Banjo-Tooie (N64) - 100% w/death abuse 4:54:13 - Peter Branam-Lefkove
Publicado 2024-08-06
Speed run of Banjo-Tooie in 12 segments completed on December 19 2005. Uses save warping and abuses death to save time. Available in four versions: low, normal, high and insane quality.
Author's comments:
Credits:
Nate - For capturing the run from VHS
Radix - For hosting the run
mike89 - His Banjo Tooie 100% Speed Guide was a great starting point for strategizing my own routes, and had a few tricks that I probably wouldn't have thought of myself (such as getting the grenade eggs early to defeat Old King Coal faster)
Jish - He had originally been working on a Banjo Tooie run awhile ago, and offered a lot of good advice, including a trick I had overlooked for getting Banjo's jiggy in the toxic waste plant, sans sack pack. (Unfortunately the advice came too late for me to actually incorporate any of it, though.)
And thanks to bunch of people from the SDA discussion topic for moral support and random pieces of advice. (Jason the SDA Guest, NintenDan, Pikachu025, Bulblax, XIF, Soteos, Ikanaki, StrangenessDSS... hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone)
So, where to begin?
The 100% definition for this run was as follows:
-Must obtain all collectables that the game keeps track of: Jiggies, Empty Honeycombs, Cheato Pages, Glowbos, Notes, Jinjos, Jamjar's Moves
-All of the "Stop n' Swop" related items must be collected (the two secret eggs, the Ice Key, and the Mega Glowbo)
-Although all of the above items must be collected, they do not actually have to be put to use (returning empty honeycombs for additional health or cheato pages for cheats is optional; returning the two secret eggs for cheats is optional; using the mega glowbo to obtain Dragon Kazooie Transformation is optional, although this run chooses to use it). Things that just unlock other cheat codes (Visiting Madame Grunty, hatching Heggy's Golden Egg), because they are not needed or noticeable, are optional. The Amaze-o-Goggles are also optional for the same reasons.
So how did this run come to be? Well, I had originally been interested in doing a Banjo Kazooie Speedrun last year. However, Marshmallow was already working on his run at that time. So I went with Super Mario Sunshine instead. After finishing my Majora's Mask 100% run, I read the discussion topic for this project and, seeing it in need of a runner, chose to adopt it. Of course it goes without saying that this run was a rather hefty undertaking. With such massive levels and so much overlap between them, planning the route was a considerable project. That took about two and a half weeks (thankfully mike89's guide meant I didn't have to start completely from scratch); the run itself took over two and a half months to record. I ended up with these level times:
Spiral Mountain - 5:14
Isle o' Hags - 27:44
Mayahem Temple - 19:41
Glitter Gulch Mine - 22:35
Witchyworld - 35:47
Jolly Roger's Lagoon - 24:35
Terrydactyland - 33:39
Grunty Industries - 38:39
Hailfire Peaks - 35:54
Cloud Cuckooland - 30:09
Cauldron Keep - 20:16
Total Time - 4:54:13
Of course, this is with segmentation and gratuitous abuse of death and save warps. Still, given the expectations for this run at the time of its creation, Sub-5 is pretty impressive.
Well, I think that covers the basics. Hopefully you'll be satisfied with the final product. Enjoy!
If you have any questions or comments about this run, my AIM screenname is XDragornX.
A few more things to note:
Unfortunately, Rare chose to model the controls for the game's first-person areas after control style 1.1 from Goldeneye/Perfect Dark. This rather sucked for me, being a 1.2 user myself... thankfully there aren't too many first person areas, though. Of the three first-person area minigames (Targitzan's Temple, Ordnance Storage, Clinker's Cavern), the first two are fine; Clinker's Cavern is the sloppiest, because it's the only one that requires accurate shooting while strafing around.
My strategy for balancing the Clockwork Kazooie Egg (CK Egg) Supply was definitely imperfect; however, it still went surprisingly well, considering that I was basically just making it up as I went along. My strategy called for picking up both egg nests along the mountaintop route in Terrydactyland as CK Eggs; unfortunately, the timing on them is rather random and I missed both. I compensated for this by picking up two different CK Eggs later in that segment, at the expense of several seconds (these were rather poor choices, as the egg nests I run by in Spiral Mountain in the next segment would have required significantly less waiting). I also miss two CK Egg shots during the run; I compensate for the second one by picking up an extra egg near the end of Cloud Cuckooland. (This also wasn't the best choice, as there were two nests in Grunty Industries during the final segment that would have required slightly shorter waiting periods.)
