Spelunky in April 2019: A MossNews Recap

Over the course of April 2019, many runs were submitted, science discoveries were made, and the community continued to grow! In these monthly recaps, I’ll be looking over some of the most significant happenings in the community including World Record runs (non-main category), other PBs, science discoveries, and how the community as a whole developed over the month of April! As I am one person, I unfortunately haven’t had the time to watch every single run submitted, nor do I have the time to recap them all. However, I will be covering each WR that does not have its own article (looking at you, ix), and numerous other significant PBs and first completions by members of the community. I’ll also be covering events that aren’t runs, such as new MossNews features, science discoveries, and community events (in months to come). If you complete a run you feel is significant, feel free to shoot me a PM, and I’ll do my best to cover it in the next recap. Like I said before, I’m only one person. If I leave out a run you think is important, take it as a testament to the sheer number of submitted runs rather than an affront to its significance (and definitely let me know for next time)! Without further ado, let’s get started on the happenings this month!

What better way than to start than with world records? Kinnijup improved the Low% Hell record with a time of 5:07, and reclaimed the Score record with a score of $7.43 million! D_tea also continued his score-running dominance by winning 2 back-to-back dailies - both of which were world records! This feat is unlikely to ever be repeated. In addition to those main category runs (which have their own articles), there were 4 more records split between Kinnijup and ix. Kinnijup improved the Low% No Gold Hell record (a devilishly tricky but enjoyable category), breaking the 6 minute barrier with a time of 5:57! As required on any Low% Hell run, 5-3 was an absolute nightmare and a vampire nearly ended the run after Yama’s death. His other world record was a massive 13 second improvement of the No Teleporter No Gold Max Any% category, with a time of 3:06. I am not exaggerating when I say this run is one of my favorite Spelunky runs ever - the extremely technical plays, close calls, and fast-paced excitement of the run far outpace the recognition it got - I highly recommend watching this run, as it is its own highlight reel. While Kinni was dominating the No Gold scene, ix secured his Tier 5 Pacify71 Achievement with 2 pacifist world records - No Gold True Pacifist Hell% (a time of 11:05) and Max True Pacifist Hell% (a time of 11:44). ix now holds all 5 pacifist world records, 3 of which have never been completed by anyone else! While several other runners have the ability to complete these runs, at the moment ix is far and away the best pacifist runner in the game, a reputation evident by these records. GG Kinni and ix!

April proved itself to be a prolific month for both challenge and speed runs, with many submitted runs in both areas. Both Yandie and BronxTaco completed an RTA trifecta, with All Characters and All Journal Entries by both, and an All Achievements run by the former and an All Shortcuts + Olmec run by the latter. The popularity of AJE since its introduction to the main ranking formula has continued with 10 submissions this month (including an impressive 39:34 by Khold), while ASO lagged just behind with 7 submissions (including a jetpackless 17:45 by TNF). Continuing with the main category runs, The popular Low% category received many submissions from newer players (including a first clear by #daily-challenge resident 84BombsJetpack). Samcv became the newest addition to the sub-3 club, after submitting an action-packed yet quite clean 2:59. The No Gold variant of Low% received a single submission from thatmarkguy (our most frequent submitter this month), who also submitted a speedy 6:26 first clear of the moneyed Maximum variant. This max low% category also received runs from other spelunkers, including a first clear by tuabiht, and the end of Spelunky abstinence from SAIBOT, who submitted a speedy #4 time of 3:51. In an amusing twist, Baq completed the category twice with times of 5:24.764 and 5:24.763, making him the WR holder for smallest PB improvement. Samcv also submitted a Haunted variant of this run, with a time of 5:38 despite a “questionable” temple. On the No Gold side of runs, both the Any% and Hell% variants received submissions from spelunkers of all skill levels, including a notable second place No Gold run of 1:51 by d_tea!

