Grassdigger | Pikmin 2 TAS: Submerged Castle 2 in 1:55 @grassdigger8695 | Uploaded July 2018 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
This video is tool-assisted, meaning that I used savestates and frame-advance. I used Dolphin as my emulator and OBS to record. Props to Ethan Hurst for helping me set these things up!
Pikmin 2 records how many minutes you have spent in a file. However, it only counts how many whole minutes you have spent. If I select a file, play for 1:59 and save + reset, the game only counts this as 1 minute. Because of this, it is possible to pay off the debt in just 1 minute: youtube.com/watch?v=CbvG03nNJ2s
Before today, we could collect all treasures in 21 in-game minutes. HSS0136 has beaten the game in 23 minutes here: youtube.com/watch?v=KCxmtdn_PhQ
HSS0136 saved 2 more minutes since then. Here are the minute saves:
White Flower Garden 3: youtube.com/watch?v=fpVKMgk7RwM
Valley of Repose: youtube.com/watch?v=6-tMPXP69JY
Submerged Castle 2 used to take 2 minutes, but this video shows that it can be done in just 1 minute. Notice that the "Time Played" statistic on the save file was 2:09 before, and 2:10 after. Therefore, Pikmin 2 can now be beaten in 20 in-game minutes!
(Think of this as the A-Button Challenge: how low can the in-game timer go?)
I previously did this sublevel in 2:05 here: youtube.com/watch?v=WjSpfRZpadY
I still think that RTA can get sub-2, but it's very, very difficult. If you haven't seen the above video yet, I advise reading the route that I used in that video in quotations here:
"First, I need the Research Pod on the low ground, because if it's on the high ground, then 1 treasure will have to be carried much farther. Also, I want the Chocolate Cushion to be far away, since it is lighter and easier to charge. If I don't get this good RNG, I need to reset.
Now, I want 55-60 Pikmin for Chocolate Cushion, and 40-45 Pikmin for Confection Hoop. I use a spicy spray ASAP on the 60ish Pikmin, but I want to use another spicy on half of these Pikmin to extend their spicy timers. I need to keep track of which Pikmin are on different timers. While the 60ish Pikmin tear down the wall, I take the other 40ish Pikmin, spicy them, and put them on the other wall.
Now, I try to get 20 of the 60ish Pikmin on the Chocolate Cushion ASAP. I want these Pikmin to be on the shorter spicy timer. When their spicy timers wear out, I whistle them, and C-stick the Pikmin in my army in such a way that the spicy Pikmin will grab Chocolate Cushion before the non-spicy. Then, I quickly spicy the remaining Pikmin, and replace the non-spicy carriers with spicy carriers. This is a net effect of 2 charges. If done perfectly, the Chocolate Cushion is carried at the speed of white flowers.
From here, I get Pikmin on Confection Hoop and start tearing down the barrier to the next sublevel. Charging Confection Hoop can save a little bit of time if done well, but I didn't do it well in the video. Lastly, I want to delve deeper at the exact same time that the last treasure reaches the Research Pod, which saves 0.5ish seconds. I didn't do this in the video."
Most of the route is the same as in that video, but there are a few differences. First of all, I did RNG manipulation by waiting in the title screen to get a good floor layout. Secondly, I started the floor with Louie, which meant that both leaders would be separated to begin with. Thus, I could just switch to Olimar after I put 58 Pikmin on the first wall instead of walking all the way to the Research Pod. Thirdly, I whistled 23 out of 58 Pikmin before the wall was completely destroyed. These Pikmin were on the shorter spicy spray timer, and it was easy to put them on the Chocolate Cushion first. Fourthly, TAS made charging the Chocolate Cushion very fast and optimal. This is where most of the timesave came from. Also, I didn't bother charging the Confection Hoop, as it was still collected before the Chocolate Cushion. Lastly, I was able to delve deeper at the exact same time that the Chocolate Cushion was collected.
Props to muratsubo for discovering charging (twitter.com/muratsubo/status/977540083719880705), I couldn't have done this without charging.
Note that Comfort Cookie is also a treasure on sublevel 2 inside the Bulbmin. However, it's pretty trivial to collect it and delve deeper in 0 minutes.
Now Submerged Castle 2 takes a minute, but there's still a chance that it could take 0 minutes. We would need to collect Confection Hoop at its location in this video and delve deeper within a minute. Then, we would come back to this floor and collect Chocolate Cushion in this same location in the same manner in 0 minutes.
