Sonny any% speedrun in

Where do I even begin with this run?

When acidicvulture beat my previous WR I was honestly content with letting the 1st place title go. I had done over 200 runs at that point and I was in no mood to ever touch such an RNG-reliant category ever again. So, as a way to have fun I decided to play around with an Assassin build (AB).

At first it didn't seem any better than the Gunslinger build (GB), but as I refined the route it began to show immense potential. Zone One was unfortunately slower due to the greater set-up time required to progress through the fights smoothly, but then ZONE TWO. Zone Two is where AB shows its true potential. It can OHKO enemies that would take GB two hits, does better in fights with three enemies due to Smash allowing eight slots as opposed to Electro Bolt only allowing two, and it has greater benefits from MSH.

I first realised that AB was good when I actually beat the current WR by 30 seconds (WR was 15:38, while you can see that my PB during this run was 15:08). However, that run didn't have any MSHs drop so I KNEW that it could be shorter. MSH provides strength and physical piercing which complements a physical build far better than a magic build. And after 19 more attempts, I got this run.

Not one, but TWO MSHs from the first two enemies that it can drop from. The chances of that are 9 in 10000, or 0.09%, so the chances of getting it again aren't great. Getting them that early basically meant that I could get super strong consistent criticals for the rest of the run. Add the Tribal blades I got from Zone Three and you have a recipe for slaughter by A Broken Pipe XD

You'll also notice that while progressing through Zone Three I actually go back to the shop in Zone Two for the Icy Katanas. I do this because none of the items in the Shop in Zone Three provide good strength for the price it sells at.

As for this run in particular, there are only two points I'm not happy with. The first was the bad menuing before the ZPCI trio in Zone Three. This run was actually the first attempt I did where I wanted to test a new set of skills in preparation for the Baron. Before, I had three Smashes equipped instead of two Smashes and Quick Strike. The reason I wanted Quick Strike was so that I didn't skip turns in the Baron fight. Thankfully, a crit Quick Strike OHKOs the ZPCI Sniper so only two Smashes are needed.
The second thing was the Baron fight itself. I was so nervous I completely forgot to stun him so that I could skip the HP range where he uses Shadow Blend. Thankfully, I still killed him in one minute which is better than most attempts lol.

Unless someone refines this route further or comes up with a new one, I think I'm done with this category. Even if this time is beaten, I don't think I'll come back to reclaim first place any time soon. I've run this game around 400 times in the past month and I need a break XD. I also have the Sonny (2017) speedrun to plan out, so that's something else I have to focus on.