Welcome to my Final Fantasy X New Game Plus Segmented Speedrun. New Game Plus in this game is compiling all 26 Al Bhed Primers so that Rin will give you 99 Underdog's Secrets when you talk to him for the first time on the airship. This enables me to mix Quartet of 9 and Trio of 9999 earlier, and I don't have to visit Remiem Temple. I am fairly sure that sub 10 hours is not possible without compiling the primers.

I was going for extreme optimization on this run, and I am pretty satisfied with the amount of luck manipulation I was able to pull off. It is definitely possible to improve this run, but it would at least be quite an undertaking to do so.

Before I get to the segment comments I have to thank some people:

- Essentia, for her 10:25 run on SDA, which inspired me to run this game myself. Many of the strategies from her run were still used in my run, or helped me to find improvements.

- Nitrodon, for all the help with planning. He knows the mechanics of this game in much more detail than I do, so he came up with some strategies that I probably never would have thought of myself.

- Everyone who watched the insanity of this run unfold on stream. I was initially not planning on streaming the segmented run at all, but I am glad I did now.

- The entire SDA staff for running and maintaining such a great community.

- Wodanaz, for making WSplit, which saved me countless hours that I would have otherwise spent finishing attempts to check the segment time.

Segment Comments:

1) "Listen to my story."

One of the biggest timesavers in the run comes right at the very start. In the original NA version, if you push Select during the opening cutscene, at the part where it shows the weapons sticking in the ground, it will skip directly to when Tidus says "Listen to my story." This saves about 1 minute and 40 seconds. The other time saver comes on Sinspawn Ammes, where I manipulated critical hits enough to kill it after only 3 Demis.

Zanarkand - Overpass
[0:13] 110 attempts

2) "Gimme a break, man!"

There is a faster strategy for the Tanker battle that lets you knock it down in only 3 hits, and skips Auron's dialogue. I discovered it too late to implement in this run, however. I wanted to get a Pre-emptive Strike against the Sahagins and an Ambush on Geosgaeno, but I was only able to get the former.

Ruins - Hall
[0:24] 21 attempts

3) "I thought you'd be crying."

I wanted to get a double rare steal on Klikk, so that I could use 2 Grenades on it and still have enough left for later. The crit on the pre-Rikku part of the fight was a bonus. It is possible to avoid the encounter on the chain, but I wasn't going to try to do that after a double rare steal, and I needed to steal one Grenade on that encounter anyway.

Underwater Ruins
[0:33] 79 attempts

4) "Uhh... Hungry."

Since Tidus didn't need the AP, I chuck a Grenade at the Piranhas to dispatch them quickly. I probably could have manipulated at least one critical Grenade against Tros, but since I needed a rare steal from it as well, it probably wasn't going to happen. The Pre-emptive Strike made it slightly faster than normal.

Besaid - Beach
[0:49] 204 attempts

5) "You're a bad man!"

I needed to get only two encounters in the water and I needed 2 Mana Spheres. Normally, I would have needed to get the 2 Piranha formation both times, for 1 Mana Sphere each, but since I got 2 Mana Spheres on the first encounter, I was able to escape the second encounter, saving a few seconds.

Besaid - Promontory
[1:19] 305 attempts

6) "Not one of these again!"

I needed to get at least one critical on Kimahri so he wouldn't get a 2nd jump off, and I needed to get a Darktouch weapon from the first Garuda to sell to O'aka later. On the second Garuda, I needed to not fail any escapes and escape before it got a turn.

Besaid - Beach
[1:24] 101 attempts

7) "Wakka's a bit lacking in the imagination department."

I needed to kill one of the sinscales, otherwise Kimahri would have been 1 AP short before Sinspawn Gui. I only hit the fin with Lulu so that I can Energy Blast before the ship gets dragged a second time. This means that Valefor needs to do high-end damage. Sinspawn Echuilles could be faster if I manipulated crits, but I need the 6 Mana Spheres I get from Overkilling with 4 sinscales on the screen, and this is the fastest way I have found to do that. I don't do Dark Attack since the animation is slow, and evading wastes time as well, especially underwater. It was lucky that I managed to evade one of the Drain Touches anyway though, since Tidus probably would have died if he didn't.

Kilika Woods
[1:48] 20 attempts

8) "But when a Ronso uses it..."

