SOTN/Alucard Any% NSC
This is the most popular 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.
Contents
Route
Prologue
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 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 hearts. - To acquire the Heart Refresh for Alucard, Richter must have 0 hearts remaining by the time the photo burn cutscene begins after the fight with Dracula.
Richter begins the Prologue at the bottom of stairs that lead to an entrance room and Dracula's throne room.
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 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 the cutscene room with Death while his XP is very close to the XP required to level up. There is a raised set of steps leading into the next room that has a breakable block. By breaking this block, you can move into the correct position, and walk left while using the Neutron Bomb to kill the Warg, triggering the level up animation. By buffering a backdash and holding right while the level up animation plays, 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 correctly.
There are other methods of performing Death Skip, as well. The most common of these alternative methods is called Spell Death Skip, and uses the Summon Spirit or Tetra Spirit spell to kill the Warg.
Neutron Bomb Death Skip Tutorial by Turbodog702
Clock Rush
Goals for the Clock Rush Section
- Obtain the Form of Wolf Relic
- Pick up a Garnet
- Enter the Left Statue Path in Clock Room
From the moment you gain control of Richter in the Prologue, the game has an internal timer used to determine whether or not the statue in the upper-left corner of the Clock Room is blocking your path. On odd minutes (say, 7:00 through 7:59 or 9:00 through 9:59), the statue will be blocking your path. On even minutes (say, 8:00 through 8:59 or 10:00 through 10:59), 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 speedrun, 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 section, the goal is to make your way to the Outer Wall and obtain the Form 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. If you reach the Clock Room while the path is closed, you will be forced to wait until the statue moves out of the way to progress. For example, if you arrive at the Clock Room when the internal timer is at 7:50, you will have to wait 10 more seconds before the path opens up.
Once you have the Form 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.
Clock Room Dive-Kick Tutorial by Dr4gonBlitz
Colosseum
After arriving at the clock and either finding the upper-left statue to be open, or waiting for it to open, Alucard must align with the left candle, jump above it, transform into Wolf, then untransform in midair, and dive-kick at the candle, bouncing off of it, and landing in the statue opening. This is the reason we needed to obtain the wolf - the untransform action causes Alucard to be able to dive-kick, an action that normally requires the Leap Stone. After entering this space, Alucard must then go to the Minotaur and Werewolf room, defeat them, and obtain the Form of Mist. From there, use the Library Card (obtained just prior to the boss battle) to teleport to the Library.
Library
In the Library, there are three primary goals to accomplish.
1. Obtain Fairy Card
2. Perform Gem Duplication Glitch
3. Obtain Bat Card
After teleporting to the Library, be sure not to enter the Librarian's room. From there, run as wolf to the right, then run up the stairs and jump off, dive-kicking off the book at the top and reach the platform at the top with the fairy card. From there, go back to the librarian and perform the Gem Duplication Glitch. Get 550,000 gold, then purchase the following: Manna Prism, Buffalo Star (x2), Duplicator, and, optionally, Library Card. After exiting, equip the Duplicator, as well as the Manna Prism in your Sword hand, and one Buffalo Star in your Shield hand.
Now, go back out, halfway up the large stairs, and get onto the platform. Go through the doorway, and after the save room, you will find a large group of enemies. Activate your stopwatch, and jump into the gap behind the first pair of enemies. Jump again, and hit your Manna Prism in midair to get momentary invincibility as you land in the next small group. Jump over the last enemies and exit the room. Now, leave the room and go to the Lesser Demon. Blast him with Buffalo Stars, which should kill him extremely quickly. Go get the Soul of Bat, and then Exit the Library.
To Exit the Library, there are two methods. The first is to use the optional library card we may or may not have purchased from the Librarian. If you do this, you'll simply Wing Smash your way out of the Library.
The second method is faster, but much more difficult. If you go with this method, you will not need to purchase the Library Card from the Librarian. {PLEASE INSERT DESCRIPTION OF HOW TO PERFORM THE GLITCH HERE}
Clock Tower & Castle Keep
Second Castle
Experience Route
- 3 zombies
- all 3 skeletons in the first room of alchemy lab
- one green axe lord in the spittlebone room
Slogra and Gaibon Double Kill
- 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 and spear guard
- everything in the long hallway
- kill first blade master
- everything in the long hallway
No Double Kill
- 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
- everything in the long hallway
- playstation / emulator route
- skip dipplos before dopple
- skip both blue axe knights
- skip blue axe knight and spear guard
- kill all 3 bone muskets
- everything in the long hallway
- kill first blade master
- everything in the long hallway