By the way, I had to lose some video quality in order for the footage to not lose frames. Hopefully, I can optimize some settings in order to have good quality and no lag!
This video is tool-assisted, meaning that I used savestates and frame-advance. I used Dolphin as my emulator and OBS to record. Props to Ethan Hurst for helping me set these things up!
Pikmin 2 records how many minutes you have spent in a file. However, it only counts how many whole minutes you have spent. If I select a file, play for 1:59 and save + reset, the game only counts this as 1 minute. Because of this, it is possible to pay off the debt in just 1 minute: youtube.com/watch?v=CbvG03nNJ2s
Before today, we could collect all treasures in 21 in-game minutes. HSS0136 has beaten the game in 23 minutes here: youtube.com/watch?v=KCxmtdn_PhQ
HSS0136 saved 2 more minutes since then. Here are the minute saves:
White Flower Garden 3: youtube.com/watch?v=fpVKMgk7RwM
Valley of Repose: youtube.com/watch?v=6-tMPXP69JY
Submerged Castle 2 used to take 2 minutes, but this video shows that it can be done in just 1 minute. Notice that the "Time Played" statistic on the save file was 2:09 before, and 2:10 after. Therefore, Pikmin 2 can now be beaten in 20 in-game minutes!
(Think of this as the A-Button Challenge: how low can the in-game timer go?)
I previously did this sublevel in 2:05 here: youtube.com/watch?v=WjSpfRZpadY
I still think that RTA can get sub-2, but it's very, very difficult. If you haven't seen the above video yet, I advise reading the route that I used in that video in quotations here:
"First, I need the Research Pod on the low ground, because if it's on the high ground, then 1 treasure will have to be carried much farther. Also, I want the Chocolate Cushion to be far away, since it is lighter and easier to charge. If I don't get this good RNG, I need to reset.
Now, I want 55-60 Pikmin for Chocolate Cushion, and 40-45 Pikmin for Confection Hoop. I use a spicy spray ASAP on the 60ish Pikmin, but I want to use another spicy on half of these Pikmin to extend their spicy timers. I need to keep track of which Pikmin are on different timers. While the 60ish Pikmin tear down the wall, I take the other 40ish Pikmin, spicy them, and put them on the other wall.
Now, I try to get 20 of the 60ish Pikmin on the Chocolate Cushion ASAP. I want these Pikmin to be on the shorter spicy timer. When their spicy timers wear out, I whistle them, and C-stick the Pikmin in my army in such a way that the spicy Pikmin will grab Chocolate Cushion before the non-spicy. Then, I quickly spicy the remaining Pikmin, and replace the non-spicy carriers with spicy carriers. This is a net effect of 2 charges. If done perfectly, the Chocolate Cushion is carried at the speed of white flowers.
From here, I get Pikmin on Confection Hoop and start tearing down the barrier to the next sublevel. Charging Confection Hoop can save a little bit of time if done well, but I didn't do it well in the video. Lastly, I want to delve deeper at the exact same time that the last treasure reaches the Research Pod, which saves 0.5ish seconds. I didn't do this in the video."
Most of the route is the same as in that video, but there are a few differences. First of all, I did RNG manipulation by waiting in the title screen to get a good floor layout. Secondly, I started the floor with Louie, which meant that both leaders would be separated to begin with. Thus, I could just switch to Olimar after I put 58 Pikmin on the first wall instead of walking all the way to the Research Pod. Thirdly, I whistled 23 out of 58 Pikmin before the wall was completely destroyed. These Pikmin were on the shorter spicy spray timer, and it was easy to put them on the Chocolate Cushion first. Fourthly, TAS made charging the Chocolate Cushion very fast and optimal. This is where most of the timesave came from. Also, I didn't bother charging the Confection Hoop, as it was still collected before the Chocolate Cushion. Lastly, I was able to delve deeper at the exact same time that the Chocolate Cushion was collected.
Props to muratsubo for discovering charging (twitter.com/muratsubo/status/977540083719880705), I couldn't have done this without charging.
Note that Comfort Cookie is also a treasure on sublevel 2 inside the Bulbmin. However, it's pretty trivial to collect it and delve deeper in 0 minutes.
Now Submerged Castle 2 takes a minute, but there's still a chance that it could take 0 minutes. We would need to collect Confection Hoop at its location in this video and delve deeper within a minute. Then, we would come back to this floor and collect Chocolate Cushion in this same location in the same manner in 0 minutes.
By the way, I had to lose some video quality in order for the footage to not lose frames. Hopefully, I can optimize some settings in order to have good quality and no lag!
