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
• HolyWater Damage48
• Cross Damage 48
• StopWatch Freezes most enemy sprites..

   After hitting a Enemy/Candle you can't hit a other one for 17 frames with any cross on the screen. 
   It is possible to cancel imported cross hits out with a wrong crosses on screen hitting something.
   The whip seems to have his own frame window also made out of 17 frames where it can't hit again for this amount of frames.
   The whip does also stun most enemies for more or less 15 frames.

Jumping

• Simon can jump over some enemies so 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. 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 then the walking animation and can reduce lag on some screens when a lot is going on. When you jump immediately you can take off without seeing a single standing frame. This is a hart thing to master because pressing jump to early will result in no jump.
• The ascending and descending part of the jump can be used to get hold on ground tiles.

One and Two frame Jumps

• Pressing the button for one frame will result into a shorter jump. It is used to lower distance to travel. Jump below crusher and having less air travel time and taking off earlier.
• Two frame jump is still a bit shorter as the full jump with 3 frames or more.

Lock Movment on Ground and Stair

• If you keep holding the jump button you will be locked on the ground after landing. You can transit into the lock state form a whip state.
• Holding jump on stairs result into a locked state. 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 of stairs.
• While using most subweapons you will be locked to the ground for a view frames. This can be used to puffer 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 to walk over spikes and will help reducing lag on some screen since your Sprite does not need to be drawn every frame. The counter is at CPU-bus: 0x0000bc

Stairs

• Stairs slow you down, therefore, as little time as possible should be spent on them.

Powerups

• Whipupgrade: 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.
• Multiplayer: Hit 10 things with a subeweapon. Have more then 8 hearts and they will drop instead of a small heart. Whip upgrades do have priority over multiplayer. You can find them in walls too. In more techinical therms. 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 A (Dec 10) and the heart count is 8 or more the next candle with a small heart will drop a multiplayer. 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 what is strange ^^
• 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 pints but without the points.

Ring Glitch/Trick

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.

Whip Cancelling

You can cancel out your whip shortly after using it. tasvideos.org

Simultaneous Whip and Subweapon

Using a subweapon one frame after using the whip allows you to use both at a time.