THK has 1000 HP, or 1250 HP (he heals TO, not adding 250 after entering phase 4 (last))
phase 1: 1000-751 HP phase 2 (when he is able to do the first scream): 750-401 HP phase 3 (where he is able to do 2nd scream/self stab): 400 until death HP (doesn't end until you hit him AFTER he has reached 0 or less HP, the hit that ends this phase does damage to the phase 4 health pool (ex. if you end phase with a nail slash he will be at 245hp in phase 4)) phase 4: 250-0
------- Evade Antic --------- (backdash/parry)
before THK's idle animation (explained below), THK will roll an RNG check depending on the phase he is in (phase 1: 0%, 2: 60%, 3: 15%, 4: 0%) if this check succeeds, he will either parry or backdash (50/50) after checking whether or not to turn around ( the only thing that can delay the parry/backdash is if he is turning around. ) the evade rng check is also retriggered by the end of a parry, as that goes to the idle, (this could be the cause of parrys chaining into themselves). this isnt the only way for thk to parry, or backdash
------- THK idle animation -------
This is the animation/state after he wakes up from a stagger, after he finishes a move, etc.
exception 1: the end of a backdash does not enter the idle animation, it just immediately goes to another attack (after this attack ends it will go to idle.) . exception 2: an attack immediately after a teleport also does not usually enter the idle animation, it just immediately goes to another attack (after this attack ends it will go to idle.) not entirely sure about this one
The amount of time he spends in the idle state is rng and phase dependent:
Phase 1: .75s to 1s Phase 2: .25s to .5s Phase 3: 0s to .25s Phase 4: 1 second
Killing the devout with wraiths + shadesoul saves 0.3 over ddark + shadesoul. Does have a bit more risk if the devout backs up, if it backs up after 2 hits you can recover with another wraiths or ddark, but if it backs up after just 1 hit you kind of just cry. I was only getting the backup about 10% of the time though, so probably still worth. Highly recommend vsync for this, with in game cap of 150 I was getting 2 hit wraiths (without devout backing up) 20-30% of the time, but switching to vsync I got no rng missed hits.
Doing a cyclone on right drop then dashing to the middle allows you to do the first cyclone sooner and charge the second cyclone while you're dashing to middle drop. Saves about 0.3 over cycloning twice in mid drop.
you can pogo this obble, its the same speed as getting good rng without pogoing but you can do it on a lot of diffrent rng spawns. need to time the pogo to reach the platform unless you're playing on like 60fps. obviously sometimes its impossible but its more likely to get a pogoable spawn so definitely worth learning
Extension of Archives WCS that saves about 0.7. To get the dashes to the right, go neutral and slash, then immediately press right and dash. On the very rare occasion that the small jelly is in your way for the first dash to the right, you can switch to the normal movement and go even. For all skills, cut out the last wcs dash so you can hold your nail and do the cyclone wcs.
new rta nail turnaround, make sure to jump before slashing to not lose wcs, and this also works better with a smaller jump compared to no turnaround slash
Fastest strat for getting the shrumal ogres notch on the way to Elder Hu in TE. Mostly applicable to the 1.2.2.1 dream wielder route. Overall saves up to 2 seconds over previous timings of getting the charm notch.
Get exactly 4 nail hits and 1 fireball cast on the right shrumal ogre, dash left to fight the other one, do a nailcancel fireball, and upslash it at the same time you damage tank. If you're lucky this will cancel the freeze frames of taking damage. Immediately after damage tanking, dash to the other side of it and do two nailcancel fireballs to the right. With good execution this will consistently kill both of them, but be careful that your fireball doesn't get eaten by the wall on the left. If you miss one of the tiny mushrooms at the beginning you can hit the leftmost one on the way back. If you come into the fight with 4 hits of soul you should always end with 2, so you'll need 2 extra hits in the wow room for full soul Elder Hu, which only loses about 0.3 seconds.
This is possible on 1.4.3.2+ but inconsistent because the fireball has less range. It should work if the right shrumal ogre does a slamming attack as you're dashing away because it'll move closer, but it would need more labbing.
saves some time bc you dont have to go to the right and can directly go up. Pretty easy and consistant, if you are too far right you'll probably still get the stallball but wont reach the fb when pogoing and if you are too far left your vs will get eaten by the wall. Not sure how much it saves, but its probably worth going for (2 seconds or more, maybe?)
May uploaded the version of the stallball with more items, just wanted to put this here in case anyone wants to know how to do the fungal core stallball skip with only MoP and shamans.
Super consistent 1 fireball setup for the 3rd Greenpath fireball skip. Once in between the background pole and pillar as shown in the image, do 2 mini-hops followed up by a full jump and it should line you up perfectly to do 1 fireball. I've found this to be pretty much 100% consistent for me!
so you said that the fungal skip is trash, here is a more reliable strat with 2 fbs, the best i got was a few 3 out of 4 attempts in 10 minutes. Just jump roughly where the post is and fb just above the slope, fb again in the slope and pogo to end it. The closer you are to the spot with the 1st fb the easier it is and if you see that you are already too low with the first fb dont even try to shoot another one. You will know if the first fb is too low if it hits the wall later than usual.
the skip saves a ton of time, you would probably have to reroute a bit for geo though its actually pretty hard to do with just one fb, but you can fb stall to get the correct hight easier, its really precise
slightly (maybe more than slightly) cursed way to skip the first devout, complete with lineup The devout also may not open right away, do not hit it, it needs to open into you, and if it backs up, just do the regular up and over. If you have trouble getting the line-up (which is really tight) you can get as close as you can and dash into the devout as soon as it opens, this requires very good reaction time, but is a good backup.
