Though it was immensely popular after its 1994 release in Japan, EarthBound's 1995 release in North America only managed to produce a small (if curiously devoted) cult following. For the most part, the gameplay followed the traditional RPG formula, but it differentiated itself from other games of the time with its lack of an overworld map and its semi-infamous "rolling" hit point counters. It also featured a unique style that fell somewhere between a bizarre parody of American culture and an all-out drug trip, as well as one of the best and most varied soundtracks on the Super Nintendo.

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Single-segment: 3:56:27 by Andrew Woolston.

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Author's comments:

This is a single segment speedrun of Earthbound without using glitches anywhere in the game and essentially, playing the game essentially "as the developers intended". Use of the item duplication glitch, clipping through cliffs, clipping out of bounds, debug menu, etc., are not allowed. After years of playing this game and trying to get a run I was truly happy with, this is easily the best run I have ever performed.

Special thanks to the following people that helped this run happen in various ways (in no particular order):

__sdfg

pop_em

nemi43

Falexxx1

RedBalloonMan

lltemple

0xwas

Aurilliux

The biggest change in this run from previous iterations is a heavier use of RNG manipulation throughout Onett, which essentially removed the last grinding section from the run. This means that we can attempt to skip all random battles with very little worry about experience as we get plenty from the bosses and scripted fights throughout the run. This manipulation alone saves about seven to eight minutes against an average non-manipulated Onett. Beyond that, this run contained excellent execution and above average luck throughout the entire run.

With that said, here are my thoughts on all the individual sections throughout the run. Enjoy!

Onett

This is perhaps the biggest change in the route from previous runs. RNG manipulation has been a prominent part of Earthbound speedrunning for several years, but never had anyone attempted to maintain RNG for more than about seven or eight minutes at a time in any category. New developments and new discoveries (shoutout to __sdfg for discovering a new RNG memory value previously unknown that influences randomness based on character movement and creating some of the RNG route in Onett) have lead to a better understanding of how the game determines randomness. This development allows me to manipulate all battles, item drops, enemy spawns, NPC movements, etc. to have a TAS-like Onett. The best part of manipulating this section is that it eliminates the only grinding secting in the entire game, Giant Step, where I would level up to 8 before Titanic Ant. Instead of this grinding, I manipulate two bomb drops (1/128 chance drops) and use those to kill Titanic Ant. The manipulation continues until I enter Twoson where I promptly lose it. RNG manipulation is never used again in the run since this is a single segment run and further manipulation would require a console reset.

Twoson & Happy Happy Village

Spawns on the return trip from the pencil were a little rough, but the first and second approach spawns definitely made up for that. The walk to Happy Happy Village was also phenomenal with very few enemies and even fewer necessary despawns. Happy Happy Village is a little risky here since I'm doing so with only the Holmes hat purchased in the town as armor, but everything worked out in my favor.

Threed & Winters

First trip into the graveyard was unfortunate with a fly that managed to sneak in after I talked to the zombies, but I got lucky and had one of my rear party members initiate the fight as a surprise attack so it wasn't much of a loss. I didn't get either the duck skip or protoplasm enemy skips thanks to bubble monkey in both instances (the former is extremely rare) but the fights themselves were all just fine. I occasionally stutter very slowly through areas in Rainy Circle cave. This has the dual-purpose of seeing enemies as soon as they spawn so I don't have to walk as far back to despawn them and also sometimes enemies will despawn themselves when you are stuttering after the game has loaded them.

Boogey Tent & the Threed Cave

Boogey Tent went down quickly without a problem. The Threed cave that happened in this run was absolutely phenomenal. I only got into one unscripted fight which was a surprise attack. This is a frequent death spot in my runs and getting through there with only that one fight was near perfect.

Belch's Base

Another area that went extremely well. The area at the bottom of the ladder frequently spawns foppies that, while not a threat, are a time sink to kill, so not having that fight was great. The rest of the base was extremely smooth with no problems.

Dusty Dunes Desert and the Mole Cave

I used freeze alpha instead of beta to save psychic points on these first moles. This has the risk of potentially not killing the mole if the bottle rocket damage is rolled low, but I feel the risk is worth it since it saves Paula's psychic points for potential random battles which came into play this run. At the fourth mole, I got pinned in between some Noose Men where I was able to kill them easily because of the PP that I had saved. I also had an excellent surprise attack on an ant following the fight. I had to time my movement perfectly so that I would be on its other side when the flashing stopped. Overall, an above average mole cave and desert.

Fourside & Moonside

The Department Store which is arguably the riskiest part of the run went very smoothly. I got the best encounter at the top of the escalators and was able to kill the Spook in a single round. Moonside also went very well with only the single encounter in the cafe and a quick Mani Mani fight despite getting paralyzed. I was able to skip all the Sentry robots in the Monotoli building which requires some pretty precise movement and then kill the Clumsy robot in a quick two rounds.

