WARNING - HUGE amount of text

How this run came to be:
This is the run that got me into speedrunning, uh, I mean what I started with, it started out at about 17'25 and without outside influence got I 13'37(lol), then I got in touch with my fellow dutch Zero speedrunner McBAIN, who gave me crucial advice on Asura and Harpuia, getting behind them and was the one supporting me to make an official recording (I had sent him my VBA 13'37). That was 3 years ago ('06 ~'08 march I spent working on Rockman ZX, wich I grinded down to amazing SS times on all difficulties, imo, see my sig on the forum) and the last thing I heard was that he was stopping speedrunning, IIRC because of lack of time.

It was about that time that I started looking at speedruns, seeing the amazing TAS on X2 and SDA. SDA has many good Megaman runs, I was amazed at alot of them, most noteworthy the MM3, MMX, X3 and X4. What I saw was gameplay that I had never seen before, motivating me play those games more avidly...X2 is a special case, my ultimate motivator in optimising and training, Frezy_Man's X2 100% is my favorite run on SDA.
(Side note: X2 NEEDS a Low% run, guess who's training on his SFC?)

With McBAIN's help, I immedeatly got 12'26, then after years of on-again -off-again playing I got the Japanese cartridge and it motivated me to really work my 'records' wich resulted in a spiffy 11'33, wich was my first sub12 time, so I was really happy...then after a taking shower at 3 am, I thought "what the hell, let's give it a go" and started recording, then after 4 failed attempts I got this run...since it was getting a bit cold, I thought that it might not have been such a bad idea to put some clothes on...lol. 3rd recorded speedrun.

So, now I'll get to the in-run technical details.

Discoveries on RMZ:

• MISSION SKIP
  Basically what makes this a separate category from "All Missions", by using the Escape Unit in Anubistep and Fafnir's missions (2nd and 4th in respective order from Mission Select), and chose the "RETIRE" option, (I have mixed feelings on it, seeing as "Retiring" refers to the killing of Irregulars a.k.a. nutty-robo-baddies) doing this results in a 0'00 clear time, and will trigger the event where the Resistance Base is invaded (not assaulted with a big drill bomb robot, invaded)and after that it's just the three final stages. (I'm sure alot of people know of this.)

• DAMAGE BARRIER CANCEL
  Damage Barrier is what the flashing frames of bosses and Zero are called, I learned it in the X series, not sure if Capcom called it that already since 1987. Anyways, Zero1 has a one-of-kind DB programming, rather than that all moves trigger the DB and providing DB overlapping properties to attacks like in certain X titles and the remaining Zero series titles, Zero1's DB is triggered by an amount of attacks, the ones excluded being the Z Saber's 1st slash, 2nd slash and the spinning hits of the Rolling Slash, the Triple Rod's 1st stab, 2nd stab and Charge Attack. Oh, wait, I said one of a kind, totally forgetting X4~6... (Yeah this is standard knowledge...)

• DAMAGE ABUSE
  Common SDA term, have done it all my life, where others really kill EVERYTHING on their path, I was always fascinated by killing the least, you can see it in my run too, while I have some excessive kills, I keep it to a minumum...anyways, getting hit is very useful in this game, see my Aztec Falcon battle as perfect example. If you know a faster way w/o damage abuse on that, I'd be surprised. (Not a real discovery >.>)

• LAB DOOR WARP
  discovered in '06, I accidentally walked out of Cervau's lab while killing the last Pantheon Guardian, I got bumped away about a dash from the lab door, tried it again and was happy with my new time saver ^^ (I have exactly heard only 1 person about this, about a month after I discovered it.)

• SWITCH BLADE
  Not sure if I discovered it myself, as I do not recall using it before I saw it in Mikwuyma's Zero1 S-Rank run, in the Maha Ganeshariff stage for example. anyways, Zero's jump attacks can do devastating damage when one alternates between left and right in jump attacks, it's only alot of help against high-LE baddies without a Damage Barrier tho. *works especially well with Command Charge in Ultimate Mode ^^ *works reasonably with the Skull Crush

• SKULL CRUSH
  Basic Zero technique everbody discovered in their first playthrough, when performing a jump slash holding down on the D-pad, Zero will hold the saber down doing 2 points more damage than the intial slash. (On a Boss LE Gauge that's 1 extra unit.) I surprised McBAIN with my Skull Crush usage on Ganeshariff and SeraphX, That's why I say "BEHOLD!" because it's a strat I'm proud off.