Other Hell main categories received multiple submissions this month, including a sub-5 Hell% time of 4:48 by ChocolateCake5000, who also completed the Max variant in a blazing 5:41. Other completers of Max Hell% include AlwaysOlmec, Buddy7heElf, BlueCadet3, SuspenseNasty, InTol, Baq, and thatmarkguy. In addition, kobs continued to shoot up the rankings with a fast Eggplant% (13:29). One of the most infamous categories, Low% Hell, was a very popular one! Aside from Kinnijup’s WR, Choco submitted yet another speed time of 7:06, while first clears were achieved by AlwaysOlmec, BronxTaco, and Kobs. Congratulations to all of these runners on completing this difficult milestone! The most popular category this month, however, was No Teleporter Any%. This category received 14 submissions, including an impressive first MR submission of 2:48 by Phoenix, three sub-2:40s (2:39 by DieDyeDai, 2:36 by ix, and 2:34 by Buddy), and runs from Skylark, InTol, Baq, jgunz3, BlueCadet3, Loki Nighton, HeinzSkitsvelvet (also a low%), TicTacFoe, 84BombsJetpack, and thatmarkguy.

Before we leave the speedrunning scene, I’d like to make two honorable mentions for runs not quite in April - d_tea’s Shield Run WR in 9:14 (also his first clear of the category), and ix’s Udjat Run WR in 20:20. Both of these categories can be very difficult and prone to the glitchiest “features” of the game, so GG to both runners!

With a shift to the challenge run side of things, there were many submissions to the less popular and more difficult run categories. I personally have a soft spot for Pacifist, No%, and HH runs, so I’m very excited to see these categories receiving some love. Firstly, Buddy7heElf joined the most elite completion club, by completing the ultimate challenge of Maximum Low% No Gold Hell (lovingly referred to as MLNGH or LMNGH). This is a phenomenal achievement, especially since Buddy has lost multiple runs on Yama and completed runs with unavoidable gold. The run itself is chock-full of exciting moments, including low health worm plays, strategic ropes, and spike-ball dodges. GG Buddy! There were two submissions in the Maximum Eggplant% category, including a jetpack-less first clear by GC (using a BM HH and scary “safe” spots), and a speedy second-place time of 15:30 by ix. Pacifist was another hot category this month. Aside from ix’s WRs, BronxTaco submitted a first clear of True Pacifist Hell% in 22:01, and GC completed the No Gold variant in 14:23 (without rescuing damsels, making it a 0/0/0 run). Pacifist grew in a non-official setting as well, with numerous runners completing the Any% variant (which allows 1 kill of Olmec), including ix’s WR of 4:23, and Bronx's time of 4:59. BronxTaco also submitted a first clear for the Key To Yama run, checking another run off of his Challenger achievement. Congrats to all of these runners for these awesome runs!

This month also saw the introduction of Co-op categories, with All Journal Entries Co-op. 11 runs were submitted, with the World Record being claimed by ix and Mazerak with a time of 24:27. Many of these runs were performed live at the Kapala Cup or the SpeedEvents Showcase, although 3 duos joined up on stream to complete this category, including ix/Khold, ix/GC, and BronxTaco/Yandie. I hope this category continues to grow, as it is quite fun to run!

Speedruns were not the only thing happening in the community this month, however. Science continued to be done, with discussions on how level generation on 3-4-2 changes depending on whether or not a player takes the worm path, as well as continued research into optimal score duping strategies. ContraMuffin, Kirby703, Dan, and other scientists continued with highly specialized experiments on whether removing large nuggets from large piles of money improves duping. Their findings boil down to this: While many factors may influence the exact results of duping, it is generally better to collect large nuggets before a dupe attempt, as long as the dupe pile has at least 128 items. This strat, introduced by d_tea, provides a minor increase to the theoretical maximum of score per level (without manipulating and keeping track of every single entity in the level). In addition, research was continued on a feature called “entanglement”. If you have ever seen two items swapping rendering order for seemingly no reason, this is entanglement at play. Entanglement is just what happens when 2 or more items share the same slot in the entity list. When that happens, the game swaps the precedences of those items really easily (and thus their rendering is slightly glitchy). In general, they will tend to swap places when entities are created/deleted (such as the whip or shotgun bullets). A swap in a specific direction (called “absorption”) had been confirmed earlier, and now the reversal of this swap (called an “emission”) has been verified to occur. For more information about this, many of the scientists in #spelunky-science would be happy to explain.

Finally, April saw the introduction of a new MossNews feature, Newcomer Spotlight. Initially suggested by Spef, this feature has been covering some of the new and improved members of the Spelunky community. The first two editions covered BronxTaco and Loki Nighton, and hopefully this will continue to be a regular feature.

April has been a great month for Spelunky, with numerous speed and challenge PBs, science discoveries, and community growth. Here’s to a successful May!