In this segment, I had to get only one encounter on the way through the woods, not counting the forced Lancet tutorial. Getting only one encounter was pretty rare, but what made it worse is that I needed to get another Darktouch weapon from Sinspawn Geneaux, and Valefor needed to do enough damage to kill it in the fewest number of turns. Initially I was defending with Kimahri, since he needs AP, but later I decided to attack with him instead to increase the chances of killing it in time. It's a good thing I did here, because I would have been about 50 damage short if I hadn't.

Kilika - Great Hall
[1:58] 560 attempts

9) "Then, you just blow."

This segment was pretty annoying, since I had to go through the Kilika Trials and a bunch of dialogue before I got to the luck based part. I had a test run where I somehow managed to get back through the woods with only one encounter, but when I tried it here, I didn't come anywhere close. In fact, I got 3 encounters on most of the attempts. I decided to go with the best two encounter attempt I could get.

Luca Stadium - Main Gate
[2:29] 151 attempts

10) "Let's go."

Here is what the Darktouch weapon drops were for. It saves a significant amount of time to go directly to O'aka instead of having to run to the 600 gil chest. The Stunning Steel has Slowtouch, which I need for a couple battles.
I needed to get a Thunder Ball from Oblitzerator, since it saves time on the Sahagin Chiefs and Extractor. I lost about 4 seconds at the end of this segment when it didn't let me skip Wakka grunting on the bench. There are many pressure sensitive dialogue skips in this game, so you have to really slam down on the button sometimes, and occasionally it doesn't work. The controller also decided to wig out when I went for the save sphere, probably wasting another couple seconds.

Stadium - Locker Room
[2:41] 120 attempts

11) "Everyone seems to be calling for Botta, folks!"

I need to win the blitzball game to get the Strength Sphere prize, which I need for my Extractor strategy. In order to win without wasting too much time, I need to get all three blitzoffs, and I need to score as late as possible, so that the Goers can't waste any time after I score. I was a bit hesitant on selecting Wakka's actions since there were 3 defenders instead of the usual 2, but the last second goal was worth it.

Luca - After The Finals
[2:55] 50 attempts

12) "You probably shouldn't laugh anymore." "CAW CAW CAW CAW!"

The Sahagin Chief part was rather annoying, since every time Tidus or Wakka evades directly before their turn, it wastes about 2 seconds each. This attempt it went perfectly. The Garuda, however, was even more annoying, because of its random counterattacks. slow landed first try, so it only got 2 Sonic Booms off, and one of the three counterattacks was actually useful for filling Tidus' Overdrive. Auron's critical final hit saved this from being a mediocre attempt since it always counterattacks when it is at low HP.

Highroad - South End
[3:15] 243 attempts

13) "Well, helly doo sad wee to you, too."

My goal for the Mi'ihen Highroad was to get 8 random encounters and have as few enemy attacks as possible. I also needed to get a Bomb to learn Self Destruct on Kimahri. Amazingly, I got 8 encounters and 0 attacks. Additionally, Yuna went first on the Bomb encounter, so I only had to switch characters once. Unfortunately, my great luck was squandered by my idiot move at the end, where I ran past the compilation sphere and then triggered the tutorial post instead. It actually only wasted about 3 seconds, but it looks really, really bad. Not bad enough for me to try to duplicate the luck I got, however.

Highroad - Agency
[3:31] 115 attempts

14) "Why is your Lordship...presently...present here...sir?"

Initially, I was landing Slow on Chocobo Eater like I do in single segment runs, but then I realized that it was actually much faster to not land slow on it (what a concept, huh). When it had Slow on, Valefor would have to do 3 Energy Blasts and 6 Fires, compared to just 4 Energy Blasts without Slow. This made the chances of success much lower, of course, but it was significantly faster. I need AP on Tidus, Lulu, and Kimahri, and I want to summon Valefor before Chocobo Eater's second turn, which is the reasoning behind the actions I take. Power Break and Dark Attack increase the chances of Valefor's survival significantly, as well as increasing the chances of doing enough damage overall. If that fight wasn't enough luck manipulation for you, I also had to avoid getting an encounter on the way to the save sphere at the end, which happens probably less than 50% of the time.

Mushroom Rock - Valley
[3:41] 359 attempts

15) "Watch and weep Crusaders!... I'll be right back!"

