SOTN/Alucard Any% NSC Blindfolded

Introduction

Background about the category

The first known completed blindfolded run of SOTN was Romscout's 53:41 in 2016. It pioneered many of the basic movement strategies of the category, and proved that a blindfolded run was possible in the first place. Romscout's 53:41 presents the original route for the category, but the rest of this guide uses an alternate route, detailed below. Although this guide will attempt to give a detailed step-by-step method for completing the game that is reliable, the strategies given for each room are not necessarily the most optimal or the fastest, and are certainly not the only successful strategies that can be employed. The player is encouraged to experiment and develop their own strategies for each room that is optimal for their individual play style.

Overview

Because of the nature of this run, the sections have been broken up by save rooms. This has been done so that the route is easier to practice, and so that run-ending mistakes can be corrected during a run by loading the most recent save.

The primary challenges during a Blindfolded run are memorization, keeping track of where you are in a room and in the castle, and dealing with randomness in enemy patterns. The route detailed below takes advantage of numerous sound cues and normalization setups to control for randomness and minor input error as much as possible. There are still a few sections and tricks that require frame perfect or near-frame perfect inputs, however.

Before you attempt a full blindfolded run, it can be helpful to practice each segment without a blindfold at first, but still utilizing the blindfolded moveset. After getting familiar with the segment this way, you can then attempt it with a blindfold on. It can also be very helpful to record your blindfolded attempts, so you can review your run afterward and learn from any mistakes or unusual situations you encounter.

Since you will not be able to visually confirm anything during a run, the accuracy and feel of the controller used for input can matter a great deal, so it is very important that you find a controller that is reliable, but not overly sensitive to accidental inputs.

Sound cues

These sound cues can be used in several spots of the run to help you with timing your actions or determining if you have veered off course.

Music

Each area has its own musical theme. This can be used to determine which zone Alucard is in, and in some cases can be used to infer other things, such as whether or not the Clock Room Statue is open (detailed in the Save before Doppelganger section below)

Landing

Whenever Alucard lands on the ground after falling or after a jump, you will hear a sound. If Alucard has fallen from a great enough height, his landing sound will be quite loud.

Taking Damage

Whenever Alucard takes damage by coming into contact with an enemy, you will hear Alucard let out a yell or a grunt. This can be used to narrow down or determine Alucard's placement in a room, since most enemies spawn in the same locations every time a room is loaded.

Notable events lacking sound cues

Some important game events do NOT have sound cues, most notably:

• Running out of mana
• Depleting the Alucard Shield + Shield Rod spell timer
• Being forced out of bat form (for example, from running out of mana or reaching the end of a Wing Smash)

Basic moveset

Due to the constraints of the category, visual confirmation of the player's position is not possible, and a normalized set of moves is needed. What follows are a list of basic maneuvers referenced throughout the rest of this guide that change the player's position by fixed amounts. Most areas can be navigated through a specific combination of these movements with relative ease.

Dash

Not to be confused with Shield Dashing, which can alter Alucard's horizontal position by slightly-varying amounts, A simple Dash will always cause Alucard to move by a fixed amount. If Alucard is facing left, a Dash will cause him to move to the right, and vice versa.

On level ground with no objects to collide with, Alucard will travel exactly 50.75 pixels (the fractional portion is stored as subpixels) horizontally after performing an uninterrupted dash.

NOTE: Because the distance Alucard travels during a Dash includes subpixels, and two full dashes are exactly half a pixel less than one full jump, Alucard's distance can be adjusted by half a pixel in either direction on flat ground using a combination of dashes and jumps. This is utilized both during the Death Skip and Relic Skip setup to get Alucard into proper position.

Pivot

When you need to change Alucard's facing without altering his horizontal position, the safest way to do so is to crouch by holding DOWN, then lean left or right by moving the D-Pad to diagonal DOWN and LEFT or diagonal DOWN and RIGHT.

Jump

Throughout this guide, unless otherwise stated, a jump left or jump right refers to a specific movement where you begin from a diagonal crouch either leaning left or right, then hold the jump button down while still holding the diagonal direction for the duration of a full jump by Alucard. When performed correctly, it will allow Alucard to move a known and fixed distance. On level ground with no short ceilings to collide with, Alucard will travel exactly 102 pixels horizontally after performing a full jump.

Shield Dash until Room Transition

With consistent enough shield dashing, it is possible to hear a slight pause in Alucard's dashing sounds which occurs when Alucard leaves one room and enters another. You can use this sound cue to tell when you have reached the next room, which is helpful for moving through certain sections quickly and easily.

Shield Dash until Damage Check

Throughout the blindfolded category, the fastest movement between two points will often be to shield dash until you run into an enemy. The sound of Alucard taking damage from an enemy will serve as a sound cue and let you know when you have reached the next waypoint. By memorizing the layout of rooms and the enemies within, you can use these sound cues to verify that you are still on the correct route.

Start

Goals:

• Get Neutron Bomb
• Get Heart Refresh
• Perform Death Skip

Dangers:

• Failing to acquire Heart Refresh (will spoil the run, but you won't find out about it until the very end)
• Falling into the Merman Pit
• Having the wrong XP when executing Death Skip
• Softlocking after Death Skip

NOTE: All actions in this guide, such as "Jump left" or "Jump right" refer to specific moves that are normalized for blindfolded play. Refer to the Basic Moveset section above for more detail.

Prologue

The simplest method for finishing Prologue is to collect 45 Hearts before entering the throne room and use 3 Hydro Storms to finish off both of Dracula's forms.

Experience

The only section of the blindfolded route where you have to care about Alucard's experience is in the very beginning after the Prologue, but before Death Skip. Just as in the normal Any% run, your goal will be to arrive at the last Warg before Death's room while Alucard's XP value is between 88 and 99.

The first interior room of the castle poses a significant challenge, however, as the zombie spawns in this room are random. As you advance through this room, you must be careful when you choose to attack, as even though you can hear when Alucard kills an enemy, Zombies have a habit of grouping near to one another, and it is very easy to kill multiple of them in a single swing and have no audio cue that you have done so.

As a result, the safest way to have the correct experience value for Death Skip is to kill the very first Warg outside of the castle 4 times. You can do this by leaving the room it spawns in and coming back multiple times. After killing that Warg 4 times, proceed into the next room (the Zombie Hallway) and kill the first 2 Wargs normally. After that, you will need to avoid using your sword for the rest of the room. Instead, try jumping over the 3rd Warg if you can, and whether you succeed or fail, proceed to hold RIGHT and WAIT.

By holding RIGHT and being patient, the horde of Zombies will eventually swarm around you and push you slowly to the right until you leave the room. You will be able to tell when you have reached the next room once you no longer hear thunder crashes intermittently. Once you stop hearing thunder, proceed to hold RIGHT for a few more seconds to give Alucard time to walk off the stairs and approach the breakable boulder. Break this boulder by attacking twice, then proceed right for a few more seconds. Break the next boulder, then perform the following: Hop in place, Pivot Left, Dash twice, Jump Right. The reason you hop is to permit Alucard to pivot again, as attacking leaves him in a state where he is unable to pivot while crouching normally.

Once you have jumped right, proceed to Shield Dash until Damage Check (you will hear a room change during this, as well), then turn around and kill the Warg, and turn back around again. Shield Dash until Damage Check again, then turn around and kill the Warg.

By this point, you should have between 88 and 99 experience. If you heard a level up prior to this point, you may have killed too many Wargs or Zombies and will need to reset the run.

The position after you kill the second Warg in this room is approximately 8 Dashes away from the 3rd and final Warg. Tap left, then proceed to Dash 8 times. After your 8th Dash, you should hear the Warg begin to charge. Jump right to clear it while it charges, then hold right for a few seconds more, to give Alucard time to walk up against the breakable block in this room.

Death Skip

If you are already proficient with the Neutron Bomb Death Skip in a normal Any% run, it is possible to execute the trick blindfolded the exact same way. However, there exists a normalized setup that can guarantee a 100% success rate if performed correctly. The setup involves getting Alucard to a very specific X position using a particular sequence of jumps and dashes, detailed below. Once Alucard is at this position, a map buffered input can be used to complete the skip.

1. Set Alucard's X Position to a specific value
   1. Walk right against the ledge
   2. Crouch and slash while standing in place to break the block
   3. Jump right
   4. Stand up and dash left
   5. Jump right, colliding with the ledge
   6. Jump right again
   7. Stand up and dash left
   8. Jump right, colliding with the ledge
   9. Stand up and dash left
   10. Listen and wait for the Warg's attack
   11. Perform the following three times in a row while not getting hit by the Warg's attack
       1. Jump left
       2. Stand up and dash
       3. Dash again
2. Equip Neutron Bomb
   1. Press MENU (to enter the menu screen)
   2. Press JUMP twice (to select Alucard's Right hand)
   3. Press DOWN (to select the Neutron Bomb)
   4. Press JUMP (to equip the Neutron Bomb to Alucard's Right hand)
   5. Press MENU (to return to the game screen)
3. Map buffer holding LEFT and ATTACK (to use the Neutron Bomb)
   1. Open the map
   2. Hold left and attack
   3. While still holding left and attack, press the map button again to map buffer the inputs
4. While the level up animation plays, hold DASH
5. Walk right against the ledge
6. Jump right while walking right until Alucard exits Death's room