To make up the geo get the bottom level in the room above king's station. This requires good RNG. If you don't get a good line-up, it's better to skip it (this is the fastest way i know how to cover the geo). If you end up skipping the geo, just kill the devout for the geo.
Visual cue for jumping over baldur if you're uncapping fps. Just do a minimum height jump (or slightly higher also works) at the spot and you'll get over. Its fine if you jump early, knockback gets you past spikes usually, if you jump late you'll dunk. Not jumping at all also works. Should save about 0.5 to killing it.
Not too difficult with practice, but can be messed up like any other precise strat. That being said its fairly lenient once you get comfy with it.
i dont know if this is known, but I dont see many people going for it. upslash the vengefly while youre landing on the platform. saves .1 - .2 and makes it so the vengefly will never underplat. make sure not upslash while still rising or youll bonk
Saves .8 over pogaxe, loses roughly .4 to get second try. Vertical position is somewhat precise, but with consistent walljumps it usually works out (anywhere around the last conveyor spike is fine, lower is safer than higher). Not really fullgame viable with the current state of things, but .8 is .8
leaving the elevator above Lemm down after the very first visit lets you do a fun inv drop, skipping the any% lever on the right side, and saves about ~1.2s over good execution of the regular strat. if you hit the inv drop but hardfall it loses ~0.3-0.5s (so still saves time), if you miss the inv drop there's a very lenient backup which loses ~0.5s over good regular strat execution, but is completely consistent and makes avg loss with the strat negligible.
I was messing around with 1fb epogo earlier and found this setup easier and a bit more comfy. Idk if anyone has seen or used it before, but I can remove it if it is already known.
Pest's "old" tutorial on basic watcher knight's strats, specifically with some meta think strats (which can be applied to literally any boss) on how to learn the fight: https://youtu.be/Oc-_Vg-Y8ME
very slight optimization in ancient mound, instead of pogoing to go up to plat, just go under :) saves not a lot overall but still worth imo, read video description for more info https://youtu.be/szLRcrviuO0
A backup strat for mantis pogo. End of the clip shows reaction to a walkback, both pogos are lenient as long as you dash at the height of the second pogo. Loses around 6-8s depending on execution and whether the mantis steps back. Ensure you are not too close to the mantis when it charges an attack, or the pogo will miss.
Quick kill for petra arena. For the second two, line your knight up with the top-right area of that hanging basket, like you can see in the video here. Shoot your first fireball ever so slightly before the first petra's hitbox is available. This first fireball SHOULD MISS THE FIRST PETRA. Because of the way petra AI works, the petras will always move back away from you to keep some distance, and thus the second fireball will hit the first petra with a double
Dashing to the wall is an easy way to inventory slide. It's also possible to do it without the dash but more precise so higher chance to get pushed to the spikes.
The fastest known way to drop into birthplace in True Ending. Shoutouts to Muri. Even sloppy version of this drop will be on par with tryhard version of the normal drop most people do, and this particular execution is ~0.3 faster than the best regular drop I was able to pull off. On average it saves like 0.6-0.8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3KuZSIa-Zs
wcs setup for archives gate that works for both True Ending and All Skills. Start nails when you hear uumuu exploding. Prob works well for any% but you just stall a bit instead of using wings
credits to tk3. A semi-consistent setup for fake dive in sanctum. Should work in all patches. Video provides more details. https://youtu.be/CLHa7tg6dp0
TASers (shoutouts to @cuber_kk ) found a faster way to do the moss knight quick kill in Greenpath. The reason why it's faster is because you start by casting a fireball during frames where the moss knight is invulnerable, effectively saving those frames. According to my timings, it is easily 0.4s faster on average than what we do, and failing can be as fast as the normal strat (screenshot from my timings: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/840457024592150568/841971025582489620/unknown.png). I assembled a small video to show the strat and also teach a setup which seems consistent: https://youtu.be/34nZk3KUuuI
the diagonal archives proposed by cerp. The strats has a little bit of variance depending on jelly rng, so you better practice it, but it's fairly consistent.
Do a minimum height hop at this cue (the smallest tap of the jump button you can), and land on the highest ledge below for a simple consistent soft-fall setup in King's Pass.
note: there are upslash strats to cut your minimum height hop even shorter. This, however, means this cue is very likely too early to get consistent soft-fall, depending on how early you upslash to cancel your hop height.
First scr.shot shows where cue is before ground crumbles, second shows after. Credits: Muri
Fastest strat for climbing from the 1st elevator to the breakable wall in the chandelier room.
-Do each dash very low to the ground. -If you mistime your jump and do not regain wall cling storage on the ground, continue dashing, you will not lose time to the default (no wcs) strat.
Optimally saves ~0.5s to any non-wcs strat.
Edit: minor timesave if you climb all the way to the top on the left side, and dash right (so that you do not require any wall jumps on the right wall. (~0.1-0.2) Original post by Gwonkee
Godcycle room movement that gives better lazer rng. After like 50 runs through the room I was never hit by the first bad lazer that you have to wait for sometimes, and it gives slightly later godpixel lazer activation, although that one isn't free still. Pay attention to the neutral jump before the dash near the deep focus entrance, and going to the right wall after clinging once to the left. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSB12zh0hb4 Original post by Valignatev
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