Karma run work in progress (Chapter 5 complete)

[julius-ruler4]

As the title already suggested, I plan of doing a full blown karma run once I figured out the optimal strategies. But for now, I intent to share my thoughts here on how to approach this.

I came to an understanding that the current CH1 highscore on Normal is 605,010 points.

I removed the chapter breakdown and replaced it with the current score for that specific chapter.

Chapter 1: 594,490 www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcNKrdStCI0
Chapter 2: 1,016,070 www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3pnoAkNAng
Chapter 3: 1,072,075 www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvKMIqA6MdQ - Redid the last gauntlet before Dynamo to score more points, will include it in chapter 4 video
Chapter 4: 682,630 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeL0b7OYHko - includes the last chapter 3 gauntlet
Chapter 5: 768,380 Vid will be on the Tube soon


Chapter 5 complete:

Spoiler:

210331-2044-24.jpg

I finally completed chapter 4 and it took me long enough. Now to start chapter 5, tho I will not occupy myself with it next week but the week after.

EDIT: I redid the last CH4 gauntlet and scored a bit lower, but I got that first Rachel fight timed because of it.

EDIT 2: Chapter 5 completed. Scores Updated

[Luckrequired]

What are you talking about, I'm no help at all. Seriously, I wish you the best of luck, hope you hit your targets with minimal retries.

[Alhazard]

normal difficulty?

[julius-ruler4]

Yes. And I'm planning everything out chapter by chapter. This is the first ever time I might go for a full blown karma run that I might actually finish. It is personally a huge challenge for me as I mostly was trying to get absolute perfection on the very first go.

To plan it out I have to watch JTB's videos and get maybe some practice runs done. With that I might be able to get the optimal scores from every fight that I have to do.

To understand the method of my approach, I have give the example in the OP.

[Alhazard]

just keep the advice in mind don't spent too much time in early chapters compared to chapters where the most points are at stake (zombie chapters, aquaduct, and the core).

[Alhazard]

for fight 2, if you get 2 ETs, its going be very hard to get 3 uts on 3rd fight because whehter you can charge into UT is RNG dependent. Maybe just go for 1 ET?

it is even possible to get an ET in the torch fight? (fight 4).

fight 6, not possible to get 6 uts because even brown ninjas are not that passive. 5 UTs and 1 ET (2,2,2,1,1ET,1) is likely max.

Same with fight 7 (hallway), and fight 8 (room with flying swallow). Can you even charge enough to get 5 uts in that fight? I think its fantasy but would like to see.

Trap door: no idea since there is so much RNG.

Fight 13: you only have 6 enemies and a very short time limit. 4 UTs (2,2,1,1) is likely the max possible.

I guess I am concerned that your goals already are not realistic.

[julius-ruler4]

I have made some calculations. I truly think some things are possible, but these are luck based. Luck is greatly involved here and I have gotten the next before:

2 ETs in fight 2 and 3 UTs in fight 3
6 UTs in fight 6 and 1 UT + 1 ET in fight 4

The trap door fight I was able to get 8 UTs before but you have to kill the brownies first before killing the whites.

Fight 13 is possible to get 5 UTs, but again luck is a factor. I would be happy with 4 UTs and 1 ET

[JTB123]

I would just echo what Alhazard has said about not getting too caught up in the early chapters, especially chapter 1. One of the biggest run killers is when people go for that perfect chapter 1 score and then their tank is already depleted for the rest of the game. Chapters 7,9,12,14,15,16 and 18 are what will really test you.

Your UT breakdowns for chapter 1 are possible but you're talking about getting the theoretical maximum fro 9 encounters in a row when several of them rely on the a.i. cooperating just to get that extra 2 or 3 thousand points. Keep in mind as well how frail brown ninjas are, just one hit of a UT can sometimes take them out and you don't have a lot of room to work with in the environment space.

I made a video a few months ago where I just tried to get the maximum for every encounter in NGB and if you take out the first fight in Sigma they are very similar so that would give you an idea of the difference between the max and a really good run at the end of the first gauntlet.

Are you going to be recording any of this run? I know first hand just how awkward it is to record the PS3 in HD but if you're doing a no.1 score run I'd say it's better to have that in standard resolution rather than not have it at all.

Best of luck with the run though man

[julius-ruler4]

Just got to wait for that new PS3 to come. And I have an elgato to record, just as I recorded my NG3RE run

To make it clear to everyone, I did mention it is just work in progress. The real deal will be on youtube as I break down every chapter and every fight using all the knowledge that JTB and Bigalski gathered over the years.

As stated I will lose some points here and there but I'll take anything that is above 595k for chapter 1

My personal scores that I would love for every chapter

Chapter 1: 595,000
Chapter 2: 1,005,000
Chapter 3: 1,065,000
Chapter 4: 660,000
Chapter 5: 765,000
Chapter 6: 865,000
Chapter 7: 1,660,000
Chapter 8: 1,165,000
Chapter 9: 1,450,000
Chapter 10: 715,000
Chapter 11: 1,270,000
Chapter 12: 2,275,000
Chapter 13: 840,000
Chapter 14: 1,165,000
Chapter 15: 2,560,000
Chapter 16: 1,110,000
Chapter 17: 1,130,000
Chapter 18: 2,300,000
Chapter 19: 495,000

Desired score: 23,090,000

Again said: work in progress. I know I can get Cloud98's score broken by at least 10k points, if I could have gotten 6 UT's in the fight before the horsemen and 7 UTs in the fight before doku and not mess up any ET against Doku.