Getting to the first save room

While you are still holding RIGHT from performing Death skip in the section, you can confirm that you are successful when you note that you hear Alucard's mana bar refill from his levelling up and do not hear Death begin his dialogue. Continue to move to the right for a couple of seconds after you hear the mana bar refill sound. At this point, you will be at the top of the first set of stairs in the stairwell after Death's introduction room. From here, you will ascend the stairwell using the following moves:

1. Get to the topmost floating platform
   1. Tap RIGHT
   2. Dash
   3. Jump left
   4. Pivot right
   5. Dash
   6. Jump right
   7. Jump up 6 times
2. Re-equip Alucard Sword
   1. Press MENU (to enter the menu screen)
   2. Press JUMP twice (to select Alucard's Right hand)
   3. Press JUMP (to equip the Alucard Sword to Alucard's Right hand)
   4. Press MENU (to return to the game screen)
3. Break the candle (to confirm your position)
   1. Jump and Attack (if performed correctly, you should hear a candle break; if you don't, you are likely on a platform below where you should be, and should perform another jump up)
4. Clear the softlock gap
   1. Dash
   2. Do a short manual jump to the left (not a full normalized jump left, since while on floating platforms, crouch-jumping will cause you to drop down)
   3. Jump left (This jump will get interrupted by a block above you, which will correct your position)
   4. Dash 3 times
   5. Jump left (This jump clears the softlock gap; if you hear repeated thunder sounds and find yourself unable to jump, you have fallen into the gap and are softlocked)
5. Proceed to the save room
   1. Pivot right
   2. Shield dash until damage check
   3. Attack (to kill the skeleton you just phased through)
   4. Dash
   5. Jump left until you hear the heartbeat sound of the Save Room (approximately 9 or 10 jumps should do it)

Save after Death Skip

Goals

• Get Cube of Zoe

Dangers:

• Getting stuck in the platforming sections
• Getting stuck in the Axe Knight and Spike Room

Save before Slogra and Gaibon

Goals:

• Get Life Vessel after killing Slogra and Gaibon (optional)
• Get Stopwatch (and keep it for the remainder of the run)

Dangers:

• Getting a Takemitsu (a two-handed weapon) as an item drop from a Flea Man
• Losing your Stopwatch to an Axe item drop from the Axe Knights

Save before Doppelganger

Goals:

• Get Soul of Wolf

Dangers:

• Missing the jump onto the first ledge in Outer Wall
• Losing your Stopwatch to an Axe item drop from an Axe Knight
• Getting lost in Colosseum

Clock Room

Determining if the Statue is open or closed

From the center area of this room, move up against the left ledge, face left, then proceed to do 2 Left Jumps. If the Statue is Open, Alucard will travel far enough left to make it to the next room over, triggering a change in the music that you can use as a cue. If the Statue is closed, part of Alucard's jump will be interrupted, shortening the horizontal distance covered and Alucard will still be inside the Clock Room.

Save in Colosseum

Goals:

• Get Library Card
• Get Form of Mist
• Get Shield Rod

Dangers:

• Getting a Namakura (a two-handed weapon) as an item drop from a Blade Soldier
• Getting lost in Colosseum

Save before Soul of Bat

Goals:

• Activate Shield Rod spell with the Alucard Shield
• Get Soul of Bat

Dangers:

• Getting a High Potion as an item drop from a Flea Armor
• Getting a Takemitsu (a two-handed weapon) from breaking the vase outside the Soul of Bat room
• Running out of mana and losing the Shield Rod spell effect

Save after Soul of Bat

Goals:

• Make it to the Clock Tower section

Dangers:

• Getting lost in the Long Library section
• Getting lost in the Outer Wall section

Save before Clock Tower

Goals:

• Make it to the Keep section

Dangers:

• Not having enough Hearts to get through the Clock Tower section safely
• Getting lost in the Clock Tower section
• Running out of mana and losing the Shield Rod spell effect

Save before Richter Skip

Goals:

• Perform Richter Skip

Dangers:

• Falling off the stairs while resetting on Richter Skip attempts
• Triggering the Richter cutscene without the glitch
• Softlocking after executing Richter Skip
• Getting lost in Reverse Keep

Save after Richter Skip

Goals:

• Get Manna Prism

Dangers:

• Not having enough Hearts to get through the Imp Room section safely
• Dying to enemies in Reverse Colosseum
• Running out of mana while flying
• Running out of mana and losing the Shield Rod spell effect

Save in Reverse Colosseum

Goals:

• Make it to the Save Room before Relic Skip

Dangers:

• Running out of mana and losing the Shield Rod spell effect

Save before Relic Skip

Goals:

• Perform Relic Skip
• Kill Dracula

Dangers:

• Not performing Relic Skip correctly if you didn't save