Rainy Circle and Summers

Shrooom! cooperated nicely by hitting the Teddy bear with the mushroom attack which allowed for the fight to be a bit quicker. The Kraken fight could have been a bit quicker with some higher damage rolls resulting in a one round fight, but I will gladly take any Kraken fight that does not involve it breathing fire (which has a strong chance of wiping the entire party).

Scaraba & Pyramid

This has the only part of the run where I just failed to execute properly. I accidentally teleported back to Onett going down to the Pyramid avoiding enemies. Thankfully the return teleport spot is right in Scaraba so it was a very minimal time loss. No major problems in the Pyramid. I missed some of the hieroglyph skips on the return trip from the button, but granted those are extremely precise skips so I don't feel badly about missing them. Both trips through Dungeon man and the trip through the southern Scaraba desert went extremely well. The desert is a frequent death point so getting through there quickly with no fights is perfect.

Deep Darkness

No real problems here. Lots of enemies and I had some close calls with some of the teleports, but I got into no encounters and didn't really have any problems with the actual teleports themselves.

Stonehenge Base

I wait for a few seconds at the beginning of the cave for an enemy off screen that has a 100% spawn rate to despawn himself before moving. The spawns through the rest of the cave were quite good and I managed to force quite a few surprise attacks by taking advantage of the odd hitbox of the starmen.

Lumine Hall

This dungeon was easily the best I have ever had it be. I fought no fobbies in the first section. I had no fights and only two despawns in the basement (which usually has at least one or two fights and many more despawns) and only one fight in the last area with one surprise attack. Potentially the best individual section of the entire run.

Magnet Hill

No fights and only a couple despawns. Ideally you'd get zero spawns in the water since you move so slowly and its drudgery to slosh back and forth to despawn enemies, but still very smooth overall.

Pink Cloud

Very average Pink Cloud. I got some first round runs, but missed others so it balanced out.

Fire Spring

I stand motionless at the bottom of the first rope to let an enemy that has a very high spawn rate move to the right and despawn itself. Both caves that have nasty spawn rates and can waste lots of time cooperated quickly by giving me empty rooms which I was very happy about. I then managed to get a surprise attack on a very nasty encounter in the last cave which can wipe me you quickly if it goes poorly. All the other fights that occurred are pretty much expected and went without a hitch. I would have liked a couple more surprise attacks but I can't complain about this cave. Carbon Dog and Diamond Dog went very well and I was actually able to finish the entire fight in only three rounds which I had never done before.

Lilliput Steps

Just backtracking here to finish a dungeon previously. It's pretty basic since you're so overleveled. All the enemies run from you and the fastest way to kill the boss is just using auto attack.

Milky Well

The fact that I didn't get into my first fight until halfway through the dungeon is fantastic. All the enemies have either a 50% or 75% chance to run from you, so in big groups of enemies, one of them is bound to be coming at me. Getting very few spawns and only two fights was great.

Magicant

A couple unfortunate spawns early on in the colored area, but it quickly turned really amazing. I managed to dodge some packs of enemies by anticipating their circular movement and walking quickly with the skip sandwiches. I skip the bat here which is undeniably incredibly risky. Ness still has the Sand Lot Bat from Happy Happy Village 3 hours prior so if I get into a kraken fight in the Sea of Eden, I'm in for a world of hurt since they are unrunnable fights and Ness will be doing virtually no damage to them with normal attacks. Fortunately, I was able to skip all three krakens very quickly. The first and third were cut very close but worked out. The Ness's Nigthmare fight could not have gone any better. It never did an actual attack, and all three Bags of Dragonite got high rolls resulting in a three round kill. Easily the best Sea of Eden and Ness's Nightmare fight I've ever had.

Dark Onett

The key here is just skipping as many fights as possible by abusing the teleport mechanic and moving around enemies quickly without initiating any fights. I had an incredibly tight squeeze at the first bend which I was very happy about. Getting into zero fights is about as good as I could have asked for.

Cave of the Past

The walk up to Giygas was a bit rough. Lots of fights I was hoping would have been surprise attacks and lots of failed runs against the ghosts of starmen (which always use starstorm alpha first round). During my preparation for the Giygas fight in the final area, I realized that Ness did not have the third healing which can revive party members. I switched over a cup of lifenoodles from Poo onto Ness as a safety in case the fight went poorly. Fortunately, the Giygas fight went quite. Giygas used Rockin alpha instead of beta and I was able to finish the fight in two rounds. Phase two of Giygas went alright. I would have hoped Poo had stayed alive so I could have used another starstorm but I got some high damage rolls from Ness's Rockins which helped to balance it out. Phase 3 of Giygas is essentially a formality at this point. Paula has the Franklin Badge and the Sea Pendant so she is essentially invincible to Giygas' attacks.