The goal for Mushroom Rock Road was to get only 5 encounters, minimal enemy attacks, and the Raptor, Red Element, Funguar formation. I needed AP on Tidus and Yuna, full Overdrive on Valefor, and 2 Mana Spheres from this encounter. Since I expected Sinspawn Gui to take a very large number of attempts (stay tuned), I did the menuing once I reached the elevator in this segment. This is probably the most embarassing moment of the run, maybe even more so than what happened in Segment 13. Accidently scrolling past Kimahri on the Sphere Grid was not too terrible, but then I completely botched the formation changes, wasting probably 5 seconds. I just used the luck manipulation excuse for this, however (See Segment 16).

Mushroom Rock - Ridge
[3:50] 426 attempts

16) "Don't worry, be happy?"

I expected this segment to take many hundreds of tries, since I needed a critical Self Destruct at the end, after having Gui not hit Tidus or Lulu, and Valefor doing enough damage to the head. I ended up getting it in 12 attempts, and only the 4th attempt that actually got to Self Destruct. I refilled Valefor's Overdrive to be used on Grothia later. In retrospect, I could have saved some time in the Gui refight by having Auron kill himself, since he was at 1 HP, but I wasn't thinking of it at the time, and he also could have missed hitting himself.

Djose Highroad
[4:07] 12 attempts

17) "What can I do for you, boss?"

I needed to get 4 or fewer encounters and get a Basilisk on a Pre-emptive Strike to get Stone Breath. I could have defended here, but since I changed to the other sword on Segment 14, I needed to change back to the Stunning Steel. I actually got 3 encounters once, but it ended up being slower because of enemies attacking. I really wish I had been able to get a cleaner looking Djose Trials, but I didn't lose enough time to warrant a reset.

Djose Temple
[4:22] 532 attempts

18) "Captain! Waaaaait for meee!"

Since I was fortunate enough to have so few random attacks on the previous segments, I needed to get some Overdrive on Tidus here. Since the Garms and Bite Bugs always go before Tidus, it wasn't very likely that I was going to get through without any attacks anyway. I also needed to get only 7 encounters. Yuna needed her Overdrive filled eventually as well, so I accepted the extra attacks.

Moonflow - South Wharf
[4:31] 420 attempts

19) "Ride ze shoopuf?"

My goal here was to destroy Extractor before it did Ready Depth Charges, so I needed slow to land first try, and I needed to get a critical Spiral Cut that did enough damage. Since Tidus' Overdrive wasn't quite full, he needed to get hit by at least one of the Aqua Shooters. The fact that I finished it on the Spiral Cut instead of Wakka's last turn was a nice bonus.

Moonflow - North Wharf
[4:36] 314 attempts

20) "That really hurt, you know. You big meanie!"

I used Speed Spheres for the Frag Grenade mix because I thought I wanted the Speed Spheres to leave an empty spot in my inventory later, but that turned out to not be necessary. I also later realized that it was faster to mix Ultra Potion and then Flee. I was incredibly lucky to get only 1 encounter on the road to Guadosalam and no encounters on the way to the Thunder Plains save sphere at the end; I probably would have accepted 2 encounters total.

Thunder Plains - South
[5:03] 11 attempts

21) "She'll tell us when she's ready, so hold your chocobos till then, ya?"

On each of the next 3 segments, I needed to get a Petrify Grenade rare steal, minimum encounters, and Overdrive on Rikku and Yuna. Both of their overdrives needed to be full by the end of Macalania Woods. Since I got the Petrify Grenade and 4 encounters on this segment, I accepted only getting a small amount of overdrive here, since I still had two more segments to fill it on.

Thunder Plains - Agency
[5:09] 21 attempts

22) "I'm not scared! I'm not scared, you hear?"

But if I had known how long this segment would take, I probably would have tried to get a bit more overdrive on Segment 21. It was very difficult to get all 3 criteria met on the same attempt. This attempt succeeded in very unusual form: if Tidus had not gotten petrified, or if Yuna had failed to escape, this would have been just another reset.

Macalania Woods - South
[5:19] 736 attempts

23) "You're wasting our time!"

Macalania Woods is quite a pain, since most of the enemies are faster than either Rikku or Tidus, so it is very difficult to get through without getting attacked many times, especially with the 3 main criteria that needed to be met. Rikku evading the Murussu was a bit unfortunate, since it would have been enough to fill her Overdrive, but I couldn't have asked for much better luck overall. The healing in the middle was necessary, because Tidus would have died on the next encounter if I hadn't. Touching the butterflies is so I don't get any more encounters on that screen, although the first one may not have been necessary. It is ironic that I spent so much time making sure Rikku got some Overdrive on Segment 22, since the damage she took on this segment would have completely filled it, but I had no way of knowing that would happen.

