ExistentialSolid's "Please Destroy Me" Detour

[JohnlMatrix]

1 hour ago, ExistentialSolid said:

Right now, it's tough to say. I think the platinum medal for the Selfish speedrun will happen first but there's a good chance that I'll naturally earn the platinum medal again during the no-death run if I keep up a reasonable pace. Since a lot of the obstacles in Splasher operate on cycles, it is probably safest to be relatively quick anyway to ensure that I don't get out of sync with any dangerous sections of a level. Slowing down, while helpful in some cases, will generally make the levels riskier/more unpredictable in the long run.  

That said, I have been considering attempting the no-death run on Selfish before moving on to the Standard/Gotta Catch'em All speedruns since the routing will be fresh in my mind, but I haven't decided just yet!

That's what I thought as well. So far I'm about 2 minutes shy of the platinum medal time for the selfish speedrun. I don't die a lot but I make stupid mistakes every now and then. I was also considering going for the no-death run and the plat time for the selfish speedrun at the same time because if I'm used to the routing of collecting every splasher and enough golden drops I'm not used to the selfish route anymore and have to put time into getting used to it again.

[ExistentialSolid]

Splasher ~ Update #3  

Trophies Unlocked:  (Awarded for completing any full game speedrun and for competing a "Selfish" speedrun)
 

What's been happening?
Hey, we've got quite a bit to cover today but I'll be keeping things brief! In the previous update, we set two major goals:

1. Finish the rest of the individual levels in Splasher with a platinum medal and a top 9 leaderboard spot.
2. Finish at least 1 "Selfish" speedrun.

Let's talk about the individual levels first. It took some serious grinding, but I finally managed to earn a platinum medal in all 22 of Splasher's levels and successfully secured a top 9 leaderboard spot in each and every one of them! But that isn't all! I clawed my way to the #1 spot for 11 of those levels. Seriously, 11 of them! For good measure, I even brushed up some of my weaker runs (levels 1 and 2) to earn a top 5 placement in every single level (I mean, why bother with top 9 if you can be top 5 instead?). 
 

Here's a convenient table of all of my level times:


And here's my pile of #1s (a little self-indulgent, I know, but I'm proud of myself okay!):
Level 2 ~ Level 7 ~ Level 8 ~ Level 11
Level 12 ~ Level 14 ~ Level 15 ~ Level 17
Level 18 ~ Level 20 ~ Level 21
*Each of the links above will take you to the screenshot of the leaderboards for the associated level.
 

What I may be most proud of, however, is the fact that I've now finished filming my platinum medal playlist for Splasher! All 22 levels are up on YouTube and hopefully they'll help someone out if they need to shave a few more seconds off the clock!

Splasher Platinum Medal Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2kP5IJebevdf1NKM0MJxNnSrzAewXjn2
*Thanks to Dilated Pixel, Mileski, AmirGaris, and Blutgrafinteam for the runs that I used as reference! Blutgrafinteam especially is one of the best Splasher players on the Steam version of the game (many of his runs are much faster than mine!) so be sure to check him out if you want to watch Splasher get annihilated!

 

I'll highlight one last individual level video for the road if you'd like to check one out!
 

Level 17 ~ Storm Wind

Okay, okay, we get it! Now tell us about the speedrun!
Alright, will do! A few hours ago, I finished my first attempt at the Selfish speedrun (all 22 levels with no Splashers to rescue) and scraped by with a time of 52:55:49. 
 

Now this is a far cry from the platinum medal time of 43:44:48 and you might be wondering how I feel about that considering all of the individual level practice I put in. I died a couple dozen times, forgot how to navigate certain sections entirely, and barely fumbled my way past some of the simplest obstacles in the game. So, do I feel discouraged? Heck no! I haven't seen some of these levels in over a week and I'm absolutely thrilled just to get sub-hour on my first run! Practice makes perfect and this will take some time (and several more runs) to trim down. We're not getting this platinum without some struggle!
 

