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This Alucard Any% NSC (No Save Corruption) is the most popular speedrunning category for Symphony of the Night. It is well balanced and a good choice for first category to learn. There is only one route, but it contains some advanced and safer strategies runners can choose from. If you are brand new to speedrunning SOTN, you may wish to start with the [[SOTN/Introduction_to_Speedrunning_Alucard|introduction to Speedrunning SOTN]] first, then return here. = Standard Route =The standard route requires knowledge of how to perform the following glitches: [[SOTN/Death_Skip|Death Skip]], [[SOTN/Shop_Glitch|Faerie Card Shop Glitch]], [[SOTN/Richter_Skip|Richter Skip]], and [[SOTN/Relic_Skip|Relic Skip]]. You collect the following Relics, listed in order: Cube of Zoe, Soul of Wolf, Form of Mist, Faerie Card, and Soul of Bat.

 The primary goals for the Prologue Section are as follows:*Gather enough Hearts to have 41 Hearts before entering Dracula's throne room*End the Prologue fight while holding the Holy Cross item (optional)*End the Prologue fight with 0 Hearts In the Prologue, you play as Richter. Your performance in this section affects your starting equipment and stats during the main game when you play as Alucard. Your primary goal in the Prologue is to beat Dracula while meeting the conditions necessary to give Alucard two items in his inventory at the start of the main game, the Neutron Bomb and the Heart Refresh: - To acquire the Neutron Bomb for Alucard, Richter must have 41 or more hearts Hearts BEFORE the wine glass cutscene that triggers the fight with Dracula. Note that accessing the secret treasure room at the top of the stairs is required to be able to get this many heartsHearts. - To acquire the Heart Refresh for Alucard, Richter must have 0 hearts Hearts remaining by the time the photo burn cutscene begins after the fight with Dracula.

At the top of the stairs, hidden in the ceiling, is a secret treasure room. The fastest way to gain access to it is to use Richter's uppercut move (Down, Up + Jump) while roughly halfway between the chandelier and the ledge. If you are in the correct position, Richter will pass through the ceiling and you will gain access to the secret treasure room without needing to lower the hidden staircase. If you are not in the correct position, you will collide with the ceiling instead. There is a candlestick containing 5 hearts Hearts on the right side of the hidden room that you will want to collect before dropping back down into the entrance room. Once you are back in the entrance room, collect 6 more hearts from a candlestick and the vase. Along with the 30 hearts Richter starts the Prologue with, you should now be at 41 hearts. Move to the left to enter the throne room and trigger the fight with Dracula (having 41 hearts at this point fulfills the condition for acquiring the Neutron Bomb for Alucard). During this fight, Dracula has two forms. In his first form, he will teleport and throw projectiles. The easiest way to defeat Dracula's first form is to get the Holy Water sub-weapon from the leftmost candlestick in the throne room and use your Item Crash (Triangle or Y) with the Holy Water to cast Hydro Storm. After defeating Dracula's first form, he will transform into a large monster. In his second form, he jumps around while throwing projectiles. The easiest way to defeat him in this form is to use your Item Crash again while whipping him and throwing Holy Waters. Remember to use up all your hearts during this fight so that you end the fight with no hearts remaining to fulfill the condition for acquiring Heart Refresh for Alucard. == Death Skip ==After the Prologue, and for the remainder of the game, you play as Alucard. A few rooms into the run, you will come across a section where the game tries to force you into a cutscene with the Grim Reaper (also known as Death), who steals your starting equipment. It is possible, however, to execute a glitch known as a [[Reverse Shift Line]] to skip this cutscene and keep all of your starting equipment, which is some of the strongest equipment in the game.

The most common method for performing this glitch uses the Neutron Bomb earned during the Prologue. Have Alucard jump over the last Warg prior to Once you are back in the cutscene entrance room with Death while his XP is very close to the XP required to level up. There is , collect 6 more Hearts from a raised set of steps leading into candlestick and the next room that has a breakable blockvase. By breaking this block, you can move into Along with the correct position, and walk left while using 30 Hearts Richter starts the Neutron Bomb to kill the Warg, triggering the level up animation. By buffering a backdash and holding right while the level up animation playsPrologue with, you can trigger the glitch. The positioning and timing is very precise, so it is often necessary to use [[pause buffering]] to set it up correctlyshould now be at 41 Hearts.

