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Add map of casual route
Symphony of the Night has a Save Feature and requires you to create a new Save File every time you start a new game. You obtain a Clear File by beating the game and keeping the Save File from that game on your Memory Card. Having a Clear File is important for speedrunning the game as it allows you to skip dialogs and cutscenes throughout the game, saving roughly 8 minutes of time during the course of a run. Once you have a Clear File, you should not delete it.
The easiest way to obtain a Clear File for someone new to speedrunning this game is to use a slightly-modified route from the standard Any% NSC route. Before you begin, you should familiarize yourself with one of these routes, (see the map slideshow below for one such example) and understand how to perform [[Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night:Glitches#Death Skip|Death Skip]], [[Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night:Glitches#Richter Skip|Richter Skip]], and [[Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night:Glitches#Relic Skip|Relic Skip]]. Of these, the only skip that can't be practiced or learned efficiently during the run itself is [[Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night:Glitches#Death Skip|Death Skip]], as there are no Save Rooms prior to it and you only get one shot at it per run. Therefore, you should start out familiarizing yourself with the visual cues for [[Castlevania:_Symphony_of_the_Night:Glitches#Death Skip|Death Skip]], in particular.
{{#ev:youtube|youtu.be/-COit1FH7Kc|480}}
The rest of this section contains timestamps that refer to their corresponding points in the video above if you need or prefer a visual guide of what to do.
<gallery mode="slideshow" class="mw-collapsible">
Image:Sotn_anypct_casual_01.png|
Image:Sotn_anypct_casual_02.png|
Image:Sotn_anypct_casual_03.png|
Image:Sotn_anypct_casual_04.png|
Image:Sotn_anypct_casual_05.png|
</gallery>
Once you are familiar with the major skips and the overall route, start up a run and work your way through the route. Throughout the run, you will encounter or be near to several Save Rooms and Life Vessels, so use them to your advantage if you are ever low on health or about to enter a tough section. Saving will also restore your MP, if you are ever low on it and passing by a Save Room.