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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 Hearts from a candlestick and the vase. Along with the 30 hearts Hearts Richter starts the Prologue with, you should now be at 41 heartsHearts.

Move to the left to enter the throne room and trigger the fight with Dracula (having 41 hearts 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 Hearts during this fight so that you end the fight with no hearts Hearts remaining to fulfill the condition for acquiring Heart Refresh for Alucard.

== Death Skip Clock Rush ==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 primary goals 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 [[SOTN/Clock Rush|Clock Rush]] Section are as follows:*Perform [[SOTN/Death_Skip|Death while his XP is very close Skip]] to keep your starting equipment*Obtain the XP required to level Cube of Zoe Relic*Pick up. There is a raised set Stopwatch sub-weapon*Obtain the Soul 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 Wolf Relic*Pick up animation. By buffering a backdash and holding right while the level up animation plays, you can trigger Garnet*Enter the glitch. The positioning and timing is very precise, so it is often necessary to use [[pause buffering]] to set it up correctly.Left Statue Path in Clock Room

There are other methods After the Prologue, and for the remainder of performing 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 Skip), as wellwho steals your starting equipment. The most common of these alternative methods is called If you execute the [[Spell SOTN/Death_Skip|Death Skip]]glitch, however, you can bypass this cutscene and uses keep all of your starting equipment, which is some of the Summon Spirit or Tetra Spirit spell to kill strongest equipment in the Warggame.

=== Neutron Bomb Death Skip Tutorial 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 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 Turbodog702 ==={{#ev:youtube|nw2WbUl6Id0|480}}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.

{{#ev:youtube|8QTjKT6W4q0|480||||start== Clock Rush ==The Clock Rush is the sequence where the player must go from Death's Chamber (after skipping him, of course), obtain the Form of Wolf, and return to the Clock Room. This is particularly complicated by the fact that, once returned to the Clock Room, the player will be entering the upper-left statue opening, which opens and closes on every minute. On even minutes, it is open, and on odd minutes, it is closed. For example, at 07:59 it will be closed, and at 08:00 it will open up. This timer appears to be identical to the in-game timer shown on the pause screen. Note, however, that this is NOT going to be the same as your speedrunning timer, because your speedrunning timer does not stop for anything, while the in-game timer that controls the clock room stops ticking whenever the game is paused or on the map screen, and possibly during loading screens. This means you can not simply rely on your speedrunning timer to tell you when the clock will open or close. The current top speedruns arrive back at the clock room around 07:50, meaning that they will be waiting around for 10 seconds until the clock opens at the 8:00 mark. It is important to understand that, because the clock will not open until 8:00, you could shave off up to 50 seconds from the beginning of your run with zero benefit. Arriving at 07:20 is no better than 07:50. For this reason, unless an alternative strategy can be found that is substantially better than the current strategy (or if the entire run is overhauled), it is unlikely that any changes or improvements will occur during the Clock Rush phase of the round. As long as you get to the clock before the 8 minute mark, no benefits will be found, unless someone can beat the 7 minute mark, which seems currently to be impossible.1731}}

The run-up From there, you proceed left to reach Olrox's Quarters, then past the Wolf Skelerangs and return to the clock doesn't have anything particularly special involved. It is essentially the developer-intended path. The biggest change to remember is to obtain the Garnet in the vase in the Outer Wall, using the newly-acquired Wolf form Spectral Sword enemy and continue left to jump off the stairsColosseum.

After arriving at The primary goals for the clock and either finding Colosseum Section are as follows:* Pick up a Library Card* Obtain the upper-left statue Form of Mist Relic* Teleport to be openthe Library From the start of this section, or waiting for it to open, Alucard must align with the proceed left candle, jump above it, transform into Wolf, then untransform until you reach a stairwell in midairfront of a metal gate. Beyond this gate, and dive-kick at you can see the candleForm of Mist Relic, bouncing off of but you cannot reach ityet. To do so, you will have to continue on to the arena (picking up the Library Card along the way) and landing in defeat the statue openingWerewolf and Minotaur boss. This is the reason we needed to obtain the wolf - the untransform action causes Alucard to fight can be able to dive-kick, an action that normally requires made much easier by skipping past the Leap Stonecutscene with Richter as quickly as possible. After entering Doing this space, allows Alucard must then go to start the Minotaur fight early and get free hits in on the Werewolf roomand Minotaur. If done quickly enough, defeat it is possible to kill both of them before either of thembegin their attack sequences. After the fight, a doorway will open up to the right, and obtain allowing you to proceed to the room where the Form of MistRelic is located. From thereOnce you collect the Form of Mist Relic, use the equip your Library Card (obtained just prior to the boss battle) card and activate it to teleport to the Library.

