The month of March has been really active in the Spelunky community! Here you can see a summary of some of the biggest highlights:

The 4th of March, d_tea achieved the world record in any% with the insane time of 1:40.145, beating SpelunkyGod’s time of 1:41.499 by a bit more than one second. He now holds the record in every speedrun category, being the 4th ever to do so (pibonacci, latedog and bananasaurus_rex being the other 3). 1-1 teleporter in a crate into a teleporter/jetpack/compass shop in 1-4 made this possible, though the seed only got faster from that point. A mixture of great skill and a seed that worked out made him able to finish this one and take home the world record!

There have been several daily challenges who have been generous with the score this month. The best one were the 20th of March, which was insanely hard to finish. The normal strategy is to save a hired help who can hold the plasma canon into 4-2, making it possible to use it in City of Gold. It was not the case here, instead heavy use of the Ball & Chain was needed to achieve the highest scores. The Ball & Chain was used from the 2-3 altar into 3-4, from 4-1 to Olmec and from 5-2 into Yama. All these early altars made the seed harder, but they allowed to ghost all bosses, significantly increasing the score. Sadly no top-runners finished the daily, with d_tea being the closest dying on 5-2 with a score of $2 847 550, while still having some of 5-2 left. If 5-3 were $140 000, it would have broken $3 300 000 and possibly achieving the place of the world’s highest daily, currently sitting on $3 301 250 by krille71 from last December.

The creator of Spelunky, Derek Yu, wrote a book about Spelunky that came out 29th of March. The book is about how he made Spelunky, design decisions and what inspired him. The book with the title Spelunky is $14.95 for a Paperback copy and $4.95 as an ebook. You can see a review of the book here.

The key to cascading may have been found, with the upgrade to windows 10. Cascading, for those who don’t know what it is, is when you place several paste bombs in one spot, where the bombs falls down the hole the first bomb made, quickly making a perfect hole. It is possible to do on all consoles, but it is glitched on a minority of the PC users, which has caused a lot of problems. A newly found strategy made the Olmec fight way faster and safer, on both any% runs and hell runs, from the use of cascading. It is therefore important that we may have found a setup that works for everyone, but further testing needs to be done before we can say for sure that windows 10 fixes the problem. Help us find out by answering this survey.

The new Olmec strategy utilizes max ranged bomb cascading. With the help of 6 sticky bombs, it is possible to make a hole for Olmec all the way to the lava, killing him really quickly. The strategy even exceeds the old TAS strategy, used in Bum's Tool Assisted Speedrun. The charm with max ranged bomb cascading is that it is even more usefull on hell runs, possibly saving more than 10 seconds on some seeds.

Three new records have been set in challenge runs, all three in the maximum categories! The first record was maximum any% in 2:10.289 by SpelunkyGod, improving his record by close to 10 seconds. The second one was maximum hell in 4:27.592 by Kinnijup, this time with an improvement of 12 seconds over his last record in the category. Lastly, SpelunkyGod took home the record in maximum low% with the insane time of 3:28.416, an improvement close to 30 seconds!

That was the highlights of March, looking forward to another active month in the Spelunky community!

Krille

Heya! Over 10 more runs to give you the run down on (see what I did there?) ...Anyway, here we go!

First up, we've got Sedoxa with some impressive improvements. He nailed a 6:11 Hell run and a 6:33 Max Low% with a tricky dark temple level. Max Low% is a great category and I'm really excited it's getting this much attention!

Speaking of Max Low%, we had two other submissions for the category. Saibot finished an 8:38 and NightHarvester finished a 14:13. This is not an easy run to complete (even at a safer pace) so these guys deserve a congrats as well. Congrats :D Saibot managed to breach the top 20 with these PBs, reaching 333k Mossranking points. Way to go, man! The activity from rank 16 to 30 is just awesome :D I hope everyone is having fun.

NightHarvester also improved his Low% PB. He's now got a 3:15! Great job, Night! The epic Sub 3 is looking more and more doable for him.

MikeIsMyIke submitted two runs the last couple days. A 6:56 Max Any%, and a 13:15 Big Money run. Hope you're having fun with all the categories, Mike! The Big Money run is also currently counting as his hell run. So he is getting some points for that, though clearly he can improve it on it's own.