What's next?
My plan is to put everything I've got into earning the platinum medal for the Selfish speedrun! That time of 43:44:48 is going to be demolished one way or another. Depending on if I'm able to earn the medal in a reasonable amount of time, I will spend any extra time (between this update and the next) attempting to perform a deathless Selfish run of the game for the "Ninja Runner" trophy. I originally planned to save the deathless run of the game for the end, but, while I have the routing of the Selfish run fresh in my mind, it's worth scoping out the difficulty now to see what I'm getting myself into.

The next update, with more on the Selfish speedrun (including a video of either a successful platinum medal run or my best run up to that point), will be posted on February 17th!
 

Thank you for sticking with me and see you all soon! ?

Edited February 12, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[Grotz99]

Watching those Splasher speedruns is so mesmerizing. Better watch out, GDQ might hit you up.

[da-Noob123]

Most people: nah man gold is good enough for me,  forget platinum that's just crazy

 

ExistentialSolid: nah man I want top 9 in platinum time rankings (gets 1st in half the levels) ?

 

Way to go!

[Trumpet_Boi_208]

This quickly turned from being destroyed by Splasher into completely dominating every level in the game. Great job!

[ExistentialSolid]

9 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

Watching those Splasher speedruns is so mesmerizing. Better watch out, GDQ might hit you up.

Thanks for checking out some of my level runs!  Games like Splasher really help me appreciate the insane amount of effort speedrunners put into mastering their respective games. It's such a time-consuming process and anyone that can actually feature at an event like GDQ deserves it!
 

3 hours ago, da-Noob123 said:

Most people: nah man gold is good enough for me,  forget platinum that's just crazy

 

ExistentialSolid: nah man I want top 9 in platinum time rankings (gets 1st in half the levels)

 

Way to go!

Haha, that made my day! ? Thank you! 

 

2 hours ago, Trumpet_Boi_208 said:

This quickly turned from being destroyed by Splasher into completely dominating every level in the game. Great job!

Thanks! ? I can't credit some of the other awesome Splasher players enough for any success I've had at this game. Their hard work is the only reason I've got any #1 times at all!

[JohnlMatrix]

Finally got the plat medal for the selfish speedrun which took quite some tries. Funny enough I had a run where I was about 8 seconds shy of the time requirement and one where I was about 4 seconds late. On PS4 I'm currently #9 on the leaderboards but I guess I will be pushed to the second page as soon as @ExistentialSolid completes his platinum run ;-).

 

I was also on a good no-death streak. Died in level 16 by doing some stupid movement and died a couple of times afterwards, maybe due to me not paying as much attention anymore because I was quite angry to choke the no-death run.

 

I have to say I'm not sure if I would have been able to pull it off because it's always a possibility that the nerves get the better of you, especially when you're near the end.

Edited February 14, 2021 by JohnlMatrix

[ExistentialSolid]

5 hours ago, JohnlMatrix said:

Finally got the plat medal for the selfish speedrun which took quite some tries. Funny enough I had a run where I was about 8 seconds shy of the time requirement and one where I was about 4 seconds late. On PS4 I'm currently #9 on the leaderboards but I guess I will be pushed to the second page as soon as @ExistentialSolid completes his platinum run ;-).

 

I was also on a good no-death streak. Died in level 16 by doing some stupid movement and died a couple of times afterwards, maybe due to me not paying as much attention anymore because I was quite angry to choke the no-death run.

 

I have to say I'm not sure if I would have been able to pull it off because it's always a possibility that the nerves get the better of you, especially when you're near the end.

Congrats @JohnlMatrix! 
Sounds like you're making great progress on the no-death run as well! Now that you've crushed the Selfish speedrun and bagged that elusive platinum medal, is your plan from here to keep pushing for a successful no-death run or are you going to start learning one of the other two speedrun types?

Edited February 14, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

3 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said:

Congrats @JohnlMatrix! 
Sounds like you're making great progress on the no-death run as well! Now that you've crushed the Selfish speedrun and bagged that elusive platinum medal, is your plan from here to keep pushing for a successful no-death run or are you going to start learning one of the other two speedrun types?

