cheeseoman 2021-01-14 | I was dreading this mission, but it ended up being much easier than I expected. If you activate the evil ninjas right away and move quickly, the timing of the mini-drones works out nicely. You won't have to spend much time waiting, so the death balls won't have a chance to catch up to you.

For more information on secret missions, see my guide:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/186604-n-plus-plus/faqs/76503

spin quantum number (N++ X-13-01): G

Cheeseoman 2021-01-12 | This is one of the hardest secret missions I've beaten. It was tough to find a route that let me avoid the gold while leaving enough toggles inactive to do three laps. I checked a few other videos after finishing the mission and it seems everyone has a different strategy for it. That's one of the good things about the game; even in a very precise mission like this, there are many ways to proceed.

I'm getting close to finishing every secret mission on the N++ screen. Out of 600 levels, I've beaten the missions in all but 7 (including this level, which has another mission).

For more information on secret missions, see my guide:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/186604-n-plus-plus/faqs/76503

Penny Pinching (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2020-12-20 | Another Wargroove puzzle I made. This video shows the solution, so if you want to figure it out yourself, I recommend not watching until after you solve it.

This puzzle pits Nuru against Koji. Buying the right unit with Nuru's groove is key to victory. There are many units you can buy, but as usual, the puzzle should only have one solution.

Download code: 9VSNFCKR

It occurred to me that I've probably made more custom puzzles than anyone else. I'm not done yet, though; I still have a few more ideas for puzzles.

Gone with the Wind (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2020-11-24 | My latest Wargroove puzzle. This video shows the solution, so if you want to figure it out yourself, I recommend not watching until after you solve it.

My last two puzzles were very large, so I felt like making a smaller one. Tenri's groove gives you lots of options, but if I made the puzzle correctly, there should only be one solution.

Download code: UENNKQ6A

This map has now been selected as one of the featured maps in-game and on the official Wargroove site!

wargroove.com/community-maps-spotlight-26

Thanks to Armagon for his nice comments.

braindance (N++ X-18-04): G

Cheeseoman 2020-11-22 | I beat the N++ level braindance without collecting any gold. I was shocked that this wasn't an objective of any secret missions, since the level seems perfectly set up to make it just barely possible.

For more information on secret missions, see my guide:

gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/186604-n-plus-plus/faqs/76503

Seven Sigrids (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2020-11-17 | My attempt at creating an artistic puzzle. This video shows the solution, so if you want to figure it out yourself, I recommend not watching until after you solve it.

I've seen a few maps that are designed such that the map's preview is a recognizable image. While the "preview art" was well done, the levels weren't very fun to play. I decided to try to create a level that had a nice-looking preview while still being playable. Although the very limited color palette in the map editor prevented me from getting Sigrid's colors just right, I think the end result looks pretty good. In terms of gameplay, I decided to break the puzzle into multiple sub-puzzles due to the huge size of the map. The player must kill Loaded Thieves to gain money in the sub-puzzles, then spend the money in the final sub-puzzle. To make the map more cohesive, I set up events such that all the allied Sigrids share a groove meter. This forces the player to think about where to use Sigrid's groove and in which order to tackle the sub-puzzles.

Download code: M478TGAN

Everyone is Here (by RedGleeok) (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2020-10-17 | A Wargroove puzzle by RedGleeok. This is one of the best puzzles I've played. The player controls every commander from before the Double Trouble DLC and must use their grooves to destroy the enemy stronghold.

In this video, I show a solution I found that's probably unintentional. In the Double Trouble DLC, Ryota's Blade Dash was changed so that it does more damage with each line it passes through. So, by moving through a bunch of vines and Sparrow Bombs, I was able to deal lots of extra damage to the stronghold. As a result, I didn't need to use Sedge or Mercia. I would be interested to hear about other solutions.

Download code: 36ZUBYAL

The Long Way Around (Wargroove Custom Puzzle)

Cheeseoman 2020-09-29 | My most elaborate puzzle yet. This video shows the solution, so if you want to figure it out yourself, I recommend not watching until after you solve it.

In this puzzle, commanders from every faction must work together to defeat Elodie. The units are less densely packed than in The Ides of March (another puzzle I made), but this one may be harder due to its size. It took a long time to root out the unintended solutions; hopefully I got rid of them all.

After posting this puzzle, I realized that the game has a built-in puzzle with almost exactly the same name (The Long Way Round). Oops! That was unintentional.

Download code: ZYJCSY6X