15.08 is the new 15.43.

I completed another run of Shin Ankoku a few days ago, and my personal best is now 15.08. A lot of this came from simple optimization, believe it or not. I branched a save at Chapter 12 to test (for the second time) my Boa plan, so I was left with only two slots to work with for the rest of the game. Because of this, I couldn't optimize it as much as possible...although I tried my best. Keyword there is my best, because I know for a fact that I'm just not as good as some other players out there.

Anyway, I learned some things from a previous Boa attempt (which ended up at 15.58 or so) and tried to keep item management to a minimum. I used a new Chapter 20 plan that saves one turn, but most things were done as before (minus equipment variation). I also used the "press A on the target unit" feature a lot, which definitely helps.

Speaking of that, I noticed that the programmers forgot to fix a glitch with that feature. If you warp someone away by doing that, the game still thinks the person is in that spot (for one turn). Hello invisible Light Rune/convoy/trade partner. Makes me wonder if the supports work too, because it would be rather amusing to have someone receiving support from a unit on the opposite end of the map. Also worth noting that you can select the warped unit (ha, word choice) from the tile they were at, but you can't really do anything because it's still out of range.

[Random thought that just hit me while I wrote that last sentence]: What happens if you warp the unit only a few spaces away, and move them around after selecting the original spot? Do I smell Tibarn the Astronaut cooking again? Probably not, but I'll test that later.

[Edit]: I've tested this "glitch" some more, and there is no Tibarn to be found (sadly). I'll note some observations I made though:

- It does not function as an invisible Light Rune during the enemy phase. It only appears to limit enemy movement during the player phase, but they just run right through it.

- You can use the Talk command normally. I sent Sheeda to the top right of Chapter 15 and had Oguma talk to the square where she was, and they spoke to each other as if everything was normal.

- I had Marth trade items with himself (no neat side effects though). Yes, you read that right.

- Terrain bonus does not carry over to the new location.

- If you warp a unit a short distance away and select their invisible version, the cursor arrow automatically draws to that spot (you can't move there). Nothing else neat to note about that.

[End of edit]

For those of you who just want to get to the meat (so you can take me to school, if you haven't done so already), the new Chapter 20 plan is this:

Turn 1:

- Give the one use Warp staff to Rena. Let Boa keep the other one.
- Switch Boa to one space below Marth.
- Switch Rena to the bottom left spot.
- Boa sends Marth to the village.
- Rena moves down and to the left.
- Get the Hammerne staff.

Turn 2:

- Marth moves right. Do not use a Vulnerary.
- Rena trades Warp for Hammerne and repairs Warp.

Turn 3:

- Rena grabs Warp and sends Marth to Lawrence. If she dies during the enemy phase, oh well.
- Recruit Lawrence.
- If Marth's HP is too low, he'll die during the enemy phase (ha, evade). It's just that simple. Prepare for a lot of restarts because of that.

Turn 4:

- Seize gate.

That plan might have been super obvious to some people, but I didn't think of it until that run. I think it works out well, because Rena is useless after that chapter. If she dies (my Rena didn't, which saved time), simply fish out the Warp staff when Boa's current staff hits 2/7. Give one of those to Ellis at the end and win. For the record, if you can't figure out why I say 2/7, I don't think you should be running this game.

I should also point out that I have another run going that ignores Boa entirely. I'm using the save I split at Chapter 12, and my current progress is around Chapter 14. I have one Chapter 14 attempt completed (using only two slots), but I'm not sure if it is a keeper or not. If I get a better time than 15.08, I'll be sure to mention it here.

[Edit]: My time was 15.17 for Rena. This wasn't a good day for optimization, but I still think that proves that Boa is a better choice.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here.

[Edit 2]: I have now figured out how to crash the DS/game by using what I'm just going to dub the "duplication glitch" (call it what you want, but that's what it does). Here's how to do it:

Requirements: Two Warp staff users.

1. Warp the target unit anywhere close. Skip the warp animation quickly. If done properly, the unit will have a hidden clone in their original location.

2. Select the second staff user and make them move adjacent to the clone.

3. Select the Warp staff and then press left or right. The game will lock up, requiring you to power off/on to continue. The music won't stop playing, oddly enough.

That's it. With such an easy glitch, you have made the debug department at Intelligent Systems look stupid.

There is also another interesting side effect of this glitch that I want to keep to myself for now. Once I get my hands on some good AA batteries, I'll record all the neat things this glitch can do (I said neat, not awesome). After that, I'll combine them into one video and slap it up on my YouTube account. Please look forward to that.

[Edit 3]: The video link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaBGsOCxIPU