Tips on a Professional run for the Cat ears

[Kinetika]

Alright guys, i am attempting this and i just killed del lago. i think my runtime so far is 1 hour and some minutes. How am i doing on time? The required 5 and a half hours required seem particularly tough to achieve (at least for me lol)

- saving my money and spindles to get the infinite ammo for either the handcannon of the chicago (or both maybe?)
- Infinite knife a good call?
-get the RL for Saddler seems like a must

fishing for some tips :)

[YUREKA]

Yea go for all of them. Pro is joke with those stuff unlocked. Just ignore things like side quest or treasure hunt.

[D. Flame]

I would say:
-infinite knife
-infinite ammo hand cannon
-Chicago typewriter
-Ashley Armor
-a fully upgraded sniper
-fully upgraded riot gun

That should cover every possible scenario. Ignore all side stuff, including treasures, breaking boxes, etc. Just head straight the objective, just nuking enemies that get in the way. No need to deal with enemies not directly in your path. Running away is faster.

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

I would say:
-infinite knife
-infinite ammo hand cannon
-Chicago typewriter
-Ashley Armor
-a fully upgraded sniper
-fully upgraded riot gun

That should cover every possible scenario. Ignore all side stuff, including treasures, breaking boxes, etc. Just head straight the objective, just nuking enemies that get in the way. No need to deal with enemies not directly in your path. Running away is faster.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.....i forgot about Ash's armor :(

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by YUREKA:

Yea go for all of them. Pro is joke with those stuff unlocked. Just ignore things like side quest or treasure hunt.

no sidequests at all? i am trying to keep them to a minimum so i can harvest spindles faster for the tickets

[sidewinder_G]

-You need to do the village sidequests to get the spinels necessary to upgrade the weapon of choice through a ticket. So you need to plan around that. Once you have a weapon with infinite ammo, you're good.

- Primal Knife is good cause you save money to buy the next upgrade or RPG.

-Use an RPG as often as usual. Keep in mind the following:

1) you can store it and save space
2) you cannot one shot Mendez with it, it skips the phase you are currently in.
3) I don't know the frequency with which the merchant will have a new one in stock after you buy one. I do know it's not instant so watch it in the castle, use it on Verdugo instead of Salazar.

-15 saves is steep but DO try a little risk: save RIGHT before Krauser's fight cause he's a bit tough when all you got are perfect parries. If you want to not risk it, go with the spreader instead of the handcannon, simply because the handcannon is slow.

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by sidewinder_G:

-You need to do the village sidequests to get the spinels necessary to upgrade the weapon of choice through a ticket. So you need to plan around that. Once you have a weapon with infinite ammo, you're good.

- Primal Knife is good cause you save money to buy the next upgrade or RPG.

-Use an RPG as often as usual. Keep in mind the following:

1) you can store it and save space
2) you cannot one shot Mendez with it, it skips the phase you are currently in.
3) I don't know the frequency with which the merchant will have a new one in stock after you buy one. I do know it's not instant so watch it in the castle, use it on Verdugo instead of Salazar.

-15 saves is steep but DO try a little risk: save RIGHT before Krauser's fight cause he's a bit tough when all you got are perfect parries. If you want to not risk it, go with the spreader instead of the handcannon, simply because the handcannon is slow.

i didn't know the RL respawned, i thought it was a single purchase only :O that is great to know. i'll probably use one for Verdugo and another for Saddler if possible

Salazar will get egged :P

yeah, the 15 saves req is gonna be a problem, i am thinking of risking to run whole chaps with no saves because i just know the damned regenerators and Krauser will probably be an issue

[Xengre]

You probably wont make it at the rate you are going. 1 hour for Del Lago is rather slow but you can still make it, definitely, as long as you stop wasting so much time doing whatever it is you are doing (I'm betting mostly pointless combat and excessive looting). Fortunately, if you are going to use the infinite weapons then you will definitely get some speed up in your later runs as you can skip almost all looting aside from occasional herb/spray.

The best advice is to see how people who have excellent speedruns approach the game, especially segments you feel you can do "better". Here is a speedrun of 1:49:31 as an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtv5JkQLOE

I did a quick check and they do perform some glitches at times but its a good overall guide and if you really want to speed up an area they do a glitch at you can just look up another Speedrun video with no glitches or like a "no dmg" run of a boss, etc. to see ways to perform those spots efficiently. You can pause safely to do this. Time doesn't pass in pause menu, that is the menu with settings, timer, load, etc. Time DOES pass in case, map, etc. menu though. Time does not pass in cutscenes but you will probably skip them anyways. Time does pass if you load game from death screen (always quit to main menu, then load game, if you need to load).

Infinite Knife is kind of moot in a run like this since once you have either bonus weapon things will die without being a threat. The exception is upgrade the dmg of your knife before Krauser (you can sell it after if you want or keep it for later Krauser fights, etc.). Other than that whatever trash knives you've found so far will be sufficient.

In speedrun videos, aside from glitches, you will see tricks like how to skip the helicopter artillery section by throwing 2 heavy grenades, etc.

Make sure you aren't excessively saving. There are stretches of gameplay that require NO saving and are quite safe. For example areas like maze, Ashley section (if you got knight armor), the cave water section, minecart, etc. and many others have almost zero chance of failure. Some like double Garrador boss also have nearly zero chance of failure if you know to heavy grenade > Bolt-Action Rifle (upgraded sufficiently, or in your case hand cannon) in back = dead and you can kill both in like 10s. If you screw up shoot the bell... then kill them while they're distracted. Don't waste time on mobs until boss dead. (There is a trick to make them kill one of the others too with a bolt mine attached to one at the start I've heard but never tried). Etc.

Thus you can get away with quite a few less saves than the 15 limit or if you are struggling on saves thus reduce it to offset over saving so far (if you have).

Rocket Launcher restock question? The answer is it restocks at the start of each region (village > castle > island). You cannot buy an extra rocket until you have used the one you own. If you didn't buy one from the prior region (ex village) then you will lose that chance as the restock will replace the prior one (aka none in village? then u only get one from castle, but if you bought the one in village don't use it > get to castle > use it on someone > then you can buy the one from castle after).

Vergudo, Krauser 3rd fight (if you have a rocket from village to do this else normal fight as Vergudo gets rocket priority), Saddler get rockets. Vergudo can be rocket on first time he comes out so you don't have to do it after opening the door but the very first time. He MUST be FROZEN otherwise his dmg reduction will prevent even a rocket launcher from killing him in 1-shot. As you already know Salazar = gold egg. I already explained double garrador. If you save enough flash bangs you could just drop the two el gigante but that can be RNG obnoxious and if you are bringing either bonus weapon you could just murder them easily anyways and get their gem.

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Awesome advice man, thanks :) Yeah i looted a bit because i was using the gold attache case for extra money and as i said before, tried to get as much sidequests and treasures that were not overly far from the main objective.

The RL tip was a dealbreaker, i had no idea it restocked so it helped me quite a bit, used one on the village chief (because is was running out of ammo otherwise, so i just fought his second form. used another one on Verdugo and the last one on Saddler.

Once i got to the castle i got the upgrade ticket for the Handcannon and sold everything else except for healing, gunpowder and large parts (to craft flashbangs) and maxed out the dmg/fire rate asap. the gun carried me through the whole run, though i had to buy back the BAR to use the biosensor to locate the wrench :P

Toughest parts for me were the damn cabin siege lol survived that by the skin of my teeth after a million tries. Also that narrow trench before the bella sisters kept kicking my ass. Once i got the ticket it was more or less smooth sailing :)

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by Kinetika:

Originally posted by Xengre:

Awesome advice man, thanks :) Yeah i looted a bit because i was using the gold attache case for extra money and as i said before, tried to get as much sidequests and treasures that were not overly far from the main objective.

The RL tip was a dealbreaker, i had no idea it restocked so it helped me quite a bit, used one on the village chief (because is was running out of ammo otherwise, so i just fought his second form. used another one on Verdugo and the last one on Saddler.

Once i got to the castle i got the upgrade ticket for the Handcannon and sold everything else except for healing, gunpowder and large parts (to craft flashbangs) and maxed out the dmg/fire rate asap. the gun carried me through the whole run, though i had to buy back the BAR to use the biosensor to locate the wrench :P

Toughest parts for me were the damn cabin siege lol survived that by the skin of my teeth after a million tries. Also that narrow trench before the bella sisters kept kicking my ass. Once i got the ticket it was more or less smooth sailing :)

That's the best part about Ashley armor. Instead of having her hide, bring her along. They can't hurt her, will often recoil from hitting her, and she makes an excellent distraction.

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by Kinetika:

Awesome advice man, thanks :) Yeah i looted a bit because i was using the gold attache case for extra money and as i said before, tried to get as much sidequests and treasures that were not overly far from the main objective.

The RL tip was a dealbreaker, i had no idea it restocked so it helped me quite a bit, used one on the village chief (because is was running out of ammo otherwise, so i just fought his second form. used another one on Verdugo and the last one on Saddler.

Once i got to the castle i got the upgrade ticket for the Handcannon and sold everything else except for healing, gunpowder and large parts (to craft flashbangs) and maxed out the dmg/fire rate asap. the gun carried me through the whole run, though i had to buy back the BAR to use the biosensor to locate the wrench :P

Toughest parts for me were the damn cabin siege lol survived that by the skin of my teeth after a million tries. Also that narrow trench before the bella sisters kept kicking my ass. Once i got the ticket it was more or less smooth sailing :)

That's the best part about Ashley armor. Instead of having her hide, bring her along. They can't hurt her, will often recoil from hitting her, and she makes an excellent distraction.

lol yeah i kinda forgot about using the armor :P i ran with it lol but you are right, with the armor that part would have been easier to handle

[Kinetika]

Mission accomplished :D (barely lol)

https://imgur.com/a/QARtsHV

[Dou B Jin]

Personal opinion is Chicago Type writer/Handcannon + Ashely armor as the two that will make your life easier. Having Ashely armor will let you get away with not saving in a few section so you can minimize your save used.

You can get away with being a bit slow at the start but you need to haul your rear as soon as you get your first exclusive coupon at chapter 7 (30 spindle). I think I got to Ashely on my first S+ pro run around 1 hour, I manage to finish roughly 4 and a half hours in total and that was me somewhat actively looking for treasures to pay for section skip with and no exploit or tricks of anykind.

I've had runs where Ashely getting downed by complete chance (the section where the big cheese chase you and a random axe throw that was meant to hit me got her instead and that send me back by 3 chapters).

Edit: lol didn't notice OP did it already. Gratz

[Kinetika]

Originally posted by Jin:

Personal opinion is Chicago Type writer/Handcannon + Ashely armor as the two that will make your life easier. Having Ashely armor will let you get away with not saving in a few section so you can minimize your save used.

You can get away with being a bit slow at the start but you need to haul your rear as soon as you get your first exclusive coupon at chapter 7 (30 spindle). I think I got to Ashely on my first S+ pro run around 1 hour, I manage to finish roughly 4 and a half hours in total and that was me somewhat actively looking for treasures to pay for section skip with and no exploit or tricks of anykind.

I've had runs where Ashely getting downed by complete chance (the section where the big cheese chase you and a random axe throw that was meant to hit me got her instead and that send me back by 3 chapters).

lol i can relate to that, i had a save from before the twin garrador fight and died on the clocktower's fragile catwalks right before salazar, those that break when you run, i forgot they did that and got pulled back to the twin garradors :(

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Kinetika:

Originally posted by Jin:

Personal opinion is Chicago Type writer/Handcannon + Ashely armor as the two that will make your life easier. Having Ashely armor will let you get away with not saving in a few section so you can minimize your save used.

You can get away with being a bit slow at the start but you need to haul your rear as soon as you get your first exclusive coupon at chapter 7 (30 spindle). I think I got to Ashely on my first S+ pro run around 1 hour, I manage to finish roughly 4 and a half hours in total and that was me somewhat actively looking for treasures to pay for section skip with and no exploit or tricks of anykind.

I've had runs where Ashely getting downed by complete chance (the section where the big cheese chase you and a random axe throw that was meant to hit me got her instead and that send me back by 3 chapters).

lol i can relate to that, i had a save from before the twin garrador fight and died on the clocktower's fragile catwalks right before salazar, those that break when you run, i forgot they did that and got pulled back to the twin garradors :(

I did this once on the wooden catwalks, too, and got sent back to the very first typewriter at the castle because I didn't feel the need to save since it was pretty safe up until Ramon (I was going to save just before Ramon though, literally seconds past that...). Much regret was had.

[Dou B Jin]

Originally posted by Kinetika:

Originally posted by Jin:

Personal opinion is Chicago Type writer/Handcannon + Ashely armor as the two that will make your life easier. Having Ashely armor will let you get away with not saving in a few section so you can minimize your save used.

You can get away with being a bit slow at the start but you need to haul your rear as soon as you get your first exclusive coupon at chapter 7 (30 spindle). I think I got to Ashely on my first S+ pro run around 1 hour, I manage to finish roughly 4 and a half hours in total and that was me somewhat actively looking for treasures to pay for section skip with and no exploit or tricks of anykind.

I've had runs where Ashely getting downed by complete chance (the section where the big cheese chase you and a random axe throw that was meant to hit me got her instead and that send me back by 3 chapters).

lol i can relate to that, i had a save from before the twin garrador fight and died on the clocktower's fragile catwalks right before salazar, those that break when you run, i forgot they did that and got pulled back to the twin garradors :(

Oh that section got me three times in a row which is why I always save there now. Sometimes its geuninely my bad sometimes a random hit gets Ashely in the section immediately after and it game ends you. Same reason why I hate Ashely holding the bridge section where a regenerator is chasing after you because it's so easy to get send back to the start of the chapter because theres no save point anywhere near that section.