Yet another speedrun where I'm completely at the mercy of RNG. This game is quite interesting. It's a roguelike dungeon crawler game where you fight enemies and bosses in a game of Pong. You play as a Pong paddle. You fight other Pong paddles. Certain Pong balls have certain properties, and can be collected and used in battle.
There's quite a bit of depth to speedrunning this game. The upgrades you can get, the dungeon layouts, the room the boss key spawns in, is all random. As such, you have to adjust to unfamiliar situations quickly in order to save the most time. I'll go over the general strategies I used throughout the run in case you're interested.
First and foremost, I change the difficulty to Casual. Enemies have lower health, greatly decreasing the time spent fighting them overall. One ball I keep throughout the run is the Potion Ball. They're generally useful to have as you can just heal in battle whenever necessary. I collect some Mimic Balls in the Training Dungeon to mirror Knight Derrick's Buff Ball attacks, dealing more damage to him and ending the fight quicker. Upon entering Breakdown Penitentiary, I start collecting Balldozers. These balls can destroy any defences your opponent has, which is vital for most of the bosses in this run. Unfortunately, later in the run, Balldozers were quite scarce, so I opted for Bullet Balls instead. They're less effective and don't destroy obstacles, but they go in a very predictable path, making them easier for you to catch when there's tons of obstacles on the screen.
I start fighting enemies in Breakdown Penitentiary to increase my experience. Levelling up gives you a random set of upgrades to choose from. The one you want to get as soon as possible is Exit Finder. Unfortunately, that upgrade is not common, so you'll either have to reset-grind for it, or just hope you get it later in the run. If Exit Finder isn't available, or you already have it, here are some alternative upgrades I recommend:
- Chest Finder (Shows every chest on the map. Useful for boss dungeons, as you can keep track of which chest rooms you've visited.)
- Trapdoor Finder (Indicates where trapdoors in the dungeon are. It's highly recommended to avoid trapdoors if possible, as you have to do mandatory enemy battles.)
- Extra Inventory Slot (Allows you to carry an extra ball. Potion and Balldozer won't really cut it for the entire run. Having a large selection of balls to use can go a long way.)
- Any upgrade that increases critical attacks. (Super useful to have for late game, as it can make lots of enemy battles end much quicker.)
- Razorwire (Increases the damage done to enemies. Helpful for late game, as enemies have more health and take longer to kill without using special balls).
- HP Increase (Increases your health. It's good to pick a few of these up for the later bosses. If you no other upgrade looks good, take this one.)
There isn't a lot to say about Breakdown Penitentiary and Crawling Forest, as they're mostly the same. Just use Balldozers on the bosses to make them easier. The Hat Ball is super effective against Frosted Pantheon's bosses, and you should absolutely pick one up if you can (I didn't get to use it though). Some enemies can shrink you, including this boss, but you can completely negate the effects by using a potion.
By the time I entered Outer Celestia, I ran out of good special balls to use, so I used whatever the enemies could drop. Fire Balls and Buff Balls are useful for dealing damage, Bullet and Zip Balls can quickly increase the speed of the ball, and the Loop Ball can get some super cheesy crits if used right. Lockon Balls are also really helpful, as they deal more damage and destroy everything in their path.
After Outer Celestia, you have to do 5 boss dungeons. You have to fight the same bosses you've already encountered, so it's good to get use the same balls you used in their first fights if you can. Unfortunately, this is the part of the game where the randomness affects the run even more. How fast your run is is now determined by how soon you can find the keys. This isn't an easy task, as now the dungeons are bigger, there's more enemies, and more trapdoors. The Water Zone took 28 minutes, which was really slow for my liking.
The final boss has Blossom, Asteroids, and Millipede Balls, all of which greatly clutter the screen. Save on Potions and Balldozers if you can.
I'm running out of space in the description, so I'm going to wrap it up here. If you're a fan of speedrunning roguelikes, or just want to play a silly Pong game, consider giving this a try. If you don't want to however, I hope you enjoy watching the run and reading the notes I wrote about it.
also pastel tee is mega-based.