Macalania Woods - Lake Road
[5:23] 59 attempts

24) "What's the matter? Afraid I might bite?"

Probably the easiest segment in the run. All I needed was for Spherimorph to be weak to lightning. Tidus, Yuna, Lulu, and Kimahri all need AP, hence the turns I take on them. I also equipped the Yellow Shield here so that Tidus would be Lightningproof for the Seymour fight.

Lake Macalania - Agency
[5:31] 8 attempts

25) "You're sure you know how to drive this?" "Better than Kimahri does!"

I would occasionally get an encounter on the way to the boss, so obviously I had to avoid that. There is a really annoying delay sometimes before Brother says 'Your precious magic and aeons are sealed!', and unfortunately it happened this time. Several things had to go right on Crawler: Gatling Gun needed to hit Rikku enough so that Assault would fill her Overdrive, but not so much to kill her. Then I needed the turn order to be Kimahri, Rikku, Auron. Then Kimahri needed to kill Negator in one hit. After that, everything was standard. Tidus, Yuna, Kimahri, and Lulu all needed AP. I got Rikku's snowmobile scene here, which I always thought was the fastest to get overall, but I found out too late that it is actually faster to manipulate Auron's scene. Auron's scene is 50 seconds faster, and it takes approximately 36 seconds to manipulate it, so it saves 14 seconds overall. The first time I have to talk to Auron for the manipulation is directly before the laughing scene at the end of Segment 12, so I was way too far along in the run to go back and implement it.

Macalania - Hall
[5:41] 65 attempts

26) "I came..."

This was another segment that I expected to take many hundreds of attempts, that didn't even reach one hundred. It is even more surprising considering that Shiva's HP ended up being lower than I anticipated. Apparantly, there are some sort of hidden Aeon stat boosts after you get a certain number of battles in the entire game, and since I did so much minimum encounter manipulation I didn't reach the 90 battles I needed for the HP boost. This made the chances of success much lower, but it also saved quite a bit of time, since Shiva's overdrive could get filled by two Pains instead of three. The strategy for this boss is thanks to Essentia. Seymour always casts his spells in the same order, so I need him to get to Fire before I summon Shiva. However, I need the spells to hit the right people so that no one dies. Since I need to bring in Lulu for AP, I accepted a Phoenix Down on Tidus. It also sucks that the Guado Guard got a Shremedy off, but I kept going since it missed. After I finished the segment, I actually realized that Tidus didn't need AP from this fight after all, which means that I could have accepted him dying to Watera on previous attempts, instead of resetting. It was still better to Phoenix Down him after Blizzara though, since that decreased the chances of Lulu getting killed. Oh yeah, I also needed to get the Special Sphere rare drop (1/8 chance), after all of that, which is the main reason why I didn't try to improve this segment any further.

Macalania - Antechamber
[5:50] 97 attempts

27) "Away!" "Run!"

This segment probably made me rage more than any other because of doing these trials at the beginning of every attempt, and then needing really good luck afterwards. I had to get Rikku's and Yuna's Overdrives completely filled as quickly as possible, and not fail any escapes on Tidus. There is no way to avoid getting 2 encounters on the first screen, but I was really hoping I could make it through the 2nd screen with only 1 encounter. Since I hated this segment so much and I got really good OD filling luck though, I went with 2 encounters. I use the first Special Sphere here to give Rikku Flee, which makes some stealing/bribing encounters be faster.

Lake Macalania - Crevasse
[5:57] 37 attempts

28) "There's something here!" "The ground!"

Wendigo was a very luck reliant fight, but at least it was very fast to get to. I needed Wendigo to hit Rikku after she did Cluster Bomb, and then I needed Shiva to evade Wendigo's attack, which had a pretty low chance. I do a Blizzard + Blizzara instead of 2 Blizzaras because otherwise Wendigo would have put its fists up and not attacked.

Oasis
[6:05] 68 attempts

29) "No glaring either!"

For the desert segments, I wanted to get 12 Smoke Bombs and a Chocobo Wing, and get minimum encounters. The plan was to get 3 + 3 on the first Zu, and then a Chocobo Wing on the first segment, and then 6 more Smoke Bombs on the second segment. Right after I announced on stream that it was strange that I had not gotten a back to back rare steal yet, it happened. Then I accidently changed armor on Auron instead of escaping, to continue my pattern of making dumb mistakes after great luck. I got through with only 5 random encounters (machina tutorial doesn't count), but I didn't get any more than the 8 Smoke Bombs.