• POSITION MANIPULATION
  Works for alot of games, I think, by positioning your character in a certain way or Dash/jump/move in a certain direction, you can trigger certain actions of a Boss, good examples are Blizzack and CopyX, to get them in their optimal position, you have to Dashjump away to the wall (preferrably the closest one :P) and have them come at you. Blizzack will jump on you, then use his Blizzard Arm, in wich you are free to slap him silly, since he doesn't flinch. CopyX is all about Wall Pinning, he will Nova Strike at you, get under him, and go nuts while he flinches against the wall, repeat when he gets out. (both examples are were done reasonably in this run.)

• CARRY CHARGE (not in this run)
  My fav personal discovery...when charging a weapon, then open the SubMenu then select another weapon (with full charge capabilities) and equip it, open up the menu and voila, your weapon is fully charged. *Especially usefull with the Shield Boomerang (see my other run). *Works for Zero1 and for Zero2 Normal, it's fixed in Z3 and Z4.

• CRITICAL HIT (not in this run)
  In rare occasions an attack (I've only had it with the jumping slash tho) will connect twice with an enemy (must have more than 8 LE) without any particular reason(like not switch blade or skull crushing). Haven't heard anyone about it in the past 6 years.

• DUST DASH (Player/Viewer Entertainment)
  Spastic Eye Candy, when forced to wait, rapidly double press Left/Rigth leaving a huge dustcloud behind you. I do it alot when facing Anubistep. A friend of mine found it hilarious for some reason, so I decided to keep it in ^^ (it also helps kicking out the boredom when escorting the Shuttle Crash survivor...for the player at any rate.)

• DASH DANCE (Player/Viewer Entertainment)
  Another SEC, wich is basically rapidly alternating between left and right after pressing the Dash button, throwing in Jumps as you go. I do it when facing Anubistepp sometimes.

• ESCAPE UNIT CANCEL
  Most recent discovery, when Ciel gives you the Escape Unit, it's text block will refrain from Ciel's textbox, with a rank lower than A, the door will pop up a textbox saying (guess what :P) it's locked (from the otherside :P) and it'll override the EU's textbox and since that fades directly after pressing A/B, you can Dash back to Ciel, effectively saving a second...I think...well I think it looks nicer than Zero waiting for Ciel to open her underage mouth.

Now for the actual run...thinking about this, I wrote down alot of text for a run this short...O_O

-BREAKDOWN// Stage by Stage

Note: I let Ciel pant abit before pressing start, it helps create the feel of pwnage, wich is what Zero is all about :P

• Forgotten Laboratory // vs Golem (0'23)PR
  Perfect Stream, Perfect Boss Battle, loads and LOADS of damage abuse ^^ Note that there are three triggers for Cyberelf X tossing the Z Saber to Zero, the first most conventional is dealing around 8 to ten damage to the Golem, the second is the most wastefull, time, and the last is the most practical (at least on Normal/Hard) if Zero LE (Life Energy) drops below 3 units, naturally I used the last one ^^ Post-battle I swap Main/Sub Weapons and set Attack Option to B, wich is the only of the three options that allows for simultaneous weapon usage.

• Abandoned City~Disposal Facility // vs Aztec Falcon (0'47)NEW PR!!
  Perfect Stream, the being hit by Totem Cannon is avoidable, but time saved would be negligable. Boss went even Perfecter. I dash into the locked door to avoid having to wait for the "You got the Escape Unit" text bar, wether it saves time I don't know, but it does look better.

• Intermission //
  Selects the Anubistep and Fafnir missions and Escape & Retires them, triggering the Resistance Base infiltration.
  *note: PR's vary with my Hard/All Mission run, this is due to it having the Triple Rod and Shield Boomerang wich allow for more time to be saved.

