Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

[FlamingMage]

I've been planning to try and speedrun R&CF Tools for a while, and finally decided to start farting around with it. I've found some nice glitches that shave off seconds (or minutes), and things are progressing pretty well.

The purpose of this thread is

A: To force me to actually do the run sometime.
B: So that I can discuss the economic management of the run, and
C: So that anyone who knows shortcuts/secrets can point them out to me.


My main problem is one of money. I am almost unshakably certain that buying the Razor Claws saves time. So thats 150,000 I need by Kerchu City. And you have to buy the Gyrocycle, but that's only 5000.

I can't decide what else I would want to buy. Armor, maybe, since the first one only costs 30k. I don't think I'll need any other weapons, since with the claws I'll have five. I might need the flamethrower or something to help with Slag though; his fight doesn't have any ammo lying around, so just the Alpha Disruptor won't be enough.


Note that this run will probably be segmented into 8-12 pieces. For sanity. I may also do a Challenge Mode run, but who knows.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

Nice enthusiasm fail.

Anywho, an update just for meeeeeee...

Did a run today. Took 2:19 from start to landing on Jasindu, Kerchu City.

After that the times become a bit more odd. Up to this point I averaged around ten minutes a planet, but those are of course subjective; Stratus City took six, and Sargasso took eleven. I made a lot of mistakes and died a bunch, but overall the speed run was looking pretty good.

But then I got to the Kerchu Guardian boss. Oh god. The horror. Took many attempts and ~30 minutes to beat him. With knowledge that the next planet had an even harder boss waiting for me, which may have been essentially impossible with my current weapons, I called it quits.


My observations;

1: Ratchet's health sucks hairy testicle sacs. For the first half of the game, every single enemy was able to kill me in two hits. By Sargasso, it only took one. I bought the first armor, which reduces damage by 25%; this did nothing visible. I still died in one hit.

2: Ratchet's damage output sucks other naughty bits. I don't think that, without training, my weapons will be able to defeat Captain Slag, nonetheless Tachyon. As such, I now have to figure out how to level my weapons the most effectively.

3: I needed to buy the Pyroblaster to beat Kerchu Guardian, but that was okay because I had the bolts for it. I even had ~60,000 left after beating the boss. This suggests that, with the extra bolts gained from training my weapons, I may be able to neglect the Pyroblaster and buy the Judicator a planet later. The damage output is much better, but Kerchu Guardian might become unbeatable.

4: When I quit, after playing through 15 of the 18 areas, I had a measly 34 health. Not even half of what I should have, and only 1/29th of the maximum.

My new time estimate: 2:10 segmented.

[marcus]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

I have no idea how you have the patience to speedrun a long game like Ratchet and Clank. Good luck, though. I really should pick up the latest game.

[Toaster]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

I really respect the dedication required involved in speedruns, because god knows I'm the biggest rage quitter when the odds are stacked against me like that.

The new one is pretty good, but I need to play through UyA again before I can make a claim about how good it was. Some of the Clank puzzles are fantastic.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

UyA is amazing Toasty. I'm in the middle of a "no weapons" run of it right now, and am considering speeding it.

Nice to see some people interested. I may post more of a "blow-by-blow" sort of thing if their's interest, and I'll certainly link to the finished videos when I'm done.


@marcus, 2-2:30 hours isn't that bad; I've seen single-segment runs of 6-7 hour games.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

Did another test run today. Good god, I am glad I'm not going to single segment this. I might even have to make it into around 15 segments; some parts are extremely unforgiving.

New notes;

I tried buying the Negotiator instead of the Pyroblaster, but that was a mistake. The raw damage output is inferior, even if I pour raritanum into upgrading it. Now, I'm considering buying both.

Also, I think I might exploit weapon upgrades to help with boss fights; in my fight against the Kerchu Guardian, I realized that my Alpha Disrupter was almost fully to level 3. I used the first four shots to hit the boss, the fifth to kill one of his minions (thus gaining experience, upgrading it, and refilling it's ammo) and then put five more rounds into the boss. Easy peasy, and also fairly easy to exploit in a segmented run.

I think I'm getting close to finding all of the shortcuts in the game. All of my glitch-hunting recently has been somewhat fruitless.

Time after beating Kerchu Guardian: 2:20. Yes, slower than my last run, but then you have to consider that I also spent time upgrading my weapons to test if it was worth it (eh, kinda). Overall, with the huge number of mistakes I made (I was off my game today) and with a five minute break in the middle of the run to grab some aspirin, my guesstimate of a 2:10 finishing time still stands. Maybe 2:15.


Plans for the next run: test to see if the Transmorpher and Leechbomb kill difficult enemies in one hit. Might help against Cragmites and Kerchu pyroguards. Also, try hoarding 100,000 more bolts to buy both the Negotiator and the Pyroblaster. Might be too slow, but hey.

I'm starting to really hate this game. Cool.

My brain hurts...

[FlamingMage]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun

Nom nom nom.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Ratchet and Clank F:ToD Speedrun




Just finished my third test run. Yet again, I quit at Slag. I really, really, really, wish that every enemy didn't one-shot me.

The Tornado Launcher is king. It has a preposterously high power for its cost. Now, I just need to find time to level it up. The Pyro Blaster and Shard Reaper are still on the must-buy list as well.


Slag still sucks. He has so much health, and his first attack every battle is a barrage of six/ten homing attacks that...surprise, surprise, kill me in one hit. You're supposed to shoot them to destroy them, but they're really hard to hit and there's an awful lot of them.



In other news, I have a splitting headache.