periwinkle | Reaching the Last Cave door early (no damage-boost) @periwinkle. | Uploaded June 2021 | Updated October 2024, 27 minutes ago.
It's well known that it's possible to reach the Last Cave door without needing to build the rocket. The typical method for doing so involves luring over an enemy to damage-boost off of, which looks something like this: youtu.be/qWp-qmW6xb0
Here I demonstrate another method of performing this skip, that requires neither a damage-boost nor a Machine Gun (nor TAS skills).
This trick borrows a page from my Nemesis Challenge PB (youtu.be/ZMfLDi6jzQ8?t=89 for the timestamp), and uses booster unequips to gain height while conserving booster fuel.
The basic steps for this are:
• Boost up a little bit, then (while still boosting) open the inventory and unequip the booster
• Close the inventory without holding jump (this is important, otherwise you will continue losing booster fuel even though the booster is unequipped)
• Immediately start holding jump again for low gravity (this allows you to keep enough speed to make it past a couple more Presses)
• Open the inventory again before you lose too much speed and die, and re-equip the booster
• Close the inventory without holding jump and then immediately push jump again to start boosting. Rinse and repeat until you make it all the way up.
Unfortunately, this isn't really useful in speedruns because the game won't let you enter the door until the rocket is built. However, it could potentially be useful in other places (Cave Story randomizer, anybody?).
It's well known that it's possible to reach the Last Cave door without needing to build the rocket. The typical method for doing so involves luring over an enemy to damage-boost off of, which looks something like this: youtu.be/qWp-qmW6xb0
Here I demonstrate another method of performing this skip, that requires neither a damage-boost nor a Machine Gun (nor TAS skills).
This trick borrows a page from my Nemesis Challenge PB (youtu.be/ZMfLDi6jzQ8?t=89 for the timestamp), and uses booster unequips to gain height while conserving booster fuel.
The basic steps for this are:
• Boost up a little bit, then (while still boosting) open the inventory and unequip the booster
• Close the inventory without holding jump (this is important, otherwise you will continue losing booster fuel even though the booster is unequipped)
• Immediately start holding jump again for low gravity (this allows you to keep enough speed to make it past a couple more Presses)
• Open the inventory again before you lose too much speed and die, and re-equip the booster
• Close the inventory without holding jump and then immediately push jump again to start boosting. Rinse and repeat until you make it all the way up.
Unfortunately, this isn't really useful in speedruns because the game won't let you enter the door until the rocket is built. However, it could potentially be useful in other places (Cave Story randomizer, anybody?).
![[TAS] Cave Story+ Wind Fortress in 1210](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V6IWKvAdRRk/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Cave Story+ Wind Fortress in 1210
WARNING: Contains rapidly-flickering inventory opening and closing.
This is a TAS of the Wind Fortress challenge in Cave Story+, made using libTAS with the Linux port of the game. It aims for fastest *in-game time* (290 Counter time) completion; as such, pausing is used extensively in ways that save in-game frames and/or to perform techniques that are only possible via pause abuse, that might not otherwise save real-time frames.
Additionally, I took the liberty of making *one* small modification to the game: Due to a file name capitalization issue that only affects the Linux port (because of Linux having case-sensitive file names), there is normally no background in this challenge on Linux (the game looks for BkFog.bmp, but the file is named bkFog.bmp). So, I took it upon myself to fix it by simply copying the bkFog.bmp file to BkFog.bmp. To my knowledge, this should not affect the gameplay in any way whatsoever.
Dont like the remastered music? Here is an encode using the original Organya soundtrack (unfortunately, the graphics setting has no effect, so I couldnt change that): https://youtu.be/njvWlORVwAQ
TECHNIQUES:
• Boost Jumping: By boosting onto the ground and then jumping, the booster momentum is preserved (minus friction from touching the ground). Additionally, pausing is used to jump on the same in-game frame that Quote touches the ground, which reduces the time spent on the ground to one frame. (Without pausing, one would have to touch the ground for two frames: one frame to release the jump button, and one frame to jump.)
• Instant boost direction switching: Normally, to change boosting directions, one would release the jump button (which stops boosting) and then re-press it with the new direction held. By pausing, the release frame can be removed, enabling you to change directions while continuously boosting.
A similar technique is also used to start boosting on the first frame after jumping off of the ground.
• Diagonal boosting: When Quote is colliding with a wall, boosting horizontally causes him to boost at a slight upwards incline. Taking damage is also used in a couple of places to boost diagonally upwards.
• Gravity hopping: In certain situations where there is some distance to cross with a low ceiling, a low floaty jump is possible by doing a small jump, releasing jump for a bit, then holding jump again. (Pausing is once again used here to avoid starting a boost when pressing jump in the air.)
• Spur charge storage: When switching away from the Spur using the weapon swap buttons, any charge on the Spur is lost. However, this can be avoided by using the inventory to swap weapons instead. (This comes in handy for carrying a Spur charge through a door, among other usages.)
• Spur charge preservation: Using pausing, it is possible to fire a Spur laser without expending its charge: To do so, pause while holding the fire button, then unpause without holding the fire button, and re-press the button on the next frame. This also works on the first frame after a cutscene by pressing the fire button on that frame, although this is not used in this TAS. (This technique is similar in concept to instant boost direction switching, in that both techniques involve making the game register an already-held button as being pressed again.)
INDIVIDUAL ROOM NOTES:
• Drafty Cave: Here, I show off Spur charge preservation for swag purposes by shooting two Power Critters in a row both with Level 3 lasers.
• Bottom of the Island: As explained above, I pause on each boost jump to get first-frame jumps for maximum speed.
• Wind Fortress: Here, you can see a couple of instances of slope grinding, which is essentially just spamming boost jumps against a slope. The one at the start of the room didnt actually end up saving any time in the end, but I left it in anyways.
I take damage from the first Curly clones bullets to start boosting diagonally upwards towards the upper platform. The timing and angle of the Curly clones shots are based on RNG, so the best way to manipulate them in a TAS is by changing the system time used to seed the games PRNG. The bullets I got in this TAS are not perfect, but theyre the best I could get with the time that I was willing to spend on it.
The exit door has a bug: The event doesnt freeze the player controls, so the timer continues to run during the fade-out transition. This bug was fixed in the Switch release, so a TAS of that version would save roughly 40-ish frames over this TAS.
• Laboratory?: By exiting the previous room in mid-air, Im able to start boosting immediately upon entering this room, without having to jump first.
For the boss, I start each round by having both a Blade and a max Spur shot hit on the first frame, then I spam Blades until the round is over.
I take damage once intentionally during the fight, to show off a weird interaction with the Curly clone shoving you away while the Booster disables gravity. (Im boosting downwards there, btw)")