ShinGraywords got some more runs in as well. A 14:56 Max Hell run ( max hell) and a 9:07 Max Any%. He now sits just under 300k Mossranking points, and just outside of the top 20 (21st).

kvec hit a new hell time, a 9:23, and a 4:06 Low% (which also counts as his Any%). Getting close to that sub 4 run. He also started streaming some of his runs, so give him a follow - www.twitch.tv/kvec

Grooomp is getting some really impressive times now. He is just on the cusp of breaking a lot of impressive berriers. This time, he submitted a 4:12 Low% No Gold run. Look like he will get under 4 soon.

Lastly, I wanted to direct everyone to 2 super impressive runs d_tea submitted. They are old runs, but deserve some attention as they only now have a section on Mossranking and are the fastest done in their respective category. They are a 2:55 Max Any% No Gold run and a 4:40 Max Low% No Gold run. Great job getting through those runs without taking gold, tea :D

That's all for now, have a nice day :D

Kinni

Hey hey hey, we've got another 10+ PBs to go over. Let's jump right in! 

Saibot got a big improvement to his Low% No Gold time, which also counts for Any% No Gold. He hit a 5:44. Saibot has been doing some impressive runs lately, including making it to Yama on Low% Hell. I think we can expect some big things from him in the future.

Grooomp finally got around to finishing a Big Money run. He did a 14:28 run to gain 10k points :D

Abob71 submitted a Max Hell% run, a 14:40. This also counted for Max Any%. Nice job, Abob!

pj submitted a nice 5:38 Max Any% PB. This category is getting a lot of attention lately as it is accessible on almost every seed. The list has 25 submissions currently, which is great for a challenge run.

saturnin55 got a 10:03 Haunted Max Any% PB. I am really glad the Haunted categories are getting more attention. They are really neat :D

Linkruler submitted a run that gained him a lot of points. He got a sub 5 Max Any% No Gold run - a 4:57! Of note is it was a normal Max Any% and No Gold PB as well. Great job, Link!

Yoshimitsu524 showed up after a long absense of PBs. He got a 24:50 No Gold Max Hell run. It counted for Max Any% and No Gold Hell%, so this run gained Yoshi plenty of points. Yoshi is one of those guys who deserves a much higher spot on the ranking than he currently has, so hopefully we will see more from him. Great to have you getting PBs again, Yosh!

Lastly, gjchangmu made an appearance this week to submit an All Shortcuts run (a 23:10) and a Low% No Gold run (a 11:43). The latter run also counted for Any% No Gold. Great to have you around, gj :D

That's all for now :D

Kinni

Hey gang, the submissions keep comin'!

AlphaChannel has always had some strong runs, and now he is working on the challenge runs. This week he did a 28:03 All Shortcuts + Olmec run. GG, Alpha :)

SAIBOT and I (Kinnijup) each got a Low% No Gold PB, 8:20 and 2:59, respectively. My run was the 2nd ever under 3, and I was very happy with it. SAIBOT's also counts for regular No Gold Any%, so he gained 20k Mossranking points removing his penalties. He's nearing the top 20 on the main ranking now, currently sitting at 22nd. Keep it up, Sai!

Grooomp hit 2 runs that helped boost him to 15th overall. He managed a 5:49 Any% Hell run and a 13:54 No Gold Hell% run (done to remove the penalty). We all knew he could do a good hell run. I have seen him die late in hell on pace for sub 5, so I have a hunch we will see more from him soon here.

curticus2 submitted a Haunted Max Any% run, a 3:18 done with the teleporter. Haunted runs are really cool and should get some more love :)

Alcoer hit a nice Max Hell% time, nearing sub 10. He got a 10:51. Nice job, Alcoer.

That's all for now :)

Kinni 

Hey 'lunkers, this news article features 6 new mosstier submissions and a big daily by Curticus! Lets get started!

 To start off, we have a 3:02.736 Any% by PJ. He accomplished this admirable time with the jetpack, compass, and mattock.

Next, we have a 23:19 AS+O by MikeIsMyIke. Way to go, Mike!

All Shortcuts + Olmec (AS+O) is a great category for people who are competitive, people who can beat Olmec, or people who need a break from grinding individual runs. AS+O was made popular by Bumcommando, and was featured in the French speedrun challenge "The Ultime Décathlon 2". Additionally, it was run at the first ever AGDQ to feature Spelunky!

Curticus did a big daily this week, scoring in at $2,560,175! This brings his daily average up to $2.2m, quickly approaching $2.5m. Great job, Curt!

