Paths
Right
This path (along with the left) is subject to an Elevator platform cycle. When doing the right path first (or immediately after a DA) you have tons of leeway to make the cycle, and it is likely impossible to make a better cycle
The timing is a little tricky, but at the start you can do lil Minecart hops like so to maintain your speed up the slope
- actually, you don’t even have to hold left/right like in the vid, even just lil taps are good enough to grab the left/right crystals
- alas, this strat is unneeded when doing right path first (or immediately after a DA) because of the Elevator platform cycle
No practical use, but you can front flip up this wall (find video evidence)
(thermo note: I vaguely recall front flipping up this wall at some point…)
Here in the last room of the path, you can do a purple Gummi Buffer into the Golden Gobbo warp (any categories where this saves time?)
After grabbing the yellow Gem, you can quickly DA back to the entrance by bouncing under the bridge (video). Paulmall timed this to be about 1 second faster than taking the Minecart back (source). It could potentially save even more time if you use a purple Gummi (horizontal speed boost)
Middle
limbus found a weird frontflip stomp jump strat with the Minecart elevator. Perhaps it could be abused to grab all the Crystals in one trip, or to DA.
- on the way in
- on the way out
- (thermo thought he got a DA but it turned out he just accidentally enabled noclip in Cheat Engine lol… video)
To collect all the Crystals on the Minecart track, it seems to require at least two trips. After taking one trip in and collecting the chest, you have two options
- DA to the level entrance, and take another two trips on the Minecart (there + back)
- backtrack and take one trip on the Minecart, back to the level entrance
- this seems faster (link), but it hasn’t been timed
By jumping about here (on the ridge) you can easily grab the rear two Crystals on the way in, then grab the first one on the way back out (video)
- limbus found a backup strat for if you were only able to grab the middle crystal on the way in (video)
(vaguely remember there is something you can do on those zapper crystal Conveyor belt things to hard crash the game, but I forget)
Left
This path (along with the right) is subject to an Elevator platform cycle
The green Gem on PS1 is harder to collect than on PC; it is behind a tight turn like the purple Gem (video)
For the 2nd Minecart section, Thermospore finds this strat pretty easy / consistent
< is it possible to do that Minecart section in one trip??? >
< what are the best strats for the various phases of this Elevator platform cycle?? >
Here is a funky OoB thermo got on the shover thingy
Elevator platform
These elevator things are present on both the left and right side. Their movement cycle has the following characteristics:
- starts from the moment you enter the level
- does not pause, even if you go far away
- (the model will disappear when far enough away, but this is purely cosmetic)
- resets when you die
For each path, here is the memory address that stores the height (y) of the first platform:
Minecart Crystal jankiness
The Crystals on the Minecart tracks are notoriously difficult to grab, and some sections seem to require multiple trips. limbus suspects the developers placed the Crystals before the Minecart jumping mechanic was even fully developed, and they never got around to fully finishing the mechanic. Apparently in an April 1999 build of the game the Minecart jumping mechanic was entirely unfinished, yet the Crystals had already been placed. (discussion starts here)