Freedom Planet Speedrun - Lilac - Final Dreadnought 4 Any% - 1m54s150ms

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Final Dreadnought 4 is a very unique stage to speedrun. Nearly all of it is cycle-based, it has an extremely luck-based zip early on (which I did not go for in the run), and it's the only stage in the game that is theoretically faster to speedrun in Casual mode than in Normal mode.

The Dreadblocks are a series of 5 diagonal toggling blocks located near the first group of toggling blocks in the stage. Positioning Lilac correctly in their spot causes her to zip into and up the left wall, but the accuracy required is at subpixel level (and rather strict as well), so it cannot be performed consistently.

Getting to the other zip (the one with three blocks) on its cycle instance at 20s was challenging and fun! So, I went for that instead of the Dreadblocks. Notably, that zip doesn't require such strict positioning to trigger.

The laser room is very consistent to get through, albeit slightly tight. It's also the room where Casual mode runs will be faster due to an additional damage boost that's made possible by the increased damage resistance and health regeneration.

The final boss has three phases, and all of them seem about as difficult as each other for speedrunning. The last few hits on the first "form" (the Absolution starship) can be hard to land, and missing any will lead to a good bit of downtime in the fight. The first combo on the second form (the mech suit) is crucial, and after that, getting damage as often as possible would do. I lost a bit of time towards the end of the fight against the second form though. The third form (Brevon himself) is straightforward, unless he hits Lilac with his knife. It's a very pattern-based fight, and has to be finished before Brevon can perform his warping attack.

This stage is an interesting one for sure. The Dreadblocks are very annoying, but the rest is solid. I'd place it somewhere in the middle of all stages in terms of my preference to speedrun.

And that's the last of Lilac's stages in Freedom Planet! Wow, it has been over 8 months since I took to speedrunning this game with any seriousness. And it has been a blast. Freedom Planet rocks!