Thank you :-). For now I'll keep trying for a successful no-death run but if this gets on my nerves too much maybe I'll go for the standard speedrun plat medal in between.

By the way: Just finished another run. Went deathless until level 16 again and managed to cut down on deaths in the levels that follow. I'm able to speed through it no problem if I do it individually, most of the time deathless. But if I'm far enough into a run I find myself making awful mistakes that never occur otherwise.

How are your attempts regarding the selfish plat going?

[ExistentialSolid]

6 hours ago, JohnlMatrix said:

Thank you :-). For now I'll keep trying for a successful no-death run but if this gets on my nerves too much maybe I'll go for the standard speedrun plat medal in between.

By the way: Just finished another run. Went deathless until level 16 again and managed to cut down on deaths in the levels that follow. I'm able to speed through it no problem if I do it individually, most of the time deathless. But if I'm far enough into a run I find myself making awful mistakes that never occur otherwise.

How are your attempts regarding the selfish plat going?

They're going well! I was able to snag the platinum medal just a bit ago with a time of 43:24:99, but I'm not satisfied with my time just yet. I lost about ~2 minutes to deaths so I'm fairly confident that a 41:xx is possible with my current routing but I really need to work on trimming down my death count before that's ever going to happen. I have never had a deathless run past level 10 and I almost always die at least once in levels 7, 9, 21, and 22. I'm going to keep pushing for a lower time over the next couple days and see how low I can get my death count.

Edited February 15, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[kingofbattle8174]

If I may add to the list, I would recommend Colossus Down. I was fooled by the other easier titles from this series but then got slapped across the face. The earlier titles are point and clicks, this one is an old school, side scroll hack and slash adventure with a trophy for never dying once. You die, you go back to the beginning of the game if you choose to forsake the matter reincarnating feature after level three. But for the trophy I think it is from level one, you die once might as well start over. As of right now, there are no plat achievers with three trophies seemingly out of reach. 

[JohnlMatrix]

51 minutes ago, kingofbattle8174 said:

If I may add to the list, I would recommend Colossus Down. I was fooled by the other easier titles from this series but then got slapped across the face. The earlier titles are point and clicks, this one is an old school, side scroll hack and slash adventure with a trophy for never dying once. You die, you go back to the beginning of the game if you choose to forsake the matter reincarnating feature after level three. But for the trophy I think it is from level one, you die once might as well start over. As of right now, there are no plat achievers with three trophies seemingly out of reach. 

The question is whether or not some of these trophies are glitched in addition to being difficult.

[ExistentialSolid]

29 minutes ago, kingofbattle8174 said:

If I may add to the list, I would recommend Colossus Down. I was fooled by the other easier titles from this series but then got slapped across the face. The earlier titles are point and clicks, this one is an old school, side scroll hack and slash adventure with a trophy for never dying once. You die, you go back to the beginning of the game if you choose to forsake the matter reincarnating feature after level three. But for the trophy I think it is from level one, you die once might as well start over. As of right now, there are no plat achievers with three trophies seemingly out of reach. 

Looks cool! The art style gives off some Adventure Time vibes and the gameplay looks varied enough to keep things interesting! I wonder if co-op would help make the deathless trophy easier or if the difficulty scales when you bring a partner along. Do you happen to know if there are any glitched trophies in this one?

Either way, I've added Colossus Down to the nominee list! Thank you for the recommendation! ?

[kingofbattle8174]

4 minutes ago, JohnlMatrix said:

The question is whether or not some of these trophies are glitched in addition to being difficult.

A good question, if someone has the skills to get through it unscathed to see. I know I dont, there are too many enemies. Maybe doing co-op helps and you both have good skills. Completing it in co-op is another one no one has finished yet.

2 minutes ago, ExistentialSolid said:

Looks cool! The art style gives off some Adventure Time vibes and the gameplay looks varied enough to keep things interesting! I wonder if co-op would help make the deathless trophy easier or if the difficulty scales when you bring a partner along. Do you happen to know if there are any glitched trophies in this one?

