Cv3/Stage 5 Alucard US
Summary
This particular stage is a 2-parter that features a mid-stage boss, a branching pathway, and a difficulty spike in platforming. The first half of the stage features Trevor Belmont wandering through a cave and having to deal with more difficult enemies such as firemen, mummies, blobs, and acid dripping from the ceiling. The first screen of Block 5-01 utilizes a manipulation to get the first fireman to get out of your way and despawn the flames it leaves behind. 5-02 features a short screen with 3 blobs, all of which are easy to kill but you have to avoid a potential dagger candle if you get too close to the second blob. 5-03 is dodging acid bubbles, you can carefully time it to clear in one series of jumps without taking damage. 5-04 features a screen with firemen dancing around. Ideally the manipulations in 5-01 through 5-03 leave you will a full health bar, as that allows you to take the fastest route (top). If you have less than full health, then bottom route is more preferable even at the cost of 2 seconds. 5-05 utilizes damage boosts (spike platform on top route, fireman on bottom route) and dodging fuzz balls that are rotating around the platforms. Once you clear them, there is an elevator platform that will take you to a set of stairs to clear the screen.
You are then led to a boss fight with Alucard, son of Dracula. He is very easy to deal with, even with double shot holy water thanks to the platforms on the stage. Alucard behaves a lot like Dracula's first phase in the first Castlevania game, moving around the room and shooting fireballs at you. Like with Dracula in CV1, Alucard's head is the only hitbox that he takes damage from. In the first phase, jump on the lower platform on the right and then you want to time a holy water toss to hit the head and let the fire deal with the fireballs coming in later while whipping him three times in the head. Do that fight correctly and that's 26 damage (6 bars) before Alucard turns back into bats. You can manipulate the second cycle to spawn in front of the platform you were standing on. If you do that right, you should be able to deal damage with the holy water to his head. Throw two quickly and then jump and whip at his head for extra insurance. Each additional cycle will cost you 6 seconds, so make sure to practice the fight so you're not bleeding time. After defeating Alucard, he is impressed with your skill (which comes after watching freeland's tutorial and practicing for a few weeks), you have the option of picking him up. He will be essential in the movement for the next five and a half stages.
Once you gain control again, you'll want to grab the first candle with a jump and whip then take a boost off the blob while grabbing another candle as Trevor or even Alucard if you want. The latest you want to switch to Alucard is right after that blob boost. You want to collect as many hearts as possible and get Alucard's fireball attack upgraded all the way, leaving the screen with 16 hearts at the minimum. You can opt to climb the stairs and jump over the mummies if you want, but the faster strategy is to transform into the bat (Down + A) as soon as the screen loads and fly to the door. At the door is a branching pathway and we're going to take the upper route. While the lower route gets you into a Stage 6 faster, it is slower due to cutscenes and with more sections to clear (Sunken City has 5 blocks, Catacombs route has 3).
Now you're in 5-07 and the route is pretty easy. You're taking a forward damage boost with the fuzz ball (health permitting) then transforming into the bat and flying straight to the boss. Make sure to stay on top of your heart count, it's fine to transform back to human form early than trying to make it work and falling into a pit. Dying is not an option for speedrunning, especially as your time improves. At the end of the stage we get a refight with the Stage 1 Boss. This time he has more features, throwing bones in the air when taking damage. For this fight we're going to switch to Trevor Belmont due to fixed damage in addition to the holy water being useful at not only dealing damage to to the Skeleton Knight King, but also the flame is good for getting rid of the bones. Like with Stage 1, this is a very easy fight and the only thing you have to worry about is the three possible patterns. The more to the left it walks, the more time it will take to kill.
An ideal split time for an optimized run will sit right around 10:45 if you split at the orb with Trevor, 10:50 at orb grab with Alucard, 10:55 fade to black with Trevor, or under 11 minutes in a fade to black after switching back to Alucard.
