[TAS] DS Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles by xy2_ in 55:57.72

This is a tool-assisted speedrun. For more information, see http://tasvideos.org/4508M.html. TAS originally published on 2021-08-24.

Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles is the first spin-off game in the Assassin's Creed franchise, and is a prequel to the first game. Altaïr is tasked with finding The Chalice, an artifact that is said to be able to unite all factions and end the Crusades.

Unlike the main games in the franchise, Altaïr's Chronicles is not an open-world game but rather a hybrid action-platformer - some sections play similarly to games in the Prince of Persia series where the player must do careful platforming and deal with traps and hazards, while other sections are more like the main games and feature fighting, stealth, and assassinations.

xy2_ (http://tasvideos.org/Xy2.html) abuses several out-of-bounds glitches to end levels extremely quickly, and wields the particularly mighty Wooden Crate to dispatch foes in record time. The author's commentary is included in all encodes of this movie.

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Hello and welcome to the Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles TAS!

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I'm the author, xy2_, and I'll be doing some commentary

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Please enjoy the TAS :)

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I chose easy difficulty

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Harder difficulties change enemy health

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Combat isn't good, so less of it is better, as you'll see soon

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Our main movement is jumping

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When jumping onto a ledge, Altaïr will ledge grab

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This is slow, so I'll avoid it as much as I can

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Jumping is 40% faster than running, which tops at 20k units

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I get around 30k speed at the start of every jump,

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that slowly decreases down to 21k speed

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Beam jumps are the fastest at 40k speed

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A double jump gives a bit more speed

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The general strategy is to jump as often as possible,

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preferring many short jumps over long ones

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First minigame to finish this level

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I can skip cutscenes after a second, pressing B

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But some cutscenes are faster to mash through

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The first low jump, seen here

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Low jump is the other jump but not too useful right now

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More on that later

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Getting out of bounds is a common theme

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Every level depends, but many have exploitable OoB (Out of Bounds)

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Most often I'll move on top of the level walls

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Combat

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Enemies are pretty bad at fighting

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Often I'll use the level to my advantage,

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to make otherwise impossible jumps and save time

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Altaïr has a bit of momentum whenever jumping

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The next jump takes the general direction of the previous

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I can cancel this by walking for 1 frame

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This is the other minigame

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Altaïr's Chronicles only has two minigames

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Tap or drag the circles at the right time

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I fail some to make the next circles appear directly

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I also use momentum to my advantage

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Since movement is controlled by the D-pad,

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using momentum allows for more precise movement

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I can also direct a jump in midair with the D-pad

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Archer arrows cancel my jump in midair

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This is used to fall faster

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Enemy manipulation is an important part of the run

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More on that later

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The blue swirls appearing are checkpoints

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Usually, finishing a level is done by hitting them all

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I can avoid ledgegrabs by jumping in the opposite direction

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Even though the jump is slower,

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we save time by avoiding the grab

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Walk not to wake up this guy

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Red orbs refill Altaïr's health

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But the amount they refill is random

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Manipulate luck to get a full refill

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Fight this this guy against the wall, to minimize movement

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The grappling is the fastest movement in the game

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Use it whenever we can

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Coming up is another big trick

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After getting OoB in some levels,

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there is normally a floor around the level preventing a fall

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This floor doesn't exist inside of the level itself

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We just got OoB and hit this floor

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The next jump goes into the level, and jumps off

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Interestingly, there's no cap on Altaïr's vertical speed

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So right now I'm building up vertical speed infinitely

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The green arrow pointing to the checkpoint is going crazy,

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as I'm warping from the bottom to the top of the level over and over

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So what's my objective right now?

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I'm going in the direction opposite of the level

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Far out of bounds to the left is a cutscene trigger,

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that will end the level directly

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Hitting it however is quite precise,

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since I can't change direction or speed while in this jump

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And we finish the level

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This is the first level where we need to kill to progress

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However, the sword is slow and unwiedly

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But we have an unexpected weapon...

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The wooden box is the most powerful weapon in the game

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It will kill any enemy instantly and can crush multiple enemies at once

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However, it's very slow to move with

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It has another advantage: it can press buttons

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The alternative is pushing slow metal boxes around,

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allowing to skip a few puzzles

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This is why we go to great lengths to keep it around

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Hit the archer with the box to make him start chase us

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Two birds with one box...