• Resistance Base // vs Hanumachine (0'42)/PR=0'33
  Uses the Lab Door Warp, by delaying the kill of the last Pantheon Guardian to when Zero is already exiting the door will bump Zero about a dash away from the door, saving a second or so. It's really hard to jump over the Pantheon Warriors, I've done it before, but alas not this time. I failed to properly manipulate Hanu, resulting in a horribly ugly battle, bad luck involved.

• Neo Arcadia Temple // vs Heracleos Anchortous (1'50)/PR=1'45
  I start of with a great stream, but I bump into a Vulturoid (LOLWUT!?) and I have a reflex save on a Wolfroid. the Pantheon Ace battle went okay, not to hyped about it, stream after it was almost perfect. Asura Basura battle wasn't too fast, but it had a nice dodge and finish. Heracleos battle was ok, but very suboptimal.

• Neo Arcadia Tower // vs Rainbow Devil (1'45)/PR=1'38
  Tried to amuse the viewer in the auto scroll part... Good stage flow, with some unints, but nice none the less. while watching I discovered a new Time Saver for furure attempts, that GyroCannon hovering above a set of spikes, jump into him, then Dash Jump to the spikes on the left wall, then wall jump to the right. should save a couple of seconds...I think. Boss went okay, nothing particulary epic.

• NEO ARCADIA HQ // (5'12)PR(?)
  Stage stream was near-perfect on all three parts...excessive kills >.>
  VS Blizzack Stagroff - PERFECT! manipulation and execution as planned.
  VS Anubistep Necromancess IV - nice, clean.
  VS Maha Ganeshariff - BEHOLD my self created Skull Crush strat!
  VS Heracleos Anchortous - went better than R1, still not too smashing.
  VS Youshou Leviathan - textbox manipulation, reasonably good battle.
  VS Inshou Phantom - waitwut, I took no damage? lol.
  VS Toushou Fafnir - I keep hugging that sexy bastard :P, otherwise good.
  VS Kenshou Harpuia - perfect execution.
  Perfect stream after the Big4 ^^
  VS CopyX - Good, but needs more Wall Pinning.
  VS SeraphX - again with the Skull Crushing ^^ okay battle.

And now, The best part of the run, the credits!!! oh lol, they're over already XD (fastest staff roll ever? THANK YOU HOLD A!)
You can see my previous PR on this run on the save below it ^^

Total mistakes: 16 (give or take)
You can really see I have played the first two stages way too much.
Lots of stuff went right, but there's still some room for improvement. I lost about 21 seconds to suboptimal play/luck.

Future:
This run is short, but I have no doubt that sub11 is possible, don't know if I can do it, so I'm hoping more people will play this amazing game more and hopefully attempt speedrunning it, it is so worth it. For Zero1, I'm fine-tuning a 100% (all cyberelves) run for Hard Mode, my current PR being 36'25(backtracking? what is that?). My Hard/Full run should already be on SDA, if not, it soon will be ;)

-CREDITS//

I would like to thank:

• The SDA staff, for their marvelous work.
• Thea & Diana of Gameplayer.nl providing me with the means to do this.
• All my friends for their support throughout the years.
• My Mom, for creating me~endless support.
• My Dad, "" "" (Paul den Held R.I.P.)
• McBAIN, for strategic support and lots of Zero series related chatting.
• Mikwuyma, for his Megaman runs, especially Z1, Z2 and X4.
• Frezy_Man, for his unforgettable and epic X2 run.
• CAPCOM, for whoring the f*ck out of Megaman, yet keep quality high ^^
• INTI CREATES, for making this epic title.
• TORU NAKAYAMA, for being the most awesome illustrator/char designer ever.

Well, if you've read through ALL of my mental banter, you deserve a f*cking medal, now go forth and watch the run if you haven't already XD

ENJOY!

-Youri

Some people on the SDA forum wanted a few stats on each run so here goes:

-Goal: Get an S-rank every stage
-Single-Segment
-No deaths
-Takes damage to save time.
-No glitches (don't know any helpful glitches)
-A gameboy player + VCR was used to capture the run.
-and at Gorash's request: "This video was made without additional electronic aid."

