Cv4/tricks

Basics and Simple Tricks

Whip

• Simon can whip in 8 directions
• Unless it can't be avoided, always try to jump when you want to whip to prevent slowing down
• Whip animation uses 12 frames till the whip is out and does damage. It will be out for 12 more frames but can always be canceled by a limp whip.

• Whip Damage

Leather: 32 Partial 8

Chain: 48 Partial 12

(To see hit-boxes and damage done in the game use Bizhawk. It will come with a demo Lua script you can load into the console)

Limp Whip

• Holding the whip button allows your whip to go limp. If you hold any direction while whipping it will go into limp state faster. In this state, the whip will do less damage. This can be useful in a few different scenarios.

Subweapons

• There are 5 subweapons: dagger, holy water (aka firebomb), axe, stopwatch, and the cross.
• It is worth noting that the holy water is very effective against many of the bosses. However, the cross is hands down the most useful subweapon for speedrunning.
• The cross acts like a boomerang and upon reaching the end of the screen it will reverse direction. By moving Simon forward, you can extend the cross' range and it also becomes twice as effective because it can hit enemies going forward and backwards.

Properties:

• Dagger damage 32
• Axe damage 48
• Holy Water damage 48
• Cross damage 48
• Stop Watch freezes most enemy sprites

   After hitting a Enemy/Candle, further hitting will be disabled for 17 frames. This is true for all crosses on screen. 
   The whip seems to have its own frame window also made out of 17 frames where it can't hit again for this amount of frames after you hit something. 
   This is also called whip- candle- or cross cancel. It can cancel out important hits and can be annoying to deal with if you expect your weapon to always make contact with an enemy. 
   The whip also stuns most enemies for more or less 15 frames.

Jumping

• Simon can jump over some enemies as long as they are moving forward.
• When you jump down from a ledge that's at least 2 blocks high, you are forced into a crouching state for 10 frames. You can avoid this by just jumping immediately after making contact with the ground. Every time you jump means one less frame you would have to crouch. Walking off usually avoids this crouching state entirely, but wastes 1-2 frames for every ledge you walk over.
• It is possible to jump while using a subweapon. If you land while throwing one, you can jump immediately without losing any time.
• Jumping does have less frames than the walking animation and can reduce lag on some screens when there are many enemies. When you jump immediately, you can take off without seeing a single standing frame. This is a difficult thing to master because pressing jump too early will result in no jump.
• The ascending and descending part of the jump can be used to get hold on ground tiles.

   A 3f and plus jump = 40f in air and the jump is 45 pixels high altogether
   A 2f jump          = 38f in air 4 pixel lower then normal
   A 1f jump          = 36f in air 9 pixel lower then normal

1 and 2 Frame Jumps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ni0xnu3BLc

• Pressing the button for one frame will result into a shorter jump. It is used to lower distance to travel.
• These are applicable in many parts of the run and results in Simon having less air travel time and jumping earlier.
• Two frame jump is still a bit shorter as the full jump with 3 frames or more.
• The video above is one example for how to perform the 1-frame jump on your controller.

Lock Movement on Ground and Stairs

• If you keep holding the jump button you will be locked on the ground after landing. The lock state can be used to whip in 5 directions.
• Holding jump on stairs result into a locked state on stairs. Also if you keep holding jump when landing on stairs you can avoid the upwards walk animation.
• Pressing jump while walking down will result into jumping off of the stairs.
• While using most subweapons you will be locked to the ground for a few frames. This can be used to buffer a jump input without moving in the x direction.

Damage Boosting

• Simon can only move so fast, but the game will move him a bit faster whenever he takes damage.
• After a damage boost you will be invincible for 80 frames.
• It can be used for things such as walking over spikes or through additional enemies and will help to reduce lag on some screens since your sprite does not need to be drawn every frame.
• Technical Information: The counter is at CPU-bus: 0x0000bc

Stairs and Stair Boss

• Stairs slow you down, therefore, as little time as possible should be spent on them.
• Stairs are tile collision events that can interact with sprites. It is likely that the game is programmed so that Simon's x y coordinate can lock onto the diagonal of the stair tile.
• Below you see a tile grid and how a pixel can pass through without colliding with a stair tile

   Every 8th pixel you can fall through if you jump toward the stairs. Tiles are square of 8*8 pixels. You can see the gap on this example very good.

   It will also give you a idea on what pixels you have to watch out for. The jump close to the stair is a crouch since otherwise Simon will automatically lock to them.
   You only lock automatically to stairs when they are on a edge so you can not simply walk off. 
   It will replace the frames where Simon has the legs close together when standing on a ledge. 
   Also jumping a few pixels after where you usually lock to them will result in getting higher up on the stair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpOJqLXKxVU

Notes

• Video explanation of the stair boss and what to look out for.

Candle Cancel

Notes

• Sometimes you see that you get hit but the game said no. Here is why.

Powerups and Pick Ups

• Whip Upgrade: This does waste time to collect but as you see in a low% run you will lose time after.
• Hearts: For the love of subweapon use. A small heart adds one (1) and a large heart adds five (5).
• Multiplier: Hit 10 things with a subweapon. Have more then 8 hearts and the multiplier will drop instead of a small heart. Whip upgrades do have priority over multiplier. You can find them in walls too. In more technical terms. On the S-CPU bus at 0x0013c6 is a counter that counts up every time you hit a enemy/candle with a sub weapon. When you reach ten (10) and the heart count is 8 or more, the next candle with a small heart will drop a multiplier. Also hitting a small heart with a subweapon with count 9 will drop one.
• Orb: Round, Shiny and finishes most stages.
• Money Bags: They don't slow you down, which is strange ^^ they count toward your score and getting a 1-up. Not relevant in a speedrun.
• One-Up: Can be found in a wall 6-3-3 or behind a pillar in the water-slide 2-3-2. It does the same thing as earning 20 000 or 70 000 points but without the points.

Ring Glitch

By grabbing a ring from above, Simon can suspend himself above the ring. Letting go in that position will give him a huge vertical boost. Oddly enough, this boost is higher when his sprite points to the right. This can be used for a couple of shortcuts in various levels. Holding Left or Right will make Simon enter the regular swinging motion.

Instant Extend
If you can't jump high enough to grab a ring like that, this is what you can do -

• Jump as high as you can towards the ring.
• Hit it with a limp whip.
• Immediately let go after grabbing the ring.
• If you're close and high enough, Simon will gain a bit of extra height.
• Use that extra height to hit the ring a second time. Every time, Simon should get a bit of extra height, until he eventually is perfectly above the ring.

If Simon hits the ring while really close to it, the game may instantly completely extend him in a certain direction, depending on Simon's exact position. This can be used for a quick boost in any direction. Because he needs to get so close to the ring, this is usually done with a limp whip. The controls in glitched state above the ring are inverted (pressing left moves Simon right, etc.).

Whip Cancelling

• You can cancel out your whip shortly after using it.
• Doing this allows you to perform more whips in succession than waiting for the full whip animation to finish.
• This is not an easy trick to perform especially diagonally but can be worth it for securing faster boss fights.

Simultaneous Whip and Subweapon

• Using a subweapon 1 frame after using the whip allows you to use both at a time.
• Doing this allows you to kill enemies faster and is particularly useful during boss fights.
• Getting used to this is tricky and requires practice!

Enemies

Bone Dragon

Movement Pattern explained

Note: There is no RNG to it.

Disassembly

https://github.com/bogaa/Super_Castlevania_4_Disassembly