Either way, I've added Colossus Down to the nominee list! Thank you for the recommendation! ?

yah it is cool, the game has alot of cool easter eggs from pop culture thrown in, just look at the trophies shows how varied those are. Not sure about co-op. I am assuming it may be better with a partner. The hard one may be the not dying in the not hitting obstacles level. Like an old school game where you are at the bottom with enemies coming down and avoiding environmental. 

[Xenoblast91]

On 12/2/2021 at 10:10 AM, ExistentialSolid said:

Now this is a far cry from the platinum medal time of 43:44:48 and you might be wondering how I feel about that considering all of the individual level practice I put in. I died a couple dozen times, forgot how to navigate certain sections entirely, and barely fumbled my way past some of the simplest obstacles in the game. So, do I feel discouraged? Heck no! I haven't seen some of these levels in over a week and I'm absolutely thrilled just to get sub-hour on my first run! Practice makes perfect and this will take some time (and several more runs) to trim down. We're not getting this platinum without some struggle!

 

That's the attitude mate! I like your mindset and courage to go for this no matter what. In all honestly, whoever shows an act of reckless determination to success has my automatic respect and I support! I mean you played as crazy and is obvious that you'll reap some tasty rewards along the way, yay! Congratulations on being the Overlord of the Leaderboard! I see a burst of joy and I genuinely like it. Now I understand deeply your appeal for hard games: the inner, personal reward to prove yourself that can do it, no matter what. Yes, is the best sensation on the world.

 

Also, I think that this game as a meme side of it... Just looking to the level's names is pretty obvious that there's a lot of Easter Eggs out there and few of them from the wonderful silly community we nest on the internet, LOL. Nice to see your progress in this title. I think to shave the remaining time you now have to dream with the tracks and memorize them perfectly, also to avoid dying at all if is a possibility. You'll get it, of course. Go ahead and show us this cannot destroy you ?.

[Arcesius]

Alright, I also want to nominate one game ?

 

*** Drumroll *** 

 

 

Nidhogg 2

 

 

Out of the roughly 7'000 owners of this almost 4 year old game, no one has been able to earn the trophy "Hogglike", which "just" requires you to beat the game without dying. 

 

Would be cool if you were the first to actually get this done  

[Miles]

Since people are nominating games, I'd like to nominate Spelunky 2 so I don't forget later. This is a really hard one to learn and it would be nice to see how you break it down. ?

 

Played it a little bit myself and gave up fairly quickly as I had no idea what was going on lol. If this game won it'd probably motivate me pick it up again and your updates could prove very useful, and interesting of course. 

[Eqill5]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Alright, I also want to nominate one game ?

 

Nidhogg 2

 

Would be cool if you were the first to actually get this done  

Ah you beat me to it! Have been saving my nomination for something good and had my eye on Nidhogg 1 & 2 for a while, I’ll have to look for something else worthy 

[Vergil]

A pixel story

[ExistentialSolid]

On 2/16/2021 at 1:35 AM, Xenoblast91 said:

That's the attitude mate! I like your mindset and courage to go for this no matter what. In all honestly, whoever shows an act of reckless determination to success has my automatic respect and I support! I mean you played as crazy and is obvious that you'll reap some tasty rewards along the way, yay! Congratulations on being the Overlord of the Leaderboard! I see a burst of joy and I genuinely like it. Now I understand deeply your appeal for hard games: the inner, personal reward to prove yourself that can do it, no matter what. Yes, is the best sensation on the world.

 

Also, I think that this game as a meme side of it... Just looking to the level's names is pretty obvious that there's a lot of Easter Eggs out there and few of them from the wonderful silly community we nest on the internet, LOL. Nice to see your progress in this title. I think to shave the remaining time you now have to dream with the tracks and memorize them perfectly, also to avoid dying at all if is a possibility. You'll get it, of course. Go ahead and show us this cannot destroy you .

Thank you! ? I think you've perfectly captured what I love about challenging games. Being able to prove to myself that I can succeed in the face of heavy resistance can be so empowering and makes for a far more rewarding experience! 