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Having the wooden box here skips lengthy box pushing from the top floor

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After we're done with puzzles, wooden box has to go

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Manipulate enemies to kill themselves, opening the door

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Precise jump to skip the climb section

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Spikes have a very tall hitbox and instant kill

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So have to wait for the spikes here unfortunately

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We need to push four buttons with boxes for this part

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Metal boxes require Altaïr to fully stop before he can push

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And any enemy attack will interrupt the push

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So not getting attacked is critical here

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Start moving to manipulate enemy positions

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Enemies can run into each other, cancelling their run

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And enemies run directly towards Altaïr, pausing afterwards

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I have daggers equipped, which stun enemies for a bit when thrown,

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and I use them extensively to trap other enemies

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The other enemies will walk into the stunned one

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Even when they don't stun, daggers are valuable to reset enemy timers

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Since enemies go to Altair, I move in a certain way

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to keep them trapped by the central pillar

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Another dagger to trap an enemy coming from the right

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Move around again making use of the pillar

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Now I can make it to the last box

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The enemies surround me, but it's too late

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I can clip through an enemy while he pulls out his sword and escape

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The upcoming fight will be my first sword use

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Pulling out the sword gives a tutorial

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But because I didn't use it until now, I get this error instead

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We get the best weapon in the game, the bomb

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It won't see use until later when we kill enemies

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But it's way better than the sword

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I grab a ledge right as I trigger the cutscene

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The ledge grab carries over after for some reason

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This corner spot is barely in grapping range

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The game runs during cutscenes, so Altaïr ends up to the right

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This OoB saves a lot of time

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To make it down without taking fall damage, I use a cutscene

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Cutscenes stop Altaïr's movement and put him on the closest ground

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I can make it to the lower level without taking damage

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Bombs are incredibly effective

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They do large damage in an area, and can be thrown quickly

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Altaïr can also lay they down, where they explode after some time

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But the animation is much slower, and it takes too long to explode

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Bombs explode when they hit ground or a wall

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If I can, I'll prefer exploding them against walls

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This guy has to be fought sword only, though

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Survive this fall with a level change

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This level is multi part, and the transitions put Altaïr on the ground

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Small OoB saves a bit of time

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If you're at the edge of the grapping range and grab,

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Altaïr gets snapped to the right

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Use the vase for this last OoB

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I just unlocked the triple jump

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For some reason, there's a small delay after a triple jump

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But it's faster and can go higher than a double jump

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Another OoB, but unlike the usual,

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we'll go in and out of bounds for speed boosts

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Since grappling is faster than regular movement,

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we want to move back in for that

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Our height will fling us right back out of bounds, like a pendulum

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Fall manually, as jumping is too high a fall

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A lot of this level is cycle based,

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so making it in time is crucial

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Supposed to kick the boxes off to lower the platform

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But I can just triple jump to the elevated platform

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Grappling is fast

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Enemies I've been killing throughout the game drop these blue orbs

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These can be used to upgrade health or Altaïr's sword

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The health upgrade is also a one-time use full health refill

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I chose to use it here to skip going down, taking fall damage

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I couldn't delay getting the upgrade much longer,

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as later levels require it for some skips

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Altaïr now has six health bars

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I now sometimes do a low jump to start a jump combo,

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where Altaïr jumps with both his knees forward

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This low jump can be done by starting to walk and jumping

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It's normally very slow, but if I start walking as I land, the low jump can be done fast

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Low jumps are very useful as they reset the jump combo,

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allowing us to control where we triple jump

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They're also good on their own with great speed

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Unlike normal jumps that decrease to 21k speed,

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they decrease to 24k, so they're a bit faster when falling

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You also take less damage, since the jump is low

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This jump skips the entire fight section,

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and this tree helps out for this one

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Some very tricky jumps to get to the archer platform

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We can make it out here with a triple jump

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This game doesn't have great boss variety

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I'm very low on health

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But I can make the fall with a cutscene

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What happens when Altaïr uses daggers on a moving platform?

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... I don't know

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Start walking to reduce lag

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It gets the camera off the burning ships

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Triple jump to skip the start

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Cancel fall damage by getting knocked back by an enemy

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This is only possible if the enemy has his sword out

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Another fall damage cancel by ledge grabbing

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And another with a cutscene

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I take less fall damage by hitting this edge first

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Need to hit this lever to lower a box

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But I'll just jump instead

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This is one of the bosses that can be bombed,

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which we use to our advantage

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In this first section, you're supposed to defeat enemies to advance

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But a simple jump skips all that

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Knockback is fast

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Another jump skips the rest of this section

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First stealth level

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Getting spotted makes me instantly lose

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So there's a lot of waiting here

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Get two bombs, the other will be used later

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Need to kill the guards to open the door

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But I can throw a bomb through the door if I'm right next to it

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Bombing the siege weapons ends the level

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Last stealth level

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Free the prisoners to move forward

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You're supposed to shoot the enemies down to not get detected and progress

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But I jump and skip it

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In this level you have to follow the guards

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Landing on the ground fails the level

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Charge up a triple jump for the skip

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Need to hit a checkpoint down here before I make it up

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This level has a required checkpoint order, otherwise everything breaks,

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and I can't complete it

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Buttons only work once I kill all enemies

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These mirrors take very long to turn for some reason

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The hardest OoB in the run

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In this OoB many walls are of different height

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So I have to do tricky jumps to get on top of them

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I can't continue OoB because the next wall is too high up

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So finish the level normally

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Avoid the black texture which slows us down

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After getting OoB, I'm not full health

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So I need to rely on a planned kill to give a full refill

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An enemy ran into an insta kill trap

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The boat here always exists lowered

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Thank you for watching!