Tips for Speedrunners

[Xantospoc]

Hello there, I have beaten twice this game (still loving it), and I am trying to slowly get all of the achievemtents (still missing a lot, but hey)

 

However, one REALLY scares me: the speedrunner achievements to  finish the game in less than two hours.

Can any of you give me tips on  what to do and reduce as much time as possible across the game? I am not even sure I can reach Monkey Island in less than two hours!

[Garystu]

I haven't gone for this either, but there's two guides on Steam.

 

(note to lurkers: both these guides contain full game spoilers)

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866331468

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=286760748

 

Sorry if you already saw these.

 

 

 

Actual speedrunners seem to have a community-imposed embargo on themselves, although it sounds like they're already talking in their discord.

 

https://www.speedrun.com/return_to_monkey_island/news/2561

 

I understand their decision is for the good of their community and agree with it. It is bit of a shame for achievement hunters currently, oh well. Though actual speedrunners tend to use more demanding techniques, I'm really curious as to what details their routing will provide. It could still be of use to those of us seeking the achievement. We'll find out I guess. Just gotta wait a week.

[JJ1]

I did it on my third playthrough.  I didn't use a guide, but the top link Guybrush Transmasc provided gives a lot of good advice.  I played it on casual mode and that made a huge difference because it prevents a lot of backtracking.  I was constantly using the  . and Esc keys.  I would just use both of them whenever text appeared onscreen, figuring one would work.  I don't think my speedrun playthrough was optimized or anything like that and it only took about an hour and a half.  So there was a lot of spare time.

[Mintopia]

The chat on the speedrun discord is being quite secretive about routing, tips, etc. I've done a hard-mode speedrun and grabbed the achievement as part of it. My advice would be:

• Use Easy Mode - it's a lot quicker (20-25 minutes).
• Double click to run places quickly.
• In chapter 4, press M or use the map in inventory to jump straight to it.
• In chapter 3, you don't need to steal LeChuck's theme, just play it - it doesn't change.
• The 'alternate' ending by heading back into the caves is probably quicker.

[ThunderPeel2001]

These are my times, for reference:

 

Part 1: 23m

Part 2: 42m

Part 3: 57m

Part 4: 1h 30m

Part 5: 1h 38m

 

I found it tricky to skip cutscenes... 90% of the time it didn't work. I had to sit through the credits, for example, but I still got these times!

 

Played in casual mode and went for the "Deny what I've seen" ending (which is quicker).

 

Hopefully that's some use to someone!

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[LowLevel]

I protest. I reached what I consider to be an ending but I didn't get the Steam achievement.

 

It turns out that that ending doesn't count for the achievement. 😐

[BaronGrackle]

  On 10/1/2022 at 5:20 PM, LowLevel said:

I protest. I reached what I consider to be an ending but I didn't get the Steam achievement.

 

It turns out that that ending doesn't count for the achievement. 😐

Expand  

Drowned yourself in Part 2, eh?

[LowLevel]

It took only thirty minutes, I had to try. 😛

Edited October 1, 2022 by LowLevel

[BaronGrackle]

Switch has a "period" button for ending sentences, but I don't think it's possible to skip cutscenes? I'm a little surprised because I thought they had talked to speedrunners about suggestions; it's strange that there'd be no way to skip cutscenes.

[ThunderPeel2001]

  On 10/1/2022 at 7:42 PM, BaronGrackle said:

Switch has a "period" button for ending sentences, but I don't think it's possible to skip cutscenes? I'm a little surprised because I thought they had talked to speedrunners about suggestions; it's strange that there'd be no way to skip cutscenes.

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That is odd. Is it definitely not listed in the controls anywhere? I found the skip cutscenes button to be very temperamental on PC. Not sure if it was because I was spamming "." all the time, too, or if it's a bug that's since been fixed.

[BaronGrackle]

  On 10/2/2022 at 6:21 PM, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

That is odd. Is it definitely not listed in the controls anywhere? I found the skip cutscenes button to be very temperamental on PC. Not sure if it was because I was spamming "." all the time, too, or if it's a bug that's since been fixed.

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Well, when you press the Y button (on the left) during a cutscene, the upper-left corner of the screen has a red-circle-slash sign that leads me to believe that it would theoretically be a skip button, but that it can't actually be used to skip anything.

But the period button is reliably ending sentences. 

Edited October 2, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[ThunderPeel2001]

  On 10/2/2022 at 7:51 PM, BaronGrackle said:

Well, when you press the Y button (on the left) during a cutscene, the upper-left corner of the screen has a red-circle-slash sign that leads me to believe that it would theoretically be a skip button, but that it can't actually be used to skip anything.

But the period button is reliably ending sentences. 

Expand  

 

Yep, that red circle slash sign is what happens when you try to press ESC on the PC version (well, the Mac version at least). It seems very temperamental, though. Like if you hit it too quickly, it'll just block you from skipping that entire cut scene... but if you wait a few seconds, you can skip without issue. Basically it sounds the same behaviour across versions.

[BaronGrackle]

Maybe it's a mistake? Maybe they'll add an update that lets you skip cutscenes, and the No Sign will go away.