Splasher does have pretty silly level names, although, if I'm being honest, most of the Easter eggs/references have flown right over my head . I've understood some of the more obvious nods to Rayman and Portal but, beyond that, I'm clueless.

I'll continue giving it my best, thanks for the encouragement! ? 
 

21 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Alright, I also want to nominate one game 

 

*** Drumroll *** 

 

Nidhogg 2

 

Out of the roughly 7'000 owners of this almost 4 year old game, no one has been able to earn the trophy "Hogglike", which "just" requires you to beat the game without dying. 

 

Would be cool if you were the first to actually get this done  

Hoo boy! I don't think I've ever attempted to do something that hasn't already been done...

But I did ask to be destroyed and Nidhogg 2 seems as strong a candidate as any to completely annihilate me, so bring it on! I've always had fun with shorter, goofy party games like this anyway so I'm looking forward to giving it a shot if it manages to win a future poll.

I've added it to the nomination list! Thanks for the terrifying recommendation! ?
 

19 hours ago, MiIeski said:

Since people are nominating games, I'd like to nominate Spelunky 2 so I don't forget later. This is a really hard one to learn and it would be nice to see how you break it down.

 

Played it a little bit myself and gave up fairly quickly as I had no idea what was going on lol. If this game won it'd probably motivate me pick it up again and your updates could prove very useful, and interesting of course. 

Spelunky 2 looks like it would wipe the floor me with me! I've seen a few partial playthroughs of the game over the past couple months and, besides the fact that the game looks relentless, I really struggle with roguelikes. ? 

It's a strong pick and I've added it to the nomination list! Thank you! 
 

16 hours ago, Vergil said:

A pixel story

I almost picked up A Pixel Story a few weeks ago! With only 3 platinum achievers, I know this one is supposed to be a serious challenge with death runs, speedruns, and some really tight platforming! 

Thank you for the recommendation! ? I've added the game to the nomination list!

Edited February 17, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[ExistentialSolid]

Splasher ~ Update #4

Trophies Unlocked:  (Awarded for earning gold and platinum medals in any full game speedrun)

 

What's been happening?

There's a ton to cover in this one so get ready! In the previous update, I was determined to:

• Earn the platinum medal on the "Selfish" speedrun of Splasher (complete all 22 levels as quickly as possible without worrying about splasher rescue).
• Scope out the "deathless" run of the game to see what I was getting myself into.

Let's open with the results of the "Selfish" speedrun. After a few days of practice, I was able to blaze past the "Selfish" speedrun platinum medal time of 43:44:48 with a time of 42:27:78!



However, this isn't where I plan to stop as I died 5+ times in this run to careless mistakes and I know that a 41:xx is well within reach with a little more practice. While I do plan to improve the run, I've posted an unlisted video of my 42:27:78 for anyone that would like to check through the work-in-progress. 

Splasher Selfish Speedrun (42:27:78) [to be improved] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiaDVyY4TQs

 

What about the deathless run? 
Right! So, along with the Selfish speedrun, I've been trying to see how close I can get to completing Splasher without dying to earn the "Ninja Runner" trophy. Up to this point, I've been able to finish 18/22 levels before clumsily failing a jump or slamming into an enemy but I'm getting closer and closer to that perfect run. It will just take a little more time! I'll be spending more time practicing this run on the side (along with the improved Selfish speedrun) as I work towards the other full game speedrun platinum medals. Expect a video of my deathless run once it finally happens!

What's next?
Now that the Selfish speedrun has been taken care of (mostly), it's time to set our sights on the next speedrun type: the "Standard" speedrun. In a "Standard" speedrun, the player will still be trying to complete the game's 22 levels as quickly as possible, but will need to collect at least 80 of the game's 154 splashers to access the final level and beat the game.

If you remember back to the first Splasher update, I decided to postpone parts of my 100% playthrough outline because it would be not be relevant to the upcoming updates. Well it's time to finally discuss Splasher's collectibles in full. I'm going to briefly cover splasher rescue, golden-drops, and quarantine zones. 