Sanubia Desert - Central
[6:11] 146 attempts

30) "Victory is ours!"

I wanted to get only 2 encounters on this segment, so I was skeptical that I was going to be able to get a Chocobo Wing and 4 Smoke Bombs. Well, I realized I only needed 3 more Smoke Bombs after all. Still, getting a Zu and a Cactuar within 2 encounters, and getting the rare steal, was really lucky.

Home
[6:15] 137 attempts

31) "I'm annoying, huh?"

I needed to get a rare steal for 3 Bomb Cores, so I would have 5 total for the machina in Bevelle. Then I needed to not get ambushed and not get an encounter on the airship. I buy weapons for Kimahri and Auron to customize First Strike on them later. I could have manipulated drops for them, but it probably would have taken just as much time to equip those weapons in the menu than buying and equipping them here. I get the 99 Underdog's Secrets from Rin and sell back almost all of them to get enough Gil for bribing.

Airship - Cabin
[6:37] 78 attempts

32) "Well, that's a lame way to kill someone."

Evrae was a very luck reliant battle. I needed Quartet to hit Kimahri, or Tidus if he got a rare first steal. If I didn't get a rare first steal then I needed to succeed the second steal. In either case, Evrae needed to hit Rikku to fill her Overdrive. I decided to do the Bevelle Trials in the same segment, to eliminate the extra save/load time.

Bevelle - Via Purifico
[7:07] 74 attempts

33) "Please, help us!"

I needed to get only one encounter here, and it had to be a Pre-emptive Strike, otherwise Shiva would not have been able to kill the Maze Larva before dying. Shiva also needed to do high enough damage to Spathi to kill it with only 4 Blizzaras, which I got with only 23 damage to spare.

Bevelle - Via Purifico
[7:13] 153 attempts

34) "You're totally nuts!"

Again, I needed to get only one encounter here, although it was much more likely than in the previous segment. What was not likely was Tidus evading Evrae Altana's counterattack, as well as getting another turn before it did Stone Gaze. I use Elixirs instead of Phoenix Downs because the animation is slightly faster, and I need to save those frames. Besides, I didn't have Phoenix Downs to spare anyway. The real killer of this segment was having to get only 2 encounters after all that previous luck, which I was able to get on only the second try that made it that far.

Highbridge
[7:21] 39 attempts

35) "Suteki da ne"

Seymour Natus was also a very luck reliant battle. Quartet had to hit Kimahri, Multi-Blizzara had to hit Rikku and Kimahri, and the Water Gem needed to hit Seymour at least 4 times. Lulu needed AP to get Bribe, so I needed Yuna to survive so Lulu could come in for her. The menuing afterwards was pretty sloppy, but it wasn't quite as bad as other times.

Macalania Woods - North
[7:37] 63 attempts

36) "I've always known where to go."

The Calm Lands has a very broad step count range for encounters, which made it very difficult to predict how many encounters I was going to get. I really wanted to make it through with only 7 encounters. I am very lucky that I did not reset when I got the first encounter after only 15 steps, which I had done in previous attempts. I used the 2nd special sphere to give Tidus Bribe, so that I wouldn't have to switch Lulu in. 19 was the exact number of Fire Gems that I needed for the rest of the run. The Dream Powder is for Biran/Yenke.

Calm Lands - Near Bridge
[7:43] 219 attempts

37) "Yeah, so out of our way!"

I rearrange the inventory so that the Trio of 9999 items and Fire Gems will be quicker to select. Defender X was pretty simple; Quartet on Tidus, and Rikku gets hit. I trigger the cutscene for the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth to preserve my sanity on the next segment.

Calm Lands - Gorge Bottom
[7:46] 11 attempts

38) "I fight for Spira."

Most of the time saved in the segmented run is due to farming a No Encounters item here, which is far too luck reliant to attempt in a single segment run. Ghosts are a rare encounter in the first place, at this part of the cavern, and then it usually doesn't drop anything. Then, when it does drop something, it isn't always a No Encounters armor. Then, when it is a No Encounters armor, it isn't always for Tidus, Wakka, or Rikku, which it needs to be for the underwater sections. I will spare you the math of it all. Fortunately, the Peaceful Shield was the first No Encounters armor I got on these attempts.

Gagazet - Mountain Gate
[7:53] 297 attempts

39) "Kimahri not pass!"