-I would like to thank McBAIN because he is one of the few people who is willing to talk strategy about the Mega Man Zero series.

A little mini-faq for those interested:

Q: Why do you take time to kill enemies in some stages?

A: Because I need to kill enough enemies to get an S-rank. All the other requirements I meet just playing through the stage.

Q: S-rank?

A: Your rank in this game is depends on 6 categories: mission accomplished, clear time, number of enemies killed, how much damage you take (lower being better), number of retries, and number of cyber elves used (if you don't use any you get full points here). To get an S-rank you need a combined total of at least 96 points per stage (out of 100).

Q: If you only need an average of 96 points per stage, then why don't you kill less enemies in a few stages to make the run faster?

A: Because this is a true S-rank run. Radix and I agreed I should get 96+ points in every stage. There is not a single stage where I go below 96 points.

Q: Why didn't you collect the shield boomerang?

A: I felt like it wouldn't save any time, due to how long it takes to collect it. Plus, I really hate using it. I never tried collecting it, so I could be completely wrong.

Q: Why didn't you cut Maha Ganesheriff's cord when he uses the wrecking ball attack?

A: I didn't know how to cut the cord when I did the run. I found out afterwards.

Q: Why didn't you jump on one of the submarines during the stop the hacking mission?

A: If you know how to do this, please tell me. I tried a bit, but I don't think it is possible to jump on one (maybe through a glitch?).

Q: Why didn't Fefnir rain fireballs on you both fights?

A: I really lucked out.

Q: Are you planning on running the other Mega Man Zero games?

A: Of course! I will definitely do a speedrun of both MMZ2 and MMZ3 sometime.

Now for some comments:

-Most stages went really well, I manage to get through most stages really fast without getting hit more than once or twice. I make minor mistakes throughout the run, but nothing that would make me want to redo the run anytime soon.

-In theory I could have killed less enemies overall and still had an S-rank, but that would screw up my leveling up method. In addition, there is greater risk of failing S-rank if you kill less enemies.

-There is one trick I learned after the run that would save a few seconds on some of the bosses, but I'm not going to retry this run anytime soon.

-In the Find Shuttle mission, I would rather take a hit (I only get hit once) than let the soldier get hit. If the soldier gets hit once, I automatically lose 2 points from my score.

-I admit, my Octadragon Eye fight was not very good. I tried to prevent invincibility by hitting the boss with the flip slash, but my timing was so horrible I merely ended up doing less damage.

-The mission where you destroy the giant drill can be done faster, but my luck with the enemy spawns prevented me from destroying the drill more than a second or two faster. If I had good luck with enemy spawns, I could get a time in the low 40 seconds range. I took that hit on purpose, but now that I look at it, it was pretty stupid and it didn't even save any time.

-Yes, you have to kill a shitload of enemies during the Duel in the Desert mission. Notice how I go above 80 kills and I still don't get the full 15 points. My method of killing enemies at the spawn point looks weird, but it is done this way to level up my saber in time for Fefnir. If you look closely, I am able to charge my saber merely a few enemies before I fight Fefnir.

-My enemy killing area in the mission, Find Hidden Base, might look slow but I'm sure it's the fastest place to spawn enemies.

-I hesitated on the platforms during the Rescue Colbor mission because I have died there an embarassing amount of times.

-My Hanumachine battle was shit, I hate fighting him.

-My Neo Arcadia Shrine 1 run was great in terms of damage taken, but a little slow. This is mostly due to my Sword Dancer fight. Part of it was bad luck in attacks (kept on throwing his arms), but another part was due to me playing overly safe (when he threw the rings, I didn't have to run away).

-My run of the final stage went very smoothly. I sacrifice speed for safety in a few areas because this stage has 10 boss fights, and I cannot afford to lose more than 15 life. If I lost more than 15 units of life, I could get 95 points maximum and I would have to start the run over again from the beginning.

If you have any questions and/or comments just email me or contact me on the SDA forum. I hope you enjoy this run, and look forward to my future runs of the Mega Man Zero series.