In the beginning of the run, I wasn't aware of the "pressing B in midair in talon trot form to revert to regular Banjo" trick. I learned of it by reading Marshmallow's comments for his Banjo Kazooie Run. I don't start using it until Segment Three, so there are a couple of places in the first two segments where it would have been beneficial.
As I mentioned earlier, this run abuses death warps a great deal, and a lot of times killing yourself as quickly as possible can be a random affair (enemies always refuse to be where you want them). I realized mid-run the excellent technique of using grenade eggs for "assisted suicide" (i.e. fire them into a wall at low health to take damage from the explosion). This trick was very useful in the later segments, and probably would have saved time for the Pump Room Death Warp in Witchyworld, at the very least.
Most of my minigame completions are nothing special. (My Witchyworld ones in particular are rather sucky.) They all take a set amount of time regardless of your score, so I wasn't really motivated to optimize them. The exception is the Pot of Gold, which ends early if you hit all 100 jiggies. I end it with a few extra seconds left; it's not great, but certainly not terrible either.
Jiggy Wiggy's Puzzles are a nightmare. The early ones are simple, but the later ones are exercises in randomness and infuriation. My later puzzles definitely have their share of mistakes, although I'm not sure if they actually count towards the in-game time anyway.
Some level-specific comments:
Mayahem Temple
My first trip through this level was very smooth overall. The only notable mistake was pausing too soon right at the end of the segment. The Golden Statue sequence is extremely... unforgiving. Even with near-perfect movement, you only have about 2 seconds for error. The flying sequence afterwards is also very tricky. (Accidentally landing on the temple roof while collecting the jiggy is disastrous, and it's also very easy to crash when beak bombing towards the cheato page.) My second trip through the level is mainly notable for its heavy abuse of CK Eggs.
Glitter Gulch Mine
In the first trip through this level, I purposely don't collect the prison cell jinjo. The camera angle for this area is very bad, and when you factor in the two narrow doorways that must be navigated and the detonator's very bouncy and difficult to control movement, you've got a real mess on your hands. So it's just much easier to collect the jinjo in BK form during the second trip (as you have to visit that area anyway).
One interesting point of strategy for his level involves Canary Mary's Races; the first race transports you from one end of the level, by the entrance, to the other, by the train station. The second race does the reverse. Both races were completed at specific times to take full advantage of these warps.
Returning the four empty honeycombs at the end of the first trip, while not required, is very helpful. As mike89 mentions in his guide, trying to get stuff done as Kazooie Solo with only one health piece later is just unreasonable.
Witchyworld
One significant mistake here was my not noticing the brat kid's presence in the Dodgem Dome lobby. I had to make an extra trip back there during the second Witchyworld visit to hit him, which wasted time. Of course, the combination of kid's locations that you get it completely random and significantly impacts the strategy for the second trip. Ideally for my strat, both the fat kid and the girl should be in the inferno; I got stuck with a terrible combination (fat kid in the train station and girl in Crazy Castle Stockade). On that note, I think now that it might actually be beneficial to pick up the fries during the first trip. You go by two of the girl's three possible locations (CC Stockade and the Star Spinner; her Inferno location would also only be a minor detour) during the first trip, and giving her the fries then would be a nice timesaver. This is assuming, of course, that you can just get the burgers during the second trip, and use them to feed the fat kid and all three oogle boogles. (I haven't actually checked, but I don't see why not.)
Also, I really hate Mr. Patch. Having such a random battle at the end of a long segment is not fun. Overall, I'd say my battle was pretty good; not my best, but certainly acceptable (especially as I had multiple good runs ruined by terrible Patch Battles).
A lot of tasks in this level are left until the second trip, when they can be completed more efficiently using later moves. This even includes activating the train station, which some people may find to be an odd move.
Jolly Roger's Lagoon
It's worth nothing that you can actually complete this level without using Mumbo's Sunlight Spell. Now that is just damn cool to watch.
Unfortunately, this level also has a lot of randomness. You've got a lot of stuff that is randomly determined when you enter the level, so you can't beat it with Future Knowledge. This includes:
-the code for the Temple of Fishes
-the location of Davy Jones's Locker
-the entire Boss Fight (the order in which the boils light up is randomized... thankfully my battle was all right)
-the locations of the seemee items (It saves some time if the honeycomb piece is in the big fish cavern instead of the lockers area. Thankfully, I got lucky with this.)
-The trick I use to get the jinjo in the alcove above the bay. (If you jump out of the water from a wave at max height, you can actually grab onto the ledge and pull yourself up. It's very hard to do consistently, and took me several attempts on my run. Still, it is the best way I found; using the running shoes would require an extra doubloon, and the other possible solution [using Banjo Solo and his double jump] is obviously out of the question.)