I needed to get 2 Return Spheres from Biran and Yenke, since I need First Strike on Rikku and Kimahri. I needed to get the 2 Grenade 1 Imp encounter immediately before equipping the Peaceful Shield, so I could Bribe for Shining Gems and fill Rikku's Overdrive. The Shining Gems are for mixing Trio of 9999 and for killing the Aeons at the end. I wanted to be able to Bribe with Tidus so I wouldn't have to bring Lulu in, but the turns simply wouldn't work out that way.

Gagazet - Mountain Trail
[7:59] 48 attempts

40) "Your hope ends here, and your meaningless existence with it!"

This was a segment that I expected to be much more painful to complete, but I was incredibly lucky on Seymour Flux. I needed Flare to hit Rikku to fill her Overdrive, and I needed to get 4 + 3 hits on Flux with the Fire Gems. I ended up getting 5 + 2, which caused the Mortibody to get the last hit. Then, after a bunch of cutscenes, I needed to do the Gagazet trial on the first try, which had been giving me a lot of trouble on single segment attempts. I found a more reliable visual cue for it though, which made it much easier. Sanctuary Keeper requires absolutely no luck, so it wasn't a problem to kill it in the same segment.

Dome - Interior
[8:31] 2 attempts

41) "I was expecting, you know, parades and... fireworks!"

I was initially considering splitting this segment in two, since Spectral Keeper was fairly luck reliant, but I decided go through with doing it all in one segment, and I'm glad I did. Lulu has high evasion, so she is able to evade Spectral Keeper's counterattack; I just wasn't expecting to get it so quickly. You gotta love the backhand slap Lulu gives to finish it off.

Dome - Chamber of the Fayth
[8:41] 7 attempts

42) "I can't believe we're gonna fight Lady Yunalesca! Gimme a break!"

This was another segment that it was very fortunate to have so few attempts on, since there were around 10 minutes of cutscenes before I even got to the Yunalesca fight. After getting zombie inflicted by Hellbiter, Yunalesca needed to cast Cura on Rikku, to fill her Overdrive. Amazingly, at a 1/6 chance (1/2 Cura instead of Regen, 1/3 hitting Rikku), it happened on 4 out of the 9 attempts. The reason I couldn't take it on the first time it happened is because I also needed a Zombiestrike weapon, to use on Yu Yevon. I initially did not want it on Rikku, but after further consideration, it turned out to be the best overall.

Airship - Cabin
[9:09] 9 attempts

43) "Yeah, we're winning!"

The only luck required on the Sin battles was Sin not ramming the airship twice on the first battle, and Venom hitting Rikku on Sinspawn Genais. It also might have been possible for Kimahri to get a turn before the Core gathered energy, but it only took a couple seconds. I didn't get Entrust in this run, since it would have taken much longer to travel to that node of the Sphere Grid with the route I took on Tidus.

Sin - Near Airship
[9:29] 4 attempts

44) "Sin will be right behind you."

Since Entrust would have taken too long to get, I needed to make sure I got the fastest possible encounters to fill Rikku's overdrive, and not fail any escapes. Adamantoise ambush is ideal in the Sea of Sorrow. The Malboro was not the best, but it was decent. Yuna and Auron are forced into the starting party for BFA, which is why I give them First Strike. I had to add First Strike and equip Rikku's Zombiestrike weapon. Since Rikku will go first on Yu Yevon, this makes the extra customization worth it, since I won't have to switch someone else in.

Sin - Tower of the Dead
[9:35] 226 attempts

45) "I know it's selfish... but this is my story!"

First of all, I will explain how the final segment timing works. Since there is no final save after beating the final boss, real time must be appended to the last save point. Since seconds are not displayed on the game timer, it is assumed to be at 59 seconds, so my last save was 9:35:59. This meant in order to get 9:56, I needed to get exactly 21:00 or under on the final segment. My final segment time was 21:00.8, and fractions of a second are always rounded down. So I got a 9:56 by 0.2 seconds. In order to have any chance at that, I had to get an absolutely amazing run through the Nucleus. It was incredible that I was able to get this time, considering the 5th item disappeared right in front of my face. This BFA strat (thanks to Nitrodon) had absolutely no luck reliance, fortunately. The Lancet I do is in place of the last Smoke bomb that I didn't get in the desert, but I only needed to do 6 damage on that turn anyway (60,000 HP, 9999 x 6 = 59,994).

[9:56] 531 attempts

Thanks for watching my run, and kudos if you actually read this far in the comments :)