Of course this is also said a desired score. I am guaranteed to lose some points but I know it is inevitable. I would be happy if I just beat jryusama's score of 22,89 million

[julius-ruler4]

PS3 should arrive next month. I will start working on further chapters and inspire myself for JTB's vids about his normal KR. Analyzing the first 4 chapters and I think (with good RNG) that I will be able to get this done with over 23,15M at the end of chapter 19.

[julius-ruler4]

PS3 has arrived. Data transfer was a bit of a pain, but I can finally start doing the run I desired to do for so long

[julius-ruler4]

This starts to seriously work on my nerves. Every time I do a roll whilst holding R1, it consistently absorbs my essence. and if it goes right, a UT bug fucks my UT chain. And the brown ninja's consistently block my ->Y

Another thing is that, even it should hit, my UT mostly whiffs for an unknown reason

[JTB123]

Welcome to the fun world of Karma runs

Are you making any videos of these? Usually it's pretty easy to note when a mis timed block and/or release causes to essence to absorb. Would be great to see more Sigma stuff out there if possible.

Brown ninjas blocking UT's is just the worst or when they backflip out the way and it whiffs. In air shurikens are always a good option to stop them doing that kind of thing as the hit stun last long enough to connect the UT but like everything else on a karma run you have to know when to go for it.

Keep at it man, Karma runs will make you frustrated like nothing else but you have to keep going

[julius-ruler4]

Chapter 1 completed. check OP for score

[JTB123]

That's awesome you're making vids :) Do you plan on posting them? I don't have the time at the moment to do any more commentary stuff as I still have stuff I need to finish but it'd be great to see them anyway.

[julius-ruler4]

I'll upload tonight, cuz I won't have much time to do anything else and I'll take a break from this for the moment. While data was transferring I was playing COD zombies

[julius-ruler4]

From my personal experience I found out luck is a huge factor too. So here is what I want to achieve

Fight 1: 2 UT + 1 ET (619,760; achieved)
Fight 2: 5 UT (661,250; achieved)
Fight 3: 6 UT + 1 ET + time (Achieved)
Fight 4: 6 UT (Achieved, through use of Muramasa bug in place)
Fight 7: 10 UT + 2 ET (Achieved 11 UT)
Masakado: 200k+ points (Achieved 200,730)
Fight 9: 8 UT (spawning second set of enemies included)
Fight 10: 7UT or 6UT + 1 ET (I'll take anything)
Doku: at least 14 ET

calculation: apr 1,02M which would put me around 1,615M at the end of CH2)

[julius-ruler4]

Chapter 2 completed, check OP and images for scores. video will be on tomorrow.

[julius-ruler4]

I'm starting to get really pissed off. The 60 man challenge is the reason I want to give up the run.

I do L1<- and then ->Y and it registers as a 360Y while I don't even rotate the stick itself. I do ->Y and it registers as a ->HOLD-Y. I do XY and it registers as Y

Please I need help, because I am one inch away from breaking the disc and deleting all videos I have ever recorded and posted on YouTube.

[JTB123]

What controller are you using? Reason I ask is because I found NG very iffy on the PS3 pad, I got a converter and used a 360 pad almost straight away.

I never had any issues with inputs being read badly though, maybe try a different controller and see if that helps. Input drops aren't a major deal on Sigma but they definitely happen every now and then, if you're getting Y instead of XY for instance my first though would be try a different controller.

[julius-ruler4]

Well, if I use my fresh controller, it auto absorbs the essence because the L1 and R1 are faulty and the other controller is still very good but I can't seem to get the score I desire on that 60 man challenge.

Also, in 90% of all attempts, the enemies were able to see me through my smoke bombs even though I dropped them 6ft away from them and they still know where I jumped. Bugged smoke bombs and Ut bug also frustrates me even more

[JTB123]

What are you going for in the fiend challenge? It's awkward due to the way the enemies enter the room, from what I remember I don't think the follow any distinct pattern but it's been a while since I played that fight.

If they're going through smoke bombs in the fiend challenge then there is a good chance you're dropping them too early or too far away from them. For instance if you kill an enemy then drop a smoke bomb before the next one jumps through the window their tracking to Ryu will start after the smoke bomb has worn off so it will rarely work in this case. This works the same when fighting imps too, if you drop your smoke bomb as one spawns or when they're underground they virtually never work on them.

Smoke bombs are really hard to explain though, the more you use them the more you'll know when to drop them to maximise their stun.

[julius-ruler4]

I would like to get 300k out of the challenge

EDIT: I got 294,5k out of the challenge because I was able to get 18 UT's out of the first wave. But I took a hit by accidentally absorbing an essence in the third wave though it could have gotten me an extra UT. But I took the score because it was the best I could get considering the circmstances.

I still have one more gauntlet before Dynamo and I can get 3 UT's out of the first fight and 5 UT's out of the second fight, granting me 70,000 points at least. A bit difficult as the enemies don't know the term "social distancing". I often have 2 enemies in one UT or if it occurs the essence is gone even before the 10 seconds are passed.

UT'ed essence stays out longer right? because this last essence orb only remains for 10 seconds due to, again, a bug in the game.

[julius-ruler4]

Chapter 3 completed, I take 3rd place cuz of bad time. I re-analyze the chapter to see where I can get things done a lot quicker. I believe I wasted 2 minutes just by saving,so I decided to restart it from the point after you get the DCTF. I did 5 fights in one gauntlet and saved at least 95 seconds of time.

Got 103,800 points out of those 5 fights

[Bigalski]

Hey good luck on your run and please hang in there!!