 

What is a "Splasher" anyway?
Splashers are basically just little dudes that are trapped in different parts of each level that wait around for you to rescue them (pretty helpful description, right?). Here's a quick example of what a typical rescue looks like:

 
(https://imgur.com/1GWWrtF?nc=1 - in case the gif fails to load)

There are seven splashers to rescue in each of the game's 22 levels and each splasher will correspond to a different letter/character: The 1st splasher is an "S," the 2nd is a "P" and so on until "S-P-L-A-S-H-!" is spelled. The "!" splasher is a special case. At the end of each level, you will come across a caged splasher that looks something like this:


(https://imgur.com/joblTQT - in case the gif fails to load)

To open these cages, you will need 700 golden-drops that are scattered throughout each level. These drops can be gained by destroying enemies, rescuing splashers, washing away golden patches on the ground, or by interacting with golden machinery. There is rarely much leeway in the number of golden-drops per level, so you will need to be fairly thorough in your search if you want to collect enough drops to rescue the "!" splasher.

In addition to golden-drops, each level contains one or more hidden portals that will take you to a quarantine zone. These zones are essentially small puzzle rooms that reward clever use of your paint with a trapped splasher and often look something like this:



Okay, so what does all of this have to do with the "Standard" speedrun?
Remember, for the "Standard" speedrun, you only need to collect 80 of the game's 154 Splashers. Because we don't need to collect them all, it would be faster if we skipped the ones that eat up the most time like the caged "!" splashers that require golden-drops and most of the splashers trapped in quarantine zones (we cannot skip the first quarantine zone, however). To be as quick as possible, we will focus entirely on rescuing the splashers that are plainly hidden within each level (like the ones in the first gif of this update) until we have collected 80. After hitting 80, we should be able to safely ignore any extra splasher rescues and continue on to finish the game. 

 

What's the plan?
Going forward, my plan is to prioritize earning the platinum medal in the "standard" speedrun which will require me to finish the full game with 80 splashers in less than 50:50:88. On the side, I will continue to trim down my "selfish" speedrun time and practice for the deathless run of the game. There's a lot to work on but I've been making steady progress so far and will do my best to keep it going!

The next update, with all progress made towards these goals, will be posted on February 22nd!

Thank you for sticking with me and see you all soon! ?

Edited February 18, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

Managed to come close regarding the standard plat medal. About 1 minute and 7 seconds too late. Also went deathless until level 18 twice but screwed it up both times by making mistakes that otherwise never happened.

Edited February 19, 2021 by JohnlMatrix

[You]

Mad and crazy skills as usual. lol

 

Well done. I still feel tense just watching, let alone playing.

[ExistentialSolid]

15 hours ago, JohnlMatrix said:

Managed to come close regarding the standard plat medal. About 1 minute and 7 seconds too late. Also went deathless until level 18 twice but screwed it up both times by making mistakes that otherwise never happened.

Sounds like you'll be earning that standard plat medal very soon! A minute and 7 seconds is hardly any time at all (I've wasted that much time in some of my runs just getting lost in the lobby ?). I haven't had any good deathless runs lately but I'm glad you've been having better luck at least! I'm sure you'll get that perfect run soon. 
 

14 hours ago, enaysoft said:

Mad and crazy skills as usual. lol

 

Well done. I still feel tense just watching, let alone playing.

Thanks! ? It can get pretty tense at times but it makes it all the more exciting!

Edited February 20, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

3 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said:

Sounds like you'll be earning that standard plat medal very soon! A minute and 7 seconds is hardly any time at all (I've lost that much and more in some of my runs just getting lost in the lobby ). I haven't had any good deathless runs lately but I'm glad you've been having better luck at least! I'm sure you'll get that perfect run soon.

I hope so. I wanna be done with the no-death run and focus on getting standard which shouldn't be too much of an issue. Then I'd like to focus on the gotta catch'em all run which I really don't wanna mix up with the no-death efforts because of different routing (golden drops etc.).