The primary goals for the Library Section are as follows:*Obtain the Faerie Card Relic*Purchase a Manna Prism*Purchase 2 Buffalo Stars*Purchase a Library Card (optional if you are attempting the [[SOTN/Floor_Clip|Wolf Floor Clip]])*Purchase the Duplicator*Obtain the Soul of Bat Relic 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. [[File:SOTNLibraryBookJump.png | 280px]] Now, head back to just outside the Shop and execute the [[SOTN/Shop_Glitch|Faerie Card Shop Glitch]]. This glitch will duplicate your Garnet, giving you 255 of them. Sell at least 104 of them (which will show as E5 in the Sell Gem menu), and use this extra Gold to purchase 1Manna 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 Star as you get ready to leave the Shop. With the Duplicator, you can now use consumable items an infinite number of times. Leave the shop, heading to the right back to the stairwell with Books. Execute a wolf jump on the stairs to take the lower of the two paths on high-up ledges above the stairwell. This path will lead you to a fight with Lesser Demon and, eventually, the Soul of Bat Relic, which is behind a Gate that you must use Form of Mist to get through. Once you have the Soul of Bat, leave the Library as quickly as possible and make your way to the Outer Wall. Obtain Fairy 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. == Clock Tower & Richter Skip ==At the start of this section, you will transform into Bat and Wing Smash your way across the large chasm. This next section is filled with spawning Medusa heads and Harpies throwing knives at you, so precise movement is critical to avoid getting hit while you make your way to the section with the Sword Lords. Navigate between the broken stairs and make your way toward Karasuman. After killing Karasuman with Buffalo Stars, move left into the Castle Keep section.

2The 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. Perform Gem Duplication Glitch

After teleporting to you teleport into the LibraryInverted Castle, be sure not to enter the Librarian's roomtransform into Bat. From there, run as wolf to Almost the right, then run up the stairs entirety of this section will be spent in Bat form and jump off, dive-kicking off the book at the top involves chaining Wing Smashes together in long hallways and reach the platform at the top with the fairy card. From there, go back to the librarian precise bat movement around and perform through enemies as you make your way through the Gem Duplication GlitchRoute. Get 550,000 gold, then purchase Along the following: Manna Prismway, Buffalo Star (x2), Duplicator, and, optionally, Library Cardyou will encounter a fight with Medusa. After exiting, equip Medusa is one of the bosses that drops a Relic that would ordinarily be required to complete the Duplicatorgame, as well as but since we will be performing the Manna Prism [[SOTN/Richter_Skip|Richter Skip]] in your Sword handthe upcoming section, and one Buffalo Star in your Shield handthere is no need to collect it.

Now, go back out, halfway up After the large stairsfight with Medusa, and get onto make your way to the platform. Go through the doorway, vertical section with Imp and after the save room, you will find a large group Sniper of Goth enemiesflying around. Activate your stopwatchWith precise Wing Smash movement, and jump into the gap behind the first pair of enemies. Jump again, and hit you can make your Manna Prism in midair to get momentary invincibility way through this section unscathed 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, ascend and then Exit head toward the LibraryReverse Colosseum.

To Exit Enemies in the Library, there Reverse Colosseum and the remainder of this run are two methods. The first is very powerful compared to use the optional library card we may your level and are capable of killing you in only 2 or may not have purchased from the Librarian. If you do this3 hits, so it is critical that you'll simply Wing Smash your way out of the Libraryavoid getting hit in these sections.

The second method is faster, but much more difficult. If After you go with this methodleave the Reverse Colosseum, you will not need to purchase be in the Library Card from Black Marble Gallery section where you will set up the LibrarianRelic Skip. {PLEASE INSERT DESCRIPTION OF HOW TO PERFORM THE GLITCH HERE}

== Clock Tower Relic Skip & Castle Keep Final Battle ==== Second Castle ==Once in the Black Marble Gallery, make your way to the Clock Room, then proceed right past the Giant enemies and upward to a ledge that is just to the right of a Save Room. This ledge is where you will perform the [[SOTN/Relic Skip|Relic Skip]]. Once you have successfully executed the glitch, equip Buffalo Stars in both your hand slots and take the lift up into Dracula's chambers. After exiting the lift, fly up and around the barriers and drop into Dracula's chambers to begin the fight with Shaft. Position yourself along the left wall and alternate using both Buffalo Stars while jumping to finish Shaft as quickly as possible.

= 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]]'''