In the second visit to this level, I got screwed over when the electric eel in the Ancient Swimming Baths decided to swim behind a rock, thus thwarting my attempts to kill him. He then proceeded to attack me while I was setting up the following CK Egg shot, costing some time. Thankfully I was still able to pull it off and get out of there w/o too much loss. I also wasted some time missing a note nest with the talon torpedo outside the UFO.
Terrydactyland
This level, in addition to Hailfire Peaks, was one of the hardest to plan for. However, I think you'll find that it has a very efficient route. The multi-level nature of the central hub of the level permits you to drop down from high areas to lower ones, allowing for some very nice shortcuts. Unfortunately at one point during the first trip I accidentally warp to the wrong place. This doesn't cost too much time, but just looks bad and rather irks me.
Oh yes, watch out for the neat glitch used to pick up the treble clef in Giant Rex Form.
Grunty Industries
Ah yes... the longest level of the game, all the route planning, optimizing, and sequence breaking in the world still couldn't tame this beast. As far as mistakes, there is one point during the first trip where I suffered a total brain fart and completely forget was I was doing; I spend several seconds as Banjo Solo running stupidly into the door of the Electromagnet Chamber before I realized what was going on. I also made my second (and thankfully last) missed CK Egg shot in the Train Station. During the second trip, I fell off a catwalk in Clinker's Cavern, costing a bit of time.
Still, this level has some pretty neat tricks in it, including reaching the upper levels of the factory early by exploiting Kazooie Solo. This level is also home to what is, no holds barred, the most intense moment of the entire run. The trick at the very end of the first trip involves crossing the spinning beam that spans the length of the Repair Depot. I insisted on doing this, as collecting the relevant Cheato Page after beating Weldar (when the beam has stopped spinning) requires an incredibly lengthy climb up the area's ladder, which I just couldn't allow. By itself, this trick is very difficult. One's timing must be absolutely impeccable; if you hit the jump button too soon, you'll feathery flap in midair (i.e. you're screwed); and once you've touched back down on the spinning beam, you have a very small interval of time in which you must jump again before getting brushed off (i.e you're still screwed). Once you factor in the pressure of having 40 minutes of work ride on the outcome of this sequence, you see just how difficult it really is. I think I held my breath for its duration.
Hailfire Peaks
Like TDL, you can do a lot of crazy stuff on the fire side of this level by dropping from high areas to lower ones. I think you'll be impressed with my route. I also traverse Icicle Grotto backwards (getting glide first and then working down to the entrance), which is pretty cool. Uh... honestly can't think of anything else... no really notable mistakes here...
Cloud Cuckooland
This level is unique as being the only one (besides Cauldron Keep, although that hardly counts) that gets cleared out in a single trip.
The segment for this level required the most restarts, as my strategy required specific locations for the two different Skulls (Mingy Jongo in the Blue one and Mumbo in Red). I would assume that the two different combinations have equal probabilities of occurring, but after I restarted 5 or so times in a row because of this, I started to doubt it. Because of all the restarts, I was a bit more forgiving of tiny mistakes later in the level. (The locations of items in the dirt patches at the beginning of the level are also randomized when you enter, although that's not nearly as big of a deal.)
In addition to the Skulls, the other element of randomness in this level comes from those FREAKING BEE ENEMIES. ARRRGH. Those damn things are everywhere, and getting hit by one almost always results in falling off the course and a mandated restart. You'll notice that I'm very cautious around them.
I used a pen for Canary Mary. You can see I was faltering at the beginning of the first race before I finally got my rhythm down. Unfortunately having a numb arm at the end of the second race doesn't make the remaining part of the segment any easier.
This level is also home to what is probably the biggest mistake of the run. Near the very end, I screw up shooting the Wasp Statue and actually have to restart on it. Naturally this had never happened in any practice runs. I probably should've thrown the segment out, but having just survived Canary Mary and the rest of the segment being pretty good, I just couldn't stand the idea of restarting at this point. It's not THAT bad anyway.
Cauldron Keep
Not much to see here. Klungo battle is very smooth. Many people might not know that you can jump through the laser grid outside. I didn't do as well in Tower of Tragedy as usual. However I still had some fun answering questions blindly during the last round. My Grunty Battle is smooth enough, but just seems uneventful to me. However I still managed to squeeze one last neat trick in there. :)
Wow, I really hadn't intended to write a novel here. Kudos if you actually read all that. I hope you enjoy(ed) the run!