Background

This is my first speedrun! I actually didn't set out to speedrun the game; my goal has been to reach NG+33 on my main save. It just so happens that going fast is a good idea both for reaching NG+33 and also for speedrunning.

When I checked my time for fun, I found that my runs were already pretty close to the record for the NG+/Expert/Glitchless category (my first test without any speedrun preparation was around 1h26m RTA), so I decided to put some effort into the speedrun. This explains why I'm running this category, and specifically, why I'm running at NG+5+ (NG+29 for this submission, but difficulty scaling stops at 5), which is suboptimal compared to NG+1. It also explains why I chose a route with no RNG that can end a run.

NG+5+ Route

Since nobody else is running NG+5+ (and it's not a separate category), I spent a few days coming up with a build and route, incorporating what I saw from existing runs. I started the build exploration from two observations: the previous WR spends a lot of time managing loadouts, and enemy HP in NG+5+ is much higher (up to 32 million for Renoir's phases in Lumière), putting some enemies out of reach of free aim spam. For these reasons, I focused on the idea of Maelle as a nuker, with two death bomb supports. Maelle is always present in every forced party selection following Spring Meadows (aside from the first part of Old Lumière, which has no mandatory battles), so party swaps are only needed at the start of act 1 and optionally to speed up the fake Paintress.

For the reasons mentioned in the background section, I did not use Roulette in the build. All battles are fully deterministic with the attack patterns that I used, except for Lampmaster, which has an unavoidable turn in phase 2, and Visages, where the attack pattern succeeds with overwhelming probability. Some battles can be done quicker with this exact loadout by relying on RNG, even without using Roulette (e.g., free aim spam during the Gestral arena battles).

For Lampmaster, this route uses one free aim hit and Combustion in phase 1, in order to set up offensive stance for phase 2. The next step depends on whether Lampmaster uses the "ball of light" attack or not.

1. If "ball of light", then a single Stendhal finishes phase 2 (fast ending).
2. Otherwise, intentionally die to activate Second Chance + Revive Paradox, then finish with Gommage (slow ending).

I was unlucky in this run, and got the slow ending.

Comparison to Previous Record

Comparing this run to Crispykills' 1h14m38s810ms LRT run:

• Battles are much slower overall due to NG+5+ scaling. Most fights lose 1 to 10 seconds. The Paintress is notably slower.
• In general, out of combat movement is comparable. Each run gains and loses a few seconds here and there across all zones due to mistakes or different small tricks. Both are inferior to the refined movement found in the records for other categories.
• This run benefits greatly from faster hidden loading times that are not tracked by LiveSplit's autosplitter for the game. These loading times occur at the start of battles, between the time that the battle is triggered (either by the screen pausing and becoming "wavy" or during a black screen) and the time that the flower petals sweep across the screen to transition to the fight camera. This run typically loads at least twice as fast, saving on the order of 30 seconds across the run in LRT for free (though I didn't measure precisely). This is a limitation in LiveSplit that should be addressed.
• A lot of time is saved by avoiding loadout management, as mentioned earlier. This is most obvious during the segments from the expedition flag just before Lampmaster through to entering the Forgotten Battlefield gate.
• NG+5+ does have some advantages over NG+1 that save time: Renoir (Stone Wave Cliffs) and the fake Paintress are both fast enough to obviate the need for nerfing party speed.
• Four adjustments yield particularly notable time saves: abusing the Curator's special HP scaling in The Manor so that he dies to a single bomb (admittedly, I don't understand how this works, but he has < 9999 HP in this run, and I know that his HP follows unique rules, so I've somehow lucked into some setup here), using fast travel to exit Esquie's Nest, bombing the Chalier in Forgotten Battlefield with a light weapon on Verso, and using Pro Retreat for the Création.