Finally, we have three challenge low% runs.

First, Kinnijup getting a 4:33.683 "Haunted Max Low%" run, being the third person to ever submit a run and grabbing the Record while he was at it. Nice job, kinni! To read more about what this challenge entails, along with who else has completed it, click here!

Second, we have a fantastic 5:29.932 No-gold low% submitted by Sedoxa. This challenge is really difficult, so congratulations on the PB Sedoxa!

Last, we have the highlight of todays news. An absolutely bonkers Max low% World Record (WR) - 3:28.416 - by Spelunky_God! This run is simply incredible, featuring a 22 second worm, and an 11 second mothership. This is an improvement on the previous WR by almost 30 seconds! Wow! Congratulations SG!!!  

Thanks for reading this additions of the news. Good luck in the caves, Spelunker!

-Twiggle

Derek Yu (creator of Spelunky) has recently released a book simply titled "Spelunky". Click here to check it out!

-Twiggle

Got 9 submission to go over today, let's jump right in!

Spelunky God got an incredible 3:52 hell run, becoming only the third person ever to push this under 4 minutes! Congrats SG! With a better Olmec door spawn, this actually would've had a good shot at WR, so maybe we will see some more from SG here?

Grooomp employed Samots strats (AKA, using all your bombs early to speed things up) to get a 3:10 Low% PB! He ended up with 0 bombs out of 2-2. This moved his Low% run from 22nd to 16th. Way to go, Grooomp! I am excited to see him push this under 3 possibly soon :D

I (Kinnijup) got a nice 4:27 Max Hell WR. Damn, that's a fun category! Hell + Yama was just under 41s on the run, which is really fast and the fastest I've ever done it. There's room for improvement with an earlier teleporter (I would compare this to maybe a 4:0x - low 4:1x normal hell run, just a bit more difficult to survive), but I'm really happy with the run. I also got a 1:46 any% PB. A snail bubble at the very end cost 3rd place, but again, happy with the run :)

SAIBOT is another guy who came around to the site recently, and is starting to nail some impressive runs. This week he submitted a 4:24 Max Any%. Keep it up, Sai!

Twigglefly hit another completely insane PB this week - a 2:07 Any% No Gold run. The run could've been a 1:54-55 normal Any%, but he opted to finish the run by bombing gold away from the 4-3 exit. I think he deserves credit for doing so, as it is clear he can get a sub 2 run at some point in the future. The crazy fast no gold teleporter seeds, however, are insanely rare. So he ended up with this awesome 3rd place time! Congrats on now having the 3rd fastest no gold run ever done, Twiggle!

Saturnin55 was at it again, working on removing his penalties. He managed a 20:55 No Gold Hell run. Now all he has left to finish is a Big Money run, which I am sure he will finish soon.

Lastly, we have a few submissions from ShinGraywords. Speaking of Big Money, Shin submitted a nice sub 20 minute Big Money run - an 18:58. He also submitted two All Shortcuts times - a 26:40 Key delivery split, and a 32:09 Olmec finish. Nice to see you around again with PBs, Shin!

That's all for now :D

Kinni

Hey gang! Quite a lot of runs to write about today. This was the most active few days we've had since I started writing news. Let's get to it!

Buddy7heElf got his first 3 million+ daily this week! He managed a 3.06m run, which also happens to be the 8th highest daily ever done. Congrats, Buddy! He was also the only runner to finish this difficult ball and chain intensive daily with a massive score. Buddy and Krille are now extremely close in the overall ranking, at 6th and 5th, respectively. With this daily, Buddy is also now only about 11k behind Krille in daily average!

We all knew Linkruler could hit a much better hell time than his old 7+ minute PB, and he did. He got a nice 5:40 - congrats, Link! Beating Yamayamadingdong in any category is no joke. I also know Link is capable of a sub 5. I look forward to his future runs in this category.

BlueMagma submitted his first score run, which also happens to be Big Money. He managed a 524k run, nice! He also submitted a nice sub 6 Low% run - a 5:59! Good luck on future runs, Blue.

MikeIsMyIke is back, with some All Shortcuts submissions! He submitted a 21:02 Key delivery split with a 27:06 Olmec finish. Nice to have you around again, Mike.

Polodajaneiro, a friend of saturnin's, submitted a Hell% time - a 16:09. Polo has been running All Shortcuts as well and has some nice times from February. Welcome to the site, Polo!