There are other methods of performing Death SkipMove to the left to enter the throne room and trigger the fight with Dracula (having 41 Hearts at this point fulfills the condition for acquiring the Neutron Bomb for Alucard). During this fight, as wellDracula has two forms. In his first form, he will teleport and throw projectiles. The most common of these alternative methods easiest way to defeat Dracula's first form is called [[Spell Death Skip]], to get the Holy Water sub-weapon from the leftmost candlestick in the throne room and uses use your Item Crash (Triangle or Y) with the Summon Spirit or Tetra Spirit spell Holy Water to kill the Wargcast Hydro Storm.

=== Goals The primary goals for the [[SOTN/Clock Rush |Clock Rush]] Section===are as follows:*Perform [[SOTN/Death_Skip|Death Skip]] to keep your starting equipment*Obtain the Cube of Zoe Relic*Pick up a Stopwatch sub-weapon*Obtain the Form Soul of Wolf Relic

From the moment you gain control of Richter in After the Prologue, and for the game has an internal timer used to determine whether or not the statue in the upper-left corner remainder of the Clock Room is blocking your path. On odd minutes (saygame, 7:00 through 7:59 or 9:00 through 9:59), the statue will be blocking your pathyou play as Alucard. On even minutes (say, 8:00 through 8:59 or 10:00 through 10:59), A few rooms into the statue will be out of the way and the path will be open. This internal timer is not the same as your real-time timer used during a speedrunrun, as time spent in menus or looking at the map does not count towards the internal timer. However, if you spend little time looking at your map or in the menu, they will be close. During the Clock Rush come across a section, where the goal is to make your way game tries to force you into a cutscene with the Outer Wall and obtain the Form of Wolf Relic from the elevator shaftGrim Reaper (also known as Death), use a wolf stair jump to reach a vase on a high-up ledge and break it to get a Garnet, and return to the Clock Room while the path is openwho steals your starting equipment. If you reach execute the Clock Room while the path is closed[[SOTN/Death_Skip|Death Skip]] glitch, however, you will be forced to wait until the statue moves out can bypass this cutscene and keep all of the way to progress. For exampleyour starting equipment, if you arrive at which is some of the Clock Room when strongest equipment in the internal timer is at 7:50, you will have to wait 10 more seconds before the path opens upgame.

During the [[SOTN/Clock Rush|Clock Rush]] section, the goal is to make your way to the Outer Wall and obtain the Soul of Wolf Relic from the elevator shaft, use a wolf stair jump to reach a vase on a high-up ledge and break it to get a Garnet, and return to the Clock Room while the path is open. Once you have the Form Soul of Wolf Relic and Garnet and are in the Clock Room with the path open, you can jump above the left candle, transform into Wolf in mid-air and untransform immediately while still above the candle. Doing this enables Alucard to then perform a dive-kick by holding Down and pressing Jump while still in the air. The goal is to bounce off of the candle, which will give you enough height to reach the open path.

=== Goals The primary goals for the Colosseum Section ===are as follows:

=== Goals The primary goals for the Library Section===are as follows:

*Purchase a Library Card (optional if you are attempting the [[SOTN/Floor_Clip|Wolf Floor Clip]])

Upon entering the library, it is important not to enter the shop right away. Assuming you teleported in, the shop will be the room directly to your left. Instead, transform into Wolf and travel to the right until you reach a room with a large staircase and Book enemies flying about. Execute a [[SOTN/Book_Jump | Book Jump]] to reach a higher ledge to the upper left of this room that leads to a room containing the Faerie Card Relic. Do not enable the Relic right away.

Now, head back to just outside the Shop and prepare to execute the Shop Glitch. Under normal circumstances, you cannot access your equipment while in the Shop. However, it is possible to trigger a glitch the first time you enter the Shop if you have certain items. One of these items is the Faerie Card Relic: === [[SOTN/Shop_Glitch|Faerie Card Relic Shop Glitch ===# Stand just outside of the doorway to the Shop while facing away# While standing still, enable the Fearie Card Relic, and wait a few seconds# Once the Faerie begins to speak, press dash to quickly enter the Shop# Open the Sell Gem menu# While the Sell Gem menu is still open, open your Equipment screen (thanks to the ]]. This glitch, you can now do this)# Equip the Garnet you collected earlier# Leave will duplicate your equipment screen and return to the Sell Gem menu# Sell the Garnet that should still be available in this menu# Leave the Sell gem menu# Return to the Sell gem menu (note that , giving you still have Garnets to sell, indicating that the glitch was successful)# 255 of them. Sell at least 102 Garnets, 104 of them (which will show as E3 E5 in the Sell Gem menu (thanks to an [[integer underflow]] that occurred when you sold the Garnet you had equipped), you now have 255 Garnets in your inventory) [[File:SOTNLibraryFaerieGlitch.png | 280px]] Now that you have enough and use this extra Gold to do so, purchase 1 Manna Prism, 2 Buffalo Stars, and the Duplicator. You may also wish to purchase a Library Card unless you are going to attempt the Library Floor Clip in the upcoming section. Don't forget to equip the Duplicator, Manna Prism, and Buffalo Staras you get ready to leave the Shop. With the Duplicator, you can now use consumable items an infinite number of times.

Once you have the Soul of Bat, leave the Library as quickly as possible and make your way to the Outer Wall. The easier and recommended method is to teleport back near the shop using a Library Card, then proceed to Wing Smash your way to the Outer Wall. The much more difficult method is to execute the [[SOTN/Floor_Clip|Wolf Floor Clip]], which if done perfectly can save a small amount of time. Whichever method you execute, once you find yourself at the Outer Wall, take the elevator to the top, then continue upward until you reach the entrance to the Clock Tower.

The Castle Keep section is the same section as from the Prologue with Richter, except now the staircase has fallen into ruin, leaving a gap you must fly over to enter the section where you will encounter the fight with Richter. During a normal playthrough of the game, you are expected to have the Holy Glasses at this point if you wish to be able to proceed to the Inverted Castle. In this category, however, the fastest routes all involve executing a glitch known as [[SOTN/Richter_Skip|Richter Skip]] to avoid this check and proceed on to the Inverted Castle anyway.

[[File:SOTNRichterSkipWolfPosition.png | 280px]] There are two methods of performing [[Richter Skip]], and the faster method involves using a very precise jump at the top of the stairs while in Wolf form to jump over an invisible area that would normally trigger the camera to lock on to the hallway leading to the throne room. If you can avoid touching this invisible area, the camera will still be able to freely move about, allowing you to see clouds in an area of the ceiling that would ordinally be off-screen. This is your visual cue that the glitch has succeeded, and proceeding to the throne room will cause you to skip the cutscene and fight with Richter entirely and move on to the == Inverted Castle. [[File:SOTNRichterSkipVisualConfirmation.png | 280px]]==

== Inverted Castle ==After you teleport into the Inverted Castle, you will immediately transform into Bat. Almost the entirety of this section will be spent in Bat form and involves chaining Wing Smashes together in long hallways and precise bat movement around and through enemies as you make your way through the Route. Along the way, you will encounter a fight with Medusa. Medusa is one of the bosses that drops a Relic that would ordinarily be required to complete the game, but since we will be performing the [[Relic SOTN/Richter_Skip|Richter Skip]] in the upcoming section, there is no need to collect it.

= Experience Route =*3 zombies*all 3 skeletons Once Shaft is defeated, the cutscene and final fight with Dracula will begin. Stay in the first middle of the room of alchemy lab*as Dracula descends, and focus alternating Buffalo Star attacks at his right hand. Dracula will attempt to swipe at you with either his left hand or his right hand, depending on which one green axe lord you are closer to. Once you see his body shift in position to prepare the attack, move to the spittlebone room ===Slogra opposite side from that attack just enough to clear it. Do this a few times while spamming Buffalo Star attacks at his right hand, and Gaibon Double Kill===you should be able to kill Dracula before his next phase begins.

*all 3 flea men*everything in the long hallway*one blue axe knight*fast route with sub 8 clock rush**kill everything in the outer wall**kill sword lord once**everything in the long hallway*playstation / emulator route**skip blue axe knight = Advanced Topics and spear guard**everything in the long hallway**kill first blade master**everything in the long hallway ===No Double Kill==Strategies =

:*all 3 flea men*fast route with sub 8 clock rush**everything in the long hallway**kill both blue axe knights**kill everything in the outer wall**kill sword lord once'''[[SOTN/Experience_Route | Experience Route]]''':**everything in the long hallway*playstation '''[[SOTN/ emulator route**skip dipplos before dopple**skip both blue axe knights**skip blue axe knight Double_Kill#Slogra_and_Gaibon_Double_Kill | Slogra and spear guard**kill all 3 bone muskets**everything in the long hallway**kill first blade master**everything in the long hallwayGaibon Double Kill]]'''