Next up we have two Low% sub 3:30 submissions! Alcoer managed a 3:29, and Patdog56 hit a 3:28. Great job, guys! Watching Patdog lately, I see quite a bit of potential in his future runs and I am super excited that he is motivated to continue to improve :D Patdog, Link, Grooomp, and Sedoxa are all very near eachother on the main ranking (all 14th to 17th) and it is very exciting to watch them keep swapping spots.

Patdog56 has also been trying Max Hell% for a few days now, and finished a 13:37. Nice!

Alcoer actually had a couple other submissions. It is awesome to see this activity! He submitted a 5:15 Max Any%, and a 7:16 Haunted Max Low%. This counts as a Max Low% and Haunted Max Any%, as well.

Sedoxa was also active. He submitted a 17:31 Key delivery split and a nice sub 20 All Shortcuts + Olmec run! He managed a 19:57. Congrats, Sedoxa! He also hit a nice sub 5 No Gold Any% run - a 4:57! Lastly, he got a nice 10:52 Max Hell% run :D

Next up, we have a couple WRs to go over. I (Kinnijup) got a new Max Hell% WR, a 4:39! :D Max Hell is a very fun category and you should all try it if you haven't yet :D

Another run that just got added to the site is Spelunky God's 2:10 Max Any% WR. It is an old run of his, but he just got around to submitting it. It is a great run and you should all check it out!

Lastly, we have a submission of a run that I don't think gets enough attention. It's a No% run from Twigglefly - 7:24. Congrats on speedlunky, Twig! Twiggle is one of only a few people to finish one of these.

That's all for now. We got about 20 submissions for this update. Keep'em comin'!

-Kinni

Hey gang, got some more submissions to go over :D

The biggest news this week is Sedoxa became the newest member of the eggplant club this week with a solo eggplant run! Congrats Sedoxa! The run can be watched here. All Sedoxa is missing for the champion flair requirements on the Spelunky subreddit is a 2.5m score run and 1st place on a daily. He is actively score running both normal runs and dailys, so I think he may be the next champion flair recipient sometime soon!

NightHarvester submitted a Low% No Gold 7:22. Congrats on speedlunky, Night! This is not an easy run to do fast. Night managed to move to 17th place on the ranking with this submission, as well.

Saturnin55 continues to rapidly improve. This time, he finished his 2nd Low% Hell run. A speedrun this time - 14:18. This cuts over 5 minutes off of his old time and even edges out Linkruler's time! Congrats, Sat :D

The last two submissions are All Shortcuts + Olmec runs from bootsthatshoot, and Patdog56. The times are 23:25 and 23:12, respectively. Looks like we could see some competition between the two here. Patdog also submitted a 20:41 Key delivery split.

Keep it up :D

- Kinni

Hey gang! Got some more submissions to go over. Let's get to it!

Sedoxa improved his score PB by quite a bit. He hit a 2.21m run! He sadly hit the ghost just before he entered Yama, so missed out on a 2.5. I think he will improve this soon, though. He also submitted a 26:21 All Shortcuts + Olmec run. Great to see him finishing another run for 10k points. These two runs move him up to 18th place on the MTR! (Moss Tier Ranking). He is just barely behind NightHarvester and Patdog56 now!

Buddy7heElf submitted his last-remaining incomplete run. It was a 12:31 No Gold Hell run. It was a casual-paced run, just to rid himself of his final penalty. We may see him improve it in the future.

One massive daily score happened yesterday, a 2.899m from Twigglefly! This is his 2nd highest daily, so it helped his daily average quite a bit. He moved from 8th to 6th, passing Schnitzel and Spelunky_God, respectively. He is now at a nice 2.625m average, just behind Kenneth!

Lastly, we reach the 3 Max runs submitted. Two people submitted Max Hell runs: bootsthatshoot submitted a 12:01, while NightHarvester submitted a 9:57. Congrats on the sub 10, Night! boots is not far off. Max Hell is possibly my favorite run on the site, so I personally am excited to see it getting more attention! These runs were enough to bring Night and Boots to 17th and 22nd on the MTR, respectively.

The 3rd Maximum run submitted was a nice 7:31 Max Low%, from saturnin55. Finishing this run is difficult in itself, so to finish it speedlunky on his first completion is really great!

Keep up the great work, gang!

-Kinni